A tree fell to the side in front of me.

  A sharp gust of wind blew across the dense forest, rustling the leaves and swaying the branches.

  A strange creature with the head of an owl and the body of a bear fell to the ground, a massive red gash running down the length of its body.

  A shadow leapt further into the treeline, leaving Kagura and I behind.

  The shrine maiden flinched at the sight, recognising the fearsome beast that had just been felled.

  “Th-that’s an owlbear!? How did that rat fell such a foe with that dull blade? Even if it’s just a cub…”

  “No time to gawk, we have to catch up!”

  I snatched her wrist and ran deeper into the forest.

  “Can’t we take a break!? My legs are already starting to burn!” the sheltered lady whined.

  I rolled my eyes and groaned.

  I lifted my staff into the air, waving it across myself in a wide arc, not stopping our sprint for a single moment to do so.

  Light flashed around us, before swirling inwards and wrapping around our legs, hugging them before infiltrating deep inside and penetrating the flesh.

  “My legs!” Kagura gasped, looking down in shock as I pulled her along. “Y-you, human, are you an enchanter?”

  “My name’s Estelle!” I snapped at her, “and no, that wasn’t an enhancement! I’m just healing the muscles in your leg as we run.”

  “A lingering spell? No, wait, even from a Fire-attuned healer, that shouldn’t be possible at our age unless, your attunement, is it-”

  “Yahoo!”

  A red headed figure burst through the trees from behind, catapulting through the air, spilling down animal blood onto the dirt trail beneath him.

  “That’s your cousin, no time for musings!”

  “He already finished with those wolves?”

  “Can you say something that isn’t a question or a surprise!?”

  “I-I’m sorry, this is all very overwhelming!”

  “What the hell did you do for your practical? Isn’t not being overwhelmed on the battlefield like the main thing they care about?”

  “I’m a shrine maiden! I’m not meant to be on the frontlines!”

  “Yeah, well, I’m a healer! I’m not meant to be on the frontlines either! Didn’t stop my examiners from failing most of my cohort for panicking!”

  Another tree fell.

  “We have to hurry up!”

  I pushed myself to run even faster.

  “I’m trying!”

  Before long, we came out into a small clearing, just in time to see Setsuna cleave a giant forest spider in two, before being set upon by eight more.

  “Tch,” the solemn girl clicked her tongue in annoyance, before drawing her sword inwards in a defensive stance.

  The eight beasts leapt upon her in a syncopated rhythm, mustering just enough intelligence to slightly stagger their attacks out just enough to not open themselves up to being dispatched all together by a wide sweeping attack while still retaining the pressure their advantageous numbers gave them.

  However, they did not account for one thing; the girl was not alone.

  “Over here, uglies!”

  Just before the four spiders lurking behind the lone fighter latched onto her back, they were scattered by a massive impact landing right behind the swordfighter.

  “C’mon!” Hayate grinned wildly, bursting through the small cloud of dirt created by his landing, using the obscuring cloud to take one out with a plunging kick before it could react.

  The one closest to him jumped onto him, desperate to avenge its fallen ally, but was quickly dispatched by a rapid flurry of punches onto its exposed gut.

  He turned around, eager to take down the remaining beasts.

  Two bloodied corpses fell to the ground, blood still spurting out of them.

  Setsuna flicked her blade, the arc of the swing providing her cover from the spurting viscera.

  “Do not get in my way,” she glared coldly at the boy.

  “Eh, hey, can you blame me? This forest’s got my blood pumping. C’mon, you can’t tell me fighting these things doesn’t get you all riled up.”

  Setsuna just frowned dismissively.

  That entire exchange had only lasted a few seconds, during which Kagura and I finally caught up the more physically capable pair between the four of us.

  “Let’s hurry up!” I shouted as I passed them for the first time, “we can’t say for certain how much time everyone has already spent, or how fast they might be moving!”

  As we moved through the forest, distant sounds of fighting started to echo through the woods, accompanied by beastly roars and destructive attacks that trembled the earth. It was still hard to tell exactly how far ahead everyone else might have been, though.

  As we ran through the woods, eyes started glowing in the dark, tracking our movements with deadly sneers.

  I swept my eyes from side to side, feeling dread creep in at the innumerable amount of gazes I was seeing.

  Five, ten, twenty, forty…

  They just didn’t stop.

  Hayate frowned, surveying the situation alongside me.

  He looked towards his cousin.

