People were floating around in a bubble while being slowly healed by Zhang Dong’s holy energies. He had moved forward to distance himself a bit while facing off against the red demon.

The situation didn’t look so good at his end as he could feel that his power was fading the more he remained in this world. The young students that he had left to lend him power were transferring less and less of it his way.

There was also the problem of too many unconscious and injured people around him. With them here he couldn’t really let loose any unconcentrated attacks in fear of killing someone in the process. This was also why he was using his thunderlight sword and facing the monster in close quarters combat. This technique was made of holy energy so it worked quite well against a demon like this.

‘I need to get them out of here first…’

“Listen up, I’m going to send you all into one location. There you will find my summoner, if you wish for me to defeat this demon you must lend her your mana.”

“Lady Beatrice?”

The one that asked was Isabella, the big drill-haired bully.

“Yes, that one. It would be nice if you forgot about your misgivings about her and lent her your power. ”

Zhang Dong gave the girl a big manly smile before looking down at the Principal. She was the strongest mage here and also had the most mana. If she somewhat recovered and added her mana to the array formation that he created there would be a chance.

“I…”

The young blond lady opened up her eyes wide and it looked like she was thinking about something. There wasn’t much more time for chit-chat as the Demon Lord of Pain was now charging their way.

“Death will be your salvation!”

Zhang Dong rolled his eyes after having heard enough edgy one liners from this guy. He used a big chunk of his energy to pull every bruised and battered body towards the energy sphere. This caused some discomfort for the previous people within it but not like they could protest.

“Now go!”

With a little shove, they flew into the air as he aimed to place them somewhere close to the mana gathering magic array formation. Right on cue the monster was there, attacking with his many sickle-like hands. This time around he found it a lot harder to bat them away as his cultivation realm was regressing below into the late stage.

“I must keep my distance and stall for a bit…”

He was mad that no one in this academy was able to actually do anything about this demon. This also made him think back to his own sect grounds. Without his system’s detection ability some spies could make it through the cracks. There were the scanners but they weren’t at all locations and one rat or another could always make it through.

“Tch… screw of!”

The golden sword of light shone brightly as he brought it down on his enemy. He utilized one of his slashing attacks from his own swordsmanship style. Thanks to having reached sword heart before it gave him enough advantage to keep up even in a lesser realm of power.

“Your power is fading spirit, soon you shall succumb to pain!”

With the high-powered slice, he had managed to shove his enemy back. He even managed to slice through one of those bladed hands. Regretfully with time, it would regenerate itself back to its original form.

“Yeah well… your breath stinks…”

‘Hope they make it there in time…’

He jumped to the side to evade another one of those beam attacks and the battle continued. Back at another location, a group of people were rolling in a big ball of light. This ball burst like a soap bubble to reveal many injured and unconscious people along with the Principal.

“Is everyone okay?”

The elven woman called out, the people that were conscious started groaning. Some of them were able to stand up while others remained silent. It was unknown how injured everyone was but there wasn’t really any time to care for everyone. The battle was still not over and the Archdemon still remained.

“Principal, I’m sure my father will arrive soon.”

Isabella commented while gathering herself to her own two feet. During the whole ruckus, she was separated from other people that she knew. The girls that used to hang around her were quick to run towards the shelters without even waiting for her.

“The Duke? … let us hope so…Elobarin, can you walk?”

“Give this old man a second…”

The Vice-Principal was also here, he was missing a foot but after casting a spell green energy started condensing towards this injured spot. The man didn’t grow a new foot but a one that looked to be made from wood. It was clear that this procedure wasn’t anything comfortable as his eyebrows twitched in pain.

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“That should do it...what is that?”

He pointed into the distance where a strange light was coming from. After a moment other people started to notice it too.

“Didn’t that spirit say something about this? Could that be where student Beatrice is?”

Leigong the spirit had given them some vague instructions. They didn’t really know what he meant by lending Beatrice a hand. They were slowly running out of options, the most powerful magicians from the academy had been defeated. If Leigong didn’t come to their aid the group of people here would have been already dead as well.

“It is possible, we should investigate.”

The old man said while producing a wooden cane to help with his prosthetic leg.

“Please everyone, help the ones that can’t walk we must move.”

After nodding the Principal moved forward along with the others. There were enough able bodies to help the other people on the way. When they arrived at their destination they noticed the large glowing shield and the students inside of it. Some of them were on the side and clearly passed out. Others were barely keeping up while panting.

There were also some charred bodies of what looked to be small imps and demons before the magical barrier. It was clear that they wanted to penetrate inside of it but were burned to a crisp during the attempt.

“This must be it… fascinating. What is that magic circle… it is gathering mana from the surroundings and focusing it into the middle...”

