Before these parodies of real mages grasped it, several hundred Bone Imps charged our group, hoping for fresh meat. Mu Ning Xue, one of the first to react, nearly released her pseudo-domain but came to her senses. It would've weakened her allies' magic, hindering defense... Though given their mental state and power, better if she'd soloed the monsters. Everyone would've stayed safer.
Mo Fan didn't idle, preferring fire against weak but numerous foes for wider area than lightning. But enemies jumping at him prevented mid-level spell focus, so monster numbers dropped slowly.
The other students fared worse. They barely cast Beginner magic to repel attacks. In the first seconds, besides wounded Min Kong and healing Bai Tingting, two more dropped: Lu Zheng Ge and Luo Song.
The first, hiding behind his contract Wolf, took a bone club to the back, lying semi-conscious but alert enough to maintain the summon, keeping him partially in the fight.
The second thought he'd cast mid-level magic before getting hit... didn't. Luo Song clutched his shattered forearm with his other hand, horrified as a finishing blow flew at his head... deflected by an ice chain from nowhere.
Hey, I promised to intervene only in critical moments. The fatty's case wasn't unique: I'd already deflected over seven lethal strikes on group members. Fight hadn't lasted a minute.
Students noticed but said nothing, focusing on survival. Spells flew through the tunnel, gradually causing collapse in the long-unmaintained structure.
In this critical moment for the kids, Xiao Feng dropped too. Sliding on "Wind Paths," he tripped and fell before several Bone Imps. They tried saving him, but not everyone had time to cast amid their fights.
In the end, though they downed a few around him, two reached the guy. The one aiming for his rising legs hit, shattering both knees; the head-aimer missed, thanks to my ice chain deflecting then killing both monsters.
Then Zhao Manyan traded his defensive artifact for cast time, applying mid-level first-tier light "Holy Shield" and with Lu Zheng Ge's contract wolf blocking one tunnel side. Short-lived, but enough time.
The kids, pressure off one side, didn't rescue comrades but prepped powerful mid-level spells instead of Beginner ones they'd used. Mo Fan fastest: second-tier mid-level fire "Towering Fist" killed seven Bone Imps. Others followed.
Monsters died like flies; swarm tactics failed at low Servant level. Pumped-up students hit with vicious cruelty, burning mana, wiping dozens. And not watching where spells landed...
Early collapse signs ignored – victory seemed close, just ~hundred Bone Imps left. Alternating spells, they stood mid-tunnel, not thinking to run. Why, if winning soon? A few ceiling rocks ignorable... to a point.
Mo Fan's next "Towering Fist" hit higher than planned; tunnel gave. Left side (our entry) crumbled in car-tire-sized concrete chunks, burying unlucky Bone Imps. But no joy for kids – collapse spread our way.
Realizing, students rushed rightward, meeting ~fifty more Bone Imps who didn't care about the collapse. Howling and snarling, they charged swinging bone clubs, sticking to swarm tactics to the end.
This type of monsters was just too stupid to realize that their end was near. And the bloodlust clouding their eyes also played its role. Group madness—the main ability of this species. Individually, they weren't strong, but as long as there was more than one Bone Fiend, their sense of fear atrophied completely. Perfect monsters for grinding Servant-level souls, but in this situation, the guys had no time for profit.
There was no time for Mid-level magic anymore; monsters were charging at them from the front, and the collapse was catching up from behind. The guys were simply trapped in a hopeless situation. In this critical moment, Mo Fan turned into a shadow, using Beginner-level magic of that element, and quickly maneuvered between the monsters toward the exit, leaving the others behind. You couldn't blame him for that—if anything, objectively speaking, he couldn't have helped anyway. Surviving himself was the priority.
Looking at the desperate faces of the guys, I sighed tiredly and waved to my girls. They understood me correctly and instantly, giant leaves of Sand Aloe rose from the ground, propping up the still intact section of the tunnel and halting the collapse from spreading quickly.
Unlike TuTu, who dealt with the rocks falling from above, Jiao Jiao used her non-burning Flame Thread to scoop up the remaining students and raced toward the exit at tremendous speed, simply ignoring the monsters. They were too slow to even graze her.
TuTu and I hurriedly ran after her, keeping pace. As soon as the tunnel was finally behind us, TuTu stopped maintaining the conjured plants, and they withered hastily, giving the collapse free rein to continue while dooming the monsters lagging behind us to a suffocating death under the rubble.
And so, the stunned students, dumped on the ground by Jiao Jiao like sacks of sand, watched in fear as dust rose from the fully collapsed tunnel. Just a few seconds ago, they had been preparing to say goodbye to life, but thanks to our help, they survived. Though not everyone was grateful for it.
"Why didn't you do this earlier?! We all nearly died in there! Did you just enjoy watching us suffer?!" Jing Jing lunged at me with bloodshot eyes. Proximity to death had completely washed away her fear of me and TuTu, finally allowing her to vent what was eating at her.
"I won't hide it—it was amusing to watch your clumsy attempts to adapt in battle. I can praise Mo Fan, Zhao Manyan, and Lu Zheng Ge; those guys contributed the most in this fight. The rest of you... performed frankly poorly. I'm disappointed." I replied to Jing Jing's question with a slight smile, not hiding my thoughts.
"Y-you've lost your mind?! Not only did you not help us in the fight, but you call those losers the main players in the battle! One started this damn collapse and ran off with his tail between his legs, the second was out of the fight from the beginning, and the third was just a flashlight, managing to put up a shield only once!" Stammering with rage and stomping her feet on the ground, the pink-haired girl began criticizing my assessment.
The two guys she mentioned whirled on her angrily, glaring with contempt. The third was still in a semi-conscious state but somehow managing to maintain his wolf summon. Remarkable mental resilience—I hadn't expected that from Lu Zheng Ge; credit where it's due.
Looking at Jing Jing's eyes blazing with anger and some students nodding in agreement with her claims, I sighed tiredly. Why are they so dense? Looks like I'll have to take command of this group myself, at least until we reach the city. Otherwise, they clearly haven't seen any good examples to emulate.
First things first, I need to explain in plain language why they're dense. They might even get it on the first try, but doubtful. I'm not hopeful anymore.