Boom
A ring of explosions tore through the eastern quarter of the forest—quickly followed by the shrill screams of monsters being consumed by flame.
"Oi! Are you insane?!" Amali snapped. "This is a forest! A forest!"
A formula of symbols flickered to life beneath her palm. Droplets of water formed midair, gathering before cascading down in a sudden downpour to smother the spreading flames.
Cardana's terrain was vast, but it was enclosed—hemmed in by towering cliff walls that only opened several kilometres away from the coast. To the north lay a treacherous mountain range, cutting them off entirely from the rest of the Pandora continent.
If a wildfire took hold here, the entire domain would be finished.
"Sorry…" the cerulean-haired boy said nervously, drifting down to the ground, his cape fluttering behind him. "Though I'm sure the Great Guardian would step in if what you're worried about happen—"
He received a glance that warned of a hex coming his way.
"...Sorry. Just sorry."
Amali scanned the battlefield. The fight had just started, but they had taken out upwards of hundreds of monsters. Still, there were more coming. She hadn't expected it to be easy but...
'Should we go back to town and report this?' she wondered. 'They don't seem to be heading in that direction...'
That was the strangest part.
The monsters were flooding from the east to the west, maybe southwest, based on the path the timber scouts were following. The town stood to the south of where they currently were, and there was nothing of note she could think of that would draw them anywhere else.
Amali looked at her soldiers, giving herself a small pep talk.
This was Reoloy's test.
She didn't believe for a moment that the Chieftain, Gordoi, and especially Captain Meyer weren't aware of the disturbance in the forest right now.
They were probably watching and waiting to step in if it got too dangerous.
"We can do this," she muttered, then turned to her members. "Listen up!"
They all stopped what they were doing, giving her their undivided attention despite being in the midst of absolute chaos.
"Casters, don't use spells with attributes you don't have aptitudes for!" she instructed. "Prioritise efficiency above everything!"
"Okay!"
"Orders received."
"Got it!"
"...If you say so."
Her gaze drifted to the close-range fighters.
"Lancers, try your best to sweep up enemies in large amounts after the swordsmen clear paths for you!"
They acknowledged the orders and sprang into action immediately.
"Good... Edren!" Amali called, fully in commander mode. "You're with me."
The blue-haired teen's face twisted. He felt as if he was experiencing indigestion just from the words alone.
"Do I have to?" he asked, almost pleading.
"You think orders are suggestions?" she replied sweetly.
"Understood!" Edren snapped, immediately falling in beside her. He pulled his brown leather goggles down over his eyes, the thick glass lenses catching the light.
Fire, Decay, and Ink.
Those were the attributes she could rely on if she followed her own strategy.
Fire was a no-go unless it was in small, contained bursts. And she didn't have any such spells...
She had already used more mana than she liked putting out the flames with water magic. She couldn't afford to throw around more spells outside her aptitude range.
"Ink and decay it is..." Amali muttered, massaging her nose bridge. Those weren't as versatile or quick as spells of more traditional attributes. Which meant she needed more time than initially expected. "What were your attributes again?"
Edren looked mildly offended that she didn't remember, but held his complaints given the situation.
"Fire, Earth, Sound," he responded simply.
Amali nodded, a flicker of relief passing through her.
Both of them were likely down a usable attribute—unless he had smaller-scale flame attacks than what he'd shown earlier. Regardless, earth was great for terrain—and by extension. crowd control.
"Stick to earth magic," she instructed. "When the time is right, I'll give you a signal, then you'll use a disorienting sound spell."
Edren stepped forward as she crouched, placing her right hand against the ground while raising her left to her chest. Her fingers curled into a fist, leaving only her pinky extended.
Obsidian-blue and sickly brown-green symbols bloomed beneath and around her.
He didn't know what her signal was going to be, but the monsters had clearly exhausted their patience and were fast closing in on them.
He breathed a brief chant, the words flowing out faster than the ear could discern, and the earth a few metres away gave way.
He stared coldly at the monsters trapped in the wide pit, choosing to take his frustrations out on them.
"Die."
The pit erupted.
Jagged earthen spikes surged in every direction, tearing through every creature within before they could even scream.
The brown symbols around him faded. He let out a breath, lifting his hands in front of himself as new symbols ignited in his palms.
'I'm not paid enough for this...'
A good distance away, Boyd—a lancer—tore through thirteen spine-backed boars before they could unleash their thin, thread-like projectiles.
Behind him, Belonica chanted, frost-blue symbols orbiting her form. The rapid stream of indecipherable words came to an abrupt end—
And the air dropped.
Ice surged across the ground, spreading outward in a quick motion that bound hundreds of beasts in place.
