"It’s coming from the left!" Arina shouted.

"On it!" Ellia leaped to the left and saw three beasts. She slashed diagonally, making contact with the first one.

Arina sent forth her roots to stop the second one, but one more beast was coming.

"..." Milinda frowned. She was thinking about helping, but her hand was full dealing with the rank 2 beast in front of her.

"I will stop it." Eric chose to handle this rank 2 beast.

"I should..." Auric wanted to help Eric, but he noticed another movement coming from the opposite direction. If he helped him, this rank 2 beast would join the other and gang up on Milinda.

Even though their group was quite strong individually, it was still hard to take on multiple beasts of the same level.

Milinda shouted, "I’m going to be fine. I can stop both of them by myself."

"I will be fine as well. Even if I’m injured, I can rely on you to fix whatever problem it gives me," Eric added.

Auric clicked his tongue. Currently, the best option was to help Milinda. If he could take down at least the beast Milinda was facing, he could immediately shift his focus to Eric.

On the other hand, Milinda could last longer than Eric in their respective battles.

Still, both Ellia and Arina were in Eric’s direction.

So, Auric turned to the right and leaped toward Milinda.

"Why?" Milinda asked while sending multiple spears toward the beast in front of her. This beast released a ferocious flame that burned away all those spears.

At the same time, another rank 2 beast was coming, releasing a light energy.

"Don’t ask why. We just do it. Get ready." Auric placed his hand on the ground.

Earth Wall.

Auric revealed his fourth element right away. He thought he would be hiding it for a bit longer, but he thought that he didn’t have to worry about this group seeing the fourth element. It was meant to be revealed anyway.

So, he created an earth wall, a wood wall, and multiple roots to block the second beast. This way, it would take some time before the second beast reached them.

Then Auric sent forth his lightning.

This lightning was not normal. It was the combination of three types of lightning. Auric had been practicing with this power for quite some time.

He combined his white lightning, purple lightning, and golden thunder to create one powerful lightning.

The lightning turned a light blue color.

The beast used its fire to burn the lightning, but Milinda sent out multiple spears to stop the beast. The beast had to choose whether it wanted to stop Auric’s lightning or her spears.

The beast leaped away, trying to get away from the spears. Unfortunately for the beast, Milinda’s spears were accurate and weren’t launched at the same time.

As a result, she could adjust the aim at the last moment, causing the spears to restrict the beast’s movement. The beast released the fire to burn them, but the lightning had reached the beast before it could get away.

Roar! The beast’s eyes rolled back. The lightning exuded heat, burning part of its face. It was also damaging several of its organs.

Milinda immediately took this chance to leap toward the beast, planning to kill it in a single strike.

"Wait. I can’t control that lightning! It might electrocute you!" Auric warned her.

"Don’t worry. Who do you think you’re talking to?" Milinda smiled. She used her ’Imagine’ to create rubber boots and changed the spear’s handle to rubber.

She avoided being electrocuted and pierced the beast’s head. The rubber prevented her from being electrocuted.

After confirming the beast was dead, she leaped back and said, "Go now!"

"!!!" Auric was slightly surprised, but this was indeed Milinda’s style of fighting.

More importantly, he didn’t have time to be impressed. Eric needed some help.

He hurriedly turned around and rushed to Eric.

Arina had to use her full power to stop her target, while Ellia had just knocked the head off her opponent and swung her blade, sending a sword strike to the beast that had just pounced on Eric.

Eric gritted his teeth, placing the scythe in front of him to block the beast. However, the beast overpowered him and pushed him down. It was on the verge of breaking his scythe.

Seeing Eric stubbornly resisting, the beast opened its mouth, gathering its power in its throat.

’A breath?’ Eric panicked. He had to stop it, but fortunately, or more like unfortunately, Ellia’s sword strike reached the beast.

It cut the back part of the beast, but it wasn’t enough to kill the beast instantly. Instead, her sword strike disrupted the beast’s rhythm, which resulted in the energy inside its mouth to go berserk.

The energy produced a small eruption that destabilized Eric’s power. In other words, the beast finally broke the spear and hit Eric with its claws.

Eric was quite surprised and tried to move away at the last moment, but the best he could do was tilt his body slightly.

"Kh." Eric gritted his teeth. He could feel the poison entering his body because of the burning sensation in his arm.

However, if it were about endurance, Eric was confident that he could beat someone like Maxwell.

Despite the burning sensation, Eric simply gritted his teeth and endured the pain. During that time, he forcefully used the energy to kick the beast up. A burst of blood helped launch the beast into the air.

When it was about to fall down, lightning hit the beast’s body, half-destroying it and knocking the rest of its body away.

"Eric!" Auric immediately checked on him.

"I’m fine." Eric was trying his best to endure the pain.

Not wasting any time, Auric helped Eric up and placed his hand on Eric’s back. "Take a deep breath and try to maintain calm energy!"

Eric didn’t say anything, but he followed his instructions.