  “Oi, Kagura, you think you got a dance in you?”

  Kagura clicked her tongue.

  “Give me a bit of space!”

  “Got it,” Hayate nodded gravely, digging his feet into the ground as he skidded to a stop.

  “Everyone, stop, we’re making our hold here!”

  Setsuna frowned, her hand resting on the hilt of her rusted katana.

  “That includes you, Setsuna, unless you think you can handle all of these things by yourself while still trying to run.”

  The stoic girl furrowed her brow in frustration and disappointment, but showed no signs of going against his words.

  She drew her blade, dragging its tip along the dirt, cutting through the roots in the way.

  “Alright, everyone!” Hayate slammed his fist into his palm, bringing everyone to attention, “Plan’s simple! We keep the critters off Kagura, give her time to do her ritual, then she’ll blow ‘em all to pieces, sound good!?”

  “Do not stand in my way,” Setsuna muttered simply, before taking up a defensive stance.

  Kagura exhaled deeply to calm herself, before closing her eyes and drawing a wide invisible circle around herself with her gohei.

  Large bipedal wolf-like monsters descended from the trees, hurling themselves at our group.

  Setsuna’s blade blurred out of sight, its unnaturally keen, rusted edge slashing through the lycanthropes, letting their lifeless bodies simply collapse onto the bushes beside her.

  Frenzied bears, driven mad by the unnatural tangle of the mana leyline in the Twilight Forest, burst out from the sides.

  Setsuna scowled, looking to the side at the stampede of bears madly dashing at her as she continued to fend off the pack of lycanthropes.

  “Over here, uglies,” Hayate spun around, slamming his leg right into the neck of one of the bears, flinging it into a nearby tree.

  As the group fought, a supernatural breeze started to usher through the dark depths of the forest, swirling around Kagura as she danced until it coalesced into a bright blue mist.

  From behind us, more giant forest spiders crawled down the trees, drawn to the sounds of vicious combat, backed up by a small bundle of scrupulous kobolds eying the weakness in our formation.

  Shit, our backline was completely unprotected.

  I tightened my grip around my staff and bit my lip.

  I would just have to trust that Hayate and Setsuna had everything handled up front.

  I sighed, brandishing my staff forwards, swinging it in a straight arc up towards the sky.

  Golden cracks of energy crackled through the dirt around us.

  The ground started to tremble and shake just behind the area Kagura had marked as her ritual site.

  The path exploded, flinging the unfortunate creatures caught directly in it straight into the sky and scattering their ranks.

  Before they could react, thick green tendrils – vines and roots – sprawled from the hole, growing at startling speeds, wrapping and strangling the monsters nearby, continuously growing until a medium-sized wall had formed, protecting Kagura as she danced.

  I hoped that would be enough, this part of my magic still wasn’t fully explored; I still needed to maintain concentration when summoning these vines and I could only hold one area at a time.

  I heard a high-pitched screeching from behind me, coming from the sidelines.

  Out of the corner of my eyes, I caught sight of a small goblin, leaping towards me with a spear.

  I grit my teeth, closed my eyes and braced myself. I needed to focus on maintaining concentration, even if I was inj-

  “No you don’t!”

  A large mass of brown fur smashed into the oncoming foe – it was the body of a bear that Hayate had wrestled and hastily thrown my way.

  “Got ya covered, Estelle!”

  “Thanks!”

  I quickly glanced over towards him.

  He looked a bit injured, a set of three gashes running down his arm, likely from an unfortunate tussle with a bear’s claw.

  Without moving my staff, I quickly waved my free hand over his arm, bathing in warm light.

  Hayate blinked, inspecting his now pristine arm.

  “You’re a healer?”

  “Yes, I am, thank me later!”

  “Haha!” Hayate laughed excitedly, running off to the sidelines and toppling a tree over with a kick, gathering the attention of all the nearby creatures, giving me a bit of breathing space.

  “Oi, over here!”

  He called out towards the horde, distracting them for a moment.

  A mistake that proved fatal, as the second their necks turned, Setsuna’s lightning-quick blade severed them from their mortal coil.

  At that moment, a critical mass of mana choked the air, smothering the small trail in an oppressive atmosphere.

  Kagura’s eyes snapped open.

  “Spirits of the moon, O Blessed Hinanhoro, heed my call! Kogetsu!”

  ‘Light of the Moon’.

