"After 'The Pull,' the galaxy became a chaotic mix of Red Worlds which are unstable, high in Soul Radiation, and fundamentally hostile to life and Green Worlds which were habitable with stable, if often predatory, ecosystems."
Professor Tai Young's voice cut through the humid air at the Darkwood's edge. He paced before the thirty students, his silver, rune-etched tools chiming softly at his belt.
"During this time," he continued, "a network of survivors migrated, diplomatic relations were established, and cultures were mixed. It gave birth to a new way of life… which we have lived for over a thousand years. Twenty-six Green Worlds now exist in our local cluster. But you see… some weren't Green at first. Like Halycon. Halycon was the first Red World conquered by humans."
A murmur went through the students. Conquered. Not 'terraformed.' Not 'settled.'
"The Darkwood," Tai Young gestured to the oppressive wall of black-barked trees before them, "…has existed for millennia. Its secrets are still not fully uncovered. If you happen to uncover some… well, the academy provides very generous actual rewards, you know?"
He put on a creepy, thin-lipped smile as he said that last part. It wasn't reassuring. Kaitri thought it was the smile of a man who knew the precise market value of a student's discoveries, and probably the student's organs, too. He shivered at the thought.
They were all standing at the edge of the woods' entrance and exit. The trees were a monstrous collection, some ten meters tall, others soaring to thirty, their branches so thick they formed a canopy that strangled the sun and the air smelled of damp earth.
Kaitri stood with the others, his expression a mask of calm, but his mind was a storm. He felt a thrum of determination, a cold spike of fear, and a sharp, analytical curiosity. 'He said "conquered," not "pacified." This isn't just a nature reserve. It's a prison, and we're being thrown inside.' He was overthinking again.
Professor Obi stepped forward. "You know your teams. You know the rules. Five runic circles. One destination. Professor Tai Young and I will be patrolling. Do not expect us to save you. Only from threats way beyond what you can handle. Good luck."
The teams broke off. Kaitri watched Aris's group stepped onto the first circle. Her team was stacked. Her brother Zeren, a wall of muscle, stood beside her. Jenny was already bickering with him, her goggles pushed up onto her forehead.
Stefan, the quiet woodsman, was checking his gear. And with them, a half-orc tracker with a nose that was already twitching, and her sister, a pale, blank-faced girl who was, rumour had it, a shapeshifter.
Cassian's team, including his two buddies, stepped onto the second circle. 'I hope we won't be starting near each other,' Kaitri thought. The other two groups were filled with a few first years he barely knew.
Then it was their turn. Team Five.
His group of six gathered on the last circle, which glowed a faint yellow. He was the designated leader and primary combat. Beside him, Varik nervously adjusted the Tachi sword at his hip. His info-master role felt decidedly less useful at the moment.
Paul, the Corvian Crowfolk stretched his feathered arms, his sharp eyes scanning the canopy with an expression of deep annoyance.
Hunter, their elven rune expert, stood with his eyes closed, his lips moving in a silent prayer.
Sibil, the Mernian, was checking her bow, her faintly scaled, blue-tinged skin looking pale in the dim light. Kaitri had recruited her for her ability to control and, more importantly, purify water, a critical survival skill.
And finally, there was Kanut, the Brimstone Crier. He was a small, unassuming kid, but his entire lineage had a massive lung capacity. His people could control their voices to create sonic waves, but it required intense focus. He was kind of loud on default though.
"This is it, then," Varik muttered to him. "Just... try not to get us all killed in the first ten minutes, captain. I have a low tolerance for being eaten."
"Just focus on not dying as well, Varik," Kaitri whispered back.
As they stood on the circle, Kaitri heard it… a faint, distant, electronic hum. He looked at Varik. "Do you hear that? A high-pitched... whining."
Varik strained, then shook his head. "Nothing. Maybe it's the wards? My hearing is pretty average. Probably just your nerves."
Their rune expert, Hunter, suddenly knelt. He traced his fingers along the glowing soul-energy runes of the transport circle, his expression one of pure reverence. "What power," he breathed. Then he clapped his hands together and began to chant, ancient Elven words.
