Running through a forest, Lycaon and Magnus were running from a high-ranked beast. While they were running, they expected Leo to show up but it seemed like he was busy.
"Do you think these beasts have some type of intelligence? Maybe they're probably ambushing them." Lycaon said.
"They might have an intelligence but we haven't seen these beasts in the bestiary. It's like they're man-made from some experimentation."
After roaming the nearby area, they were unable to find the other 2nd years in their group. They had initial thought they were probably still hunting but the blood on the ground said otherwise.
"Don't worry. We'll find them but we still need to move. That beast is most likely searching for us."
Returning back to the starting point, Lycaon and Magnus noticed more blood was on the ground. They soon started to worry for their friends and the other students. It was Magnus' duty to protect every 2nd year and this looked bad for him.
"Do you think Leo failed his duty?" Magnus asked.
"Leo? There's no way he could have failed. His rank is at least A-Rank or above." Lycaon replied.
Seeing the blood puddles heading in a specific direction, they decided to follow it and hope at least some of the students were alive.
"We won't die in the process, will we?" Lycaon asked.
"Good question. If it comes to it, I'll gladly lay down my life for you." Magnus replied.
After a few minutes of following the blood, they found a mutilated arm on the ground. Grabbing the arm, Magnus put it inside a dimension ring in case the student was alive and hoped to reattach it to them.
"Pull him back! I will not allow any casualties under my watch!" A loud voice could be heard.
"Quick! We must help them!" Magnus said.
Rushing forward, they could see a larger version of the beast they saw and noticed Leo was struggling against the beast.
'This beast… is its rank higher than Leo's?'
"You boys! Get behind me! Quickly! My abilities don't work when my allies are in front of me."
Hearing this, the beast turned around and saw both of them. The beast began to rush toward them. Thinking fast, Magnus pulled out his a black blade.
"Flaring Technique: Cleaving Shadow!"
Magnus held his blade to the sky and a burst of black flames lit up the sky. The heat from the sword was intense, and an incandescent smoke followed as he did a single cleaving strike.
At impact, his blade stopped on its hard scales but his flames continued to burn brightly.
'Their family treasure, the Shadowfire Requiem.'
The flames began to spread on the beast's body until it reached them. With a giant swing, the beast's claw released a wave of water and struck Magnus across the chest.
"Brother!" A girl called out.
Grabbing Magnus, Lycaon ran as fast as he could toward the group with the beast hot on his tail.
"Duck!" Leo said.
Listening to his words, he dove to the ground with Magnus in hand and watched Leo.
"1,000 Slashes!"
A strange horizontal slash of energy was released as Leo drew one of his blades by his side quickly. Surprised, the beast threw a water slash in hopes of shattering Leo's attack but it didn't happen.
The attack shattered the beast's attack and continued on forward until it struck the beast's arms. Although it looked like the beast was being pushed back, the slash disappeared and the beast continued moving forward.
"You'll make a fine chest piece. 2,000 Slashes!"
Another attack was released but this one was stronger, bigger and faster than the last as it cut through the beast's scales and made it bleed. Leo's eyes flash as it sees the durability of the beast.
Roar!!
Letting out a loud roar, a couple of beasts just like it came from the forest and charged forward. Everyone noticed and got ready to engage in combat.
In an instant, Leo disappeared from the group and everyone assumed the worst as they thought he had left them to die.
"Mana zone: 1,000 slashes tenfold!"
He appeared behind the beasts and each beast continued forward until they reached a certain distance from the students and split into hundreds of pieces. The huge beast noticed this and turned toward Leo and charged.
Putting his blade away, Leo pulled his other blade out and a dark purple covered the blade until it turned black.
"Strike of a Thousand Souls!"
In an instant, the beast was split in half. Upon seeing this, Lycaon started to speculate about Leo's power. Not only was he capable of scaring beasts away but his technique was strange to him.
'Did the humans find a way to close the gap between our strengths? This must be reported to my father. If the humans sent him to gauge our strength, then we may have sent our own combat instructor to his death.' Lycaon thought, staring at Leo.
Everyone started to praise Leo for his strength while Lycaon and his friends gathered around in a huddle. They started to explain the events that led up to their current situation and even explained that some of the nobles nearly sacrificed some of the commoners.
"What with Leo's power? That felt like it was more of a technique than a magical power." Gareth asked Lycaon.
"Cause it was a technique. If humans have found a way to close the gap between them and other superior races like us, then it means war with them might break out soon." Lycaon explained.
"Listen up! We'll continue with the hunt and I know some of you may be reluctant to do so but this time we'll split into two groups. I'll stay in the middle between the groups and scout ahead to find any powerful beasts in the area."
His words made everyone feel safer. It meant that each group would have twenty-five 2nd years while the rest would be lower grade students.
Proceeding ahead with class, they went their separate directions but didn't go far from each other. Like Leo explained, he was in the middle of the groups and walked on a single path forward.
