The change was instantaneous, a sharp crack of movement from the underbrush—a blur of motion that no one could have anticipated.
Before anyone could react, one of the men in the group was struck down.
"Wh-what! Arghh Help!"
A monstrous figure, hidden within the thick foliage, erupted from the bushes, its grotesque form a horrifying sight.
The creature—a mantis-like beast with razor-sharp claws struck with one move, puncturing the man's torso under one blow that caught the man's reaction time off guard.
The man had barely enough time to gasp before his body was severed in half.
The creature's jaws clamped down on his head, and in an instant, his life was extinguished, his body falling lifelessly to the ground, his lower half intact, well... but dead for good.
"Ehh?" The girl closest to the man's dismembered body barely managed to voice her confusion, her mind struggling to process the horror that had just unfolded.
It was too fast, too fast for these merely feeble awakeners that had just entered the first few steps of the path of the extraordinary.
Her eyes widened in disbelief, her breath catching in her throat as the reality of the situation slowly dawned on her. Like a lump of dirt at the back of her throat, she swallowed subconsciously. It was too fast for her current state of strength to comprehend, her eyes were still fixed forward.
The rest of the group stopped in their tracks, their cheerful banter replaced by stunned silence. It was like a sudden drop of pebble into the lake, the ripples and waves slowly forming as the realization of the current situation settled in, but really... they can't understand...
Their gazes, once filled with casualness, now turned uniformly toward the scene of carnage, their minds refusing to accept what they were witnessing.
Doubt clouded their expressions at first as if their eyes had deceived them, but that doubt quickly gave way to shock and terror.
The girl, now fully aware of the gruesome reality, let out a piercing scream.
"W-what!... No!!!" She stumbled backward, her face pale with fear, her hands trembling uncontrollably as she struggled to distance herself from the horrific scene. The sword within the scabbard on her waist rattled as if it didn't exist anymore.
Tears welled up in her eyes, the shock of seeing her comrade so brutally torn apart overwhelming her senses.
Amid the chaos, Zel's reaction was swift and fierce.
His eyes flared with a mixture of rage and anguish as he moved with the speed of a bullet, bursting out from the spot where he was as he sprinted at a speed so fast that naked eyes couldn't catch.
Without hesitation, he stepped in front of the terrified girl, his palm gathering a glowing energy at his side. He pushed his hand forward with all the force he could muster.
"Die, beast!!!" Zel roared, his voice thick with fury, veins bulging in his neck as bloodshot eyes fixed on the creature.
The energy in his hand exploded outward, a concentrated blast of force that struck the mantis-like monster squarely in its chest.
*Boom!*
The creature was hurled through the air, its grotesque form smashing into the trees with a sickening crunch.
The impact sent splinters of wood flying as the monster's body carved a path through the undergrowth, disappearing into the dense foliage.
The forest seemed to recoil from the force, the echoes of the blast fading into an eerie silence.
But there was no triumph in Zel's eyes, only a deep, abiding sorrow.
He stared at the remains of his fallen comrade—the lower half of the body, now a macabre reminder of the man who had just moments ago laughed alongside them.
The horror of the situation weighed heavily on him, the suddenness of the loss cutting something from within his soul.
"I…" Zel's voice broke, and his words choked under the unswallowed saliva from moments ago.
The pain in his heart was evident, the grief etched into crammed lines upon his face.
He had lost comrades before, but this...
It was too sudden...
"Move now!!! They are coming!!!"
"No way?! Are we in a horde!!?"
"I don't know, let's move!"
"H-how about him, we can't leave his body just like that!?" One of the women shouted in fright and also unwillingness.
A slap was struck to her face as Zel shouted. "I know, it's painful. We were dumb but now, survive!!!"
He yelled with his eyes red in blood.
"O-ok..." The woman lowered her head slightly, hiding the tears as they immediately began to sprint forth a full speed.
The forest, once a place of life and greenery, had transformed into a nightmarish labyrinth of death.
