Crash
Avron's squad glided through the forest, their hover boots propelling them at blistering speeds. Fortunately, the sickness weighing on their bodies earlier had begun to fade after they created enough distance between themselves and the massive sabre wolf.
"That idiot's going to destroy the forest," Avron muttered while piggybacking off the much larger Garm.
He glanced back toward the towering eruptions of dust surging northward, then toward the three derivative sabres relentlessly giving chase.
"Fen."
"What?" the platinum blonde responded unenthusiastically.
Avron locked eyes with her teal irises. "Can you cast one more time?"
Fen deadpanned, weakly lifting her arms to gesture at her current condition—which wasn't much better than his, sprawled across someone else's back. When Avron continued staring at her expectantly, she sighed, adjusted the short-brimmed hat on her head, and summoned a small staff into existence from thin air.
"If I scrape my reserves, then maybe—maybe I can get one more spell out... It'll be weaker than before, though."
Avron's eyes drifted toward the three pursuing monsters, satisfied enough with that answer.
"Runi."
The ash-brown-haired boy glanced toward his squad leader and longtime friend.
"It's all on you and the others still capable of fighting."
The teen ran a hand through his wild, puffy hair before reluctantly nodding without much protest.
A chain of explosions thundered through the distance along the path ahead of them, quickly followed by the deafening crashes erupting from Roy's battle far behind.
Avron swallowed his pride for the time being.
"From all that noise, we can assume Edam's at work ahead," he said irritably. "We'll join up with Lavere's group and have them help us deal with these things."
Runi held two fingers up as the three derivatives tore through the woodland behind them, and with nothing but the silent signal, eight others immediately followed his lead, shifting their postures and bringing their forward hover to a halt.
Even wounded and partially shredded from Roy's earlier attack, the monsters still moved absurdly fast. Their distorted orange-red pelts blurred between the trees like streaks of living blood.
"Left!" Runi shouted.
Two swordsmen instantly peeled away from the formation, their mana-formed blades crashing against a sabre that lunged from the flank.
The rotational impact nearly folded both boys where they stood.
"Why are they still this strong?!" one of them yelled as the beast's vibrating back-blade screeched violently against his weapon.
Runi arrived a second later, driving his spear into the creature's side and forcing it away before it could tear through them.
"Keep moving!" he barked. "Don't let them pin us down!"
The group immediately split into two directions. Runi pursued the sabre he'd managed to graze, while the others regrouped to restrict the movements of the remaining two monsters.
The wounded sabre twisted mid-air violently, claws carving trenches through the bark of a grey tree before it launched itself straight back at Runi.
He clicked his tongue.
"If I could perform attribution, I would've won just then."
The beast howled downward, and distorted red vibrations formed beneath it. Even crazier, it kicked off the unstable air itself as if it were a solid platform and vanished in a burst of speed.
Runi barely managed to duck in time as the vibrating back-blade screamed over his head, shredding bark from three trees to his left.
He instinctively retaliated with a diagonal upward thrust, his spear clipping through the distance and scratching the beast's underside.
Not enough.
The derivative wolf leapt off another trunk, then another, chaining the motions together to continuously build speed and momentum.
'I still can't land a clean hit...' Runi thought grimly. 'Even weakened, I can barely track its movements.'
He planted a foot against the tree beside him and forcefully redirected his hover boots, shooting sideways moments before the beast's jaws snapped shut where his neck had been.
The resulting shockwave rattled the surrounding leaves.
"If this keeps up..." he muttered, eyeing the small crater the wolf emerged from.
Elsewhere, the other group was faring even worse.
The lancers and swordsmen gave chase to one of the sabres. Not only had they completely lost track of the third derivative, but even this one had slipped through their formation and made a direct beeline for the frontrunners.
"Garm!" one of the lancers shouted. "Sorry, but—"
"I know!"
The larger teen abruptly skidded sideways while still carrying Avron, narrowly avoiding the beast that crashed between them and Fen.
The platinum-blonde mage groaned in visible exasperation, weak orange symbols flickering around her small staff.
