Chapter 75
The underground parking structure that served as Sector 6's entrance had become increasingly crowded as more students finalized their groups and entered the Hunting Ground. Nearly thirty teams had been formed, most consisting of six to seven members, each carrying their own balance of combat ability, support specialization, and survival preparation.
One by one, the groups disappeared through the reinforced warehouse gate leading into the realm beyond.
Lin and Nille's unified team entered among the last.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the atmosphere changed immediately.
Just like the previous realms Nille had experienced, Sector 6 began with an unnaturally long corridor stretching deep beneath the earth. Cold stone flooring echoed beneath their footsteps while dim spiritual lights pulsed faintly along the tunnel walls.
But the deeper they walked, the more the environment shifted.
Stone slowly gave way to packed dirt.
Dirt gradually became scattered grass.
The air itself changed losing the stale underground heaviness and becoming humid, wild, and strangely alive.
Then the tunnel widened.
And ahead of them, daylight emerged.
The underground passage eventually opened into a massive natural landscape beyond the exit point, revealing an entirely different world hidden beneath the cursed island's reality.
The entrance itself had merely been underground.
The realm connected to it was not.
The moment the students emerged from the tunnel, chaos was already unfolding.
The first wave of student groups had already engaged the enemy.
Across an enormous open grassland stretching far beyond visible range, dozens of Kobold packs had mobilized like organized military units. War cries echoed across the plains while spiritual attacks exploded in scattered flashes of light and fire.
The thirty student groups rapidly spread out, scattering across the battlefield to avoid complete encirclement.
And standing before them,
was an army.
At first glance, the Kobolds looked deceptively harmless.
They resembled humanoid dogs standing roughly five feet tall, carrying crude weapons and wearing patchwork armor crafted from leather, bone, and scavenged metal. Their movements were animalistic but coordinated, their glowing eyes filled with predatory intelligence.
But appearances meant nothing here.
Because every student present knew the real danger of Kobolds.
Some were terrifyingly fast.
Others possessed abnormal physical strength.
Some specialized in agility and pack tactics.
And worse,
certain variants could cast low-level curses and primitive magical spells.
Individually, they were manageable.
Together, they became overwhelming.
Because Kobolds did not hunt alone.
They hunted as a swarm.
"Movement incoming!" Alice shouted immediately.
The moment she spoke, a group of nearly twenty Kobolds broke formation and charged directly toward their united team, snarling and screeching as rusted blades and crude spears reflected beneath the strange sky of the realm.
"Formation!" Lin commanded sharply.
Wind exploded around her instantly.
A compressed burst of air swept across the grassland, slowing the front line of charging Kobolds while throwing dirt and debris into the air. At the same time, Mika Arai slammed her reinforcement talisman downward.
A translucent barrier erupted into existence around the rear flank just as several smaller Kobolds attempted to circle behind them.
"They're coordinating!" Naveen shouted.
"They always do," Nille replied calmly.
Then he moved.
Unlike the others who braced themselves for impact,
Nille advanced directly into the charging wave.
His speed startled even Lin.
One moment he stood beside them.
The next, he had already crossed several meters of open ground.
A Kobold lunged first, swinging a curved blade toward his neck.
Nille stepped inside its range without hesitation.
CRACK.
His fist collided directly against the creature's jaw with enough force to twist its entire body sideways before he tore the weapon from its grasp mid-motion and drove it into another charging Kobold behind it.
No wasted movement.
No pause.
No hesitation.
Another Kobold leapt toward him from the side using unnatural agility.
Nille ducked low beneath the attack and grabbed the creature by the arm before slamming it violently into the dirt hard enough to break the ground beneath it.
"Left side!" Diallo warned.
Three curse-type Kobolds raised crude staffs simultaneously.
Dark green symbols ignited across the air.
Nyx's voice immediately surfaced inside Nille's mind.
"Curse deployment. Rot-type contamination."
Nille reacted instantly.
"Don't inhale!"
The curse exploded into a spreading cloud just as Lin released another powerful burst of wind, redirecting most of the corruption upward before it could spread across the team.
Xu Lian immediately activated support seals while Alice fired spiritual rounds from behind cover.
But more Kobolds kept coming.
Dozens.
Then more behind them.
The battlefield across the grasslands had already devolved into fragmented warfare as scattered student groups struggled against endless pack assaults.
And in the middle of it,
Nille's united team found itself facing a rapidly advancing section of the Kobold army.
The creatures howled together as if responding to a single unseen command.
Weapons raised.
Magic gathering.
Claws tearing through the earth.
And standing against the incoming wave,
the newly formed alliance prepared for their first true large-scale battle inside Sector 6.
