They were deep into the forest. They had already caught five ten point marbles at this point. The trees in these parts were bigger and more ancient. There was one tree that probably required thirty people to hug it completely. The ground was moist as if salivating. The vines were thicker and longer while the leaves were greener than the average. They didn't mind their surroundings as they continued to look for marbles. They probably had passed the passing grade at this point but they were greedy for honor and so they sought more.

But they did not notice something lurking in the darkness beneath the trees. It was scaly and big. Small bat-like wings sprung up from its back, while claws the length of a full human hand dug deep into the ground. Its body looked like an adult lion. It growled quietly and breathed slowly. It was eyeing its prey with practiced ease.

Roman was pointing at something above him when the hairs on his neck stood up and a chill ran down his spine. He turned around and suddenly he saw the beast launch up at him. But with quick motion, he sidestepped and the beast landed at where he had been. Aisaca looked at the beast quickly, realized what it was, and was shocked; the northern forest shouldn’t have high tier beasts lying around, especially this third-tier ectoroth. The beast growled and chose its target, but as if it were bitter at Roman having dodged its first attack, it chose Roman. It ran after him at breakneck speeds.

Aisaca quickly casted a vine spell. Vines started wrapping around the body of the beast. But the beast squirmed and tried to get out of its bind. One vine got torn off and Roman was not having any of it. He picked up a big rock with two hands and lifted it up his head. He approached the animal and slammed the rock on its head. The beast screamed and shook its head, halting its desire to be free from the vines.

In an instant, Roman grabbed Aisaca's hand and they ran. Ran. Ran until it hurt. Aisaca stumbled, pulling Roman down with her. Roman ate a bit of dirt and with a loud click spat all the dirt out into the ground.

"Hurry," he said, standing up. "Or else we'd get devoured."

Aisaca gritted her teeth and stood up following Roman's lead, this time they weren't holding hands. Roman ran fast and Aisaca found it hard to catch up, her breathing deepened and her muscles sore but she continued.

I'll die if I don't keep up.

They were a distance away from where the ectoroth had attacked them and they saw no signs of the creature when they looked back, but they weren't taking any chances. They continued running and then screaming for help, hoping someone might notice. But they were too late. The beast had jumped in front of them, seemingly taking a more circular and longer path around them. It indicated the beast was faster, built stronger than the both of them. Roman halted and clicked his tongue. He couldn't believe he was using it here right now but he had no choice. He took something from his rucksack, an icosahedron. On its surface were carved the most complicated runes Aisaca had seen.

Roman threw the object in front of the monster and it glowed. Then it shook and the air around the beast blurred as its whole body slumped to the ground as if something had weighed it down. Realizing that outrunning the beast was not an option Roman turned to the shocked Aisaca.

"Attack it now, there's no time to lose, or else we die."

Aisaca's fingers limbered as she tightened her grip on her wand and began casting a fireball spell. This one was of the three-dimensional type, tier-two spell. The fireball was huge, bigger than Aisaca or Roman. She released it to the ectoroth. It seared the ground around the beast as it exploded into a wide flower of fire. The smoke covered the beast and they had no way of knowing what was its state. But just a little, the smoke broke in half and Roman saw in that instant, a beast launched, jumping at them.

Roman pushed Aisaca as he himself jumped to the side and the beast passed through where the both of them had been. The two of them were lying on their backs on the ground. Roman clicked his tongue. It hadn't worked; his runic construct was probably destroyed by the earlier blast of fireball. He took a small cube from his rucksack and whispered to it.

"Help us, monster. Attacked." That was all the words he could fit into its small memory. He released the cube and it flew to the sky.

The beast was eyeing the cube and traced its origin back to Roman. It growled as if angered by what he had done. The beast set upon Roman as it opened its mouth ready to bite Roman's head off of his shoulders.

Suddenly, a bolt of semi-translucent force struck the beast at its chest and it flew back. It came from Aisaca who had cast a magic missile on the beast. The beast sensing that Aisaca was more of a threat than Roman changed priority and began assaulting her.

Aisaca raised a force field around her as the beast clawed at her. It desperately tried to pry the forcefield open but to no avail. Its little, useless wings flapped in frustration. But the force field wasn't invincible, after a hundred strikes from the beast it started cracking until a hole appeared on the force field. The beast was about to completely pry it open and devour Aisaca in a quick snap of its mouth. One, two, three, bam! The force field shattered to pieces. The beast opened its mouth, about to make Aisaca headless.

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Roman on his behalf picked up a stick lying on the ground which had a sharp point. It was probably a leftover tool by some smart animal. He struck the unsuspecting beast in the eye and it reared back, buckling against the force; just in time before Aisaca became headless. Its eye bled horribly while it screamed in pain. It stared angrily at Roman, then it mawed at him. Roman raised a forearm to protect himself. The ectoroth teeth struck and dug deep into Roman's forearm. He was about to lose his forearm when suddenly, a gaping hole appeared on the beast's side, passing through to its other side.

Roman looked to the directions of where the attack came from and he saw the face of Lugard, panting and shocked. That was all he saw before he fainted.

