[Chapter 104. Inside the Forest]
Sarah vanished in a flicker of distorted air, utilizing her Rift Step to instantly bridge the gap. She reappeared directly behind Lana, her body coiled like a spring, her jagged dagger already arcing in a lethal, practiced trajectory toward Lana's exposed shoulder. Lana, however, did not turn to et the strike. Instead of a desperate parry, a sudden, violent shockwave erupted from Lana's body, a physical manifestation of stored kinetic energy. The force slamd into Sarah with the strength of a falling gale, knocking her clean off her feet and sending her skidding into the damp, churned-up earth. The raw power of the discharge was so significant that even Iris, standing several ters away, felt the pressure wave and had to shift her weight to avoid swaying.
`Interesting. She was accumulating the impact of Sarah’s previous strikes the entire ti, waiting for the optimal mont to release it.`
The observation flashed through Iris's mind as she pushed herself back into a perfectly upright posture, her expression unreadable. "Good," she said, her voice remaining as flat and emotionless as it had been since dawn. "We will use this as a natural breakpoint. Under normal combat circumstances, Lana, you would have followed that shockwave by pinning her to the ground with your primary weapon to finish the encounter. But she has taken enough physical trauma for the mont."
Iris’s predatory gaze scanned the four won, noting the sweat, the blood, and the varying degrees of exhaustion etched into their features. "You have thirty minutes. Use the ti to recover your breath and check your equipnt. After that, we move into the forest. Be ready for live combat."
Without another word, Iris wrenched her massive Zweihänder from the dirt with a single hand. She began walking toward the edge of the clearing, passing by Carn without so much as a glance. "We will begin training your personal pain tolerance soon enough, Healer. I haven't forgotten about your specific deficiencies," she added over her shoulder.
Carn flinched, a barely perceptible tightening of her shoulders betraying her internal panic, but her voice remained professionally steady. "As you say, Iris."
The very mont Iris disappeared into the treeline and was out of direct sight, Carn's knees finally buckled. She sank heavily to the ground, her slender body trembling from the residual adrenaline and the psychological weight of the morning’s brutality.
`I can do this,` Carn told herself, the thought feeling like a fragile, translucent shield against the cold dread creeping into her heart. `I am strong enough to survive her. I have to be.`
Nearby, Sarah remained flat on her back, staring up at the vast, uncaring blue sky. Her daggers lay discarded in the grass beside her, their blades stained with Lana's blood. "You don't have to hold back so much, Lana," she called out, her voice sounding raspy and strained. "You have to actually use your weapon eventually. You can't just be a passive wall forever; a wall eventually crumbles if it doesn't strike back."
Lana turned toward her, her expression unreadable as she looked down at Sarah's sprawled, relaxed form. "And you could try not to look like you're enjoying the sensation of stabbing so much," Lana countered. "That smile you had right before the Rift Step was more terrifying than the actual daggers."
"It helps to pretend you're soone else... soone who actually belongs in a place like this," Sarah murmured, her gaze still fixed on the drifting clouds above.
Vanessa’s final spell of the session slamd into the charred tree trunk with a resounding crack, a perfect hit directly in the center of the target. A short, sharp laugh escaped her lips, sounding more like a bark of frustration. "Yeah, I can second that sentint. Pretending to attack soone you despise keeps you focused."
Thirty minutes passed in a blur of heavy breathing and silent contemplation, the ambient sounds of the forest marking the slow crawl of ti. The respite was cut short when Iris returned, her long shadow falling over the group before her voice even reached them.
"The break is over. Get up. We are moving inside the forest canopy now."
The brief period of rest had been nothing more than a fragile illusion of safety, shattered the mont they stepped under the oppressive, shadowy embrace of the ancient trees. They moved in a loose, triangular formation, stumbling through the thick undergrowth. Their boots sank into the damp, rotting earth, and the sll of mold and wet vegetation filled their senses.
Minutes into the trek, a sudden, violent rustle of the undergrowth announced their first live encounter. A massive forest boar, its coarse bristles raised in a jagged ridge along its spine, burst from a thicket of ferns. Its beady eyes locked onto the group with feral hatred as it began its charge—a ton of muscle and fury closing the distance with terrifying speed.
Vanessa’s first reactive spell sizzled through the air, but it was wide, striking the empty space where the boar had been a fraction of a second prior.
Before the beast could reach Lana, Sarah vanished. She materialized instantly on the boar’s heaving back, her center of gravity low. Her primary dagger plunged deep into the creature's thick, muscular neck, twisting as it went in.
The boar took two more staggering, uncoordinated steps, a wet, gurgling cry escaping its throat as its lungs filled with blood. It collapsed in a heap, its massive bulk sending Sarah tumbling from its back and into the dirt. She hit the ground with a heavy grunt, the impact montarily knocking the air from her lungs.
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"That is how it is supposed to be done," Iris comnted, her voice entirely devoid of warmth or praise. "Provided, of course, that we overlook the clumsy landing." Her silver eyes swept over the group. "You are growing. Your physical strength is finally beginning to match your nurical level. That kill was quicker than I had initially expected."
Sarah pushed herself up, brushing dirt and crushed, damp leaves from her dark tunic. "One stab, just as you told in the clearing. One kill."
"A wasted stab," Iris’s voice cut through the forest's quiet hum, sharp and jagged as broken glass. "You utilized your primary movent skill for a kill you could have achieved through basic positioning. You wasted your mana on a vanity play. A Rift Step is a tactical advantage—a way to reposition during a stalemate, a way to escape certain death, or a way to strike from a truly unprotected angle. It is not a free ride to compensate for poor footwork." She took a looming step closer to Sarah, her shadow completely enveloping the woman. "Every skill is a finite resource. You spent yours on a trivial, easy victory."
