High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2029: Chapter 250: Beneath the Tombstone

The good news is that once the number of ghouls surpassed a thousand, possibly because their collective strength crossed a certain threshold, the ghouls in the hunting ground didn’t become stronger than the previous batch of five hundred ghouls.

In other words, their individual power was limited.

The bad news is these ghouls have become smarter.

The young cost student originally thought those stinky creatures would, like before, charge at the hunters in makeshift formations, but he quickly realized that the eleventh batch of ghouls was far more meticulous and cunning than he imagined.

Accompanied by the unique mumbling of ghouls, a large group of tough-skinned, dog-like cave dwellers swarmed from under the tombstones, with twenty gray figures emerging from beneath each stone. They formed rather irregular many-pointed star battle formations, amidst swirling yellow dust, shouting and roaring, their faces filled with fervor as they charged at the wizards.

Dylan’s speed in waving his arms suddenly accelerated, as if transforming in an instant from playing the melody of serene landscapes to performing Ten Sides Under Siege.

Five hundred zombified bodies, under his control, turned into a solid dam, firmly blocking the ghouls’ advance, meanwhile, Zhang Ji Xin and Blue Bird moved left and right, like a crab’s pincers, penetrating deep into the ghoul hordes, crushing every ghoul they encountered.

Zheng Qing and Xiao Xiao guarded by Dylan’s side, raising their law books, various supportive spells—Soft Leg Curse, Chaos Spell, Binding Spell, Languid Spell, etc.—were thrown without hesitation.

In one instant, the hunting ground was filled with swirling dust, flying vines, colorful spell lights bursting everywhere, ghoul screams and wizard roars intertwining, performing an exhilarating symphony.

...

”I’m not quite sure.”

In the stands, a puppet held a giant speaker flower, watching the battle below with a serious expression, speaking in a tone of gravity: ”But in my view, those tombstones surely deserve more attention from the hunters than the ghouls themselves... If the diviners of Absolution were competent, they should have noticed the dead ghouls in this battle are being gradually ’devoured’ by those tombstones!”

”Tombstones don’t have mouths, how can they devour?” A warlock not far from the puppet loudly questioned.

”You’re a wizard!”

The puppet turned to look at the warlock, instructing sincerely: ”Why limit ’devour’ to the ’mouth’ organ? A human body has many openings, things going in and out have no difference with a mouth... That tombstone is the same...”

Originally, it just wanted to emphasize that there were many fresh holes under the tombstones that could act as tombstone mouths, but in the stands, the young wizards had already set their imagination free with the puppet’s previous words, bursting into laughter.

For a moment, the audience was filled with a joyful atmosphere, leaving the puppet’s commentary in an awkward state of neglect.

...

Xiao Xiao indeed noticed the disappearing ghoul bodies.

He even sensed this phenomenon earlier than Dylan did and promptly warned his companions, but puzzlingly, after the tombstones devoured the dead ghouls, there was no change—no revived ghouls emerging from the holes, nor did the tombstones emit any curse aura.

”Maybe it’s just a method the school uses to clean the hunting grounds?” Zheng Qing guessed while drawing a charm gun and rewarded a ghoul, breaking through the defenses and nearing Dylan, with a bullet of inferior talisman.

The pale blue bullet hit the ghoul’s shoulder, then instantly transformed into a mass of octopus-like vines, following its bones and muscles deep inside, crushing its heart.

This brave ghoul face-planted in the dirt within five meters of the warlock.

Perhaps due to the proximity, despite the two warlocks straining their eyes, the tombstones ultimately did not devour this ghoul, leaving it alone in the dust.

This ’risk-aware’ behavior made the young cost student increasingly worried, prompting him to throw out two green bird symbols, alerting the elders and swordsmen outside to be vigilant.

”Hey, folks, they’re just a bunch of ghouls with brains already rotten,”

Zhang Ji Xin shouted like an out-of-control cannonball bouncing among the ghouls, his voice reaching far across the hunting ground: ”...Forming loose formations to attack us is already the limit of their tactical level!”

This sounded reasonable.

But it wasn’t reassuring, especially with ghouls surging like tides, crazily impacting the fragile defenses of the hunting team, Zheng Qing felt truly swamped.

High-intensity hunting lasted less than five minutes, and mental fatigue surged again from deep within, Zheng Qing felt his spell chanting and charm gun triggering motions gradually evolving from deliberate actions to mechanical ones, even when more ghouls breached Dylan’s defenses, nearing the Little Three Talents Formation, the warlock showed little anxiety, mechanically raising the charm gun and numbly pulling the trigger.

Seven hundred, six hundred, five hundred.

Eighty, forty, twenty.

The dust raised in the hunting ground slowly settled, dead ghouls piled up, swallowed silently by the tombstone holes, leaving less than a hundred bodies exposed.

Dylan commanded his zombified subordinates to carefully avoid the tombstones, stopping at the edge of the hunting ground, then exhaled a long breath and sat down on the ground.

Even he couldn’t bother with his image right now.

Xiao Xiao put away the crystal ball, silently preparing magic potions for his comrades.

”How much time is left?”

Zhang Ji Xin trudged back to his companions, enveloped in a terrifying aura like a primordial beast, his voice carried a hint of blood: ”...I punched a few times at those tombstones, couldn’t move them, something’s wrong.”

”They can’t be cut.” Blue Bird succinctly added.

Zheng Qing nodded silently—he no longer had the energy for wild thoughts, feeling a sense of dealing with things as they come—and took out his pocket watch to check the time.

”Just over forty minutes left,” the young cost student said woodenly, raising his eyebrow in his heart to show surprise: ”The eleventh round took more time than we expected...”

”That means, before it ends, at most there are two more rounds of attacks.”

Dylan exhaled heavily, counting on his fingers: ”If there are two rounds, the twelfth round will have over two thousand, the thirteenth four thousand... Sigh... I wonder, after dying in Dreamland, will we continue sleeping or be awakened in reality.”

Mister Blood Werewolf wisely expressed his pessimism.