After a short break, they continued along their path. Ms. Jenny warned them that beasts would be harder to spot here, but was ignored as the students started to relax.

The cold silence was soon replaced by whispers, followed by heated discussions. Eventually, any voice was drowned out and birds flew overhead, frightened by the noise made.

But of course, the students quickly had their reality checked as the sound of beasts stomping reached their ears. Somehow the sound overpowered even the sounds of the children. Some were slower to react, while others responded faster. The group quickly entered fighting formation, with the support elements like light and nature at the center, elements with high defense like earth and water on the outside.

For minutes, they stood still, nothing in sight. It was weirdly quiet, so once the silence broke, everyone started to let their guards down and talk to one another. What they did not realize was that there was not a single sound from any animal, as a great evil approached.

Without warning, gigantic red bears lept from the forest in the hundreds, swarming the students. Each standing over 8 feet tall, with razor sharp claws and teeth. The bears had hide barely penetrable by intermediate spells cast from offensive elements, giving most a hard time. More and more bears jumped out of the forest, forcing each student to take on at least 2 bears, including the support elements. 

Students dropped around Brennan left and right as he ducked under swipes. These were at least high basic beasts, maybe even intermediate. And for new students just learning magic, it would take multiple people to take just 1 of them. 

Ms. Jenny, who was trying to help as much as she could, glanced back at the 10th grade group behind them to call for help. But to her and many others' disappointment, they were nowhere to be seen. 

By this point the number of students in the group had almost halved, whether they were killed, ran away, or lost. Everyone tried to regroup, but they were easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of bears.

In this moment, surrounded by puddles of red, and running from multiple Fire-Breathing Bears, Brennan had an epiphany. The extreme confidence that everyone had given off was not because they were confident in beating demonic beasts. No, the confidence they had was purely because this generation had not experienced the terror and agony that came from losing friends, family, and yourself to the beasts. The city's overwhelming success was not the uprising of a country, but the downfall.

Brennan's deep thoughts were interrupted as a puff of flame scorched the top of his hair, bringing him back to the inescapable reality he was currently in. Ducking a swipe and turning around, he came face to face with the bear he was currently against. 

The other bears had left to fight other students, as Brennan did not give off a high magic signature. The fire bears were dangerous, but compared to the speedy ice wolves he had gone against they were not as strong. Of course the wolves he fought against did not have their magic abilities activated, or Brennan would not have stood a chance. 

Beasts were classified as basic, intermediate, or advanced based on how many magic abilities they have. Basic beasts could use a single ability, intermediate beasts 2, and advanced beasts 3. That's why a beast like the Icy Wolf, that much stronger than a Steel-Horned Bull, were both classified as a basic level demonic beast.

Brennan already knew that the fire bears could use fireball, so he needed to see if it had another ability. Since fireball was such an easy spell to use, however, the bears would be more likely to use that. There needed to be a way to counter the fireball and make it useless.

He scanned the area to see who could help. There were only about 50 people left, which was mostly the stronger ones. His roommates were all alive, except...

Brennan traversed the terrain and reached where Lawrence and Angela were fighting. They were truly awe inspiring, taking advantage of their elemental advantages.

Angela attacked from outside the range of the bear swipes and gave her enough time to dodge the fireballs. She used her bow to shoot at the bears and keep them at a distance. 

Lawrence on the other hand, used his high speed and strength to weave between his slow enemies, striking hard at vital spots to disable or kill the bears. 

Up ahead, Jackson and Oliver worked together to disable the bears. Since the nature and earth elements were both very low in strength, they used the terrain to their advantage as the ground and trees around them were manipulated to help defeat their enemies.

The one person he could not see fighting was Levi. Scanning the ground, Brennan saw that Levi was not dead, which meant he was either lost or had run away. 

A gust of wind suddenly passed. Brennan looked over at any of the wind users, but saw none of them had fired a shot in his direction. He opened his mouth, about to shout, when a bear coming towards him suddenly found its head separated from its body, following a black flash. Looking closely, there was a black-haired boy holding a silver dagger, decapitating the bears, one by one, a slash at a time. The speed he was moving was not fast enough for the human eye to see, except the silver and black afterimage he left.

"So that's the shadow element, huh."