Chapter 305: Menacing couple

Being so immersed in his fight with Vlad, Noah couldn’t sense that they were being surrounded from every direction. Vlad, however, remained aware of his surroundings. He had sensed Aria and the others approaching when they reached the halfway point of the bushes.

He could have escaped from the tall bushes, but he let them surround him because of the sheer number of people he sensed approaching. Around two hundred. Such a force would only gather in this isolated area if they were sure the joker was here. And the only way they could be sure was by tracking the tokens he carried, meaning they had joined hands with the defeated hunters.

Vlad analysed all of this while Noah was swinging his sword at him like a madman. The Eclair, Vlad’s longsword, was a gift from House Cendral, personally given to him by his lovely girlfriend, Seraphina. And Noah had dared to cut its scabbard in half. Of course Vlad was going to make him pay. At first, he had decided to simply beat him up, but wouldn’t that be too small a punishment for what Noah had done?

So he came up with a mischievous plan, being the petty person he was: frame Noah for all the menace he had been causing since the beginning of the practical.

“So it was you who was pulling the strings,” Aria muttered, her dark eyes glaring at Noah.

“Huh? What strings—”

“Oh no! Lord Noah! They have found us!” Vlad exclaimed in horror from behind the mask, his head moving frantically as he scanned the surrounding students. He slipped the Hunter tokens back into his pockets and continued, “We need to run!”

He grabbed Noah’s wrist and began running toward the centre of the field, where Chloe was watching everything with an expressionless face.

“What the fuck do you mean we got caught!?” Noah snapped, trying to pull his wrist free, but Vlad’s grip was too firm.

Vlad stopped once he reached Chloe’s side.

“Oh no, Lord Noah, they have surrounded us from all sides. What should we do?” Vlad continued in his horrified tone. “I told you it was a bad plan to target both hunters and survivors, yet you still forced me into it.”

“Will you stop with your fucking nonsense?” Noah shouted, both confused and annoyed. He didn’t have the full context, but he had guessed that Vlad was framing him for the crimes he himself had committed.

“Do you have no shame whatsoever?” Noah muttered, glaring at Vlad with his sharp blue eyes.

“If I had any shame, I wouldn’t have followed your terrible orders,” Vlad sniffled, as if he truly regretted working under Noah.

“Stop framing me for whatever you did—”

Noah’s words were cut off as a hand suddenly clamped down on his arm, or more precisely, on Vlad’s fingers, which were still wrapped around Noah’s wrist.

“Don’t touch him,” Chloe told Noah in her usual stoic tone, fixing him with a silent stare, the way a wife would stare at a mistress.

She firmly slipped her fingers between Vlad’s and pried his hand away from Noah’s wrist.

“He’s mine! Find someone else if you want to be handled!” She was referring to the statement Noah had made during his clash with Vlad. Of course, it hadn’t gone unnoticed by Chloe. She had barely kept herself from jumping into their battle then and there to keep her Vlad away from Noah, who seemed to have indecent intentions toward Vlad.

He had no such intentions.

And now, he was even holding Vlad’s arm.

He wasn’t. Vlad was the one holding it.

“Don’t worry, Chloe,” Vlad whispered so softly that only Chloe and Noah could hear him. “I will never fall for him, no matter how hard he tries.”

Of course, he said that to agitate Noah further.

Noah dragged a frustrated hand down his face, stretching his skin to the point that even the red area on his lower eyelid became visible.

Once again, this menacing duo was getting on his nerves.

Vlad was framing him for some unknown crimes, while Chloe’s allegation was even worse.

The thin thread of his patience was already stretched to the limit of its extensibility when a sharp voice came from the students surrounding them.

“Senior Noah! This time, you went too far!” Lorenzo said, pointing at Noah accusingly. “Not only did you target both hunters and survivors, but you also teamed up with the joker to bully an innocent junior.”

He stepped forward and declared, “Everyone! Defeat the two villainous seniors and protect Miss Chloe!”

Chloe’s fans, whose existence she wasn’t even aware of, exclaimed in unison, “Stay away from Miss Chloe, you villains!”

“We will protect Miss Chloe!”

“Miss Chloe, don’t be afraid. We will make them regret bullying you.”

They drew their weapons and roared,

“Punish the villains!”

“Punish the villains!”

Snap!

Noah’s thread of patience finally broke.

“GAAHHHHHH!!!! Shut your fucking mouths, you morons!” His loud voice echoed through the mountain, silencing everyone.

He grabbed his sword, unleashing his wild Sword Aura. It was even larger than the one he had used against Vlad, and it immediately plummeted the surrounding temperature.

“If a fucking fight is what you want, then a fucking fight you will get!” he declared, releasing a ripple of mana outward that blew back the hair of all the students.

“All of you come at me at once!”

For a moment, no one dared to move, everyone left with parted lips and widened eyes. They knew Noah was strong, but they hadn’t known he actually possessed Sword Aura. The chilling energy on his blade sent shivers down everyone’s spine.

Still, they had the advantage in numbers, not to mention the eight hunters, Aria, and Lorenzo on their side. And then there were their ace cards… Max Caldren and Lisa Sandles.

“Don’t be afraid,” the Angry Face said, stepping forward as he also coated his sword in Aura.

“He can’t defeat all of us alone.”

His statement restored the survivors’ confidence.

“Take them down!” The freshers roared as they rushed toward the duo in the middle of the forest field.