It was another loud, ear-piercing scream that woke her. Immediately, Pale jumped to her feet, snapping her rifle to her shoulder. Across from her, Kayla stood up, already conjuring lightning in her hand. For a moment, neither one of them moved, but when it became clear that they weren't in immediate danger, they allowed themselves to relax.

"What was that?" Kayla asked. She hesitated before adding,"...Please don't tell me that thing got another person."

"Won't know unless we go looking for it," Pale replied.

"You can't be serious. You really want to go out there and try to hunt that thing again?"

"Well, what's the alternative? Sit here and let it keep killing more people?" Pale shook her head. "Come on, Kayla. We're going to have to leave this cave eventually, and when we do, it'll be waiting for us anyway."

Kayla bit her lip. "...How are you feeling? Are your wounds at least healed?"

"They are," Pale confirmed. "How long was I out?"

"About four hours."

"Good, that's more than enough for me to be back to normal." Pale motioned for Kayla to follow her. "Stick close to me. Let's go find this thing."

XXX

The two of them found themselves one again pushing their way through the underbrush, heading to where they'd heard the last scream. Kayla was directing them, silently pointing out where to go; Pale had no objections to this, given how Kayla had superior hearing to her and how she'd had more time to pinpoint the location of the scream.

It only took them a few minutes to find the source – the mutilated body of a young man, dressed in green robes, was lying against a tree. His throat had a chunk torn out of it, and his face was frozen in an expression of sheer terror. His clothes were torn, exposing his bare chest to the world; even from this distance, Pale could see that something had almost sawed his chest open and shredded his heart.

"Gods…" Kayla muttered.

"I don't know about you, but I'd say that's our monster's handiwork," Pale observed.

"You won't hear any arguments from me… urgh, what a way to go… I feel sorry for him…"

Pale again motioned for Kayla to follow her, and the two of them started to creep over to where the young man's body was sitting upright against the tree.

"Watch above us," Pale warned. "That thing is more agile than it looks. It attacked me when I was perched in the tree earlier."

Kayla shuddered. "Is there anything it can't do?"

"Aside from make a clean kill? No idea."

"Forget I asked…"

They both managed to reach the corpse in just a few seconds. Pale observed the ground around the body, noting the scuff marks nearby. Slowly, a frown crossed her face.

"It's definitely watching us right now," she said. "Just like the last one, this body was dragged here for a reason."

"How do you suggest we draw it out?" Kayla asked.

"That's a tough question to answer. If anything, I think we should-"

At that moment, there was a loud crash of thunder overhead. Kayla jumped at the sudden sound of it as it rumbled through the underground cavern. Pale looked up at the ceiling, watching as lightning arced across the sky. And then, as she watched, it began to rain – slowly at first, but within just a few seconds, it became torrential, leaking through the crack in the ceiling like a sieve.

And at that moment, an idea came to mind.

"I think I know how we can stop this thing," she announced.

"Does it involve using me as bait again?" Kayla asked.

Pale shook her head. "No, not this time."

"Good." Kayla paused. "...What do you mean when you say this time?"

Pale ignored her, instead bringing a hand to her chin in thought for a moment before turning back to Kayla. "We're going to need some other people for this one."

"What for? Planning to overpower it with sheer numbers?"

"Something like that. Come on, let's see who we can find."

XXX

It didn't take them long to find some unwilling volunteers. All they had to do was continue to sneak through the brush, keeping an ear out for any kind of hushed conversation going on. And before long, they'd found who they were looking for.

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"-heard it over here."

"Are you sure we should be doing this? I-I mean… what if it's dangerous? The instructors said-"

"I know what they said, but we have to take the chance. We're already running out of time as-is, and we still need to get some tomes."

Pale sat crouched in the bushes, watching as the two cloaked figures, one male and one female, stalked through the treeline ahead of them. Next to her, Kayla shifted uncomfortably.

"Are you sure this will work?" she asked.

"Not at all," Pale replied. "But it's the best bet we've got."

"Right…"

"You remember the plan?" Kayla nodded, and Pale sucked in a breath. "Good. Then let's do it."

With that, she stepped out from behind cover. Next to her, Kayla shrugged off the bag containing her tome, leaving it hidden in the bushes. Together, they both stood shoulder-to-shoulder, just behind the two other initiates, who were blissfully unaware of what was going on.

At least, until Pale put her fingers to her mouth and loudly whistled.

Instantly, both initiates spun around, the male in red readying a heavy crossbow and the female in white hefting a staff that seemed to glow with sheer radiance, to the point where Kayla had to avert her eyes with a hiss.

"Who are you?" the young man demanded.

"Just two initiates, same as you both," Pale replied. She stretched her arms out. "If you'll notice, neither of us have tomes."

"Yeah? Then you're not worth our time, then."

"No, but you're worth ours. Hand over the tomes, or we'll take them by force."

"Cal…" the girl in white muttered.

The young man, Cal, grit his teeth. "Don't let them get to you, Cynthia. We can take them."

"But what about the scream? What if someone's in trouble?"

"Then they'll have to wait until we're done with this. I'm not losing our tomes to these two losers."

Pale's eyes narrowed. "Then what are you waiting for? Do something about it."

For a moment, neither group did anything, instead they both just stood there, staring each other down. As they did so, Pale took note of the crack in the ceiling; by her estimate, it was around fifty meters away, and rain was still pouring through it.

Despite her focusing on the ceiling, she wasn't taken by surprise at all when Cal finally fired his crossbow at her. Pale hit the floor before the bolt could make impact; it flew harmlessly over her head, impacting against a nearby tree, where it stuck. At that point, neither Pale nor Kayla wasted any time; they both rushed, Kayla conjuring fire and Pale pulling her knife as they closed the distance.

