Mares' eyes opened once he heard the slightest sound in the distance. He didn't dare to sleep too deeply after the whole deal on his first fight. The fact that he barely needed to sleep at all helped a lot.
He looked around, few students were still awake, trying to keep watch, but the silver-eyed knew they were almost falling asleep, and weren't paying attention to their surroundings.
Not that it mattered.
He looked into the distance, as far as his vision allowed him to, and that was quite a lot. But even so, he couldn't see them. He knew they were there; they were just hiding in plain sight.
'Es, is this normal behavior for Void Beasts?'
The white-haired soon replied.
'Only when they are being commanded by a stronger and smarter one.'
That took Mares by surprise.
'Did we enter some higher-ranked beast's territory?'
Esen shocked her head, denying that possibility.
'I believe I know what is happening.'
Mares noticed that Esen's tone was unusually serious.
'They are being ordered around. Usually, low-ranking void beasts don't act on intelligence, one of the very few exceptions being when they become part of a tribe, following the commands of a smarter one.'
With her explanation, Mares understood that this wasn't a simple observation, or that they had accidentally invaded a high-ranked Void Beast territory. They were targets.
'But why are they after us?'
In his mind, he saw her turn her head in the direction to which the sensation of danger both felt was coming from.
'From three-to-three ranks, void beasts pass through a qualitative change. One in the fourth rank is much stronger than one in the third rank. But they need time and resources to pass through such a change.'
Mares was starting to like less and less the direction this was taking.
'Let me guess, they send those small fries because they noticed us. The students here are said resources, am I right ?'
Esen nodded.
'If I move now...'
'Yes, they will be alerted. If you try to communicate through waves of Astral Energy, chances also are that they will notice something.'
Esen explained, confirming his previous thoughts.
'Well, this doesn't leave us with lots of options then...'
If trying to be stealthy would be useless, the silver eyed knew his better option was the opposite.
"Wake up! We are moving!"
His scream, enhanced by Astral Energy, seemed to resonate through the forest.
The students woke up in fright, but he also succeeded in scaring the small ranked void beasts.
"What's the problem?"
Lhian was the first to get ready. She was already up and looking around, trying to see what made Mares act. The crystal on her forehead was slightly shining in its usual blue color and she had her hands up to the height of her chest, ready to attack.
"We are surrounded by Void Beasts that see us all as their next morning meal."
The silver-eyed said, without wasting time. If there was still any student sleepy before, they were all totally awakened and scared now.
"How do we proceed, boss?"
Luo inquired, already looking around in a more bestial form. He couldn't notice before, but now, with his senses enhanced thanks to the partial transformation, he could pick up all the small hints. The light sound of things like sticks being broken as something walked through it, the breath, slow and steady, that was usually from a beast hiding from its prey, and a variety of faint smells that did not seem to come through this part of the forest.
"Void Beasts are rarely this well-coordinated, there is something wrong!"
As expected of a mage, Winna was one of the first students to notice something was off in the beasts' behavior.
"You are correct. There is probably a higher-ranking beast, one that has already a decent level of intelligence, making the call. You all must understand what this means, right?"
Mares explained as he looked around. The void beasts had started moving as well, they seemed to understand they were noticed and were unquiet and unsure of how to proceed.
His words were like oil to a flame between the students. They might not have been warriors, but if anything, they had an intellectual background, and hearing what the silver eyed said, it didn't take them long to reach the same conclusion Esen did.
"We have to forfeit! We can't go on anymore!"
The students started saying, one after the other. Not even Mares could blame them. Weak and recently evolved rank three void beasts were already annoying enough to deal with, even if he had complete confidence in dominating that fight currently. So, if one that is even stronger would be problematic for him is targetting them, the comprehensive response is to panic.
"First calm down, and start moving. Let's keep following the route we would take, is probably the safest option."
With Mares' words resonating through all of them, they did just as instructed, once more taking the formation they had done until now, with Mares and Lhian at the center, some in the front, some around them, and some behind.
Though Mares looked calm and confident, he had no idea how he would do against a fourth-rank one, and he was sure his chances were not good against a fifth-rank one. And against a fifth-ranked one that was about to go to the sixth-rank? He probably would get, as some used to say in his home world, trashed.
"Lhian, they might be right. Is better to pull off and ask for help."
Even one such as Luo understood that they were out of their ground in the current situation. After all, it was one thing to walk a determined path and get experience along the way. It was a completely different thing to become prey to an existence that could and would, kill and eat them.
Lhian couldn't even find in herself to be disappointed. As much as she wanted to complete everything as was originally planned, she would never take such a risk without need. Especially now, when she was already fearing the backlash her teacher would receive from the other faction in the academy, for putting so many students in this dangerous simulation.
"I am already on it."
Mares noticed that the blue-haired had some sort of disk in her hands, of which she was putting her Astral Energy in.
"Why only she has one of those?"
Mares asked randomly.
"Well, if someone else had it and they felt like giving up, they could just use it to signal for the professors. This way, unless something like… this happens, we have to get to the end."
Winna explained as they walked along, going as fast as possible to get further from the point they had slept in.