Vanessa stood rigid, her mind replaying her missed spell over and over. The sha burned hotter in her chest than even the fear of Iris's blade. She had hesitated—a fraction of a second of doubt—and it had resulted in a complete miss. Her fists clenched at her sides, the urge to scream at the world and the impossible demands of this waking nightmare tightening in her throat.
Carn’s eyes darted between Iris and the others, a flicker of cold understanding passing through her analytical mind.
`Pain is the primary language spoken here.` she realized. `Efficiency is the only recognized virtue. Survival is the only acceptable goal.`
Sarah sheathed her daggers and looked directly at Iris, refusing to drop her gaze. "I can use that skill ten tis before I'm dry, and my mana regenerates faster than we’re finding targets," she said, her voice steady despite the lingering tremor in her hands. "In my eyes, this was efficiency. If I hadn't used the step to end it instantly, we would have been stuck in a chaotic, close-quarters fight with a thrashing beast." She gestured with her chin toward Vanessa and Lana. "Vanessa would have had to use multiple spells to bring it down. Lana could have easily gotten hurt by those tusks, which ans Carn would have been forced to spend her own mana to heal her."
Sarah kept her defiant gaze locked on Iris. "Yes, I spent my resource on a trivial victory. But when viewed from the perspective of the team's total pool, it was a cheap, clean win."
Iris’s stare bored into her, cold and calculating.
The girl was right. Sarah had calculated the net mana loss of the group versus her individual expenditure. It was a leader's perspective, whether she realized it or not. However, Iris could neither publicly acknowledge the girl's logic nor deny its validity without undermining her own authority.
So, she simply stayed silent for a long, uncomfortable mont. "Are we waiting for sothing to happen?" Iris finally asked, reaching out and roughly pushing Lana forward by the shoulder. "Keep going. The forest doesn't stop for debates."
The forest seed to press in closer around them as they walked deeper into the primordial growth. The towering trees blocked out nearly all the morning light, leaving them in a perpetual, erald twilight. The sll of damp earth and decaying organic matter grew stronger, a stark reminder of the world’s raw, untad cycle of life and death.
Vanessa began to walk a little straighter, her knuckles white as she gripped her staff. The sha of her earlier miss still burned, but Sarah’s small victory in the face of Iris’s criticism had ignited a tiny spark of defiance within her. She resolved that she would not be the weak link in the next encounter.
Lana, however, walked with a heavy, rhythmic tread, her shield held loosely at her side. She had seen Sarah's decisive, lethal move and felt a sharp pang of envy. She was supposed to be the tank, the unbreakable wall—but in the forest, she felt more like a cumberso doorstop. She was useful in a pinch, perhaps, but easily bypassed by faster, more aggressive allies.
The silence of the woods stretched on until a low, nacing growl began to echo through the trees ahead of them. Iris stopped dead in her tracks, her ears twitching as she pinpointed the exact source of the sound.
Three lean shapes erged on a ridge just ahead—wolves, their coats the matted color of old, dried blood, their eyes burning with a sharp, feral intelligence.
As if on a silent signal, the pack broke formation. Two of the wolves peeled away, loping through the thick undergrowth to vanish into the treeline on either side of the path. The third wolf held its course, moving in a direct, aggressive line toward the group, a throaty growl vibrating the stagnant air.
Vanessa did not miss this ti. Her spell—a bolt of crackling, white-blue energy—slamd into the right-flank wolf’s shoulder as it tried to circle. The creature stumbled, a sharp yelp tearing from its throat, but it recovered almost instantly, its predatory pace barely faltering as it continued its flanking maneuver.
Lana didn't hesitate. She slamd her shortsword rhythmically against the tal rim of her shield, the sound ringing out like a death knell. The shield began to glow, a faint, pulsing pale light emanating from its surface like a beating heart, drawing the aggro of the pack.
"Co and get , you bastards," she snarled, the words sounding less like bravado and more like a simple statent of fact.
The wolves attention snapped to her instantly. The two flanking wolves changed their trajectory, converging on the glowing lure of the shield. The center wolf led the charge, leaping through the air.
It launched itself at Lana, a blur of yellow teeth and mindless fury. The impact was deafening—a heavy, tallic clang that rang through the trees. But the wolf found no soft flesh, only unmoving, enchanted steel.
Before the beast could even begin to recoil from the impact, a blade erged from behind the shield’s edge. It wasn't Sarah’s dagger, but Lana's own shortsword, thrusting upward.
Lana had been ard with more than just her defense; she had been waiting for the close-range opening.
The sword plunged deep into the wolf's exposed ribcage, driving through the heart. The wolf’s body went instantly rigid, a choked, wet gasp escaping its jaws before it collapsed in a heap beside the shield. It was dead before it hit the ground.
The wolf on the right flank—its shoulder already a scorched ruin from Vanessa’s initial spell—t a similar fate. As it crashed into the side of the shield, another bolt of crackling energy sizzled through the air from Vanessa’s spell matrix. It struck the wolf’s head with a sickening, wet thud. Brain matter and bone erupted in a spray of red and gray against the bark of a nearby tree. The body dropped mid-leap, twitching once in the dirt before going still.
On the left side of the formation, the last wolf already lay dead among the ferns.
Sarah stood over the carcass, her face an impassive mask, casually wiping the dark blood from her blade using the animal's coarse, matted fur. Her eyes were already scanning the deeper shadows of the trees, searching for the next threat before the blood of the first had even cooled.
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