As she drew closer to Cal, his eyes widened, and he dropped his crossbow, reaching into his cloak and drawing a longsword just as she reached him. Their blades made impact with each other, sparks flying between the two of them as steel clashed with carbon-reinforced, diamond-tipped steel. Cal backpedaled even as Pale went into for another stab, and he let out a loud yell as her blade scraped across his chest, cutting through his cloak and drawing a thin line of blood from him.

"Cal!" Cynthia cried out.

Cal dropped to one knee, wincing and gritting his teeth as blood dripped from his chest onto the ground. Pale stood over him, glancing down at him impassively.

"I've drawn first blood," she stated. "It doesn't have to go further than that. If you just surrender now-"

Naturally, Cal wasn't having it. He suddenly let out a loud yell and sprang up, driving the top of his head against her chin. Pale went with the strike, allowing herself to fall to the ground, clutching at her head and groaning in mock pain. Not far away, there was a flash of light, and Kayla let out a yelp as she, too, collapsed.

Cal and Cynthia regrouped, both standing over them and panting with exertion. Cal reached up and touched his chest, wincing when he saw his hands come back red.

"Cal!" Cynthia cried. "Hold on, let me heal-"

"No!" he shouted back to her. "Save your mana, Cynthia."

"But you're bleeding!"

"It's nothing." He glared down at Pale. "All thanks to you. Don't you know the first rule of mage duels? Not that it matters; you went down in just a single hit, anyway, so-"

At that moment, Kayla sprang up, lunging for Cynthia. The white-cloaked mage screamed, then flared her staff again, there was a massive explosion of light, and Kayla was sent flying back-first into a nearby tree before landing on the ground, where she stayed, motionless but still breathing. Cynthia, meanwhile, began to sway from side-to-side, barely managing to stay upright, until finally, it was too much for her, and she, too, collapsed.

And just like that, Cal was completely alone, surrounded by two people too injured to do anything and one who was too weak to even move. Without wasting any time, he rushed over to Cynthia's side and began to call her name, trying to rouse her from unconsciousness, but to no avail.

And then, right on cue, Pale saw a four-legged figure begin to move in the shadows, coming up just behind Cal. And in that moment, Pale reacted.

"Now, Kayla! Do it!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Kayla sprang up from where she'd been lying and fired off a bolt of lightning. The Amalgamation roared as the lightning made impact, the noise of the thunderclap echoing through the underground. Pale, meanwhile, jumped to her feet and shouldered her rifle, taking careful aim. Kayla's bolt of lightning had left a small crack in the Amalgamation's sub-dermal armor, and Pale wasted no time in pumping it full of a full magazine of thirty 6.8mm rounds as fast as her weapon could cycle.

The Amalgamation let out another pained roar, but this time, it didn't retreat. Instead, it rounded on Pale, seeming to almost glare at her. Next to her, Cal stood, frozen to his spot with terror, still clutching his unconscious friend; Pale pushed him out of the way just as the Amalgamation leaped. Claws raked across her back, and she let out a pained hiss, though thankfully, the wounds didn't seem to be too deep.

The Amalgamation landed, and the moment its feet touched the earth, Pale called out once more.

"Kayla, hit it again!"

Kayla went to fulfill her request, but the moment she began to conjure lightning, the monster turned towards her instead. Immediately, Kayla's eyes widened, and she stopped conjuring magic, and instead turned and ran. The Amalgamation ran after her, and Pale followed.

Under her breath, she thanked whoever was listening that it had taken the bait.

XXX

Pale charged through the underbrush, listening for Kayla, who was still screaming at the top of her lungs as she ran. In her head, she counted the distance as they went.

Thirty-five… thirty… twenty-five… twenty meters…

The crack in the ceiling was fast approaching; before she knew it, they were all there, in a clearing just underneath it. Rain continued to pour down from the opening above; already, Kayla and the Amalgamation were soaked, though Pale was dry.

Which meant it was time for the final part of the plan.

Pale shouldered her freshly-loaded rifle and again took aim at the crack in the Amalgamation's armor as it began to stalk towards Kayla. Another series of rounds made impact, and it immediately glanced back at her.

And in so doing, it sealed its fate.

This time, Pale didn't need to order her to do anything – Kayla cast the spell entirely of her own volition. A streak of lightning arced through the air, striking the rain-soaked Amalgamation. For a moment, Pale was afraid that it would backfire on Kayla as well, but it didn't – she was maintaining control of it, though judging by how her face was scrunched up in concentration and her teeth were grit together, it was taking everything she had and then some to avoid losing control.

The results, however, were spectacular either way – the Amalgamation didn't even have time to let out another pained roar as the lightning did its work. Sparks danced across its fur, and the entire clearing was suddenly filled with the stench of burning hair and roasting flesh.

It was over in just a few seconds, the blackened corpse of the Amalgamation falling to the ground, completely lifeless. Just to be sure, Pale approached and took aim at a crack that had formed in the armor encasing its head, then fired until she saw brains begin to leak out. Confident that nothing could survive that much punishment, she put her weapon on safe and immediately ran over to Kayla, who had fallen to one knee and was panting heavily.

"Kayla," Pale said as she approached. "Are you okay?"

"F-fine…" Kayla muttered. "Just… almost lost control…" She looked up enough to stare at the monster's corpse, her eyes widening as she did so. "Is it-"

"Yes," Pale confirmed with a nod. "It's dead."