"What do you mean?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

Xiang Peng's expression darkened. "We were originally going to search the school discretely for any survivors, but...one of the survivors we saved suddenly transformed into a monster. The noise that ensued caused all the other creatures to come to us as well."

"..." I fell silent, then turned to ongoing fight.

The middle-age senior along with everyone else in my team were battling the monsters with everything they had. And yet, even with all of them being Advanced Mages, the monsters just had too much magic resistance with their incredibly tough hide.

I gritted my teeth. No survivor would be found within the school unless he or she's a student or staff here...damn it. That means...there's a probability that it could've been Yu An Xue or Yu An Yan.

I turned back to Xiang Peng. "What did this...survivor look like?"

"Huh? Why is that important...?" Xiang Peng asked right back, slightly annoyed because she was just about to join the fray.

"It's just...she could've been someone I knew."

"..." Xiang Peng stopped, and stared at me. After a while, she gave in. "Fine...she was a girl. Purple hair. The rest I don't remember."

My eyes widened. Purple...hair? No way, right? There's no way...

I quickly perished the thought. "She's not that weak. I believe in her..." I muttered quietly to myself, and Xiang Peng sighed.

"Let's go. Show me your skills, Zhang San...whose voice is very deep for a girl."

I stiffened. Crap...I was too focused on the news and forgot to act like a girl...this is bad, she definitely knows. If she gives it away, I'm screwed...but so far, it doesn't seem like she has any intention of doing that. Oh man...this is going to suck.

I took a deep breath, and turned to Qing Yue. "Remember, just focus on supporting us. Prioritize yourself over any of us. If our support goes down, our entire squad will fall apart."

Qing Yue nodded firmly, and gave a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, Big Broth- a-ahem, Zhang San! I'll definitely prove to you that I won't be a burden!"

Watch it there, girl. You almost gave away my identity. Good thing you caught yourself.

After this short exchange, I surveyed the battlefield. Fires were everywhere, and explosions, monstrous roars, and human yells filled the air alike. In total, there were eleven monsters - but more were bound to come if we don't finish this quickly, given all the noise that was going on.

Meanwhile, on our side, we had ten people in total, counting me. That meant not only would each of us have to take on a monster alone, one of us would also have to fight two at once. I looked at Xiang Peng, in the middle of three monsters. Everyone else already had their hands full with their own targets, so that left Xiang Peng having to face off three on her own considering I hadn't joined the fight yet. But that ends here.

Level Two Fire Magic - Abomination Flare.

An ominous black concentrated fire in my hands, I dashed in Xiang Peng's direction. I leapt up into the air, and launched my attack directly at one of the monsters about to swipe Xiang Peng from behind. The monster wasn't dealt any serious damage, but the sheer force and momentum of the blow was enough to stagger it a little, preventing it from attacking Xiang Peng.

I landed right behind Xiang Peng, and with our backs against each other, she chuckled.

"Heh, not bad, Zhang San."

I sighed. "Learn to watch your back, leader."

"Why do I have to watch it? You have it, don't you?"

"That's just this time. I won't always be around," I muttered. "Level Two Fire Magic - Flamania."

What a pain...I have to actually say my incantations out loud.

A massive flower of black fire formed in my two hands, but since Xiang Peng had her back towards me and everyone else was too busy with their own monsters, no one noticed the abnormality of my magic. I didn't let any time go to waste, and immediately released my attack. I wasn't expecting it to do much, but it would at least buy me some time to figure out a plan with Xiang Peng.

"Leader," I whispered sharply.

"What?" Xiang Peng asked, launching spells left and right. "Level Three Sky Magic - Prison of Lightning!"

She slammed the ground with her palm, and a massive purple magic circle appeared above her. Slowly, it moved towards the monster in front of her, before finally stopping directly on top of the creature. Bright purple sparks began appearing, and immediately after, multiple thunderous strikes of lightning continuously zapped down around the monster, forming a cage around it. Then, another lightning bolt began forming directly in the center of the magic circle - one far bigger, and undoubtedly more powerful than the rest.

