The group began to move again, subdued now. The earlier chatter had faded into silence, replaced by the weight of what they had witnessed.
Every creak of the forest seemed sharper, every shadow deeper. The academy had sent them here to test their teamwork, but instead, they had stumbled onto something else.
Jae walked at the front, his mind restless. Strengthening flames, shadows that could bind, fire that tore through beasts, these things he could understand. They were tools, weapons, parts of training. But scars branded into a living creature? That was no test. That was cruelty, deliberate and controlled.
And if someone was shaping mana beasts into abominations… then their battles had only just begun.
xxx
The remains of the alpha variant wolf lay smoldering in the clearing, its massive body having dissolved into black mist, leaving behind only warped bone fragments and the faint, acrid stench of burnt flesh.