"You know," she said flatly while narrowly ducking another swipe, "if any of you idiots learned defensive casting, my life would be significantly easier."
"We're militia swordsmen and spearmen, not scholars or mages!" one of the swordsmen yelled while blocking an unexpected attack from a normal sabre wolf.
The deeper they pushed into the forest, the more monsters began appearing around them. It was obvious the creatures had already caught wind of the commotion.
Fen was jostled violently as the squad member carrying her abruptly veered away from a spinning sabre attack.
She steadied herself and looked around at the increasingly chaotic battlefield.
"...And yet somehow I'm still the one risking death the most."
"Can you complain after we survive?" Avron chimed in as he and Garm landed beside her and her support.
"No," Fen answered immediately.
The missing derivative suddenly appeared beside them, barrelling straight toward the four.
They slowly turned toward it, quietly bracing—
Flash
Orange radiance flooded the area, Fen smiling faintly as the reaction stabilised. She gave a small prayer of thanks before designating the carriers as targets of her spell to aid their escape.
A rush of power surged through them.
The carriers immediately leapt backwards at explosive speeds.
The wolf growled, utterly relentless as it launched itself after them once more.
Blurs of orange light and red fur blitzed across the treeline, monstrous claws ripping through trees like paper as the beast twisted its body haphazardly mid-charge to accommodate the shifting phases of the chase.
It was adapting rapidly.
The creature came to an abrupt halt, its glowing eyes tracking the boosted carriers' projected path before it kicked off a branch and split into another angle of pursuit.
'It's caught on!' Avron realised.
Just like their mana weapons, their boots had a limit. They'd been pushing them all this time while dancing on the very edge of overheat.
Even now, Garm was conserving hover usage wherever possible, relying mostly on bursts to enhance his leaps. They couldn't afford snapshot movements anymore.
A swordsman intercepted the beast with a desperate roar, his mana blade crashing against the sabre's impromptu rotation.
The clash lasted less than a second.
He was violently blown away, tumbling through branches as blood sprayed from his shoulder.
"Keris!" someone shouted.
The derivative ignored the injured teen entirely and continued pursuing Fen's group.
"...It knows about the support magic," Avron muttered darkly.
Additional blurs flashed through the trees. This time, normal sabres lunging from below, their smaller jaws stretched wide open.
Garm reacted instantly, twisting his body while still carrying Avron and slamming his boot downward.
The branches beneath them shattered under the force, sending the group free-falling.
A flash of movement entered Avron's vision. "Garm!"
The large boy reacted—albeit too late to prevent an arm injury—and rocketed back into a tree before quickly approaching the ground. Finding his bearings, he dug his fingers into the brown bark to slow their descent.
Runi suddenly burst back into view from deeper within the forest, his breathing ragged while his own derivative opponent clipped dangerously close behind him.
A rogue swipe struck his right boot, sending him crashing into the ground as the propulsion sputtered out entirely.
Three low growls now filled the area, all three mutant beasts having reunited, at last.
Hobbling upright, Garm adjusted Avron more firmly on his back.
"You alive back there?" he asked nervously.
"I'm fine," Avron grunted, glaring ahead of them. "Runi's group tried their best, but this is it."
The other carrier landed beside them, carefully lowering Fen onto the ground.
She chanted, leveraging a hand against her squadmate's shoulder to avoid collapsing from exhaustion. Her breathing came unevenly, and faint orange symbols flickered weakly around her body before fading again.
"I hate all of you," she muttered dryly, ending her casting.
"Good," Avron replied immediately. "Use that anger to cast something stronger."
Fen stared at him blankly.
"I'm not angry. I'm just stating my feelings before I go," she replied, her eyes drooping shut for a moment. "I'm letting you die first, by the way."
A violent crash echoed behind them.
A fourth derivative sabre burst through a cluster of trees, completely ignoring the miscellaneous stab wounds peppering its body as it bulldozed toward the group.
A short distance away, Runi's eyes widened.
"Another one?!" he yelled, trying to launch forward, only for his disabled boot to throw off his takeoff.
Three lancers intercepted the beast head-on.
The first was instantly sent spinning away by a tail strike.
