It was as if these ’guards’ wanted them to panic.

It made a few Alterrans narrow their eyes.

Suspicious. Very suspicious!

However, these ’guards’ were at least level 20. This was in stark contrast to the average level 10 and below of those hiding in the evacuation center.

No one dared question them at all. At least not openly.

Hana’s observation was not bad. Her field was in accountancy, and despite her prison record, a kind store did give her a chance, hiring her to be a bookkeeper.

Her attention to detail was not small, assuming she wasn’t blinded by delusions like what happened with Ansel back then.

Hana, while queuing obediently (guiding her boyfriend Tim as well), her eyes stayed on the ’guards’. She noticed that there was something different about their uniforms, though she couldn’t quite pinpoint what the exact differences were.

It could’ve just been an upgrade, but if it were, they wouldn’t be so surprised by how they reacted to the emergency.

If they were really guards, they’d have known that after a few accidents in some previous wars, various standard operating procedures had been stabbed to people’s heads to prevent accidents. If they caused chaos during war, even if they didn’t mean to, they could get demerits!

Contribution points were so precious. How could they allow it to be diminished so much by a moment of carelessness?

Not to mention, the number of contribution points needed to clear out a demerit was not one-to-one!

Were these people even Alterran guards?!

Just the thought of otherwise made her blood freeze. It made her boyfriend turn to her. He leaned down and whispered. "What’s wrong?"

"I..." she pursed her lips, and then shut up when a ’guard’ looked over this area. She didn’t dare speak up.

Of course, she was not 100% sure either, so it wasn’t like she could scream and announce it. They’d likely just see blood in their small evacuation center instead.

She patted Tim’s arm, looking at him in the eyes, but not daring to explain. Instead, she pulled one of their friends, someone who had been in their team and had also become partially-disabled, to hold Tim instead. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"What are you..." he wanted to hold her arm, but his voice died down when he saw her approach the guards. Tim’s eyebrows furrowed, but he quietly just watched her to see what she was doing.

"Good sir..." she said, voice soft, and slightly stepping forward to make herself visible. At some point, she even opened up a top button on her shirt.

She saw lecherous looks in their eyes, but continued to walk over anyway.

Even this alone made Hana even more certain that these weren’t Alterrans at all!

Alterran guards went through very stringent testing, including character testing. They also made plenty of oaths, though mostly for honesty and ensuring goodwill.

"We’re asked to head out one by one," she said. "We...we’re afraid of the enemies outside, and it seems like the sentries can’t handle them—those useless things.

"Can you go out and guard the exits, please? Oh, and let me go right after you head out, okay?" she was saying this full of coquetry, making the ’guards’ stares heat up even more.

Tim frowned, considering her history, a part of him thought she was tired of him and was now trying to attach to another man.

"Whatever she’s planning, you just have to wait and see," their friend, another level 10 refugee from a newly-released village, told him.

He was actually one of the people who had noticed the abnormalities first. Now, with Hana’s words, more people also became more suspicious.

For one, no one would criticize their sentries at all! In fact, they were constructs that had become ingrained in people’s everyday lives. After all, even without mobs or wars, they all go out to train. Those sentries had saved their lives at least once!

To be so blatant in insulting the sentries was something very uncharacteristic for Alterrans!

They watched as the guards headed out, and suddenly, Hana’s hands burned with fire. Her eyes met with a few other fire users nearby, and they all lit up their hands.

They also took out some familiar black liquid from their spaces.

Hana was a fire user and, after watching and listening to many people, she knew to stock at least a liter of petroleum in her space. Purchasing it was in gold and contribution points, but it added a layer of security, and most fire users had a few liters stored.

Splash!

Burn!

The guards gasped at the sudden turn of events. They had taken down their guards and didn’t notice the movements until they were already on fire.

"AHHH!"

"DAMNIT!"

How could this kill them, though? Several stronger ones gestured to rush back in, and Hana and the others had long stepped back.

"Earth users!"

The earth users in the room immediately summoned walls of earth. They were not strong individually, but there were scores of earth users in the room!

The one metal user, a teenager, also did his best to summon a few bits of metal to reinforce it.

Elementalists were so rare outside Alterra. The enemy elementalists wouldn’t be assigned to deal with the ’ants’, so they didn’t have to worry about enemies breaking through using elements.

On the other hand, the people of Alterra had more or less all awakened except for very few people. They might be too weak to participate in town-level wars, but they were still elementalists!

BANG!

BANG!

The enemy used force to punch through, over and over, and those inside did their best to defend while the enemy burned.

Elementalist earth was sturdier than normal earth, and Elementalist fires were difficult to put out unless they found a water user. Finding an allied water user wouldn’t be straightforward for them in the first place, considering how spread out the enemies were. Not to mention, the petrol could make the fire spread instead.

Even if the level gap was wide, those bastards would definitely not leave unscathed! They would also be forced to leave to find solutions to their problems.

They just had to hold on until then!