Jun's eyes snapped open as she cycled mana through her channels, the movement of arcane energy clearing away the cobwebs from her mind as her surroundings came into view. Keira's face hovered close to hers, barely visible in the darkness, while next to her Aya was already standing up, balling her blanket up and shoving it back into her bag. Seeing her awake, Keira patted her on the shoulder and vanished back into the darkness. At the base of the trees around them, Jun could hear armor jingling and leather creaking as the others woke up, no doubt preparing to run or fight.

The scrape of leather on frozen soil and the soft clinking of chainmail gave a moment's warning before a pair of figures resolved in the gloom.

"Aya, we're surrounded," Emily's voice came from the shorter of the two figures.

"Keira told me, but no specifics," Aya responded in a low tone. "Are we under attack?"

Jun heard the slight clink of chainmail before the taller figure answered in Gregor's voice. "Not yet. Hunter spotted goblins moving about and woke the scouts to get a better look. They reported goblins searching both sides of the river."

"Melody said they're just patrols, but there's a lot of them, and some have camped at the bottom of the hill, pinning us in."

"It's only a matter of time before they find us then. How about we do this..."

Jun figured it was a good sign that the three team leaders were working together to plan. After Aya made her suggestion, Emily and Gregor offered some changes and modifications to it before everyone agreed and split up to organize everyone to go.

Leaving their impromptu camp, Melody lead the way, her vision the best amongst the scouts in the dark. Behind her, Ivar, Gregor, and Cian made up the frontline of the group, the other armored warriors bringing up the sides and rear. Trapped between melee fighters were the mages and other scouts. The game trail they used was narrow, barely wide enough for two to walk side by side, but somehow they moved as a group, slowly and quietly.

It was a pretty simple plan, but that didn't mean things would be easy. Though they'd slept for a few hours, neither Aya nor Gina had fully recovered yet. Both were limited to smaller spells. With the two battle mages limited, it was down to the frontliners of the combined group to punch through, while everyone else provided support. Jun's role was surprisingly critical. They needed light to see by. Jun was hesitant to agree, but she was the only mage with the mana and spells to do it.

That didn't stop her stomach from doing backflips when Aya gave her the signal.

"Remember kitten, the mana is yours to command. It will do what you tell it to," Shiori whispered from her spot on Jun's shoulder.

Crammed in the middle of the group, Jun closed her eyes for a moment as she concentrated, splitting her focus a dozen times, then a dozen more as she channeled mana into her spellform, changing things on the fly to force the spell to do what she wanted. [Piercing Missile], her first spell. Her neglected spell. It was one of Shiori's own design, a tool for killing that only gave off light from the caster's inefficiencies with mana control. Her early training had been focused on minimizing those inefficiencies, leaving only enough glow for others to see and know what was going on. If she took the time, she could nearly erase the glow from her spells, but it was hard. Harder still was forcing herself to be inefficient, to purposefully create something she'd practiced avoiding. To make matters worse, she needed to make things complicated.

A sudden bloom of light on their position would just tell the goblins exactly where they were, giving them more time to prepare. Their group was ready that, but Jun wasn't. A quick, private conversation with Shiori gave her a different option, though far more complicated. It was possible to cast a spell within a spell, one laying dormant in the other. Aya stumbled upon that principle with her layered spell that nearly pierced her barriers in practice. Her friend was a genius mage after all. But where Aya was a genius stumbling upon greater principles, Shiori had long mastered them. In just a couple minutes, Shiori guided her on the trick, teaching her a new way to manipulate her spells until she could do it. It just took concentration.

A dozen [Piercing Missiles] manifested in the air above her, but they were different from any other spell she'd cast before. The balls of mana were invisible to the eye as they sped off into the night. Jun could only track their positions through her links with the spells, subtly guiding them until they felt like they were in the right positions, then she opened her eyes. From a dozen places above the hill, balls of light burst into being, washing the area in a gentle glow. It was far from the intensity of the light of day, but it was enough to reveal the true scope of what lay at the base of the hill.

A guttural cry of alarm came from several positions at the bottom of the hill as the lights illuminated scores of goblins staring at the orbs of light. While they were distracted, a trio of bows whispered in the dark, arrows finding throats with unerring accuracy, dropping some of the goblins closest to the students' position. Before the other half of the patrol could turn to investigate the sound of their comrades' corpses hitting the ground, new arrows found their marks, eliminating the patrol silently.

