"Grand Burst."
The fire created a chain of explosions in a fan-shaped area, hitting all the monsters on the way and creating a wall of flame that would cover their movement for a few seconds until the Magic Power ran out.
"Good. Let's go." Theo nodded as he and his clone went inside the forest.
Alea caught up with them and ran through the forest like back in the Dense Forest, where she matched his movement perfectly. Their synergy looked like a couple that had been married for years.
"By the way, are you not afraid of burning the forest?" Theo asked.
"Not really. I think you've misunderstood something. There is something different between the fire from a Fire Skill and natural fire. The former requires our Magic Power to burn while the latter needs oxygen." Alea explained why she didn't worry about her fire.
"So, as long as the Magic Power that you pumped out to release that skill became empty, it would just vanish?"
"Exactly."
"What's the difference between Fire Skill and Ice Skill?" After thinking about it one more time, he shook his head. "I'm not asking about their element… Either way, you can forget about that question."
"Indeed." Alea nodded and asked, "What's your current status? How many monsters can you kill before reaching Elite Rank?"
"I am at Level 49. Do I still need to level up to 51 or will I just get one level after reaching Level 50?"
"The former."
"In that case, I need around 1800 EXPs. In other words, seventeen monsters if all of them are around this level or higher."
"That's going to be rough because our journey is still too far. We approximately need to run for another eighteen minutes and…" She stopped as she looked around. "… And we are surrounded by monsters."
"We need to go around. It's not possible to storm them from head-on… Too many monsters." Theo sighed. "Give me your gut feeling."
"Right!" Alea answered whatever in her mind at the moment without hesitation.
"Alright. Let's go to the left." Theo instantly chose the opposite direction.
"Oi!"
Theo shrugged and continued without looking at her. "Prepare for combat. Go wild, I will surely support you and take advantage of your movement."
"Can you please not say the second one?" Alea's eyebrows twitched as she raised her hand.
Hearing that, Theo made a small grin, summoned his Magic Bullet, and said, "That's more important than the first one."
"Hmph." She pouted and charged toward the monsters.
These two began hitting all the enemies to survive. However, this incident affected not only them but many others.
In a barren land, a pair of young man and woman looked at their surroundings. The man had white eyes and wore full body armor. There was a giant metal shield on his hand without any decoration. On the other hand, he wielded a simple but sharp sword.
The woman, on the other hand, had long pink hair, letting it loose so the wind could gently sway them. She wore a blue robe that covered her entire body.
She suddenly raised her hand, wielding a metal rod with a shining blue crystal on its tip, and tapped the ground twice as her rod released blue light in all directions. If Alea were here, she would recognize both of them since the woman was her friend, Ellen, while the man was none other than the known Guardian, Sihan Raskaka.
When that light shone upon the barren land, the monsters seemed more conscious of her and charged toward her.
However, among them was a giant red scorpion. Its tail pointed at Ellen before getting surrounded by fire. It then released the fire in one straight line that looked like a bullet, capable of piercing her head.
With his job as a Knight, Sihan moved in front of Ellen and raised his shield.
The fire hit the shield he had before Sihan slightly twisted his grip a bit, turning the shield to the left.
The fire ended up getting bounced back toward the monsters on the left, killing some of them until the scorpion stopped its attack.
"That's enough. Thank you." Ellen said and raised her staff. "Ice Waves."
The area's temperature dropped for a second as ten-foot ice crystals emerged from the ground in succession in a fan-shaped area.
"Let's go outside this madness." Ellen smiled and saw through the path to leave this encirclement.
Sihan nodded with a serious expression as he followed the path she created, escorting her from this place that was surrounded by monsters because of the Earthquake.
In another forest, there was a small boy moving around the forest while killing monsters one after another like they were ants. He clicked his tongue out and cursed. "To think I would end up with a coward… He left me right after this happened and ended up getting himself killed. Disappointing.
"Come on! I truly need that Joker who seems to be someone from our school! I, Phyrill Hilbert, want someone that can fight alongside me and won't give up even in the face of death," he shouted as he jumped toward another monster and sliced its neck with his two short swords. "Argh! You all are annoying. I will kill you all here."
At the same time, not far from there, there were another pair of two boys. The first was none other than Laust Lange, wielding a sword whose length was longer than its user's height. After getting beaten By Theo, he had been practicing like crazy and reached Elite Rank before him.
Behind him was a black-haired man wearing glasses. Like Ellen, he also had his own staff and killed the monsters with his magic. He asked, "Where should we go?"
"To the south before making our way back to the Art Beats Castle, Vice President of the Student Council," answered Laust as if he was the one in charge of this group.
"Sure thing. I will follow right behind you."
Laust nodded and jumped forward as they prepared to break through from monsters after this mess.
There were many other students that tried their best to live after getting surrounded by monsters. People knew that the Earthquake was a natural disaster, yet, in this place, it was more than that because the situation would become far worse with so many monsters coming out of their habitats in fear.
Whether they were humans or monsters… They all struggled to live.