The color drained from Luo Gang’s face. He scanned his surroundings. A quick glance revealed no fewer than ten Giant Hyenas!

"Wake up! Wake up!"

Cao Biansheng took off at a sprint, tearing down the hallway and slapping his palms against the wooden planks covering the windows as he went.

"Get up! The beasts are close! Wake up! Get up, now!"

Luo Gang’s face was grim. Normally, he would have assigned people to night watch.

But today, because they had just merged with another Gated Community and the survivors from there seemed friendly enough, he had only assigned two students to stand watch with him.

’He’d been careless!’

There was no time to dwell on his mistake. The Giant Hyenas below, realizing they had been spotted, abandoned all pretense of stealth.

"ROAR!!!"

The Giant Hyena’s cry was a low rumble, like a motorcycle engine.

One of the Giant Hyenas tried to leap onto the second-floor walkway.

Its rough claws gouged a long scratch down the wall.

THUD.

It landed on the ground, planting its thick forelegs.

The Giant Hyena shook its head and let out an irritated growl.

"Damn these beasts."

Cao Biansheng rushed to the room at the end of the hall and grabbed two Long Spears from the wall.

Just then, students began pouring out of the rooms along the hallway. They quickly split up, some running to the third floor, others heading for the fourth.

Cao Biansheng narrowed his eyes, zeroing in on a Giant Hyena milling about below. With a powerful swing of his arm, he hurled the Long Spear, which shot forward like a phantom blur.

It slammed solidly into the back of a Giant Hyena.

The Long Spear sank in a few inches. The Giant Hyena cried out in pain, but its movements were largely unaffected.

’These bastards have some seriously thick hides,’ Cao Biansheng cursed internally.

Their hides could give those giant wild boars a run for their money.

A few of the Giant Hyenas downstairs began to move. They stopped ramming blindly and gathered together, sniffing the ground with their short snouts. Suddenly, a smaller one looked up, its ears perked forward, its blood-red eyes locking onto the wide, wood-barricaded staircase in the middle of the school building.

It lunged, its claws slamming against the wooden barrier. Splinters flew as the thick planks buckled under the force.

Behind the barricade, a boy who had just arrived thrust a Long Spear through a gap, aiming for the Giant Hyena’s head. It felt like he was stabbing a wooden plank.

The Giant Hyena swatted the Long Spear, nearly snapping the Wooden Spear in two.

But soon, more students rushed down from upstairs to help. They formed a spear wall with their Long Spears, thrusting through the gaps in the barricade. Before long, the Giant Hyena at the front was covered in bloody wounds.

"ROAR!!!" The blood-soaked Giant Hyena was swatted aside by a massive paw, sent tumbling to the ground.

From behind it, a Giant Hyena that was clearly a great deal stronger than its kin slowly emerged.

This must be the leader of the pack.

Both its size and its presence were a cut above the others.

The Giant Hyena leader was cunning. Seeing the humans above relentlessly shooting arrows and throwing stones, putting its pack in a sorry state, it let out a great roar and swaggered directly into the first-floor hallway.

Hearing their leader’s call, the other Giant Hyenas rushed into the hallway, some even bursting into the first-floor classrooms.

Now, hidden directly below, they were in a blind spot.

The attacks from above temporarily ceased.

One Giant Hyena scurried over fawningly, trying to lick its leader’s paw, but was swatted away with a single blow.

"Looks like these beasts aren’t as dumb as they look." Cao Biansheng’s brow furrowed, but his gaze grew sharper.

The first floor of the school building had no cover or obstacles, and with its numerous doors and windows, it wasn’t cost-effective to defend. So they had abandoned it, using it only to store useless junk and firewood.

Generally, most beasts would retreat after a conflict like this.

But this pack of Giant Hyenas was far more aggressive than he had imagined.

Since they won’t retreat, then we fight!

Cao Biansheng hefted a Long Spear, leaped onto the second-floor balcony, raised the spear high, and roared with wild abandon, "Brothers and sisters! These beasts actually think they can eat us? We are the Horror Upright Apes!"

"HUH!"

"HUH!"

"HUH!"

"HUH!"

The students gathered in the hallway raised their weapons and began rhythmically stomping on the ground, guttural roars rumbling from their throats.

The many voices merged into a wave of sound, like an ancient war chant.

...

"What’s that noise?" 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Qin Ziwen was startled awake.

He heard shouting from outside.

He went into the living room. He had rearranged the balcony area, moving the expanded space entirely to the guest bedroom, which revealed the open-air balcony once more.

Since the safe house function was active, he didn’t have to worry about anyone sneaking in during the night.

On the balcony, Du Yu was looking north. "Sir, there’s a battle at the school building."

"Let me see." Qin Ziwen went back to his bedroom and retrieved his telescope.

He adjusted the central focusing wheel, and the image gradually sharpened, finally settling on the school building.

On the second, third, and even fourth floors, students were holding weapons and shouting loudly.

That wave-like sound was coming from them.

The girls were mostly on the third and fourth floors, while the boys were on the second and third.

Panning the telescope down, he saw a dozen or so... bizarrely shaped beasts milling about on the first floor.

"They look like Giant Hyenas." The corners of Qin Ziwen’s mouth turned up. ’To think the mission targets would deliver themselves to my doorstep.’

The students’ war chant had woken many residents in the Gated Community. Figures could be seen watching from their balconies everywhere.

"Sir, are we going to hunt these Giant Hyenas?"

"Of course, but we can’t be reckless."

By comparing them to the surrounding buildings, Qin Ziwen determined that the Giant Hyenas were mostly between 3.3 and 3.8 meters long, with a shoulder height of 1.4 to 1.5 meters. They had sturdy limbs and massive heads—a pack of classic bobbleheads.

Creatures like these bobbleheads usually have terrifying bite force.

"And there’s a leader." Qin Ziwen had spotted it now—in the middle of the pack was a leader that looked even stronger than the others.

This leader was probably over four meters long, with a shoulder height approaching 1.8 meters—taller than an adult man.

"Sir, if we’re going to hunt this pack, I wouldn’t recommend a frontal assault. It would be best to use the terrain to our advantage," Du Yu suggested.

"I know. I have two plans. First, have the Beaked Eagle carry a gasoline drum, pour the gasoline on the ground, and set the Giant Hyenas on fire. The downside is that the people are still in the building, so we could easily burn it down too. Plus, you can’t eat meat that’s been cooked with gasoline." Du Yu asked, "And the second plan?"

"The second is to go to Building Four. It’s the closest to the north gate, separated from the school building by only a courtyard wall—a distance of just thirty or forty paces. We can attack the Giant Hyenas with a Bow and Arrow from the windows of Building Four. Ideally, we can lure a few of them over and use the narrow staircase to our advantage, picking them off one by one."

Du Yu said, "Sir, I think the second plan is better."

He had seen the power of gasoline before. The first floor of the school building was also filled with junk; a single mistake could cause a massive fire.

...

...