~Laurent
The forest erupted into chaos.
The first wave of wolves charged at us like a living tide. Fangs gleamed, claws tore the earth, and snarls shook the canopy overhead.
Kael stepped forward. His silver hair caught the fractured light of the forest, his voice calm, absolute. He raised one hand.
The world bent.
Flames roared to life, coiling into a wall that burned a dozen wolves to ash in a heartbeat. The survivors leapt back—only for Kael to flick his other hand, summoning a wave of water that surged through the ranks, drowning their howls in liquid fury. I smiled, I was very glad that we an S-ranked celestial on our side.
But he wasn't done. Lightning split the sky and speared three more wolves, their charred bodies crumpling in the mud. A gust of wind followed, blades of air sharper than steel scything through the horde. Last came stone—spikes of jagged earth ripping up from the ground, impaling those too slow to flee.
One man. Five elements. He was the embodiment of power itself.
"Stay together!" Kael commanded, his voice carrying over the din.
The A-ranks moved next.
Vale, the psychokinetic, strode into the fray with a look of cold determination. She clenched her fist, and half a dozen wolves lifted into the air, writhing helplessly. With a twist of her wrist, bones cracked like twigs. She flung their corpses into the swarm, bowling over another pack. Her movements were precise, elegant, every gesture a death sentence.
Beside her, Seris the Titan bellowed like a war horn and slammed both fists into the ground. The earth split with the force, throwing wolves into the air like ragdolls. One landed too close; Seris caught it mid-leap, twisted, and hurled the beast so hard it shattered against a tree trunk. Another lunged for her throat—she met it with her knee, crushing its skull. Every motion was raw brutality, unmatched power.
Doran, the B-rank necromancer, stretched out his arms and chanted low. Shadows pooled at his feet, thickening, rising, twisting into human forms. Soldiers of smoke and bone stepped forward, eyeless but armed with ghostly blades. They clashed with the wolves, each strike of their weapons dissolving flesh into mist.
Then came Lira. She raised her hand high, arcane words spilling from her lips. The air shimmered as glowing sigils spun into existence, each one pulsing with power. A blast of arcane light shot forth, obliterating a cluster of wolves in a radiant explosion. Another spell followed, chains of magic binding wolves in mid-air as arrows of pure mana rained down, piercing them clean through.
It was relentless. The wolves came by the hundreds, but the teachers were gods among men. We students stood frozen at the edges, cheering, gasping, scribbling in notebooks—some even laughing as if it were a performance staged for our amusement.
But then it ended.
The wolves stopped coming. The last few whimpered, tails tucked, before fleeing into the shadows. I believed that the other wolves ran because they were scared of the might of our teachers.
Lira stepped forward. "Students, calm yourselves. We promised to protect you. We will. We can handle any monster this forest throws at us. There is no—"
Her words cut off with a wet sound.
I blinked, confused—then froze.
An arrow jutted from her chest. Not her chest—her heart. The light left her eyes instantly, her mouth opening in a silent question as she toppled forward, dead before she hit the ground.
Screams erupted around me.
"Where did it come from?!"
"She's dead! She's dead!"
Everyone started panicking. We knew we weren't safe anymore. I thought just for a moment that maybe the wolves did not run because they were scared of the might of our teachers but because they were scared of something scarier that was coming. My heart leapt into my chest. Even Ciela that was always confident and fearless couldn't hide the paranoia in her chest.
Kael's head snapped up. His eyes narrowed. "Silence!"
Another arrow whistled through the air, aimed straight at Doran. He barely had time to raise his arms—when Kael appeared before him, hand outstretched. He stopped the arrow when it was just a hair's breadth from his palm.
"Come out." Kael said as he dropped the arrow, talking to no one that we could see.
The forest shifted as something massive pushed through the undergrowth.
And then it appeared.
A monster, twice the size of the trees around it, lumbered into view. Its skin was armored in black scales, its head crowned with jagged horns, eyes glowing like molten coals. It opened its maw, and the roar that followed nearly split the forest in two.
Kael and Seris stepped forward together.
"Students, back!" Kael ordered. We obeyed without protest.
Seris charged first, slamming her fists into the beast's leg. The ground trembled. The monster snarled and swung a clawed hand—she caught it with both arms, muscles straining, veins bulging as she held it back.
"NOW, KAEL!" she roared.
Kael answered. Lightning streaked down, engulfing the monster's head in a blinding flash. It reeled but didn't fall. Fire followed, coating its scales in hungry flames. The monster thrashed, knocking Seris aside, but she rolled, sprang back, and leapt—landing a punch to its jaw that cracked bone.
The fight raged on, blow after blow, element after element. Kael summoned torrents of wind to knock it off balance, jagged spears of earth to pierce its hide. Seris fought like a storm embodied, fists smashing, knees breaking, each strike echoing like thunder. But still, the beast endured.
At last, with a roar that shook the trees, Kael unleashed all five elements at once. Fire, water, wind, earth, lightning—converging into a single cataclysmic strike. The monster screamed as its body was torn apart, scales exploding, blood hissing on the ground. It collapsed, dead.
The silence after was deafening.
Kael and Seris stood panting, shoulders heaving, their power spent.
Doran stepped forward, voice grim. "The excursion is over. We must return—"
The words died in his throat.
The forest groaned.
Four more of the same monsters emerged, their eyes burning in the dark.
"Doran, we're going to need your shadow army for this." Kael said, his voice iron. "Vale. Get the students out. Now. Seris and I will buy you some time."
We didn't wait. We ran.
Vale led the way, clearing trees and roots with her telekinesis, revealing the right path to us. Not long after, smaller monsters surrounded us.
"These monsters are not powerful individually." Vale said, her voice sharp. "Fight back, the more we are, the better our chances. I can't protect all of you alone!"
The students obeyed. Spells flew, blades swung, blood splattered. Monsters fell, one after another. Even the weakest of us struck back. Everyone… except me.
I gripped my knife, heart pounding, legs trembling. This is it. Prove yourself.
I lunged at a smaller wolf. My blade scraped its hide but didn't sink in. It snarled and barreled into me, knocking me flat. Its claws raked my chest, teeth snapping for my throat.
I screamed, struggling, stabbing wildly, but it was stronger. It pinned me, jaws opening wide—
And then its body ripped apart, limbs twisting in mid-air before bursting like overripe fruit.
"Laurent!"
Ciela. Her hands shook with telekinetic force, blood spattering her face. She was at my side in an instant, eyes wide with fear.
"Help him!" she screamed.
A student ran forward—an Arcanist, hands glowing with healing light. Pain seared, then faded as flesh knitted, bones set, blood dried. I gasped for air, trembling.
We pressed on, stumbling deeper into the forest. My legs felt like lead, my chest hollow.
Vale raised her hand gesturing for us to stop walking. She moved forward to see what was ahead and then suddenly, a massive hand grabbed her head. She struggled but could not remove the hand.
The rest of us just watched without being able to do anything, our limbs paralysed by fear.
The monster squeezed.
Her body convulsed once—then fell limp, her head crushed like fruit.
Blood dripped between its fingers.
It wiped his fingers and then turned to us.