F-Rank Sold, Married to an S- Rank-Chapter 37: The Monster In The Academy
The city lights blurred past the car windows as Adrian focused on the bond network.
The academy district was only fifteen minutes away.
But the system signals pulsing through the stabilization field made those minutes feel much longer.
The breach spawn near the academy was changing.
Fast.
The system updated again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Threat Analysis Updated
Academy Spawn Evolution: 63%
Estimated Rank: A+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Lyra leaned forward from the back seat.
"Sixty-three percent?"
"That sounds bad."
Adrian nodded.
"It’s absorbing mana from the academy’s training grounds."
Kaelith’s voice remained calm.
"That area has one of the largest mana concentrations in the city."
Seraphine added quietly,
"Thousands of students train there every day."
Elara looked toward the skyline ahead.
"And tonight, those mana reserves are feeding a monster."
Aria’s hands tightened in her lap.
"Do the students know?"
"No," Elara said.
"The academy security team would have locked down the area."
Lyra snorted.
"That assumes they even know what they’re dealing with."
Adrian didn’t respond.
His attention was focused on the network.
Five anchors remained connected.
Seraphine’s stability strengthened the field.
Lyra redirected chaotic currents.
Kaelith compressed unstable surges.
Aria amplified the entire system.
And Elara...
Elara guided the energy with precise discipline.
Together, the network stretched beneath the city like invisible roots.
But the academy signal still burned brightly.
Too brightly.
The academy gates appeared ahead.
Tall iron arches marked the entrance to the massive complex.
Security barriers had already been deployed.
Flashing lights illuminated the street.
Several academy hunters stood guard near the main entrance.
As the group stepped out of the car, one of the guards approached immediately.
"Halt. The academy is under emergency lockdown."
Elara stepped forward.
Her Council insignia caught the light.
The guard froze.
"Commander—"
"Stand down," Elara said calmly.
"We’re handling the situation."
The guard nodded quickly and stepped aside.
Lyra whispered,
"That badge is really useful."
Kaelith glanced toward the academy buildings.
The campus stretched across several blocks.
Dormitories.
Training halls.
Research towers.
Tonight, most of the lights were off.
Students had already been evacuated.
But the system signal remained.
Strong.
Hungry.
Adrian closed his eyes again.
The bond network activated.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Target Located
Academy Spawn Location: Central Training Arena
Evolution Status: 71%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He opened his eyes.
"It’s inside the arena."
Seraphine nodded.
"That building contains the largest mana reservoir."
Elara’s voice hardened slightly.
"Which means we need to move quickly."
Lyra cracked her knuckles.
"Finally."
"Something interesting."
The central training arena stood at the heart of the academy.
A massive circular structure built for high-level combat training.
Normally it was filled with cheering students and instructors.
Tonight—
The gates were broken.
One of the massive steel doors had been ripped open from the inside.
Adrian stopped several meters away.
He could already feel the creature.
The air around the arena vibrated with chaotic mana.
Kaelith drew her blade slowly.
"That’s not good."
Seraphine looked at the shattered entrance.
"It’s almost fully evolved."
Elara’s eyes narrowed.
"Too fast."
Lyra grinned slightly.
"Well."
"Let’s go kill it before it graduates."
The inside of the arena was worse.
The training field had been completely destroyed.
Cracks spread across the reinforced floor.
Several collapsed pillars lay scattered across the arena.
And in the center—
The creature waited.
It was far larger than the spawn they had fought earlier.
Nearly five meters tall.
Its body resembled twisted armor made of black bone.
Sharp spikes extended from its shoulders and back.
Dark energy pulsed beneath its surface like molten shadows.
And its eyes—
Two bright white flames.
The monster turned slowly toward them.
Lyra muttered,
"Okay."
"That one’s ugly."
Kaelith took a step forward.
"Stay alert."
The creature moved instantly.
Faster than expected.
One massive claw slammed into the arena floor.
The shockwave cracked the reinforced concrete and sent debris flying across the room.