  She spun around one final time, flailing her wand as the paper streamers danced around her.

  A blinding pale-blue light enveloped the forest.

  The trees rustled and bent, their roots and trunks groaning as a spiritual force pushed against them, sundering and burning all the evil spirits away.

  Silence.

  Only the distant sounds of our fighting classmates remained.

  I opened my eyes, adjusting to the forest that was now quiet and dark again.

  The bodies of close to a hundred monsters laid scattered around us. I wasn’t sure whether they were simply unconscious or were fully dead, but I wasn’t going to try to find out.

  Setsuna just put on her characteristic frown, flicking the blood off her blade.

  “An impressive spell, if not slow to cast. Thou hast proven thyself to not be complete deadweight.”

  “Deadweight?” Kagura screeched.

  “Haha!” Hayate just laughed, patting the two girls on the back.

  Both of them quickly shoved his hands away from themselves.

  “Take it as a compliment, Kagura, you should be honored to be praised by such a wonderful swordswoman!”

  He cheered us all on with a bright smile.

  “Look, we got such a nice little team going on! Setsuna and I up front, she takes them down, I occupy and distract them, Estelle supports us while we all buy time for Kagura to complete one of her rituals! Couldn’t have asked for a better lineup myself! We’re lucky to have stumbled into such a well-functioning group.”

  Setsuna just glared at him.

  “Thy help was not needed. It was simply a matter of time before all the beasts fell to my blade.”

  “Yeah, a matter of time. We got it done faster than ‘a matter of time’ when we did it together, right?”

  Setsuna scoffed, turning around to face the depths of the Twilight Forest once more.

  “Do not slow me down.”

  “We haven’t done so thus far!”

  I sighed, breaking up the bickering.

  “Everyone, remember what we’re here for! No time for chit-chat, let’s get moving again!”

  I quickly waved my staff over everyone, summoning just enough sunlight to knit their surface-level wounds and relax their muscles, giving everyone the energy to start running again.

  We continued to make our way through the forest, running at full speed.

  Well, at least Kagura and I were.

  Setsuna, despite her gripes, begrudgingly slowed down, staying just far enough ahead of us to strike down any oncoming monsters, but unlike before, she wasn’t leaping far off into the distance where we couldn’t see her.

  We continued in that formation for several minutes; Kagura and I simply focused on running through the forest, Setsuna stayed ahead as our vanguard, clearing the path, and Hayate stood close by, protecting us from any ambushes.

  Before long, we burst into a small clearing.

  There was a cave up ahead, surrounded by a massive cliff face.

  “Shit, dead end,” Hayate cursed underneath his breath.

  “What do you mean?” Kagura blinked, panting lightly – even though my healing helped keep her muscles from tearing and burning, she was still rather poor when it came to her stamina reserves, and there wasn’t much I could do for that.

  “Can’t we just go into the cave? Surely there’s something on the other side…”

  Hayate rolled his eyes.

  “Oh, come on, Kagura, you’re almost sounding like me there. No, for the Hinanhoro’s sake, I’m not just gonna take us into a tight, cramped, dark cave where there might be kobolds or something lying in wait to ambush you. We’re better off sticking to the fore-”

  Something stomped on the floor, breaking our balance slightly.

  We froze, looking deep inside the cave.

  Something moved.

  The stomping grew closer.

  Hayate groaned.

  “See, we’re not gonna get the choice anyways! Now get your legs moving and run!”

  Setsuna frowned, stepping closer to the cave as she brandished her blade.

  “Oh, no, come on, Setsuna, really!?”

  “Hayate, just leave her! We don’t need to stay attached to that rat, you heard the teacher, didn’t you!? Let’s just leave her behind and find another teammate once we run to that damn bridge!”

  “We’re not gonna get to that bridge without her, Kagura!” the boy snapped, “I can’t hold off a whole horde like the one we ran into earlier by myself! Going in there with just the two or three of us is a death sentence! We’re better off sticking with her!”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I grimaced from the sidelines, watching the argument play out.

  As much as Setsuna’s attitude was frustrating, we had little choice in the matter. She was the core of our little group, and without her, we would surely fall apart in the next battle.

  I guess we would just have to deal with whatever thing lurked inside.

  An enormous, thick, rocky hand slammed down onto the dirt, emerging from the cave’s shadows. Ugly, rotten nails covered in moss clenched down, dragging through the ground with their sharp ends.

