Inside the ruined city, the streets were cracked and broken. Damaged buildings rose on either side, walls split open, dust still drifting from the rubble.
A group tore through it at full sprint.
The Wyndhams.
All of them. Though not everyone was moving on their own feet. Henry was still passed out cold. Isla had him slung over one shoulder, carrying him without breaking stride. Lennox had Jimmy the same way. The rest ran on foot, heads snapping back every few seconds to check behind them.
"Why the heck are we running?!" Alex shouted between breaths.
No answer came. He looked ahead instead.
"Why are they running with us?!"
Further up the street, far ahead of the Wyndhams, two figures in full metallic suits were moving just as fast.
The Synapse Circle participants. Caelan and Maelis.
They were running too. What they were running from, Alex had no idea.
Back when Caelan and Maelis had been ready to eliminate the Wyndhams from the tournament.
At that moment, Alex had braced himself. He activated his reflecting technique, locking it in place, ready to throw back whatever attack the two Synapse Circle members were preparing.
However, the attack never came.
The powerful blast of energy Alex had been expecting never arrived.
Instead, the energy gathering within Caelan and Maelis' guns suddenly began to fade.
The glow weakened.
The pressure in the air disappeared.
The two simply stood there.
Neither of them moved.
Their raised weapons slowly lowered as they continued staring into the open space ahead.
Alex frowned.
'Was it the howl?' he wondered.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
'Does that howl mean something?'
'Does it mean something to the tournament?'
He wasn't sure.
Nothing about this situation made sense.
Alex was the only one present who hadn't received the message everyone else had gotten.
The notification had informed participants of the level they had reached within the tournament.
Unfortunately, Alex never saw it.
He had lost his wristband during an earlier fight.
The wristband was responsible for distributing the system interface and tournament notifications to participants.
Since he no longer had one, he couldn't receive the information the others were getting.
That left him completely in the dark.
Just moments ago, he had been running alongside the Wyndhams because all nine of them seemed to have objected to whatever message they had received.
Then, without warning, the Synapse Circle started operating.
Immediately afterward, everything changed.
Caelan and Maelis suddenly moved.
The two shot forward at full speed.
They ran straight toward the Wyndhams.
Alex's body tensed.
The others reacted as well.
Several of them flinched instinctively at the sudden movement.
For a brief moment, everyone expected an attack.
But the attack never came.
Caelan and Maelis didn't even look at them.
The two runners charged past the group without slowing down.
A gust of wind followed in their wake.
Then they continued down the street, quickly putting distance between themselves and the Wyndhams.
When the Wyndhams saw this, they immediately moved.
For some reason, they didn't seem to know that Zephyr and the others had followed them.
Clifford took the lead.
The rest followed without saying a word.
There was no discussion.
No hesitation.
They simply started running.
Alex had no real options at that moment.
There was no time to stop and ask questions.
So he followed them as well.
He ran just behind the group, close enough that anyone looking from a distance would consider them a single unit.
The group continued moving through the streets.
They kept running for a while.
Their pace wasn't fast.
In fact, it was slow.
Really slow.
Still, Alex understood why.
Nearly all of the Wyndhams had suffered injuries during their fight against the Synapse Circle.
Some were limping.
Others were clearly forcing themselves forward despite their wounds.
Even those who hadn't been injured badly were running low on energy.
The battle had taken a lot out of them.
Yet none of them stopped.
None of them suggested taking a break.
They just kept moving.
Step after step.
Street after street.
Meanwhile, the distance between them and the Synapse Circle members, Maelis and Caelan, continued growing larger.
The two were far ahead now.
Every second widened the gap.
Then—
Something moved.
A large shadow suddenly appeared from the side.
Before anyone could react, a massive werewolf leaped from the roof of a tall building.
The creature dropped from above like a falling boulder.
Boom!
The ground shook.
Dust and debris burst outward upon impact.
The werewolf landed directly in front of Caelan and Maelis.
Its massive frame crashed between the two Synapse Circle members, instantly cutting off their path.
The sudden appearance forced both of them to react.
They immediately jumped backward.
Their feet slid across the street as they created distance.
At the same time, their eyes locked onto the massive werewolf standing before them.
Both quickly examined their new opponent.
"You take this one. There is more of it coming," Maelis instructed.
Caelan simply nodded.
The next second, he rushed toward the werewolf.
Meanwhile, upon seeing the werewolf that had blocked the Synapse Circle's path, the Wyndhams came to an abrupt stop.
Everyone froze.
For a brief moment, they simply stared.
"Hwckk... who would have thought these two were running into danger instead?!" Isla shouted.
There was clear disbelief in his voice.
Zephyr immediately turned around.
"Quick, let's head back before we are spo—"
He never got to finish.
Something suddenly dropped from above.
Boom!
The impact shook the ground.
Zephyr instinctively jumped back.
His words died in his throat.
It wasn't one werewolf.
It wasn't even two.
Several werewolves had suddenly leaped down from the buildings they had already passed.
The creatures landed heavily across the street, completely blocking their path.
The Wyndhams stiffened.