Although he couldn't see them, his magical ability allowed him to see the outline of them. This was to make up for his loss in vision. It was unknown to each student why he was blind and how but they felt like it was disrespectful to ask him.
_________
A Couple Hours Later…
"Alright class! Let's return back to the academy!" Leo announced
Going back to the starting point, Leo used his finger and drew a strange ruin, and a portal opened up. Everyone stepped through the portal and stood in a single file line.
"I'll do a headcount to ensure everyone is here so when I say your name, raise your hand." Leo said.
"Magnus Shadowflare!" A hand rose and Leo checked his name.
"Miranda Zehpyrswirl!"
After a few minutes, Leo got to Lycaon's name aka Blake and a hand didn't raise. Calling his name again, Magnus looked around for him and noticed a lot of students were missing.
"You guys stay here! I'll be back!" Leo said as he stepped through the portal.
______
Somewhere Unknown…
Falling from the sky, Lycaon and his friends were panicking. The moment they stepped through the portal, they were transported somewhere else instead of the academy.
"Gareth! Stop our fall!" Lycaon instructed.
Before they could slam into the ground, Gareth used a strong wind spell and pushed them from the ground, canceling the force being applied onto them.
"Where the hell are we?" Kai asked.
Inspecting their surroundings, they were inside another forest but only this one was different. The trees were replaced with palm trees and small lizard-like beasts were running around them.
Stab!
One of the beasts was killed by them and picked up for closer inspection. They learned about nearly every beast in the bestiary but none of these beasts were something they read about.
"I think I know what this place is but I don't understand why we were transported here. Everyone in the class should've been transported with us." Lycaon said
"Then what the hell is this place?" Natalie asked.
"In the ancient journals of my family, there were these pocket dimensions that would appear around the continent and followed a set path. The chances of getting inside were low as they hadn't figured out where the portal was gonna appear.
Since we were the last ones to go through the portal, the pocket dimension portal must've overwritten the academy's portal and transported us here." Lycaon explained but couldn't confirm his theory.
"So what you're saying is: We're lost in an unknown dimension and possibly have no return."
"We can escape. One of my ancestors was sent here and he managed to escape but there is a problem."
A strong presence was felt coming toward them and it was something they couldn't hope to defeat.
"Every beast in the dimension was strong."
A leopard-like beast with razor-sharp spikes coming from its back and fore legs appeared. Upon seeing the beast, everyone nearly fell to the ground because this beast was an… Peak D-Ranked beast.
"Formation A!"
Listening to Lycaon, everyone got in an arrow formation. Carlos stood in front of arrow formation as he had the most defense. He was capable of turning his entire body into metal.
Behind him was Lycaon and beside him was Kai and Katlynn. They were the spearhead of formation as Carlos would grab the beast while Kai and Katlynn would apply pressure onto the beast.
Swoosh!
The beast charged head-on and slammed into Carlos, pushing him back.
"Ice Walls!"
Behind Carlos, ice walls were erected to help him stop the beast and after a while, the beast did stop.
"You made a mistake attacking us. With our powers combined, we can take you on."
Those were the last words the beast would hear as it felt its body get weakened and soon its vision became blurry. During its charge, Katlynn didn't hold back on her attacks and she summoned as many swords as possible and commanded them to pierce the beast's body.
Green flames were attached to the beast's tail and continued to spread while purple smoke was floating around the beast. Once the beast stopped, ice froze its feet in place and a powerful lightning strike had struck the beast.
Spears made from wood and earth were constantly assaulting the beast and its weight had increased. A slash caused a dimensional vacuum to form, which had separated its foot from its body and made escape impossible.
Soon the beast fell over and everyone started to celebrate. Lycaon and Baron were inspecting their surroundings to find a safe area. If they were gonna be in the dimension for a while, then they might as well secure a sleeping ground, preferable inside a cave.
"There is a cave not far from here. If we can get there before nighttime, then we can sleep." Baron pointed toward a large snowy mountain.
"James, how long do you think you can hold your barrier for?" Lycaon asked.
"At most, fifteen minutes before I run out of mana." James replied.
"Alright, Mia and Natalie will provide you with their mana till we arrive at the mountain. Before you two complain, your magic isn't the best when it comes to fighting in a group."
Without a single complaint, they pushed toward the mountain and realized something. The closer they got to the mountain, the less dense the mana was. This phenomenon was either the result of a high-ranking beast absorbing a vast amount of mana or the beast was weaker in this domain.
"Light the way." Lycaon told Kai.
Doing as instructed, Kai lit the way and proceeded to the lead. The cave was empty but it didn't mean that it wasn't being used as a home by another beast.
"Aiden, we'll be using your magic to create traps. Once the traps are set up, we'll sleep for today."
Staring outside the cave, the sun was going down and soon the night sky replaced it. With no other choice, they decided to appoint five as the protector while the rest could sleep.