The second landed a clean thrust into its shoulder before being slammed into a tree hard enough to crater the bark.
The third froze.
The sabre wolf's jaws opened wide—
Bang
A precise projectile fired straight through its face, snapping its head limply sideways.
Edam sat atop a branch overhead, embers of residual mana dancing at her fingertip.
"You guys are really slow," she called lazily.
The squad collectively nearly collapsed from relief.
"Edam!" Garm shouted.
"Yeah, yeah."
She adjusted the cloth over her mouth before firing several rotating mana pellets into the battlefield. The shots curved unnaturally through the trees, striking exposed joints and eyes with terrifying precision.
Seeing three of its brethren fall, the remaining derivative sabre suddenly vanished.
"Above!" Fen warned.
The mutant wolf dropped straight toward Edam with claws extended, only for her grey eyes to narrow slightly.
Bang
The pellet fired directly into its open mouth.
The beast's skull ruptured mid-air.
Its corpse crashed through branches before tumbling into the undergrowth below.
"...That's disgusting," Runi muttered, landing unsteadily beside her.
"Thank you," Edam replied casually.
A deep tremor suddenly rippled through the ground.
Everyone stiffened.
From ahead, bursts of green light flickered through the forest.
Then came voices.
"Lavere!" Avron yelled immediately.
The trees parted as another squad emerged at high speed, cutting through monsters while regrouping tightly around a blonde girl standing atop a floating inactive mana spear.
Lavere's eyes quickly swept across the battered group.
"You look awful," she stated plainly.
Avron spat to the side, trying and failing to hide the relief in his expression.
"Some of us actually got challenged out here."
Her gaze shifted toward the unusual sabre corpses.
Three seconds of silence passed.
"...What are those things?" she asked coolly.
Behind her, exhausted soldiers groaned as they recounted the encounter in the cave and how everything spiralled from there.
Lavere listened carefully and then nodded, pointing westward with a slight deviation from the path Avron's squad had taken.
"I'm assuming that's Roy," she said as another massive eruption of dirt thundered in the distance. "I don't think he needs help, but from what we've seen so far, we need to clear out as many monsters as possible and head east."
Avron looked up tiredly. "Did something happen?"
The blonde's expression darkened.
"We've been wrong," she said. "Weevil Troll, Sludge Dragon, Sword Kite. We've always recorded them as the three strongest monsters across all the vast, divided habitats of Cardana... but there's another one."
"What?" Fen asked, becoming uncharacteristically serious.
Edam jumped down, landing in a crouch with a rough thump.
"We covered all of the sabre dens we were assigned," she started. "Had to fight through droves, but we did it."
She ran a hand through her hair in frustration.
"Though there was nothing important until we got to the last one."
Avron shoved himself off Garm's back, ignoring his protesting body.
"Out with it then!"
Lavere met his gaze.
"We found the mangled corpse of the Sludge Dragon. From the looks of it, there was a bit of a struggle."
"Oh..." Garm stepped back, looking around at everyone. "That's... way too much. We need to report back to Captain Meyer!"
"You're right," Edam said briskly. "You lot can go. We're going east."
"What?!" Runi exclaimed, slowly descending from the tree. "That's stupid!"
"It is." She nodded, lowering her eyewear and adjusting her boots. "But I'm not risking my baby brother and friends dying while I run for help."
"She's right," Lavere agreed calmly. "We came this way to confirm the danger wasn't here. Since it isn't, we plan to join up with anyone that's still able-bodied and send the others back."
The forest briefly fell quiet aside from distant roars and the rustling of movement deeper within the woods.
Lavere's group began preparing to depart.
"Do you have mana potions?" Avron asked, limping toward the blacksmith's daughter. "Healing ones, too?"
Lavere and Edam exchanged a look before the cerulean-haired girl tossed him an angular vial.
Avron caught it and studied the pink liquid, recognising the mana replenisher at a glance. He looked up at them, quietly questioning the absence of the second item.
"My reserves are running low," Lavere explained. "I can still heal superficial injuries, though."
Runi and Garm immediately grabbed Avron by the shoulders.
