Roooooaaaaaarrrrr!!!
The terrifying beast let out another screeching bellow that sent Frost's ears ringing, and his face paled considerably.
The canopy was dense enough that, from the ground, he could barely make out the sky above them, yet those damned tentacles continued reaching through the trees with frightening precision, sweeping aside branches and crushing trunks as though the forest were nothing more than tall grass.
"Keep running!" someone screamed.
Frost didn't need to be told twice.
He pushed himself harder, his legs aching painfully as he followed the fleeing students deeper into the forest.
Branches whipped against his face and arms, leaving shallow scratches across his skin, while roots and uneven patches of earth threatened to send him tumbling with every step that he took.
'Where the hell are we supposed to go!?'
The forest seemed endless.
Every direction looked the same, with enormous trees stretching toward the heavens and thick vegetation covering the ground.
There were no visible roads, buildings, or any signs of civilisation, and certainly no convenient shelter waiting for them to hide in.
Boom!
Another deafening crack rang out, and Frost instinctively ducked.
A massive tentacle lunged right above him and smashed through the canopy several dozen metres ahead of him, tearing through branches and snapping thick tree trunks like twigs.
The impact sent splinters and leaves flying in every direction, forcing the students in front of him to scatter.
"Go left!"
"No, this way!"
"There's nowhere to go!"
Frost gritted his teeth as he watched the chaos unfold without breaking stride.
'We're fucked.'
He could hear the panic spreading through the group as everyone began running in different directions in smaller groups.
The formation they had desperately tried to maintain was falling apart, and Frost knew that was probably the worst thing they could do.
The moment everyone scattered, the monster would have more targets to choose from.
But what choice did they have?
Running together made them an easier target, while splitting up meant getting lost in an unfamiliar forest where God knew what else was waiting for them.
Frost was not foolish enough to believe that this damned flying octopus was the only abomination waiting for them in this harrowing forest.
'This is supposed to be a trial?'
Frost ducked beneath a low-hanging branch before stumbling forward, his lungs burning.
'What kind of fucking trial starts by feeding students to a giant octopus!?'
Another scream erupted somewhere behind him, but he didn't dare turn to look.
They hadn't been running for long, but he was starting to get tired already. His lungs were burning, and his legs were not doing any better; he was not going to last long, especially given the fact that this looked like it was going to be a long chase.
And that was if he counted himself among the lucky few that would somehow escape from this monstrosity's clutches.
Just as he was thinking that things couldn't get any worse, Frost suddenly heard a commotion up ahead. When he looked up to see what the hell was going on, his face twisted with dread.
The group had been stopped by a pack of growling wolves, but the thing was, these were not your usual wolves.
They had thick black-and-white coats of fur covered in a thin layer of frost, with white wisps of mist drifting from their exposed fangs. There were about a dozen of them.
Frost's eyes narrowed.
'Those aren't wolves, are they?'
They certainly were not the wolves he knew.
The good thing was that they also seemed to be fleeing from the fiend wreaking havoc above them.
The bad thing was that apparently, that didn't make them any less hostile toward the humans who had just entered their territory.
Several of the wolves suddenly turned around, their heads snapping toward the sky as they let out a series of guttural howls.
Frost's eyes widened.
"What are they..."
BOOM!
The wolves leapt high into the air before simultaneously stomping their paws into the ground.
Then Frost saw a sight he would never forget.
Rows of jagged ice spikes erupted from beneath them, shooting toward the leading vanguard with terrifying speed.
Four of the jagged icicles found their targets, piercing straight through their stomachs before jutting out the other side.
Crimson blood erupted from their wounds as their bodies were lifted from the ground.
Frost felt his blood run cold and his face go numb as he slid to a rough stop. He could do nothing but stare in horror.
The four students were still twitching, their mouths opening and closing soundlessly as blood poured from their wounds.
One of them desperately reached toward the others, his fingers trembling as though he were trying to grab onto something, anything, that could keep him from falling.
Then his hand went limp.
And just like that, four more were gone.
"Ahhhhhhh...!"
It wasn't clear who screamed first after the wolves' attack, but more horrified screams blended with hers, merging into a single horrifying cry.
It suddenly became painfully clear that their chances of surviving this ordeal had dwindled past whatever small sliver of hope they had been clinging to.
The small groups scattered in every direction, and the pack of wolves gave chase without much fanfare, as if they were hunting helpless prey.
Frost was no different.
His legs moved long before he had any idea what he was going to do next, carrying him wherever his eyes noticed that there was the least amount of danger.
"Haaaaa....haaaaaa...haaaaaa...."
Now it was a pincer attack.
The octopus was behind them, looming above the forest from the sky while striking with its menacing tentacles, while the mobile wolves lunged at whoever happened to be closest to them, snapping and tearing as they chased after the fleeing humans.
The funny thing was, they didn't even seem to be doing it intentionally.
The wolves were attacking because a frantic group of humans had suddenly come charging into their territory, and as far as they were concerned, they were simply defending themselves from an unfamiliar threat.
That didn't make it any less terrifying for Frost.
And it wasn't as though the octopus had stopped taking people either.
One moment, someone could be running right beside you, and the next, they would be violently whisked into the sky by one of those countless tentacles.
And so, without much suspense, the group continued to dwindle.
Of the thirty or so students who had initially appeared in this unusually grim place, several had already been taken by the octopus, more had followed after, and four had been impaled by the frenzied wolves.
It wasn't long before there were only twenty people left.