CHAPTER 118: FIGURING THINGS OUT

Figuring Things Out

"... You’ve got to be fucking kidding me," Irene mumbled as they all watched the dome turn completely dark, blotting out the sun and removing most light.

"... Well now what?" Sam asked with seeming irritation, but there was the faintest trembled in her voice.

No one said it, but they all felt it in the air, that familiar stench, that familiar feeling of ’wrongness’ that came with the appearance of a certain type of creature.

"Do you... think it’s a Harbinger?" Kurt asked tentatively, but Osho shook his head.

"No. The corruption it carried was far more intense than this. In comparison, this one is more subtle... but more far-reaching as well." Osho responded and frowned.

"Everyone stay close to me." He suddenly said, and this time, no one questioned him as they moved closer.

’Gale, do you feel that?’ He asked the bird who was now unusually somber.

’Yes. It’s not obvious, but corrupt Mana is slowly seeping into every living thing here. The longer people are here, the more dangerous it becomes.’ Gale responded, his perception naturally being far higher than Osho’s, allowing him to confirm this quite easily.

’Can you defend against it?’ Osho asked.

’Mhm. My domain can act as a filter, so I can let in normal Mana.’ Osho nodded at this and addressed the group again.

"No one should go more than 30 meters away from me. The Mana in the air is corrupted, so taking it in will lead to consequences down the line." Osho instructed and everyone nodded.

"Ah, crap." Kurt cursed and they looked towards him to see him fiddling with his bracelets.

He sighed.

"Bracelets are dead. It’s of no consequence for the one meant for point tallying... but I think it’s safe to say that we won’t have any life-saving barriers appearing when our true ’HP’ reaches zero." He said dryly, and everyone’s frowns deepened.

"This is obviously a premeditated attack. But how? Also, why?" Ellie mumbled.

"Those don’t matter right now. What matters is leaving this place," Osho said and looked up again. "I have a bad feeling about this place. Even with Gake protecting us against the corruption, the longer we stay here, the worse things will get. We need to find a way to break through this dome."

"What about them?" Irene pointed at the Vermillion Academy students who were on the ground. Most were unconscious, and those who weren’t didn’t seem capable of movement any time soon, with the sole exception being Han Jiwon, who was glaring at Osho hatefully.

"... Yeah fuck them." Osho said without missing a beat and everyone nodded in unison.

"Wait! You can’t just leave us here!" Han Jiwon shouted, his eyes widening with real panic as he realized the true extent of the danger he was in.

"Even if we wanted to help you, there’s a limited number of people we can take with us, and I’d much rather we take along other Bright Spark Academy students than you guys who actively tried to hurt us. So yeah, definitely some hard feelings." Osho said without an ounce of pity.

"You... You...!" Han Jiwon stammered as his face reddened, but Osho couldn’t be bothered to deal with another meltdown and turned to leave, but then paused and added.

"Oh, and if you think about tailing us or sabotaging us in any way, I’ll beat the shit out of you for the former and kill you for the latter. Okay?" He sounded so cheerful that it was unnerving. With the situation being what it was, the others couldn’t help but give him a look. However, they didn’t question it and simply followed him.

"Were you being serious with that threat?" Ellie asked once they were out of earshot.

"I was serious about beating him up, but not killing him. The situation is extremely volatile right now. We can’t afford to deal with unnecessary distractions with how things are." He explained, and there was a faint sense of relief among them. It seemed like despite everything, killing a fellow human was still something they’d like to avoid.

"That said, what exactly is our plan?" Sam asked solemnly.

"Yeah. I agree with finding the other students, but Gale can’t move too far away from us, or else the corruption will start to set in. Moreover, we have no way of accurately tracking other students from our school. We’re going into this blind." Ellie voiced her opinion. However, Osho shook his head.

"I agree with the first part. However, you seem to keep forgetting that we each have a tamed beast with miraculous abilities," He gestured to their surroundings.

"I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but it’s quite silent right now, right?" The other paused and tiled their heads.

After a second, the girls nodded, except for Kurt, who seemed to have heard something.

"Well... not completely, I can hear some faint shuffling in that direction, I can’t ascertain if it’s a beast or a person, though." He responded, and the girls looked at him with surprise while Osho just smiled.

"That’s you. What does Clyde hear?" He asked, referring to the incredible hearing the fox possessed. Kurt seemed to realize what Osho was getting at and nodded.

He looked at Clyde, who tilted his small head, and a few seconds later, Kurt spoke.

"It sounds like beasts... but it feels a bit off." He said with a frown.

"How so?"

"It’s like... they are oddly organized? They seem to be marching in a specific direction. I can’t give too many details since Clyde isn’t too sure either." He shook his head.

Osho frowned. The information was meager, but even that seemed a bit alarming. The fact that their bracelets no longer worked hinted that the collars that prevented the beasts from inflicting lethal wounds probably didn’t work either, so chances are that if a student was too weak, then there was nothing stopping them from being killed.

This was alarming enough, but the possibility of them being organized was downright concerning.

But in a way, it was not completely unexpected.

"What are you thinking?" Ellie asked softly as Osho was lost in thought. After a while, he answered.

"I think we should follow them." This took everyone by surprise, but at this point, Osho had proved to them that he doesn’t do things without thinking, even if they seem a bit impulsive sometimes.

"Gale can use Mana cloaking on us to hide our presences. As for why i want us to follow them, well, as we said, its pretty clear that this entire ordeal is premeditated, and with the life-saving gadgets we had to prevent us from dying, I think it’s safe to say that killing us is one of the goals of whoever, or whatever is behind this," He explained. "If the beasts are organized even a little bit, it’ll be a repeat of the beast tide. Smaller, sure, but lethal for pretty much everyone here. But more importantly, they might have an idea of where the other students are. After all, they can’t exactly kill everyone while being unaware of their locations." He pointed out.

"I disagree." Ellie said almost immediately.

"I agree with that them organizing isn’t a good thing, but we can’t guarantee that they know where the other students are. If they did, why aren’t they moving in our direction right now. I don’t think Gale is using his Mana cloaking right now. However, if they can indeed sense us, we are being ignored," She rubbed her chin. "I think it’s more accurate to say that the beasts are moving to gather more members to increase the size of their group. A large group of Beasts vs a collection of scattered students, most of whom are weaker than the aforementioned beasts, seems like a more accurate assessment. If the beasts were to attack students, it’d be the ones they encounter as they move. But right now, I don’t think that is their priority." Upon hearing her argument, Osho couldn’t help but find her logic sound.

"That’s fair. But I still think we should check it out. If nothing else, I feel like it’s best to know what we are dealing with. But back to tracking other students. Gale’s perception, even while flying at ground level, is insane, Blackie is a cat, so she should still be track things via her nose. Inagi and Sugil are reptiles, and if I’m not wrong, both can still sense things using their tongues to find body heat. Clyde is a no-brainer. Mana is good, but don’t forget the natural abilities our beasts possess. In fact, don’t ignore yourselves either. We can still track with things like footprints and human alterations to the environment. It won’t be simple, but let’s not just assume that tracking other people is impossible, especially with everything we have on hand. The only issue would be accurately tracking other students from Bright Spark, but even then, I have some idea on how to do that." He shook his head.

"For now, though, let’s go see exactly what we are dealing with." Everyone was on board with this, so without wasting any more time, the group set out in the direction Kurt had pointed out.