Solo Kill: The Mother Demon!
Among all mid-tier Elemental Magic spells, the Fire Element's Blazing Fist and the Lightning Element's Thunderbolt were widely regarded as the most devastating in existence — yet the two were fundamentally different in nature.
Blazing Fist erupted in a near-perfect fan arc, capable of reducing an entire crowd of enemies to ash and rubble.
Thunderbolt was just a single bolt of lightning plummeting in a perfectly straight line, striking only a single target — yet as the undisputed sovereign of the elements, once lightning reached the mid-tier, its destructive power became peerless, beyond all comparison.
Dodge it, and you walk away without a scratch.
Take a direct hit, and you die on the spot.
Mo Fan had never dared use mid-tier Lightning Element magic against the Greenish-Yellow Demonesses — the sheer power of Thunderbolt would have vaporized both the demonesses and the parasitized girls together in a single burst of blood and thunder.
But now, against an utterly vile creature like the Scale-Skin Mother Demon, this simple and brutal Thunderbolt was the perfect instrument of annihilation.
Mo Fan showed not a shred of mercy.
**BOOM — BOOM — BOOM — BOOM ——**
The thunderous roar of lightning rolled through the entire central arena.
Where the stage had stood, a vast charred crater now smoldered. The Scale-Skin Mother Demon lay at its edge — a blackened, near-pulverized corpse. And with her death, every Greenish-Yellow Demoness throughout the gymnasium collapsed as one, crashing to the ground in writhing agony, as though the lifeline sustaining them had been severed.
Students were still fleeing. They had no idea what had happened — they only knew they needed to escape.
A braver few seized the moment, using the demonesses' convulsing agony to rush in and drag their injured classmates to safety.
Those who had been fighting the demonesses stayed tensed with spells charged and ready, eyes locked on the fallen creatures, braced for any renewed threat.
The central plaza was still in chaos, yet a tentative calm began spreading through the crowd. People stared at the fallen demonesses from a distance, bewildered — moments ago they had been drowning in fear and death, and now this sudden, incomprehensible stillness.
None of them knew that someone had killed the Scale-Skin Mother Demon.
They only watched from afar as the Greenish-Yellow Demonesses slowly shed their scaly skins, and from within those husks, slick with viscous fluid, human figures began struggling to crawl free.
No one dared approach. Who could say whether these figures were human, or something else entirely...
On the stage, Mo Fan lay completely collapsed on the ground.
His calves wouldn't stop trembling.
Now that the danger had passed, the fear was setting in. *If Teacher Tang Yue had been even a fraction slower in giving me the Star Chart Book, I'd have been shredded beneath those claws.*
*But I made it. Still breathing.*
**Hmmmm...**
Just as Mo Fan was about to give up and slump backward, the little Loach Pendant at his neck stirred with impatient energy.
He was absolutely spent, but the pendant's wheedling was impossible to ignore. With a groan, he forced himself to crawl over to the Scale-Skin Mother Demon's charred corpse.
"You want that disgusting soul too?" Mo Fan muttered, voice barely above a rasp.
From the moment he'd entered the gymnasium, he'd been hunting red blips and fighting without pause — and this final clash with the Scale-Skin Mother Demon had wrung every last drop of strength from him.
The Loach Pendant seemed intensely drawn to the Scale-Skin Mother Demon's residual soul. As Mo Fan leaned in for a look, he spotted a ghostly blue point of light — like a firefly's glow — drifting slowly up from the corpse.
As though answering the pendant's silent summons, the spirit-light floated toward Mo Fan's chest and settled into the pendant like a swallow coming home to its nest.
"This... this is a Spirit Essence?!" Mo Fan stared, jaw slack.
Having absorbed the Earth Sacred Spring's enormous energy, the Loach Pendant had long since lost all interest in Servant-class remnant souls — Spirit Essences at that tier couldn't improve it in the slightest.
But the Scale-Skin Mother Demon was a Battle-General-class creature.
A single Battle-General-class Spirit Essence fetched at least ten million on the open market!
"Little Loach," Mo Fan said in his most persuasive tone, "you're not going to absorb this one, are you?"
The Earth Sacred Spring's energy had been so immense that the pendant had risen to a remarkable level. Short of another rare natural treasure on par with the Spring itself, almost nothing could hold its interest anymore.
But the Loach Pendant's innate ability was collecting shattered souls and spirit essences — and if he could get it to store this one, taking it to auction would earn him an absolute fortune.
Mo Fan couldn't resist planting a kiss on his little pendant, only to accidentally drip blood from his face onto it.
He immediately wiped it clean with his hand, refusing to let even a drop dishonor his little treasure.
After careful negotiations, the Loach Pendant conceded that this particular Spirit Essence was of negligible nutritional value, and — with considerable reluctance — agreed not to absorb it, instead storing it safely within.
Mo Fan let out a long, relieved breath.
*This time I really did gamble with my life — but every second of it was worth it.*
**CRASH!!**
Just as Mo Fan was about to rest, a deafening impact erupted from the tempered-glass ceiling above the gymnasium.
Mo Fan snapped upright — and froze at what he saw.
A massive beast with cyan iron hooves was descending from the night sky. One hoof struck the reinforced ceiling — and simply caved it in.
A cascade of glass fragments rained down from above as the beast's hulking body dropped like a mountain of living flesh. When it hit the floor, the entire gymnasium shuddered.
The sheer spectacle of it left Mo Fan momentarily stunned.
More striking still — between the beast's enormous horns, a man stood with perfect calm.
His stature bore no proportion to the creature beneath him, yet it was unmistakably clear who was in command.
His gaze swept across the gymnasium, taking in the Greenish-Yellow Demonesses writhing on the floor, before finally settling on Mo Fan at the stage.
"Push forward! Into the building — not a single Demon-Beast escapes!"
Nearby, a squad of Hunter-mages in matching uniforms came surging through the central arena's entrance.
These Hunter-mages were no ordinary fighters — each moved with practiced speed, some riding Wind Trail into the fray, others gliding sideways on Earth Wave, still others charging at full sprint in their Footwear Enchanted Gear...
At their head was a bald-headed man who moved with frightening speed, crossing the entire length of the central arena in an instant to pull up before the great cyan beast. The killing intent radiating off him spoke plainly of a lifetime spent slaughtering demons beyond counting.
"Where is she? Where's the mother demon?"
"The mother demon is dead," said the man atop the beast, his voice unhurried.
"Dead?!" A look of open admiration crossed the bald captain's face. "Hunter King, truly worthy of the title — you had the mother demon finished before we even made it inside..." His tone dropped slightly. "A pity about the parasitized girls, though."
"They're all alive," the man said simply.
The bald captain looked around sharply — and sure enough, from the husks of many fallen Greenish-Yellow Demonesses, girls were slowly crawling free. They looked utterly drained, skin pale as paper, some so gaunt it seemed every last ounce of nourishment had been stripped from their bodies.
"Wait — *that kid* killed the mother demon?" the captain said, incredulity breaking across his face.
The Hunter King gave a single nod.
The result had surprised even the Hunter King himself. Footage from certain security cameras had shown the Scale-Skin Mother Demon moving at a level consistent with Battle-General-class.
"See to the injured," the Hunter King said quietly. "Don't let these girls suffer any more than they already have."
"Yes — right away!" Still not fully back to himself, the bald captain hurriedly ordered his rescue team to take the girls under their protection.