"I had to limit the range," she said, side-eyeing the distance between them and the rest of the squad. "But this should be enough."
Boyd flashed her a smile, giving a thumbs-up.
"This is good, I'll get through these in no time," he replied confidently. "You get the next spell going."
He shot toward the immobilised creatures, dispatching them with ease. It was going to be a long fight, but they needed to push through and eventually regroup with the others.
'If it's like this here...' he thought, unease settling in. "Please stay safe, Fen."
He swung his heavy lance back, the edge of vibrant green mana roaring as if responding to his determination. With a well-practised motion, he thrust the weapon into the last of the frozen monsters.
THUD
The field seemed to come to a perfect stop. Only the cacophony of inhuman cries remained.
Slowly, they turned to the source of the heavy noise.
Crunch
Bark broke, the trees standing in the beast's way getting flung off into the distance. It was recognisable just from the grass-like hair that peaked far above the treeline.
Logged in the Cardanian records with a risk rating of B.
ROAR
The weevil troll had made its appearance.
---
"Where. Is. Roy?!" Avron yelled, hovering just above the ground.
The situation in the western end wasn't much better than that of their eastern counterparts. If anything, it was quite literally worse.
An hour into their departure, they had arrived at the den with little resistance. All they'd had to do was cut down some sabre wolves along the way.
Avron had confidently led the charge ahead—believing that they didn't even need Roy, who had vanished at some point on their journey.
However, fate clearly wanted to have a good laugh at his expense.
Snarl
"Is this it?" Avron asked, staring down the beast that had managed to catch them off guard.
It was a sabre wolf unlike the others. The orange pelt bled much darker, and instead of the nimble, ferret-like build, it sat somewhere between the size of a fox and a proper wolf.
The squad eyed it carefully, watching its muscles that pulsed violently with power, just waiting to be deployed in rapid bursts of movement.
"Sabre my ass..." Avron muttered, looking at the jagged protruding edge on its back. "That's a saw."
On paper, the task at hand was simple. Kill this thing, take its head, and the job was over. He could even gloat that he did everything while the outsider lazed around the entire time.
The problem was that they couldn't even catch the beast to land a proper hit on it.
"Hey, Ron," Runi—one of Avron's oldest friends—chimed from behind him. "I think we bit off more than we can chew."
"Don't get cold feet now," Garm, another of their youth friend group, said nervously. "We're going to stick it to that guy, aren't we?"
"Right!" a chorus erupted from the rest of the squad.
"Enough!" Avron snapped, then slowly broke down his orders. "We can't run for the same reason we can't hit it..."
A cocky grin spread across his face.
"This is the exact type of thing we needed," he continued, swiping off his blood from his left brow. "All in on offence! We're doing that."
Murmurs broke out in a mixture of confusion and shock as the orange-haired teen raised his spear.
"You realise not everyone here knows about it, yeah?" Runi asked dryly.
"They'll adapt."
Garm released a hollow chuckle, activating his mana weapon.
"We don't have much of a choice," he said, looking like he was dead already. "Our friend over there is coming."
In a blur of motion, the wolf was already in Avron's space, jaw wide open. It was only then that he was able to register that its teeth were made from the same material as the blade along its back.
He successfully parried the attack, his mana blade scraping against impossibly solid fangs and sending sparks flying.
Avron twirled the spear, seamlessly shifting forms into an unorthodox overhead thrust that just barely missed its target.
The sabre wolf then reappeared a distance away, a low growl rumbling from its chest as it studied its prey.
The squad commander crouched low, boots still propelling him off the ground, and launched forward. A chase ensuing as he pushed the monster back while it narrowly avoided his attacks.
Before it was able to notice, he boxed it into a corner, throwing his spear at it. In a feat of bizarre power, the wolf howled, generating a barrier of vibrating red waves that completely halted the weapon's approach.
Avron smirked, catching the spear near the end of its shaft as it stalled.
"Fen!" he called.
Immediately, an orange light descended on him, and power surged through his body as his veins began to pop out across his skin.
Grey mana then released from him, pushing the orange aura outward.
Avron thrust his weapon from the uneven position and leverage he held over it. All at once, the green mana blade was coated in grey and ripped through the red obstruction.
"The fight ends now!" he roared, stabbing into the beast's chest before it managed to slip away.
The wolf landed between him and the unit, which had regrouped around a platinum-blonde girl—Fen—orange symbols circling her as she maintained her support magic.
Avron chuckled. "It would've been better if you had died just then."
He raised a hand in a half-prayer gesture.
Howl
The area trembled, and a disorienting effect slammed into them—knees buckling as the ground seemed to tilt beneath their feet.
