Taul scanned his surroundings nervously, past Grym in front and Bren behind him. With every step the Fighters took, they put more distance between themselves and the camp. They had left behind the imaginary border that hunters from Alarna didn’t typically travel past a while ago, and while they were supposed to still be inside the mana wall, Taul was unable to suppress his anxiety.

“I’ve never even been past the worker camp...” he said and looked to Bren for encouragement. “We are still inside the perimeter, right?”

“You heard Reurig. We will know when we’re there,” Bren said.

“Unless the wall crumbled...”

“In that case we would’ve come across beasts. This area was frequented by cat threes in the past.”

Taul frowned and his stares around them intensified. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.”

He trusted his companions and he had a lot of respect for Miles and his group, but he hadn’t yet spent a lot of time around them. As he walked through areas that were supposed to be infested with beasts, doubts were starting to bubble to the surface.

“Honestly... I hoped they would go back to Alarna with us. What is the command structure here anyway? Why are we taking commands from that woman?”

Grym stopped abruptly and spun around. “That woman?” he said in anger. “You will talk about Miss Hayla Varant with respect!”

Taul faltered, taken aback by suddenly being yelled at, but even more so because of the news. “Eh? Huh!? That was Hay— I mean, Miss Hayla?”

“You didn’t know?” Bren asked.

“Nobody mentioned her name! Why do they have the prospective queen with them?”

Bren looked at him questioningly. “She’s engaged to Miles. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that either.”

“I didn’t!”

“Huh. It’s been making the rounds among the guards for a while, especially after she left with them. My father might not even have come if it wasn’t for her.”

Grym turned his back to them and resumed walking. “We took someone with us who doesn’t even know the royal family,” he grumbled.

“Come on...” Taul pleaded as he followed after him. “The northern wall is as far away from the Rulers as it can be. Where was I supposed to see her?”

“Well, now you know,” Bren said.

“I suppose so... But that was the last thing I expected,” Taul said, mulling over this revelation. “She’s standing against the king then? Her own uncle?”

“The way I understand it, she originally only got engaged to him to stay in power, but eventually decided that continuing to support Miles would be more promising than just becoming queen,” Bren explained.

“That seems like a risky decision for a Ruler. If I had to choose between becoming king or leaving Alarna with someone who might make it big, I don’t think I would’ve done the same thing.”

“No? Think about it like this, Alarna Ragar took control over the town just by being smart and charming. Miles is the same, but he’s also more powerful than any Fighter we know.”

“Boy...” Grym hissed from the front without turning around, eliciting an exasperated sigh from Bren.

“That’s how I see it, dad.”

“You can see it like that in your own time.”

Taul looked between them in confusion until Bren cleared up what raised Grym’s ire. “He doesn’t like it if I claim that Rulers aren’t all that special.”

“Ah...”

“Even though he’s following some boy from the outskirts of Alarna now,” Bren said in a provocative manner, aimed at his father.

Grym defied Taul’s expectations when he didn’t immediately turn around to teach Bren a lesson. Instead, he kept walking forward, seemingly unperturbed. However, when all three grew quiet, and there were no more sounds but the chirping of birds and the crunching of the forest ground below their feet, the situation became awkward.

There was clearly some unspoken conflict between father and son, but Taul had no intention of getting involved. Not while he was literally caught between the fronts. He also had more questions, so he decided to get the conversation back on track.

“So, uhm, Bren.... If Miles is engaged to Hayla—”

“Hmph,” Grym grunted.

“Sorry... Miss Hayla. If they are to marry, what is going on with that Berla girl? It looked like they were a couple.”

“As far as I can tell, they are,” Bren said. “Guess the three have an arrangement.”

“Hum. What about the others? I assumed Miles would be our sole boss. What’s Berla’s level of authority?”

“Honestly, you might have to rethink that whole command structure thing a little. Miles is not a fan of it, so he’s rarely going to order you around outright. Berla and Reurig will mostly only ask you to do things as well. Unless Hayla takes charge now, it’s going to be more like we’re all on one level.”

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“And Riala?”

“Ohhh, never ever listen to the girl,” Bren warned. “We actually have to keep an eye on her.”

Taul glanced at Bren behind him in confusion. “What? Why?”

“She’s as powerful as Miles, but does whatever she wants when he isn’t around. It’s a recipe for disaster. She once tried to shoot a hole into the southern wall from a distance to, quote, ‘see how far the water will fly before it becomes harmless.’ Called it research and tried to convince me that it was a reasonable exercise. Hati has clear instructions not to listen to her, and you shouldn’t either.”

“That’s surely a rather extreme example, isn’t it? Obviously you wouldn’t let her damage the wall, no matter what she says. The safety of the citizens stands above all else.”

“You say that now, but after a couple of weeks around them, the lines get blurry and even utter nonsense might start to sound reasonable. Believe me, her arguments made perfect sense, and her innocent appearance does the rest. Be careful.”

Even though Taul had a hard time picturing his savior as a mischievous trouble maker, he took the words to heart. “Understood. You must’ve reported it to Miles though, right?”

“Yeah...” Bren said with a sigh. “He did tell her off, but only after marveling that she was asking interesting questions. They spent over three hours looking into the topic afterwards. One of the longest mornings of my life.”

Taul chuckled wryly. “What did I get myself into here?”