Across the vast grasslands of Sector 6, the battlefield quickly descended into disorder.
Many first-year students entered the Hunting Ground filled with confidence, eager to display the techniques they had practiced inside controlled training halls. Spiritual spells exploded wildly across the field while weapons flashed recklessly in desperate attempts to prove skill and courage before classmates and instructors alike.
But actual combat was different from training.
Very different.
Most of the first-years lacked real experience in killing.
Their attacks were rushed, poorly timed, and heavily influenced by panic once the Kobold packs began fighting back with brutal coordination. Students swung weapons too widely, wasted spiritual energy on unnecessary spells, and failed to maintain formation under pressure.
The results became immediate.
Cries of pain echoed across the battlefield as multiple students were wounded within the first stage of engagement. Some suffered claw wounds. Others were struck by cursed projectiles or dragged down by coordinated Kobold pack assaults before emergency support intervened.
Fortunately, the academy had expected this.
Instructor Kaori Takamura and several combat instructors were already moving across the battlefield, overseeing the hunt from multiple positions. Whenever situations became too dangerous, the instructors intervened just enough to prevent fatal casualties while still allowing the students to experience the consequences of failure firsthand.
Because this was not merely a hunt.
It was a lesson.
And for many students, the hardest lesson was not survival—
but killing.
Several first-years who managed to land their first fatal strike froze afterward, their expressions paling the moment they realized they had truly ended a living creature's life. Even though Kobolds were classified as Malignants, the psychological impact of the first kill still struck many students harder than expected.
Some vomited.
Others stood trembling in shock.
A few completely lost their composure mid-battle.
Meanwhile, the third- and fourth-year students advanced through the battlefield with far greater efficiency. Unlike the newer students, they already understood the rhythm of the Hunting Grounds. Their movements were controlled, coordinated, and practical. They accumulated kills steadily while avoiding unnecessary energy loss.
Still—
among the first-years, several individuals began standing out.
Lin Yue Meiying was one of the clearest examples.
Her control over wind was exceptional.
Compressed currents sliced cleanly through advancing Kobolds while defensive gusts redirected curses and disrupted enemy formations with remarkable precision. She moved with fluid calmness despite the chaos, her wind techniques creating controlled openings for her teammates while minimizing unnecessary risk.
Even some upper-year students noticed her performance.
"That's a first-year?" one third-year muttered in surprise.
"Section A1," another answered. "Level 3 wind affinity user."
"Impressive."
And Lin was not alone.
Several students from Section A1 displayed promising combat instincts, drawing attention from observing instructors and senior students alike.
But among all the strange things happening across the battlefield—
nothing drew more confusion than Nille.
Because the Kobolds were avoiding him.
At first, most students thought it was coincidence.
Then people started noticing the pattern.
Whenever Nille moved forward, lower-level Kobolds instinctively retreated instead of attacking. Some growled nervously while others outright refused to advance in his direction despite their numerical advantage.
One Level 20 Kobold warrior—large even for its species—was visibly trembling while staring at him.
Not aggressive.
Afraid.
Like prey staring at a predator.
Nearby students slowly began noticing it too.
"…Why aren't they attacking him?"
"Did he use some kind of fear curse?"
"No… look at them."
Several fourth-year students narrowed their eyes as they observed more carefully.
One of them finally spoke.
"The Kobolds are scared of him."
That statement immediately spread attention toward Nille's area.
More students started watching.
And the longer they observed, the stranger it became.
Even when surrounded by active combat, Kobolds near Nille showed hesitation bordering on instinctive terror. Some avoided eye contact entirely. Others shifted backward while keeping low growls in their throats as though suppressing the urge to flee.
A senior student frowned deeply.
"…Who is that first-year?"
No immediate answer came.
Because almost nobody truly knew.
Meanwhile, Nille himself remained completely unaware of the attention building around him.
Or perhaps he simply did not care.
He continued moving through the battlefield calmly, his strikes efficient and direct, while Nyx silently observed the reactions of the creatures around them.
Inside his mind, her voice finally surfaced.
"…Interesting."
Nille crushed another Kobold beneath a downward strike before responding internally.
"What is?"
Nyx paused briefly.
"These creatures recognize danger instinctively."
Ahead of them, another group of Kobolds slowly backed away despite having superior numbers.
And for the first time since entering Sector 6, fear had begun spreading among the Malignants themselves.
Nyx's voice echoed calmly within Nille's mind as the battlefield continued descending into chaos.
"Remain near your team," she advised. "Do not separate from your operational support."
Nille understood immediately.
