That had sounded like a student, and I heard more chatter coming from our left flank. They were nearing our position.

I frowned. There should be no need to be afraid of the other initiates. But. I glanced at May’s pouch. Then back at the mess we had left in the arena. They would definitely suspect we looted something. They may not know what and how much, but they would suspect it. The number of voices also told me there were more than two students coming our way.

We had won a battle. But it had left us bruised and tired, and they had the bigger school. They could strong arm our spoils.

The realisation struck May at the same time it did me. We decided to hide without exchanging so much as a word and rushed towards the treeline on the opposite side.

Not a moment after we found cover, a group of three initiates stepped into view with Jax prime among them. The other two, a boy and girl, weren’t wearing their tag. The boy may have been hiding it but the girl for sure wasn’t.

Lynne carried a bow on her back and had her nose practically inside the dirt of the forest. I got the distinct sense she wasn’t looking for tracks but simply did not want to be here. The tiny girl was shaking all over.

My mind worked overtime, and I recognised the boy. An accepted student. His name was Kite. A burly boy my height but twice as wide as me at the shoulders. He looked like he could swing that axe strapped to his belt. He also carried a buckler.

Jax lifted the corpse of the fox using the side of his two-handed mace. His mouth moved. I had to perk my ears to hear.

‘…recent work,’ he said. ‘…find them.’

I bit my lip. I couldn’t catch all of it. Yet, even if I had not caught the last part of that, they had ‘scavengers’ written all over them. We made the right call.

May was crouching behind the tree to my side. She questioningly motioned behind us, making a circle motion.

We can circle around?

I gave a thumbs up, and we were off.

Or so I thought. It wasn’t fully dark yet, but the yellow eyes of the lupine were already glowing between the trees.

My heart sunk. I counted at least six sets of eyes. One of which was bigger than all of them combined. The pack was here, alerted by the cries of their fallen members.

Needless to say, May and I immediately darted across the arena.

Jax’s face lit up, his mouth widening with glee when he saw there were just two of us. It lasted all but a second.

‘Run!’ I said, storming past him and his group.

They were on our heels before I finished yelling.

We dashed through the forest, howls echoing at our back. I craned my neck. Though Lynne was fine (she had almost caught up to us), Jax and Kite were struggling to create space. Jax because he was carrying a heavy weapon and kite because his physique wasn’t made for sprinting.

My head whipped back. Shit. I noticed the branch in front of me too late. I tried to jump over but the tip of my foot caught on the edge.

Dammit, I thought as I crashed—

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

May hauled me to my feet with her good arm before my face found the ground, and I caught my balance. I sent her a thankful glance, then quickly regained my lost speed.

I whirled around again.

The wolves were already lunging for Kite’s heels, forcing the boy to jump out of the way and lose even more ground.

Jax was biting on his own teeth and sending glances behind him as well. After Kite fell, Jax would be next.

‘We have to turn around!’ I yelled at May.

‘Are you insane?’ May said. ‘There’s too many of them. Just leave them!’

‘We can’t. The academy is too far!’ I said. ‘They’ll chase us all the way. We’ve got too much blood on us!’

From the way her pupils went wide, she realised I was speaking the truth.

‘Jax!’ I yelled.

The boy looked up and caught my stare.

‘We need to fight!’ I said.

Lynne looked like she wanted to preemptively dip six feet under after hearing my statement.

Jax himself glanced back one more time, finding Kite yelling the same thing I had. One of the wolves had had enough and jumped on the trunk of a tree to rapidly change direction. Its aim was on point, and its fangs were on course for Kite’s neck.

Kite grounded himself, giving up any chance at running, and raised his buckler to block. But his footing wasn’t quite there yet. The beast would break his guard.

I saw the exact moment where Jax’s indecisiveness turned into determination. The blonde boy whirled around with a yell and his mace struck the wolf out of the air.

The next moment I jumped to kill my momentum, placed my hands on the floor to act as a pivot, and launched towards the fight. I heard May do the same behind me, but I spared her no more attention.

The wolf Jax had struck failed to catch its footing, so it was not an immediate threat. Another had already pounced on Kite. That was two out of five if I disregarded the boss. My eyes whirled in their sockets. Two more had tried to flank me and May to cut off our escape route and were making a mad dash towards us now that we had stopped running.

That made for four. One was still missing.

I had no time to question where it would be, but I had an inkling. Predators always targeted the weakest link of a chain first and right now the weakest looking among us was—

‘Lynne!’ Jax yelled. ‘Dodge!’

The girl noticed the sneak attack too late. The wolf was already in the middle of its leap, on a collision course with her throat.

Lynne spun around on instinct and screamed, placing her bow in front of her as a shield in a futile attempt to stop destiny.

I breathed in sharply as the sole of my feet touched the earth. These wolves were not the alpha. If one of us died facing them, our chances at taking out the boss or surviving would turn to near zero. But that was not the true issue.

Lynne would be our ranged fighter. She may be the sole person who could deal damage safely from a distance. If she died—if her bow broke, and the alpha turned out to be too strong to face in direct combat, it would be game over.

The air entering my lungs seemed to freeze.

Don’t focus on the entire body of maura, the elder had said. So, I imagined the paddle. Not as my hand. But as the core in my navel. I did not reach for the string. That was too nuanced a process for what I needed. Instead, I flipped the paddle on its head, letting gravity do the work and pull the ball of maura into my legs. I leapt—

The forest floor burst apart, clumps of earth scattering. For an instant, I was weightless. A feather gliding over the breeze. The trees sped past me faster than I could register their form and turned into a blur.

I managed to pull my daggers, after which I heard a wet gulch and a whine before crashing to the floor. Something furry and soft broke my fall, and I rolled to a stop and landed on my feet.

My vision whirred before settling back in place. One of my daggers had taken the wolf in the stomach. Through sheer luck, the other had taken it in the skull, killing it instantly. I pulled out my daggers and staggered onto my feet.

I breathed out heavily.

Warning, maura below forty percent! (15/50).

New ability unlocked!

Basic Body Enhancement - rank E: you can force maura into your limbs to momentarily strengthen them. Scales with rank.

I smiled.

But not for long. My charge had taken me to the front of the battle, where Jax and kite were fighting. I was now in front of them. And ahead of me, a towering lupine stepped out of the shadows of the trees.

I did not need to inspect it to know it was powerful. Yet I did.

[Name: Fire Breathing Lupine Alpha - Grade: D]

I saw the flames within its mouth swirl after it opened its snout. They shaped into a steaming ball that cauterised the air around it. Heat licked my skin and burned away my built-up sweat.

The entirety of my sight went blazing red as the beast howled and fired the blast, the fireball devouring everything in its path.

image [https://i.imgur.com/joNPG6l.png]