"Let's go. Now," Recruit 1 hissed, immediately breaking into a dead sprint southward, away from the rocky cave entrance.
Henry turned and bolted after her, his teeth chattering as he tried to shake the unnatural, bone-deep chill that felt completely cemented into his skeleton. Recruit 7 took a few seconds longer to unfreeze, stumbling blindly before finally catching up to their frantic pace.
"What do we do now?" Henry gasped out mid-run, his eyes darting toward the canopy. "We have maybe fifteen minutes before we're in total darkness!"
"I don't know!" Recruit 1 shot back, her breathing ragged. "But what I do know is that if we had caught the attention of whatever is in that cave, we would have to call for help, and pray the instructors get to us before we're ripped apart."
The logic was flawless, but it didn't change the terrifying reality of their situation. The sun was rapidly bleeding out, the temperature was plummeting, and they had just abandoned their only viable shelter.
Henry glanced over his shoulder at Recruit 7. In the dimming light, Recruit 7 looked a full shade paler than his usual complexion. He hadn't uttered a single complaint or sarcastic remark since the icy aura hit them.
"You good, 7?" Henry asked.
"Yeah..." Recruit 7 wheezed. His breathing was dangerously heavy for such a short sprint. Between his complete lack of breath control at the moment and the thinning air of the foothills, he was struggling to form words.
"Is the difference... between Ranked... and Foundational... really that deep?"
The question triggered a dark, flashing memory in Henry's mind, a horrific, bloody image of the unimaginable carnage the Ranked trolls had inflicted on his family's knights and aprentices in his past life. He opened his mouth to answer, but the words caught in his throat.
Recruit 1 stepped in. "We don't know our exact stats, since the System remains locked until we officially become Ranked," she explained between strides. "But my father told me that the difference between a peak Level 10 Foundational and a brand new F-Ranker is exponential. An F-Rank has, on average, three times the baseline stats."
Suddenly, three piercing howls rang out directly in front of them.
All three of them skidded to a violent halt.
Emerging from the shadows of the thinning tree line were three wolves.
The one in the center was terrifyingly familiar to Henry. It stood five feet at the shoulder and stretched ten feet long, its fur a ghostly white, its eyes glowing with a haunting green light.
It was a Wind-Mana Wolf—a slightly smaller version of the exact beast that had killed Henry during his F-Rank test over and over again.
Flanking the white wolf were two smaller wolves, roughly four by eight feet, bearing light red coats and pitch-black eyes.
"We got sloppy," Recruit 1 cursed, drawing her sword. "We were too rattled by that cave's aura. We shouldn't have been talking while moving, especially not at dusk."
The three wolves didn't attack immediately; they began fanning out to the left, effectively pinning them against the steep, rocky cliff face of the foothill they had been running alongside.
Before they could even formulate a plan to break the line, three more howls echoed.
Three red-coated wolves stalked out of the darkness to their right, cutting off their flank.
A second later, two final howls shook the trees, these much deeper and far more intimidating.
From the rear emerged two massive red wolves, easily matching the size of the white wind-mana wolf in his rank test.
Eight predators. Surrounding them in a perfect, suffocating half-circle against the cliff wall.
As the pack began to slowly close the distance, choking off any possible avenue of escape, Recruit 7's nerves finally broke.
"I think we need to call for help. Right now."
Recruit 1's face was pale with genuine terror, but her pride was absolute. "I would rather die than fail this exam two days before the end."
"I'm usually with you, 1," Henry said, his grip tightening painfully on his hilt, "but I'm not ready to die yet. At least, not during a training exam."
"If you're going to call for help, 7, do it now, but step aside. I'm fighting until the end," Recruit 1 exclaimed.
Henry didn't want to die, but he also desperately didn't want to be the one to officially yield. He hoped Recruit 7 would just fire the flare so Henry could be rescued without having to bear the shame of quitting. But as he glanced sideways at Recruit 7, he realized, with a sinking feeling, that Recruit 7 was staring back at him with the exact same expectation.
'Damn it. I guess his arrogant competitiveness rubbed off on me,' Henry thought.
"If no one is firing a flare, then get in formation!" Recruit 1 ordered, her voice cracking like a whip. "14, you take the three on the right. 7, you take the three in the front. I'll handle the two in the back."
The moment she assigned the targets, the wolves lunged. All eight of them swiped with razor-sharp claws in a coordinated, relentless wave.
Henry swung his arming sword in wide, horizontal arcs, desperately keeping the snapping jaws at bay. But the pack was too coordinated. With every synchronized strike, the recruits were forced to take a step back.
Clang. Swipe. Step back.
Within a minute, the three recruits were pushed entirely against the rock face, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, close enough that their elbows bumped. There was nowhere left to retreat. The wolves began to smarten up with every passing second.
They began staggering their attacks, which led to them slipping past his guard just enough to leave shallow, bleeding gashes across Henry's forearms and hands.
"This is it!" Recruit 7 panicked, his sword shaking. "If we're going to call for help, we need to do it right now! Does anyone have a secret plan to overturn this?!"
Neither Henry nor Recruit 1 replied, entirely consumed by the desperate fight to keep their throats intact.
"He—" 7 opened his mouth, his free hand cupping the left side of his mouth as he began a eardrum-bursting scream for help.
"Wait!" Henry roared, cutting him off. He parried a snapping set of jaws, his mind racing as the pieces finally clicked into place. He knew the System. He knew how it worked. "I have an idea! Follow me!"
"Follow you where?!" Recruit 1 screamed, deflecting a heavy claw strike. "We literally cannot move!"
Henry ignored her. He took a deep breath, staring directly into the glowing green eyes of the Wind-Mana Wolf in front of recruit 7, and spoke with pure determination.
"Commence Rank Test."