"Suiton: Mizuchitokaze!" Tenjin yelled, slashing through the air as he rushed ahead of me.

His sword gleamed in the dim light of the mist around us, the blue light of his blade reflecting off the metal.

And then, the ground began to tremble and quake as an enormous tidal wave of blue water erupted from beneath him. The ground shook violently as the massive wall of liquid rushed toward the monsters.

And then, the tsunami crashed into the monsters like a freight train, sending them flying through the air as I clapped my hands together.

"Luminary Barrier!"

A long encircling wall of hard light stretched out from our sides toward the oncoming hordes. It was tall, at least three meters tall, and funneled the monsters into the chokepoint we'd created.

"Elysia! Sparrow!" I yelled. "It's go time!"

The shadow creatures at the front of the barrier slammed against it, cracks and hole forming on its surface.

But Tenjin's water caused them to slip and trip over each other as Elysia appeared from behind a tree, rushing forward with a silver-blue orb in her hands.

"Let's go!" Elysia yelled as she jumped into the air. "Frozen Flash!"

A wave of blue light spread from her as she held out her hands. The light pulsed with a soft blue hue and the temperature around us seemed to drop in a heartbeat.

I shivered, my teeth chattering as I felt the cold air wash over me.

The wave spread through the flooded death trap, freezing dozens of the monsters solid, and slowing others to a crawl.

The shadow raptors screeched as they tried to claw through the walls, and the wolves howled in fury.

Elysia landed, spinning around and slashing with her twin blades as they passed. I saw a wolf's head roll, while a shadow creature slumped, lifeless as it was cut into three parts.

"Sparrow!" I shouted. "Hit them with all you've got!"

A shadow appeared over the wall of light as the armored teen leapt into the air from her ambush point. The crimson light glinted off her armor as she flew overhead, and her giant maul swung down with a crash.

She hit the ground hard, sending out shockwaves in all directions. The monsters were sent flying by the force of the blow, crashing into one another and the barrier as she began to wail on them, her massive maul moving almost too quickly for me to follow.

A sweeping swing took the legs out of four beowulves. Another crushing blow shattered the ice that encased the raptors. The beasts were sent flying, their bodies twisted and mangled. Another wolf tried to leap at her from the left, only for its body to explode into blue energy and mist.

I paused, staring in awe at the sheer brutality of the scene. Her fighting style was actually... terrifying.

Every swing caused a small shockwave of energy that would send the monsters reeling, and the massive weight behind every hit meant that a single solid blow would completely destroy the target. She seemed to follow every swing with an energy-based after-hit that shattered whatever she aimed at.

She was also fast. Probably somewhere between Claw Strawberry and Elysia, but that still put her miles above what I could do. She danced in and out of melee range, dodging swipes and snapping jaws before countering with devastating swings.

And the icing on the cake? She was insanely strong.

She didn't seem to have the finesse of a trained martial artist, and her attacks were pretty wild, but she didn't need any of that.

Every single swing she threw was powerful enough to obliterate her target.

She wasn't graceful. She wasn't elegant. But she was powerful. And that was all that mattered here.

And she had... wings?

They were solid and bird-like like Aurora's, but a distinct shade of red that reminded me of the sun setting over a horizon. She flapped them with each jump, using them to add momentum to her strikes, and her form blurred as she used her flight to add even more force behind every blow.

She was a monster.

But I couldn't afford to waste time staring at her.

I didn't have much in the way of wide-area attacks that wouldn't catch them in the crossfire, and the last thing we needed was for me to screw up and cause collateral damage.

I raised my hand, aiming a Luminary Bolt at one of the half-frozen raptors.

It screeched, trying to claw its way out of the ice as the sphere of light slammed into it. Its shadowy body evaporated into mist, and it let out one last scream before disappearing completely.

Then another ball of energy found its way to one of the creatures. And another. And another.

Tenjin ran alongside Elysia, the two of them working in tandem to cut through the chokepoint.

