The temporary camp went up much faster than Kael expected.
Within half an hour of returning toward the Greenmist Hollow gate, the academy instructors had transformed a relatively open section of forest into a defensible position.
Portable barriers formed a rough perimeter between the giant trees.
Small alarm crystals were planted at regular intervals, thin lines of blue light connecting them through the undergrowth.
Beast-repelling powder was scattered around vulnerable approaches, while the medical and supply tents were positioned closest to the portal.
The swirling green gate remained visible from almost anywhere inside camp.
Kael found that reassuring.
They weren’t trapped.
If things became too dangerous, they could leave.
Instructor Hale gathered the twelve students near the supply area.
“We’re going deeper to investigate the migration.” Kael immediately looked toward the forest.
Hale pointed at him.
“No.” Kael blinked.
“I didn’t say anything.” “Your face did.” Finn, carrying a supply crate, nodded wisely.
“He’s developing a very recognizable bad-idea face.” “You’re not helping.” “I’m helping Instructor Hale.” Hale continued.
“You remain inside the defensive perimeter.
Help with supplies.
Record any beasts passing nearby.
Fight only if necessary.” Kael looked toward Nyx and Rexia.
Both were staring deeper into Greenmist Hollow.
“Understood.” Hale studied him for another second.
Apparently satisfied, he left with two senior Beast Masters.
Finn watched them disappear.
Then looked down at the crate in his arms.
“This isn’t treasure hunting.” Mira passed carrying medical supplies.
“Educational expedition.” “I regret ever meeting you.” Thunder walked beside Finn with a second crate strapped comfortably across his back.
Finn looked at him.
“Why are you better at this than me?” Thunder continued walking.
“Traitor.” Kael spent the next twenty minutes helping Damian reinforce the eastern perimeter.
Mira joined the medical group.
Finn complained continuously while moving supplies.
For a while, everything seemed almost normal.
Then Rexia stopped.
Kael noticed immediately.
Her head lifted.
Nostrils widened.
Many.
Kael straightened.
“How many?” Rexia didn’t understand numbers well enough to answer.
Instead, she sent an impression.
Scents.
Layered.
Overlapping.
Dozens.
Maybe more.
Too many smells.
Nyx climbed onto one of the barriers.
Its tail rose.
Kael immediately approached the instructor supervising camp.
“Something’s coming.” The woman didn’t question him.
She raised one hand.
“Positions.” The alarm crystals flashed seconds later.
Students grabbed weapons.
Contracted beasts moved forward.
Something crashed through the undergrowth.
Kael lowered his spear.
Then stopped.
Mossback Grazers burst from the mist.
Not seven like before.
Dozens.
Adults.
Juveniles.
Several old animals with massive antlers.
They weren’t attacking.
They were running.
“DO NOT ENGAGE!” the instructor shouted.
The herd swept past the camp.
One Grazer nearly collided with the barrier, changed direction at the last second and continued.
Kael watched.
The animals barely seemed to notice the humans.
That was wrong.
Yesterday, the herd had become alert just because Nyx approached.
Now?
They ran within meters of predators without stopping.
Finn lowered his spear.
“They’re terrified.” Kael nodded.
Then came more.
Barkscale Lizards raced across tree trunks.
Lantern Frogs abandoned the wetlands.
Small winged beasts filled the canopy.
Then Kael saw two shapes moving through the mist.
Ironjaw Panthers.
Rexia tensed.
Nyx crouched.
The Panthers didn’t even look toward them.
Predators and prey were moving in the same direction.
Outward.
Away from the deeper forest.
Finn didn’t make a joke.
Twenty minutes later, the migration became a problem.
The camp’s barriers blocked one of the easiest routes toward the portal region.
Animals began collecting outside.
Too many.
Too frightened.
Growls erupted.
A small predator attacked a herbivore.
Another beast reacted.
The supervising instructor cursed.
“Open the eastern corridor!” Students moved.
“Don’t slaughter them!
Redirect!” That was considerably harder.
Kael regrouped with Finn, Damian and Mira.
Their section covered the eastern perimeter.
Kael looked at them.
“Ideas?” Mira answered first.
“Vines.
