"Can you explain what the fuck just happened?" Lauren whispered harshly, coming to a stop before James.

He took a deep breath and looked around, seeing that no one was paying them particular attention. "We got lucky, that's what happened."

Seeing that his words were insufficient, he sighed, "There was a B-rank monster at the opposite edge of the neighborhood sniffing around. Luckily for us, it decided we were not a tasty enough treat and turned back."

That did the trick, and the others left him alone for a moment, allowing him to gather his wits.

Scare over, James stood up. "Alright, let's get back to it. We don't want to try our luck for too long. If that thing came here, the teams sent to fight the main horde must be facing more difficulty than expected."

"You can't just drop something like that and not elaborate, James," Ezekiel grumbled, rubbing his temples.

"There isn't anything left to say. I didn't warn you at the moment because we were too close to other people, and it would have made them panic, which would have likely drawn that creature to us. And I was using my psychic skills to keep an eye on it, so I couldn't tell you that way either," James explained, preventing further criticism.

The others did not like it, but they accepted it anyway. This is why we make such a great team. They understand that sometimes, I need to act on the information I have, and they are flexible enough to follow my lead even when they don't entirely agree. And they know to keep major disagreements for when we are out of danger, which we are not yet.

That wasn't an excuse. Even now, James could still feel several Grasstalkers prowl around the area, looking for tasty humans to eat. He didn't doubt that deeper into the wilderness, he'd find a large concentration of them, which was likely where the wife of the man they just saved had been taken, but with the B-rank so close by, he didn't believe mounting a rescue was viable.

Soon after, they began moving deeper into the neighborhood. James led the way, his psychic senses extended to their limits, a vigilant sentinel scouting for the lurking threats they were there to eliminate.

The sun was starting to set, casting long shadows and painting the semi-abandoned neighborhood in hues of orange and red, an eerie backdrop for the hunt they were engaged in. The darkness would generally favor the monsters, but at the D-rank, everyone's SENSE was good enough to see in the dark, as long as it wasn't magical in origin. They'd continue operations well into the night if it were necessary.

James felt the presence of two Grasstalkers nearby, their malevolent energies distinctive against the quieter backdrop of the abandoned suburb.

Signaling to his team, James conveyed the situation. "Two Grasstalkers, ahead. Not as strong as the one we faced earlier, but still dangerous." His voice was calm, the plan already forming in his mind.

Rather than a frontal assault, they opted for an ambush. The absence of civilians in immediate danger gave them the latitude to be more deliberate in their approach. With a focused thought, James extended a telekinetic bubble around them, muting their sounds and scents to mask their presence from the predators’ keen senses.

The team dispersed silently, each member moving to take up positions in the skeletal remains of nearby buildings. The structures offered both cover and vantage points, ideal for the trap they were setting.

James positioned himself in the open, a solitary figure on the cracked asphalt of the street. To the Grasstalkers, he would appear vulnerable, an easy target to draw them in.

He had considered moving further away to draw them in, but the monsters had shown enough lack of sense that he didn't think it was necessary. The allure of a prey would be more than enough to tempt them.

As the twilight deepened, the two feline creatures prowled into view. They moved with a languid confidence, their sleek bodies low to the ground, eyes glinting as they focused on James, unaware of the danger that awaited them.

James could see the predatory calculation in their movements as they noticed him, the way they savored the anticipation of the hunt. It was a tactic he had seen them employ before: terrorizing the prey, enjoying the fear before the kill. But this time, the predators were the ones walking into a trap.

He stood his ground, every sense attuned to the monsters' approach and his team waiting in the shadows. The Grasstalkers, sensing no immediate threat from the lone figure, took their time, their approach deliberate and unhurried.

James could almost feel the tension in the air, a taut thread stretching to the breaking point. He watched the Grasstalkers draw closer silently, appearing by all right like a human too scared to run.

He felt his teammates readying their attacks, their powers quietly charging in the dim light. Now just two dozen yards away, the monsters paused, perhaps sensing something was amiss at the last moment.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

That was when James gave the signal.

Like a well-oiled machine, Team 0 sprang into action. A barrage of attacks rained down upon the unsuspecting Grasstalkers from the buildings. Fire, shadow, light, and psychic energy converged in a lethal symphony, each strike precise and coordinated.

A massive, invisible barrier from above pressed the two felines down, halting their movements. Daniel walked out of the building he had hidden in; his hand extended forward as his brow furrowed in concentration. For an entire minute, he held onto the two monsters, preventing any last-ditch effort. The attacks kept coming, making enough of a racket that James knew they would soon pay for, but by the time they stopped, the two monsters were well and truly dead.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have leveled up!

Fuck yeah. Fighting these things might be much more dangerous than running dungeons within our own rank, but man, is it good for leveling up. Let's even these numbers out.

