The return march should have felt easier.
Instead, every step back toward the landing zone felt like an admission that they had survived by luck rather than skill. The vegetation seemed thicker now, the bioluminescent growths casting long shadows that clung too closely to their boots. What had been cover on the way in now felt like concealment for something watching.
Mateo broke the silence first, voice low. "That matriarch wasn't just strong. It was thinking. The way the hunters rotated, the way it waited."
"Pack command structure," Kaelen said. "Not instinct. It's strategy."
Elias didn't respond. He was breathing carefully. Holding the Conceptual Binding for that long had taken more out of him than he was willing to admit.
"My throat feels like it's been scraped with glass," Sofia muttered, rolling her neck as if that would help.
Nyxara walked with her resonance still extended, habit rather than intent, eyes were focused as she listened to the world beneath the world. Vyne, by contrast, had already shaken off the tension, humming quietly, the seriousness from the nest chamber gone as if it had never existed. Mira talked nonstop, replaying moments that could have gone very differently.
Kaelen checked their position through the a device overlay.
Approximate distance to landing zone: 150 meters.
Nyxara had frozen, her hand pressed against a nearby piece of crystalline vegetation. Her solid black eyes were closed, her resonance extending outward through the ground.
"Movement," she said sharply. "Multiple sources. Surrounding our position."
Everyone stopped immediately.
Kenji's shadows spread out without command, fragmenting across the terrain in all directions. His expression tightened as information flowed back to him.
"We're being tracked," he reported quietly. "At least twenty signatures. Various sizes. They're not attacking yet, just... following."
Kaelen activated his Spatial Awareness, pushing it to maximum range. Three meters wasn't enough to detect what Kenji's shadows had found, but within his bubble, everything registered with crystal clarity.
The team formed a defensive circle instinctively.
Kaelen activated his communication device. "Team 3 to Observer Davos. We're detecting hostile movement between our position and the landing zone. Multiple contacts. Preparing for potential engagement."
Davos's response was immediate. "How many? What ranks?"
"Estimated twenty-plus based on preliminary scouting. Mixed sizes suggest mixed ranks. They're tracking us but haven't engaged yet."
Brief pause. Kaelen could almost hear the Sentinel calculating options.
"Do not stop moving," Davos said, his voice carrying absolute authority. "Maintain course toward the landing zone. I will move to support if needed."
"Understood."
Kaelen lowered the device and looked at his team. "We keep moving. Defensive formation. Stay alert."
They began walking again, faster now but controlled. They weren't running, it would trigger a predatory response.
The movement in the vegetation became more obvious. Shapes darted between the glowing growth, keeping pace with them. The sound of disturbed foliage came from multiple directions.
Then eyes appeared in the shadows. Dozens of them, reflecting the bioluminescent light in shades of yellow and amber.
The creatures emerged from cover gradually, revealing themselves.
[Aether-Scourged Wolf]
[F-Rank]
Fifteen of them spread out in a wide circle, cutting off retreat paths in all directions. These weren't the small scavenger rats they'd fought in the facility. These were massive, each one easily the size of a bear, their bodies covered in dark fur interwoven with crystalline growths that pulsed with internal light.
They didn't attack immediately. They just maintained the encirclement, watching, evaluating.
Then larger shapes moved behind the wolves.
[Scourge Hound]
[E-Rank]
Five of them, even bigger than the wolves. These were different from the hunters they'd seen in the nest. Those had been canine but elongated, built for speed through corridors.
They looked like dogs only in the loosest sense of the word, bodies elongated and reinforced with dense muscle and corrupted growths, jaws lined with jagged teeth that clicked softly as they moved. These were not the nest hunters they'd faced earlier.
These were different. Leaner. Faster. Built to chase and kill.
And they were working together. Wolves and hounds, two entirely different beast species, coordinating their movements.
"That's unusual," Nyxara said quietly, her harmonic voice tensed. "Different beast types don't typically cooperate. They compete for territory."
"Unless they've learned it's more effective to hunt together," Vyne added, her violet eyes tracking the circling predators. Her usual playful demeanor was completely absent now.
The wolves tightened their circle, closing distance gradually. The hounds hung back, patient, letting their smaller packmates drive the prey into position.
Kaelen assessed rapidly. The landing zone was approximately one hundred fifty meters ahead. Four minutes until Davos could support. Twenty creatures between them and safety.
They couldn't outrun this. The encirclement was too complete, the beasts too fast in this terrain.
They couldn't wait for backup. Four minutes was eternity with this many hostiles surrounding them.
