Will of Vienna

Everyone did as Michael told them and collected every single crystal. While they were harvesting, minutes passed, but the staircase remained dead silent. Sophie kept her hand pressed against her ear, her **[Environmental Radar]** sweeping the surrounding walls and floors.

“Nothing,” she finally whispered, letting out a breath she had been holding. “The vibrations have stopped completely. There are no more echoes nearby.”

Michael looked down at the new pile of fourteen dead hound-foxes. With the bottleneck clear, there was no point in waiting around. He thought it through instantly. Fewer monsters were coming now, maybe no more were left. Standing around wouldn’t earn them any more experience or practice.

“Okay, we harvested all the crystals,” Michael said, his tone flat. “We can move out now. We’re going to find more monsters, farm them for experience, and get you used to your abilities. And harvest more crystals.”

The students looked at each other, still recovering from the messy fight, but no one argued. They benefited massively from following Michael and his instructions. By continuing to follow him they would just profit more and become stronger. There was just no rational reason to stop now.

Michael led the group out of the granite staircase, moving into the wider, colder corridors of the university’s main building. The floors were still stained with blood from when the invasion first began.

As they marched, Michael maintained a steady pace with sharpened senses. He didn’t let the group rush. Instead, he organized them into a rotating combat routine. “From now on, we fight in turns,” he commanded. “No more mass panics. When we run into an enemy, two or three of you step up to handle it while the rest hang back and stay ready, just in case.”

No one objected. They believed in him and his tactics. What’s more, they also wanted to test and train their newly gained talents.

It didn’t take long to find their first targets. As they rounded a corner near a row of closed seminar rooms, three hound-foxes snarled, turning away from a broken vending machine to face the intruders.

“Jakob, Matteo, show us what you have got,” Michael told, stepping aside to block the hallway behind them. “Try it with more control this time. Jakob, don’t use the mana without restriction, reduce the input.”

The two students stepped forward with their spears in both hands. One hound-fox lunged at Matteo. Remembering his previous mistake, Matteo didn’t rush his strikes. He delivered a careful, measured thrust into the creature’s flank, scoring a hit.

[Rhythmic Attack: Stack 1]

He felt the familiar, slight increase in his attack speed. As the monster twisted to bite, he didn’t get nervous and adjusted his footing, considering the extra speed, and landed a second precise stab into its neck.

[Rhythmic Thrust: Stack 2]

The monster collapsed, dead. Matteo grinned slightly—he hadn’t lost his footing this time.

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Meanwhile, Jakob faced the other two. One leaped at his throat. Jakob activated **[Explosion]**, but instead of unleashing a full blast, he tried to restrict the mana flow. The spear tip hit the monster’s skull, resulting in a much smaller, sharper *pop* rather than a deafening explosion. The force shattered the creature’s head, and though Jakob still felt a slight jolt in his arms, he remained firmly planted on his feet, successfully managing the recoil. The other one tried to attack Jakob but Matteo intervened and hit him with his spear. After him, Jakob followed up with a regular spear strike and killed the monster.

“Way better,” Michael noted, his eyes already scanning the next hallway. “Let’s move on.”

They continued their hunt through the sprawling university wings. A few corridors later two more beasts ran into their path.

“Lukas, Sarah, you’re up,” Michael spoke like an experienced commander.

The hound-foxes charged the line, their jaws wide. Lukas Brunner stepped up, holding his breath as the beast snapped forward. He deliberately let the creature bite into the wooden shaft of his spear to secure the physical contact he required for his talent. The moment the jaws clamped down, Lukas activated **[Weight Manipulation]**, pushing his mana into the beast to make its body fifteen percent heavier.

The effect wasn’t dramatic—the monster didn’t instantly crush into the floor as Lukas wished it to be—but its front legs visibly buckled under the sudden, unexpected change in mass. Its momentum was completely ruined, causing it to stumble awkwardly onto its shoulder. He pulled back his spear as fast as he could and took advantage of the broken momentum of the monster. He pierced its head and ended the fight with one strike.

In the meantime, Sarah was defending against the other monster, or at least was trying to. The others who were watching frowned out of concern. Rashid even wanted to intervene but Michael held him back. „Let them handle it. There will be a situation with nobody left to help them.“

Due to her talent being of a supportive type, she had no advantage against her opponent. But she was not alone. “Lukas! Help me!” Sarah grunted.

Lukas moved as soon as he pulled back his spear and wounded the remaining monster with his spearhead.

*Grrrrrhhhhhaaa*

The monster let out a loud shriek lost his focus on Sarah for a brief moment. That was, what she desperately needed. Without wasting this opportunity, she thrust her spear and pierced the monsters skull.

Not once during the battle could she use her talent **[Precision Focus]**.

The others cast a glance at Michael with a frown. They were obviously judging him because he didn’t let them help. „Guys, we don’t know the situation outside. You all need to learn to fight by your own. You’ll thank me when the time comes.“ He responded to their blaming gazes.

The group of students wasn’t really convinced but they followed him nevertheless.

Further down the eastern wing, they encountered a trickier situation: four hound-foxes in a blocked corridor entrance.

“Amir, David, Jonas. Team up,” Michael said, watching from the back.

Amir activated **[Momentum Burst]**, but this time he picked a short, visual target halfway across the distance. He shot forward like a blur, but instead of overshooting, he dug his heels into the floor, coming to a dead stop right in front of the first beast and driving his spear through its chest. He killed the monster with one-shot.

As the other three beasts converged on Amir, Jonas Holzer rushed forward and used **[Sunder]** on the nearest one, his spear piercing through its body and breaking its defences. “David, pull them off!” Jonas yelled.

David Lindner, careful not to drain his entire mana pool like before, focused a small amount of his **[Gravitational Force]**. Instead of a chaotic blast, he targeted the two monsters flanking Amir and yanked them backward, dragging them across the floor away from the frontline fighters. Jonas immediately followed up on his wounded target, striking with his spear to end the monsters life.

Slowly, the chaotic, panicked civilians were transforming. The clumsy mistakes were turning into deliberate, calculated movements. They were learning the exact limits of their power, turning a messy squad into a group that actually worked together.

As the final monster in the hallway collapsed, lifeless, Michael checked his status in his head. His own experience bar hadn’t budged much since he was letting the others take the kills to grow, but the overall combat efficiency of his group was rising rapidly. They were hunting, they were adapting, and they were finally ready for self-reliant fighting.

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