Magus Supremacy

Within twenty minutes of arriving, the small squad chosen by Instructor Kent to handle the portal break were finally done with it. They had successfully eliminated all one hundred earth-ranked beasts that had come out of the rift.

Currently, most of them were huffing and panting as they strode to the center of the town, their bodies still carrying the exhaustion of battle.

"That was hard," Liam commented, a deep frown creasing his face as he wiped sweat from his brow.

"For a weakling like you," Mada scoffed arrogantly, his voice laced with disdain, as they all stared at the countless beast corpses littered around the place.

Just a few metres away, the portal continued to swirl, glowing faintly with an ominous light, as if it was alive. The energy within it seemed to pulse in rhythm, like it was baiting its time, waiting for the right moment before spewing out a threat that could push them to their very limits.

Yeah, that moment might come soon.

"The civilians…" Rivock muttered, his eerie tone breaking the silence. He glanced at Liam, who gave a small nod.

"They're safe. I did my job perfectly by taking them a few metres away from here, far enough that they wouldn't be caught up in the chaos," Liam replied with quiet certainty.

"Good," Rivock muttered before turning toward Ray. His lips curved into that usual creepy smile of his, the kind that always seemed to crawl under the skin.

'During the fight earlier, I felt something in the air. A shift… almost like a monster had descended onto the battlefield. A force that wasn't natural.

I don't know why, but I feel it was him.' Ray thought with a frown as he glared at Rivock. 'If it wasn't because I still don't know how strong he really is, I would have gouged his eyes out right here and now.'

Rivock, noticing the glare, tilted his head ever so slightly. Instead of confronting Ray directly, he shifted his gaze behind him and casually strode past, his expression unreadable.

But before he passed Ray completely, he leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a whisper that chilled Ray's blood.

"I hope you haven't forgotten the task I assigned you? Because if you do…" Rivock chuckled lowly, that disturbing sound echoing like nails dragging on glass. "You know what will happen."

Hearing those words, Ray gulped hard. His eyes widened in horror as the memory resurfaced—the incident in the library.

That day, Rivock had approached him silently, pulling him away from prying eyes before assigning him a dangerous task. Ray had been forced to accept, his refusal crushed under Rivock's subtle but terrifying threat.

"I'm worried about something though," Noelle finally spoke, her voice cutting through the rising tension and drawing everyone's attention back to her. "Why hasn't the boss shown up yet? To close the portal, we need to defeat the boss too. So where is it?"

'That's what I'm also worried about.' Grey thought as his eyes narrowed on the swirling portal. 'I can't shake off this uneasy feeling that something worse is coming. The boss should already be out by now… so what exactly is delaying it?'

'These beasts…' Rivock thought to himself as he crouched beside one of the furry bodies, his eyes narrowing into slits. 'Even though they were ranked just a single stage above the lowest tier, they felt stronger.

Slightly faster. More ferocious. It's as if some greater force was influencing them, enhancing them beyond what they should be capable of. But what could it be? And why is the boss still not out? What is holding it back?'

Unknown to the team, a few distances away, perched quietly on the rooftop of a house, a man crouched low, watching. His figure blended into the shadows, eyes sharp and unblinking as he observed the students fight earlier.

His brows furrowed deeply as he studied each of them, keeping a stern, calculating eye on every single movement they made. Now that the beasts were defeated, he still hadn't left. Instead, he remained, silent and still like a predator biding its time.

'Hmph… I can't believe the academy actually sent first-year students for something of this scale. That's a real shocker. But what's even more shocking is how strong some of them turned out to be.'

His eyes shifted, recognizing faces.

'I know those three. They're the direct descendants of the major clans. But the other three… I don't recognize them. Their names don't ring any bell. And yet… that brown-haired one.'

His gaze locked firmly on Grey, refusing to move away.

'I don't know why, but he feels familiar. Different. Almost… dangerous. Unless I'm going senile, I'm certain that at one point, he didn't use Ki.

He used something else. A different kind of power. But what is it? He looks stronger than he lets on, but something is holding him back. Something is restricting him. Interesting. Very interesting.'

The man's eyes gleamed faintly, a mixture of curiosity and suspicion, as his focus remained on Grey alone.

__

"I mean, how long are we supposed to stand here for?" Mada couldn't help but scream in frustration, his voice bouncing off the air.

"How long till the damn boss arrives? Isn't it a sky ranked beast? Then why is it taking its sweet time to come get its death?"

'No! Something is wrong.' Grey thought as his body began tingling in a way that made his skin crawl. He could feel something coming, something massive, but he didn't know where or what it was.

'I don't know if this is my sixth sense or not, but something terrible is approaching, and I feel like we need to be ready at all cost.'

'Nah! This is crazy.' Rivock thought as he stood up with a deep frown on his face, still staring at the scattered corpses of the beasts lying in front of him. Their blood had barely dried, yet the entire atmosphere was thickening in a way that made his gut twist.

"I'm tired of waiting! Where is this bo…" Liam was about to shout when his voice suddenly broke into a stutter, his expression freezing.

Rivock's eyes widened in alarm as he slowly turned around.

Everybody in the area could now feel it. An oppressive aura washed over them, crushing down on their shoulders, making even Grey—who had faced countless battles break into heavy sweat.

GROWL!

A low, thunderous snarl echoed through the air, rattling their bones, followed by the rhythmic sound of something massive approaching.

The temperature in the entire zone seemed to plummet as a single beast stepped forward with calm, chilling precision, every motion deliberate, as though it already knew the outcome of this encounter.

Standing nearly three meters tall, the boss of the Dredfang Lycan beasts exuded dominance from the very moment it appeared. Unlike its lesser kin, its fur wasn't the ordinary dark grey or mottled brown.

No—its fur was pitch black, so dark that it seemed to absorb every trace of light, giving off the illusion that living shadows crawled beneath its skin. Each ripple of muscle beneath that fur thrummed with unnatural vitality, as if power itself breathed inside its veins.

Its frame was twice as broad as the others, a hulking mass of sinew and raw power. Pale, jagged, bone-like spines jutted from its shoulders and ran down its back, glowing faintly with a sinister blood-red hue. Every time it moved, those spines pulsed as if alive, and the ground beneath its colossal paws cracked under its weight.

Its claws had mutated beyond recognition. Each one elongated into jagged obsidian talons, glimmering faintly with crimson veins that pulsed in rhythm with its monstrous heartbeat. The sound alone was enough to make their chests tighten with dread.

A thick scar carved across its chest, but rather than weaken it, the mark glowed faintly, pulsing with an ominous dark energy. It looked less like an injury and more like the seal of something far more sinister, a brand that declared its corruption.

Its face was no longer fully wolf-like. It was twisted—something primal, savage, and demonic. Its snout stretched longer, its jaws lined with serrated fangs that could grind through stone. Its eyes, once amber, now glowed with a haunting glacial blue that swirled like a frozen storm of hatred.

When its maw opened, the rows of curved fangs parted wide enough to unhinge, releasing a bone-rattling roar that seemed to warp the very air around it.

And then came the most terrifying sight. Shadows seeped out of its mouth, swirling and writhing like black flames taking shape. The sheer sight of it made Rivock's heart skip a dozen beats in an instant.

The man on the rooftop, who had been silently observing until now, felt his stomach drop. His expression hardened, but his voice cracked when he muttered, "F*ck! These kids are toast. That's… that's a corrupted beast."

His words only confirmed what Rivock had already realized. His entire body trembled with urgency, and he immediately roared out, his voice echoing like thunder across the battlefield.

"Guys! Get away from here now, otherwise we are dead!"