The battlefield had already shifted beyond a simple first-year hunt. The Kobolds were reacting abnormally to his presence, and instinct alone told him something stronger was watching from deeper within the horde.
So instead of advancing recklessly, he stopped.
Then,
he released his killing intent.
Not wildly.
Not explosively.
But with focused direction toward the massive Kobold army positioned several dozen meters away across the grasslands.
The effect was immediate.
The lower-level Kobolds froze first.
Then the deeper sections of the horde stirred violently.
Growls spread across the battlefield as stronger entities within the pack reacted with visible irritation. To them, the sensation felt insulting, as though a mere mortal had openly challenged their territory and authority.
Then the horde split apart.
And from within it,
something emerged.
The leader stood nearly six feet tall, towering over ordinary Kobolds. Its body resembled a monstrous werewolf more than a simple canine humanoid, covered in black-gray fur reinforced by scarred muscle and primitive armor plates strapped across its chest and shoulders.
Unlike the others, its eyes carried intelligence.
And rage.
Behind it stood nearly one hundred elite Lycans.
Every single one radiated power far beyond the normal Kobolds infesting Sector 6.
Most were estimated around Level 50.
And among them,
four monsters stood out immediately.
Larger.
Heavier.
More monstrous.
Their spiritual pressure alone distorted the air around them.
Level 100 to 150.
The moment they sensed Nille's intent, the entire elite pack locked onto him at once.
Then they charged.
Like a storm breaking across the plains.
The ground shook beneath the synchronized rush of claws, armor, and killing instinct.
Students across nearby sectors immediately panicked.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
"WHY ARE THEY MOVING HERE?!"
Even some third-years turned pale watching the massive Lycan pack stampeding across the battlefield.
But Nille remained calm.
Nyx's voice sharpened instantly.
"Defensive perimeter now."
Nille turned toward the group without hesitation.
"If you want to survive," he said evenly, "follow my instructions exactly."
The sudden seriousness in his tone erased all remaining uncertainty from the others.
No one argued.
No one questioned him.
Because the approaching horde made one thing painfully clear—
this was no longer a normal first-year encounter.
"Formation," Nille ordered.
Mika Arai immediately expanded a reinforcement barrier around the rear flank while Xu Lian activated layered support seals across the group's positions.
Alice loaded spiritual bolts into her crossbow with trembling hands.
Diallo began chanting curse sequences under his breath.
Naveen planted both palms against the earth as spiritual patterns spread beneath the ground around them.
At the center of it all,
Nille stepped forward.
Taking position as the vanguard.
And beside him,
Lin Yue Meiying moved into formation without hesitation.
Wind spiraled around her sleeves as her expression sharpened completely.
Behind them:
Alice prepared ranged support. Diallo stabilized curse deployment. Naveen controlled terrain through short-range earth spikes. Xu Lian maintained support synchronization. Mika reinforced the defensive perimeter.
The battlefield around them seemed to narrow.
Then Nille slowly reached behind his waist and drew his jungle bolo.
The heavy blade reflected the strange sky above Sector 6 with cold sharpness.
Next came the Tactical Hard Knuckle Fingerless Gloves.
He tightened them calmly around his hands.
Then,
without taking his eyes off the incoming horde,
he spoke to Lin.
"Do you remember the hospital?"
Lin blinked once.
Then slowly smiled.
"Of course I do."
Wind currents intensified around her immediately afterward.
Nille's lips curved slightly.
"Same approach," he said.
Then his eyes hardened toward the charging Lycans.
"But this time…"
The elite horde roared as they closed the distance.
Nille stepped forward.
And his smile disappeared completely.
"…cut them down."
The next second,
the battlefield exploded.
Instructor Kaori Takamura and the other combat instructors were already moving across the battlefield, intervening where first-years were beginning to collapse under pressure. Their presence ensured that most students fighting scattered Kobold packs were stabilized or pulled back before fatal injuries occurred.
But then,
Kaori's attention shifted.
Her gaze locked onto a specific point deeper in the battlefield.
A surge of spiritual pressure was rising, dense, focused, and unmistakably hostile. A mass of elite Lycans had broken formation and were now charging directly toward one group.
A first-year group.
The instructors immediately prepared to move.
"Sector breach, high threat cluster incoming," one of them said sharply.
Kaori raised a hand.
"Wait."
The other instructor turned in shock. "What? Those are Level 50–150 variants. If they hit that group"
"That's the student I'm talking about," Kaori interrupted calmly.
Her eyes remained fixed on the battlefield.
"Don't interfere. Watch him carefully."
A pause followed.
The other instructor frowned. "That's reckless. First-years cannot handle that density of elite units."
Kaori's tone remained steady, almost certain.
