After Emily accepted Aya's invitation, they briefly shared information, outlining more of what either team had seen. The picture was grim. Jun's group already knew about the horde, had felt the power of its leaders, seen their numbers. What they hadn't known, but Melody's did, was that the patrols extended even further than they thought, crawling around the entire area and even throughout the Forest. The ambush Melody's team ran into wasn't the first they encountered, but the horns had been new. Something about the Forest seemed to stop them from calling each other, so it made sense to get back to the trees to slip through the goblins' cordon.

  "Time to go."

  "We need to move."

  Aya and Emily looked at each other as they spoke at the same time. Emily had agreed to travel with them, but neither she nor Aya brought up who would lead. It seemed both of the girls assumed they were in charge, and Jun could picture sparks clashing as they looked at each other.

  Holding back a sigh, she glanced back at Melody who was still glaring at her from Emily's side. The next few days were going to be long.

  Staying and dealing with the goblin horde was looking more attractive by the second.

  "Arwen."

  "Brava."

  The two advisors exchanged glances but remained quiet, standing just close enough to be polite but not so close that people might assume they were friendly. They weren't.

  Internally, Arwen couldn't help but curse his luck. Having Brava around would impede his plans. Already, the work he'd done while his stupid students were out on their scouting trip was going to waste. Their infuriatingly smart decision to leave ruining his plans. Of course, he'd had contingencies just in case they proved to be smart, but Brava being around messed those up too. He'd either have to get rid of the Paladin in a way no one would find suspicious, or wait for another opportunity to enact his plans for his students.

  Killing Brava wasn't an option. Not that he wasn't strong enough, but the man was infuriatingly resilient. Any fight would come down to draining the man's resources, and that simply wasn't something he could without the students noticing. He had no compunctions about killing witnesses, even his own students, but this lot had enough potential that his plans could start moving to the next phase with them, though Brava's students were expendable, as was the brat Jun. Her death might even motivate the others better.

  Though, losing more students so soon after the last incident might raise some suspicions about his activities. Galimund was already paying more attention to him than he liked, and killing the Vice Guild Leader would just attract even more scrutiny. No, his preferred solutions weren't an option this time around.

  As he struggled to think of a solution that didn't attract the wrong attention, threatening his Master's entire operation, the students finally came to a decision, deciding to travel together in retreat. A small part of him approved of the decision. It was tactically sound to combine forces to deal with a number-based threat, and retreating from the goblins' positions made sense too. They could either fight a running battle and whittle away at the enemy, or they could get back to the city where there was both an abundance of soldiers and a strong fortified position to hide behind. Still, it was only a small part of him. These students wasted precious time arguing before coming to the only obvious solution, and it was obvious from the tension between most of Brava's students and his own that the petty and stupid disagreements of girls were going to cause problems.

  As Aya and Emily stepped on each other's toes trying to take lead of the combined groups, Arwen again considered just killing everyone, but only briefly. Doing so would cost his Master more time and resources than it would save, and he'd already screwed up with that last team. Even if it had been amusing to watch them fall one by one. His Master hadn't been pleased to lose promising recruits to Arwen's amusement, even if the two survivors each had more potential than the others had combined. Besides, none of his other efforts had yielded quite as many potential recruits as this venture had, and his Master would not be happy to lose such a profitable hunting ground simply because Arwen was frustrated.

  Gritting his teeth, Arwen held his tongue and silently followed the students as they headed for the snowcapped forest. This whole situation was shit.

  Brava was a Paladin of the Church of Justice, and his remit was a simple one: Protect and Serve. Whether it was slaying monsters that preyed upon the weak, healing the injured, or teaching the next generation, so long as it fit within his duty, he was allowed to do as he sought fit. Rarely did he struggle with his duty like he did today.

  Finding Arwen and his students during the Winter Expedition had been unpleasant to say the least. He still couldn't believe that monster had been allowed to "advise" more students after the last group.

  Images of the brutally mutilated corpses of young students surrounded by hundreds of celebrating goblins came unbidden to his mind. He'd been too late to save them, having shepherded his own students to safety first before returning to help, only to find Arwen smiling at his two surviving students while grief and anger marked their faces. It was all he could do to heal the pair of students before he chased off after the remainder of the horde, hoping that the other four students had been taken captive instead of killed. It was the foolish hope of a younger man, but one he still let himself feel, for the alternative was despair.

