Once they had descended from the top of the wall Kyle and his friends started making their way through the city towards the Adventurer’s School. They all knew that a large number of non-combatants would have already taken shelter in the well defended campus as well as those of their classmates that had made it back from the Dungeon.

Weaving their way through the streets the group found it increasingly hard to conceal their anger and frustration that they weren’t powerful enough to help defend Greenhearth. No matter where they looked they saw signs of death and destruction and in the distance they could hear the sounds of the guards that had stayed behind to try and contain the level of destruction that the flying monsters that had managed to evade the attacks from the other guards stationed on top of the walls shouting as they fought.

After a quick conversation the group decided to pass around the edges of the areas where the guards were fighting so that any monsters that spotted them were distracted by the more serious threat of the guards who were attacking any monsters that came in range.

“It’s not far to the School now guys,” Kyle said as he noticed that they were starting to slow their pace. He knew that they were exhausted, he was as well but they couldn’t very well take a break in the middle of a battlefield. “We have to keep moving.”

“It’s not that,” Sasha replied as she looked behind them. “We’re being followed.”

A quick look over his shoulder revealed the truth of this statement flying down the alleyway towards them was a small group of bat-like creatures. Upon sighting them Fi quickly reported they were a type of monster known as a Ghost bat which could occasionally phase through physical attacks and launch surprise attacks from a distance by turning parts of their bodies incorporeal and extending them out far past where they would normally be able to reach. They could not, however move through anything containing large amounts of Mana meaning that when Amy and Kyle summoned their Mana Barriers right in front of the monsters, they smashed into them at high speed.

“This flock is between Level 5 and 7 so we might want to retreat,” advised Theodore before breaking into a run away from the screeching monsters.

“Agreed,” Ulrich replied, and they all started running down the alley towards the sounds of a guard fighting another group of monsters.

Hearing the sounds of flapping wings following both Kyle and Amy turned and fired the attacks that they had been preparing back towards the monsters. A Mind Storm slammed into the swarm of monsters sending them tumbling to the ground once more as shards of stone tore through the delicate membranes of their wings.

“Nice shot!” Kyle said as they turned back around and ran after their friends. “See, I told you that you didn’t have anything to worry about.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Amy admitted wishing she could roll her eyes at Kyle. “But we should be worrying about running away right now.”

Kyle nodded at her words and increased his pace after the rest of the students shading his eyes as he exited the alleyway just in time to see a familiar figure running towards him.

“Get down!” shouted Revius thrusting his hands out as Kyle and Amy dropped to the ground as an orange beam lanced out, striking the monsters following the two friends, causing the bat-like creatures to screech in pain as their leathery wings ignited instantly. As Kyle and Amy got to their feet, the sun elf finished off the monsters that had survived his opening salvo with a quickly conjured spear.

“So,” Revius said as he turned towards the group. “It’s good to see that you guys made it back, I was a little worried when I heard that we lost a group.”

“Yeah,” Kyle replied. “Thanks for saving us by the way.”

“No problem,” Revius said giving them a grin. “But why were you using the alleyways instead of following the main streets? Those would’ve been safer.”

“We didn’t want to get in the way of the guards,” Ulrich replied abashedly.

“Well that was stupid,” Revius chastised them. “We’re mostly here to make sure that anyone still out here can actually get to the safe areas like your school which is mostly just you guys. People’s lives are more important than buildings which a decent mage can repair in a few hours.”

The students all looked at the ground shamefacedly at the young sun elf’s words. Having heard his words, they instantly realised their mistake and Revius shook his head in exasperation. Due to him being one of the few guards who still only had a Tier 2 Class he had been asked to help the teachers at the Adventurer’s School to explain the differences between Tier 1 and Tier 2 Classes and how going up a Tier could massively increase someone’s combat abilities if someone chose the right Skills before reaching Level 5 and had even sparred with a few of them to demonstrate these differences so he knew how capable they were but it was moments like this that the lack of experience he and his friends had, showed.

“Never mind,” he sighed as he shook his head once more. “I’ll escort you guys the rest of the way to the school.”

“That would be great,” Resald replied for the rest of the group. The Wood Elf had been the only member of the group who had disagreed with the idea to use the backstreets and alleyways instead of the main roads where the guards could’ve protected them, so he was quite pleased with himself right now.

“By the way, is Claire alright?” Revius asked looking at the still unconscious girl worriedly.

“She’s fine, just exhausted” Theodore confirmed. “Zerah healed her up.”

“Good,” Revius nodded. “Well, let’s get a move on you lot.”

Quickly the group started making their way down the street towards the Adventurer’s School accompanied by Revius who kept his eyes on the sky, sending gouts of flames skywards to fend off the occasional group of flying monsters that saw the students as easy targets.