"What do you think you're doing?" Garm demanded. "You want to jump into even more bullshit after barely beating one of those things—with help?!"
Avron frowned, but he remained calm.
"Aside from Roy, I'm the only close-range fighter out here skilled enough to make a difference as reinforcement."
"And?!" Runi snapped. "You should be talking them out of this!"
Avron looked at him plainly.
"A few minutes ago, you couldn't argue against the urgency of helping our comrades," he replied. "You know just as well as I do that some of us have to go."
He patted both their shoulders before flashing a hesitant cocky grin.
"You guys hurry back and get the Captain."
The two boys grit their teeth, unable to properly meet his eyes, but eventually nodded.
"...Fine."
"I'm coming."
Everyone turned toward the soft voice.
Purple-and-teal robes shifted as Fen shakily pushed herself upright.
"I'm sure they still have plenty of mana potions left," she said seriously while staring eastward. "I'm coming too."
Avron didn't argue.
He simply walked over to Lavere's group while Fen followed closely behind. Raising a tired hand, he waved goodbye to the remainder of his squad.
Lavere fastened the last of her holsters and cast one final glance at the battered battlefield.
"Let's go."
---
Blast
A concentrated version of the distorted red howl pulse fired from the massive beast's mouth, the compressed sphere ripping through the air toward Roy.
He looked at it with visible annoyance before casually swatting it upward.
The projectile shot into the sky and exploded into a rain of mana.
The descending lights then burned through leaves, trees, and stone alike wherever they landed.
Roy watched the destruction dryly.
"Cheap."
A concentrated burst of indigo ki expanded around him like a bubble, shielding him from the fallout.
Suddenly, a clawed paw blitzed toward his back.
Roy's eyes widened the instant he noticed the gathered mana coating the appendage.
He was launched through five trees and two layers of stone boulders before finally skidding across the forest floor, molten friction trailing behind him.
The derivative sabre did not let up. The massive beast burst through the dust cloud a heartbeat later, its distorted body twisting unnaturally as vibrating red waves compressed beneath its paws.
Boom!
The earth ruptured where Roy had been standing, leaving behind nothing but a crater and a towering cloud of debris.
The teen remained standing within the newly formed pit, his eyes tracking the monster's abnormally fast movements.
Ki formed around his right arm before he compressed it tightly around his fist, the glow of the scales intensifying in response.
Steam hissed from his skin.
The derivative's glowing green eyes sharpened immediately, abandoning its planned lunge mid-motion and bursting backwards instead.
The beast landed in the distance with a thunderous boom, the surrounding ground rumbling beneath its weight.
Its gaze swept across Roy hungrily.
It was learning.
Not just through combat.
As time passed, the creature continuously absorbed information, adapted, and evolved.
"I kind of figured," Roy called out. The monster's ears twitched at the sound. "But you're the Sabre Wolf Alpha, aren't you?"
Silence fell, and Roy waved the question off almost lazily, obviously aware he wouldn't get an answer.
"How the hell did you get so big?" he muttered, ignoring the dull, pounding ache in his skull. He raised a hand. "Doesn't matter—"
He stepped forward and vanished from sight.
The Sabre Alpha's head was already on the swivel, every sensory instinct firing at full capacity as it tracked him.
The leaves swaying, the dirt being crushed under its weight, monsters in the distance, and finally—
"I can crush you anyway."
It turned left toward the voice, only for the boy's form to wisp away like a mirage.
It pivoted right, and the same happened again.
Quickly, it leapt twice into the air—seemingly bounding off air the second time—and scanned the ground, but then...
Boom!
A fist cleanly ripped into its face. Bone shattered outward. Flesh tore in chunks. Fragments of brain matter hung in place for a brief, grotesque second before slipping free.
The impact launched the beast into the earth, carving a trench as it skidded across the forest floor before finally coming to a stop.
A faint purple mana hummed around its wounds, reconstructing its head. It stood instantly, jumping back as the trees and leaves around where it had stood fell apart, thin lines tracing in the air.
