Chapter 300: I’m Going After Them
Apparently, it became more intense when a few more students were successfully rescued from a couple of floating pods.
Within moments, up to twenty more pods ascended into the light while over thirty were still rising beneath.
Inside the pods, panic flared.
"Break it! Break it open!" one student screamed as their palms glowed with conjured fire.
The flames lashed against the translucent walls only to fizzle out like sparks drowned in water.
Another hurled ice spears from within, shattering against the surface without leaving even a scratch.
A trio of students chanted in unison, combining wind, lightning, and earth into a chaotic storm of raw mana, yet the pod didn’t so much as flicker. Their attacks were swallowed whole, leaving them gasping and desperate.
"Why won’t it break?!"
Not only were their attacks not powerful enough to cause damage to the pod, the red circle in the sky was also responsible for weakening the use of mana in the surroundings.
More pods rose steadily toward the burning circle, dragging the students skyward like sacrifices offered to a hungry god.
With a single step, Victor’s qi surged.
Wind gathered under his feet, and he propelled himself skyward with his hair whipping wildly.
The closest pod was already halfway up and it’s captives were hammering the walls with their fists in despair.
Victor’s eyes narrowed as tendrils of darkness surrounded his legacy sword, condensing into a crescent-shaped edge.
"Shadow Crescent Strike!"
The dark crescent shot forward, phasing through the pod’s surface before slicing into the bindings from within. A crack spiderwebbed across its surface.
"Not enough, huh?" Victor muttered as he ascended and landed directly atop the pod.
Frost to gathered around his palm as he raised it before slamming it down against the pod.
"Frost Bloom Palm!"
His strike landed clean against the cracked wall, causing frost to bloom outward like a spider lily in winter.
The outer shell froze mid-shimmer, and with a resounding crack, shattered into shards of metal and glass.
Terrified screams echoed as five students plummeted downwards.
"Got you."
Victor kicked off the air with Wind Glide, jumping twice in mid air like there were invisible steps in the sky.
His arms hooked around two of them, while the others were caught by quick-reacting instructors below who casted magical nets that spread like glowing webs.
The moment Victor landed with his two students, the heavens split.
CRRACKK!
A spiky bolt of red lightning, descended mercilessly like the wrath of the gods.
It zeroed in on Victor, causing his hairs to raise nstinctively in alarm.
"Again?" He could tell that this one was much more powerful.
SHADOW BLINK!
His body dissolved into motes of shadow, vanishing from the strike zone just as the bolt slammed into the earth, vaporizing stone and soil into steaming glass.
The aftershock rippled outward, throwing weaker students off their feet.
Victor reappeared more than twenty feet away while still clutching the two students close. He set them down gently. "You’re safe. Don’t thank me—thank cardio training."
The instructors and Mana Defense officers who had witnessed Victor evade two lightning bolts in the span of minutes were utterly confused at this moment.
Especially because Victor had just undeniable teleported... a power that shouldn’t belong to a warrior.
But this wasn’t the time to question him... they had to save as many students as possible.
"Victor!" Instructor Maria barked with a look of urgency.
Victor thought he was about to get scolded again but instead the instructor pointed at a particular location.
Behind them, mage class mana defense officers had combined their fluctuating mana to force open shimmering blue portals.
"Send them through! It’ll take them a thousand feet away from the sector!"
Victor nodded and sped towards the portal, arriving before it in only a couple of seconds.
He instantly shoved the pair toward the portal, watching as they disappeared in a blur of light.
Every student successfully rescued was brought towards this portal that took them off Sector K-22.
Although, it didn’t get them very far, they were distant enough to outside the umbrella of the massive red circle that covered the sky.
A few mana defense officers were waiting for them on the other end and would ensure they were safe.
In a different position, another pod cracked above as Elyra’s sword carved glowing blue arcs through the sky.
Her blade sang with power as she forced the bindings apart.
Mana clung to her body like chains, unable to be sucked away despite the red circle in the sky.
Just like Victor, she was unaffected and this made her capable of being just as helpful as Victor.
Her voice carried over the chaos: "Victor! There are too many!"
Victor’s gaze swept across the battlefield.
A few dozen more pods rose skyward, and no matter how many they broke, the circle consumed more.
Students screamed as they were sucked upward with their bodies stiffening the closer they drew to the circle.
The number... the number was overwhelming.
His stomach twisted when he counted. "Over hundred already... which means up to five hundred first year students have been sucked in."
The red circle above throbbed like a heartbeat of malignant triumph.
A grim silence flickered through the defenders even amidst the chaos.
Everyone could feel it: they were losing.
If the officers were unaffected like Victor and Elyra, it would have been much more easier to save the students but due to the current situation, a couple of them already lost their lives.
Victor’s fists clenched. "Not if I can help it."
He exploded forward again, using Wind Dash to turn into a blur.
His blade flicked out as he continuously activated Shadow crescent strike to slice pods apart one after the other.
He grabbed students mid-fall and hurled them toward an instructor’s mana cushion.
He caught another student, spun in mid-air and landed light as a feather.
But for every pod he freed, three more ascended.
"Damn it!" Victor growled, nearly reactivating his Void Emperor bloodline.
He was trying to save as much energy as he could so he wouldn’t run out while trying to free the pods in the skies.
He bit his lip. "Not yet... not unless I have to."
The sky trembled again as another surge of lightning rained down, targeting random clusters of students.
Elyra sliced at one with her blade which blasted her backward into the ground.
Her armor cracked, yet she staggered up, still fighting.
Victor’s chest burned. He Shadow Blinked again, reappearing beneath another pod. "I’m not letting you steal my classmates..." His palm thrust upward, causing frost to bloom across the surface of the pod.
The pod shattered and three more students fell free.
One portal flickered open again as a Mana Defense officer waved frantically. "Get them in now!"
Victor didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the two closest by the arms and hurled them into the portal’s light.
However, when he looked up, twenty more pods had been pulled into the light.
The pull of the crimson circle was now much stronger than before. He could feel the tug on his own skin now... The circle wanted him too.
"I’m going after them!"
His declaration boomed across the battlefield.
Instructors whipped their heads toward him as their faces paled.
Elyra’s eyes widened from across the chaos as her lips parted.
"Victor, no—!"