The creature trapped in this deadly cage looked upwards, but it was a mistake. The enormous purple bolt of lightning surpassed the speed of light and struck the monster right in the head. Electricity moving through every particle of the creature's body, after a brief spasm, it fell to the ground, paralyzed. Not dead, but it was good enough for the time being.

Managing to completely immobilize one of these monsters all on her own was already quite a feat, but Xiang Peng wasn't done yet. She immediately turned to the other monster on her side, and cast another spell.

"Legendary Gravity Magic - Moonfall!"

A dark crimson energy erupted from Xiang Peng's body, converging to form a crescent moon symbol above her head. Then, it dissipated, the energy scattering to create a force field around Xiang Peng and I, along with the creatures. Xiang Peng closed her eyes, then made a downwards pushing action with her hands. The air below her hands was flattened, and at the same time, so were the monsters. The sheer force of the gravity slammed the two remaining monsters face-first into the ground, not even giving them a chance of moving, much less escaping.

I blinked in surprise. "Well...guess you didn't need my help after all, huh?"

"H-Hah...that's not true...I can't keep this gravity field up for long, it drains my mana..." Xiang Peng muttered in frustration.

Makes sense...given how powerful this spell is, of course it's going to take a ton of mana. But...I'll finish this before your mana runs out, Xiang Peng.

I pulled out a certain weapon from my Space Locket. It wasn't my katana - it was the other one. Back when I invaded the Xuan family residency along with Mei Gui, I had ran into the commander of the Xuan Family Sentries or whatever. I don't know the guy's name, because I never bothered to pay attention to it. But he did have a nice weapon...and that's the only thing I'll ever remember him by...

...A massive black greatsword, made of pure obsidian. It was meant to be for bruiser-types, which I'm not, but after salvaging it as a spoils of war, I made some slight customizations to it based on random knowledge I knew.

I remember reading somewhere that the edge of a piece of obsidian is three times as sharp than even diamond. But perhaps that is not a good analogy...for a better comparison, visualize a surgeon's steel blade - the edge of a piece of obsidian is 500 to 1,000 times as sharp as that.

Keeping this in mind, I spent hours of my free time sharpening the greatsword I had received. With tons of friction and devotion, my finished product was complete within a week of when I first started on it. By then, it could hardly be called a 'greatsword' anymore. Instead, it was now more similar to the katana I have, except infinitely times stronger and sharper. Of course, I also made adjustments to the handle to match this change, so in the end it pretty much looked like a completely new weapon.

Its original colors still retained, however. The black blade looked nice, so I didn't do anything to change that. Overall, it was really quite the treasure I found.

And now, I am using this very same weapon in battle. Normal weapons don't work on these guys' damned tough skin, but hopefully this can work. I'm counting on you, Mr. 500-to-1000-times-stronger-than-a-surgical-blade. Back when we were rescuing Feng Mian, Mei Gui had been there, so I didn't consider this possibility, but now...I have to give it a shot.

I walked over to the first monster that Xiang Peng had put down with her Prison of Lightning. It couldn't move at all, but I knew this wouldn't last long as Xiang Peng's mana was getting drained by the second.

C'mon...this better work.

Praying inside my head, I gripped my new obsidian katana tight, and drove it directly downwards into the creature's heart. Surprisingly, the blade went in quite smoothly, and I was able to pull it back out fairly easily as well. The monster showed no signs of life.

It...really worked!

I hurried to the other monsters, and repeated the same process with them. Right as I finished the last one, Xiang Peng collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. I rushed over, and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay, leader?"

"Y-Yeah...I'll be fine in a bit. Just gotta recover my mana..."

"...Don't overexert yourself. It's dangerous."

"Right...thanks. They're all dead, right?"

I nodded. "At least...the three we handled are. As for the others..."

We both turned to see the other monsters still engaged in battle with our teammates...and the situation looked grim. We were losing badly. Xiang Peng was still not fully recovered, and I was limited to only one element.

Damn it...escape isn't an option here. What do we do...?