Both girls stood over the corpse of the Amalgamation for a moment, their breaths coming out heavy as they stared at it. A few seconds passed before Kayla let out a low groan and slumped against a nearby tree; Pale ran over to her side immediately, but Kayla was quick to wave her off.

"I'm fine," she assured her. "Just… mana exhaustion, that's all. I'm not surprised, given how much punishment that thing took before it finally went down."

Pale tilted her head. "You used that much?"

"Yeah… I really had to pour it on. It was worth it, though… even if I technically didn't have a choice."

"Here, lean on me." Pale helped Kayla up a bit, throwing one of her arms around her shoulder. Kayla gave her an appreciative glance, and the two of them began walking once more, searching for a place they could both rest up after their fight.

The sound of two people tearing through the foliage behind them stopped them dead in their tracks. Instantly, Pale whipped around, hefting her assault rifle with one hand. She leveled the gun at the two shapes as they came bursting out of the treeline; across from her, Cal and Cynthia paused, their eyes going wide at the sight of Pale pointing a weapon at them. Pale grimaced, then lowered her gun.

"Next time, some warning would be nice," she snapped. "I almost put holes in you two."

Cynthia swallowed nervously, though her nervousness turned to outright wide-eyed terror when she saw the corpse of the Amalgamation lying just a short ways away. A high-pitched whimper tore its way out of her throat, and she pointed at it with a shaking hand.

"W-what is that thing?!"

"You mean aside from dead?" Pale asked. "We've been calling it the Amalgamation. It's been hunting us almost as soon as we entered the forest, to say nothing of the other initiates. I can only guess at how many it's killed up to this point."

That earned another whimper from Cynthia. Cal, on the other hand, stared at the body for just a second before chancing a closer look. He inched his way over to it, which made Pale roll her eyes.

"It's dead," she assured him.

"You're positive?" Cal asked.

"As I possibly can be. It's not breathing, it's been shocked by very powerful lightning magic, and its head has been reduced to pulp. If you know a living creature that can survive all of that, I'd like to hear about it."

Cal grimaced, then shook his head. "I believe you… Gods, this thing even just looks completely vile. And you said it lived down here?"

"As far as we can tell, yes. Why do you ask?"

"Because I've never even heard of a creature like this before, which is shocking to me, because it looks so ungodly that I can only imagine it'd be the talk of whatever continent we're on if it were a common sight here."

That got Pale's attention. "What, you think this thing isn't natural?"

"I don't know what to think," Cal offered. "All I'm saying is, I've never heard of a creature like this before, which is very strange considering how frightening it looks."

Pale brought a hand up to her chin in thought. Admittedly, what Cal was saying made some sense to her, but there wasn't exactly time to dwell on it; Kayla was still exhausted, not to mention soaking wet, and she was starting to feel a bit tired, herself. By her estimate, it was around midnight already, which meant that most of the other initiates were probably already asleep.

Normally, Pale would have seized the opportunity to launch a surprise raid on some of them, but something told her that was a bad idea given the state her and Kayla were in.

She didn't get much time to consider any other options, however, as Cal's face suddenly contorted in rage and he affixed her with a harsh glare.

"Hey, wait a second!" he said. "You used us as bait for that thing!"

Pale let out an irritated exhale. "Yeah, we did."

"What?! How can you just admit it like that? What if we'd been killed?! You already hurt me, you know!"

Cal motioned to the shallow cut she'd given him earlier. Pale was unfazed, however.

"Sorry about that," she offered. "Had to make it look genuine. That thing was smarter than you think; if it didn't believe we were actually fighting, it never would have showed itself after we lost."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"And that's supposed to excuse it?! You hurt me! Cut me and drew blood, even! Do you know how wrong that is?! It violates every common-sense rule about mage duels!"

"Again, my apologies," Pale said. "I come from a… different world, we'll say; I'm not used to all these rules regarding combat. I tend to default to my base instincts as a result."

"What are you talking about? Are you supposed to be some kind of soldier?"

"Something like that," Pale explained. "Anyway, I don't really know how to use magic, myself. So I had to resort to some other method."

Cal's eyes widened. He shared a quick glance with Cynthia, who seemed equally as stunned. Slowly, they both turned back to her.

"...You can't use magic," Cal surmised. "And yet you somehow killed that thing."

"Yes, I did," Pale bluntly replied. "Now, are you going to keep asking questions, or are you going to make yourselves useful and leave us be? Kayla is still very tired, not to mention drenched, and I'd like to find us some shelter while we still have a chance to get some sleep."

Cal was about to say something else, but Cynthia cut him off. She cleared her throat and stepped forward.

"...Cal was right about you using us as bait, of course," Cynthia began, "but… what would have happened if you hadn't, I wonder? You make it sound like that thing was watching us."

