Necrotize’s team entered the forest and the trees swallowed them almost imdiately.
Every other team had taken a different route in, which ant the groups spread quickly through the dense interior, most of them losing sight of each other within the first few minutes. The forest was enormous, over a hundred kilotres of land in total, with trees pushing past a hundred tres in height, packed so densely that the canopy above turned direct sunlight into scattered fragnts. The trunks and ground alike were covered in moss, but not the ordinary kind. This moss ca in varieties, each one a different colour. So patches were green, so a warm brown, so yellow, and here and there, a deep unexpected blue. The effect, looking in any direction, was like standing inside sothing painted by soone who couldn’t decide what season it should be.
Between the trees, thick vines and climbing plants hung in loose curtains, so of them flowering, their blossoms pale against the dark bark. And through the gaps, movent, small creatures watching from the branches, so resembling monkeys, so like oversized squirrels, so things with no clear resemblance to anything familiar at all, eyes catching the fractured light for a mont before vanishing back into shadow.
Necrotize’s team moved through it slowly. None of them had ever been anywhere like this, and it showed on their faces, not fear, but sothing more open than that. Genuine wonder. Necrotize had expected nerves. What he got was better.
They paused when the initial montum of entering wore off, gathering to figure out what ca next.
Dominic spoke first. "We can’t just walk in random directions until sothing happens. We have a fixed window, before sunset, and we need to use it efficiently. We need a way to find targets instead of wandering until targets find us."
Everyone agreed with the logic.
Hana raised the obvious follow-up. "That makes sense. But how do we actually choose which direction to go?"
Under normal circumstances, the answer would have been sitting right next to them. The God of Destruction could have located every living thing in this forest without effort. But he had told them before they entered that he would operate at the level of an ordinary student, no more. He had sealed his power. He had ant what he said.
When they heard that, they had felt two things in quick succession, a small disappointnt, followed by sothing that was almost relief. Without an easy win handed to them, they would actually have to perform. They’d find out what they were genuinely capable of, which had its own kind of appeal, even with the nerves attached.
Alana stepped forward. "The direction problem, I think I can help with that."
She closed her eyes. A short chant, quiet and precise. And then on either side of her, light materialised, warm orange on the left, soft green on the right, and from each, a creature stepped into the physical world.
The orange light produced a dog made entirely of fire, flas shaped into sothing that panted and shifted its weight like a real animal. The green light produced a bird, its body ford from moving air, feathers visible only when it caught the light at an angle.
Alana opened her eyes, and smiled.
"They’ll help us find what we’re looking for."
Dominic stared. "You summoned two spirits. That’s a really impressive thing. From what I have learned from books of my family, before attending the Academy, most students of the Summoning Departnt usually only can summon one spirit. But to have summoned two, even when the summoning event has not been organised, is a genuinely impressive thing. As expected of House Caesar."
"Thank you for your complint, Dominic. But it’s not that special." Alana said it with a little hint of embarrassnt on her face. Then she gestured toward the spirits.
"Everyone, et Lucy and Macy." She gestured to each in turn. "Lucy is the fire spirit, Macy is the wind spirit. They’ll lead us to our targets."
Hana made a sound that was close to a whimper. Her hands were clasped in front of her and visibly trembling. A small amount of sothing that should have stayed in her mouth did not.
"Lady Alana," she managed, with trendous effort. "Can I, can I pet them. They’re very, very cute."
Alana laughed a little after seeing Hana’s state. "Sorry, Hana. No one can touch them except the summoner. That’s how it works."
Hana processed this. She accepted it, with visible reluctance. She would simply look at them. That would have to be enough.
The two spirits, anwhile, had taken stock of their surroundings. Three ordinary people, one familiar face, and then their eyes landed on Necrotize. Both of them reacted instantly, tucking themselves behind Alana with the speed of animals that had just encountered sothing their instincts had no category for.
Alana spoke to them softly, reassuring the spirits.
"He won’t hurt you. Look, he’s just standing there. He won’t hurt you guys. He is smiling, isn’t he? He likes you guys."
Necrotize was, in fact, smiling, the mild, unthreatening kind. The spirits observed this for a mont, then slowly erged from behind their summoner, unconvinced but willing to proceed.
"Macy will scout ahead," Alana explained. "She moves like she’s not there, other monsters won’t sense her, and neither will any of the competing teams. She’ll find our targets while we advance."
The relief in the group was imdiate. No more guessing. No more walking blind.
Alana sent Macy ahead. The wind spirit rose silently and dissolved into the canopy above as though she had never been there, leaving behind nothing but a faint disturbance in the leaves.
They hadn’t gone far when Alana went still.
"We have our first target."
Dominic glanced at her. "That was fast. Good, what are we dealing with?"
She didn’t answer imdiately. Her expression shifted into sothing that wasn’t quite concern, but wasn’t confidence either, sothing caught in between, still working itself out.
"Macy found sothing. But taking it down won’t be easy."
Dominic swallowed. "What is it?"
A pause.
Behind her, the canopy stirred faintly, as though sothing far off had just shifted its weight.
"An Inverted Demonic Boar."
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