Chapter 294: Chapter 294 The Locust Swarm

And yet, beneath the humor, warmth stirred in her chest. It was almost… cute. Endearing, even. The old Zion would never have allowed himself to fall so low, not even for her. But here he was, willingly setting aside his pride, letting his dignity crumble, just to coax a smile from her.

That realization softened her heart. As she laughed, Zion only smiled helplessly back at her, his emerald eyes shimmering with quiet devotion, while his thumb kept gently brushing away her tears.

“Princess! This is bad!” Lance’s urgent voice echoed through the mindlink.

Addison’s brows furrowed instantly, a sinking feeling stirring in her chest. Her mood shifted in a heartbeat, and she snapped her gaze toward Zion, Maxwell, and Levi. Whatever warmth lingered between them had to be pushed aside. She shot to her feet.

Sensing the sudden change in her aura, the three men rose with her, tense and alert.

“What’s wrong?” Zion asked, his voice low and guarded. He saw how Addison’s tear-reddened eyes had turned razor-sharp in an instant, and the seriousness in her expression told him enough; something was about to happen.

“I don’t know. Lance didn’t say anything, but it feels serious. Let’s check for ourselves,” Addison replied.

Without another word, the four of them darted outside. The moment they stepped out of the packhouse, chaos greeted them; pack members rushed in every direction, faces tight with panic. Addison’s frown deepened as her sharp gaze swept across the scene.

She wanted to stop someone to ask what was happening, but it was clear no one could spare a second. Everyone was frantic, yet moving with purpose, as if they had critical tasks to complete.

Gritting her teeth, Addison reached out through the mindlink to call Lance again, only to be met with silence.

While Addison was still trying to process everything, Zion had already stripped off his shirt and shifted into his massive midnight-black wolf. Noticing her, he lowered himself and nudged her with his massive head, signaling for her to climb on. Without hesitation, Addison pulled herself up, and Zion immediately surged forward.

Maxwell and Levi followed suit, quickly shedding their clothes and slipping them into their magic bags before shifting into their wolves. They bolted after Zion, their powerful strides shaking the ground beneath them.

Addison leaned low against Zion’s back, gripping his thick fur tightly to steady herself as he raced through the dense forest, weaving past trees with blistering speed. Around them, other warriors thundered forward, all rushing toward the same destination.

“Wait… isn’t this the path toward where the locust swarm was being contained?” Addison murmured, scanning her surroundings.

The farther they went, the thinner and weaker the greenery became. Leaves were stripped down to veins, branches gnawed bare until only brittle bark remained. The air grew drier, the forest more lifeless, until all that surrounded them was skeletal trees and withered ground.

By the time they arrived, the desolation was complete. At the center stood Elric and the mages, struggling to hold their ground. Elric’s voice rang out in desperation as he shouted frantic orders to his disciples, urging them to hold on.

“Don’t falter, hold your ground! We cannot let the locust swarm escape the barrier!” Elric roared, his voice cutting through the chaos.

He and his disciple mages stood rigid, pouring every ounce of their mana into the barrier that now flickered dangerously, seconds away from breaking. Around them, warriors closed ranks, forming a living shield in front of the mages.

If the barrier fell, they would be the first line of defense, buying precious moments to pull the spellcasters to safety. Everyone knew that the mages excelled at long-range combat, but in close quarters, they were vulnerable.

“Warriors, stand ready!” Lance barked, crouching into a defensive stance, his eyes fixed on the quivering barrier as though he could hold it together by sheer will.

Zion skidded to a halt beside Elric, who was at the center of the mages, straining to keep the barrier intact. The moment Addison slid down from Zion’s back, she strode toward Elric, her expression serious. She was calm—almost unnervingly so—but it was better this way. Panic would only cloud her judgment and dull her awareness.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, she spoke in a firm tone, “Archmage Elric, update me on the situation.”

Her eyes swept the battlefield as she waited. Nearly every mage stood in a circle around the flickering barrier, channeling their mana to stabilize it. The strain was obvious; the sudden surge of unstable energy was throwing their control into disarray.

The locust swarm seemed to sense this weakness and took the chance to batter the barrier with their own body in a frenzy. Each impact sent ripples through the shimmering barrier and shudders through the mages maintaining it.

The harder the swarm struck, the more the casters faltered—Elric most of all, shoulders rigid as he led the desperate effort to mend and balance the barrier’s power.

“P-Princess, you’re here.” Elric’s voice trembled, though he didn’t falter in channeling his mana through his staff. Sweat trickled down his temples as the glow of his spell wavered. “We don’t know what triggered it, but the Locust Swarm suddenly turned restless, becoming more violent than before.”

“They began clustering together, then using their sheer numbers to ram against the barrier again and again. At first, we dismissed it as agitation, but then one of the mages collapsed, coughing blood from overexertion… and that’s when the barrier began to flicker.”

Even as he explained, Elric kept his staff raised, pouring mana into the unstable barrier to ease the crushing burden on the others.

“Do you think they might have already devoured all the vegetation inside the barrier, and now they’re starving? That could be why their aggression suddenly spiked,” Addison voiced, her voice calm but sharp.

Elric froze for a moment, realization dawning in his eyes. They had been so focused on holding the barrier that they’d overlooked the simplest possibility. Beyond the wall of writhing wings and bodies, they could barely see anything; the swarm was too dense, nothing but a reddish blur pressing against the barrier.

“Wait…” Addison’s gaze narrowed as she studied the locusts battering the barrier. “Can we get a dead sample of one of them?”

Her expression was unreadable, but the weight of her aura pressed heavily on those around her. It wasn’t panic, it was fury, cold and controlled. Elric couldn’t understand the reason behind it, but he could only brace himself and nod, determined to try.

“Princess, let’s think about that later. For now, we need to focus on containing them,” Elric urged, his voice firm but strained. “We have to suppress their aggression and stop them from hammering the barrier. The mages won’t hold much longer, and if the barrier falls, the consequences don’t need to be spelled out.”

“Right…” Addison nodded, her sharp eyes fixed on the writhing mass. The swarm moved like a school of fish, shifting in eerie unison, circling as if guided by an unseen leader before hurling itself against the barrier.

Each impact burst with a sickening splatter of greenish blood, staining the shimmering wall that was nearly invisible to the naked eye.

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