A few hours had passed when Katherine finally began to regain consciousness. The first thing she felt was the pain spread throughout her body; there wasn’t a muscle that wasn’t sore. She had not only gone through hours of combat, but she had also almost drowned.

However, she had few memories of the second part. Her mind, still foggy from everything that had happened, was slowly trying to understand where she was. She could smell smoke and feel the cold wind of the forest against her skin.

‘Skin?’ The girl’s eyes widened when she realized she was exposed.

She tried to look around, but it was already night. There was no moon in Aethera’s sky, only the stars, that provided little light. On the other hand, there was a campfire with a few small embers still warming her. She could feel she was without her shirt, pants, and boots. She was only in her underwear, a top, and shorts that she wore under her uniform.

A mix of emotions quickly passed through her head: confusion about how she ended up in that forest, embarrassment at being without her clothes, anger at being in this situation, but gratitude for being alive and having been saved.

‘How did I end up here? And where’s the boy?’ She vaguely remembered leaving the river, and there was a boy with her.

He probably took her clothes off and thinking about it made her nervous again. If anyone from Grand House York found out about this, she’d be in big trouble. Not to mention her brother’s over-the-top reactions.

‘This will be a secret just between us.’ She nodded, thinking about her family.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she finally saw him. The boy was sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree a few steps away.

‘Oliver… something.’ She remembered the boy’s first name but couldn’t think of the last name.

They had already faced each other in Ranger Weapon Combat classes; he had never beaten her, not that she would let him. But he had improved dramatically in the last few weeks, enough for her to remember his name.

The Grand House always needed new officers to gain more power and possibly even find someone who could become a Ranger. Perhaps she had discovered a talent that others hadn’t noticed yet, especially one from the Second Squadron.

Now, after being saved, she was sure he was worth recruiting.

“That is. If we get out of here alive,” Katherine spoke to herself.

They were already lucky enough not to have been attacked by a monster. They might be on the other side of the river, but that didn’t mean there were no creatures here, especially in a forest.

Katherine tried to stand up, leaning on the nearest tree, but her legs gave in. She hadn’t rested enough to stand and wasn’t confident she could do quietly. She decided to stay where she was.

Being who she was, there was always a double concern about the image she would present to others.

Because of that, she decided to partially activate the Artificial Ranger Armor. Just enough to cover the bare minimum.

"If someone finds us, there's no chance this will turn into a scandal," Katherine reasoned.

Keeping the armor active would consume some of her Energy. But since it was only a partial activation, she thought it shouldn't be a big problem.

The girl tried to stay awake, at least to protect herself and the boy, if something or someone approached. Still, she was exhausted. She managed to stay focused for a few hours, but after a while, her eyelids grew heavy as the sun began to rise.

As sleep crept closer, she heard, “Screech! Screech! Screech!”.

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Without moving, she opened her eyes and tried to find the source of the noise. Behind the boy, on one of the trees, was a centipede. But calling it a centipede would be an understatement. The monster was the size of a dog and long enough to coil around the tree. Its mouth had hundreds of sharp pincers that clicked as they opened and closed. Its two antennae searched for its next prey.

The creature seemed to have spotted the boy lying against the tree and decided he would be its next meal. The monster approached slowly, each step making that disgusting sound with its pincers.

Katherine didn’t want to move yet, waiting for the right moment. She needed to see the creature better and hoped her legs wouldn’t fail her this time. She had seen the monster in one of her family’s books before, they called it a Carrion. It wasn’t a terrible monster, just Pawn Level, but both cadets were injured and tired.

The Carrion circled the tree where Oliver was resting, the boy still breathing calmly in his sleep. The creature anchored its legs against the tree and aimed its jaws at Oliver’s face.

It was the right moment. The Carrion was finally facing away from Katherine. She quickly stood, summoned her rapier, and lunged at the monster, stabbing it in the back.

“SCREEEECH!”

“Damn!” She had hoped to hit the creature’s head but couldn’t tell where it was from behind. “Hey! Time to wake up!”

She spoke loudly enough for Oliver to have a chance in the fight.

The attack wasn’t enough to kill it, but it wounded the Carrion badly, causing it to back away from both of them.

Oliver woke up at the sound of the monster after the attack. He didn’t have time to notice that he was still in his underwear, though Katherine had seen. But she wasn’t going to comment, not out of modesty for the boy, but to avoid tarnishing her reputation.

Oliver didn’t have time to understand what was happening; his first instinct was to activate his armor automatically. Once covered, he pulled out his pistol and tried to aim at the moving blur.

The Carrion had given up on coiling around, instead using its entire body to stand upright, hovering over the two cadets. The creature was now at least three meters tall, supported by its hind legs.

Katherine now had another problem; she couldn’t reach its face since the creature was standing. But she didn’t lose heart; she lunged at the monster with a quick leap, slashing along its body. On the other hand, Oliver had a different problem; he wanted to avoid hitting her with one of his shots, but aiming at the creature’s mouth was difficult as it constantly moved, advancing and retreating to bite its prey.

[Observation]

Oliver used his Boon on the monster. Luckily, it was Pawn Level, allowing him to see its movement patterns and predict what it would do next.

Seeing the girl attacking the base of its body, the Carrion decided to attack her, opening its jaw and launching its whole body at her.

“Thump! Thump!”

Seeing the movement, Oliver fired two shots. They weren’t enough to break the exoskeleton, but at least they stopped the creature just as it was about to attack. This gave Katherine enough time to see the monster coming, spin her body to the left, and finally stab her rapier into the creature’s mouth.

“THUMP!”

As she pulled her sword back, the creature collapsed to the ground. Its weight nearly knocked the girl over, but she managed to dodge at the last second.

Both sat on the ground, spending a few seconds catching their breath.

“Are you feeling better?” Oliver finally broke the silence.

“I am. Thank you.” Katherine replied, though her face remained expressionless. Behind her mask, she was embarrassed by the whole situation.

The girl finally turned to look at Oliver, but he had his back to her. While she was still resting, he took a moment to deactivate his armor and rushed to put his pants back on. They were still cold but no longer soaked. Seeing him get dressed, Katherine quickly turned to look at the monster.

“How did we end up here?” Katherine asked, standing and pushing the creature away from their simple camp.

“How much do you remember?” Oliver asked.

“Not much. I remember the number of Crabits increasing, getting stuck near the river, and deciding to jump. After that, I woke up here.” Katherine replied.

“Hmm… There are some things I still don’t understand. The battle was practically over when a horde came down from the upper river. That’s when the captains started helping, but many students were still isolated.” Oliver spoke.

Now dressed in his uniform, Oliver finally turned to Katherine. She still had her armor active, but not all its pieces. The boy had never seen something like this before; he didn’t know it could partially activate it.

“I think I was the only person who saw you fall into the river. There wasn’t time to call one of the captains; it all happened so fast. I just jumped after you. Luckily, I managed to find you, and in one of the river’s bends, I pulled us out. I guess you know the rest.” Oliver chose to omit the part about her almost drowning and, especially, that he had taken off her clothes; he wasn’t sure how she’d react.

Katherine looked back at the river at the edge of the forest.

“With all the noise that thing made, we’d better start walking.”