  Alas, he did not find a happy ending for the students, only a grotesque celebration that nearly turned his stomach even as a veteran of many wars. He'd taken no pleasure in bringing Justice to the horde, but he couldn't let the goblins go. They would only harm others if he did.

  He'd found out later that Arwen's students had fought for a full night without rest, while Arwen was nowhere to be found. Hours of fighting before the students started to get separated and fall, until only two remained, and only then did the elf show up and protect what remained of his charges. His inaction doomed four young souls to death.

  Shoving the gruesome memories away, he refocused on the present, his palm itching as he gripped the hilt of his sword. The reckless Advisor was right there. It would be simplicity itself for him to take the elf's head. Just a pair of skills and a basic sword strike, and the murderer would face justice for his actions. But despite his desire to do so, he stayed his hand. For whatever reason, the IAG had not found fault with Arwen's actions, and the Academy entrusted him with yet more students. Were he to slay the man now, it would only deprive Arwen's students of their advisor. He could only hope that the elf learned from his past actions and took a more active role in his charges' education.

  Regardless, Brava was here now and would take responsibility for the students. They would not die on his watch.

  Traveling in a large group, Jun thought, wasn't terrible. The combined group's march to the Forest had gone well enough with three scouts to check ahead and guide their path. Working together, Keira, Samuel, and Melody guided them past at least one ambush and several patrols without detection, though the path was winding and took them farther South than where they'd first entered the foothills.

  Unfortunately, that was the only thing going well. As well as the scouts were doing working together to help them avoid more patrols and ambushes, it didn't stop Keira and Melody from bickering over small details every time they reported to Aya and Emily. Even worse was the way Aya and Emily clashed and jockeyed for command of the combined groups, each trying to not-so-subtly get the other to obey their orders. The tension only made bearable by a few people keeping the peace. Cian kept having to rein in his sister, while Michael and Mara stuck close to Aya and Emily, the healers doing their best to keep tempers contained. It was working, at least for now.

  A few hours of painstakingly working their way towards the Forest, they froze as the sound of another war horn warbled across the landscape, followed by the sounds of battle!

  "Not again," Jun groaned.

  Goblins screamed as the group of warriors charged into them from the side, many of the small creatures trampled into the snow and mud by armored warriors multiple times their weight as they clashed.

  Ivar laughed maniacally as a desperate goblin leapt at his helm, the small thing too close for him to swing his axe in time. Not that it did the monster any good. Letting go of his weapon with his off hand, Ivar snatched the goblin out of the air, his grip crushing the thing's minuscule wrist with a scream. Callously, the human warrior swung the goblin around like an improvised weapon, laughing even louder as each impact drew screams both from his new weapon and the goblins he hit!

  Even more amusing, the little monsters didn't try to block or parry his blows and their strikes were half-hearted, too afraid of injuring their comrade more. Ivar took advantage of their weakness, swinging the screaming goblin at them first before following up with a one-handed swing of his axe, the heavy blade cleaving through tiny bodies before they could raise their defenses again. It was little more than a game to him, and he couldn't help but hold back, not wanting the fun to stop too quickly.

  "Runners!" Gregor's voice cracked through the sounds of battle, followed by the deep thrum of Hunter's bow. "Take out the signaler!"

  Looking up, Ivar spied a group of three goblins running up the nearest hill, a horn gripped in one of their hands. Smiling beneath his helmet, he cocked his arm back and threw the bloodied and beaten goblin corpse he'd been using as a weapon as the group, amusement pouring through him as his throw brought down one of the three in a tangle of green limbs. His contribution to stopping the runners completed, Ivar refocused on the handful of goblins around him who jabbed at him with their spears full force now that he'd given up his hostage. Not that their puny forms could hope to break through his armor. Laying about with his weapon, the remaining goblins around him quickly fell, their ineffectual attacks glancing off his metal plate as his axe cleaved through weapons, limbs, and bodies.

  As the last of the goblins around him fell, a deep, warbling roar echoed out across the landscape for a long moment before Hunter's bow fired again and the horn cut out. They'd failed to stop the call. Gregor wouldn't be happy about that, but Ivar couldn't be more pleased. It meant more enemies that would come to them, instead of needing to hunt throughout the damned wilderness.

  Though they'd hurried at the sound of battle and the war horn's call, the combined groups didn't arrive until after the sound of fighting ended. Taking a cautious approach, the students crept forward, climbing up a forested hill to take a look for survivors. They found a field of death.