  A towering monstrous figure crawled out of the hole, its breath rank with rot and wet earth. Thoughtless, angered amber eyes bore down at our tiny figures.

  The hairy, rocky troll lifted itself up from its hunched posture, bringing its head to the sky as it roared menacingly.

  Setsuna leapt at the monster, unable to hold herself back any longer.

  “!”

  A rush of wind blew against her face.

  A gargantuan, misshapen arm flung itself towards her.

  Her emotionless demeanour broke for just a moment, her eyes widening in panic and she moved the flat of her blade to cover herself.

  She was promptly shot off into the treeline.

  “Setsuna!” I shouted in concern, readying myself to heal her injuries.

  Before I could even blink though, Setsuna rolled back into sight, her face lightly scuffed, but looking overall no worse for wear.

  I sighed in relief.

  The troll did not wait, however, its massive arm quickly swinging to the side to grab hold of a tree.

  It let out an ugly roar as it wrenched the trunk and root straight off the forest’s ground, flailing it around as a club.

  The massive tree descended onto Setsuna.

  “Tch,” she clicked her tongue, appraising her escape options.

  Her gaze briefly flicked to her sword, giving it a look of irritation and hurriedness, as if there was an option she would have preferred that she did not currently have the time to fully utilise.

  In the end, she simply ended up rolling to the side.

  It didn’t look like it was enough, her legs were still caught in the shadow of the tree.

  I panicked, immediately moving to summon another mass of vines, hoping to pull the makeshift club to the side.

  “Ha!”

  My intervention was unnecessary, though, as Hayate flew in from the side and pushed the tree away with a mighty kick.

  He wasted no time upon landing.

  “Kagura, got anything to take this ugly thing down!?”

  “N-no! Not a Cave Troll of that size, enhanced by this forest’s twisted mana! At best, I can bind it!”

  “Got it! Everyone, we’re playing this battle around Setsuna! Do whatever you can to keep it occupied, and just let her go to town on it!”

  Setsuna just huffed.

  “I do not need thine aid.”

  Hayate rolled his eyes and he brought his fists up.

  “Yeah, tell your non-broken legs that.”

  “A mere flesh wound, it would have been. A momentary distraction of pain. All I need to win this battle is my blade.”

  Hayate paused for a moment, looking at her weirdly.

  “What, were you going to hobble around and use it as a walking stick or something?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, Hinanhoro… you’re a freak.”

  Before the conversation would continue, the massive shadow of the tree-club fell over them.

  They both dived to the sides, this time not needing outside interference to reach safety.

  Before the troll could retract its arm, Setsuna took advantage of its overextension, quickly hopping on top of the tree and running up its forearm, her gaze locked onto the troll’s own mad eyes.

  The troll groaned, reaching to swipe the little maggot off of its limb with its other arm.

  “Oi!”

  Hayate interjected, leaping up and slamming down on the wrist with his elbow, throwing the troll off balance.

  The massive creature lurched to the side, exposing its neck.

  Setsuna lowered her blade, dragging it across the stony creature’s hardened skin, heated sparks flickering and sputtering across it as she climbed further up the troll’s body.

  She gave a momentary look at the arm, clicking her tongue in annoyance at the skin’s hardness.

  She dug her blade further in, and impossibly, the rusted blade started to penetrate through the natural armor, eliciting a pained groan from the foe.

  “I-impossible, how is she penetrating that hide with that thing!?” Kagura gasped.

  “Less talking, Kagura, more spellcasting!” Hayate snapped as he was swatted away.

  “R-right!”

  Kagura focused herself, bringing her gohei to her chest, its paper streamers starting to flutter ominously as a dense wave of mana started to choke the air again.

  Finally, Setsuna reached the end of her sprint, finding herself at the troll’s shoulder.

  She leapt forwards, lunging straight for the troll’s neck.

  Her body spun and blurred into a hazy cobalt mirage, and not a moment later, a massive cut tore out the rocky armor covering its vitals, sending vile green blood spurting out of the thin geyser.

  It reflexively writhed and spasmed, smacking the annoyance away from itself, sending the swordfighter hurtling away before she had the time to defend herself.

  “Crap!” Hayate scowled.

  There wasn’t time to worry about her, though, he needed to keep pushing forward and to keep the troll open.

  Making sure she was in fighting condition was my job, after all.

  Setsuna tumbled to the dirt beneath, rolling uselessly towards my feet.