'I know what you are thinking. Some innate techniques also work as your world IDs, as their marks are unique, even between those that share the same trait. Even if another student was as courageous as trying to steal from Lhian, they would not be able to use it.'
Esen explained as she could sense Mares' doubts before he voiced them.
'I see… huh, guess they were counting on using this in case of any type of emergency. Probably they didn't expect for something to actually happen.'
The long-haired theorized. As he did so, he noticed the other students looking at Lhian with distress, Lhian herself looked rather disturbed.
"How long is this going to take? I am pretty sure they are surrounding us!"
Mares knew Luo was right, he could feel the Void Beasts around, and also starting to see their outlines, slowly approaching them. Even after going as fast as they could, they were still surrounded.
"I…I can't send the signal!"
There was a moment of silence, as everyone stopped.
And then there was panic.
"I KNEW COMING HERE WAS A BAD IDEA!"
"THEY SENT US TO DIE!"
"THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS ACADEMY! THEY CAN'T EVEN GIVE US PROPER GEAR!"
One after another, the students spiraled in panic. Even with their past experiences, they were still mostly used to being in a safe and controlled environment. Besides that, until now, they were made to believe that there would be no real risk, so suddenly being thrown into a situation where they were being hunted and could be killed and eaten, it was only natural for them to panic.
"ENOUGH!"
It was Lhian herself who screamed, making use of astral energy in her voice, shutting up the students.
"ENTER CIRCULAR FORMATION! STOP COMPLAINING, IF YOU HAVE TIME TO CRY YOU HAVE TIME TO TRY TO NOT DIE!"
She had hit the absolute limit of her patience. If everything had gone out of control, she would take the rein and do her best to make sure everyone survived. And if she heard them complaining or crying again, she would give them a reason to complain herself.
"Heh… HAHAHAHA! YOU ALL HEARD THE BOSS!"
Luo and his gang, obviously, felt the opposite of what the other students were feeling. They felt some excitement about the situation and the opportunity to fight and prove themselves, especially in front of Mares. They were the first to enter formation.
Mares also didn't stay behind, he used the multi-weapon to form a spear and asked Esen to notify him to which side would be attacked first. He wasn't willing to take risks, so he was going all out. Since he was contracted to protect these students, he should do his job properly. He also had a projection of astral energy already on his hand, ready to shoot at any moment.
Lhian had her Astral Gate open. She felt as if she was absorbing astral energy at a rate she never did before. There were five spheres of astral energy forming into crystals surrounding her Astral Gate, which was right above her. She was ready to attack at any moment.
The students raised their barriers, the ones in the front kneeling, while the shooters were right behind them. Everyone felt like their nerves were pushed to the extreme.
'Mars, from below!'
Esen suddenly warned.
"BELOW US!"
He screamed, but he was still a moment too slow.
The ground started shaking and suddenly, three big Void Beasts jumped out of it, grabbing a handful of students. They appeared in the middle of the formation, making the whole preparation pointless.
'Are those…'
Even Mares was shocked seeing what Void Beasts were.
'Rank three Earthly Brutes! They are completely different from the one you faced before!'
Not even the silver-eyed had been able to sense the Earthly Brutes approach before Esen's warn. And even then, he only manage to feel something was wrong with the ground, moments before it started shaking.
The students that were taken were screaming desperate, and begging for help. The spirit and morale that had been able to be raised before were destroyed, as their defenses crumbled so easily.
"NO!"
Lhian was as well taken unprepared, however, she rapidly reacted by pointing her concentrations of astral energy to the beasts.
In response, instead of attacking or avoiding her attack, the Earthly Brutes simply moved their hands, putting the students in front of them, and using them as shields. That stopped the blue-haired in her tracks, holding back her attack before the crystals could even be finished.
Seeing the despair and fear in her classmate's eyes, Lhian felt that she truly had failed. For the first time, she doubted her teacher's decision as tears threatened to form in her eyes.
"Careful!"
While this was happening, because of their defenses going down, all the Void Beasts that were previously slowly approaching, or only watching and waiting, took the opportunity to run between the students. The curious thing was that they didn't seem to attack the students a lot, mostly just taking them down as a bigger void beast would show up to carry them.
During Lhian's moment of confusion and hesitation, she was almost hit by a random Void Beast. It was Mares that acted fast enough, carrying her out of the way.
At this whole time, Mares has been attacking the void beasts that have been showing up, but more and more ranked three ones appeared, and even the ones that were of rank two and one, the ones he could kill with one attack, were replaced in seconds.
"It's like the whole fucking forest decided to show up!"
Luo complained as he slashed a second-rank void beast. Though different from Mares, that wasn't enough to take the beast down.
Their numbers were being taken care of fast, as the students were defeated with no trouble.
In the end, only Mares, Lhian, and the delinquent group were still standing.
"Hey, boss, any chances of turning the game?"
Though Calon asked joking, there was some genuine hope in him that the silver eyed could turn things in their favor. However…
"I don't think so."
The reality was that Mares was as clueless as them. For the first time since he got to this planet, he didn't see a way out.