Brute and Coward

Dark gray clouds piled up like mountains, winding and continuous.

Silver-white lightning, like rivers rushing through the mountains, roared past within them.

The First University's special plane was currently flying through a thunderstorm.

Through the tall floor-to-ceiling windows, the dining room looked like a mess, as if it had just been baptized by a thunderstorm. Tables and chairs were overturned, broken tableware was scattered everywhere, and silver-white curtains had been torn from the floor-to-ceiling windows and were piled messily on the floor.

The ornate chandelier hanging in the center of the dining room looked as if someone had grabbed it and pulled hard, its gilded frame twisted, and its crystal lampshades covered in cracks.

The dining room door was tightly shut.

At the entrance, a cobra had been coiled on a bar stool by the counter, sleeping. Now, the snake was being held by a pair of slender hands, being tied into various knots.

The cobra's eyes bulged, its tongue flicked, and it let out a miserable hiss.

The Banshee was unmoved.

In her heart, she felt a hundred times more miserable than this old snake.

The plane's security must already know about the accident in the dining room; it was only a matter of time before they rushed in. As for how the wizards would deal with a lich who had walked right into their trap, even a preschooler could give eighteen different answers.

Fleeing outright would not only damage the lich's terrifying reputation but would also disrupt the Captain's arrangements. At that point, the demon's accomplices would have a hundred and eighty ways to deal with her.

The cobra in her hands had already been tied into a dead knot.

The Banshee dropped the snake ball, crossed her arms, pouted, and looked at the huddled, shouting university freshmen in the room, a headache forming.

"These cowards," Nikita muttered.

In fact, she had only snapped her fingers when she entered the dining room, making the obstructive tables and chairs roll aside and pulling down the light-blocking curtains, clearing a clean, bright space for herself to work.

She hadn't even touched these tender little things yet.

Not far away, the boy with the pleasant scent leaned against an overturned sofa, holding a handful of yellow paper talismans, looking at her with a determined expression. Although he was still trembling, he was much better than those who held black donkey hooves or glittering crosses and shouted.

As expected of the man she found pleasant, Nikita showed a charming smile. She would take him with her when she left, bringing him to the Captain, which might explain her exposure.

Perhaps the Captain would also be reluctant to eat this little fellow, so she would have to work hard and take a bite herself.

If Zheng Qing knew Nikita's thoughts, he would have spat out a mouthful of old blood.

His expression was definitely not one of determination, but a stiffened expression due to extreme nervousness. The terror of this demon far exceeded his imagination.

With just a snap of her fingers, she had almost destroyed a dining room!

What if that snap was aimed at his face?

Zheng Qing leaned against the sofa, nervously looking at the Banshee not far away, countless terrible futures churning in his mind.

Xiao Xiao stood behind him, saying something quickly in a low voice, but it was too quiet and rushed for Zheng Qing to hear anything.

Li Meng hid behind the sofa, holding the fox and the pigeon, only showing her eyes. There was no fear in her gaze, only excitement and eagerness. If Shi Yuan, the young monk, hadn't been holding her back, she probably would have rushed towards the Banshee with a shout.

Not far behind them, the owner of the cobra, a girl with fair skin and a sharp chin, was sobbing quietly.

In the entire dining room, besides the freshmen and their pets, there was only one injured Sprite.

The situation made these young people feel desperate.

"If only I had insisted on dragging Lan Que to the dining room," Li Meng complained softly from behind the sofa, "he looks like he can fight."

Before coming to the dining room, a few of them had invited Lan Que to have lunch together. But the aloof boy had shaken his head and continued to sit quietly, holding his sword.

"Don't make a sound, just stay put behind here," Zheng Qing gritted his teeth. His breathing was a little rapid, his brain seemed to be lacking oxygen, and golden stars kept appearing before his eyes.

Li Meng pouted, tucking Poseidon and the white dove's little heads back behind the sofa, and fell silent.

"A bunch of weaklings," the Banshee said with a pout not far away, a hint of nostalgia flashing in her eyes.

She pulled a feather pen from her bag and opened the spellbook in her hand.

This was not her spellbook, but that of the flight attendant in the lounge.

The fluctuations of every fallen wizard's spellbook were recorded by the authorities. Carrying one's own spellbook on a First University special plane was a very unwise act. So, while borrowing the flight attendant's heart, the Banshee had also borrowed her spellbook.

It was a Bologna-bound spellbook, likely a standard issue for these flight attendants. The light blue cover was completely undamaged, the five gold lines on the spine were bright and clean, and the marbled edges still depicted the story of Poseidon and the four little angels.

Nikita vaguely remembered that when she was in university, she could only afford the standard spellbooks awarded by the school. Those thick, soft-covered spellbooks were as glaring as a pimple on a girl's face in her beauty-conscious years.

At that time, the Bologna-bound books displayed in the shop windows of Beta Town's bookstores were like Cinderella's glass slippers to her, desired yet unattainable.

But now.

Nikita flipped through the brand-new spellbook with a sense of boredom. Both the prayer to Athena on the flyleaf and the Hati-Faya linen paper used for the pages seemed vulgar and ridiculous.

"Why did I like these vase-like spellbooks before?" she thought silently, perhaps she just wanted to have more confidence in front of him back then.

Speaking of confidence, there were a few idiots not far away who also wanted this quality.

But arrogance without strength was no different from suicide. The Banshee raised her head and looked at an overturned dining table in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Behind the table, a few tall male wizards seemed to be stirring.

Zheng Qing also heard the unusual noises.

A rough voice was quietly instigating his classmates to take out their talismans and magical artifacts and give that demon a taste of their power.

"Don't be afraid, she's just a Banshee!" the voice sounded very excited, "One explosion talisman each will be enough to stun her! As long as we break open the dining room door and hold on, the registered wizards on the plane will be here soon!"

The others seemed somewhat tempted.

"Idiot! We're on a plane right now! Aren't you afraid you'll blow a hole in it and fall out yourself?" Zheng Qing didn't dare to turn his head, only moving his lips as he whispered to Xiao Xiao.

He was just complaining.

But Xiao Xiao actually stepped forward.

"Don't do anything foolish!" He turned around, looking at those few boys and scolding them, completely unconcerned about becoming the most conspicuous target in the dining hall.

"She's a fallen Wizard," Xiao Xiao said, glancing at Nikita. "And she's undergone a complete fallen ritual. A Demon like her, who can retain her human form and even consciousness completely, is not someone we freshmen, who haven't even entered the university gates, can face."

"If she wanted to, she could drain all our blood and plunder all our souls without anyone noticing."

"In fact, we're already half dead."

The dining hall fell into an awkward silence.

"Cowards! Since we've already got one foot in the grave, we should fight even harder!" The boy who was inciting everyone to resist also stood up, completely fearless, and said loudly, "If we've already given up on living, what's the difference between that and being dead!"

Zheng Qing couldn't help but turn his head.

It was a sturdy boy with a buzz cut, his face flushed red, whether from excitement or naturally, he couldn't tell.

This style... must be one of Starry Sky Academy's lunatics!

From not far away, someone seemed to be muttering softly.