Aria gasped.
"That thing is strong."
The system confirmed it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Threat Confirmed
Academy Spawn
Rank: A+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Seraphine moved first.
Her mana surged forward in a brilliant wave of light that struck the creature’s chest.
The attack forced it backward several meters.
But it did not fall.
Instead—
It roared.
A blast of corrupted mana exploded outward.
The arena walls shook.
Adrian felt the stabilization field strain.
"Hold the network!" he shouted.
The five anchors responded instantly.
Seraphine stabilized the core.
Lyra redirected the chaotic currents.
Kaelith compressed the unstable energy.
Aria amplified the entire structure.
Elara stepped forward.
Her blade flashed.
The strike landed across the creature’s arm.
This time the attack cut deep.
Black energy spilled from the wound like smoke.
The monster staggered.
Lyra grinned.
"Nice."
She dashed forward.
Her speed blurred across the arena as she launched a powerful kick into the creature’s side.
The impact slammed the monster into a collapsed pillar.
But the creature recovered quickly.
Too quickly.
Its claws struck again.
Kaelith intercepted the attack with her blade.
Metal screamed as the two forces collided.
She slid backward several meters.
"Durable," she said.
Seraphine raised her hand again.
Another wave of pure mana slammed into the creature.
But the monster was adapting.
Its body absorbed part of the attack.
Adrian felt the bond network react.
The stabilization field was weakening the creature.
But not enough.
The system pulsed again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Strategy Recommendation
Increase Domain Stabilization
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian understood.
"We need to expand the field."
Elara nodded.
"That will starve it."
Lyra looked skeptical.
"Can we do that while fighting?"
"Yes," Adrian said.
"But we have to synchronize."
Seraphine stepped beside him.
"Then do it."
Adrian focused on the bond network.
Five anchors connected.
The stabilization field expanded outward.
Mana currents beneath the academy shifted.
The chaotic energy feeding the spawn began to weaken.
The creature roared again.
This time its movements slowed.
Lyra’s eyes widened.
"Hey."
"That’s working."
Kaelith struck again.
Her blade pierced deeper into the creature’s shoulder.
Black energy burst from the wound.
Elara moved next.
Her strike targeted the creature’s core.
The monster staggered again.
Aria pushed more energy into the network.
The stabilization field intensified.
The creature’s movements became sluggish.
Seraphine raised her hand one final time.
A massive spear of condensed mana formed above her palm.
"Adrian."
He nodded.
"Now."
The attack launched forward.
The spear of light pierced directly through the creature’s chest.
The monster froze.
For one moment—
Everything went silent.
Then the creature shattered.
Fragments of black bone and corrupted energy exploded outward before dissolving into dust.
The arena fell quiet.
Lyra collapsed onto one of the broken benches.
"Well."
"That was exciting."
Kaelith lowered her blade.
"The spawn is destroyed."
Aria smiled nervously.
"We did it."
Adrian checked the system.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Academy Spawn Eliminated
Network Stability Restored
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
But then—
Another notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Warning
Additional Breach Spawn Detected
Locations: 4
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian’s expression hardened.
Seraphine noticed immediately.
"What happened?"
"There are still four more."
Lyra groaned.
"You’re kidding."
Elara looked toward the dark sky above the arena. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
"No."
Her voice was quiet.
"Just the beginning."
The bond network pulsed again.
Five anchors connected.
The stabilization field still active.
But somewhere beneath the city—
The true breach creature continued to awaken.
And the spawn they had just destroyed...
Might have only been the first wave.
The dust from the destroyed spawn had barely settled when the bond network pulsed again.
Adrian felt it before the system even displayed the notification.
A ripple.
Deep beneath the city.
Slow.
Heavy.
Like something enormous turning in its sleep.
He closed his eyes instinctively.
The five anchors connected at once.
Mana threads stretched through the underground channels beneath the academy and across the western district.