They had to break through and run. Fighting retreat all the way to the landing zone.
Mateo flexed his hands, energy rippling faintly around his arms. "So we fight."
"We break through," Kaelen corrected. "Then we run."
"Listen carefully," Kaelen said, his voice steady despite the adrenaline flooding his system. "We punch through the weakest point in their formation and run."
He scanned the circle, looking for vulnerability. There, northeastern section. Only wolves, no hounds. Still dangerous but more manageable than trying to break through where the E-ranks waited.
His gaze snapped to the northeastern edge of the circle. Fewer bodies. Wolves only. No hounds anchoring that section.
"There," he said. "Weakest point."
He turned to Mateo, Kenji, and Sofia. "You're breakthrough. Create an opening. The rest of us cover and follow. Move on my mark."
The team shifted positions subtly, preparing without making their intention obvious.
The wolves sensed something changing. Their posture shifted, muscles tensing. They were going to attack regardless.
The first attack came from three directions at once.
"Now!" Kaelen commanded.
Three wolves lunged, thier massive bodies blurring as they crossed the distance with terrifying speed.
Mateo slammed his foot down.
Pulsebreak detonated outward in a concussive wave, the force slamming into the wolves mid-air and hurling them back with bone-rattling impact.
Sofia stepped forward, took a controlled breath, and released sustained Resonant Voice at high intensity. The sound cut through the air like a blade, precisely targeted at the northeastern cluster. The wolves scattered, their coordination disrupted by the sonic assault.
Kenji's shadows erupted outward, creating barriers and false targets that confused the remaining wolves in that direction.
A gap opened in the encirclement.
"Move!" Kaelen shouted.
Team 3 charged through the opening in tight formation. Mateo and Mira led, their enhanced physical capabilities clearing the path. Kaelen and Nyxara covered the flanks. Elias, Sofia, and Kenji held the center. Vyne moved with them, somehow always exactly where attacks weren't landing.
They broke through the wolf line, but the pack didn't let them go.
The wolves pursued immediately, howling in coordination. The hounds joined the chase, their massive forms crashing through vegetation with terrifying speed.
Mira stepped forward, her skin flashing as nearby metallic debris flowed into her, hardening her form into a gleaming barrier. She took the impact head-on, their claws screeching against reinforced alloy.
Nyxara struck with a flick of her wrist, resonance rippling through two wolves at once, destabilizing their movements and sending them crashing into each other in a tangle of limbs and crystal.
Kaelen ran while maintaining Spatial Awareness, tracking threats within his limited range. "Kenji scout!"
Kenji's shadows spread backward, monitoring pursuit. "Four wolves closing fast from behind. Two hounds flanking left."
"Mateo, left flank!" Kaelen called.
Mateo pivoted mid-run and struck the ground toward the flanking hounds. The Pulsebreak shockwave caught one hound mid-stride, sending it tumbling. The second adjusted its approach, smart enough to avoid the affected area.
A wolf lunged at Mira from the right. Her skin was still hardened. The wolf's claws scraped uselessly against her enhanced defense.
She didn't stop to fight it, just shoved it aside with enhanced strength and kept running.
Another wolf came at Kaelen from behind, faster than the others. He activated Flash Step without looking back.
[–19 A.E.]
[A.E.: 426/480]
He blurred forward three meters, the wolf's jaws snapping on empty air where he'd been. The creature's momentum carried it past him. Kaelen didn't waste the opportunity. His gauntlet fist, coated with aether from Aether Manipulation, drove into the wolf's exposed flank as it passed.
[–3 A.E./sec]
[A.E: 418/480]
CRACK
The enhanced strike with gauntlet amplification created devastating impact. The wolf's ribs cracked and broke, and it went down hard.
[+150 XP]
[Base Level: 9] (1620/2300 XP)
[System Level: 8] (220/2400 XP)
[Beast Kills: F-Rank (4/5)]
"Landing zone, one hundred meters!" Elias called from the center of formation.
Close. So close.
Two went straight for Elias.
Kaelen felt it before he saw it. The shift in priority.
"Elias!" he shouted.
He threw up Spatial Lock, freezing one hound mid-stride.
[–24 A.E.]
[A.E.: 394/480]
Mateo and Kenji intercepted the second, shadow and force colliding with raw muscle and fang in a brutal clash that ended with the hound crashing to the ground in a spray of blood.
Mateo didn't rest
He activated ulsebreak at maximum output, the shockwave ripping through.
BOOM
The creature was thrown backward, injured but not out of the fight.