"You will see something," she said quietly, "that will make you question what you think first-years are capable of."
Reluctantly, the instructor held back.
Across the battlefield, the general situation remained unstable but controlled. Senior students were assisting struggling first-years, stabilizing formations, and clearing lower-level Kobolds. Interestingly, the Level 50 Kobold units that had initially dominated early engagements were now showing hesitation, less aggressive, more wary, especially as stronger evolved variants began appearing deeper in the field.
It was as if the battlefield hierarchy itself was shifting.
But at the center of it all,
was Nille's group.
They never strayed far from one another.
Lin Yue Meiying and Nille positioned themselves at the front, forming a vanguard line that met the incoming pressure head-on. Behind them, their teammates maintained structured support: ranged suppression, curse disruption, terrain control, and barrier reinforcement.
And then,
the Lycans arrived.
One hundred elite units.
A moving storm of claws, muscle, and killing intent.
The impact of their charge shook the ground.
But Nille did not retreat.
Neither did Lin.
Wind spiraled violently around Lin's form as she stabilized the battlefield space. At the same time, Nille stepped forward into the incoming wave without hesitation.
The first Lycan struck.
Nille twisted slightly, letting the attack pass just inches from his shoulder before driving his elbow into its jaw with precise force that redirected its entire momentum sideways.
Another came from the flank.
He did not look.
He simply stepped forward, blade already moving.
The jungle bolo flashed once.
A clean arc.
One Lycan fell mid-motion.
Then another.
And another.
Behind him, Lin's wind control carved openings through the swarm, redirecting mass charges just enough to isolate targets. She did not overextend, she complemented.
Every movement between them was synchronized without a word.
Frontline.
Vanguard.
Coordinated pressure.
The battlefield quickly shifted from chaotic defense to structured extermination.
Alice fired support bolts from mid-range, disrupting charging paths.
Diallo's curses slowed enemy clusters and weakened their regeneration.
Naveen raised jagged earth spikes that forced Lycans into predictable lanes.
Xu Lian stabilized the team's energy flow, preventing spiritual overload.
Mika reinforced barriers only where necessary, conserving output for sustained engagement.
And at the center,
Nille and Lin cut through the storm.
Each Lycan that entered their immediate zone was met with controlled, lethal precision. No wasted motion. No hesitation. Every strike carried intent, accuracy, and efficiency.
To the observing instructors,
it was no longer a battle.
It was mastery under pressure.
Kaori's expression remained unchanged as she watched Nille move.
But the other instructor beside her fell silent.
Because what they were witnessing was not a student struggling against overwhelming numbers.
It was a student moving through them as if he had already calculated every outcome before the fight even began.
And as the hundred-strong Lycan charge continued to collapse against the vanguard line—
the battlefield around Sector 6 began to understand something very clearly:
this first-year was not reacting to the hunt.
He was controlling it.
Lin and Nille moved in sync for several more exchanges, the battlefield narrowing around them as the last waves of Lycans tried to force an opening. But every attempt was met with the same result, precise interception, controlled redirection, and decisive elimination.
Then, in a brief opening between strikes, the pressure shifted.
For the first time since the engagement began, there was a small gap in the chaos—just enough for both of them to register the same realization.
This wasn't just survival anymore.
It was a rhythm.
A flow.
A controlled execution under pressure that neither of them needed to verbalize.
Lin's wind dispersed a final cluster of incoming attackers, pushing them back just far enough for Nille to step through. His machete came down cleanly, ending the motion before it could even fully register as an attack.
For a brief moment,
there was silence between their movements.
Not hesitation.
Recognition.
Nille exhaled slowly, almost faintly amused.
"…This is familiar," he said quietly.
Lin glanced at him mid-step, her wind still circulating softly around her sleeves.
"It is," she replied.
A small pause followed.
Then, almost simultaneously, they both adjusted their stance and continued forward.
Not with urgency.
But with control.
Like they had already accepted the rhythm of the fight.
Nyx observed everything without interruption, silently documenting the ongoing engagement. Within her analytical framework, she recorded combat efficiency spikes, coordination synchronization, and adaptive response patterns.
But one observation stood out above the rest.
"Nille emotional output: elevated," she noted internally. "Non-hostile positive variance detected."
Her processing refined the data further.
"Source correlation identified: Lin Yue Meiying."
She did not interfere.
She simply watched as Nille moved through the battlefield with something rare, something he did not often display in structured combat scenarios.
He was enjoying it.
Not recklessly.
Not emotionally unstable.
But genuinely engaged.
And Lin was at the center of that shift in behavior.
Around them, the remaining Kobolds that had not yet engaged directly began to hesitate.
