A calm, arrogant voice cut through the air. A voice Ivan hated.
"I was wondering where my breakfast was."
They all looked.
Standing at the edge of the clearing was Marcus. He looked bored. He had three of his friends with him. He wasn't looking at the beast that had them cornered. He was looking straight at Ivan, a disappointed frown on his face.
In his hands, he held a thick, heavy piece of wood. It looked like a bat. And he had hammered long, rusty nails all the way through it.
'Never thought I'd be happy to see you,' Ivan thought.
"How did you find us?" Ivan asked, his voice a little shaky.
Marcus pointed at Orion with his chin. "He was screaming 'help' for the whole way here. We heard him and followed the noise."
Behind Marcus were his friends. Ivan recognized them. There was David and Thomas, two big guys who were always with Marcus. And there was a girl with sharp eyes and a serious expression. Lucinda. Romana's best friend.
The beast, seeing new enemies, let out a threatening growl.
Lucinda, David, and Thomas didn't wait for an order. They immediately spread out, moving to flank the beast, distracting it. But Marcus still wasn't looking at the monster. He was still looking at Ivan.
"Back down, princess," Marcus said, his voice full of contempt. "You'd just be a burden to us."
"But you're injured," Ivan said, gesturing to Marcus's ankle.
Marcus laughed. It was not a nice laugh. "Don't flatter yourself into thinking you had such an impact on me. My ankle is super fine now."
Then he moved.
He didn't walk. He sprinted, charging straight at the beast head-on.
The fight that followed was completely different from before. Romana's fight was like a dance. This was like a demolition.
Marcus's friends had perfect coordination. David had a makeshift shield made of tree bark and vines. He ran forward and slammed it into the ground, taunting the beast. "Hey! Over here!"
The beast, annoyed, swiped at the shield. While it was distracted, Thomas and Lucinda moved in from the sides. Thomas had a long, sharpened spear. He jabbed it deep into the beast's back leg. Lucinda was fast. She had two sharp rocks, and she threw them with deadly accuracy, hitting the beast in its already injured eye.
The monster roared in pain and fury. It forgot about the shield and spun around to attack Lucinda.
But Marcus was already there.
He didn't dodge the beast's frantic claws. He just raised his arm to block. The claws tore through his sleeve, ripping into his flesh. Blood started to flow.
Marcus didn't even seem to notice. He grunted from the impact, but he used the opening. While the beast's claws were stuck in his arm, he swung his nail-bat with all his strength.
CRUNCH.
The bat smashed into the beast's front leg. The sound of bone breaking was loud and sickening. The beast howled and stumbled, its leg now useless.
Marcus was a different kind of fighter. He wasn't agile like Romana. He was a tank. He was a berserker, fueled by pure rage. He didn't care about getting hurt. He only cared about hurting his enemy more.
His friends knew his style. As soon as the beast stumbled, they were on it. David bashed its head with his shield. Thomas stabbed its other back leg with his spear. Lucinda kept throwing rocks, forcing it to turn its head away from Marcus.
They were a pack. A brutal, efficient wolf pack. And Marcus was their alpha.
The beast was crippled. It was bleeding. It was surrounded. It tried to snap at them, but it was too slow now.
Marcus pulled his bloody arm free. He looked at the wounded beast on the ground. His face was a mask of pure anger. He let out a yell, a roar that was almost as loud as the beast's.
He jumped into the air and brought his nail-bat down on the monster's head with all his force.
SMASH.
The sound was wet and final. The beast's body twitched once, then went still.
It was over.
They were all breathing hard. David and Thomas leaned on their knees, exhausted. Lucinda was checking on Marcus's bleeding arm.
Marcus just pushed her away. He stood over the dead beast, his chest rising and falling.
"Alright," he announced, his voice rough. "Let's cook this thing. We need the energy."
Ivan stared at the bloody scene. "You'd eat that?"
Marcus turned to look at him, a cruel smile on his face. "You're in the forest, princess. You eat anything you can find." He took a step closer. "At any point, I might just cut off your arm and eat it." He loved bullying Ivan this way.
He walked right up to Ivan, looking down at him.
"Now that I've found this place," Marcus said, gesturing to the river and the cave. "A river to bathe in, fish to catch... I don't think I need your little deal anymore, hm?"
He reached out, as if to grab Ivan's shirt.
Suddenly, the whole sky turned red.
A high-pitched whistle filled the air. Someone, somewhere else in the forest, had just launched their emergency firework.
Everyone looked up.
Ivan's body went tense. 'It's starting,' he thought. 'The test is getting harder. I need to gather more students. I need to act fast.'
But he had a problem right in front of him. A very big problem.
Marcus