  The ground between their hill and a frozen over river was red, the snow stained with blood leaking from rapidly cooling bodies. Moving about the corpses were six human-sized figures in armor using knives to slice away the goblins' ears and stuff them into stained bags hanging from their waists. A short distance away, a seventh figure casually leaned against the trunk of a pine tree. As Jun laid eyes upon the seventh, a pit opened up in her stomach as she recognized first the man, then the rest of the group. An orc in heavy armor with an impractically large sword, with six students all in their own heavy armor. Ivar's team.

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  "I think that's Ivar's team," Jun said to no one in particular as they watched the group continue to harvest ears.

  "Who?"

  "A boy in our class. He and his friends tried to force Aya and I to—" Jun started to reply, turning towards the person who'd asked her the question, only to freeze as she took them in. It was Emily, Melody's friend and team leader who'd been bickering with Aya since they joined together.

  "Tried to force you two to...?" Emily asked, a concerned look on her face. That the girl seemed genuinely concerned and willing to listen surprised her given how badly they'd gotten along.

  "...to group up with them. The things they said were... unpleasant," Jun finished awkwardly.

  "Not just unpleasant. They're handsy," Aya added. "If Jun hadn't restrained them in the classroom, who knows what they would've tried to do."

  Emily frowned, seemingly at a loss for words.

  "They're the ones that invited us out that one time. Remember when you punched that boy for grabbing Mara's wrist the night we went out? That was Roger, one of Ivar's friends," Melody said, joining the conversation. The scout had an angry look on her face, but for the first time that day, her anger didn't seem directed at Jun. Turning towards the oblivious group they were observing, Melody pointed at one of the six that had a string of oblong objects hanging from his waist. As they watched, the armored figure bent down and harvested another pair of ears before fiddling with the goblin's hand, his knife sawing at something that he pulled free before continuing on. "His collection of goblin thumbs is hard to miss, or forget," she said with disgust.

  "Maybe we should just slip past them and escape," Keira suggested, a complicated look on her face. Jun understood. As much as she didn't like Ivar and his friends, she didn't actually know much about them beyond her brief interaction with them.

  As the combined groups discussed their classmates, focusing on Ivar and his two friends, Jun watched the warriors work. They were calm and unhurried, casually looting the goblins and taking their ears like they had all the time in the world. It was clear they had no idea what was in the area, what was probably coming for them right this moment. If Jun's group didn't warn them, then it was as good as condemning them to death, and she didn't know if they deserved that. Sure, it was possible their advisor would pull them out in time, but for all she knew their advisor was just like Arwen and might as well not be there. Despite how much she hated the idea of interacting with Ivar and his friends again, it only seemed right to warn them.

  "We should warn them about the horde," Jun said, steeling herself for the backlash she was sure her suggestion would attract. Instead, she was treated to surprised looks from Emily's team and supportive nods from her own. Warmth bloomed in her chest as Aya nodded at her and covertly motioned her to continue. "R=Regardless of how any of us feel about Ivar and his friends, staying here means death, and it wouldn't be fair to the other three on their team to abandon them."

  "Jun's right. We can't just leave classmates alone to deal with what you told us about, no matter how much we dislike them. It wouldn't be right." The third surprise of this conversation was Mara backing her up.

  "Whatever we do, we need to do it quickly. More goblins could be here any minute," Samuel said, turning to look around the area.

  "Let's just warn them and get going. Whether they join us, stay behind, or go a separate way is up to them." With that declaration, Aya broke from cover in the stand of trees at the stop of their hill and started her way down.

  As soon as Aya revealed herself, the other team below noticed her and immediately grabbed their weapons, adopting fighting stances. What Jun had assumed to be a staff from a distance turned out to be a massive bow, the archer nocking an arrow that might as well have been a small spear, though he didn't draw. Yet.

  While the other team reached for their weapons, their combined team reacted. Cian was next to Aya in moments, his massive shield in hand, while Chao and Emily were close behind, their own shields up and ready, though their weapons stayed in their sheathes, though Jun knew that Cian could pull one from his storage device at a thought.

  With tension brewing at the possible confrontation, the rest of the two teams broke cover to join their leaders with Keira, Samuel, and Melody all nocking arrows in a mirror of the other team's archer, If it came down to a fight while they were trying to do the right thing, then at least it was clear they held the advantage. While Jun pulled her shield up, her other preparations were less obvious, already pumping mana into her spells, holding off on manifesting them through pure will alone.