As the goblins scurried about, the students crept down the hill, weapons ready as they moved to sneak by. A fresh patrol stumbled upon them, the two groups surprising each other at a blind turn on the game trail they followed, but before the goblins could raise an alarm, they fell to a flurry of hacking blows as Gregor's team fell upon them. After that patrol, they encountered nothing for a hundred feet and neared the neck formed by the river at the base of the hill. Nearly home free, disaster struck.

Jun flinched with backlash as the link with one of her spells violently severed moments before one of her light orbs exploded, sending out a blinding flash of light as all of the imbued mana erupted at once!

"Fuck!" Samuel screamed, flinching back as the light seared his eyes. Around them, screaming filled the night as goblins screamed, followed by the call of horns.

Opening her eyes, Jun saw Mara rushing to the scout, her amulet and hand glowing as she grabbed him by the shoulder. All around the group, people rubbed at their eyes or blinked in the dimly lit Forest, the flash of light ruining their night vision.

A cry of alarm came from the front of the group and Jun turned in time to see four goblins dragging Melody to the ground, weapons stabbed into her body as she struggled to throw them off.

"Get off of her!" Shoving mana into her [Sapping Snare], grasping tendrils erupted from Jun's back as she reached for the girl with her hand, ripping the goblins away from Melody as their mana started to flood into Jun's body, filling her with new strength.

As Jun ripped the goblins away from Melody, Cian, Gregor, and Ivar moved ahead, stepping over the wounded scout as they smashed into the patrol that blocked their way. While the warriors pushed forward, Jun called up a pair of barriers, extending them along the sides of the trail and blocking avenues of attack. Mentally shoving the links to the two spells together, she sent them a basic command to stay anchored relative to her, freeing up more of her focus to cast another set of snares from her back that she used to seize five of the goblins that'd made it behind her barriers, siphoning their mana to fuel the very defenses they avoided.

The sound of fighting filled the night as more goblins burst out of the trees around the students to attack. The screech of blades deflecting off armor mixed with fleshy rips, screams of pain, and the metallic scent of blood.

"Break through!" Aya yelled out as a trio of goblins erupted into flames, their screams of pain filling the night as the flickering flames lit the area in a dance of warm light and flailing shadows.

With their front guard engaged, Jun was able to see what became of Melody, the scout laying on the ground, her hands weakly grabbing for one of the spears sticking through her side. Guilt lanced through her at the girl's pain-stricken face. Her spell failing blinded Melody for a crucial moment and somehow called attention to them. Melody's injuries were her fault, and she wasn't a healer. She couldn't fix the wounds, couldn't make things right.

Jun felt a hand on her shoulder move her aside as Michael pushed past her, rushing ahead to the wounded scout. Hope that the healer would help her in time blunted the sharp stab of guilt and determination took over. She could hate herself later. Now was the time to act.

As Cian and the frontline charged forward, Michael pushed through the rest of the group, his amulet glowing as he tapped people on the shoulder, helping to heal the minor damage from the flash of light and wounds people had taken in the frantic fighting, but he couldn't stay focused on them. He had to trust that the other healer would keep the rest up. Right now, there was a patient in dire need.

Sidestepping a goblin that slipped around Karl, Michael slammed his brass knuckles into its temple, shattering it's skull with a brutal punch. As it collapsed to the ground, he stomped on its throat, crushing its airway and making sure it was put down for good before he darted forward, his target just an arm's length away.

Kneeling before Melody, Michael scanned the girl's body. Her eyes were clouded with pain, wheezing as she weakly grasped at her belt, trying to grab something. Her chest, abdomen, arms, and legs were covered in stab wounds. A spear still impaled her guts, daggers stuck out of her left thigh and right hand, and a sword lanced through her shoulder. That she was still alive and breathing was impressive, no doubt due to her Constitution and that the weapons hadn't been pulled out yet, keeping her from bleeding out.

Channeling his mana, Michael sent a pulse through her body, feeding it magic and encouraging her body to remember how it should be, and heal. Blood spurted from some of her wounds as her body started to produce more of it, the vein, muscles, and bones knitting themselves back together layer by layer, pushing damaged tissue, shards of bone, and foreign bodies out slowly. All but the weapons still impaling her. They were too large for his magic to remove and needed to be taken out manually.

Out of the corner of his eye, Michael saw a flicker of movement as a goblin got past the front line and charged for him and his patient, a sword pointed at his chest. Ignoring the threat, Michael continued to work on his patient, pumping magic into her as he dragged Melody back from the edge of death.