  Luckily, she still kept her wits about her, and caught herself by stabbing her blade into the ground to stabilise herself.

  She skidded to a halt in a kneeling position right in front of me, her back facing towards me.

  I lifted my staff and called forth my magic.

  A pillar of light enveloped Setsuna, knitting closed the torn, bleeding skin and smoothing out the rough, swelling bruises.

  The girl paused and blinked, looking down at her uninjured body in confusion.

  Where was that familiar sting and burn of battle?

  Her head swung around, her emerald eyes staring straight into mine.

  “A practitioner of medicine? A strange, but noble pursuit for a witch,” she mumbled.

  “Yes, now get back to it!” I hurried her along, gesturing with my staff towards Hayate, who was fending off the beast by himself.

  Setsuna ignored my words, looking down at her finger with a strange look on her face.

  An intrusive thought came to her.

  She slid her blade along the tip of her index finger, a small dribble of blood oozing out from the consequent cut.

  WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS GIRL DOING!?

  I gawked silently.

  Luckily, the lingering effects of my magic kicked in, quickly repairing the self-inflicted wound, leaving behind only a small red smudge as evidence that anything had ever happened.

  Setsuna’s stoic expression broke, a faint bloodlusted grin rising on her face, her eyes sharpening in a small bit of madness.

  “It hath been a while since I have been tested in such a manner. My foes are usually my peers, other practitioners of the art of the sword. Not often do I get the chance to draw my blade against such massive beasts.”

  She gave me a small nod of gratitude.

  “Thine aid is appreciated.”

  “DON’T JUST CUT YOURSELF! CUT THE FUCKING TROLL!” I couldn’t help but curse at the mad girl.

  A vicious smirk spread across her face as she spun around and leapt back towards the fight.

  “This will be a worthy test of my steel! Come, foul creature!”

  “Haha, see, Setsuna, look! You are excited! And you do like us!” Hayate cheered, leaping away as the troll slammed the ground he was just standing on.

  “Today, this fleeting wave will crash upon the mighty rocks, but it will not break! It will sever this stony armor in two with naught but flimsy steel!” Setsuna sung in excitement as she leapt onto the troll’s lowered hand, plunging her blade deep into the troll’s wrist.

  And then, with a brutal lurch, Setsuna pulled her blade out to the side, a fearsome shockwave emanating from her movement, sending a wave of sharp force down the troll’s wrist that split open the skin and cut away at the ligaments and muscles.

  The troll wriggled and writhed in pain, flinging her off of its hand as its roars become more and more mad.

  I quickly sent out another wave of sunlight to keep the two in prime condition.

  “Don’t get too reckless!” I shouted out towards them, “I can’t reattach severed limbs or anything, and if you snap your arm in half, that’ll take a long time to heal!”

  “Wasn’t planning on letting myself get smashed by a troll anyways!” Hayate laughed as he moved in conjunction with Setsuna to attack the troll once more.

  The massive monster reached for its club once more, hastily swinging at the oncoming attackers to give it time to nurse its injuries.

  But at that moment, Kagura finished her preparations, and called out her spell.

  “Evil Binding Circle!”

  Underneath the troll’s massive body, a runic circle filled with unfamiliar Eastern inscriptions manifested, a pillar of mana briefly flashing as it activated, momentarily stunning and paralysing the beast.

  Setsuna jumped straight towards the troll’s defenseless chest, swingingly widely.

  An impossibly large slash split open the troll’s rocky torso, the natural armor simply disappearing into nothing as the hideous flesh underneath was exposed.

  “Haha, alright, look at that, coordination!”

  Then something started to rumble from the treeline.

  I shivered, feeling gazes lock onto me.

  I spun around, just in time to roll out of the way of several unnaturally massive wolves, larger than even bears.

  “Really, now of all times!?” Hayate rolled his eyes and groaned.

  With a conflicted look, he looked between the troll, that was slowly getting back up, and Kagura and I, as we desperately weaved between the wolves’ attack.

  He didn’t have to think for long though, as Setsuna immediately spun around and leapt to our aid.

  I curled into a ball and rolled away from one of the wolves’ ferocious lunge, its ravenous maw widening to bite and swallow my flesh whole.

  Before it could reach me, its throat was pierced by a rusty blade, and its body fell limply to the ground.

  “Setsuna,” I breathed in relief, “thanks.”

