The sky fractures without warning.
A void opens above the rocky wasteland.
Dozens of young academy candidates tumbles to the rupture, screaming as they plunge towards the jagged earth below.
Crack.
Some bodies hit the sickening impacts.
Others simply dissolves into ash mid-air, their spiritual cores collapsing before they could even scream.
Master Gwon stands in the center of the debris.
He casually adjusts his collar.
He looked entirely bothered by the carnage.
“Get up, survivors.”Gwon barks.” Check your limbs.
A few yards away, the girl coughs violently.
She pushes herself up violently from the dirt.
Strands of dark hair clings to her sticky forehead.
“Min-sun!”Hina screams, spitting dirt from her mouth.” Sun where are you?!”
She scrambles across the rocks on her hands and knees.
She looks up at the instructor with wide, panicked eyes.
“Master Gwon!”Hina screams.” Where is Min-sun?!”
Master Gwon didn’t look at her.
He scans the remaining students instead.”She didn’t land here.”
“What?!”Hina’s vioce breaks.”No.
That’s impossible.”
“Accept it,” Gwon says flatly.” She likely didn’t make it through the drop.”
A cruel chuckle echoes from a nearby boulder.
Hong-kung sits perched on a rock,a vicious smirk plastered across his face.
He toys with a stray lock of his crimson hair, completely amused by her despair.
Hina feels her stomach churn.
The stench of blood is overwhelming.
She looks down and sees a mangled hand sticking out of from under a slab of shale.
“Ahhh!”
In her blind panic, she stumbles blindly into a solid chest.
Hey,watch it!”a cold vioce snaps.
It is Hong-kung.
He pushes her away with a sudden, violent shove.
An oppressive, violent wave of spiritual force rolls off his skin.
The raw malice in his aura chokes the air out of her lungs.
“I’m sorry.”Hina bows instantly.
“Sorry., Hong-kung San.”
Hong-kung sneers and turn his back on her.
Hina trembles, her eyes flooding with hot tears.
Minsun can’t be dead she thought fiercely.
She had too many dreams.
She promised we would find her sister together.
“Stop crying!”Gwon orders, his voice cutting through her thoughts like a blade.”Move out!”
“But…master,”a student started.
The remaining candidates falls into a silent line.
Hina walks near the middle, her knees knocking together.
Master Gwon’s voice drifts back to them as they march down a steep, narrow descent.
“Listen up,”he begins.
“We are entering the outermost edge of the Lost cave. Our objective? The demon’s flower. It only blooms in the deepest pits of the threshold.”
“Is it dangerous?”a student asks.
“Highly.”Gwon says with a chuckle.” Your quest today is simple.
Gather as many flowers as you can.
Try not to get killed before sunset.”
The students shudders, instinctively drawing closer to eachother.
Only Hong-kung walks without fear , his hands buried in his pockets.
His heavy bangs shading his eyes.
He practically radiates a bad attitude.
Hina wipes her eyes but tears keeps coming.
Whew-whit
The echo of a sharp, calculated whistle resonates from behind her.
Hina blinks and pauses in her tracks.
A boy whose facial features bore a carefully manufactured innocence, strides past her.
He stopped right in front of her and blocked her path.
“Are you done crying yet? Your tear duct seems quite active today. So tell me, is there a strategic reason for this tears or is it just emotional reflex?”
“W-What?”Hina freezes.
Before she could step back,his thumb presses mechanically on a stray tear and flecks it off her cheek.
“W-What are you doing?”Hina stammers her face bright red.
Arashi remains blank, his emotions unreadable.” Min-sun San isn’t dead.”
“How do you know that?”Hina asks.
“Gut feeling.”he replies.”She will show up eventually.
Just wait and see.”
He steps past her leaving Hina staring with a flushed , height red face .
The overwhelming weight in her chest lifts just a fraction.
The path narrowed significantly.
The jagged rock walls closed in around them, blocking out what little hair remained.
The air flows cold.
The air feels incredibly spooky.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
A sudden, sharp alarm blared from Master Gwon’s wristwatch.
He stops instantly raising an outstretched hand.
“Halt.”Gwon whispers.
“What is it?”Hong-kung asks squinting into the pitch darkness ahead.
“Danger.”Gwon mutters.” Do not separate.
In the twinkle of an eye, the shadows tore open.
“Help!”a girl screams.
Gwon doesn’t even flinch.
He thrust his right hand forward, his hand glowing with a blinding, golden crest.
“Shatter.” Gwon roars.
A concussive shockwave of pure spiritual energy erupts from his hand.
The spell hit the demon square in the chest.
The demon didn’t just die;it disintegrates into black ash.
The students gasps, their jaw dropping in utter amazement.
“Incredible.”a boy whispers.
Hong-kung yawns.” Took you long enough.”
“Quiet brat! Let’s keep moving.”Gwon orders.
They push deeper into the subterranean gloom.
Soon,the rocky floor gives way to a twisted,suffocating path.
The tunnel is completely choked with massive black briars.
“These walls,”Arashi speaks, his demeanor blank.” Those aren’t normal plants,right?”
“They are demon thorns. They hunt.”Gwon explains.
The students presses forward trying to squeeze through the narrow path.
Rip.
” Ah!
My sleeve!”a girl shrieks.
“Do not stop!”Gwon shouts from the front.
Beside Hina, a quiet student ducks to avoid a low hanging branch.
He doesn’t see the jagged spikes twitching near his left flank.
Thwack.
A massive, black thorn shoots forward like a spring-loaded spear.
It pierces the student cleanly through the center of his chest.
The boy’s eyes goes wide.
His mouth opened to scream, but no sound comes out.
Only a thick, dark stream of blood traces its way out of his lips down his cheeks.
Hina stops dead in her tracks.
She watches the boy’s body ho completely limp, his life draining away in seconds.
Strangely, she feels entirely unshakened.unshakeable.
“Master Gwon, we lost a other one.” Hin says, her voice eerie.
Gwon doesn’t even turn around to look at the corpse.” Leave him.
Keep moving or you are next.”
The remaining candidates scrambles over the roots desperate to leave the bloody scene.
Suddenly, a loud, heavy rustling sound echoes from deep within the throws behind them.
Something massive is shifting through the brairs.
“Stop.”Gwon commands, drawing a glowing talisman from his belt.
The rustling grows louder.
The thick vines grow under an immense, hidden weight.
“Everyone stay back!”gwon orders, his eyes narrowing into the dark.” This one is massive.