Kyle watched enviously as Revius wielded his powerful fire magic to burn the flying monsters that attacked them from the skies before finishing them off with either another gout of flame or a quickly conjured spear. Revius had quite a curious Class himself that primarily combined fire magic and spear skills, he had chosen Conjuration as his third Magic School which allowed him to be much more mobile and made it easier to cast spells than if he had to carry a spear around everywhere. Kyle had run into a similar issue with his chains recently, when he was dual wielding his chains it became much more difficult to use most of his spells. It was still easy enough to use spells that didn’t need to be aimed like his enchantments but things like his Mana Darts were almost impossible to use. When he had unlocked his Telekinesis Skill, he had hoped that he might be able to control his chains that way, but those hopes were soon dashed by Fi when she told him how much MP and SP it would cost to use the Skill that way and that even if he could manage to move his chains with Telekinesis it still wouldn’t be very effective. He was still holding out hope that he might be able to gain a Skill that would allow him to do that in the future, but that day would probably be a while off yet.

“Not far now guys!” Ulrich exclaimed trying to get the exhausted students to keep moving as he glanced nervously to the sky where he could see that even larger flying monsters were engaging the guards on top of the walls. He wasn’t sure whether these monsters had somehow come from the Dungeon or had been drawn by the fighting and decided to use the opportunity to join in the assault, but he didn’t like the look of them.

Panting, the group nodded and pressed on towards the school, they were only a few streets away now and it wouldn’t be long before they made it to safety where they could get some rest and find out how the rest of their friends were doing.

Not long after they started to increase their pace again for the last spurt as they could finally see the School that they had spent so time learning at. The once powerful-seeming walls surrounding it had been smashed by the intense fighting that even now was taking place within them and were covered in the viscera and body parts of who knew many monsters.

Arriving at the gates they saw Reginald roaring in rage as he tore a monster in two with his bare hands before turning his gore covered visage towards his students with a snarl causing them to jump backwards in surprise.

“Easy there, big guy,” Revius said raising his hands nervously as he watched the lion-man stomp closer “You don’t want to attack these ones.”

“Sorry about this, he’s been using his Berserk Skill non-stop since Greenhearth was attacked so he’s having a bit of difficulty controlling himself right now,” said a familiar voice causing everyone, including the maddened Reginald to turn towards its source.

“Yuliah!” Kyle shouted upon seeing that the owner of the voice was safe.

“It’s good to see that you all made it back, I was worried for a while there,” the half-elf told them a flash of sorrow passing over her face for the briefest of moments before her expression hardened as she saw the unconscious Claire. “What are you lot waiting for? Get Claire inside now!”

“Yes ma’am!” Theodore exclaimed, almost leaping into the air in his surprise at Yuliah’s sudden shift in mood.

Quickly the group filed past Reginald towards the main school building, the lion-man hissing at them as they passed. Now that they were closer, they could see that their teacher was covered in partially healed wounds giving him an even more threatening appearance. It was obvious upon seeing his reaction to their presence why Reginald had stayed behind to defend the school; if he had taken part in the battle outside the city it was quite likely that he would’ve attacked an ally who got too close. Reginald had often stated the dangers of him using his Berserk Skill for extended periods of time and it was easy to see why now, despite his high Willpower allowing him to keep control for a time there was obviously a time limit and he was at least rapidly approaching it if not at that limit.

As the others were going inside Reginald snarled again and Kyle turned around just in time to see his teacher launch himself into the air, far higher than he had ever seen anyone jump before, his claws ripping through a bird-like monster that screeched in pain before spitting a lightning bolt at the enraged beast that Reginald had become as he flew past but the attack missed as Reginald somehow jumped again flipping in mid air and seemed to land on an invisible barrier before launching himself once more at the bird-like monster and ripping it in two with a vicious swipe of his claws.

“Holy crap,” Kyle muttered as Reginald once more landed on what he was guessing was a platform of air and launching himself at another monster of the same type that had followed the first one and soon Reginald was surrounded by a cage of lightning but the lion-man surrounded himself in a tornado that ripped through the monsters surrounding him sending crashing into the ground as he fell from the sky towards them.

“Never seen him using magic huh?” Yuliah chuckled lightly as she saw the awed expression on Kyle’s face. Kyle shook his head silently as he watched Reginald ripping apart the wounded monsters before they could take flight again.

“You shouldn’t be too surprised though,” she continued as she cast a spell that caused the newer wounds on Reginald’s body to close as the wild-eyed Beastman looked around for more enemies. “He’s always been a proponent of having a variety of Skills.”

“That’s true,” Kyle admitted. “But I’m actually more surprised that he can use magic when he’s in that state.”

“Well he can’t use anything too complicated at the moment,” Yuliah admitted. “In fact, he probably won’t really be able to use magic at all soon.”

“Do you need me to stay out here and give you a hand?” Kyle asked turning to look at Yuliah who frowned as she considered his question.

“So long as you stay close to me, I don’t have a problem with that,” she replied eventually.

“Then we’ll help too,” Resald said walking out of the doors behind them with Amy and Fi floating along behind him. “The more help the better right?”

“Are there no other teachers here?” Fi asked as she looked around.

“Prolo’s around the back,” Yuliah said and Kyle nodded slowly at her words.