  Outwardly, Aya remained calm as the people around her prepared for violence. If Jun were in her friend's position, she'd probably be panicking and already casting her magic. Instead, Aya took a step forward, then another, advancing on the other group as if they didn't have weapons out and pointed in her general direction. Just half a step behind, the rest of them started to follow as they moved closer. Mirroring her, one of the armored men carrying a shield and sword started to approach, the other five converging and falling in behind the obvious leader. Once they were within something approaching a reasonable distance, the two stopped, as if at a prearranged position at the base of the hill.

  "Who are you and what do you want?" the armored man called out with a demanding tone.

  "Fellow students from the Academy," Aya said, gesturing towards herself and the rest of them. "We came to warn you to leave the area."

  At Aya's mention of the Academy, Jun noticed movement from behind the other team and saw the orc she assumed to be their advisor looking up and behind them with a hostile look. Glancing behind her, she saw Arwen and Brava stepping out of cover. Her advisor's smug, punchable face seemed to lock with the other advisor's and the elf flashed a mocking grin in his direction. Of course it was her advisor making more friends. As she watched Arwen and Brava, the two advisors walked past the students, heading for the third who remained rooted at the base of a pine tree that grew where two of the hills met, forming a pass between them to the East.

  "Is that a threat?" another of the warriors growled in a familiar voice, fingering a massive axe that gave Jun a bad feeling.

  "Peace Ivar," the first warrior said, though he didn't look away from them. "Explain."

  "The goblin horde here is too strong. It's not something any of us students can handle."

  "Hah! We're not weak like you!" another yelled, drawing chuckles from Ivar and Roger, the pair standing next to each other in the line of warriors.

  "Probably just running because your men can't handle a true battle, too busy protecting weak girls." Ivar replied, elbowing Roger.

  From Jun's position near the back of the group, she could see as Cian and Emily tensed, their weight subtly shifting in a way that screamed they were about to charge. To make matters worse, all three of the scouts tightened their grips on the strings of their bows, Keira's shoulders squeezing slightly as Melody's bow drifted just a bit upwards. Things were devolving fast.

  "Shut it Ivar, Roger, Karl," the leader said turning his head to glare at the three. "You dishonor yourselves and the rest of us by insulting people trying to help."

  "Shove it Gregor! They're probably just trying to keep a profitable hunting ground to themselves!"

  Gregor, the boys' team leader, whirled around, his fist tightly squeezing the hilt of his sword. "You want to do this right now Ivar?" he snarled. "I'm ready whenever!"

  Sighing, Aya spread her hands wide and shook her head. "We warned you, do whatever you want," she said as Gregor and ivar started yelling at each other, all but the boy with the massive bow turning to pick sides between the two.

  "Thank you," the boy with the bow said, nodding at Aya before he turned to deal with his unruly team.

  "This was a waste of time. Let's go."

  A war horn called out from the North in a series of short blasts, the deep throated call echoing across the landscape. Three short calls answered from the South, and another series of three echoed out from the East, between them and the Forest. It didn't matter if they started running now, the goblins had come, and they were surrounded.

  Looking around where they were, Jun frowned at their position. Strategy hadn't been her best topic in Galimund's class, but it didn't take a genius to see that their position was bad. The spot Gregor and Ivar's team fought in was the lowest point between three hills, the ground relatively flat and clear for melee fighting, but also gave advantage to numbers. Something the goblins always had. Coming down to meet the other team had given up cover and high ground, and charging back up the hill wouldn't guarantee an advantage either. For all they knew, the goblins could already be among the trees, ready to shoot them down.

  As if reading her thoughts, Keira shook her head at Jun. "We can't go back up the hill. There might be goblins already up there waiting for us to try."

  "Head for the pass!" Emily called out, pointing to the gap next to the advisors. Putting words to action, the girl rushed forward, sending snow spraying as she forged a path through the dense drifts of powder. The rest of the students surged forward, following behind the girl in a rush. Jun blinked as she saw one of the armored warriors from Ivar's team rushing past her, soon catching up to Emily and even pushing ahead. Jun had half expected the boys to just stand around dumbly while the rest of them fled, but as she glanced behind her, she saw that four of the others were following behind their combined groups, leaving Ivar standing alone for a moment before he rushed to catch up.

  As Jun ran, she heard a metallic pinging sound and a startled curse come from behind her.

