The fog stayed quiet after that.
The growls stopped, and the blurry shapes that had been hiding in the distance vanished. The surviving hounds retreated into the fog, disappearing so quickly it felt like the fog had simply eaten them up.
Students stood around with their weapons raised, waiting for an attack that wasn't coming.
Slowly, the tension broke.
"We did it," someone whispered.
Then the cheering started. Relief flooded through the temple as teams lowered their guards and clapped each other on the back.
Renna was still staring at Holden.
"No seriously," she said. "How? One second there were twelve hounds about to eat my spine and the next they're all just... dead. All of them. Before I even finished turning around."
Emric pushed his glasses up his nose. The motion was shaky.
