The silence was broken in a moment. The trees convulsed with activity, and shadows exploded from the undergrowth—distorted creatures with spiked claws, snarling jaws, and burning, plague-touched eyes. They attacked with wild abandon, no strategy, just blind instinct and fury.
"Spread out!" Julius yelled from the rear, but the cadets were already moving.
Lawlet's eyes slitted, his twin pistols glinting in the mottled light of the forest canopy. He pulled the triggers with precision—BANG! BANG! BANG!—Mana-charged bullets flew through the air, leaving weak blue traces. Three creatures were hit in mid charge, collapsing in messy heaps. One spasmed, tried to rise—BANG!—Lawlet did not miss twice.
"Keep moving! I've got the left flank!" he yelled across the comms.
"I see it! Two more from the right!" Remi's voice rang in their ears, her mana linked to theirs via her transmission spell. She was secure behind cover, eyes softly aglow as she monitored their foes through the currents of mana present in the area. "Yulli, incoming at your six!"
Yulli did not have to look. He turned on his heel in time, his sword slicing through the air with a sharp shing!, batting a leaping creature aside. He turned low, cutting its legs out from under it and pinning it down with his sword's flat. It howled in pain, but he delivered no killing blow.
"Not lethal," Yulli muttered, clenching his teeth. "I can battle without killing…
"Don't get soft!" Bruce bellowed, barreling through two creatures like a cannonball. With a snarl, he crashed one into a tree, bark detonating behind it. Another attacked him from the side—Bruce snatched it out of the air and suplexed it into the ground with earthquake force.
"WHAT NOW, YOU FLEAS?!"
"That was unnecessarily dramatic," Lawlet muttered, reloading.
"And cool as hell," Bruce smiled, blood running down his arm. "You're welcome!"
"More coming in from the north!" Remi alerted, voice tight. "Five of them, bigger than the others—possibly evolved beasts!"
"Copy that," Yulli replied, readjusting his grip. "Let's get them together."
"Right behind you," Lawlet said, guns blazing as he moved into position at Yulli's side.
Bruce cracked his knuckles. "If any of them has wings, I'm out."
"You've literally fought a centipede the size of a bus," Yulli retorted, exasperated.
"Sure, but that one couldn't fly," Bruce said.
Julius stood quietly, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. They were hardly impeccable, but these were not the same cadets who had landed here weak and helpless. They were working like a team now. Swift. Concentrated. Blazing.
"Not bad…" he growled. "Now let's see how long you can keep it up."
Just when the cadets were holding their own—blades flashing, bullets flying, fists swinging—the tumult fell oddly silent.
The beasts froze mid-movement.
Yulli, panting, lowered his sword a bit. "What the…?"
Bruce blinked at a snarling beast just a few feet away, rooted stock-still. "Why do they stop halfway?"
"Why did they stop?" Lawlet snarled, reloading slowly.
Remi's eyes opened wide as she reached out with her mana. Her face turned pale. "Guys… we've got a problem. Something big is coming."
"How big?" Bruce asked.
Remi swallowed. "Fully formed beast, big."
Everyone stiffened.
".Define full-formed," said Yulli cautiously.
"It's when a plague beast survives long enough to evolve," Julius's voice came through the comm. "More mana, more brains… way more deadly."
Bruce's voice cracked. "Sooo like a werewolf on steroids?"
"Pretty much," Julius said. "Don't die."
There was a low rumble from the woods. The trees groaned. Birds burst from the canopy in a frantic flight. And then they heard it—a howl. A low, guttural, primal howl.
The lesser beasts began backing away, almost… reverently.
"I-I don't like that," Lawlet growled, his grip on his pistols strengthening.
"Is it me or did the monsters just become religious?" Bruce whispered.
Then it stepped out.
Tall, feral, sinewy, its plague-matted fur seeming to pulse with veins of cursed mana. Its eyes fixed on them—not with hunger, but calculation.
Remi stepped back. "It knows.!"
Yulli moved forward, his voice firm despite the sweat beads on his forehead. "Positions! Stand ready!"
Bruce gulped. "Just saying—if I die, somebody better give a cool eulogy."
"Focus!" Lawlet snapped. T
The beast crouched. Remi infused mana into her hands. "I've got your backs—don't hold back."
Yulli gripped his sword more tightly. "Let's finish what we started." And in a blur of motion, the beast charged.