As he frighteningly talked to himself, a curious student approached.

"Mr. Alex? What's going on? What about 10,000?"

The extremely nervous Mr. Alex was suddenly pulled back into reality, realizing he was still in charge of overseeing the students. Students always came first.

"10,000? 10,000 what? Beasts?" A nearby student that overheard asked.

"10,000 beasts?"

"Wait, there's 10,000 beasts?"

The number 10,000 spread like wildfire, being twisted into what Mr. Alex could only imagine in his worst dreams. Soon, practically everyone knew there were 10,000 beasts approaching.

The teachers once again tried to calm everyone down, but this time there was no calm to be found. Brennan and his roommates attempted to help, but with the amount of students that was practically impossible for a few people. They saw members of the student council trying to stop the chaos, but they were not having any luck either.

"Attention everyone." Principal Leonardo's familiar voice rang out from the speaker again, "Unfortunately, our reinforcements will not be coming to assist until Thursday. We have decided that all students from all 7 magic schools, along with the 3 9-Point Hunting teams, will be leading the combat stage. Students will be split into groups, with a 9-Point team member leading each. The rest of the teachers and hunters will follow in similar groups, with stronger members leading. Remember that students will only have to stall until reinforcements arrive. Once the rumbling is over, head over to the westmost edge of the city. Further instructions will be given there. Thank you for your cooperation."

After almost an hour, the rumbling stopped. Once the painful process of rounding all the students up was over, they headed to the west, where Brennan lived. As they passed the many houses on the way, Brennan soon heard Principal Leonardo's voice.

"The herd is expected to come sometime tomorrow afternoon at the pace they are currently travelling. We have included a list of all visible beast species in the stampede on the paper we will be handing out, along with how we will be split up."

The school group split up after they walked into the plaza, and Brennan went to take a sheet of paper from the volunteers. Looking at the sheet of paper, he quickly caught onto how the teams were organized. The strongest 9-Point team members were put with the 9th graders, and the weakest with 12th grade. 

Naturally the 12th graders, who had practiced magic for 3 years longer would be much much more powerful, so it made sense to put them with the weakest. The teams were further split into schools, so that each grade from each school was a team.

That way, there were 28 total school teams and 27 total 9-Point team members, plus Ms. Jenny.

The leader of the Yourny 9th grade team was Ms. Jenny, since she was one of the strongest people in the city. Brennan met up with his 9th grade team and went over the beasts in the stampede with them. Everyone was surprisingly calm considering the situation they were in. In fact, everybody in the city was surprisingly calm. You would think that if people knew the size of the stampede they would run for their lives. Was everyone that confident in the abilities of the hunters?

Brennan's thoughts were interrupted by the discussion of his peers.

"There are mostly basic beasts, 2000 intermediate beasts, and 300 advanced beasts. The leading beast has not...been...found..."

After listening to the list of beasts, Brennan slid out of the plaza to walk back to his house for what might be the last time. 

Out of nowhere, there was a flicker of light that made Brennan turn his head. There was a small shack, so shabby yet lavish. It was something that wasn't there before, so Brennan decided to investigate. The small shack was only small enough for 2 or 3 people to stand in, and was made of planks slapped together. Walking through the empty doorway and stepping onto the dirt floor, there was a small tall podium with a hole on it. The hole was thin and round at the bottom, just enough to fit a ring inside.

For some reason, there was a strange pull coming from the hole, so Brennan put his left hand on the podium, lining up the hole with his key. 

After standing for a few seconds, the podium moved. The dirt on the floor made a crunching sound as Brennan jumped back in surprise and the wooden podium fell over. Underneath the podium was...nothing. Giving a confused look, Brennan picked the podium back up. He left and continued to walk towards his house, looking back occasionally because something had been there. As he reached his house, he shrugged it off because nothing had happened.