Lurking Danger
Lurking Danger
It was already late in the afternoon and the youths were about to head back and meet the Fler parents when a loud siren sound echoed through the alley and the whole city.
**Attention please, attention, please…
Due to some unforeseen reasons, a large number of beasts have stepped through the magical dome. They are now on their way towards the city walls.
Please stay calm and go to the closest shelter or a secure location.
This is not a test. This is not a test! **
'Huh?' Jason, Malia, and Greg looked at each other, not sure what to do or where to go! Greg and Jason had never been in such a situation and they hoped Malia could think on her feet.
The trio was alarmed but it was Malia who came back to her senses first. She immediately opened the map of Jiro city to locate the shortest route to the closest shelter that they could find.
But before they could even move, they heard loud roars from outside the city. The fierce voices bounced off the dome's walls, magnifying it even further. They watched in horror as a black cloud of sorts rose in the air and covered the sky from the side that the deafening roars were being issued from.
Nobody knew for sure what had happened, but when they saw the huge black cloud, terror rose from the pits of their stomachs and it was as if black eyes threatened their whole existence.
They exchanged one look with each other before they broke into a mad dash and began to rush to the next shelter like thousands of thousands of humans did.
The shopping alley was overflowing with humans and everyone charged in the same direction, not caring if they ran over anything.
From the corner of his eye, Jason spotted a small girl a little farther than him, alone and crying. She had probably been separated from her parents in the melee and he wanted to help her. However, before he took a step in her direction he was pushed away by an expert-ranked man, whose eyes were filled with fear, as he rushed past them.
Not understanding what was going on, Jason was even slightly scared of being overwhelmed by higher-ranked humans, as their speed was faster than his.
He would have been left alone like the little girl, had Malia and Greg not slowed down for him, as they guarded him slightly with their higher physique.
It was ridiculous and morally crushing for Jason to see that even laborers and normal receptionists were faster than him and probably also stronger even if their combat experience was close to zero.
While running, many thoughts streamed through his mind.
'Can the soldiers handle the beast tide? Why does everyone rely on others instead of fighting back? Some humans here even have the strength to fight unblemished beasts!` Several such questions and thoughts ran through his mind but the last thought tormented his mind to no end.
When they arrived in front of the shelter, the three youths could finally see humanity's true nature. There were hundreds of humans standing in front of the closed gates, banging on the gates, begging and pleading to be let in as tears streamed down their desperate faces. They seemed to be scared to their bones and apparently could sense death encroaching upon them in slow steps...
Identical expressions of worry, helplessness, and shock were mirrored across the grown-ups while small kids gripped their parents firmly, not understanding what was going on...
Greg was taken aback, "Did they lock out everyone?? Is that some kind of a cruel joke?!"
They suddenly grew terrified because at their rank it didn't matter how strong they were, they couldn't defeat tens of thousand beasts all by themselves.
Malia still held her ground and looked at the people in front of the closed gates.
"Ahh, why is our race so full of trash?! To save our own skin we would sacrifice so much…"
And Jason sensed the disgust in her voice that resonated with him, as he could understand where she was coming from.
Apparently, the humans within the shelter had closed the gates as soon as a certain number of people had been let inside. Even if there was enough space left to accommodate more humans, they turned a blind eye to the plight of their own kind and closed the gates, locking them firmly.
The next shelter would be quite a distance away and Jason had now somehow regained his composure because Artemis was by his side. Before Malia could even say anything, he firmly stated the best course of action.
"We can either search for your parents or hide somewhere...I'm not sure which places are the best to hide, but searching for your parents is more likely suicidal because we don't know where exactly they are at the moment.
Send them an emergency signal after activating your GPS and they can rescue us as soon as possible.
If nothing major happens in their district, they will come to us."
Malia looked at Jason in surprise because he was relatively calm despite a beast tide occurring right in front of them and she nodded approvingly.
Every company or a slightly larger shop had a safe room and they decided to hide in a small shop which took in a few people until it was filled.
Once the door was closed, a small group of boys and girls, probably first-grade middle schoolers began to cry because they couldn't handle the pressure anymore.
Jason was relatively calm because he had recently killed a few beasts and was borderline naive because he had bought a pistol and was expecting to use it, a fact which irritated him.
`Why am I excited?!?! There are thousands of humans dying each second!` Jason thought and his excitement died down as quickly as it had shot up.
It was unknown if the armor-piercing bullets could penetrate through the hides of unblemished ranked beasts, but Jason was confident that they could at least hurt them with enough mana injected in them.
Greg and Jason were not normal youths when compared to the other kids at the age of 13-14, because Jason had matured early due to his responsibilities and his disability, while Greg had faced reality in elementary school, in addition to his many battles against beasts, even though he still behaved like a child sometimes.
It looked like Malia had faced many beast tides because she was even calmer than Jason and before he said something she had already sent the distress signal to her parents.
Beast tides weren't uncommon but mankind´s nature was unpredictable.
It was unclear if the beast tide was even able to reach the outer district, let alone the inner district and people were already panicking this much?
If everyone would be behaving like they were, humanity would have already gone extinct 300 years ago.
While waiting for the soldiers to clear out the beast tide, Jason could still access the network with his quantum bracelet. Thus, he tried to relax by watching some martial art technique videos to deepen his understanding of the Azure feisty Ape technique with the dual-dagger mastery modification.
Previously, he had only watched videos with the single dagger mastery but now he had changed his decision.
While Jason watched the videos, trying to calm his jittery nerves, he stayed on-guard.
But even so, almost everyone looked at him oddly.
'How could someone be so calm while a beast tide occurred? What's wrong with this youth..and where can I get such contact lenses...they are so good looking.'
The scared group of middle-aged men, women, and middle school students had a wide range of thoughts churning through their heads as they observed him.
Greg was still stiff as a board but seeing Jason eased up his tension to some extent as he sat down next to him in order to watch some videos.
Greg was currently stronger than Jason in all aspects, such as soulbond, strength, mana core rank, and probably even more, but Jason´s calmness caused Greg's fear to die down. Somehow, he wanted to be closer to him because he felt safer this way, which was completely illogical.
Malia also sat down next to Jason, but only because she thought he was putting on a facade.
However, that wasn't totally the case and Jason only hoped that the beast tide would end soon.
He wasn't putting on a facade, as he was sure that magical beasts couldn't threaten a B-grade city… At least they wouldn't be able to completely annihilate it and even if they could, he wouldn't be able to do anything against it.
But the main problem, Jason figured out, was the high possibility that a few Guardian-ranked beasts which were the rank above magical beasts led this beast tide because the roars Jason heard were somewhat familiar.
It felt as if Jason knew what kind of race had caused the beast tide but he just couldn't remember what it was.
Furthermore, there seemed to be a melee of roars and cries of different kinds of beasts and Jason felt that they wouldn't gather together just to attack the City without preying on each other. He suddenly had a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach that there was something forcing them to attack Jiro-city.
If Jason was not wrong, someone should have either picked up a magical treasure or stolen a guardian stage beast cub to cause such a disaster, otherwise, he couldn't think of any reason for Guardian ranked beasts to attack a B-grade city, risking their lives in the process.
Jason was way too confident in himself because his eyes were superior to others, his soul was unique, ignoring his low soul energy for a moment, and his combat prowess was also quite good. But even if he added everything together, he still couldn't face the threat of such beasts at the moment, which frustrated him.
Understanding the situation they were in once again, Jason decided to create the best possible outcome with his current ability by doing something that not many heroic authorities would do.
Watching videos to calm down his surroundings!!
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