STATUS WINDOW

NAME James Summers

AGE 20

AWAKENING 3rd

TALENT Ethereal Champion

TITLE Protector of the Weave

LEVEL 210

MP 3.010/3.400

STR 140

VIT 103

AGI 104

SENSE 140

MIND 140

STAT POINTS 0

The fact that I have an odd number of stat points will annoy me forever. At this level, earning natural increases is almost impossible, but I might have to work to get one to stop the itch in my brain.

"Alright, let's not get too excited," James warned, checking his new status briefly. "We've made a lot of noise. More of them will be on their way soon."

His team nodded, understanding the gravity of their situation. Despite the quick victory, they were deep in enemy territory, and their fight had undoubtedly attracted attention.

"We need to start preparing," James continued, his gaze scanning the ruins of the once-peaceful neighborhood. "We can't afford to be caught off guard by a swarm of these things. This is a good kill zone, so we should use it to our advantage."

The others silently started walking back to their position. If they could repeat their earlier victory, they might be able to clear the neighborhood of monsters without much effort.

Soon, James' caution paid off. He sensed a group of five Grasstalkers converging on their location, drawn by the noise of the battle. Among them was one of the larger variants, its presence a heavy, dark spot in his psychic landscape.

"They're coming," James announced, his voice low. "Five this time, and one's a big one."

Groans met his announcement, but the team quickly shifted into a battle-ready mode, starting their preparations. Acting as bait, James remained visible while the rest hid in the surrounding buildings' shadowed crevices and broken facades.

As the Grasstalkers approached, James could see their silhouettes against the darkening sky, their sleek forms moving with a deadly grace. He stood calmly, a silent figure in the night, his every sense alert.

The Grasstalkers, confident in their numbers, took their time. They prowled toward James, their eyes gleaming with malice and anticipation. But the longer they took, the more time his team had to prepare their potent spells and attacks.

James himself began pulling on his connection to the ether. He couldn't afford to cast out in the open, as it would alert the monsters that they were running headfirst into an ambush, but thankfully, he had another option.

Harmony allowed him to shift not just his body but also his energy into the ether, which meant he could begin casting spells into that dimension. It was a new trick he had developed, and while it was nowhere near as efficient as openly using magic, it was beyond anyone's notice. Stealth casting was a skill he had desired for a long time, and it would get its first trial run soon.

The largest Grasstalker finally became fully visible, illuminated by the moonlight. It was a massive beast, and the energy he could feel radiating from it told James it was much more resilient than its weaker brethren. It would be his target since the fight would be all but over the moment it began.

He wasn't underestimating the other creatures, as they were still powerful D-ranks, but James felt they had proven their ability to handle the weaker variant.

When the monsters finally fully entered the kill zone, James gave the signal.

Maria's fireballs soared through the air, exploding in brilliant bursts of flame. Lauren's shadows snaked out, tangling around the limbs of the smaller Grasstalkers, pulling and restraining them, dragging the creatures into the path of Maria's magic. Emerging from cover, Daniel slammed his fists into the ground, sending shockwaves through the earth to disorient and destabilize the creatures, preventing them from reacting.

Ezekiel, wings unfurling, soared above, his hands glowing with golden energy. Feathers made of light shot down into the mass of felines, drawing howls of pain.

Through this all, the larger Grasstalker weathered the assault with only a few injuries. It growled dangerously, and a corona of lighting sprung for its fur, blasting out in all directions and forcing Team 0 to turtle down.

The bolts shot wildly in all directions, destroying houses and hitting its companions indiscriminately. James, in the path of a big one, had learned his lesson and was forced to shift into the ether physically.

The sensation of being there alongside his spell was weird. It was like he was trying to fit too much into a tight space and could only compress himself so far.

The spell, on the other hand, was more malleable. Forced by the nature of the dimension to fold upon itself, what had once been a rotating sphere of power became a single speck of energy, no larger than a grain of rice.

James curiously observed the iridescent magic while keeping an eye on the real world. He immediately returned to it as soon as the lighting bolt was extinguished.

He didn't waste time checking on the others and instead brought out the new spell he had somehow crafted.

His instincts told him that despite the diminutive size, the spark of ether was no less dangerous than the original spell. Rather, it was more so.

With a thought, he brought it to a stop before his hand and, aiming at the large Grasstalker, let go.

The moment his order was received, the spark of tightly condensed ether lost cohesion.

James was pushed back, his boots creating a furrow into the asphalt as he tried to stop himself while a beam the size of a train illuminated the night.

For several seconds, dozens of colors, some of which humans shouldn't have been able to see, illuminated the night sky. The roar of the ether beam continued unimpeded, uncaring that organic and inorganic matter stood before it.

When it finally stopped, James beheld the consequences.