Landing effortlessly, he gave a final glance at the three dropping behind him: Noah Pierce, Caleb Wyne, and Tamsin Crow. Arthur sighed, hoping them to be as efficient as Ethan had hyped them to be.
Before anyone could move, a screen flashed before them.
[ You Have Entered A Mini Death Zone ]
[ Escape Within 46 Hours ]
[ Or Confrontation Becomes Mandatory ]
"Weird… this again," Tamsin said, clicking her tongue.
'Even the system knows it's a death zone.'
Walking forward, Arthur loaded both pistols in his possession.
"You understand the screen. This is a stealth sweep. Be quick and fast."
Unable to see their responses, Arthur moved slowly, avoiding any unnecessary sound. The only thing that could be heard were the subtle footsteps of inexperienced youths following him.
Walking past the hall, to their right was the dark corridor leading to the physics lab.
'There is nothing there.'
Observing the stillness of the place, they ignored it.
Turning his head slightly to the right, Arthur whispered, "Which among you can shoot a gun accurately?"
The three glanced at each other.
After a moment, Tamsin slowly raised her hand.
"My grandfather was a military veteran. I practiced aiming with him, but I am still very bad at it," she admitted quietly.
"Very well then. Shoot only under these conditions. If I tell you to, if you encounter a zombie in close range, or if we encounter a horde."
The girl nodded.
They continued toward the Grade 8 classrooms.
Before reaching them, they passed one of the school's huge toilets. Its durable metal door had been ripped off its hinges, and a long stream of blood flowed from within the dark interior into the main hallway.
The slanted fallen door limited Arthur's vision, but he could still see the thin stream stretching deep into the dimly lit toilet.
"Are we going in?" Noah asked quietly.
"Not yet. Not now," Arthur dismissed.
They continued forward.
Moments later they stood abreast of one another.
The door to Grade 8C stood before them, firmly shut. Now they could clearly hear something tapping gently against the blood-painted window.
Arthur halted them because another step forward would expose a hallway to their left.
Leaning against the wall, he slowly peeked into the next hallway.
'It's empty.'
"Everyone take your next step cautiously."
Caleb moved first.
Arthur watched closely.
The moment Caleb's foot touched the ground, the window before them shattered violently.
A blur lashed out.
Caleb was suddenly lifted off the ground.
'Shit.'
Realizing what had happened, Arthur lunged toward the pulsing vein-like vine that had wrapped itself around Caleb's neck.
His palm glowed icy blue, releasing a cold mist.
Before Caleb's neck could be crushed, Arthur slammed his palm against the vine.
Its thinner end froze instantly.
With a reddened face, Caleb began striking the frozen section repeatedly until it shattered. The broken pieces fell away and he collapsed gracelessly onto the tiled floor.
Tamsin and Noah rushed to Caleb's side, trying to remove the remaining vine wrapped around his neck.
"Don't follow me."
Arthur had already shouldered the classroom door open and rushed inside.
Before he could even identify what was attacking him, another vine lashed toward him.
If he had been a second late activating Mobility, he would have been turned into a mash of meat.
'Those things are huge.'
All the chairs in the classroom suddenly levitated and shot through the outside window.
The creature was clearly a plant, one that had grown somewhere within the school compound's backyard.
Beyond the classroom's outside window stretched a wide field of low grass. Beyond that lay a gloomy forest, with shadows constantly moving along its edges.
That was where the problem began.
Arthur couldn't see the main body of whatever he was fighting.
All he could see were numerous massive vines and countless smaller ones stretching through the classroom window.
Watching the chairs get destroyed effortlessly, Arthur knew he had to change strategy.
'This fight wouldn't end here. It would end anywhere.'
The whiteboard suddenly ripped itself from the wall and flew between Arthur and an incoming vine.
The thin metal backing of the whiteboard should have been pierced easily.
However, due to Force Barrier, the vine struggled to tear through it.
By the time the board finally split apart, Arthur had already moved.
He retrieved the board and crushed it into his most reliable weapon: a spike.
Switching to Environmental Weaponization, he felt it delivered more power than simple Force Manipulation.
And his theory proved accurate.
The spike tore through smaller vines easily.
The bigger ones took more effort.
More effort meant more time wasted.
Arthur was forced to keep moving around the classroom.
Once most of the smaller vines had been destroyed, he dropped the crinkled spike, which had now become an uneven mold of alloy.
'I have to get out of here… or instantly master a new skill at the point of death.'
With most of the vines gone, Arthur began noticing the increased aggression of the remaining ones.
He narrowly dodged a sweeping strike, squatting low before launching himself upward.
Grabbing the ceiling fan, he spun with it for momentum before diving away at the last second.
His body slammed into the wall.
The bones in his lower half rattled as he pushed himself off the wall and landed again.
'I can't keep this up. Eight at once…'
Arthur exhaled slowly.
'There goes my mana pool.'
His palms began releasing an icy mist.
He sidestepped another vine, but unexpectedly it changed direction and followed him.
Caught off guard, Arthur was grabbed and slammed violently into the wall.
He fell to his knees.
Another massive vine wrapped around him.
It dwarfed the others.
"Where did this come from…" Arthur groaned.
His icy palms slowly began affecting the vine.
Frost spread gradually along its thick surface.
The ice slowly crawled along the massive vine, attempting to freeze it completely.
But before the process finished—
Another vine slammed into Arthur.
His vision blurred instantly.
'Why do I feel so weightless… am I flying?'
Noah had rushed into the classroom.
He grabbed Arthur's collapsing body and dashed out at inhuman speed.
The moment they crossed the doorway, a vine whipped across Noah's back.
He threw Arthur forward as he collapsed to his knees and palms.
Arthur crashed into the floor several meters away, tumbling through the hallway they had come from.
Slowly he regained his senses.
Looking up, he saw Noah on all fours, panting heavily.
Caleb and Tamsin were blocking the door.
'Noah carried me out.'
Arthur sprang to his feet.
He dashed past Noah and placed his hand against the classroom door.
Ice instantly began spreading across its surface.
Arthur stepped backward, mentally forcing the ice deeper into the classroom.
Ignoring his rapidly draining mana pool, the frost crept through the doorway and into the room.
Arthur's face straightened as he focused fully on spreading and generating more ice.
[ Fatigue: +45% ]
For each meter the ice spread, ten points drained from his mana pool.
By the time he had frozen nearly a quarter of the classroom, a massive portion of his energy was gone.
But the violent banging against the door had stopped.
Arthur finally sat down on the floor.
He glanced toward the corridor to his left, then toward the hallway ahead.
Breathing heavily, he spoke.
"The school is built in a rectangular formation with a space in the middle."
He paused briefly.
"That space sits just meters away from us. We don't know what waits for us, what is coming, or what we will find."
Arthur slowly stood.
"So prepare yourselves."
His eyes hardened.
"Let's continue."