Chapter 18 – The Rift Beneath the Pines
"Didn't think anyone else would get a kill this early."
Auron's hand froze halfway to his sword. The voice came from the shadows, smooth and cold, but carrying a strange amusement.
The figure stepped into view a young man maybe a year older than them, dressed in crimson-trimmed hunter armor polished to a mirror's gleam. His spear rested lazily over his shoulder, but there was nothing casual in his stance.
Every movement was controlled, drilled into him through years of mannerisms training . The insignia burned into his pauldron the crest of House Lorne.
"Verric Lorne," Rin muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing.
Two others followed him: a girl in silver-blue robes, her staff capped with a floating crystal that hummed faintly, and a lean boy with a weapon that looked like a sword until it unfurled a chain of whirring links tipped with a hook-blade.
Auron felt the air tighten around them.
Verric stopped a few paces away, gaze drifting to the dead gargoyle. "Impressive." His tone was flat, though his eyes gleamed with faint irritation. "Didn't expect commoners to land the first kill."
Milo's jaw clenched. "We earned that kill fair. Doesn't matter who—"
"Everything matters," Verric interrupted. "Names. Crests. Blood. You'll learn that here."
Rin stepped forward, his bow relaxed but his voice sharp. "Then maybe you'll learn that monsters don't care for crests when they're chewing through your spine."
Verric smiled faintly. "Point taken, elf boy."
The girl behind him sighed softly, like she'd heard this kind of exchange before. "Verric, stop provoking everyone you meet. You're supposed to be focusing on the trial."
He didn't turn. "I am focusing. Observation is part of strategy." His gaze flicked back to Auron. "And I'm observing that you fight like someone who shouldn't still be standing. You poured too much mana into that last strike."
Auron said nothing. His knuckles whitened around his hilt. "Maybe you should worry about your own fight."
"Oh, I intend to," Verric replied. "The eastern woods aren't safe. The gargoyles weren't the only things released." He gestured toward the forest behind him. "You might have noticed the mana surge."
Rin frowned. "What surge?"
The mage spoke now, her voice calm, educated. "A distortion in the mana flow. Like a heartbeat underground. It's spreading fast. by the way My name is Ela Lorne," she added, offering a polite nod to the group. "We think something else was awakened when the gargoyles were released."
"Awakened?" Milo echoed, eyes darting to the trees. "As in—"
Before he could finish, the ground shuddered.
A low rumble rolled through the forest deep enough to shake leaves from branches. The gargoyle's corpse cracked, its mana core flickering violently.
"Move! MOTHER FCKER-RR" Auron shouted.
They scattered just as the body erupted.
A pulse of molten light tore through the clearing, splitting the air with a deafening crack. The remains disintegrated into shards of burning stone, and the ground beneath them split open like glass struck by a hammer.
The world twisted.
A blinding surge of blue-white energy flooded the clearing. The forest bent, warped, and folded inward. For a heartbeat, Auron saw both the earth beneath him and something else a reflection of it, distorted, full of floating stones and rivers of light.
Then gravity vanished
He fell.
When Auron hit the ground, the air was wrong. Too heavy. Too sharp.
The trees above him were no longer trees but stone towers, twisted and fused with crystal veins. The sky was split in half: one side dusk, the other dawn. The air shimmered like heat over sand.
He groaned, pushing himself upright. "Rin? Milo?"
"I'm here," Rin's voice answered, faint but steady. he emerged from behind a broken archway, bow slung over his shoulder. "We're not in the woods anymore."
"No kidding," Milo said, limping toward them. His armor was scorched along one side. "What the hell just happened?"
Before Auron could answer, Verric's spear stabbed into the ground beside him. The noble pulled himself up from a slope of shattered stone, breathing hard. "You idiots nearly got us all killed."
Auron stood, squaring his shoulders. "We didn't trigger that."
"Then who did?" Verric snapped.
Ela appeared next, bruised but composed, helping the chain-sword wielder Kale arron, Auron heard her call him to his feet. "This isn't a natural phenomenon," she said, scanning their surroundings. "It's a mana rift. Some kind of dungeon subspace."
Rin tilted her head. "You're saying the forest folded in on itself?"
"More like it tore open," Ela replied. "And if we're right, whatever caused it is still nearby."
Verric grunted. "Fantastic. Stuck with commoners in a magical deathtrap."
"Keep talking like that," rin said, "and you'll find yourself without anyone watching your back."
Verric's gaze was ice. "I don't need anyone watching my—"
A sound split the air.
Not a growl. Not a roar. Something worse like molten metal being torn apart, layered with a dragon's cry and thunder
Every instinct in Auron screamed
Rin's eyes widened, the blood draining from hisr face. "Tell me that wasn't—"
"It was," Ela whispered. "A wyvern. But… no wyvern should be this deep inland."
The rumble came again, closer this time. A shadow passed over the fractured terrain — vast wings, half-tattered, scales gleaming like burnt copper.
The scorched wyvern landed atop a jagged ridge, its claws carving molten grooves into the stone. One eye was scarred shut; the other burned like an ember. Smoke billowed from its nostrils with every breath.
It exhaled — and the air itself ignited.
"Scatter!" Verric roared.
The group dove in different directions as a stream of fire scorched the ground where they'd stood. Heat washed over them like a hammer blow.
Auron rolled, coughing through smoke. His skin burned even through his armor. He caught a glimpse of the wyvern's chest a deep wound glowing from within, veins of cracked crystal pulsing with chaotic mana.
Rin loosed two arrows - they vaporized mid-air.
Ela shouted a spell, raising a barrier of light. The wyvern's tail smashed through it like glass.
Kale's chain-sword lashed out, wrapping around the creature's foreleg but the next instant, the wyvern jerked, yanking him off his feet and slamming him into a pillar of stone.
"Kale!" Ela screamed.
Auron didn't think. He sprinted forward, sword drawn, channeling mana into his legs. Every nerve screamed in protest.
He reached Kale just as the wyvern's claw came down. Auron shoved the boy aside and rolled under the strike, the ground shattering behind him.
Verric was already in motion, spear spinning in a silver arc. He leapt onto a boulder, then launched himself at the beast's flank, thrusting with everything he had. The spear sank in - just barely - and the wyvern shrieked, throwing him off like an insect.
Milo darted in, slashing at its tail. Sparks flew; the tail swung back, sending him flying into Rin.
For a few seconds, the battlefield was chaos smoke, ash, light, and blood.
Ela's voice cut through it all. "It's feeding off the rift from the rift! That's why it's still alive!"
"How do we stop it?" Auron shouted.
"We can't," she said. "Not yet."
"Then what—"
The wyvern's head snapped toward them, one eye locking on Auron. For a moment, he saw his own reflection in that burning pupil small, fragile, mortal.
Then it roared.
The force of it shattered stone.
Auron's sword hand trembled. The Lion Bracelet around his wrist burned hot a pulse that thudded in rhythm with his heartbeat.
Something inside him stirred.
Verric stumbled to his side, blood dripping from his temple. "We're not beating that thing alone," he rasped. "alright alright i take it back, I do need someone watching my"
Auron met his gaze and nodded. "alright we are in this together."
Rin rose beside them, grim but ready. "Then let's make it bleed."
The wyvern spread its wings, shadow swallowing light. The air screamed around them, mana bending under its weight.
The six of them stood a noble's pride, a commoner's resolve, an elf's precision, a mage's brilliance, a soldier's courage, and a chain-sword's defiance facing a monster that should be faced by them.
The ground shook as the wyvern lunged.
And the Trial of the Lodge turned into war.
[End of Chapter 18]