Auric channeled his power into Eric’s body, and with a single sweep, the poison was removed from his body.

"Now it’s good." Auric nodded, satisfied.

"That fast?"

"I’ve had enough experience already." Auric stood up. "Get ready. There are more beasts coming. Why are there so many?"

"This is normal. Even though each year there are about 200 students, most seniors have already graduated or left for their respective missions or are doing other things outside the school. They’re not even in the city to handle the beast wave. So, that only leaves us with about 350 students and 40 teachers." Ellia shouted. "If you have time to complain, help Arina instead."

Auric couldn’t help but fall silent. It was true. They didn’t have many people. They had this many people, yet they were facing at least triple that number.

Besides, out of 350 students, 180 of them were freshmen. Most of them didn’t even have experience in fighting beasts.

So, it was normal that they were in this situation. In addition, other groups might not be as lucky as Eric was.

Once they were injured, they could no longer use their powers. It meant each group had to take on more and more beasts.

...

As Auric thought, the student camp was a mess.

"Aaahhhh!" The students were crying out in pain. "It hurts!"

"I can’t use my power."

The freshmen were unable to hold their tears because of the pain of the injury. Most of them didn’t even realize they had been poisoned. After all, they were new students.

The seniors had undergone battles, but the freshmen might not have been injured even once before. That was why even small injuries were painful for some.

However, some seniors had even more trouble.

Since they could withstand the pain, they could understand what was going on with their bodies.

"Help me!"

"I can’t use my power. Every time I use my power, it hurts!"

"What is happening to me? Please help!"

"Teachers! Professors!"

There was chaos in the student camp. A lot of students were pouring in. All of them had only a single wound, but it was more than enough to take them down.

The teachers from the Support Department and the Evolution Department were there to fix their injuries, but even they were at a loss.

"What is this injury? No, this is poison. I can’t remove it. There are two elements within the poison. Using one element will activate the other element."

"Teacher... please help me." The student was looking at the teacher who was supposed to help him, but the teacher couldn’t contain his terrified expression. It was such a vicious poison that he didn’t even know what to think.

"More students are coming!"

"We need more space!"

Some teachers were trying to organize the tents and equipment, but it was hard to keep up. Besides, some teachers had to keep the students as safe as possible. Even after all this fighting, their casualties amounted to only one person. The teachers couldn’t protect everyone from getting injured, but they were at least fast enough to prevent them from dying.

But they would never expect such poison from the beasts.

"What are we going to do?"

"Kh..."

They were clueless as well. "Do you have any contacts who know about this poison?"

"We need help!"

It became even more chaotic when the teachers were confused. The students began to feel despair, thinking that they might not get treated.

Auric could be here to help them, but it would also expose his power, which wouldn’t look good for him.

Still, Auric was judging whether he was willing to look away from all this just to hide his power.

As if knowing about Auric’s worries even before the problem became this big of a mess, Maya had made another arrangement.

Professor Vienna stood in front of the tent. She glanced to the right and found that even the dean of the Evolution Department was unable to find any clues about this poison.

Professor Vienna had to take full responsibility for this. It was the only way to stop the panic.

She wanted to say that she had a contact who could save the students, but revealing this information would put her in danger.

The enemy was expecting that the poison had no cure. Even if there were a cure, it would be hard to obtain.

If the cure were easily available, they would want to know information about that cure, whether it was a person or a medicine.

Obviously, they would come after Professor Vienna’s life to get that information. As a human whose avatar had evolved three times, Professor Vienna could probably fend for herself.

However, she was worried that her decision would end up endangering her daughter. Milinda was already a target, so adding this information would make her a higher-priority target.

Still, seeing the situation, Professor Vienna felt the need to speak up. Besides, even if Milinda was targeted, it was for Auric’s sake.

Auric had given her the chance to evolve and ultimately helped the entire family. So, it was time to repay it.

Professor Vienna clenched her fists and took a deep breath, ready to announce it.

To her surprise, a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"!!!" Professor Vienna was startled, looked back, and found Principal Fernandes there.

He shook his head and asked, "Are you confident?"

Professor Vienna thought for a moment before nodding.

Principal Fernandes might not know everything, but he already understood the gist of the situation the moment the adjudicators started moving. After seeing Professor Vienna, he realized that she was one of the clues.

It must be hard for her to make that kind of resolve, so he chose to bear that burden. He didn’t have a family to target anyway.

So, Principal Fernandes declared, "Everyone. May I have your attention?!"

Some cries quieted down as they looked at Principal Fernandes, wondering what he had to say.

Principal Fernandes announced, "I need all of you to calm down. I’ve just contacted someone I know. It looks like he knows about this poison, and he is willing to help. He’s on his way here.

"Right now, I want the teachers to check each student’s injuries. Treat those who aren’t poisoned right away. Those who are poisoned will be moved to another tent. It will take time, but don’t worry, the poison won’t kill you directly.

"I need students who are able to move to help the teachers erect a new tent for the poisoned students. Understood? Let’s move!"