"Hey, did he really wipe the floor with Derek’s ass."
"Bro’s on business!"
"He just got lucky. Weak people get lucky a lot."
"Dannn, but Derek though, wibbily wobbily..."
"Hey..."
"My bad."
No matter how hushed the voices tried to be, Derek and I could still hear them. Every word. Every snicker. I looked down at him, wondering what he was going to do next.
From the textbook of bullies, he was probably going to try and be an ass — escalate things by summoning his Spirit.
’That’ll be so delightful.’
He stood up sharply, face twisted.
"You bastard." He grabbed my cloak and wound up another punch, but stopped the mont he heard soone’s voice.
"Are you that shaless...?"
The voice was cold, the Russian accent cutting through with brutal precision.
Elena walked toward us, her summon right behind her — all gleaming cold blue armor and barely tall halberd. Kassie was standing sowhere adjacent to . There were a few other Heroic Spirits too. The wall was wide and high, so it wasn’t too clustered despite their presence, but the space felt smaller with all that condensed violence waiting to erupt.
Elena glanced at , then faced Derek.
"Let him be. Our priorities should be getting out of here — we need to work together to find the others."
Derek was still holding my cloak. I looked at him, face blank, letting a small smile creep across my face.
’Co on. Hit . I dare you.’
But sadly, he didn’t take the bait this ti. He must have had sense enough to be wary of Elena and her summon. Smart. He yanked my cloak free with unnecessary force and walked away, shoulders tight.
I looked at Elena.
I’d had it under control, but still...
"Thank you."
It was rare to see soone who genuinely wanted to help — especially among our classmates. Most of them would’ve pulled out popcorn and enjoyed the show.
She ignored , her gaze shifting to Kassie instead.
"You didn’t need my help." She brought her eyes back to . "Derek did."
She gave a calculating look, studying like I was a puzzle that didn’t quite fit together the way it had before.
"I see you have grown in the past few days."
"Past few days? How can you be so sure?"
She turned away. "I kept count."
’Kept count? How can anyone... did you not have fights? Near-death experiences?’
At this point, the tension loosened sowhat. Everyone was conversing now, chatting and gossiping, while so looked around for clues on how to get out of the cave. The background noise of nervous chatter filled the hall — desperate normalcy after the chaos.
"You kept count? How did you... wait, what about Charlotte and Celine?"
Her gaze turned somber, the hard edge in her eyes softening just slightly.
"I lost them in the storm. What about you — did you see anyone?"
I looked down, managing to replicate the way she also looked just now.
"Just Kael. I lost him too... I was unable to protect him this ti."
Elena’s eyes widened for a mont, then creased with a frown.
"What? What do you an?" Her voice dropped low, her Russian accent coming through even more heavily now, each word deliberate.
"I..."
As I opened my mouth to speak, the entire hall shook — hard. Ice dust rained down from the ceiling. The stone beneath our feet groaned.
The shaking distracted us all, made everyone freak out. For a mont the place looked like it was about to co undone, the ancient stonework cracking with sharp, echoing snaps.
Then the tremors shifted — lighter overall, but focused with brutal intensity in one area.
Toward the wall.
"Everyone, over there!"
"Brace yourselves, guys — sothing’s coming!"
"Bollocks, can we ever catch a break?"
Everyone summoned their Spirits. People whose Spirits were already standing around repositioned themselves, forming a ragged defensive line. Even Kassie turned toward the wall, sword appearing in her hand. She positioned herself adjacent to it while the others faced it head-on.
’Smart. Anything that breaks through, she’ll hit from the flank.’
"We’ll talk about this later!" Elena hissed at while getting ready to face whatever was about to burst through.
The tremors continued as sothing slamd into the wall. Again. And again. Each impact sent shockwaves through the floor, rattling teeth and bones.
The wall began to crack. The fractures spread like spiderwebs across the ancient frozen stone.
With another powerful smash, the wall exploded — fragnts of stone and white fog blasting into everyone’s faces. I threw up an arm, squinting through the debris. Kassie clenched her sword, muscles tensed and coiled, ready to move.
But the mont the explosion happened, a familiar voice shouted through the chaos.
"Hold! Don’t you lacklusters dare attack !"
"Instructor Stanley! God really saved you!"
"We were about to make it rain on you!"
"Damn it, what a dramatic entry — what about the doors?!"
"The doors are broken, fool."
"I know, but still."
So continued yapping. The girls fluttered around Instructor Stanley and his massive Rhino beast summon like baby ducks around mama duck, all relief and nervous energy.
"What happened here?" His voice cut through the chatter, sharp and commanding.
Just as he asked, they began spilling all the information — talking over each other, gesturing wildly, recounting every detail of the nightmare we’d been through.
The other instructor with him also arrived, along with so heavy-armored Paladins whose pauldrons looked like they were carrying the weight of the world. Maybe not?
’Okay, at least a segnt of it.’
Alongside the Paladins ca nuns dressed in white habits with golden accents. They moved through the group efficiently, healing wounds with soft glows of light. anwhile, the Paladins and the lady instructor ventured into the network of caves to find the others — the ones still lost in the dark.
The total number of us who had made it to the hall was seventeen.
That ant eight of us were still missing.
Seven, technically — if there weren’t any more to be counted among the dead.
A nun approached and said with a practiced, gentle smile, "Any injuries?"
I looked at her with a bored expression. She was slim, and unlike Pyre Saint’s habit — which actually fit — hers was pretty large, loose and flowing.
"I’m fine."
My voice must’ve sounded like she was pestering , because she chuckled awkwardly and left, walking to find soone else to fuss over.
"Selfish nuns...’
Instructor Stanley led us outside, and we began making our way toward the gate entrance. We didn’t necessarily pass through where we’d co from — there were usually two gate entrances. The second one would randomly appear sowhere around the gate after the guardian had been defeated. Convenient. Less backtracking through murder caves.
While we walked, I stayed at the back and handed my bag of cores to Kassie. It was all stained with blood—my blood, Kai’s blood, Kael’s blood, beast blood. Hard to say at this point.
With a little back and forth, she agreed to hold it for , hanging it over her shoulder with her sword.
’Hmm, more intimidating actually. She looks very approachable.’
After barely five minutes of walking through a sparse, snow-covered forest, we saw a shimring gate before us. People lined up and began entering one by one, passing through that rippling boundary between nightmare and reality.
I was the last in line.
Just as Kassie stepped through and I was about to follow, Instructor Stanley put his hand on my shoulder and stopped .
"You... wait." His gaze settled heavily on , and I could practically feel the weight of whatever was coming. "I need to have a word with you."
’Of course you do.’
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