Inside the thatched hut.
Chloe slowly opened his eyes.
The evening's fire clouds were gradually dimming as the sun set.
Escaping from the midnight in his dream, back to reality, he saw three women sleeping soundly, covered in dust.
He went over and flicked each one on the forehead.
In a chorus of sucked-in breaths, they slowly woke up.
"...A psychologist weaving dreams? Who's this unethical?"
"Wasn't I on a night raid?"
"Hehe, I'm not that dumb."
Chloe shook his head, giving them time to wake up,
He pulled aside the curtain, and now outside the window, the "pseudo-men" of the Maze had shed their rational guise, reflected in the window, dancing like demons, their strange cries incessant.
"Let's go, it's time to start the night raid."
The three exchanged glances and rushed out of the thatched hut together.
With their teamwork established, the four of them began their simulation-like slaughter.
Rephya cackled, while the others killed.
They moved swiftly, clearing a house in almost a minute, then silently moving to the next house.
The Shepherd Village had only twenty or thirty thatched huts, which were soon swept clean by them.
With the mission complete, the artificial maze automatically began sending task messages to the academy's Tower Spirit [Ethereal Dawn Divine Sword].
Within seconds, the school authorities, alerted by the Treasure Elf's report, noticed something amiss.
In the next moment, a siren blared throughout the sky.
This was the announcement for the forced termination of combat training.
Beams of teleportation light appeared in every corner of the maze, like columns touching the sky.
Chloe looked up, seemingly seeing a blood-red moon fly by, but after rubbing his eyes, it was gone.
Outside the village, a series of roars came, and a blood-stained pseudo-man with shark-like teeth, one wing half-gone, looking extremely downcast, ran out from the roadside bushes.
Chloe's eyes lit up.
It's here, finally here, the Hero's Main Quest 1.0!
He looked to Teresa and said:
"Teresa, the Voodoo Sequence has no shortage of diarrhea-type poisons, right?"
Teresa flicked her long whip, the sound of it cutting through air mixed with the blood mist on it, a chilling voice said:
"Yes, what do you want to do?"
"Interested in hunting this pseudo-man?"
Teresa glanced at the pseudo-man with red eyes looking at the group, thought for a moment, then said:
"We're not an all Sequence Eight team."
"Just follow my lead, use the diarrhea poison."
A whistling sound.
Chloe looked up to see the pseudo-man already pounced in front of Rephya.
Without thinking, he lunged forward.
A body slam embedded the opponent into the wall of a thatched hut.
The red flesh on the pseudo-man's face slowly dripped, sticking to the crimson muscles, the expression ghastly like a demon.
Chloe only felt the cold air stalling, and let out an elegant and brief curse:
"Shit!"
The two-meter-tall pseudo-man cast a shadow over Chloe, his shark-like teeth bloody and sneering:
"A mere Sequence Eight? Do you really think you're something?"
The Extraordinary spoke, not pausing his movements at all.
A whipping leg came smashing towards his forehead with a sound like an air explosion.
Chloe blocked with both arms but was still sent flying by the force.
"Try blocking again!"
The pseudo-man sneered, then swung another powerful leg down.
Chloe felt intense pain in his arms.
Each of the opponent's attacks felt like a heavy hammer striking down; without superhuman strength, he'd have collapsed on the spot.
Then, a groan sounded, and a barbed whip wrapped around the pseudo-man's wrist.
Without thinking, Chloe snapped off a sapling next to him with the thickness of a calf and swung it over.
The opponent barely blocked it, feeling numb on one side of his body, visibly swollen.
Chloe wasn't much better off; the pseudo-man was furious, his boot swung like a blade at Chloe's face, insidiously.
He blocked with difficulty.
This pseudo-man was much more troublesome than the Steel-Backed Giant Ape.
Yet Chloe wasn't panicked.
He wasn't fighting alone.
In a roar, Fratiss, like a charging tank, pounced and sent the pseudo-man staggering.
Rephya, mischievous, somehow got beneath the pseudo-man, stabbed a short knife into his instep, and twisted the handle firmly.
"Ah!"
A roar rang out, and Chloe immediately opened the pseudo-man's arms, punching him in the abdomen.
Recovery!
Visibly, the pseudo-man's face turned red, then green, then purple.
He instinctively wanted to cover his mouth and rear, his response dropped drastically.
A glimmer of ferocity flashed in Chloe's eyes, and he flipped, pulled out Rephya's knife from the pseudo-man's foot, and quickly severed the tendons.
His eyes reddened, slashing several times in a row, making the pseudo-man howling, clutching his face.
The pseudo-man's eyeball got sliced.
Teresa the young lady ignored the pseudo-man's howls, stepped forward with a crisp crack, breaking the pseudo-man's right arm.
The Gourmet Knight had courage too, raising a sword and shield to charge in, kicking the pseudo-man's knee and crashing him into the ground with his weight.
A bone-cracking sound pierced the air, the pseudo-man writhing on the ground like a maggot.
Chloe spat out some bloody saliva, eyes fierce, no longer resembling the angelic figure once seen by female classmates.
Teresa looked at Chloe curiously:
"What did you do just now? He suddenly slowed down."
"Used Recovery."
"Overhealed and blocked his stomach?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"Grew taste buds in his intestines."
Beside him, Fratiss shivered instinctively, dropping the jerked meat in her mouth on the ground and stepping back half a step, shield up in front.
She recalled what Chloe had said earlier:
"Just listen to me, use the diarrhea poison."
Demon King!
This man was practically a Demon King!
Looking at the pseudo-man, practically devoid of most resistance, Chloe suddenly turned to Rephya, who was baring her teeth and holding her arm.
"Rephya, come here."
"Ow."
Having been kicked while finishing the job, she obediently came to Chloe's side.
"Recovery."
She got goosebumps.
Chloe rolled his eyes, "It's normal treatment."
"Thank you," Rephya said quietly, "For just now, and for now."
She meant Chloe's lunge to protect her.
Chloe nodded in acknowledgment, then continued:
"Your turn."
"Huh?"
"Go finish the pseudo-man."
"Huh? I'm fighting the pseudo-man?"
"A pseudo-man already crippled by us, what, you're scared?"
"Of course not!"
Rephya's eyes glinted as she walked forward.
Chloe squinted as he watched her back view.
He was curious about what characteristic Rephya had picked up during the first simulation.
Then he saw a pair of thin wings appear on Rephya's back, and a small tail emerge from the edge of her shorts.
The Enchanting Demon tail spread out, unleashing a Poison Magic.
The girl let out a coquettish voice:
"Love potion, synthesis!"
Chloe was puzzled.
Teresa tilted her head.
Fratiss gasped, suddenly excited.
The pseudo-man tried to stand, when a second dose of Poison Magic struck him head-on.
"Love potion, synthesis!"
The maggot on the ground struggled wildly.
Rephya jumped up in excitement.
It worked, so she again said in her soft voice, sending chills down the pseudo-man's spine:
"Love potion, synthesis!"
Overwhelmed by excessive blood agitation, the pseudo-man, already injured, began spewing blood extensively.
Pointing a trembling finger at Rephya, he said:
"De-Demon King!"
Then he died.
Rephya tilted her head:
"Huh? Me, a Demon King?"
I'm a hero!