The dense canopy above blotted out the sun, casting long, jagged shadows that twisted and danced with every movement.
The air, thick with the scent of blood and the acrid smell of fear, clung to Zel and his team like a shroud. They moved forward with increasing dread, the cheerful banter from minutes ago now a distant memory, replaced by an overwhelming sense of despair. The taste of the fresh air now replaced with a heavy tinge of salt, blood even.
Iron....
Zel's heart pounded in his chest, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he led his team deeper into the forest.
His mind raced, trying to find a way out, a strategy to keep everyone alive.
There was a tremor from behind that gradually enveloped them from all sides, and he cursed.
"Damn! It must be a horde!!!!"
"Horde, so early!?"
"Fool! A horde in the trial filled with tier 1 to tier 3 monsters! We are dead for sure!"
Suddenly, the silence was shattered by a high-pitched scream from one of the women at the back of the group.
"Help!!"
Zel whipped around just in time to see a monstrous figure emerge from the shadows, its form a grotesque amalgamation of sinew and bone.
It was like nothing he had ever seen—a creature with multiple limbs, each tipped with razor-sharp claws, and a gaping maw filled with rows of jagged teeth.
"Help please!" the woman cried, her voice trembling with terror as the creature lunged at her, its claws slashing through the air.
She tried to dodge, but the beast was too fast. Its claws raked across her back, tearing through flesh and bone with sickening ease.
"No!" Zel shouted, rushing toward her, his hand already gathering energy for another blast. But he was too late.
The creature's maw closed around the woman's head, and with a gruesome crunch, it ripped it from her shoulders.
Blood sprayed across the forest floor as her body crumpled to the ground, lifeless.
Zel's blast hit the creature squarely in the chest, sending it staggering back into the shadows, but the damage was done.
He stared at the woman's mutilated body, his mind blank as he watched the corpse that fell onto the ground before him. She had been a friend, a comrade—and now she was nothing but a corpse.
His breath caught in his throat, his vision blurring with tears he couldn't afford to shed.
"We have to keep moving!" one of the men yelled, snapping Zel out of his shock. "If we stay here, we're dead!"
Zel nodded, though his legs felt like lead. The group began to run again, but the forest seemed to close in around them, the trees now sinister figures reaching out with gnarled branches.
And then, as if the forest itself was against them, more creatures began to emerge from the trees around them.
A second beast—a hulking, insectoid monstrosity with serrated mandibles and chitinous armor—burst from the ground ahead of them, blocking their path.
One of the men, the broad-shouldered fellow who had laughed with Zel moments earlier, charged at it with a roar, his sword raised high.
But the creature was faster, its mandibles snapping shut around his midsection with a sickening crunch.
The man's scream was cut short as the creature lifted him into the air and tore him in half, blood and entrails spilling onto the forest floor.
"Dammit!" Zel screamed, his voice raw. He unleashed another blast of energy, this one fueled by despair, the slowly gaping maw before the end of this tunnel, just a little bit more or perhaps an eternity from hope.
The blast hit the creature, shattering its armored exoskeleton, but as it fell, another beast replaced it, followed by another, and another.
The forest was teeming with them as if the earth itself was birthing these abominations.
"They just keep coming!" one of the women shouted, her voice breaking as she slashed at a creature with her blade. "There's too many! It's hopeless!"
Zel fought desperately, his mind a blur of panic and sorrow.
He could feel his strength waning, every blast taking more out of him than the last.
His team was falling apart around him—another scream, another friend gone, torn to pieces by the relentless onslaught of monsters.
"Zel, help me!" a voice cried out—a man, one of the younger members of the group.
Zel turned just in time to see the boy pinned to the ground by a massive beast, its claws digging into his chest.
The boy's eyes were wide with terror, his mouth open in a silent scream as blood bubbled up from his throat.
"DAMNNNN ITTT!!!!" Zel roared.