With clinical detachment, Michael noticed, acknowledged, then ignored the rush of air as a large man rushed past him, the sheath of Chao's sword slapping against Michael's back as he blocked the approaching threat. As his healing took hold, he saw Melody's eyes start to clear and pulled a strip of leather from his belt and shoved it into her mouth.

"I need to take these weapons out. Bite down on this. It will hurt."

Still blinking away stars, Chao blocked another stab and retaliated, his sword snaking past the goblin's guard to stab it in the heart. Before its corpse could start to fall, he pulled his sword back, resetting in time to deflect another goblin's mace with his shield and slash it across the throat. As the second goblin fell to the ground, gurgling and clutching its neck in a vain attempt to live, a glowing barrier appeared in front of him, cutting him off from the corpses of his two foes as another handful appeared and started to stab at it. Putting them out of his mind as threats for now, he scanned the trail around him, watching as tendrils erupted from the Quiet Girl's back and grabbed more goblins inside the barriers. Though he'd spent much of the day marching alongside her, she hadn't engaged in any small talk, not even introducing herself, not that it would've mattered if she did. He was terrible with names. The only reason he remembered his team members is because he saw them nearly every day.

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Dismissing the captured monsters as a threat as well, he looked for where he might be needed. The back and sides had things well in hand, the barriers cutting off attackers from the sides. Turning to the front, his eyes widened as he saw Melody lying on the ground, covered in blood as the other healer who wasn't Mara knelt before her, his amulet glowing. Relief filled his chest as the man started treating Melody. She was one of the ones on his team that respected his dislike for small talk and didn't push him for details on his life. He didn't want her to die.

Realizing he'd already turned to the front, Chao started to jog forward as he assessed the rest of the front. Just ahead of Melody and not-Mara, he spotted the frontline being held by a trio of warriors from the other teams. The other warrior team leader who wasn't Emily, the Quiet Guy from the Quiet Girl's team, and the smelly loud guy with the axe. Chao was sure the man didn't have a sense of smell, otherwise he'd wash more. He was glad the man chose heavy armor despite how terrible it was for adventuring, because it probably trapped the worst of his stench inside. Still, smelly or not he was a good fighter. Pungent guy's wide axe swings were doing a good job of limiting how many goblins could press them at once, and Not-Emily and Quiet Guy were doing an even better job covering his sides, even if Pungent Guy's wild swings occasionally forced them to back up, leaving gaps in the line.

As one such gap opened up, Not-Emily and Quiet Guy stepped back, only for a group of goblins to rush them. Distracted, they didn't see one slip past, charging for Not-Mara and Melody!

Already jogging, Chao leaned into it, pushing the fullness of his 160 points of strength and half his mana into a charge, the magic enhancing his speed and body for a single second, just long enough to intercept the goblin shield first. In an instinctive move, Chao pivoted with his entire body, sending the goblin flying back to thud into a tree trunk with a loud crunch, barely missing Not-Emily as the man threw his opponents off of him.

Holding his position between Melody and the frontline, Chao, turned around to glance at his teammate, approval radiating in his mind to see that Not-Mara had continued healing her even as a goblin was about to kill him. He was a good healer. Maybe he'd try to learn his name.

Jumping down from her kitten's shoulder, Shiori watched the battle quietly through her aura senses and her eyes, casually dodging kicking feet as the students struggled against the goblins. She couldn't help but nod approvingly as her kitten used her latest trick to grab more goblins and siphon their mana away to fuel the barriers keeping them safe. A bit inefficient, and she hadn't yet figured out the better way to accomplish it, but still, it was a good tactic.

Several of the other students showed potential as well, even if she didn't necessarily approve of their personalities. The girl Melody was a capable scout. Not as good as her kitten's friend, but still someone of great potential. It was a shame she would have almost certainly died without intervention, and the girl's half competent advisor hadn't thought to act. On some level she approved of the man Brava. He was cautious enough with precious kittens, but willing to let them get hurt as a consequence of their own action or inaction. A good balance of care and pressure. Unfortunately, the man's philosophy exceeded his power and skill. He simply didn't know it yet.

Especially as her own kitten's useless advisor put his paw on the scale of karma. He'd certainly been stealthy, able to throw a dart embedded with a disruption array into her kitten's spell without the other two advisors noticing, but he was millennia away from sneaking anything past her. His latest transgression had nearly killed the girl Melody. Allowing that to happen would be a waste of potential, and while she couldn't interfere with creatures as weak as these goblins without repercussions, the idiot advisor laying a foolish paw on the scales of karma was enough for her to get involved, at least at a minor level. Just a gentle nudge to ensure that the balance didn't tip too far.

