CRACK.

The wooden door shattered. A Giant Hyena laboriously shoved its head through the splintered opening.

It was met with the shadow of a club swinging straight for its face.

"THUD!"

The long staff shattered upon impact.

The Giant Hyena’s nose split open. Its mind went blank, momentarily stunned.

From the sides, seven or eight long spears shot out, stabbing its face and causing immense pain. One of them plunged directly into its eye.

The intense pain sent the Giant Hyena into a frenzy. It thrashed about, its thick neck shaking violently.

With a loud CRASH, it tore the last wooden door clean off its hinges. The door panel, however, got stuck around its neck like an Elizabethan collar.

The Giant Hyena King heard the commotion and turned its head. Seeing the broken door, a savage glint flashed in its eyes.

"Quick! Hold them back!" Cao Biansheng roared. "Second floor, retreat to the third! Buy us some time!"

The corridors on both sides were packed with male students. Their densely packed long spears formed a forest of steel, blocking the Giant Hyenas trying to charge upstairs.

On the second-floor corridor, some of the students began an orderly retreat to the third floor.

"Teacher Luo, should we throw the torches?"

Luo Gang nodded. "Throw the torches. Buy us some time."

Then, bundles of dry branches and wood were tossed from the second floor onto the first-floor landing, followed by lit torches.

Soon, thick smoke billowed up as the fire ignited.

The Giant Hyena pack’s assault paused for a moment.

The fire wasn’t very large, confined to the stairwell entrance.

The firewood wouldn’t burn for long; it was merely a stalling tactic.

Behind a window on the second floor of Building Four, Qin Ziwen watched the school building’s first-floor defenses begin to crumble. He frowned. ’This is trouble. That Giant Hyena King is surprisingly patient.’

’Do we really have to go down there and fight them head-on?’ But there were only fourteen of them in total, about the same number as the surviving Giant Hyenas.

The area from the north gate to the school building was wide open, with no cover whatsoever. A frontal assault would get their formation shattered in an instant. It would be a suicide run.

Qin Ziwen said, "The big one isn’t falling for it. How about we try picking off the smaller ones?"

He fired two more arrows. They found their mark, but the Giant Hyenas merely snarled at them, refusing to break formation and leave their leader’s side.

Yang Cunshen, who had been observing from the side, suddenly spoke up. "Sir, I have a plan."

"Go on."

Yang Cunshen said in a low, measured voice, "No matter how ferocious or cunning, a beast is still a beast. Normally, a pack would grow wary and retreat after a few casualties. But this pack’s drive is too strong. There are only three possibilities: one, they’re protecting their young; two, they’re starving; three, it’s a territorial dispute.

"They initiated the attack, so we can probably rule out the first and third reasons. Food is scarce in the Gobi Desert, which makes the second possibility the most likely. I’ve observed their shrunken bellies—they’re undoubtedly starving. We should try luring them with meat to split them up.

"The courtyard wall below isn’t high; they can easily jump it. We can throw some meat to get their attention, then throw more inside the Gated Community’s walls. Once they’re over the wall, we can lure them into the building and pick them off one by one."

"Use meat? But I don’t have any," Qin Ziwen said, his eyes drifting to Zhang Bo, who was standing not far behind him.

Zhang Bo froze for a second, glanced around, then pointed to himself. "Me?"

Qin Ziwen said, "Boss Zhang, just consider it a loan. I’ll pay you back."

Zhang Bo looked at the others staring at him. "Fine, fine, you win."

He went back into his room and returned a moment later with three salted fish.

"Is this enough?"

Qin Ziwen sighed. "Get some more. If we can kill even one Giant Hyena, we’ll have hundreds of pounds of meat. Don’t worry, I can pay you back."

Zhang Bo thought for a moment and figured that made sense.

He hurried back to his room and brought out several large chunks of fresh meat.

The meat was still cold to the touch.

Qin Ziwen secretly wondered, ’A cellar? Or ice?’

But now wasn’t the time to ask.

They cut all the meat into small pieces, but not so small that they would be difficult to throw.

After giving some instructions to Du Yu, a moment later, Qin Ziwu weighed a chunk of meat in his hand, took aim, and threw.

"SMACK!"

A fresh, bloody chunk of meat landed squarely behind one of the Giant Hyenas.

Hearing the sound, it instinctively glanced back.

And then, its head froze in place.

What was that... smell?

Meat!

It was meat!

It had been almost ten sunrises since it had last tasted meat.

Saliva began to pool in its mouth.

It strode quickly toward the chunk of meat.

Suddenly, a much larger shadow swept past from behind, shoving it aside.

It instinctively snarled, but quickly stopped when it realized it was the leader.

The Giant Hyena King walked up to the meat, gave it a brief sniff, then impatiently shot out its long, barbed tongue and snatched the morsel into its mouth.

It smacked its lips. For a creature of its immense size...

...that little piece of meat was barely an appetizer.

"SMACK!"

Another chunk of meat.

It landed not far from the courtyard wall.

The Giant Hyena King walked over and gobbled it down.

Then it lifted its head, licking the corners of its mouth.

"SMACK!"

Another piece of meat landed. But this time, the scent of meat came from the other side of the courtyard wall.

The Giant Hyena King paced back and forth at the foot of the wall. After seeing some of the other Giant Hyenas leap over, it finally gave in. With a single bound, it easily cleared the 2.2-meter-high wall.

After swallowing the meat, it heard a sound from around the corner.

The Giant Hyena King followed the scent.

On the ground lay another piece of fresh meat.

These pieces of meat were all rather small, just enough to tantalize it, but not nearly enough to satisfy its hunger.

After eating a few more pieces and following the trail, it finally arrived at the entrance of Unit Two, Building Four.

It stared into the pitch-black entrance.

It was instinctively wary, but the scent of meat was too tempting. The Giant Hyena King’s stomach rumbled, and ultimately, it couldn’t resist. Lowering its head, it stepped cautiously inside.

Inside, besides the fragrance of meat, it could also smell the scent of those humans.

It crouched low, moving slowly. It didn’t detect the scent of any natural predators in the air, which put it slightly at ease. It followed the stairs upward. Just as it rounded the bend, it saw several humans standing at the top of the landing.

One of them was the very person who had just shot it with an arrow! Seeing its tormentor, its eyes burned with rage.

"ROAR!!!"

The Giant Hyena King charged up the stairs.

The environment was unfamiliar—it had never walked on concrete stairs before—but compared to a jagged cliff face, this was hardly a challenge.

"SNAP!"

In the quiet, dim stairwell, the sound of a Beast Trap snapping shut suddenly echoed.

The Giant Hyena King stumbled, instinctively yanking back its right forepaw from the trap’s jaws.

"SNAP!"

In its panic, its right hind leg stepped into another Beast Trap.

The Giant Hyena King’s movements became clumsy and constrained.

"It’s trapped! Kill it!"

Du Yu surged forward, putting his entire body into a powerful thrust. His Long Spear fell like a silver river from the heavens.

The sharp Spearhead met resistance for a moment against the Giant Hyena King’s skull, then broke through, burying itself nearly halfway.

The Giant Hyena King let out a bloodcurdling roar. The narrow stairwell made it impossible to dodge left or right. It could only charge forward or retreat!

...

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