Because they saw what was happening to the Lycans.
The elite pack that had once dominated the battlefield, Level 100 units, and even higher evolved variants, was collapsing.
Not through overwhelming force alone.
But through systematic dismantling.
One by one.
In front of their eyes.
The ground beneath the vanguard was already soaked in dark, shifting blood, marking the path of destruction left behind by the fallen Lycans. Broken bodies lay scattered across the grassland, some still twitching, most already silent.
The scent of battle thickened the air.
And the Kobolds reacted instinctively.
Fear spread through their ranks.
Growls turned uncertain.
Advancing formations slowed.
Then,
they stopped.
A ripple of hesitation passed through the remaining Kobold units as they watched a far stronger species being reduced with absolute control.
Some lowered their weapons.
Others stepped backward.
A few simply turned their heads away, refusing to look at the front line where Nille and Lin continued to advance.
The battlefield hierarchy had shifted completely.
What was supposed to be a pack-driven swarm assault had turned into something they could no longer interpret as prey hunting.
Because the "prey" in front of them,
was no longer acting like prey at all.
It was acting like a force of nature.
And for the first time since the engagement began, the Kobold army began to break formation, not due to command failure,
but instinctive survival fear.
The battlefield that had once roared with one hundred Lycan elites was now reduced to scattered silence and broken movement.
Only a fraction remained.
But that fraction was still deadly.
Lin's wind finally faltered.
Her breathing turned uneven as the spiritual currents around her sleeves weakened and collapsed. The strain of continuous high-output control had reached its limit. Even she—one of the strongest first-years, could no longer maintain formation pressure.
A faint tremor ran through her stance.
Then her knees buckled slightly.
Nille reacted instantly.
He caught her before she fell completely.
"…Lin."
"I'm fine," she tried to answer, but her voice lacked strength.
Nyx's analysis confirmed it immediately.
"Spiritual depletion confirmed. Temporary combat incapacity."
There was no hesitation from Nille.
He adjusted his grip and turned slightly.
"Mika," he called sharply.
Mika Arai responded immediately, reinforcing a barrier around Lin without question.
"I need you forward," Nille ordered. "Protect her position."
Mika nodded once and moved without delay, expanding layered reinforcement fields around Lin's location while Xu Lian assisted stabilization seals to slow spiritual drain recovery.
At the same time,
the remaining Lycans regrouped.
Six of them.
All elite variants.
All still standing.
They locked onto Nille immediately.
Growls deepened across their throats as they prepared for another coordinated rush.
Nille exhaled once.
Then a small flame ignited in his palm.
A fire burst spell, compressed, unstable, but effective as a diversion.
He released it forward.
BOOM.
A flash of fire and smoke erupted across the battlefield, temporarily obscuring vision and disrupting incoming perception tracking.
In that brief moment—
Nille lifted Lin onto his back.
She didn't resist.
She couldn't.
But she still spoke faintly.
"…Don't overextend."
"I won't," he replied.
Without waiting, he moved.
Naveen reacted instantly, slamming both hands into the ground.
Earth surged upward.
A thick, reinforced wall rose behind Nille's path, forming a temporary corridor of protection while blocking flank pursuit routes.
"Go!" Naveen shouted.
Alice provided covering fire from the side, forcing two Lycans to divert their charge path.
Diallo's curse chains slowed another.
The opening was created.
Nille ran.
Fast.
Controlled.
Lin's weight stabilized against his back as he moved through the earth corridor, wind and fire residue fading behind him.
The Lycans pursued immediately.
All six of them.
They broke through the smoke and debris, refusing to let the target escape.
Nille reached the edge of Naveen's earth formation and stopped.
He lowered Lin carefully against the reinforced barrier.
Mika immediately placed a healing potion into Lin's hands and activated recovery support seals.
"Stay here," Nille said quietly.
Lin tried to respond, but her strength had not fully returned yet.
"…Don't be reckless," she managed.
A faint pause.
Then Nille gave a small nod.
"I'll end it quickly."
He turned away.
And walked forward.
Away from the group.
Away from the support line.
Toward the six Lycans now emerging from the broken terrain.
The battlefield narrowed again.
Wind died down.
Fire residue faded.
Only silence remained between predator and hunter.
The Lycans spread out instinctively, forming a semi-circle to prevent escape routes.
But Nille did not move back.
He adjusted his grip on his weapon.
Lowered his stance.
And waited.
The first Lycan charged.
Nille stepped forward,
and the clash resumed.
One against six.
No backup.
No formation.
Just raw engagement at the edge of survival.
And as the first impact echoed across the field,
the battle for the final wave of Lycans truly began.