Kaitri and Varik gave each other a look.
"I thought Jenny was weird with her rune-zapping," Varik whispered, side-eyeing the praying elf. "At least she doesn't try to flirt with the magic circle."
Before Kaitri could reply, the yellow light flared. The world dissolved into a sickening, stomach-churning lurch of compressed space. It lasted only a second, but it was long enough for Kaitri to feel like his insides had been twisted and wrung out.
Then, stability.
They appeared in a place of jarring contrasts. The air was thick and heavy, smelling of decay and something sharp, like burnt sugar. They were in a small clearing, surrounded by a mix of dead-black, trees and vibrant ones as well that pulsed with a faint, nauseating light.
Kaitri's first instinct was to check his surroundings. His eyes snapped to the trees.
On a branch, a single, oversized crow was sitting. It tilted its head, its black, intelligent eye seeming to stare right at him. It let out a single, harsh caw.
'Vice Headmaster Darman,' he thought, a chill running down his spine.
The crow then launched itself from the branch and vanished into the oppressive gloom.
A second later, Kanut, the Crier, let out a sharp gasp. "I sense something bad," he whispered, his voice trembling. "And close."
In an instant, they all had their weapons out. Paul, the Crowfolk, was squinting into the shadows, his feathered arms slightly raised. "I can't see anything past what a normal human can. This place... the air is too thick. The light is wrong. I don't like it."
"No way this isn't the domain of a powerful monster," Varik whispered, drawing his Tachi. The blade's steel hissed as it left the scabbard.
Kaitri thought for one frantic second. "We need to ascend. High ground, now. Find a tree—"
It was too late.
A blur of ember-flecked fur shot from the shadows. It was a fox-like mammal, easily two meters at the shoulder, with eyes that glowed like hot coals and a long, bushy tail that ended in a faintly glowing, white-hot tip.
"An Incandescent Fox!" Kaitri roared, his training and the System's knowledge flooding his mind at the same time. "Frack! Scatter! Don't let the tail touch you!"
They all dived out of the way as the fox slammed into the ground where they had been standing, its claws gouging deep furrows in the earth.
The speed at which it recovered was terrifying. It whirled, its hot-coal eyes landing on the two slowest members: Varik and Paul, who had scrambled in the same direction.
The fox moved. It flowed with a streak of fire and shadow. It went straight for Varik.
Varik yelped, his foot catching on a root. He stumbled, falling backward, and could only watch as the creature's claws swiped at his face. He slid underneath the attack by a hair's breadth, the wind of the passage ruffling his hair.
The fox, in a move of impossible agility, didn't stop. It used its charge to pivot, its long, glowing tail whipping around like a molten-hot scythe, aimed directly at Paul, who was still trying to get his footing.
Kaitri was already moving. He saw Paul, his hands flapping uselessly, trying to get airborne in a forest too dense to fly. There was no time.
"Get down!" Kaitri bellowed. He launched himself forward, not at the fox, but at Paul, tackling the Crowfolk at the waist. They hit the dirt and rolled, a tangle of limbs and feathers.
Sssssizzle.
The air where Paul's chest had been a moment ago crackled, and a line of small, superheated flames ignited in the air before vanishing. The smell of ozone and burnt fur hit Kaitri's nostrils.
The fox screeched, angry that it had missed. It turned on Kaitri, who was just getting to his feet.
'No time to think!'
Kaitri moved, his 'system' speed kicking in. He didn't retreat. He advanced. As the fox lunged, he dropped, sliding under its snapping jaws. He saw the tail whipping around for another strike.
He took the gamble.
He slammed his left tanto blade down, blade-first, into the ground. As the glowing tail passed over him, he drove his right-hand tanto upward, a brutal two-handed stab.
SHLIIINK!
The blade punched through the tough, wiry fur and muscle of the tail, pinning it to the dead-black earth beneath.
The fox let out a shriek of pure, unadulterated agony that vibrated in Kaitri's bones. It thrashed, its body a whirlwind of claws and teeth, but its most dangerous weapon was anchored.
"Now!" Kaitri roared, pulling his other tanto free and scrambling back.
