Chapter 244: Southern Region

Far from Blackridge Tower, the Southern Region had become a completely different battlefield.

There was no massive gathering of academies. Instead, the Southern Region was quiet- too quiet.

The ruins of what had once been a residential district stretched for kilometers- broken roads, burning buildings, abandoned vehicles, and countless glowing embers scattered across the streets.

A group of students moved carefully through the destruction. Their uniforms were torn, and their faces were exhausted, but they were still moving.

At the front, a young man raised his hand, and everyone stopped.

"Wait."

The others immediately froze. He stared ahead.

One of the students whispered.

"Did we lose them?"

The young man shook his head.

"No."

He crouched down and touched the ground. A thin layer of frost covered his fingers.

"They’re close."

Another student looked around nervously.

"How many?"

The young man stood.

"Enough."

A low growl suddenly came from beneath the street. Everyone prepared themselves. The road began cracking.

"Incoming!"

The ground exploded, and a swarm of flame bees erupted from beneath the rubble.

"Again?!"

The students scattered as hundreds of glowing insects filled the sky. Their bodies were covered in orange markings, while flames burned at the ends of their wings.

One student raised both hands.

"Barrier!"

A translucent wall appeared, and the bees slammed into it.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The barrier shook violently.

"How many did we kill already?!"

"Doesn’t matter!"

Another student shouted.

"They keep coming!"

The young man at the front looked toward the swarm. His expression remained calm.

"Everyone." He stepped forward. "Fall back."

The others hesitated.

"What?"

"I said fall back."

He raised his hand, and the temperature around him immediately dropped. Ice spread across the ground. The flame bees closest to him suddenly slowed and froze. The entire front portion of the swarm became encased in ice.

The students stared.

"Move!"

They immediately ran. The young man remained behind. He looked up at the enormous swarm and sighed.

"This is taking too long."

He slammed his palm against the ground.

ICE ERUPTED.

A massive glacier shot through the street. The swarm was swallowed. For several seconds, everything became silent.

Then...

CRACK.

Crack.

CRACK!

The glacier began breaking apart. The young man’s expression changed.

"Seriously?"

The flame bees burst out. The swarm was smaller now, but the surviving creatures were much larger. One of them was nearly the size of a motorcycle. Its wings burned bright red.

The young man stared at it.

"A mutated one."

The creature screamed.

SKREEEEEE!

It charged. He raised his hand, and the monster collided with an ice wall.

BOOM!

The wall shattered, and he was pushed backward. His shoes dug into the ground.

"Damn."

The mutated bee opened its jaws, and a sphere of fire formed inside its mouth. The young man’s eyes widened.

"Everyone!" He turned. "GET DOWN!"

The fireball exploded.

BOOOOOOM!

The entire street disappeared beneath a sea of flames.

***

Several kilometers away, another academy was having an entirely different problem.

A group of students stood around a massive crater. Inside it were dozens of destroyed flame bees.

One student stared down. "Are we done?"

"Probably." Another looked at the remains.

A third student shook his head. "Don’t say that."

"Why?"

"Because every time someone says that..."

The ground rumbled, and everyone went silent.

"...something happens."

The crater began glowing.

"Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me."

The surviving flame bees suddenly crawled out from beneath the corpses, but these weren’t ordinary bees. Their bodies had changed. Their flames were blue.

One student took a step backward.

"Those weren’t blue before."

"No." The academy captain raised his weapon. "They evolved."

The students exchanged looks. Then the blue swarm attacked.

***

Farther south, another academy had already reached its checkpoint. They were celebrating.

"We made it!"

"Stage Two!"

Several students collapsed onto the ground. Some laughed. Others just lay there, too exhausted to move. Their captain looked toward the glowing checkpoint.

"We’re safe."

The checkpoint system activated.

[CHECKPOINT SECURED.]

[ACADEMY QUALIFIED FOR STAGE TWO.]

The students cheered. Then the captain frowned.

"Wait." He looked around. "Where’s our substitute team?"

Silence.

Everyone looked at each other.

One student slowly raised his hand.

"They went north."

The captain’s face fell.

"How long ago?"

"About thirty minutes."

"And they haven’t returned?"

"No."

The celebration disappeared instantly. The captain looked toward the northern ruins.