The second hound tried to go around Mateo. Kenji's shadows wrapped around its legs, restraining movement. The hound was stronger than the shadows could hold, but the delay was enough.
Nyxara reached it, placed both hands on its crystalline part of its body, and her Resonance Manipulation destabilized its aether structure from within. The hound convulsed, its internal energy disrupted, and collapsed.
"Keep moving!" Kaelen commanded. The team couldn't stop to finish fights. Every second delayed was another opportunity for the pack to surround them again.
They ran.
Wolves harried them from all sides. Kaelen used Flash Step three more times, repositioning to intercept attacks on his teammates.
[–19 A.E.]
[–19 A.E.]
[–19 A.E.]
[A.E.: 337/480]
His reserves were dropping steadily. Not critical yet.
He used Spatial Warp to confuse pursuing wolves, creating false images that made their numbers seem greater than they were.
[–24 A.E.]
[A.E.: 313/480]
One wolf got too close to Sofia, who was gasping for breath, her throat strained from sustained Resonant Voice usage. Kaelen activated Temporal Drag around the wolf, slowing its movements by twenty-five percent.
[–14 A.E./sec]
[A.E.: 271/480]
Kaelen moved.
Flash Step carried him into the fray, aether coating his fist as he carved through the exposed throat of the wolf.
[– 19 A.E.]
[A.E.: 252]
The wolf fell.
[+150 XP]
[Base Level: 9] (1770/2800 XP)
[System Level: 8] (370/2400 XP)
[Beast Kills: F-Rank (5/5)] - REQUIREMENT COMPLETE
The notification barely registered. No time to celebrate.
Vyne moved like she could see the future, always half-step ahead of danger, attacks missing her by impossibly narrow margins.
Then it happened.
One of the hounds broke through.
It ignored the others entirely, barreling straight for Sofia.
She turned, too slow.
Kaelen didn't think.
Temporal Lock snapped into place.
[–33 A.E.]
Time froze around the hound.
He Flash Stepped.
[–19 A.E.]
He appeared beside Sofia, coating his fist in aether as he drove it into the hound's skull in a point-blank burst.
[–15 A.E.]
BOOM
Time resumed.
The explosion tore the hound apart from the inside, sending it crashing to the ground in a broken heap. It twitched, before it stopped moving.
[+650 XP]
[Base Level: 9] (2470/2800 XP)
[System Level: 8] (1070/2400 XP)
Kaelen staggered as the drain hit him all at once.
[A.E.: 185/480]
"Fifty meters!" Nyxara called.
They could see the landing zone now through the vegetation. The cleared area, the transports, the defensive barriers.
But three hounds and eight wolves blocked the final approach, having circled ahead to cut them off.
The team slowed, forced to stop or run directly into the waiting ambush.
"Hold formation!" Kaelen commanded. They formed defensive circle, backs together, facing outward toward threats on all sides.
The remaining pack closed in from behind. Wolves and hounds, coordinating perfectly, tightening the noose.
They were surrounded. Exhausted. Low on aether and some were injured.
One of the hounds from the forward ambush charged, targeting the weakest point in their formation. It went for Sofia again, recognizing her as vulnerable.
She couldn't dodge. She was too tired.
Kaelen made his decision in a heartbeat.
He activated Temporal Lock on the charging hound.
[–33 A.E.]
[A.E.:152/480]
The E-rank beast froze mid-charge, suspended in temporal stasis.
Kaelen used Flash Step to reach Sofia's position.
[–19 A.E.]
[A.E.: 133/480]
Then he activated Aether Burst, forming the explosive energy in his palm and releasing it point-blank at the frozen hound.
[–29 A.E.]
[A.E.: 104/480]
BAM
The explosion caught the hound at the exact moment it unfroze. Massive damage, its chest cavity shredded by the concussive force. It went down hard, critically injured but not quite dead.
Mateo finished it with a strike to its skull.
The remaining hounds and wolves prepared for final assault. They recognized the prey was weakening. One more coordinated attack would finish this.
Then pressure descended on the battlefield like a physical weight.
The wolves froze mid-stride. The hounds' advance stopped completely. Every beast in the pack turned toward the landing zone simultaneously, their predatory confidence evaporating into pure survival instinct.
Instructor Davos stepped out of the defensive barrier perimeter.
The difference between Sentinel cultivation and Initiate basic was obvious. Davos didn't draw a weapon, didn't activate visible techniques. He simply extended his aether presence outward, and reality bent to acknowledge his authority.
The wolves scattered immediately, pack cohesion breaking completely. Survival overrode hunting instinct. They fled in all directions, disappearing into the vegetation as if they'd never been there.