We create a channel around the camp.” Damian looked upward.
“My Griffon can pressure them from above.” Finn scratched Thunder’s neck.
“Lightning makes things move.” “Controlled lightning,” Mira said.
“I knew that.” Kael nodded.
“Nyx and Rexia handle anything that breaks through.” He looked toward both beasts.
Move them.
Don’t kill unless necessary.
Nyx accepted.
Rexia hesitated.
Not hunt?
Not hunt.
Disappointment.
But acceptance.
Mira’s Vinehorn Deer moved first.
Roots emerged from the ground.
Not thick enough to trap.
Just enough to create a natural wall.
Damian’s Thunder Griffon flew overhead.
Thunder stood beside Finn.
Kael opened part of the barrier.
“Ready?” Finn grinned.
“Probably.” The first group passed successfully.
Then the ground began shaking.
Finn looked toward the mist.
“What now?” Stonehorn Boars emerged.
Large.
Heavy.
A dozen.
Finn’s eyes widened.
“Those are very large pigs.” “Focus!” Mira shouted.
The herd charged.
Thunder roared.
Lightning struck the ground.
CRACK!
The front boars changed direction.
The Griffon dived.
Not attacking.
Pressuring.
Mira extended the vine corridor.
The herd turned.
Almost all of them.
One enormous boar broke away.
Straight toward Finn.
Finn froze.
“That one didn’t get the message.” Rexia moved.
No command.
She slammed into the boar’s side.
The impact threw her several feet.
But the boar’s direction changed.
It missed Finn.
Passed through the open corridor.
Kept running.
Rexia rolled.
Stood.
Finn stared at her.
Then placed one hand dramatically over his chest.
“You do care.” Rexia looked at him.
Through Kael’s bond came one simple impression.
Pack.
Kael became still.
That was new.
Finn couldn’t hear it.
But Kael could.
Rexia hadn’t protected Finn because Kael ordered her to.
She had protected him because Finn belonged.
Finn stepped closer.
“Thank you.” Rexia sniffed him.
Then pushed her head into his stomach hard enough to nearly knock him down.
“Ow.” Kael laughed.
The migration continued.
Nyx changed tactics without instruction.
It climbed into the trees.
A group of frightened predators approached.
Nyx dropped onto a low branch.
Visible.
The creatures saw it.
Changed direction.
Nyx disappeared again.
Then reappeared farther along.
Kael watched in fascination.
It wasn’t attacking.
It was herding.
A living threat marker.
Nyx had understood the objective.
Move.
Don’t kill.
And developed its own solution.
Kael smiled.
Then shouting came from the western perimeter.
Ronan’s section.
Kael turned.
A beast screamed.
Blood.
Ronan’s contracted beast had struck one of the fleeing animals too hard.
The scent spread.
Several nearby predators turned.
One attacked.
Then another.
The western line began collapsing.
“Damian!” “I’ve got this section.” “Mira?” “Go!” Kael checked Finn.
Thunder.
The corridor.
Nyx.
Stable.
He trusted them.
“Rexia.” They ran.
When Kael reached the western perimeter, someone else was already there.
Lucian.
His Gravecoil Serpent stretched across an opening, creating a living barrier.
The Bloodsteel Mantis stood beside him.
“Left side,” Lucian said.
“Already saw it.” Kael moved.
Rexia pressured a snarling predator away from an injured student.
The Gravecoil shifted.
Together they created another route.
Nyx arrived from above.
The Bloodsteel Mantis raised its blades.
A fleeing beast charged.
Kael expected blood.
Instead— “Flat.” The Mantis turned its weapons.
The broad side struck the animal’s shoulder.
Redirected.
Not killed.
Kael glanced at Lucian.
Lucian noticed.
“What?” “Nothing.” Another animal slammed into the Bloodsteel Mantis.
The Mantis stumbled.
Lucian’s attention immediately shifted.
Just for a second.
Concern.
A quick check through the contract.
Then back to the battlefield.
Small.
Almost nothing.
Kael still noticed.
Maybe Lucian wasn’t quite as unchanging as he pretended.
Together, they stabilized the western line.
Minutes passed.