"Suiton: Kouken!" he shouted, and a whirlpool of water appeared around him, enveloping him like a cloak.

Elysia jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the swirling torrent of water.

"On your left!" Elysia yelled as he continued to press the advantage, smashing through the broken hordes. She moved like a dancer, gracefully spinning and twirling her way through the enemy lines around him, her blades a blur of motion as she threw out ice shards and blasts of freezing air.

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I focused on taking out the raptors that tried to flank her standing from my position at the back. The shadow beasts were the weakest of the monsters I'd seen during the Cataclysm, but also the fastest. They had razor sharp claws that could rip through metal like paper.

Even so, she was more than a match for them.

She'd freeze one with a quick burst of magic before finishing it with a slash of her sword, and she'd repeat this over and over until there was a ring of frozen statues surrounding her and Tenjin.

I grinned, rushing forward as I felt the rush of adrenaline. I blasted away at the monsters, using Luminary Bolts and Beams while trying to conserve my mana just in case.

These things were weak, but there were dozens of them.

The beowulves were tougher. Their bodies were mutated with plates of clay-like armor and they had a lot more mass.

They were the real challenge, because while Elysia was faster, it was easy to get cornered and swarmed by them if you didn't keep on your toes.

So I focused on taking out the ones trying to do just that. Luminary Beam would cut off their legs, while a well placed bolt could take out a beowulf's head. It was easy for them to surround us if they got the chance, but we'd fallen into a formation and rhythm.

Tenjin and Elysia would draw them out while Sparrow would crush them, and I'd cover their back.

If a raptor tried to take Elysia from behind, a bolt of light would find its way through the monster's head.

If a beowulf was getting ready to pounce, a beam of light would sever its legs.

We could win this. We really could.

But just as that thought crossed my mind, everything changed.

There was a loud screech that pierced the air and I looked back, only to see a trio of massive, truck-sized deer-like creatures with shadowy wings and appendages jutting out all over their body.

Their horns looked like they were made of sharp, twisted metal, and their bodies looked like they were made of shadows covered with spikes. They were charging straight for us, with about a dozen more raptor creatures scrambling around their legs.

"Shit!" I yelled as the creatures barreled towards us, trampling the hordes beneath them as they moved.

They were bigger, faster, and more agile than I'd expected, and they moved like they had no intention of slowing down.

The first one leapt at me, and I dove out of the way, barely dodging its horns as they tore through my Luminary Barrier like tissue paper. It continued onward toward my companions, who whipped around to meet it. Elysia barely reacted in time, throwing her swords up in a cross guard as it rammed into her and launched her straight into the middle of the oncoming horde.

"Elysia!" I screamed as I tumbled across the ground.

The second monster was on me in seconds, and I barely had time to roll out of its path before its hooves came crashing down where my head was seconds earlier. It let loose a guttural growl as it turned and prepared to strike again.

I tried to get away from the creature, but it was faster and more agile than any of these monsters I'd encountered so far.

And then, it grabbed me.

Clawed hands gripped me from behind. The creature hissed in my ear, and I felt the icy grip of terror run down my spine as it pulled me off my feet and slammed me into the dirt. I let out a pained yelp as my aura flashed orange-red for an instant.

Out of pure instinct, I threw up a barrier as it thrust a hand from the other side, claws tearing into my side and drawing blood through my protective aura as its thrust went wide.

I screamed as pain shot through my chest. Every nerve ending was on fire and every inch of skin felt like it had been torn apart.

I could vaguely make out a tide of monsters rushing over my walls as they began to shimmer and fade, the subconscious concentration required to keep them up lost to me in the moment.

The creature holding me was absolutely nightmarish, like a twelve foot tall centaur with a face that had way too many teeth.

Its long, thin tongue slithered out of its mouth as it drooled a glowing blue ichor. Its hands were like nightmarish. — segmented, spindly, and tipped with wicked, curved talons.

