Chapter 294: Operation Hunt

"Th-the team William is under attack! There are e-eight hunters! Eight hun—"

Beep!

The panicked voice cut off mid-sentence, causing Lorenzo’s grip on his handset to tighten. He, Aria and Max were positioned at the center, with the other teams spread out across the mountain to their left and right.

"These so-called seniors really have no shame," Lorenzo muttered, annoyance clear on his face. "They are ganging up, eight against a team of four or five juniors. That’s already the fourth team they have ambushed."

Aria was leaning against the tree ahead of him, her chin resting between her thumb and index finger in thought. "Any update from Leo’s team?" she asked.

"Team Amelie and Team Dante went as reinforcements, but we haven’t received any response from either of them," Max revealed, a hint of concern in his voice.

Aria didn’t reply, her eyes only narrowing. ’Ambush from both sides,’ she murmured inwardly. ’The eight hunters are attacking from the left, so the remaining two could be the ones who ambushed Leo’s team on the right end. But Raphael said that Gareth wouldn’t fight us. His targets were Noah and Vlad. So the ambusher of Leo’s team could be the tenth, mysterious hunter.’

When the theme of the practical was announced, Raphael Starveil, Aria Starveil’s elder brother, had shared with her the information about the seniors who were going to participate as hunters. Raphael had warned her about only one of them: Gareth. He was a two-star knight, after all. However, Raphael had also mentioned that it was highly unlikely that Gareth would fight them. His only targets in this practical were Noah and Vlad.

So it was highly unlikely that Gareth was among the hunters who had ambushed the teams on the left and right ends, which led to only one conclusion: the one who had ambushed Leo’s team must be the mysterious hunter. Even Raphael didn’t know whom the academy had selected as the tenth hunter.

After a brief moment of thought, Aria lowered her hand from her chin and declared, "Begin the operation hunt on the left end."

Lorenzo’s eyebrows rose in mild surprise. "Then what about the hunters on the right end?"

"Leave them be for now," Aria ordered in a calm tone. Her black eyes shifted to Max as she continued, "We will be depending on you for this mission."

Max’s lips curled into a wide, mischievous smile. "Hehehe~ Don’t worry. I have already prepared to teach those seniors a lesson they will never forget."

With a sway of his hand, he drew something out of his storage ring that cast long shadows across the trio’s faces.

Both Lorenzo’s and Aria’s brows rose, surprise clear on their faces.

"I-isn’t this going a bit too far?" Aria asked, now feeling concerned for the seniors.

"Nah, they will be fine," Max shrugged, his eyes burning with excitement. ’I hope so...’

Lorenzo moved the handset close to his mouth and ordered, "Begin the Operation Hunt!"

---

Somewhere in a different part of the mountain...

"W-we give up, senior," said a boy, clutching his belly. His face bore numerous light bruises, just like those of his four teammates.

All of their frustrated eyes were fixed upon the eight masked figures surrounding them. Some stood on the branches of the surrounding trees, while others blocked the ground.

The five juniors drew their tokens from their pockets and handed them to the hunter wearing the angry face mask.

"Hmph, you should have just given up sooner," the angry-faced hunter scoffed. The other hunters grinned, one of them lightly slapping the back of a junior’s head.

Once they had claimed all the tokens, the hunters moved away, likely to target the next team.

"Enjoy your temporary victory, seniors," the junior muttered, glaring at the retreating figures. He turned to his teammates and said, "Let’s move out. Lord Lorenzo has given the order for Operation Hunt."

His teammates nodded before moving out as well.

---

"Hahaha, it hasn’t even been two hours and we have already collected thirty-four tokens," the Angry Face laughed, standing beside a tree. His mask was slightly lifted as he drank water from a bottle.

"With this momentum, we might even collect the tokens from all of these juniors," the Sad Face added, standing beside him.

The hunters had stopped for a five-minute drink break.

After taking a few gulps from the bottle, the Angry Face asked, "What’s the location of the next team?"

The Sad Face looked at the map on his phone. He could see a cluster of five red marks and a few green marks some distance away from their current location.

"They are two kilometres away," the Sad Face stated in a suspicious tone. The teams had been positioned a kilometre apart from one another, but strangely, the next team was double that distance away. The teams following it had also moved further away. In the middle, he could see over fifteen red marks clustered together.

"We should move out quickly," the Surprised Face suggested, having noticed the change in the survivors’ positions. "They might be planning to join into one complete team at the centre."

The others agreed with his suggestion. The only way for the survivors to fight all eight of them was to overwhelm them with numbers.

They quickly put their water bottles back into their storage rings before moving out to catch the next team.

Within five minutes, they reached the location where the cluster of red marks had been.

Strangely, the area was devoid of survivors. They looked up at the branches of the tall trees and searched the bushes covering the ground, but couldn’t find anyone.

"Come here!" the Crying Face called out, standing before a large tree. The other hunters quickly followed, gathering beside him.

At the base of the tree, the grass was missing, as if the dirt had been freshly filled in.

The Angry Face drew his sword and dug out the hole with a single swing. The dirt splattered outward, and along with it came the red and green tokens of the survivors.

"Wh-what’s going on?" the Sad Face muttered, his tone laced with confusion.

"I don’t have a good feeling about this," the Angry Face stated. "Quickly grab the tokens and move out—"

His words stopped mid-sentence as he felt a faint vibration in the ground. The other hunters felt it too and quickly drew their weapons. The vibration didn’t seem to come from one place but from every direction, slowly becoming more noticeable.

Soon, the rustling of leaves and the snapping of branches echoed, followed by numerous footsteps from every direction.

Thud...thud...thud...

From the gaps between the trees, towering humanoid mechanical puppets, each over seven feet tall, emerged, circling the eight hunters from every side. There were dozens of them.

"Yo, seniors!" Max’s excited voice rang out from a nearby tree. "Won’t you accept a greeting from your lovely juniors?"

Around fifty more survivors also emerged, covering the branches of the trees and surrounding the hunters from every direction. Their face carried mocking smirks of the Predator that had just cornered their prey.

"W-we would rather not," the Angry Face whimpered, swallowing hard.