The number of animals gradually decreased.
The forest began quieting.
Finn arrived.
“We survived.” Mira followed.
“Don’t say that yet.” Finn frowned.
“Why would you—” Nyx froze.
Rexia turned.
Kael felt it.
Danger.
The forest became silent.
Completely.
Something walked through the mist.
Heavy.
Slow.
A massive creature emerged.
Scarred hide.
Long forelimbs.
Thick jaws.
Kael recognized it from class.
“Scarhide Ravager.” Upper F-Rank.
Normally dominant.
Normally fearless.
This one was bleeding.
Deep wounds crossed its side.
Four parallel cuts.
Huge.
The Ravager looked behind itself.
Then toward the camp.
Its eyes were wild.
Terrified.
It charged.
“MEDICAL TENT!” someone shouted.
Kael looked.
The creature’s path led directly toward it.
No time.
Stop it.
Protect pack.
Nyx moved.
Tail struck one leg.
The Ravager stumbled.
Rexia hit the opposite side.
Thunder blasted the ground.
The Griffon dived.
Mira’s vines wrapped one leg.
Lucian’s Gravecoil joined.
The Ravager roared.
It tore through the vines.
Nyx was thrown aside.
“NYX!” Fine.
Angry.
Rexia attacked again.
The Ravager nearly crushed her.
Kael moved in.
Spear against jaw.
He couldn’t overpower it.
Didn’t need to.
He twisted the head just enough.
The Ravager changed direction.
Missed the tent.
Rexia suddenly froze.
Her nose was inches from one of the wounds.
Kael felt her recognition.
Same scent.
His blood went cold.
The big predator.
Whatever Rexia had smelled deeper inside.
It had done this.
The Ravager roared again.
Then pressure crashed over the clearing.
A senior instructor’s contracted beast landed beside it.
E-Rank.
The Ravager collapsed under suppression.
Bindings followed.
A healer administered a sedative.
The massive creature slowly stopped struggling.
Silence returned.
Then footsteps.
Hale emerged from the forest.
His clothes were dirty.
His expression serious.
He saw the Ravager.
Then the wounds.
He crouched.
Nobody interrupted.
Finally, he stood.
“We found abandoned territories across three sectors.” The students listened.
“Multiple migration paths.
Same origin region.” Damian frowned.
“How many creatures?” Hale looked toward him.
“That’s the problem.” He glanced at the Ravager.
“We found evidence of one.” Finn swallowed.
“One?” “One moving predator.” Kael looked toward Rexia.
Hale continued.
“At least E-Rank.” The mood changed.
“Possibly higher.” Nobody joked.
Hale stood.
“The expedition is suspended.” Finn looked devastated.
“But the treasure—” CRACK.
Somewhere far away, a tree broke.
Finn turned.
“Evacuation sounds excellent.” Mira nodded.
“Remarkable growth.” The camp came down quickly.
Students crossed through the portal in groups.
The wounded Ravager was secured for transport.
One squad left.
Then another.
Kael’s group remained among the last.
He didn’t complain.
This wasn’t their fight.
Not now.
Kael approached the portal.
Then Rexia stopped.
Again.
Nyx stopped beside her.
A vibration passed beneath Kael’s boots.
Once.
Then again.
Far away, the canopy moved.
Something large.
Rexia stared.
Predator.
Kael waited.
Another impression came.
Strange.
“Strange how?” Rexia struggled.
Scents didn’t translate easily into human concepts.
Finally: Smells…
wrong.
Kael stared into the mist.
Hale called behind him.
“Ashborne!” Kael looked toward the portal.
Then back.
Nothing appeared.
Good.
He wasn’t going after it.
Kael rested a hand against Rexia’s neck.
“Come on.” She hesitated.
Then followed.
Nyx went next.
Kael stepped through the portal.
Greenmist Hollow vanished behind him.
Far deeper within the realm, beyond the abandoned territories and fleeing herds, green mist drifted across an enormous footprint pressed into wet earth.
Three claws forward.
One behind.
Beside it lay something pale.
Broken.
Curved.
A fragment of hardened shell.
And somewhere beyond the trees…
something moved.
End Chapter 23