The remaining hounds hesitated, torn between predatory drive and self-preservation. One turned to flee.
The other, either braver or more foolish, snarled and prepared to charge.
Davos made a simple gesture with his right hand.
The hound slammed into the ground as if gravity had tripled around it. Pinned by pure aether pressure, unable to move, barely able to breathe. The beast struggled for a moment, realized the futility, and went completely still in submission.
"Enough," Davos said quietly.
The word carried absolute authority. The pinned hound didn't move. The fleeing pack didn't return.
The fight was over.
"Landing zone," Davos directed, his gray eyes assessing each team member rapidly. "Now."
Team 3 stumbled forward, exhaustion finally catching up properly now that the adrenaline was fading. They crossed into the defensive barrier perimeter, and the humming energy field closed behind them like a protective embrace.
Kaelen's legs almost gave out. He caught himself, forced his body to remain upright through sheer will.
They'd made it.
"Injuries," Davos said, not asking but commanding information.
Mateo had blood at the corner of his mouth from internal damage when the hound had hit him. His left shoulder showed deep puncture wounds from wolf fangs, bleeding steadily through torn uniform fabric.
Mira's right arm had three parallel claw marks, deep enough to show muscle beneath. Her Environmental Mimicry had protected her from worse, but the hound that had attacked her had been strong enough to cut through even enhanced defense.
Sofia could barely speak, her throat severely strained from overusing Resonant Voice at maximum output. She communicated through gestures, pointing to her neck.
Elias looked pale, swaying slightly. Aether exhaustion from maintaining Conceptual Binding in the facility.
The others had various cuts, bruises, minor injuries. Nothing immediately life-threatening, but they'd been hurt.
Davos's expression didn't change, but something in his eyes suggested approval rather than concern.
"Medical kit," he directed, gesturing toward supply containers near the monitoring station. "Treat what you can. Nothing here requires emergency intervention."
The team moved to the supplies. Academy field training included basic medical treatment. They'd done this in simulations dozens of times.
Mira treated Mateo's shoulder wound first, cleaning the punctures and applying regenerative gel that would accelerate healing. The substance glowed faintly as it bonded with his tissue, working to close the damage from the inside out.
Nyxara helped Sofia, providing a specialized solution for throat strain that numbed pain and reduced inflammation. Sofia sipped it carefully, her expression showing immediate relief.
Elias sat down heavily, accepting an aether recovery supplement that would help restore his depleted reserves faster than natural regeneration. The liquid was bitter but effective.
Kaelen checked his own status while others received treatment.
[HP: 380/380]
[A.E.: 104/480]
His health was full, as he surprisingly didn't take any damage during the fight. But his aether was critically low.
He accepted an aether recovery supplement from the supply kit, drinking it quickly. The taste was metallic and sharp, but warmth spread through his channels immediately as the supplement worked to accelerate regeneration.
Vyne had somehow emerged from the entire encounter completely unscathed. Not a scratch, not a torn piece of clothing. She sat on a supply container, swinging her legs, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
"Lucky," she said when she caught Kaelen looking.
"Impossibly lucky," he replied.
She just smiled that knowing smile.
Ten minutes passed while the team treated injuries and recovered.
Davos stood near the perimeter, his presence alone enough to deter any beasts from approaching. The pinned hound had been released after demonstrating submission, allowed to flee back into the Scourged Zone. A mercy, perhaps, or simply pragmatism. Dead beasts attracted scavengers.
Kaelen's aether regeneration was working faster with the supplement's help, climbing back toward functional levels.
[A.E.: 198/480]
Better. Not ideal, but better.
His system chimed softly with notifications he'd been ignoring during the fight. He pulled up the System interface, checking what had accumulated.
[Weekly Quest Progress: Kill 5 F-Rank Beasts - COMPLETE]
Six F-rank kills total. He'd exceeded the requirement. The enhanced rewards were secured now, just needed to complete tomorrow's daily quest and the weekly quest would finalize.
The mission XP hadn't processed yet. That would come after official debriefing and documentation review.
But he was close. So close to major progression.
"You'll give the full report," Davos said cutting his thoughts short. "From initial entry to contact with the pack. Decisions. Mistakes. Outcomes."
His eyes flicked briefly to the forest beyond the barrier, then back to Kaelen.
"And you'll do it honestly. You survived because you adapted. Not because the zone was merciful."
Kaelen nodded once.
"Yes, sir."
The Scourged Zone waited beyond the barrier, silent again.
But it no longer felt ignorant of them.
And that, Kaelen knew, was the most dangerous part.