The moment Gladys finished speaking, the others finally saw it too, and sharp hissing breaths were sucked through throats all around.

From their angle, pairs of yellow‑green eyes wavered in the dark forest—cold gleams flickering, drifting seventy or eighty meters out, like motes of floating light.

Everyone knew that predators such as wolves and leopards had a special eye structure: ordinarily their eyes looked dull.

But once they locked onto prey and shifted into attack intent, those eyes rapidly gathered the faint, scattered ambient light and threw back a cold, vicious glare.

The magic beasts didn’t dare come closer because of the potion stench; yet those greedy eyes, like green lanterns, stayed fixed on them.

They had pegged Luo Wei’s group as prey—and would not relent until they’d taken a bite.

“Wind-Chasing Lynx. Intermediate magic beasts. Fifteen,” Hol finished counting, voice heavy.

“That many—and all Wind-Chasing Lynx?” Axina gasped.

“Yes. All of them,” Hol said—no joke in his tone. “And the number around us will only be greater, not less.”

Some lynx were still so choked by the stench they hadn’t opened their eyes.

Luo Wei was taken aback too. Lynx rarely hunted in packs. Why were they…

A turn of thought—and she understood.

This wasn’t the Magic Beast Mountains.

The academy professors had dumped a thousand magic beasts into a cluster of tiny wooded hills, driving the density far too high. Add nearby large magic beasts making competition fierce, and Wind-Chasing Lynx would find solo hunting difficult—so they chose cooperation.

They’d been released in batches over the past half month. The ordinary wildlife here had already been eaten out. Starving, they now saw any humans breaking in as a collective target.

Their luck, huh.

Luo Wei sighed. “Hol, how much potion is left?”

“Three small bottles and two goatskin pouches.”

“Take out the small bottles,” Luo Wei said. “We’ll definitely get hurt later. Everyone smear a little on yourselves. If you’re injured, you can lick it right away.”

“Lick…” Axina gagged.

“Makes sense!” Hol instantly pulled a bottle, poured half over himself, and focused on his neck and wrists.

Luo Wei nodded repeatedly. “Yes—just like Hol. Only then can you get potion into you the first instant you’re hurt.”

Professors before the Magic Mirror: …

Little schemer. Did she think they couldn’t see through her?

Lick the potion? She clearly meant to poison the magic beasts with it.

Frustratingly, she could brew a “healing” potion that acted like poison, and her pretext was injury prevention—they had no grounds to deduct points.

As expected, Siria students were just as aggravating as their professors.

In the Magic Mirror, every member of the Siria squad smeared on potion. Even Axina, who despised it most, scooped a big glob of black‑red medicinal paste and smeared it all over her sleeves.

“Finished?” A sly glint flashed in Luo Wei’s eyes. “If you’re done, we start the counterattack.”

“Right front—the one retching hardest. Go!”

Rustle rustle—

Gladys burst forward, longsword slicing air. Luo Wei and Axina followed close, magic wands gathering one red, one cyan glow.

Jack took second-to-last, guarding against a flank rush. Hol gripped the reeking iron pot, lone rear guard.

Clang—

Gladys’s blade bit into a Wind-Chasing Lynx’s shoulder blade, carving a deep, bone-baring wound.

She hadn’t finished it in one strike and withdrew instantly. A blazing fireball smashed the lynx’s face, erupting into a towering sheet of flame.

Wind whipped the blaze across its whole body; the Wind-Chasing Lynx shrieked and bolted into the distance.

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