Selena raced through the forest at breakneck speed, the sounds of battle in the distance growing louder and louder.
By now she’d confirmed that someone was fighting out there, and from the intensity of the sounds reaching her, she could tell it wasn’t just some minor clash between weaklings.
That realization put her even more on edge, bracing for whatever she might find. But for some reason, she also felt a strange sense of anticipation, one she couldn’t quite explain.
As far as she knew, Lirien could already be dead. Vincent was just as likely to be dead, and most likely, the instructor and the other teammate were as well. The odds that she was the only one left from her squad were fairly high, and she understood that well enough.
Out of all of them, only Lirien truly mattered to her. Maybe she was already dead, but if Selena could at least recover her body, she could give her a proper send-off, a burial somewhere that actually felt like home, instead of leaving her in this godforsaken place.
With that resolve driving her forward, she kept going, and soon the sounds of battle rose to a level several times louder, until at some point the entire section of forest around her shook violently, far more violently than before, before everything went quiet.
This time, for good.
’Is it already over?’ she wondered, unable to shake the thought that whatever terrifying battle had been raging up ahead had already come to an end.
She wondered whether she should keep going and see how it had ended. Maybe she could find out who had taken part in it, allowing her to understand what kind of beings besides those creatures were roaming this place.
By now she was close enough that she didn’t stop, pressing on until she slowed her pace slightly as the trees ahead thinned out, revealing what remained of the clearing. Her gaze settled on the scene, and for a moment she stood frozen, shaken.
The ground was unrecognizable. Broken trunks lay scattered everywhere over scorched, blackened earth, shallow craters dotted the soil like fresh scars, and the air itself still felt charged with something, a lingering static that made the hair on her arms stand on end. Signs of battle, wherever she looked. And yet, overall, the center of the clearing was strangely empty.
No figures, no movement. Just a place completely torn apart, now nothing more than a remnant of a battle that had clearly already ended.
If that had been all, she wouldn’t have been quite this shaken, she’d already expected something like this on her way here, after all, the sounds she’d been hearing this whole time had gone quiet a while ago now.
What made her freeze was what she noticed next, as her gaze drifted further to the right, and there, she finally saw it.
An entire mass of those creatures, packed together, crowding the entire far side of the clearing. Dozens of them, maybe more, twisted, unnatural bodies moving as a single, ravenous entity.
It was the kind of sight that would make anyone with even a shred of common sense turn on their heels and run in the opposite direction without stopping to think.
Selena didn’t move, though.
Not because she didn’t want to. But because, standing right in front of that mass of monsters, was another figure.
A girl, standing, her back to Selena. Almost as tall as her. Short, brown hair, disheveled.
For a moment, Selena’s whole world stopped.
Then she recognized her.
’Lirien.’
She was alive.
Relief burst through her chest for a fraction of a second, a wave so sudden it stole the breath from her lungs, and then it vanished just as fast, replaced by something far colder, far more urgent.
She was alive. But she was also in danger.
Selena didn’t think twice. She felt the mana gather beneath her feet in an instant, a charge ready to release, and she launched herself forward off the branch with a ferocity that left no room for hesitation.
On the other side, Lirien, now standing alone in front of this horde of creatures, had already come to terms with her situation.
There was no point fighting. She knew that. The number of creatures closing in around her was too high, she wasn’t fast enough to run, and she didn’t have the stamina to hold out long enough to take them all down.
She understood that all too well, and the realization left a bitter taste in her mouth. She’d made it this far only to die here, after all. Everything she’d done up until now seemed to have been for nothing, she’d only delayed her death, and now it had finally caught up to her.
One of the creatures closest to her, finally finding the courage to close in, lunged at her, covering the distance in only a few seconds. Lirien’s heart pounded hard in her chest, but her hands didn’t shake. She sidestepped in one fluid motion, bow already drawn, a fire-mana-infused arrow loosed in a single breath.
The arrow shot forward fast, and its tip found the creature’s eye.
A piercing scream tore through the air. The beast twisted, blinded on one side, but Lirien didn’t stop there. A second shot, then a third, both aimed at the exact same spot, until the arrow pierced straight through the creature’s skull, killing it instantly.
The body collapsed to the ground.
But two more were already there, filling the gap it left behind.
Lirien knocked one back with a desperate strike, but the second was already too close, its massive claw raised, ready to come down on her with its full weight.
She had no time to block the attack. All she could do was watch, eyes wide, as the claw came rushing toward her at full force.
’Guess this is it, then,’ she thought, her mind strangely calm.
Maybe it was because she’d found herself in situations like this so many times over the past few days that she’d grown numb to them, or perhaps it was because she knew she’d done everything she possibly could, and there was nothing left for her to do but accept her fate.
But right at that moment, a gust of wind suddenly rushed past her, followed by a silent flash that sliced through the air itself.
Before she could even process what had happened, the creature’s clawed arm, already hanging just inches from her, was severed clean off its body.
An instant later, the entire beast split into two perfectly symmetrical halves, cut by something that had moved too fast for her eyes to follow.
The creature’s body crashed to the ground in two separate thuds.
Lirien stood frozen, breath caught in her throat, eyes fixed on the creature’s remains, unable to comprehend what she was looking at.
Then she shifted her gaze slightly upward, a little farther ahead of her, and saw her.
For an instant, Lirien froze, her eyes widening as she tried to confirm what she was seeing.
"Selena."