The Queen Who Fights Back (by Lily Hastings) novel Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Everything unfolded in an instant.

By the time the students regained their composure, the pack of twenty-something wolves that had nearly torn them apart lay motionless on the ground.

Not a single one remained alive.

At the forefront stood Nova, her expression devoid of any sympathy that one might expect toward animals.

What lingered within her was a cold, unyielding drive to survive—a fierce determination to fight tooth and nail for her place at the pinnacle.

Nova strode back toward the group of students, whose eyes were vacant and filled with terror.

The dagger in her hand dripped steadily with dark, crimson blood, each drop falling with a haunting, rhythmic tap.

As Nova advanced, the students instinctively recoiled, panic propelling them backward in a chaotic scramble.

The crunching of their hurried footsteps over the dry, fallen leaves echoed sharply through the still forest air.

When they dared to look at Nova again, their eyes widened in disbelief and fear.

Those wolves had been formidable adversaries—so fierce that even Maxwell and Hannah, the strongest fighters among them, had failed to bring down the entire pack when working together.

Yet here was Nova, having single-handedly eliminated them all with apparent ease.

Could it be true? Were whispers in their minds suggesting that Nova might actually surpass Maxwell and Hannah in strength?

After all, she had faced wolves like these countless times before and seemed to know every move they could make.

Claire, Julian, Caleb, and Laura stood frozen, too shocked to utter a word.

Still, none of them were ready to accept that Nova’s power genuinely exceeded that of Maxwell and Hannah.

It was far more plausible, they reasoned, that her extraordinary survival instincts and wild, relentless fighting style had carried her through.

Yes, that explained how she had dispatched the wolves so effortlessly.

But when it came to pure combat skill, they believed Nova still had some way to go before matching Maxwell and Hannah.

Even Claire and her friends were stunned, and that was before considering the reactions of Hannah and Maxwell themselves.

“Y-You actually took them all down?” Hannah stammered, her voice trembling with disbelief.

Not once in her wildest dreams had she imagined Nova was bluffing; she truly had defeated over twenty wolves on her own.

After spending these past days alongside Nova, Maxwell had harbored suspicions about her hidden capabilities, but witnessing her obliterate that pack left him utterly speechless.

No one had expected Nova—who had been away from home for more than ten years—to be this formidable.

“You—” Maxwell stared at his sister, whom he barely knew, for a long thirty seconds before speaking.

Then, with a sigh, he chose not to pry into her past and shifted his tone.

“Be more careful next time. Don’t act recklessly. If you’d moved even a fraction slower just now, you would’ve been bitten.”

Maxwell’s reprimand was born from concern; he scolded her for risking her life unnecessarily.

From his vantage point, Nova’s blade had moved at lightning speed—so fast that to most eyes it was nothing but a blur.

Still, he had witnessed enough to know that had she hesitated even for a moment, a wolf would have pounced and torn her apart.

She had been fighting for survival, and the thought sent a chill down his spine.

Fortunately, Nova emerged unscathed.

She paid little attention to the fearful gazes surrounding her.

Hearing Maxwell’s warning, she recognized the worry beneath his words.

With calm precision, she sheathed the bloodied dagger.

For the first time since the brutal encounter, the fierce yet captivating girl offered a genuine smile.

It was innocent and pure, completely devoid of the icy hardness that had defined her moments earlier.

“Got it,” Nova responded quietly to Maxwell.

The delicate curl at the corner of her lips, paired with her enigmatic beauty, caused every student present—boys and girls alike—to freeze in place.

She looked ethereal, almost angelic.

Claire’s eyes locked onto Nova’s stunning face, and jealousy tightened her grip until her knuckles turned white.

Among the three school beauties, Claire had always ranked second, overshadowed by Hannah.

She had invested so much effort trying to convince Hannah to abandon her rough, tomboyish demeanor—to become more ladylike—that Claire had expected to claim the top spot eventually.

But now, a newcomer more enchanting than Hannah had appeared out of nowhere.

“Unforgivable,” Claire vowed silently. “I will never let this go.”

Once the wolf pack was completely eradicated, Maxwell wasted no time contacting the school to report the incident.

Upon learning that genuine dangers lurked within the survival training zone, the administration acted swiftly.

They reached out to other teams, offering students who felt unprepared or too frightened the option to end their training early.

Behind the scenes, the school discreetly summoned operatives from the Shadow Sanctum to ensure everyone’s safety.

Besides, all students at Saint Laurel Royal Academy had received some self-defense training, and no one was eager to miss out on the thrill of survival camp.

Ultimately, only a small number of students chose to cut their training short.

A series of quick rustling noises came from the dense woods.

Within moments, a figure burst out from behind the trees.

The students, caught completely off guard, jerked back in fright—half expecting another terrifying beast to attack.

But it was just a boy—someone instantly recognizable to everyone at Saint Laurel Royal Academy.

“Oh my god, it’s Ethan!” the girls screamed, their excitement bubbling over.

Ethan looked like he had fought his way through countless jungles; his hair was a tangled mess of leaves and grass.

When he spotted Nova, his face lit up with a sweet grin. He dashed forward, unable to contain his joy.

“Nova, I finally found you!”

Clearly, since entering the survival forest, Ethan had separated from his group and spent all his time searching for her.

“Huh?”

Julian, Caleb, and the others from the Free Combat Club caught sight of Ethan—their sworn rival from the Taekwondo Club.

Their first instinct was to prepare for a fight.

But hearing Ethan call out to Nova stopped them in their tracks.

“Wait, is Ethan here for Nova?” they wondered, stunned.

Just like Maxwell and Hannah, they stood frozen, staring in disbelief.

“Yeah, Nova, you promised that if I did well surviving out here, you’d officially make me your student,” Ethan called as he approached her.

He caught a whiff of the roasting meat and couldn’t resist.

“Whoa, that smells incredible. Are you guys roasting meat? Where’d you get it? Let me try some.”

Without hesitation, Nova dropped the dagger at her waist, casually tore off a bone-in chunk of wolf meat, and handed it to Ethan.

Then, locking eyes with him in front of everyone, she spoke seriously.

“Just so you know, killing is pretty much all I can teach you.”

She needed Ethan to understand that her lessons were not the ones he might be imagining.

Three thousand days as a mercenary had left her with a curriculum filled only with lethal skills.

Every ability she possessed—long-range marksmanship, demolitions, fighter jets, small arms, chem-bio payloads, heavy ordnance, black-code hacking—had been honed for a singular purpose: putting someone in the ground.

That was the whole syllabus.

And it was the only one she could offer him.