Prolo was a gnome who occasionally helped Zerah take the Inscriptions and Enchanting Classes and but mostly worked with the ranged classes to teach them about the specialised weapons that the Gnomes were known for called magi guns which combined the properties of a mages wand or staff with that of a weapon from the old human world called a gun which had fired small pieces of metal at high speeds. Magi guns instead fired bolts of magical energy similar to Kyle’s Mana Bolt spell but far more powerful. The weapons also had a Souls Stone imbedded in them that acted as a power source allowing the wielder to fire them without having to worry too much about using up their own MP. It was also possible to cast certain spells through these weapons which changed their properties slightly. Because of this, even simple magi guns were considered to be extremely dangerous weapons, however they were quite rare due to the relative scarcity of those skilled enough at Inscribing to make them. Just then a series of explosions rang out from the rear of the campus letting them know that they couldn’t expect any help from the middle0aged Gnome any time soon.

“Well at least we can be sure that he can handle the situation by himself,” Yuliah sighed as she glared at the smoke that now filled the sky above them. “He’s using that contraption of his.”

“Ah,” Kyle winced. Prolo was considered to be eccentric even for a Gnome and could often be found tinkering with a large device that basically looked like a massive suit of armour with a large number of oversized magi guns attached to it. “Yeah I wouldn’t want to go anywhere near that, even if I was on his side.”

“Well like I said; as long as you guys stay close enough to me that any defensive spells, I cast protect all of us then I don’t have any reason to refuse your help. In fact, one of you should go and ask for any volunteers from the other students.”

“I’ll go!” Fi exclaimed before weaving her way back through the door as it closed behind them.

Now that this was sorted out Kyle bit the inside of his cheek as he realised that he could have a minor problem coming up soon, while helping out was the logical thing to do as far as he was concerned he had already Levelled Up once today and if he had to fight too many monsters himself he would likely do so again. Other people helping would lower the experience he received from helping kill monsters but the monsters that had made it past the walls were mostly a few Levels stronger than he was which meant he received more Experience for helping kill them.

Kyle shook his head to clear it of these treacherous thoughts, it was far more important to keep the non-combatants and wounded inside the School building safe and if he could help with that even a little bit then he would. After all this was why he had decided to become an Adventurer all those years ago.

Raising his hand he started casting Mana Darts as a flock of small flying monsters shot over the walls as Resald and Amy opened fire alongside him with Yuliah watching carefully as the agile little creatures avoided most of the projectiles and even Reginald as he launched himself at them before firing a beam of light from her outstretched hands that sliced multiple monsters in two as it shot through the air.

“Careful, you guys only have a limited amount of shots, choose your targets carefully,” Yuliah scolded as Reginald shot backwards through the air this time slashing several of the surprisingly fragile little things as he passed.

“Sorry, I got a bit carried away,” Resald apologised, knowing that this was mostly directed at him, while he could create new arrows with his nature magic, they weren’t quite as effective as the ones that he had in his quiver.

“We all did,” Kyle said realising that he was missing a chance to increase the mastery of one of his spells. “Hold on a minute, let me cast my Flame Enchantment spell on your bow, you’ll deal more damage than”

“Good idea,” Resald replied grinning as the magical flames licked over his bow. Thankfully due to the spells nature it wouldn’t damage the delicate weapon and the flames would also spread to any of the arrows that he fired from it, even the ones that he made with his magic which was lucky as he only had ten of the normal ones left in his quiver.

Soon they were joined by another 4 nervous looking students who could use ranged attacks as well as Ulrich, Gloria and another student who were carrying a massive new shield that had been made by the Blacksmithing students for a project. Normally shields of this type were borne by multiple people so that they could get close to cities that were under siege or massive monsters but right now he was going to use it as a bit of added protection so they didn’t need the Strength that would usually be required to hold out against things like boulders being dropped on it just enough people so that they could actually move the thing around if they needed to.

This was mostly as a precautionary measure as Ulrich was very aware that Yuliah was only one person and had decided to at least try and make things easier for her, especially considering that it was likely that Reginald would need more help from her soon.

“Yuliah, we’ll keep this lot safe, so you focus on Reginald,” Ulrich told the half-elf who hesitated briefly before nodding as she looked at Reginald who was pacing back and forth his maddened eyes shifting to the students briefly before he tore them away again. She knew that they had maybe quarter of an hour before he finally reached his limit and began to view anything that moved as a threat and she needed to contain him. She could only hope that another teacher would return to help before then as Galdon had promised to send someone back as soon as he had seen to the safety of the final group of students and their teacher.

“Very well but the moment I say so I want you to get back inside, the wards on the building won’t last for very long under a sustained assault but they’re better than nothing,” Yuliah said firmly and the tall young man nodded.

“Yes ma’am,” Ulrich said before turning his attention to the rest of the students who were watching Reginald with worried looks on their faces. “Alright you lot make sure to stay behind the shield so that we can protect you and pay attention to what we say. I don’t need to be burned by a stray fireball hitting the shield when we raise it to block an attack!”

Grumbling slightly at Ulrich’s words the students prepared their weapons and spells making Kyle grin and shake his head in exasperation as Fi wrapped herself around his neck. They might complain but they were still students of the Adventurer’s School and try as he might he couldn’t think of another group that he would rather have fighting beside him.