Kanut, the Crier, was already there, a heavy, rune-etched tower shield slammed into place just as the fox's claws raked across it. The sound was like metal on metal. Kanut grunted, his feet digging into the dirt as he absorbed the blow.
TWANG! TWANG!
Two arrows, trails of blue Mernian water-magic spiralling behind them, shot from the side. Sibil! The fox, even while pinned and roaring, ducked its head, and the arrows zipped harmlessly past.
Kaitri was on his feet, his second tanto in hand, hacking at the pinned tail. Cut it! We have to cut it!'
But the tail was impossibly tough. His blade, forged from special alloys, just sparked against the sinew.
"It's not working!" he yelled.
"Its hide is too strong!" Hunter, the elf, shouted from behind a tree. "It's a Warden-class, why is it so strong? We need to retreat!"
"We can't!" Varik yelled back, his voice cracking. "It'll break free!"
"I have an artifact!" Hunter shouted desperately. "A smokescreen! It'll give us cover! We can get to the trees!"
The fox shrieked again and pulled. The tanto pinning its tail bent with a groan. It was breaking free.
"Do it!" Kaitri yelled.
Hunter threw a small, clay pipe etched with glowing red runes. It shattered at the fox's feet, and a thick, choking cloud of grey smoke instantly enveloped the clearing.
The fox roared in confusion. Kaitri didn't wait. He lunged forward, grabbed the hilt of his bent tanto, and yanked it free just as the fox's tail snapped loose. He threw himself backward, disappearing into the smoke.
"Up! Up! Go!" he screamed.
He heard the others scrambling, the sound of claws on bark and boots on wood. The fox screeched with a deafening, high-frequency sound that made Kaitri's teeth ache. It thrashed through the fog, blindly snapping, but its prey was gone.
Kaitri and the others had climbed high into the massive, interlocking branches of the trees, shielded from sight.
'Damn,' Kaitri thought, his heart hammering against his ribs, his arms burning from the exertion. 'That was too close.'
He was perched on a branch twenty meters up with his back pressed against the trunk. He looked across the small clearing. He could just make out the others, hidden in the branches of different trees. He gave a shaky thumbs up.
They waited. The smoke cleared, revealing the enraged fox below. It sniffed the air, but the smell of the smoke lingered. Its eyes scanned the canopy, its injured tail lashing. It settled at the base of the largest tree and licked the wounds the had inflicted on it.
Silence descended, thick and heavy.
Then, a voice spoke whispered in Kaitri's ear. "Hey. Everyone okay?"
Kaitri jumped a little, nearly falling off his branch. He recognized the voice. It was Kanut.
"Sorry, did that would get you," Kanut's voice said, tinged with a faint, nervous pride. "It's my race's ability. I can aim my voice directly to a person making it seem like I'm right beside them. I can only link with two people at a time, but I can also hear you if you whisper due to my sharp hearing."
Kaitri knew this, but experiencing it was different. He looked over at Kanut who gave a small nod.
Kaitri whispered, his voice barely a breath. "Good. Paul has good hearing, right? He can hear us."
Paul was sitting next to Varik on his own tree. He nodded with his sharp eyes fixed on the fox.
"Okay," Kaitri whispered. "Kanut, link to me, Sibil and Hunter. Paul, you're the hub for Varik. Relay everything. Nobody speaks out loud. Understood?"
Nods all around.
They all gave a thumbs up after a while. It'll take longer to talk but it is all they can manage.
'Good, he can link to three,' Kaitri corrected himself. 'Even better.'
"So, what's the plan, man," Varik's voice whispered from across the clearing, relayed by Paul. "We gonna wait for it to die of old age? 'Cause I don't think it's got a copy of 'Rune Theory for Dummies' to read while it waits."
The fox below them growled, its head snapped and its ears twitched. It had heard... something.
Kaitri held his breath. He looked down at the Warden-class monster, then at his team, hidden and waiting. They were scared, but they were alive. They were going to come up with something.
Kaitri smirked, a predatory, devious expression formed on his face. He whispered, letting Paul and Kanut carry his words.
"Time to outsmart and kill a fox."