Several members immediately took a step backward.
Their expressions darkened.
Things had gone from bad to worse in an instant.
Behind them were the werewolves that Caelan and Maelis were currently fighting.
In front of them stood another group of werewolves.
The road ahead was blocked.
The road behind was blocked.
They were trapped.
"What are we going to do?" Gavalich asked.
His voice carried a hint of panic.
"Isn't it obvious?" Clifford replied.
"We fight."
The answer came immediately.
No hesitation.
No uncertainty.
Just a simple fact.
"But we no longer have our forms. I'm not sure we can handle this many," Zephyr said.
His eyes remained fixed on the werewolves ahead.
The creatures were already beginning to spread out.
Trying to surround them.
Clifford stepped forward.
His movements were calm despite the situation.
He walked until he was standing beside Zephyr.
His gaze never left the enemies in front of them.
In front of everyone, Clifford started forming hand signs.
His movements were quick and precise.
As his fingers moved, a soft glow began spreading across his hands.
The light grew brighter with each sign he completed.
A few seconds later, Clifford thrust both hands forward.
Several orbs of light shot out immediately.
Whoosh!
The glowing spheres streaked through the air and struck the werewolves.
Each orb hit its target without missing.
For a moment, nothing happened.
The werewolves remained where they stood.
No wounds appeared.
It looked as though the attack had done absolutely nothing.
Then one of the werewolves suddenly moved.
Growling, it lunged forward.
Its massive body charged toward the group.
However, after taking only a few steps, it stumbled.
Its legs gave out beneath it.
Thud!
The creature crashed face-first into the ground.
It didn't get back up.
The werewolf remained completely still.
A second later, another one collapsed.
Then another.
And another.
One by one, the werewolves began dropping to the ground.
The street quickly became littered with unconscious bodies.
"Now I remember," Isla called out.
"Why didn't you use this against the Synapse Circle members?"
Clifford didn't answer.
Instead, he turned around and walked toward the group.
The exhaustion on everyone's faces was obvious.
The recent battles had drained them badly.
Clifford stopped in front of the nearest person and placed a hand on their shoulder.
Almost immediately, a warm surge of energy flowed into them.
The effect was instant.
The heaviness in their body faded.
Their tired muscles relaxed.
The exhaustion that had been weighing them down disappeared.
Clifford continued moving through the group.
One after another, he placed a hand on each person.
Each received the same treatment.
Each recovered some of their strength.
Eventually, he reached Jimmy and Henry.
Jimmy still looked weak.
Henry remained unconscious.
Clifford crouched beside Henry and placed a hand against his neck.
The moment contact was made, energy surged into Henry's body.
It rushed through him like an electric current.
His muscles twitched.
His body jerked.
Then his eyes snapped open.
At the same time, a powerful blast of air burst from his hand.
Boom!
The sudden attack shot forward without warning.
Fortunately, Clifford had already expected something like that.
The moment Henry started waking up, he had stepped aside.
The blast missed him completely.
The ball of air shot into the sky and quickly disappeared from view.
"I really exhausted all the energy I got from the werebears. Now I have a good portion of it back," Clifford said.
He rolled his shoulders slightly as if testing the strength that had returned to him.
"As for why I couldn't use it on that Synapse Circle member, it was because I couldn't get a good aim."
He shook his head.
"It is always easier to use it on a beast."
After saying that, he walked over to Alex.
The moment Clifford approached, Alex instinctively took a step back.
He was still skeptical about letting Clifford use his power on him.
After all, Alex had more than one secret he needed to keep hidden.
However, Clifford paid no attention to the reaction.
He continued forward and casually placed a hand on Alex's shoulder.
Before anything else could happen, Zephyr spoke up.
"That's enough. We need to get out of here and out of this environment before those werewolves come back."
His tone left no room for argument.
Without waiting for a response, Zephyr turned and started running.
Isla immediately followed after him.
Lennox did the same.
The rest of the group quickly moved as well.
Soon, everyone was running once more.
Meanwhile, even as they ran through the streets, Clifford's attention remained on Alex.
His brows furrowed slightly.
'When I touched him...'
'When I tried sharing that energy with him, he took in far more than someone at his stage should be able to handle.'
The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
'It was as though I was feeding qi to a Stage Three or Stage Four warrior.'
A look of confusion flashed across his face.
'Heck... the amount of qi it absorbed felt larger than what most of us possess.'
Clifford couldn't make sense of it.
'How can someone at Stage Two have such a large qi storage?'
Question after question surfaced in his mind.
None of them had answers.
Meanwhile, Alex was also thinking about what had just happened.
His expression remained calm on the outside, but his thoughts were moving quickly.
'I had to use my artificial qi to store the qi he gave me.'
He glanced briefly toward Clifford before looking ahead again.
'I can't let him feed it directly into my qi core.'
His eyes narrowed slightly.
'Otherwise, he might discover my actual stage level.'
Alex believed he had handled the situation perfectly.
Unfortunately, he didn't realize something important.
Unbeknownst to him, what he had just done had actually made the situation worse than he imagined.