Because it had appeared without a sound, no one but that female team member noticed the bizarre figure that had appeared in the center of the circle, standing straight as a flagpole planted in the ground.
The female team member happened to be looking down at the time when she suddenly saw a pair of completely bare legs in front of her.
Those legs, which had suddenly appeared in the middle of the clearing, were terribly out of place.
As if possessed, the female team member slowly raised her head and met a pair of chilling eyes. Her lips trembled, desperate tears brimming in her eyes. Before she could cry for help, a pair of large hands wrapped around her waist, and she vanished from where she stood.
A piercing scream echoed through the air more than ten meters away.
"What happened? What's going on? Where did that scream come from?" Kimura asked in panic.
Many of the team members began looking around as well. That piercing scream was undoubtedly further eroding their fragile nerves.
As they had come up from the mountainside, many scattered groups had joined their team. No one remembered any woman acting alone, and judging by the sound, she seemed to be nearby. What was even harder to understand was why the scream had come from the air.
The looks the team members exchanged were full of fear and anxiety. It was not just them—when the Bouncing Demon landed, the demons hiding at the edge of the woods also stirred uneasily.
Some hid in the shadows, while others ducked behind trees. Clearly, they too feared the Bouncing Demon's abilities.
"She... she's gone." A female team member collapsed to the ground and stared tremblingly at the spot where the other woman had vanished.
Those standing on the outer ring, responsible for defense, might not have known how many people were inside the circle or what they looked like, just as those inside did not know how many stood on the outer ring or what they looked like.
But for those within the circle, it was easy to notice when someone nearby was missing. At the female team member's reminder, someone quickly realized it.
Yes, someone was missing. There was one less person inside the circle.
If someone on the outer ring had gone missing, that would have been understandable. They were constantly coming into contact with demons, and it was dangerous to begin with. But this was inside the circle. They had not even come face-to-face with a demon, so how could she...?
"She's gone."
"H-how could she be gone?"
"H-how could a living person just vanish into thin air?"
"..."
At that moment, everyone inside the circle looked as though they had seen a ghost, all backing away from the spot where the female team member had disappeared. Colds could spread, and so could fear. Like a virus, it first spread through the inner circle before infecting the outer ring.
Hearing the discussions among those inside the circle, everyone guessed what had happened. The defense they had once believed to be airtight had truly become an iron bucket—an iron bucket without a lid.
Only then did they realize that the strangeness of this mountain forest far exceeded their imagination. This place was like an unknown land.
The team members' disregard angered Kimura, though what truly angered him was his anxiety, his fear, and his inability to control the situation.
Yes, he could already feel this team trembling. Tomorrow night, or the night after, or perhaps... it probably would not be long before they fell apart, because some people had already begun to break down.
"What do you mean, gone? Who's gone? How could they be gone?" Kimura ordered a male team member to take his place, then strode into the center of the group.
Facing the several female team members huddled together, trembling and on the verge of tears, a nameless rage surged through him. This was why he had never wanted to take in the weak. Not only were they useless, they spread panic.
"Speak! What's gone? Who's gone?" Kimura demanded more harshly.
"X-Xiao Fang. Xiao Fang is gone."
Xiao Fang had come to take the assessment with the female team member now collapsed on the ground. But now she was gone—vanished into thin air—while her scream had come from the sky more than ten meters away.
No one knew what had happened, nor did anyone know how she had disappeared. But something must have happened.
"How could she be gone?"
"I... I don't know. She was right here a moment ago. I turned around, and she was gone."
Kimura stared solemnly at the female team member sitting on the ground, as though judging whether she was telling the truth. But he knew she was.
Kimura licked his dry lips. Eimi walked over and handed him a bottle of water.
Kimura took two drinks, handed it back to Eimi, then raised his head and glanced toward the edge of the woods. The demons had already begun emerging from the shade one after another. Clearly, a new round of attacks was about to begin.
Everyone's eyes fell on Kimura as they waited for his orders. Before, Kimura would have been fired up and boiling with excitement, but now he found it only glaring and agonizing.
"Enough. Stop thinking about this. Put away your fear and tears. Here, tears and fear will only make you die faster."
Kimura's sharp gaze swept across them one by one. "From now on, whether you're inside the circle or on the outer ring, all of you stay alert at all times. Those on the outer ring, focus and prepare for the next attack. Those inside, watch your surroundings. If something really did appear here, then it will definitely come again."
Kimura bit down hard on the words "come again," as though he wanted to chew them to pieces and swallow them whole.
Hearing that thing would return, everyone stiffened. What exactly was it? And where had it come from? The sky?
They looked at each other. A few could not help lifting their heads to look at the sky. The moon was fucking round!
Kimura turned and walked toward the outer ring.
The female team member sitting on the ground asked in a hoarse, tearful voice, "T-then what about Xiao Fang? Are we just going to leave her?"
Kimura stopped, turned back, and coldly asked, "Do you think she's still alive?" With that, he joined the outer ring without looking back, preparing to resist the demons' next assault.
The attack began.
A demon's howl was like the horn signaling a charge on a battlefield. At the sound, all the demons let out strange cries, seemingly responding to the signal to attack.
Some ran on two legs, others on all fours, surging forward like wild beasts. The savage bloodlust in their eyes was plain to see.
The earth trembled, and so did human hearts.
The two sides soon collided, beginning a contest between life and death.
Water Breathing, first form: Surface Slash.
Water Breathing, fourth form: Striking Tide.
Fire Breathing, first form: Sea of Fire.
Fire Breathing, Second Form: Blazing Heaven Ascension.
...
The demons' attacks grew fiercer and fiercer, while the team members' resistance became weaker and weaker. Still, relying on the circular formation, they could hold them back for now. But the flaw in that defense would soon reveal itself.
Ordinary demons like the ones before them were not very intelligent. At most, they had the intelligence of four- or five-year-old children, so all their actions were driven by their thirst for blood.
As the saying went, love made people stupid.
What it really meant was that when people became obsessed with something, they shut out every discordant sound around them. In essence, it was a form of losing oneself.
The demons' thirst for blood had likewise caused them to lose themselves.
They appeared to be attacking as a group, but their advance was spread over a wide area, and once they got close, they still fought individually.
Their eyes held only the food before them, and all they thought about was how to eat it as quickly as possible. They did not work together like humans did, which was why humans had driven them back time and again.
But a chance occurrence in the next battle would lead them to cooperate, allowing them to tear open this iron bucket.
That was right. The weakness of a circular defensive formation was that it could withstand attacks from every direction, but it could not withstand a concentrated breakthrough at a single point.