A casual distortion or two to the fabric of reality, small enough to nudge the goblins' weapons slightly off course. Melody still got injured, quite badly even, and she would die if neither of the kitten healers got to her in time, or if she didn't manage to eat the healing tablet in her pouch in time, but slipping over the edge of death was far better than floating away on the currents of the Great Cycle. Besides, more intervention was unnecessary. She would survive the next few minutes at least.

Casually jumping into the trees above the students, Shiori enjoyed the show as the kitten Michael ran through the battle, putting down an enemy with admirable efficiency for a kitten before he started healing the girl. Even better was the other kitten Chao noticing the next threat to Melody's life in time to stop it. It was good for her that he did, as Shiori wouldn't have been able to intercede again without the kittens paying a steep price for her unrestrained assistance.

Though, the same couldn't be said for the useless advisor. The man owed a debt, and before the night was done, she would make sure he balanced the scales.

"Forward!" Aya's voice cut through the sounds of battle as another goblin fell to a series of small spikes of Earth.

Slapping a goblin's sword out of position with his shield, Gregor slashed it across its inner thigh and darted back, avoiding a warding strike from another's axe. The injury was a fatal one, and the goblin knew it. Throwing all defense aside, the wounded goblin threw its sword at Gregor and tried to tackle his legs while the axe wielder closed in again, throwing a savage hack with its axe.

Blocking the thrown sword with his shield, Gregor braced for the tackle, grunting from the force of eighty pounds of goblin slamming into his armored shin. It didn't hurt, but staying upright and fighting while a desperate foe sought to mess with your stance took some effort. With a dying goblin clawing at his forward leg and his shield out of position, he didn't have many options for dealing with the axe blow. Parrying the axe wouldn't have been his first choice, the weapon looking heavier than his own sword, but it was the best move he could think of, trusting in his greater height, weight, and strength to make up the difference.

it did. Shoving the weapon off target, Gregor retaliated with a slash along the goblin's wrist, severing the tendons that let it hold its weapon. As the goblin recoiled in pain, Gregor stabbed his sword down through the dying goblin's neck and kicked its corpse free from his leg before he closed with the disarmed monster, finishing it off with a straightforward thrust to the heart.

Two more down, Gregor advanced again, dueling against another three goblins that snuck past Ivar's wild swings.

Individually they weren't much of a threat, but they were facing at least a few dozen. For every one of the monsters they slew, two more came out of the gloom, pushing with the weight of numbers against their minuscule frontline. The narrow trail and the support mage's barriers gave the enemy limited avenues to attack, reducing the goblins' advantage in numbers, but not by enough. Every foot they advanced was a victory won against half a dozen of the creatures, but there were always more.

Jun breathed a sigh of relief when Michael helped Melody up. It didn't erase the guilt she felt at her failure, but it helped a bit. As the group advanced, enveloping Michael and Melody in the center, Jun rushed ahead, sidestepping past them to place herself closer to the front.

Her failures incurred a debt, one she was sure would be reflected in her karma when her life ended, but maybe she could begin to repay it now. Her hesitance to truly fight put people in danger, but so did her lack of practice with her killing spell. Images of her missed attacks the night before, Melody covered in blood, and a gory mist as dozens of bodies were ripped apart filled her mind, threatening nausea. Staring at the frontline's backs, she mentally shrunk away from her [Piercing Missile]. Even if she could bring herself to kill, she rationalized, her bad aim was too dangerous.

Besides, she had better options. Ones she could live with but would still help. Pulling on her mana, Jun felt as the last dregs of mana drained out of the goblins who nearly killed Melody, their struggles fading as weakness flooded through their bodies. As much as she wanted to hold onto them, keep them restrained so that they couldn't come back as a threat and wouldn't die, that wasn't a choice she could make now. She had to choose her classmates or the goblins. She chose.

"Weaklings!" Ivar yelled, swinging his axe with reckless strength. His axe seemed to shudder with pleasure as his blow punched through another goblin's pathetic guard and took off its arm. They dared come to him with crude hide shields and puny bodies barely strong enough to wield the lightest of steel weapons.

Sneering behind his helmet's faceplate, he kicked the one-armed goblin in the chest and advanced again, his axe already swinging in a wide arc at the next rank. The weaklings scattered before him, diving to the side as they sought softer targets. Their actions only confirmed what he'd long known. He was the strongest, and his enemies knew it. They'd rather face his so-called leader Gregor or the quiet wimp Cian than a true man like himself.

