"Everyone, prepare for battle," Jose screamed, getting cadet's attentions. "Vanguard Formation, Now!"
Ailsa Krell, along with the two other knight cadets, Charles d'Aubigny and Konrad von Falkenstein, was the head of the formations.
Hedge Estravo was the centre point of the triangle. Fergus, Alistair, and Ewan were his support corners.
We were surrounded by mountain peaks of similar height to ours, and exactly one hundred and thirteen Maenads emerged on the peaks of mountains around us.
Maenads are creatures of high velocity and low durability. They look like skinny translucent women, constantly breathing on the corrupted mana.
Their flesh is a really important material for mana devices.
The more they move, the faster they become. Their body generates a friction-based heat that turns their claws into searing blades.
All of the Maenads stood still on the mountain peaks, and their focus was on the children making a formation.
"They're not even looking at us…" Thomas spoke and reached out for the sword at his waist.
Robert raised his hand, stopping Thomas, "Let the children fight, Maenads are weak."
Suddenly, those maenads with hollow eyes jolted and started running from all directions.
They were fast. Fast enough that it looked like they were floating in the air.
Their complete focus was on children.
"Maenads are weak to fire," I said. Hedgeho- Hedge Estravo nodded, conjuring a wide range of magic circles of fire.
"But you better not use fire if you want their flesh," I corrected him. "Instead, control the number of Maenads that reach your group… Create a wave that keeps pushing them back,"
"…" Hedge changed the circuits of his magic to air type, as Maenads passed just from our sides, completely ignoring us.
"I've never felt this level of disrespect in my life," Thomas said.
"First time for everything," Robert added as we looked at Henry, Edmund and Geoffrey.
They were literally asleep as Maenads passed from between them.
"Aim for the sternum hub; behind the rib cage lies their demonic core," I said, looking at the support magicians and knights. All of them nodded and were preparing for impact from a bunch.
Just as the Maenads were about to strike, Hedge blasted his air-type magic, creating an extensive wave that sent most of the Maenads flying back, as the remaining cadets aimed for the demonic core of the ones that weren't pushed back.
It created a perfect loop.
Maenads would push forward. The majority of them would fly back because of Hedge. And the remaining would be stabbed to death by cadets.
And this process kept on repeating.
"What the-" Jose murmured, looking at what was happening.
Maenads were moving mindlessly.
As if they didn't care what was happening to others.
And the loop of attacks by cadets had stunned him. He thought it would be a fight, but they were massacring maenads.
They were…enjoying this.
"Do you conduct any psychological tests of your kids at the academy?" Robert asked, looking at the scene in front of him.
"…"
"Maenads are moving mindlessly. I just gave the kids a cheat to kill them," I replied.
"No, I'm talking about the one-sided massacre…I've never seen any cadets perform it in my life," Robert said.
"What're they supposed to do then? Stand still?" I spoke.
"I'm referring to their enjoyment in massacre, they're laughing," he replied.
"That's just the joy of not facing death," I said.
"No, it's not", he countered.
"It is."
"It's Dionysian Madness caused by the strong scent of wine. We as adults are immune to it, but children are not." I added.
"Stop it, you two," Thomas said, as the Maenads were massacred completely.
All of the students were exhausted. For the first time in their lives, they had killed so many demons.
"Maenads don't move like this…" Thomas mumbled.
He was right. Something was wrong.
As if these were meant to be killed.
We didn't face a single demon for miles across the mountains; we had been moving in a single direction.
But just when Robert suggested turning back, we faced lower-level demons as a form of harvest.
"What're we missing?" Thomas mumbled, and I too thought for a while.
"It's a perfect harvest," Ailsa smiled and looked at her fellow classmates. They were happy.
"Yes…Maybe it's easy because Professor Marcus made us create a loop," Hedge replied, and gestured at me with his thumb up.
'That's the problem…it's perfect,' I thought, smiling back at him. 'Nothing's perfect and easy in hell,'
"Pack up, everyone, we're leaving now," I said, and looked at Jose. "No one will camp here; we turn back now."
"But it's not even been twelve hours since we entered the rift, Professor Rile," Jose replied.
"Listen to me, Jose. Don't question it. We. Turn. Back. Now." I stared into his eyes, getting the children's attention.
"What happened?" Thomas asked, sensing the seriousness in my tone.
"It's a trap," I mumbled.
"What?" Thomas whispered back, and Robert leaned in.
"Why do you think so?" Robert asked.
"Think about it. We didn't encounter a single demon until now. When we were discussing about leaving earlier, a hundred maenads show up just to die." I spoke.
"We're being baited?" Robert realised.
"Yes, we've walked quite far from the rift. But if cadets make a run for it, one hour is enough to reach the rift."
"I-I don't understand, can you repeat it?" Geoffrey walked close to our circle and whispered.
"There's likely a demon here who can somewhat think like humans," I said, and started explaining.
"It made us walk far from the rift. When we wanted to go back, it threw bait. That demon wants us far from the rift and make our escape impossible."
"And it will repeat this process with those who come to rescue us, a perfect bait strategy," I said, and all of them finally understood.
"Only A-ranked and above demons are capable of thinking like humans. It's probably a leader of stalkers," Robert spoke.
"Probably," I repeated.
"But I think it's too late," I added, as all of them looked at me.
"What do you mean?" Thomas asked.
"Someone was listening to our whispers, it seems," I said, and Robert's eyes went wide in shock.
"Fuck…" Henry cursed and looked around.
There were stalkers. All of them were peak B-ranked demons.
"There are thousands of them…tens of thousands of B-ranked demons, not D-ranked like Maenads," Thomas blurted out his thoughts.
Jose was terrified, looking around.
"We're surrounded…"