The air in the camp shifted. The casual chatter, the clinking of cookware, the faint laughter—it all died down to a tense silence.
The nine A-rank guards moved without a word, their steps light but deliberate as they formed a loose perimeter around the camp. Each of them had a different weapon—long spears, heavy glaives, curved swords—but all of them shared the same posture: ready to kill at the first sign of movement. Mana shimmered faintly around their forms, like a heat haze in the dim light.
Irene stood at the center of camp, her eyes closed.
The silver threads of her mana unfurled, sliding over the terrain like a second skin. She sent it crawling up the trees, across the roots, threading through bushes, pooling into the deeper shadows where human eyes couldn't see. The further her mana spread, the colder her expression became.
The students could feel it—her mana brushing against them like a passing wind, then vanishing as it swept beyond.
Near the outer edge of the forest, an A-rank guard crouched low, fingers brushing the blackened soil. His jaw tightened, and he glanced back toward Irene. She gave a single, sharp nod, already aware of what he'd found.
Her brow furrowed. There was movement far beyond the patrol lines—more than one presence, heavy with killing intent. Something was stirring in the deeper woods… something she didn't like.
Still, she didn't call the guards back. Not yet.
And somewhere out there, Nex was still moving deeper.
____________________________________
The wind shifted, carrying with it the smell of rot.
The sky was almost black now, the fading light swallowed by thick clouds. The crackle of campfires felt too small, too fragile, against the growing noise from the forest.
It started as a low, steady rumble—then a chorus of snarls and pounding footsteps.
Three hundred E-rank beasts burst from the treeline.
Wolves with jagged bone spikes instead of fur. Boars whose tusks dripped black ichor. Six-eyed hounds, scaled serpents, spined apes—their bodies different, but their eyes all the same: pitch-black, glassy voids. Their wounds leaked tar-like blood that hissed when it hit the ground.
The guards instantly tensed, mana surging into their weapons.
"Stand by."
Irene's voice was calm, but her eyes were sharp. She raised her hand, halting them.
Kaelith moved first, stepping ahead of the students. "Defensive line, now! Injured to the back!" His words snapped people into motion.
Lucas' weapon shifted into a spear, lightning crackling along its tip. He shot a glance at Marcus, smirking despite the situation.
"Bet I'll kill more."
Marcus' shadows coiled lazily around his fingers. "You're on."
Sylphie darted to a student with a bloody gash across his chest. The boy was shaking, pale, but she pressed her glowing hands to the wound without hesitation. "Breathe. Don't pass out on me."
Aria's staff spun in her grip, runes faintly glowing at both ends. Beside her, Ruby's rapier flashed in the dim light.
"You planning to keep up?" Ruby teased.
Aria's expression was calm, almost serene. "Try to keep yourself alive first."
The first wave hit.
Lucas thrust his spear through a charging wolf's skull, the smell of ozone mingling with burnt fur as lightning burst from the wound. Marcus' shadows lashed out like whips, snapping a boar's neck and dragging two others into a heap.
Ruby darted forward, her rapier flickering through the gaps in armor and scales. Each strike was fast, deliberate—tendons severed, throats pierced. Aria swung her staff in wide arcs, bursts of condensed flame erupting at the impact points, sending beasts tumbling back with charred hides.
A six-eyed hound lunged toward a group of panicked students—Eren's barrier shimmered into existence just in time, the beast smashing into it with a bone-cracking sound. "Move them back!" he shouted.
Ryan dashed past him, grin wide, eyes bright with reckless excitement. A pulse of echoing force exploded from his palm, sending three wolves sprawling. "Told you I'm good in a fight!"
"Idiot!" Eren barked, but Ryan was already gone, darting into another cluster of beasts.
The ground was already slick—red blood mixing with black, thick under their boots. A boy screamed as a spined ape's claw raked across his side, blood splattering across the dirt. Sylphie yanked him back, shoving another student into the gap.
More came.
The roars were constant now, the line trembling under the weight of numbers. A girl's shield arm buckled with a sickening crack, the bone clearly broken; she was pulled back before she fell under the beasts.
Still, the first-years fought—sweat, blood, and mana keeping them barely standing.
Irene didn't move. She watched from the center of the camp, mana swirling faintly around her like a storm held in check. Her gaze swept over every face, every action.
And she waited.
Not to save them.
But to see which of them would survive.
---
The second wave hit harder.
The first-years' formation shuddered as the line broke in two places—one where a serpent the size of a wagon tore through a shield, and another where three bone-spiked wolves plowed into a single student and sent him tumbling.
"Hold the line!" Kaelith's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and commanding. "Close the gaps—NOW!"
Lucas and Marcus exchanged a glance and moved as one.
Marcus' shadows snaked under the serpent, wrapping tight around its midsection. "Hold it steady," he hissed.
Lucas didn't reply—he vaulted onto the coiled shadow, spear blazing with lightning, and drove it down through the serpent's skull. The blast lit up the battlefield, the smell of scorched flesh filling the air.
Two spined apes roared and charged them from the flank—Marcus' shadows lashed out, binding their legs, and Lucas finished them with two clean thrusts.
Marcus smirked. "That's three."
"You're counting wrong," Lucas shot back, stabbing another wolf in the throat. "That's five."
Meanwhile, near the rear guard, Eren's barrier pulsed under the strain of repeated hits. Ryan was right beside him, panting but grinning.
"You trust me?" Ryan asked suddenly.
"No," Eren said flatly.
"Perfect!" Ryan slammed both hands on the inside of the barrier.
The shockwave from his Echo affinity blasted outward through the barrier itself, doubling its force. The wolves smashing into it were thrown back like ragdolls, bones snapping audibly. Eren's eyes flickered with surprise—then narrowed as an idea formed.
"Again," Eren ordered.
Ryan grinned wider. "Oh, now you trust me."
A horned boar charged—Eren reshaped the barrier into a dome, Ryan slammed it, and the resulting shockwave turned the boar into a tumbling wreck that crashed into three other beasts. The impact opened a temporary hole in the enemy's numbers, buying the students precious seconds to breathe.
But it wasn't enough.
The black-blooded beasts kept coming—claws scraping, jaws snapping. A shield-bearer in the front line took a claw to the leg and crumpled, screaming. The gap widened instantly, and another student was pulled down into the swarm before Kaelith's whip-like blood tendrils lashed out, yanking the creature's head clean off.
"Fall back five steps!" Kaelith barked, voice like steel. "Keep your formation or you're all dead!"
The students obeyed, retreating in unison as the enemy pressed in. Black blood pooled thick on the ground, steaming under the heat of mana. The air was thick with the stench of iron and rot.
From her vantage point, Irene's eyes narrowed. The beasts weren't just charging blindly.
They were pressing the weak points.
Testing the line.
And it was only the beginning.