  The young swordswoman wordlessly looked around, not moving from the spot as her blade flickered to slash the body of a nearby wolf lunging towards Kagura.

  “Y-you,” Kagura panted as she got up from the dirt, “I-I…”

  She bit her lip, struggling to get the words out.

  “T-tha-”

  Setsuna just turned away from the girl and went back to fending off the wolves.

  Kagura just groaned in frustration, flushing with hot embarrassment.

  “T-that ingra-!”

  “Now’s not the time, Kagura!” I jabbed her with my elbow quickly, “Keep the troll locked down! Don’t let Setsuna’s effort go to waste!”

  The shrine maiden just flushed further in embarrassment, before grumbling under her breath and shaking her head, calming herself to enact another ritual.

  Three wolves beset upon Setsuna.

  She was able to beat the two in front of her rather easily, but their sacrifice allowed the third to sneak up on her and tear at her back with its sharp claws.

  Setsuna groaned and keeled over.

  “Dishonorable beasts!” She spat, glaring at the third as she spun around and tiredly dispatched it with a single swing.

  I acted quickly, sending a flood of healing light her way, mending the large gash in her back.

  She breathed a small sigh of relief and relaxation, feeling the warm embrace of the sunlight nourish her with energy.

  She wouldn’t get anymore time to relax, though.

  Four more wolves faced her down, circling her.

  She raised her blade and crossed it over her chest from her shoulder, holding a defensive stance as her gaze flickered warily between the beasts.

  I hurriedly searched through my mind, looking for any information that might have been helpful in our predicament.

  “Dire wolves are specialised in frontal mobility and leaping attacks!” I called out to her, drawing her gaze, “Their sideways mobility is terrible! They have a hard time turning around!”

  I saw a flicker of acknowledgement flash across her eyes, just in time, as the wolves lunged towards her head on.

  Following my advice, instead of confronting their attacks head on like she did with the last batch, she expertly weaved between them, taking them down one at a time in an elegant dance with her sword.

  Finally, after a minute or so, she finished cleaning up the dense pack of dire wolves, and brought her focus back on the troll, which Hayate had been diligently occupying in the meantime.

  My attention was split between Hayate and Setsuna, wandering between the two as I healed Hayate as he was knocked around by the troll and restored Setsuna’s cuts whenever she was nicked by one of the feral beasts.

  Setsuna braced herself, bending down to dash towards the troll.

  Then suddenly, one final dire wolf leapt out of the shadows, having bided its time in the bushes, looking for the perfect opportunity.

  Setsuna’s eyes widened.

  A paper talisman flung itself across the clearing, lodging itself straight into the wolf’s back, sending a jolt of paralysing energy across its body.

  With a flick of her blade, Setsuna batted the animal away from her.

  She slowly looked towards Kagura, whose hand was extended in a throwing motion.

  The two of them frowned at each other.

  “I give my thanks,” Setsuna nodded solemnly.

  “Thanks for earlier,” Kagura mumbled, diverting her gaze.

  Setsuna’s gaze lingered on the two of us for a moment, before returning to the massive troll locked in a fight with Hayate.

  Then, she gave a look to her sword.

  “May I entrust thee with my safety?” she asked as she tightened her grip on her weapon.

  “No promises, but I’ll try,” Kagura rolled her eyes, brandishing her gohei again as mana welled around her.

  “I’m not the best in straight-up combat, but I’ll give it everything I got,” I nodded.

  “A moment’s calm is all I ask for,” Setsuna brandished her blade, bringing its hilt to her chest as she walked forward, the katana’s tip pointed straight up to the sky as its edge faced forward.

  “A single blow is all I need to dispose of this creature.”

  She closed her eyes, and a soft wind started to blow around her.

  Looks like I would have to pick up the slack, then.

  I raised my staff and send out another crackle of golden energy through the ground, summoning long tentacles of vines that burst out from the troll’s feet and wrapped around its arm.

  I groaned, exerting all my mana and focusing on maintaining the spell as the troll desperately tried to free itself from nature’s hold.

  “Demon Sealing Needle!”

  Two great spears of light descended from the skies, nailing straight into the troll’s feet, locking them in place.

  The monster thrashed around wildly with its remaining arm.

  “Alright, Setsuna,” Hayate called out, leaping up to kick the final remaining limb away, “Ugly’s all yours!”

  Setsuna’s eyes snapped open, and the world around us froze.

  The uncomfortable miasma of the forest turned to stone.