Confident as he was in his strength, he still held back a bit, only advancing as far as the next rank and not diving into the goblins' ranks like he could. Doing so would only get the weaklings behind him killed, and that would make him look bad. Besides, he was sure he'd proven his point to the weak girls that cowered behind hm. No doubt they regretted spurning his generous invitation. He bet their regret-filled faces were a glorious sight to behold. Especially the weak purple-haired bitch. She was the worst of the lot, tying him up with underhanded magic but too weak and cowardly to actually fight. All she could do was cast some middling lights, tie up a few goblins, and get in his way. He expected her face was covered with tears and blushing admiration. She was famous for blushing at anyone even moderately attractive, and Ivar was by far the most handsome man here.

Swinging his axe wide to force the goblins in front of him back, he risked turning around, giving into the temptation to drink in the sight of bitch's regret. Instead of satisfaction at her tearful face, he was momentarily shocked at her look of determination as she stared at him. Even though it wasn't the regretful face of someone realizing they were wrong that he craved, he'd take her inspiration from his manliness. After all, it meant she was just a few steps from devotion to him.

Watching the fight in front for the right timing, Jun watched as Ivar swiped wide, forcing the goblins he was fighting to step back as one, momentarily off balance. She expected him to charge in and attack like she'd watched him do several times before, giving more room for goblins to get around him and attack Gregor and Cian who were practically holding the frontline alone around Ivar's recklessness. Instead, the pervert turned around to look behind him, though what he stared at she couldn't be sure with the helmet that covered his entire face.

Still, his reckless inattention also gave her the opening she waited for. Flexing her mana, she gave her [Sapping Snare] tendrils an order, feeding stolen mana into them to fuel their movement. The fighting had let her grab seven goblins that she held aloft, their weapons long discarded as they struggled weakly against their bindings. It was time she returned them to their friends.

Arcing back, her tendrils shot forward, dragging the goblins along until they were released, thrown back to the horde! The first one thrown, one of the goblins that nearly killed Melody, Jun got the angle wrong, the goblin slamming into the frozen earth of the trail with a crunch just a few feet in front of her. Fighting away her embarrassment, she left the goblin lying on the ground as it tried to crawl away from her with two snapped legs and tried again. Adjusting to a higher angle, she lobbed the second goblin as the ranks in front of Ivar started to recover, but her angle was off again, the screaming projectile slamming into a pair of goblins off to the side and further back. Still, progress. Her third throw hit exactly where she hoped, the flailing projectile slamming into its comrades just as they recovered, knocking the front ranks down like a bunch of bowling pins!

Whirling around at the noise of goblins slamming into each other, Ivar let out a brutal slash with his weapon, carving through three of the goblins as they struggled to disentangle themselves.

With the pervert back on task and more confident in her aim, Jun's free snares snaked toward the goblins Gregor and Cian fought, wrapping around ankles and pulling them off balance. With some of their foes disrupted, the two warriors took advantage, their skill enhanced swords quickly striking mortal blows. As the goblins in her grasp died, Jun felt power surge up her tentacles and into her. The power didn't just enhance her spells, but flooded through her mana channels, washing away some of her pain and exhaustion while the excess refilled her mana pool until it felt uncomfortably full. The pressure on her core and channels hurt, pain wracking her body like she was about to burst only for the excess power to wipe the pain away and repeat the cycle.

Her muscles spasming with pain, Jun desperately shoved half of her pool into her barriers, the arcane energy flooding down her spell links and causing her spells to glow dangerously as they vented excess mana. Fighting off the ghosts of pain at being overcharged, Jun commanded her snares again, whipping the corpses they held into the way of more goblins that snuck past Ivar, disrupting their charge.

As the remaining goblins she held ran out of mana, Jun threw them back at the press of attackers pushing against Cian, Gregor, and Ivar, their weakly flailing bodies causing chaos in their ranks and disrupting the goblins' pressure. Taking advantage of the disorder, Ivar charged into the disorganized rabble, his axe reaping lives as the monsters struggled to recover. Then, the pressure vanished.

Like a dam breaking, the goblins started to retreat, first a trickle, then a flood as they fled the trail, leaving behind their dead. With the fighting over for now, Jun started to relax, only to flinch as she felt a final surge of power as Ivar executed the last live goblin she held, its head flying through the air to thud at the edge of the trail. Fighting back a wave of nausea and spasms of pain, Jun vented the excess mana into her spells, causing a brief flare of light as the energy was consumed. The fight was over, for now.

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