“They are a peculiar bunch,” Bren said with a huff, “but I do believe they will lead us into a promising future. Just look at us, having a nice chat on a stroll through the woods. It’s all thanks to—”

The three Fighters froze mid-step as a sinister air suddenly enveloped them. Grym signaled for them to draw their swords, and they crouched down, forming a protective circle with their backs against each other. The unmistakable feeling of beasts in the vicinity sent shivers down their spines, but several moments passed without any sign of the enemy, and they realized they had been mistaken after all.

“Impossible... Is this the mana wall?” Taul asked, perplexed. “It feels like we’re completely surrounded. I didn’t expect it to feel this real.”

Bren grimaced. “I guess it has to if it’s supposed to trick beasts... But I’m surprised as well...”

They stood carefully and walked back and forth a few times to confirm their findings. It was like Reurig described it, an invisible force akin to that of strong beasts, which seemed to warn you to stay the hell away from this area.

“This is it,” Grym concluded, weathering the mana better than the younger Fighters.

“I-I don’t want to go through this...” Taul stammered.

“Like I said, that’s the idea... But we have to check what’s going on on the other side,” Bren said.

“Do we? You just said we don’t necessarily have to follow orders.”

“Maybe not unreasonable ones, but she’s right that this is important. If we can’t fully rely on Alarna and Cerus, we need to hunt for resources ourselves and we must know what the situation past this point is.”

“I know, but...”

“Enough yapping,” Grym said in a commanding voice and strode forward, deeper into the whirlwind of mana.

Taul and Bren swallowed hard and followed him. Their steps grew heavier the farther they went, and their advance practically slowed to crawl in a matter of seconds.

“This is way worse than being surrounded by a couple of beasts,” Bren said through gritted teeth. “It’s absolutely everywhere. It’s supposed to be coming from trees?”

“Mhm,” Grym grunted in affirmation. “There,” he said, pointing at a tree to their left.

They followed his gaze and found one with a rotten, black trunk. As a guard for the lumberjacks, Bren had seen his fair share of trees, but never one like this. It appeared ready to crumble at the lightest touch. Taking a step in its direction confirmed that the overwhelming feeling of dread was coming and worsening in this direction.

“Do we think this color is normal? It does not look healthy,” Taul pointed out.

“I think Reurig would’ve mentioned if they were supposed to look like this,” Bren said. “It was definitely a good idea to check on the wall.”

“You’re right.”

“Move on!” came a shout from up ahead. Taul and Bren had been so absorbed by the tree that they didn’t notice Grym leaving, and hurried after him as best as they could.

Confirming that the mana wall was intact had been their first task, but they still needed to see what the beast situation on the other side of the wall was like. According to Reurig, they never checked after “construction” and didn’t know exactly how the mana influenced the local beast population, aside from keeping them out. Hopefully, they would just live on the other side, where the group could then go to hunt.

Some time passed until the mana around them faded and they were able to breathe a sigh of relief, just to look back at where they had come from and realize that they would later need to go through this again. They shook this feeling off and looked around with a clear mind.

“So... more woods,” Taul said.

“I don’t see any tracks,” Bren said. “The beasts probably won’t approach the barrier.”

“Are you blind, boy?” Grym asked.

He nodded at a particular tree that had scratch marks on it. Category fives sometimes left those in a presumed effort to mark their territory.

“Oh...”

“You’ve spent too much time inside the walls,” Grym groaned and approached the tree. He let his calloused fingers run across the marks and continued in a hushed voice. “They’re freshly applied. It might be close.”

The three Fighters grouped together and resumed walking in formation at Grym’s instruction.

“Aren’t we done?” Taul whispered. “We know the beasts are still around now.”

“We do, but fives shouldn’t live here,” Bren said. “We need to take a look around.”

They had barely made it ten meters before a deafening roar shattered the tranquility of the forest, sending Grym and the others diving for cover behind nearby trees. Above them, a flock of birds flapped their wings frantically, trying to flee the sudden disturbance.

To Taul’s dismay, the father-son-duo did not take this warcry as a warning sign to flee as well. Sharp glints in their eyes, they began dashing from cover to cover, moving in the direction of the noise. He reluctantly went after them until his companions suddenly stopped and glanced across a small clearing from behind two trees. When Taul arrived and followed their example, his gaze fell on what appeared to be a category three and a five, fighting over a dead deer. His eyes widened at their appearance.

The wolf and the bear loomed before them, their usual imposing sizes, with glowing eyes fixed on each other. However, their black fur was accented by ominous red lines running across their bodies, and their auras seemed multitudes more intensive that what the Fighters were used to.

Taul held back a shocked gasp, watching in silent amazement as the creatures engaged in a fierce battle before them, launching themselves at each other with claws and teeth bared.

This quarrel between beasts defied common wisdom, as wolves didn’t stand a chance against the muscular builds of bears. Knowing this, it was rare to see these two races engage in one-on-one battles at all. Its outcome appeared set in stone and the fight went as expected at first, until the wolf got into the bear’s blindspot, opened its maw, and breathed fire at its foe. The bear went up in flames and cried out in pain. Turning tail, it fled into the woods as its body appeared to absorb the fire.

Grym and the other two hid while the wolf surveyed his surroundings. He then took his price, carrying the deer into the woods on the other side of the clearing.

After a tense pause, Taul spoke up. "We can leave now, right?"

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Bren replied, his voice tight with unease.

Grym nodded his agreement.

It was clear that something had changed in these creatures over the past month.