***

His head was spinning and his vision blurry as Roman forced his eyes open. He was in a big room, he looked about and saw several beds lined up with his. On the opposite wall it similarly had beds lined up. Roman groaned, suddenly feeling the pain on his right forearm. He lifted it up and saw it was properly bandaged.

A few moments later the door creaked open and someone came in. Aisaca came trotting in her wand strapped to her side while her golden hair bounced with every step. She picked up a chair and walked towards Roman's bed.

"Good morning," she said, stopping at his side and sitting down. "How's your wound?"

"Still painful. But healing it seems."

"That's good. Oh by the way, your mother came in when you were still unconscious. She told me to tell you 'Don't be reckless'"

"Sounds like her."

There was a comfortable silence that followed. The wind came rushing in through the half-opened window and a butterfly passed through landing on the flower held in a flower pot next to Roman. He reached out to the butterfly intending to get it to jump onto his finger. But he only managed to scare the insect away and it flew. It circled the room looking for the opening from which it came; a little while later the butterfly was able to fly away, escaping to the endless mountainous horizon.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Aisaca was the first to break the silence.

“Certainly beats an ectoroth attack,” Roman replied with a smile.

Aisaca chuckled a little. Roman followed with a similar chuckle. There was nothing funny about being attacked by a ferocious beast, but there was something funny about the atmosphere. They were too normal about the whole situation or rather they were taking it too lightly, as if they were long-time friends who just escaped from a life or death situation which strengthened their bond and pushed their friendship to new heights. But they were no friends. In fact Roman had no friends. Being a quirky human himself he considered no one his friends. Rather, he was afraid from the depths of his heart to call anyone his friend, lest he be rejected. In that way Roman was a loner and kept to himself.

“That was dangerous wasn’t it?” Aisaca said.

“Definitely, I’m glad we’re out of the thick of it.”

“Y-you know about that… there's something I want to tell you.” Aisaca mumbled. Roman looked at her curious about what she was about to say. Aisaca rolled her fists and pressed her knees together as she tried to speak from the depths of her being. “T-thank you… for saving me.”

Roman smiled at her, nodding in assurance.

“It certainly hurts," Roman gently began. "But better than knowing someone died, when I could've done something to prevent it."

"Still… it is truly brave of you to get yourself hurt just to save another person."

Aisaca took her wand and cast a light spell conjuring a small orb of light floating above her palm.

"Magic…" she said, holding the orb to Roman, who took it and examined it. "Magic is supposed to save people. That's what my father used to say. But I failed him when I almost got you killed. I'm too weak."

The mention of her father reminded Roman of what had happened to the Funta patriarch. A war had recently occurred a few years ago with the neighboring country Sykos and Alhim Funta fought for the kingdom against a nation built by his own race. It ultimately reached a stalemate but Alhim died in the war.

Roman blew the orb away and it dissipated in the air.

"I don't think so," Roman retorted, smiling at Aisaca. "We wouldn't have lasted that long if it weren't for your constant barrage at the monster. It was thanks to you that we lasted so long. And you also saved me when you launched that magic missile before the monster could rip my head off."

"Thank you," Aisaca said, looking Roman in the eyes.

"I'm only speaking the truth and nothing else."

***

It was dark, and the moon shone gently overhead. A cloaked figure examined the location where the ectoroth's carcass had once been. The academy had taken its remains in custody, studying it for any unusual traces of magic. The academy launched its own investigation regarding the matter but they have yet reached a conclusion. As for our cloaked figure here, they have decided to launch their own investigation.

They bent down and touched the ground, a slimy texture grazed against their skin once they took a pinch of it. There were many sources where this slime could have come from. First and foremost it could have come from the beast's blood, but they ruled that out as it was too slimy to be blood. Another would be the residue of mana in a Caster's teleportation spell.

Someone had intentionally endangered the lives of students in some nefarious chore. And the thing that bothered them the most, was that it appeared that the target never was the two students. They just happened to be where the creature was. What clued them in on that theory was simple, according to their information, the two students' combat magic class was supposed to be held at a later date, but because of a reschedule of the hero choosing, which fell on the same day as that class' practical evaluation, the whole test was rescheduled at an earlier date on the last minute, and the students were only informed at the exact day the evaluation happened.

In other words, the beast and the students crossing was just a big coincidence. And there was only one thing that they could think of that could be the reason why the beast was there. It was guarding something—rather, someone. And they knew why anyone would need guarding in such a place. She had buried an artifact there deep into the ground seven hundred years ago—a key. One of thirteen keys. Though it laid dormant, it had the effect of paralyzing a mage's mana on contact, rendering a mage powerless, hence, anyone getting it would need a guard for a few moments before they can place it in a specially made storage that can counteract this effect.

She immediately dashed off to the site where she had buried it. There she stared at a human-sized hole. She peeked inside and shone an orb of light in it. The hole seemed to reach about seventy feet into the ground. Exactly where she had buried it and exactly as deep as she had buried it.

"They're reviving them," the figure said with a clack of the tongue.

And the figure vanished.