"Because it was…" Kayla managed to get out. "It's been watching a lot of the initiates and killing them whenever it can. If we hadn't come along, you two would have likely been its next victims."

Cynthia went white at that realization. A short ways away, Cal shuddered, but said nothing. Cynthia again cleared her throat.

"...Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot," she offered. "Now that I understand why you picked a fight with us and hurt Cal, well… I suppose I can't fault you too much. That thing needed to be stopped, after all."

"Glad you agree," Pale said. "Now if you don't mind-"

Cynthia bit her lip and shifted a bit, nervously rubbing her staff with both hands as she did so. "Actually… I was hoping we could… stick together for a bit? At least for tonight?"

Pale blinked, surprised. "You want a truce," she acknowledged.

Cynthia nodded. "Y-yes. I mean… I'll be honest – that thing has me terrified. What if there are more of them out there? Cal and I wouldn't stand a chance on our own. But with you two there to help us, and us there to back you up…"

"You can't be serious!" Cal interjected. "Cynthia, did you forget that they-"

"No, Cal, I didn't," she said, gently cutting him off. "I just think that, at least for tonight, it'd be a bad idea to split up. Besides, it's midnight already – if any of us wants something close to a full night of sleep while also having someone there to keep watch, you'll need four people for it… I mean, assuming my math is right."

"She's got a point, Pale," Kayla conceded.

Pale grimaced. "You're asking me to trust them-"

"The same way they're going to have to trust us. I say we do it. Think about it – the worst thing that happens is they take our tomes and we have to find new ones. Somehow, I don't think that'll be too hard. Besides, in my opinion… a full night of sleep is more than worth the hassle at this point."

Pale grimaced once more, but didn't argue. Instead, she acquiesced with a small nod. "Fine. But if this goes poorly, it was your idea."

"Of course it was," Kayla said, flashing her a thin smile. "And I look forward to claiming it as my idea when it goes right, by the way."

Pale said nothing to her in response, instead motioning for Cal and Cynthia to follow them. They seemed surprised by the gesture, but said nothing to the contrary as Pale began to lead them through the forest, searching for shelter.

XXX

It didn't take them long to find another cave, this one thankfully large enough to accommodate all four of them. Pale gently helped Kayla down to the ground, then set her pack down next to her and unrolled the sleeping bag.

"Climb in and take your clothes off," Pale said. "I'll set them by the fire so they can dry out." Sensing that Cal and Cynthia were giving the two of them a scandalous look, she turned towards them and gave them a glare. "Turn around, both of you."

They obliged, and Pale also averted her gaze as Kayla got into the sleeping bag and began to strip, setting her waterlogged clothes on the ground next to her before zipping the sleeping bag up as far as it would go with her in it. Once that was done, Pale gathered up the wet clothes and set them by a small pit made of stones that Cynthia and Cal had put together; she added a bit of tinder to it, then used a firestarter to set them alight. Once that was done, she looked back to Cynthia and Cal.

"Alright, she's decent now. You're both good to turn around."

The two of them did as Pale said, and upon seeing that she'd started the fire already, they both instantly crowded around it, huddling together for comfort. Pale, meanwhile, took a seat next to Kayla, who had already fallen asleep and was gently snoring inside the sleeping bag.

"Wow…" Cynthia observed. "She must have been really exhausted…"

"You don't know the half of it," Pale remarked as she unslung her rifle and set it across her lap. She pulled the magazine from it to check her ammo, then began to pat herself down, doing her best to count how many loaded mags she still had on her. From what she could tell, it wasn't many; they were going to have to get through initiation fast.

"What is that thing?" Cal suddenly asked, interrupting her thoughts. It took her a moment to realize he was motioning to her rifle. Pale blinked, then shook her head.

"You're better off not asking those kinds of questions," she said. "All you need to know is that it's a weapon, it's very dangerous, and I would never use it against one of you unless I thought you were trying to kill me or take it from me."

Cal let out an annoyed huff, clearly irritated at having been rebuked, though Pale didn't care. Cynthia cleared her throat once again, and was about to start saying something, when Pale shook her head once more.

"Look, I'm sure you're both full of questions," she said, "but I am very tired, and honestly, I just want to try and recover from fighting that thing at this point. If you've got something you really need an answer to, do me a favor and save it until morning, or otherwise just keep it to yourself. Okay?"

They both nodded, and then silence reigned over their little group once more. Before long, both Cal and Cynthia had fallen asleep, with her resting her head on his shoulder as the two of them snored. Pale, seeing that she was the last one awake, stood up and moved over to the mouth of the cave, where she posted up with her rifle.

Something told her that there was only the one Amalgamation out there, but at this point, she knew better than to take her chances.