  “Nishiken, Ichikata: Iwawari.”

  ‘Blade of the West, First Form: Rocksplitting’.

  The rocky cliff face was marked with a large gouge, a straight line of rock removed from its surface, trailing all the way up to the sky, beyond what was visible from the floor.

  Distant rumbles of tumbling stone could be heard echoing inside the cave as the structure lost its integrity.

  Two severed halves of the troll’s body fell to the dirt.

  Setsuna simply flicked her blade and cleared it of the guts and gore, returning it to its sheathless holster on her hip.

  Hayate just gawked at the sight.

  “Woah,” he muttered in awe.

  Kagura and I just blinked breathlessly at the remains of the creature.

  “W-what…” Kagura trembled, pointing her dainty finger at the monster in human form before her.

  A wide, excited grin burst out across Hayate’s face as he tackled his two fellow elves into a hug, wrapping his arms around their shoulders.

  “Hell yeah, team! Look at that! Teamwork! Man, we really lucked out, didn’t we! I’m so glad I get to be on your team. C’mon, Setsy, Kags, let’s clean the rest of this forest up and score high on this initiation!”

  The two girls just looked at him in disgust.

  “Do not give me the moniker of ‘Setsy’,” Setsuna pushed his arm away.

  “Don’t call me Kags,” Kagura just rolled her eyes and shoved him off of her.

  I just sighed, and cast one final restoration spell on everyone to get them all back into running condition.

  “Come on, everyone, let’s pick up the pace! We still don’t know how much of the forest is left!”

  We continued to run through the forest, returning to our previous formation as we fended off the steady stream of monsters descending from the trees.

  It wasn’t long before we started to see light creep through on the other side of the endless maze of trees.

  “Everyone, get ready!” Hayate called out, expecting to run into another clearing where another dangerous encounter awaited us.

  I held my breath and burst through the treeline.

  We all stopped.

  I blinked.

  A beautiful winding river trailed out in front of us deep below a steep bank.

  Clear water frothed against shiny, smooth rocks, gently pushed to the side before coalescing further down the stream.

  Did we make it?

  I looked side to side.

  Sure enough, in the distance, there was a massive bridge, wide enough for several carriages and horses to fit side-by-side, joining one end of the river to the other.

  I sighed in relief, almost letting myself collapse onto the floor.

  That was a very stressful first experience. The panic of being late and the fear of being massively behind everyone else did not help in the slightest.

  I narrowed my eyes, looking out onto the small batch of figures gathered at the beginning of the bridge’s arch.

  Did we actually make it early?

  Well, at least our panicked frenzy was good for something.

  I groaned tiredly, lifting my staff to heal everyone one final time.

  “Come on,” I nudged my head towards the bridge, “let’s go…”

  Setsuna just frowned.

  “A pity, I was hoping another foul beast awaited us.”

  Hayate laughed in response.

  “Haha, yeah! I get ya! That was really fun, wasn’t it!? Working together to take down that big troll was super exciting! Really wish I could see more of those sword forms of yours!”

  Setsuna shot him a glare.

  “Continue to run thy mouth, fool, and thou wilt find thyself on its receiving end.”

  Hayate continued to laugh and just brushed her threat off, pulling her towards him as he hung his arm around her shoulder again.

  “Oh, come on, Setsy! Don’t be like that, we’re a team now!”

  Setsuna just groaned again and pushed him off, trudging off towards the bridge silently.

  Kagura let herself collapse onto the floor, panting wildly as her legs finally gave out.

  “I, for one, am glad I don’t have to any more dreadful running… I just want to get assigned our dorm, get away from that rat, take a shower, and go to sleep.”

  She whined out into the open air.

  “Hayate, carry me!”

  “Aw, see, look at that! In the end, you do ask to let me carry you! Where was that attitude this morning?”

  “Shut up, fool. How did the noble Wadatsumi family give birth to a person like you?”

  He picked her up and turned towards me.

  “Alright, Estelle, come on, let’s meet up with everyone else and get back to Nindo, yeah?”

  Around a minute or two of much needed relaxed walking later, we finally gathered at the bridge, greeted only by a handful of students and the headmaster – the rest of the teachers were anxiously gathered around some scrying orbs or something off to the side, watching and analysing the batch of students still trapped within the forest.

  The headmaster, dressed as an almost offensive stereotype of an old, ancient elven wizard laughed boisterously as we approached, stroking his luscious grey beard.

