“So you are going deeper into the forest?” Ami asked. Yuki decided it would be best to let the others know so that they did not worry.

“Mmm…” Yuki nodded.

“Going deeper will be dangerous, but it seems you two are set on going, right?” Ami asked. Both Nana and Yuki nodded. “Then… Ai, what about you?”

“I…. I will go….” Ai nodded firmly. Either way, she would not be able to survive by herself if everyone else was going. She had to admit she was basically being carried through this training. While she had been learning some things, she still could not kill anything above a rank one demonic beast at this time. So if a rank two or three showed up, she was basically a snack.

“Then we are all going. You are okay with that, right?” Ami was not really asking, more of just implying that they had to be okay with it.

Yuki nodded her head, and Nana followed Yuki’s decision, so with everything decided, the group packed up what they needed and sealed off their cave. After leaving a marking that they would recognize, they began walking deeper into the forest.

Three hours later…..

“Yuki, to your right!” Ami yelled out as a large armored rhino appeared out of nowhere. It charged Yuki, who decisively gave up fighting the flamed tiger and turned to defend against the armored rhino just as it slammed into her.

“Cough!” Blood spat from Yuki’s mouth. She had not expected to run into a demonic beast wave all of a sudden. What made things worse was that the demonic beasts did not seem to care too much about running away once they saw them.

Yuki's body flew through the air and was about to crash into a tree when Nana suddenly appeared behind her catching her. “Yuki!”

“I’m fine. Careful.” Yuki replied as she wiped the blood from her lips. She took out some healing pills and stuffed them in her mouth before readying her sword once more. “We need to break through.”

“Leave it to me. Cover the rear.” Nana knew she was the only one who could break through the encirclement they were currently caught in. “Ami! Stay with Yuki and follow me!”

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“Got it!” Ami was currently carrying Ai on her back. Her leg was currently broken, and could not walk. “Come on, Ai, we are going to make it out of this alive.”

“Mmm…” Ai had tears in her eyes. She was not ready to die yet.

This all started when they had slowly made their way through the forest. Yuki and Nana were leading, doing their best to slip past any demonic beasts they came across. But after a few hours, they heard a loud roar coming from the inner part of the forest. After that, all hell broke loose. Demonic beasts came charging at them from all directions, and in the end, they became encircled.

While they were trying to fight off the demonic beasts, one of them smashed into Ai, sending her crashing into a tree. This resulted in her leg breaking. Ami quickly went to her aid while Yuki and Nana tried to hold off the rest of the demonic beasts.

“Nana, west,” Yuki ordered. Nana nodded, and with a sweep of her sword, she bashed the rank three armored rhino that was charging at them to the side, staggering it long enough for them to make a break for it.

“Wind wolves! Nana, take the others. I will catch up.” Yuki had no choice but to stay behind. Ami was currently carrying Ai, and Nana was using her brute strength to force a path through the demonic beasts rushing toward them. Wind wolves were pack hunters, which normally consisted of groups of six.

“Hurry!” Nana yelled out one word as she sliced the head off a rank two demonic beast before bashing another to the side.

Yuki was trying to fend off the wind wolves who were giving chase from the back. Her job was to keep them at bay while the others pushed through. She figured once Nana was able to get the others out of the way, she could retreat on her own, allowing her to escape quicker. She was not trying to be egotistical when she thought this, either. She just knew she could move much faster alone than having to worry about others.

Her only problem was that each of these wind wolves was a rank three demonic beast except for the leader, who was a rank four demonic beast. This was much more dangerous than she had expected. Her sword clashed with the claws that swiped down at her as the wolves began taking pop shots at her. She could not run yet until she was sure that Nana and the rest were far enough away. She hated to admit it, but she knew she would probably end up getting beaten quite badly even if she was able to escape.

Yuki was actually wondering where the elder was that was supposed to keep watch over them. She never thought she would have a day where she would be hoping someone would come and save her so she could avoid injury. Sadly there was no way of knowing whether an elder was here or not since she could not sense anyone or smell anyone nearby.

“Yah!” Yuki yelled out as she swung her sword towards a large wolf paw that had its claws fully showing, bearing down on her to cut her into multiple sections. But just as her sword made contact with one of its claws, a cracking sound was soon heard.

*Shatter!*