"Send someone."

Three students stepped forward. Before they could leave, the ground shook. A massive flame bee emerged from behind the checkpoint.

The captain stared.

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

***

Meanwhile...

In another part of the Southern Region, a completely different group was running fast- very fast. They weren’t running from flame bees. They were running from something much worse.

"KEEP MOVING!"

A student screamed.

Behind them, the entire street was collapsing. Buildings fell one after another.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

A gigantic monster moved through the ruins. Its body was covered in black scales, while six legs tore through the streets. Its head was shaped like a massive insect, but its wings were gone.

One student looked backward.

"That’s not a flame bee!"

"No!"

"Then what is it?!"

The captain gritted his teeth.

"I don’t know!"

The monster roared, and the sound shook the entire district. The students accelerated. One tripped. His teammate immediately grabbed him.

"Don’t stop!"

"I can’t!"

"Then I’ll carry you!"

The teammate threw him over his shoulder and kept running.

Behind them, the monster smashed through another building. The Southern Region wasn’t being dominated. It was being consumed.

Unlike the northern battlefield, where the academies had gradually begun converging around Blackridge Tower, the southern teams were still scattered.

Each group was fighting its own battle.

Some had already reached their checkpoints. Others were trapped. Some had lost members. Others were still searching for their substitutes. And some hadn’t even realized that the rules of the tournament were changing.

Because something was happening to the flame bees. The longer the students fought them, the stronger they became.

***

Inside the observation room, several tournament officials watched multiple screens.

One screen showed a frozen battlefield. Another showed a blue swarm. Another showed an academy defending its checkpoint. Another showed the gigantic black creature tearing through the ruins.

The room was unusually quiet. An official zoomed in.

"That’s not supposed to happen."

Another turned.

"What?"

"The flame bees."

"What about them?"

"They’re evolving."

The official stared at the data.

"That shouldn’t be possible during Stage One."

"Exactly."

Another screen flickered.

A warning appeared.

[ENVIRONMENTAL INSTABILITY DETECTED.]

[MONSTER MUTATION RATE: INCREASING.]

[REGIONAL DIFFICULTY: UNSTABLE.]

One official stood.

"Contact the control tower."

"They aren’t responding."

"What?"

"We’ve tried three times."

The room fell silent. Then another warning appeared.

[WARNING.]

[STAGE ONE MONSTER PARAMETERS HAVE BEEN ALTERED.]

[CAUSE: UNKNOWN.]

Nobody spoke.

Then one official slowly asked:

"What about the students?"

The answer came quietly.

"They’re still inside."

***

Back in the Southern Region...

A young woman stood atop a ruined building and looked over the battlefield.

Below her, hundreds of flame bees moved through the streets, but she wasn’t looking at them. Her eyes were fixed on the horizon. Something was approaching.

Her communication device suddenly activated.

"Captain."

She touched it.

"What?"

"We’ve found another academy."

"Condition?"

"Bad."

"How bad?" A pause. "They’ve lost half their team."

Her expression hardened.

"Location?"

"Sector Twelve."

She looked toward the direction of Sector Twelve.

"Send everyone there."

"Captain, that’s dangerous."

"I know." She looked down at the city. "That’s why we’re going."

She turned.

"Get every substitute we can find."

The students behind her immediately moved. Then she stopped.

"Wait."

Everyone looked back.

She stared toward the distant horizon. A strange orange glow had appeared in the sky. It was growing fast.

"What is that?"

Nobody knew.

Then the communication device screamed.

"CAPTAIN!"

"What?!"

"The sky!"

Everyone looked up.

The clouds were moving, not because of the wind- something was pushing through them. A gigantic swarm emerged from above. Thousands upon thousands of flame bees filled the sky.

The captain’s face went pale.

"That’s..."

The swarm descended, and the entire region began to glow orange as if a second sun had appeared close to them. The captain slowly raised her weapon.

"Everyone..."

The first wave of bees screamed.

SKREEEEEEEEEE!

She gritted her teeth.

"...prepare for another wave."

And somewhere in the Southern Region, completely unaware of what was happening at Blackridge Tower, another academy was about to become the first academy to discover what happened when the flame bees stopped behaving like ordinary monsters.