Kael's silhouette was eventually swallowed by the emerald depths of the forest, leaving a hollow silence behind.
The group of six stood paralyzed, their calls fading into the rustle of leaves.
"It's my fault," Syra whispered, her voice trembling.
"I shouldn't have pried into Class 001. I made him uncomfortable."
Jax scoffed, though his eyes remained fixed on the spot where Kael had vanished.
"It wasn't you, Syra. He's Rank 1. He probably saw us as a burden—dead weight holding back his ascent. That's just the arrogance of the elite."
Gin raised a hand to silence the rising bitterness.
"Enough. Kael protected us when we were at our weakest. We've gained enough points and safety over the last few hours to stand on our own feet again. If he wants to hunt alone, that is his right. We are Class 101—we survive because we work together."
"Gin's right," Brom added, his voice like grinding stone.
"We still have each other."
With a communal sigh of resignation, the group turned back to their path. Without Kael's overwhelming speed, the journey became a grueling crawl.
They encountered several clusters of Semi-Spawn monsters, but without their "shield," every victory was paid for in sweat and fresh bruises.
By the time the sun began to dip toward the horizon, each member had scraped together roughly 380 points.
They collapsed in a small clearing to catch their breath. Gin looked at his weary friends, trying to stoke the embers of their morale.
"We've gathered nearly a hundred points today. At this rate, we'll secure our spots in Class 101 by the final day. Just a little more."
"When we get back," Jax groaned, rubbing his lower back,
"I'm going to sleep for three days straight. I am so done with this dirt."
The others laughed weakly, sharing their own dreams of hot showers and real food. But the laughter was cut short.
Rustle. Crack.
The sound came from the dense brush ahead.
Haunted by their previous near-death experience, the group reached for their weapons instinctively.
They waited, hearts hammering against their ribs, expecting another three-meter nightmare to burst through.
Instead, four bedraggled figures stumbled into the light. Two boys and two girls, their uniforms torn to ribbons, their skin slick with sweat and crimson.
"Hah—Hah... thank the gods," one of the boys wheezed, collapsing to his knees.
"Living people... we found you."
Gin didn't lower his sword. In this forest, humans were often more dangerous than monsters.
"Who are you? Stay where you are."
The boy at the front, with messy black hair and eyes clouded with pain, looked up.
"W-We're from Class 251. We're running... there's a Spawn-class monster. Our group... there were fourteen of us. Our leader sent us to find help... everyone else is being slaughtered."
The girls behind him began to sob, their bodies covered in jagged, weeping gashes.
"Please," one of them begged, her voice breaking. "You have to help us. They're dying out there."
The sight was pathetic enough to melt the hardest heart.
Gin looked at Ren, who nodded solemnly. Ren stepped forward, chanting a verse from the Core of Symbol.
"Heal."
The azure glow washed over the four newcomers.
Their bleeding slowed, and the grey pallor of exhaustion left their faces. Once they could breathe again, the boy introduced himself as Cor, alongside his companions Hal, Sen, and Lina.
"There are two of them," Cor explained, his voice trembling.
"A Spawn-class Dark Dog and a Serpent. And forty Semi-Spawns. We were overwhelmed... please, if we don't go back now, they'll be gone."
The four of them dropped to their knees, bowing their heads in the dirt.
"We beg you."
Gin hesitated. Two Spawns and forty minions? It was madness. But looking at the desperate faces of his classmates, he couldn't turn away. He looked at his team.
"We'll scout from a distance. If it's impossible, we retreat. No one dies for a lost cause. Agreed?"
The team nodded. They followed Cor's group as they dived back into the thicket. The four survivors ran with a frantic, desperate speed—so fast that Gin's weary team struggled to keep them in sight.
"Wait!" Jax gasped, his lungs burning. "Slow down! We've lost them!"
The forest had grown unnaturally still.
The four students from Class 251 had vanished into the shadows like ghosts. Gin opened his mouth to call out, but the words died in his throat.
Sibilance. A low, wet hiss.
From the canopy above, a massive, emerald-scaled Serpent—three meters of coiled muscle and venom—dropped into their midst.
Before a single soul could react, its jaws clamped around Ren, the healer.
"AHHHHH! HELP! SAVE ME!"
"Ren!"
The group lunged forward to save their friend, but the earth itself seemed to birth monsters. Twenty Semi-Spawn serpents lunged from the tall grass, hissing in a lethal perimeter.
Gin raised his sword to strike, but a sudden, sharp sting pierced his back.
Thwack.
"Kuh... what...?"
A numbing cold spread from the wound. Gin's limbs turned to lead; his muscles seized as if turned to stone. He collapsed, his face hitting the damp soil.
Around him, he saw Brom, Jax, Nia, and Syra falling one by one, their eyes wide with terror as paralysis took hold.
And then, he heard the sound.
CRUNCH.
Gin watched in paralyzed horror as the Spawn-class Serpent slowly unhinged its jaw, sliding the screaming Ren into its dark gullet.
"Argh... help... I don't want to d—"
The scream was muffled, then silenced. A heavy silence followed, broken only by the sickening sound of the Serpent swallowing its meal.
Gin's heart shattered. Ren was gone. Their friend, their healer, was just... food.
"Tch. It swallowed one, Layla. What a waste."
"Sorry, Flin. Consider it a reward for the Serpent's hard work."
Two figures stepped out from behind the massive snake.
One was a boy with a cruel, jagged smile—Flin. The other was a girl with cold, calculating eyes—Layla.
"Tell them to stop," Flin commanded.
"I don't want the snakes killing the rest of our points."
With a flick of Layla's hand, the monsters retreated. Behind them, a group of fourteen students emerged from the shadows—including Cor and the three others they had "saved."
The realization hit Gin like a physical blow. Cor wasn't a victim. He was the bait.
"Why...?" Gin wheezed, his face pressed into the dirt.
Cor walked over, looking down at Gin with a mocking grin.
"Sorry, Gin. We didn't want to do it, but your points were just too tempting to pass up." He turned to Flin.
"Next time, hit us a little lighter, Flin. Those wounds you gave us to 'sell the act' actually hurt."
Flin laughed, his eyes glinting with a predatory hunger.
"Gotta make it believable, right? Now... let's process these leftovers."
As the shadows of the Hunter-Group loomed over them, Gin's world dissolved into a hopeless, suffocating black.
...
Miles away, deep in the untamed heart of the woods.
BOOM!
A thunderous impact shook the trees, followed by a voice filled with indignant rage.
"Hey! Stop stealing my kills! That one was clearly mine!"
"You were too slow," a cold, detached male voice replied.
Kael Vance froze. Those voices.
He knew that rhythm—the friction between fire and ice. He broke into a sprint, weaving through the undergrowth until he reached a clearing.
There stood two familiar figures amidst a graveyard of monsters. One was a wolf-kin with golden eyes brimming with irritation; the other was a black-haired boy with eyes like a hollow abyss.
They both turned to look at him, their expressions shifting to mild surprise.
Kael offered a small, genuine smile—the first one that didn't feel like a mask.
"It's been a while," Kael said softly.
"Though I suppose it's only been a day. Ash. Fenrir."
That's right, Kael has met Ash and Fenrir again.