As we stared out into the darkness, I quickly glanced around to see where Apollo and the massive student were.

Only to find that they were nowhere to be seen.

Cursing, I quickly said to Marrok, “Sound the alarm, I’ll hold the line here.”

Sniffing, Marrok growled, “Wait. There’s no point in staying here. We’re surrounded.”

“What?” I asked, caught off guard.

“There’s… there are beasts all around us. I can smell their filth from here.”

Wondering if the boy was part hound, I turned and then froze as I stared into the eyes of a real red eyed hound.

It was big; it was black as the night, and it had red eyes, which were the only thing that shone in the night.

Also, apparently, it breathed fire as it raised its snout and howled at the sky, sending embers into the air.

As though it was a signal, waves of hounds began howling in turn and then they stared at us before they charged, saliva flying.

Idly thinking that it was the best alarm signal we could have possibly given, I charged.… backward as I shouted to Marrok and ran to the material log house.

Skidding to a stop a distance away from the material log house, we turned as one as I flipped a jumping dog over my head, and Marrok caught another and strangled it in midair.

With a crash, the sleeping log house door flew open, and figures of the rest of the students began streaming out, clutching their shoddy weapons.

As they formed a circle around the log houses, the hounds began howling even more loudly.

Then splitting into four streams, they rushed in a wave at the material log house, as well as two other students who stood frozen as they had on an expression worse than crying.

“Why us?” They cried out as the hounds ignored the rest of us and marked them down.

As we intercepted the wave of hounds, I spotted Sia standing at the door of the log house while she thought hard.

Then my own thoughts were scattered as a powerful jaw clamped around my forearm.

Punching the offender in the snout; the hound fell away with a yelp, and I wished that I had my weapons, or anything really.

Suddenly, I remembered Sir Galen and the way that he fought.

Taking out the needle and placing it between my fingers like a punch blade, I grinned as I ran forward, low to the ground.

As another hound leaped at me, I swung from below and stabbed the needle as far as it would go in the hound’s underbelly, before I channeled my warforce into my arm and unleashed a barrage of quick blows that targeted the insides of the hound.

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Falling with a crash behind me, the hound twitched as it tried to stand up unsteadily, but then the needle was piercing through its brain, once, twice, and as the needle was raised again; the hound slumped to the ground… never to rise.

Turning to the other hounds, I scanned the battle quickly to see Marrok punching hounds and ripping them apart with his bare hands as blood sprayed into the air and onto him.

As I watched, with a howl louder than the hounds, he leaped into the densest mass of hounds and began laying about.

As I ran to support him, a bright bronze arrow flew by me.

Wait, an arrow? We don’t have any bows!

The thought crossed my mind, and I turned my head involuntarily to see sited against the Door of the Material Log house, a boy with tousled golden blonde hair who looked as if he had just woken up.

Him, and the bow of light that he was holding that flickered in the darkness of the light.

As he drew back on the bowstring, another arrow formed and, with a piercing sound, it flew into a hound that was threatening to flank our lines.

Sucking in a deep breath at his power, I charged back into the fray and joined Marrok.

Fighting side by side, we lost track of the battle as our battlefield shrank to being just each other and the hounds surrounding us in a few meters’ radius.

At that moment, Sia’s voice called out over the chaos.

“All those who have new uniforms, take them off and throw them in the front where the arrow lands.”

Continuing on, she shouted as she looked at Apollo, “Fire an arrow toward the middle of the hounds.”

Puzzled, Apollo opened his mouth when Sia glared at him and screamed, “Now!”

Closing his mouth, Apollo shot an arrow to where Sia had said, and a moment later - two shirts were thrown in the direction of the arrow.

Like ripples in water, the wave of hounds paused before they streamed back toward the shirts.

Ripping the shirts apart with great satisfaction, they left gaps in their encirclement, and rushing into those gaps; the rest of the students slaughtered the few remaining hounds before turning their attention to the big circle of hounds.

Sucking in a deep breath, we encircled the oblivious hounds, and then moving in closer; we began the slaughter.

The hounds fought back, and embers shot in the air along with the anguished yelps and cries of hounds and students equally.

All the way until I barreled my way into the middle of the pack, and as fire washed over me, I channeled as much warforce as I could to my mind.

As time slowed, my movements became more efficient as the needle jabbed through eyes, snouts, throats, and laid to rest hounds one after the other.

Beside me, Marrok became a blur as he leaped and slaughtered hounds.

Then, Sia was there, and she had a crude dagger in one hand while the massive student guarded her with his bulk.

Almost an hour later, it was done, and we fell to our knees, sucking in deep breaths as the last of the hounds twitched in its death throes.

We were about to relax when Sia’s grim voice cut through the night as she said, “Don’t let your guard down. The night is still long.”

Tensing up again, we scanned the darkness warily.

Continuing on with her orders, Sia split us up into three units.

One to protect the sleeping log house, one to protect the materials log house.

And the last was my group.

To treat the wounded.

For we expected that we would need every single student in fighting condition for what was to come.

After all, we were at Yamal Academy.

Where one has to expect the unexpected.