Avron turned serious, bracing for the coming attack, but it never came. Instead, the beast ran toward the squad—aiming to kill Fen and disable the boost he was benefiting from.
His jaw clenched.
"You really are smart, but you must think I'm stupid," he muttered, veins bulging along his temple. "Even if you get out of range now, I told you..."
A leafy-green symbol pulsed in his palm as he began chanting.
Runi and Garm sprang forward, intercepting the wolf—holding it at bay just long enough.
The creature suddenly jolted violently, its eyes opening wide as it released a pained yelp.
"The fight ends now," Avron finished.
Wooden branches exploded outward from within its body, ripping through flesh and bone in an instant.
He sighed, collapsing into a heap as the auras around him dissipated. Runi and Garm quickly ran to his side while the others checked on Fen, who was just as out of it.
"We did it," Avron said, raising his face from the hard dirt and weakly extending a fist. "We didn't need any of them."
The two exchanged a look—then laughed, bumping his fist.
"Yeah, we did!"
The squad leader closed his eyes, allowing himself a bit of rest.
A memory of the distant past replayed.
"Why are you such a shit, Avron?"
The orange-haired six-year-old frowned at the insult.
"I just don't like that he gets to skip over all of us and become the next captain."
The man stroked his long, grey beard, staring lazily at the child. The boy's youthful energy helped to keep him more alive, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't annoying.
"You mean Roy?" he asked as a formality.
"Yeah, him!"
The man palmed his face, realising how thin it was these days.
"And pray tell," he began, "if you could have a fair contest against him, do you think you could win?"
Avron hesitated, but puffed his chest.
"Give me some time, and I most definitely can!" he said. "Especially if I have ki too!"
"Impossible," the aged man dismissed. "The reason we don't use ki is because of the contract from long ago..."
He leaned against his cane, looking like a wise sage.
"It no longer applies to us, but in honour of the man who saved our forefathers, we uphold the informal tradition all the same."
Avron shook his head childishly.
"I know that!" he yelled. "I'm saying if I could. If old man! If!"
"And I'm saying it wouldn't matter," the elder scolded lightly. "Captain Meyer respects the tradition more than anyone."
He fell onto an outdoor chair, seemingly tired from standing.
"If he made an exception, what do you think that says about the boy?" He raised a hand to silence the oncoming foolishness. "I'll answer for you. He's the best there ever was. Fight him ten times, you'll lose. Fight him a hundred times, you'll lose. Fight him forever, and you'll still lose."
Avron glared at the man, holding himself back from making comments about his age.
"Forget about Roy. There's more to strength than chasing after those that are meant to go beyond the stars."
The boy pouted. "I can't."
"And that's why you're an idiotic shit," the elder replied, shaking his head sorrowfully. "Circling back on ki, did you know that among the three strongest in the world, two are mana users?"
Avron's ears perked, but he tried to play it cool.
"Really?"
"Yup, the only ki user is a monster older than me who's refused to die."
The old man stared wistfully at the night sky.
"I've even heard that there's a mage girl slightly older than you who's quickly becoming a monster of the new generation," he added. "She's poised to challenge for a spot in the strongest three soon. Nobles and Royals alike are scrambling to get on her good side."
Wonder shone in the boy's eyes as he sat at the man's feet listening to what he had to say.
"The point is, it's not the power you use, but you as the user that matters." Raising his hand toward the sky, he chuckled, the noise coming out gravelly. "If you try hard enough, you won't make it to those kinds of people's bootstraps, but you'll get far beyond everyone else."
"I don't want to stop there, thou—!"
"Avron," the elder said, smiling at him. "Try your best."
He rose carefully, already experiencing the recoil of the enhancement spell.
"I hate special people," he murmured, vision blurring at the edges. "They get to soar… while everyone else scrambles just to keep up…"
He forced himself upright—
—and immediately staggered.
"Whoa! Ron, watch out!"
Avron didn't hear any of it. Everything had dissolved into static.
Howl
Every head snapped toward the sound.
From deeper within the cave, shapes began to emerge. At first two. Then four. And then finally, nine other sabre wolves identical to the one they'd just put down skulked out of the shadows.
Just like that, all celebration was replaced by undeniable dread.
Avron's gaze faintly drifted upward, unfocused, toward the ceiling.
"...Damn it."
CRASH
The world burst apart.
Rock, sand, and dirt exploded downward in a blinding cascade, forcing everyone to shield their faces as debris rained over them.
When it cleared—
The ceiling was gone.
Avron clicked his tongue, irritation cutting through the haze.
"Need some help?"
Dark blue eyes peered down at them from up above, an airy indigo ki rolling off the figure, slow and suffocating in its presence.