  "On the hilltops! They're shooting!" A trio of feathery thwips came from behind, followed by a heavier slapping sound, as the student archers fired. From the hilltop, Jun heard a single goblin scream out in pain, announcing that one of them hit. Chancing another glance over her shoulder, the sight behind her chilled her to the bone. Like blades of black grass, dozens of arrow shafts stuck out of the snow behind them and Jun even saw several jutting from Gregor's shield slung over his back. As she watched, even more arrows started to appear in the ground around them, some of them even thudding into shields or deflecting off the stragglers' armor. By some miracle, it seemed that no one had gotten hurt yet, but it was only a matter of time under the constant fire.

  With a flex of her will, Jun manifested one of the spells she'd been holding ready, gasping as her barrier manifested above them less than a second before she felt dozens of pinpricks whittling away at the imbued mana. Flooding more mana down the link with her spell, she reinforced the barrier, pulling it along behind her as she moved. Every few seconds, Jun felt more of her mana get consumed as arrows bounced off her barrier. If it had just been a single archer, Jun wouldn't have worried, but it was dozens of them at once. Even with her massive recovery speed, she felt her pool drop past half. She wasn't sure how many more shots she could block.

  After what felt like minutes, but had only been a few seconds, Jun heard the sound of wood and metal clashing amongst the sound of screams ahead of her and turned her attention forwards in time to see Emily, Chao, and the warrior from the other team charging through a group of goblins. Screams erupted from the front as swords and axes blasted through poor defenses and hacked away limbs, blood filling the air in a fine red mist. Behind them, Aya, Gina, and Mara stood in a group as small balls of magic manifested and shot into the skirmishers. Darts of ice, flame, and wind drilled into the goblins blocking their way, stabbing, burning, and slashing. Except for a rare few lucky hits, the small spells were far from fatal, but the mages couldn't use their bigger spells so close to allies.

  But Jun could. Catching up to the other mages, Jun sent more of her dwindling mana into a pair of spells, anchoring her snares to her back like she did to travel. But instead of pushing herself off the ground, she lashed out with her tendrils, sending all ten of them to snare and pull goblins out of the way, shaking them until they dropped their weapons. Holding onto the live goblins sent fresh mana surging into her pool, slowly paying for the mana she'd spent to cast, just as she hoped.

  As she restrained the goblins, she gasped as she felt a surge of mana coming from one, then nothing. Glancing towards the source of the surge, she law one of the goblins dead, a chunk of ice speared through its eye. It was dead. Looking at the corpse, she felt a sensation like blood dripping from her eye and swiped her gloved hand across her face. It came back clean. Shoving the ghostly sensation away, Jun flung the goblin corpse to the side and started looking for a new target. Before she could grab another, Cian, Gregor, and Roger charged forward, adding their weight and blades to break through the goblins blocking their way. In a matter of seconds, they punched a hole through the blockade and the students rushed through to the East.

  Drecu punched a tree in rage, his Third Step strength shattering bark and sending snow raining down around him. Upon hearing the patrol's signal for prey, the newly promoted raid leader had worked with two others to send their fastest ahead to pin down the humans, certain it was them the patrol had found. His raiders had found the humans alright, but far more than they expected. Instead of a single hand, there'd been three. Instead of waiting for the rest to arrive, one of the Seconds had signaled to attack, announcing their positions to the humans before attacking!

  Of course the short battle, if it could be called one, had been decided in the humans' favor. Dozens of the people lay dead and the humans had escaped. Drecu arrived just in time to see a trio of the human shamans perform massive workings. A blast of flame set trees aflame, while a large gust of wind fed the fires, forcing them to grow and spread. A third working had erased the humans' trail, smoothing their tracks through the snow. Drecu had arrived to see two hills belching smoke and set his shamans to quenching the flames. The last thing the people needed was a fire raging out of control among the foothills.

  Such a fire was unnatural, the work of shamans of at least the Second Step, ones who didn't care about the damage they caused to the world. Humans, he sneered, punching the tree again. Harming the Forest to escape the Peoples' vengeance. Well it wouldn't work. Even though his shamans needed to extinguish the flames before they continued their pursuit, they assured him that such a working would leave the human shamans exhausted for hours, and they had only a few minutes head start over them.

  As soon as the flames had been under control, he sent his scouts to find the humans' trail again. He would find and end them, and if not, the horde was right behind. The People would have their vengeance, starting with the humans running through the Forest, then their city.

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