Then the system spoke again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Subterranean Activity Detected
Primary Breach Entity
Movement Confirmed
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian’s eyes opened.
Seraphine immediately noticed the change in his expression.
"What is it?"
"The creature moved," Adrian said quietly.
Lyra straightened slightly.
"You mean the big one under the city?"
"Yes."
Kaelith looked toward the cracked arena floor.
"That spawn wasn’t acting alone."
Elara nodded slowly.
"Spawn rarely appear without direction."
Aria looked uneasy again.
"So the creature sent it here?"
"Possibly," Elara replied.
Adrian stepped toward the center of the arena where the monster had disintegrated.
The stabilization field still spread through the building, calming the chaotic mana currents that had fed the spawn.
But now—
Something else was happening.
The underground mana channels were shifting.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Lyra felt it too.
"Okay."
"That feels weird."
Kaelith knelt near one of the deep cracks in the arena floor.
Faint pulses of dark energy flickered far below.
"The creature is adjusting."
Seraphine spoke calmly.
"It learned."
Adrian nodded.
"Yes."
The breach entity had tested the surface.
Sent one of its spawn to gather energy.
And now that the attempt had failed—
It was adapting.
The system confirmed it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Enemy Adaptation Detected
Energy Redistribution in Progress
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Elara looked toward Adrian.
"That means the creature will change its strategy."
Lyra sighed.
"Of course it will."
"Because why would anything be simple?"
Adrian focused on the network again.
The stabilization field still held the underground currents steady.
But the creature had begun redirecting its feeding lines.
Not toward the academy anymore.
Toward something else.
He frowned slightly.
"That’s strange."
Seraphine stepped beside him.
"What changed?"
Adrian pointed toward the city skyline beyond the arena walls.
"The creature stopped targeting the academy."
Kaelith stood slowly.
"Then where is it sending the spawn?"
The system responded immediately.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Mana Channel Analysis
New Energy Target Identified
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian stared at the notification.
Then slowly looked toward the distant center of the city.
The tallest structure in the skyline.
A massive tower of glass and steel that dominated the urban horizon.
The Council headquarters.
Lyra followed his gaze.
"Oh."
"...You have got to be kidding me."
Elara’s expression darkened.
"That building houses the central containment control system."
Aria blinked.
"You mean the systems that monitor the barrier?"
"Yes," Elara said.
Adrian understood instantly.
"If the creature damages that facility..."
"The barrier fails," Seraphine finished quietly.
Lyra rubbed her face.
"So the monster underground just decided to attack the control center."
"Brilliant."
Kaelith sheathed her blade slowly.
"It’s not random."
"No," Adrian said.
"The creature is thinking."
That realization was more disturbing than the battle they had just fought.
Because mindless monsters could be predicted.
But intelligent ones—
Adapted.
The system pulsed again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Spawn Movement Detected
Direction: Central District
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian looked at the others.
"We need to move."
Lyra sighed dramatically.
"I was hoping for at least ten minutes of rest."
Seraphine walked toward the arena exit.
"We don’t have ten minutes."
Elara followed her.
"If the creature sends multiple spawn toward the Council tower..."
Kaelith finished the thought.
"The city loses its last line of defense."
Aria hurried after them.
Adrian stayed for one moment longer.
He looked down at the shattered arena floor.
Then toward the distant skyline.
The breach creature beneath the city was no longer acting blindly.
It was planning.
And if it reached the Council’s control systems—
The barrier sealing it underground would collapse.
The bond network pulsed again.
Five anchors connected.
The stabilization field still active.
But the battle had already changed.
This was no longer about hunting monsters.
It was about protecting the fragile systems holding an entire city together.
Adrian turned and followed the others out of the ruined arena.
Because somewhere in the darkness between the academy and the city center—
The next wave of spawn was already moving.
A/N:
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Author Note
The battle at the academy is only the beginning. In the next Chapter, Adrian and the anchors will hunt the remaining breach spawn before the creature beneath the city fully awakens.