"Tch." Roy appeared above it, performing a flying axe-kick and detonating the earth on contact. He rose, his menacing dark blue eyes piercing through the smoke. "Not only do you heal annoyingly fast, but you also pick up on my subtle attacks too easily."
The wolf landed several meters away, already adjusting—its stance shifting as it began calculating its next move.
It noticed his expression shift—discomfort and weariness.
The Alpha's head tilted slightly.
Roy stumbled, his world blurring around him. Impatiently, he flicked his hand forward and released a flying blade of ki. Much to his surprise, it hit and made a deep gash in the canine's chest.
It didn't matter, however, since purple mana surged immediately through the wound, knitting flesh and bone back together as if nothing had happened.
The beast didn't even flinch.
Roy clicked his tongue, vision still swimming.
"...What are you waiting for?" Roy slurred. "Come at me."
The sabre moved—not toward him, but away. The dark-haired teen could've given chase immediately, but even through the haze in his mind, he knew better.
The creature was trying to whittle away his strength. If it had rushed at him, he would've burned through everything to end it in one exchange. Now, though, they were at an impasse.
If he chased it, he'd be playing into its schemes, but if he let it go, it might cause trouble elsewhere.
"What to do?" Roy muttered.
Bzzzt
Bzzzzzzt
"Hello?"
"You guys can hear me, yeah?"
"Hellllooooo—"
Roy incredulously yanked out the vibrating metal strip on his necklace from underneath his shirt.
It was a long-range communication relic, but they had discovered that they were inactive not long into their expedition—even before they split up.
"Shut up." Lavere's voice cut through first. "We're here. More importantly, how'd you get this working?"
"Something was jamming the signal—er... the mana waves, rather."
Roy focused on the faux relic. "Was it a monster? Did you kill it?"
"Yes to the first question, no to the second."
He slowly slid down against a tree trunk, using the situation to catch his breath before going after the massive wolf.
"Here's the deal," Reoloy said. "You guys keep doing what you're doing. There's a prime monster in the forest. I'm going to kill it."
Collectively, eyes widened despite the massive distance between everyone. Except for Amali, who had to maintain her focus.
"Hahahaha." Roy cackled, tipping onto his side and wiping at his eye.
"Don't entertain him!" Avron snapped. "We're coming to you. Where are you?"
"Not telling~"
"You little—!"
The interaction only served to increase Roy's hysteria, and slowly, everyone listening in started lightening up. The situation still seemed so dire, but the stupidity of the three's bickering brought about a moment of respite.
It allowed them to think about other things and crack jokes like the kids they were.
"Roy."
He perked up slightly. "Yeah?"
"To put it simply, if there was a dominance chart for everything in the forest, you'd be up there," Reoloy started. "But I'm not counting on you to take care of everything."
"...Okay?"
"Cut the fancy tricks and just move like you want to," Reoloy continued. "You'd do better that way. Don't think about the extras, just beat what's in front of you into the dirt—that's enough."
Silence.
"You get me?"
Roy slowly straightened against the tree, sighing before standing up.
"Aye."
Far ahead, the Sabre Wolf Alpha stopped. It turned its head, as if confirming the absence of pursuit, then sniffed in the direction of the person it deemed the second-most dangerous.
A man drenched so immensely in the blood of its underlings, it was sickening.
It took a step.
"Yo."
The wolf's eyes shot open, head whipping toward the treeline, and there he was.
The red scales had receded, and he appeared inebriated from just his exhaustion alone, but the beast's instincts cried that the air the teen exuded was sharper now than before.
"Who said we were done?"
Roy flicked two fingers through the air, and all four of the creature's legs were cut clean off, leaving it disoriented on the ground.
The regenerative purple mana flared, but just as the legs restructured, they were cut yet again.
The process repeated, and the result remained unchanged.
The beast hadn't made a sound aside from its sound-based attacks the entire time it had fought, but now—
A whimper threatened to leave its mouth.
It couldn't feel any of the attacks coming—in addition to being refused the recovery of its legs, it was essentially stuck in this loop of helplessness.
Roy smiled lazily.
"We're going to be here a while, so go ahead and get comfortable."