Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest novel Chapter 898

Emily’s breath hitched, her throat tightening as the full weight of what her father had just said sank in. Her fingers twitched slightly, a rare crack in her composure.

"Th-three rank-8 demonic humans…?" she whispered, barely able to get the words out.

That level of force was astonishing. Overkill. A direct declaration of extermination.

What the hell?

Were they really that determined to erase Azure Crest?

She swallowed, her mind racing. If they were a high-ranking guild—if they had the same presence as one of the elite associations—maybe, maybe this level of aggression would make sense. If this was Team 1 or Team 2, the strongest forces of Azure Crest, she could understand them being a prime target.

But Team 3?

Her father?

The enemy had spared nothing.

Either they were desperate to wipe Azure Crest from existence… or they had this much manpower to spare.

She didn’t know which possibility was worse.

Her breath came faster now, her grip tightening around the edge of the hospital bed as she turned toward Ethan, seeking something—some kind of grounding reassurance.

But when her eyes landed on him, her stomach clenched.

His expression didn’t look good.

There was no sharp-witted remark, no calm words to defuse the situation. Instead, his brows were drawn together, his hazel eyes dark with contemplation, as if something in what Harin had said deeply troubled him.

Thinking.

His silence unnerved her more than anything else.

"Ethan…?" she murmured, barely audible.

Ethan turned his head toward them, his gaze flickering between Emily and her father.

To be frank, even though he had been in this industry for a long time, he still didn’t know exactly how things worked. The ranking system, the parameters—he understood them in theory, but they had never truly mattered to him.

Why?

Because he was a Hartley.

His family owned one of the highest-ranking guilds in the entire continent. The sheer scale of their resources, their manpower, their elite hunters—it made rank-8 demonic humans feel… insignificant.

Hartley’s enforcers alone had hundreds of rank-8 operatives under them.

If they needed to, they could mobilize twenty, fifty—hell, even a hundred rank-8 hunters without blinking.

So for him, this level of force wasn’t impressive. It wasn’t unheard of.

And yet—

Something was bugging him.

His fingers tapped against his arm, thoughts whirring.

It wasn’t the number of enemies that unsettled him.

It was the context.

Azure Crest wasn’t an elite guild. They had strong fighters, sure—but they weren’t supposed to warrant this level of hostility. Three rank-8 demonic humans wasn’t just a warning. It was a message.

And that was what felt off.

Ethan’s hazel eyes sharpened as he studied Harin.

Ethan’s instincts twisted in his gut, a slow, gnawing sensation that told him this wasn’t just about Azure Crest.

This was bigger.

His mind churned through the details, piecing things together like a puzzle he didn’t have all the pieces for yet. The Hartley family had been supporting Azure Crest for years. It was a well-known fact. Even though Azure Crest wasn’t an elite guild, their connection to Hartley should have been enough to keep them from being targeted like this.

And yet, the enemy didn’t seem to care.

That was what felt wrong.

If they were willing to send three rank-8s despite knowing Azure Crest had Hartley’s backing, then…

Yeah.

The scale of the conflict was about to change.

Ethan exhaled, his gaze flickering between Emily and Harin once more. He could feel it now. That subtle, creeping sensation that something much larger was shifting beneath the surface.

This doesn’t feel like a guild conflict anymore.

It feels like the start of something.

His fingers twitched, muscles tensing ever so slightly. If the enemy had already committed this much firepower to Azure Crest, then what else had they brought?

Had they already sent more forces into the capital?

The thought sent a sharp pulse of urgency through his chest—

And then his smartwatch vibrated.

BZZT.

His gaze flicked down, and his stomach dropped the moment he saw the name flashing on the screen.

[Marc Hartley]

His father.