Intense fear flooded the commander-level White-furred Bear, but it didn't dare to lose time after seeing the incoming attack. Ice gathered in a long spear, it looked like a spear made out of pure, beautiful crystals. The commander-level Bear knew that if this couldn't stop the incoming attack, it would be dead.

The distance between the White-furred Bear and Haize was about ten meters, something insignificant for their speed. It could go at 50 meters per second, and so could Haize. It instinctively knew that its attack would lose and that it would die. As such, it made a vicious decision, aiming at the weakest members of the group.

Lyse and John, who were watching the fight between the Bear and Haize as it was already near its end, suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of danger. While very strong at the same stage, they aren't like Haize. They can't skip stages.

''What a son of a b*tch...'' Lyse muttered while John frowned, black-colored energy that seemed to contain a death-like aura started flowing around him. Staring at Lyse, he said with a grave expression, ''We can't let him lose the opportunity to kill that bastard, so we can only take that attack by ourselves.''

The White-furred Bear took such behavior because it at least wanted to bring these two little things with him to death. In the place it lived, every monster was vicious, even sacrificing its own kind in order to win against an enemy. It wasn't different, and it thought that Haize wasn't any different.

Both John and Lyse knew that if they wanted to win, they couldn't let that attack interfere. They didn't want to be a burden, and they aren't a burden. Lyse smirked as a fiery golden brilliance enveloped his body.

His black-colored hair fluttered upwards, letting out faint golden-colored sparks, looking like a Sun God. John was a bit less eye-catching, as he was covered by a pitch black-colored aura as if he himself is the God of Death.

''We can protect ourselves from this attack, just focus on killing him!'' Lyse shouted as he saw the giant, crystal-like Ice Spear pointing at them. Haize didn't want to risk, but there were overwhelming confidence and firmness in the duo's eyes. Unconsciously, he had been treating them as little kids, and that made him remember that they are nearly becoming adults already.

And their actions proved it.

''Damn it.'' Haize muttered while sighing, feeling a bit emotional that his two younger brothers were already becoming adults. He even remembered that just a few years ago, the two of them peed on the bed, ''I can only kill you for making me notice this, you son of a bear b*tch...''

Haize sighed once again before disappearing from his position. As the Ice Spear shot towards the duo, the crescent moon-shaped light cut off the Bear's head.

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A commander-level 1-Star White-furred Bear was killed

What the dead Bear didn't think was that Haize would be even faster than its attack. After his Mana Stage and Mana control increased, his attack, defense, and speed increased exponentially as well. Even between small stages, there are huge gaps, though the biggest reason for his insane increase in power was his control over mana.

Swooosh!

The air around shifted, as the Ice Spear was instantly in front of the duo. Just as Lyse and John prepared to take the attack head-on, a hand slowly extended forward. The Ice Spear was stopped in its place, as visible ripples appeared in the air, letting out a strong shockwave.

''This is a somewhat strong attack, hm?'' Haize muttered after feeling his arms slightly numb. Lyse and John were dumbstruck, their jaws going all the way to the ground due to the shock they were given. Staring at them, Haize flicked their foreheads, ''What are you doing? We have the rest of the White-furred Bears to hunt!''

''O-Oh...'' The two of them nodded dumbly, dumbfounded by what just happened.

It took the rest of the day to hunt down all of the White-furred Bears, not even one escaped. Unfortunately, they didn't find any survivors. In a situation where the monsters went on duos to hunt, lucky ones like Haize and Lyse found a duo where they are enemies of each other was near impossible.

Of course, there was a small chance that something like this happened in the other area.

In the past week, their Mana control had increased greatly. John used his necromancer-like abilities to control more than 10 White-furred Bears, five of them being Leader-level. They patrolled constantly on the Bear's area, as to avoid the suspiciousness of the Horned Lizards.

At the same time, they would attack tomorrow. Today, the trio was having the commander-level Bear as dinner.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of Lightwood Townhouse.

A group of students about 15-17 years old stood outside Lightwood Townhouse, a skinny student with glasses slowly strode forward, seemingly being the leader. He was just a nerd who people in his class liked to bully. Just because of him being an otaku, people of his class despised him.

But once the apocalypse started, he was lucky enough to kill an injured monster. He awakened an ability named 'Sky Thunder' and was able to kill the Leader-level boss on their school alongside John, one of the only friends he had. The boys that once despised him died in the hands of monsters, while the girls who despised him started pleasing him, all for a chance of survival.

He's not a bad person, not at all. Some of the boys that stood on his side revealed their true side once these girls wanted protection, and so they wanted to use the girls' bodies to please them, in order to give protection. They didn't have any morals and that with only a week of the apocalypse.

While not being a good person, that nerd student held great disgust about such actions. After an entire hour of shock therapy, neither of the boys dared to have any disgusting thoughts again. Either get in line with the rules or die.

The nerd student's name is Edward Plim, and he is an orphan who managed to get into the high school after his parents' death due to his very high intelligence. As someone who also became an orphan when he was only 9/10 years old, Lyse became friends with Edward very quickly.

John, Lyse, and Edward are best friends, and so Edward didn't forget to search for the two. John said that he was going to Lyse's house to search for the youngster. Edward spent more time on the school after seeing the Covering Sun faction on Earth's forum. Given that the leader was Sol Haize, Edward guessed that Lyse was safe.

This didn't mean he was searching blindly, Edward only came to this place after seeing John sending him a private message on Earth's forum. After that, he brought his ''subordinates'' and came to Lightwood Townhouse.

Then, they all entered the Lightwood Townhouse without hesitation despite the warning saying that only after defeating the two commander-level beings could they leave. As people who relied completely on Edward to survive, they held complete confidence in him.

Entering the Lightwood Townhouse, Edward muttered, ''I'm here, Ly, John...''