The elven Principal commented while the people here moved forward. Every mana and health potion that could be used was now emptied. While some people from the group tried to regain their senses others approached the large mana gathering array that Zhang Dong made.

“He said to lend his summoner mana?”

She looked inside this barrier and could see Beatrice in a sort of trance sitting in the middle. It was clear that the girl was taking in the vast amount of mana from the surroundings and channeling it somewhere. It looked like it was going towards the astral realm where her spirit resided; this was also probably why its power had increased by this much.

“Is it wise to give up our mana? Shouldn’t we evacuate and wait for the Knights or the Dukes to arrive?”

“Y-yes, we should evacuate. Why are we even here?”

Some of the people from the side started calling out to the Principal as staying alive was the priority. None of them wanted to waste this opportunity to get away, no one actually believed that the spirit that helped them could beat an Archdemon.

“I think we should listen to what the spirit said…’

Isabella commented from the side while some of the instructors were shouting between each other.

“Silence! Don’t you feel ashamed for yourself? Act like adults.”

The Principal was mad that the instructors and teachers in this school that were hand-picked by to be the most talented were so cowardly. Everyone here was a noble, so she feared that they were used to the easy life too much.

“We will aid the spirit while we wait for reinforcements, not like there is a place to hide. Look around you, the academy has been mostly destroyed.”

She proclaimed while touching the golden magic barrier that was protecting the students inside. The others looked at this with fright due to the dead monster bodies close to the barrier. It looked like this magic was highly destructive and could hurt anyone that was touching it.

“Calm yourselves, this isn’t that type of magic...look.”

The moment she made contact with the golden light her hand just passed through. It looked like it was fine for people to go inside but not for monsters.

“I see… this is how it functions. Listen up, this magical circle will absorb your mana into it. Replace the collapsed students with haste before…”

The moment that she uttered those words a sound of a thunderous explosion could be heard by everyone here. The people turned to the direction of the noise to see a glorious Leigong flying their way. He was bouncing off the ground like a ragdoll and crashing into everything though. Ending his voyage by sliding for about fifty meters and making a small crater.

“W-why are you taking so long…”

The spirit groaned while grasping his head. He wasn’t looking well, there were visible injuries all over his body and mana was leaking from them. Spirits from the astral realm didn’t really bleed like people from the material realm. They would leak energy that they were composed of in the form of bright-colored energy bubbles. Even though Zhang Dong was slightly different his current body was also composed of various energies.

“Your end is nigh, astral creature!”

The demon lord was not far behind and he could clearly see the large array formation that was glowing in the background.

“What is this disgusting energy? Begone from my sight!”

“Shit…”

It looked like the plan had failed. The people that he shot over to the mana circle that he created to help him regain his strength were scattering to the sides. The only person that actually entered it was the Principal but the others were now running away for the hills. If he got an injection of power now then he might have stood a chance but it didn’t look like the monster would give him any time for that.

The demon lord took aim once more, this time with a more concentrated beam. This monster seemed to not tire or run out of mana at all. It was now seeing the array formation as an eyesore and ready to destroy it along with the students and Beatrice inside.

Zhang Dong jumped to put himself between them and the monster’s beam attack. Everything went bright as his holy energies and the demonic ones collided with each other. The massive torrent of pressure tossed everyone in the surrounding back while they screamed for help.

The monster grinned after looking at its opponent that even managed to injure it a couple of times. Zhang Dong was slowly fading away, his energy had run dry and even Beatrice was slowly losing consciousness. It looked like it was over for him but he had to somehow get the kids out of here.

‘Can I toss them away from here… but this monster will follow after them anyway…’

"Thus begins the slaughter!"

The monster laughed but then something strange occurred. Isabella Hohenberg during the confusion had made it inside the mana gathering array and was now right next to Beatrice. She looked quite serious as she went down to her knees and grasped Beatrice’s hands together with her own.

Isabella closed her hands and started focusing. It was clear that she wanted to aid Zhang Dong with her mana but at this point, he knew that it wouldn’t be enough. That was what would have normally happened but for some reason, the two girls started glowing in an even brighter light than before.

“What is this?”

Zhang Dong was baffled by the strange light show that he was seeing. This wasn’t all as he could feel his energy returning to him in truckloads. The hands that were fading away just a moment ago took shape and all the wounds that he suffered were mending themselves.

“Is this the fabled power of friendship? I thought those girls hated each other though…”

The monster released another burst of multiple beams as it noticed that something was wrong. This time around there was a change. Zhang Dong just waved with his finger and it looked as if time stopped. The beams that were about to collide with multiple targets stopped in the air, not budging a centimeter.

“You had your fun, now become a good punching bag for me!”

Zhang Dong cracked his knuckles as he charged forward, he wouldn’t let this sudden boost in power be wasted.