And its body... calling it deer-like now that I had a closer look would be an insult. Its frame looked like a corpse that had been starved, ribs visible underneath a tattered, patchy coat of multicolored clay.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

It was the way it was staring at me. With hunger in its eyes.

And it looked like it wanted to eat me.

I panicked, throwing out my strongest Luminary Beam point-blank. The beam seared into its glowing blue eyes for what felt like an eternity, causing them to pop and melt in a disgusting mess of glowing blue goo that sizzled and popped in the air.

But it was undeterred. Instead, it lunged for me, its long, thin tongue whipping out like a snake. The creature was so fast, I barely managed to raise my arm again before the slimy, sticky thing wrapped around it.

The monster pulled me toward its open mouth, its rows of sharp, jagged teeth bared in anticipation. I yelped in pain as the creature bit into my arm. Its fangs sank into the soft flesh of my forearm and I could feel them scrape against the bone as they clamped down.

My aura flickered, flashing between orange and red. The pain was excruciating. The agony of being devoured was something I couldn't begin to describe. The monster's jaws were clamped shut, grinding down on my arm. Blood was flowing down its chin and staining its 'fur' a deep, crimson red.

Only the physical enhancements granted by my transformation prevented my arm from being torn off outright.

I tried to scream but my throat closed up, unable to make any sound other than a shocked, guttural gasp.

And then, I channeled all the energy I could muster into another Luminary Bolt directly inside of its mouth, causing its head to snap back and explode in a burst of glowing blue gore that splattered my face.

I grit my teeth, thrashing around in an attempt to free myself from its grip, but its claws only tightened further. It held me fast, its grip like a vice as it leaned forward again.

My vision was blurred, my ears rang with a loud buzzing noise, but somehow I knew what was coming next. It would try to finish what it had started.

I didn't have a lot of time.

I was running out of mana, and my body ached. I couldn't do much more than writhe around helplessly in the monster's grip as I felt myself growing weaker and weaker with each passing moment from the blood loss.

I couldn't think. The pain was overwhelming.

My mind raced. I needed help, and I didn't know if I would be able to do anything before it finished what it started.

It was missing most of its head, but most of its razor-sharp rows of jagged teeth remained. It growled and hissed as it snapped at me, the glowing blue ichor dripping down from the gaping hole where its head had been onto the ground.

I summoned another Luminary Bolt and slammed it into the side of its neck. There was a crack as the spell connected, but it did nothing to slow it down. If anything, it seemed even more enraged.

And then, it sank its teeth into my shoulder.

My aura shattered like glass as its fangs punctured my neck causing a fountain of hot, red blood to spray from the wound. A torrent of glowing blue ichor erupted from the creature's mouth and splashed onto my chest in an agonizing sizzle as it began to feed.

I screamed in agony, tears streaming down my face.

The pain was too much.

The monster was going to eat me.

And I didn't want to die. Not now. Not in this stupid test. I wasn't ready.

It hurt. It hurt too much. It felt like my whole body was on fire and there was nothing I could do.

I screamed, continuing to sear its neck with a point blank beam of pure light, but it didn't care.

It bit harder, sinking its fangs into my shoulder and tearing away chunks of flesh.

It bit down again and again and I felt my blood splatter across my body, my aura turning a deep crimson and smoldering, struggling to protect me as the creature tore into me.

It was eating me.

It was really going to eat me alive.

I was going to die. This was how it ended.

I almost couldn't feel the pain anymore.

It was so intense and all encompassing, like a blanket of fire covering my body, that I'd gone numb. There was nothing but agony.

My vision blurred. My ears buzzed with a high pitched whine. The only thing I could see was the gaping maw of the monster in my mind as it feasted on me.

It was consuming my mind. It was consuming my life.

And then, a gust of air rushed over me, followed by a series of quick, sharp whistles that screeched through the air.

My senses were so dulled that I barely registered what'd happened.

And then, I felt myself soaring weightlessly through the air.

I struggled to open my eyes, and I briefly caught a flash of red eyes and long, silky black hair, before tumbling back onto the ground in a sickening squelch.