  “Hahaha! Look at that, in third place, we have the latecomers! Final time, an hour and forty-eight minutes! A surprise, given that they were close to fifty minutes late! A wondrous twist of fate indeed, what a surprise that this random group of children who didn’t even get to choose their partners have such synergy together!”

  He cast an inquisitive, yet excited gaze upon our ragtag group.

  I blinked in surprise.

  We… finished early?

  Well, I guess we had Setsuna to thank for that.

  She did seem to be a bit of a monster, even amongst the prodigious talent that swarmed Nindo.

  “Such rare talent assembled in this one team, too!” The old man went on, “The first son of Duke Wadatsumi, the successor of the Tsukiyo lineage, the wandering prodigy of the sword, and the elusive daughter of Lady Symphonia! Yes, even amongst the endless legends and celebrities that come to and graduate out of our school, and even those among your peers, this group will surely go down as one of the most remarkable to visit our halls!”

  “What!?” Kagura screeched at the implication, “you mean this team is final!? You mean I have to live with that smelly rat!?”

  The headmaster just waved her concerns away.

  “Oh, don’t be like that, young Tsukiyo. We all saw how you valiantly came to your teammate’s aid, protecting her from the dire wolf’s ambush, as well as how you later locked down those treants before they could encroach upon her!”

  “That was just a matter of survival! What do you mean I have to live with someone who smells like that!?” Kagura rudely shook a pointed finger towards Setsuna, who reciprocated the gesture with a glare of distaste.

  “Oh, thank the Hinanhoro!” Hayate collapsed to his knees and brought his hands up in prayer, “I don’t have to spar against Setsuna in class! Hell yeah, baby!”

  Setsuna just sighed, letting her stoic demeanour break.

  She grimaced as she cast her gaze over the two other elves, before her gaze settled on me.

  She frowned, before calming her gaze and extending a hand of thanks towards me.

  “I thank thee for thine aid, Symphonia. The presence of the other two fools does grate upon my nerves, but I suppose they were not useless allies in battle. Thou, however, art of noble character and carrying of wisdom. I graciously thank thee for thine healing, and I look forward to receiving thy care in the future.”

  I smiled wryly.

  So, did this make me friends with this strange girl now?

  “No problems, Setsuna, it’s the least I could do as an aspiring healer. And please, just call me Estelle.”

  Her lips pulled uncomfortably.

  “As thou wishest… Estelle.”

  We shook hands.

  A moment later, Hayate barrelled into us, and it was finally my turn to be subjected to his embrace as he roughly slung his arm around my shoulder, eliciting a yelp from me.

  “Hey, Estelle, look, we’re a team now! That means you’re gonna take me to Arden, right!? Man, I can’t wait for vacation! Or do you think you’ll be free on the weekends!?”

  He turned to Setsuna, caught in his other arm.

  “And Setsy, great stuff back there! Your swordsmanship was awesome! Can’t wait to see more of it in the future, I just know we’re gonna be in good hands with your blade! Now I know how you got past those monstrous practicals!”

  Setsuna just scowled and jabbed his ribs with her elbow.

  “Do not call me by that terrible nickname.”

  “Aw, come on! We’re a team! We’re friends now, we can call each other nicknames! Or, well, I heard that’s what commoners do, I’m not too sure, I just know that it’s really tiring calling all the stuffy nobles by their full names and titles, and it’s refreshing to just call someone by their name!”

  “I care not for your dallyings, noble. Unhand me at once.”

  “Aw, look at that! You’re just like Kagura!”

  I laughed.

  It seemed like I was in for a chaotic few years in the future.

  Still, these weren’t bad people.

  Despite her cold demeanour and battlelust, Setsuna was kind, coming to my aid at multiple times, even going out of her way to keep the beasts off of Kagura, who had done nothing but insult her way of life.

  And Kagura, too, despite her endless complaints of Setsuna’s seemingly lowly origins, never once hesitated when it came to choosing the best course of action to get all of us out of the forest intact. Beneath that sheltered exterior was just a little girl like any other, scared of bloodshed, just wanting to get along with everyone.

  And, well, Hayate… he wore his heart on his sleeve. There wasn’t much to say there.

  It would be nice if we could one day call each other friends and comrades.

  I spent most of yesterday malding over Versusia, so that’s why this chapter is late.

  Got my Doombringer Bow to 5* though, so at least it wasn’t wasted.