They didn’t go out hunting for the rest of that day. Neither did they for the rest of the week, instead spending it inside, training. Despite having always been the softer of their two teachers, Franziska pushed John and the rest of his classmates hard.

They worked on fighting in armour and getting used to their new armaments. What Franziska put a special focus on was getting them used to letting blows slide off their armour.

It resulted in quite a few bruises – and bruised egos as armours were damaged left and right – but at least it took their minds off the fact that the entire outpost had become as busy as a beehive.

“That’s the fifth one today,” Ronnie remarked as he watched another stretcher hurry into the overfilled medical barracks.

“Stop counting them. The only thing you accomplish by doing that is to worry yourself. And me,” John said. The boy took a huge gulp from his water flask and stood up, his armour clanking noisily as he did so. “Gah, I’m still not used to this noise.” He sighed at Ronnie, who continued to stare at the medical barracks. “C’mon, break time is almost over. We need to get going.” He looked over his shoulder, where Franziska standing with her arms crossed. She didn’t let the children out of her eyes for a single moment.

Ronnie tore his eyes away before muttering something about this not being right. Using his sword as a crutch, he heaved himself to his feet. “You ready,” he asked whilst taking a pose.

John's vision narrowed considerably as he materialised his helmet. He didn't like the feeling, but it would, fortunately, go away once he overcame whatever was hindering him and awoke his aether senses.

The boy took a deep breath, suppressing the sinking feeling in his gut with a moderate aether burst. It worked almost as well as the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He gripped his halberd tighter as he took a defensive pose. “Do it.”

Ronnie’s sword blurred. It bypassed John’s unmoving halberd and crashed into the other boy’s breastplate, where it slid off without leaving a scratch. He grunted, took a step back and repeated the process of hammering John’s armour with measured strikes.

For his part, John stayed silent and unmoving. It didn’t hurt, not really. Ronnie’s strikes were far too light, and his own armour too well made for that, but it took every bit of willpower in John’s body to suppress his instincts. His body screamed at him to move and riposte, swat the blade away or do something, anything to divert the weapon’s edge from his body.

His eyelids and fingers twitched with every strike, but eventually, his turn ended. He returned the favour to Ronnie.

They spent the next hour like that, clobbering each other like idiots. By the end of it, they felt like ones, too.

Jessica and Lydia joined them in the following break, taking place on a random spot on the ground next to them. Today, Lydia had opted for a simple French braid that somehow managed to look perfectly fine even though she had to have been moving in a helmet for hours.

“-ohn. John!”

John blinked. “What,” he replied with another blink.

Jessica shook her head, her ponytail forming a scarlet stream behind her head. “When do you think the old man’s coming back?”

John thought back to the last conversation he had had with the marble. “He’s hunting everything in your remote vicinity down. Damn, you should see this. It’s like he’s a lawnmower on steroids,” it had said.

“Who knows? He’s probably busy killing everything that moves and doesn’t talk,” John replied.

The round shared a smile at the old joke.

Jessica hugged her knees. “I hope he comes back soon so we can get away from here. This place sucks.”

Ronnie looked up from Lydia’s loose hair, his fingers never stopping weaving through it to create an elaborate braid. When had he undone her braid? “When do you think will those expeditions stop? I just want to get back and peacefully train. Not…this running around to-“

“Ouch!”

“Sorry,” Ronnie shouted back. He responded to Lydia’s aggrieved pout with a pleading grimace. She forgave him with a sigh. “So yeah, I really don’t like all these expeditions.”

John and Jessica nodded. Greg's abrupt departure had robbed the children of any adventurousness they might have had.

Hearing a shout, John looked at the other side of the plaza, where the other two groups were training. They, too, were training hard. A good side effect of that was that none of them had the energy to start a quarrel with each other.

A flutter of black hair caught his eye. A familiar-looking girl was whaling at another classmate of hers.

John wrinkled his eyebrows. She seemed…familiar. Why? Where had he seen her before?

John thought about it, but couldn’t recall a reason. He spent the rest of his break thinking about her but ultimately couldn’t remember where he knew her from. He concluded that it was not important.

“Take care kid,” the burly, hairy and sweaty old soldier said to John. He reached his hand out to stroke the boy’s head, but John dodged with a practiced sidestep. He danced further out of the man’s reach and waved.

“Don’t die you old coot,” John shouted as he walked away.

The old soldier gave him a smile. His mouth was full of gleaming white teeth. “You too,” he said, raising his hand to wave back.

Similar scenes were playing out all over the fort as children, teachers and soldiers said their goodbyes. That done, they assembled into a formation in front of the massive gate. All three groups were standing next to each other in the formation. Once the teachers made sure no one was left behind, they surrounded their charges and set off.

Greg was acting as the vanguard, his characteristic smile that the children hadn’t seen for a long time on his face. The children chattered excitedly as they set out, though they quickly quieted down after Greg threw a glance back. All three groups did.

‘Authority’s still authority, I guess,’ John thought as he snickered at the reactions of the other two groups. They looked thoroughly cowed.

Then again, so were they. The old man had tended to have that effect on people.

John frowned as he thought about the implications of the fact even Greg had felt it necessary to combine their forces. The marble, too, seemed quite cautious despite the decimation of the surrounding beasts.

Though it hadn’t gone so far as warn him, it nevertheless prevented him from being too carefree. Thinking about danger, John made a quick check of his core. It revealed a proud amount of aether – the result of him saving up the last few days.

The fact that – provided he paced himself well – he could aether burst for hours on end served to calm him down.

Time blurred as the teachers forced a rapid march on them. There were no breaks, save for the times something was blocking their way. If that happened, a teacher would go forth to kill whatever was hindering their progress.

The closer they got to the main road leading out of the thick forest, the fiercer the beasts seemed to fight back. Sometimes two, and sometimes even three of the six teachers had to set out at the same time. Yet, despite the constant breaks, the children never had to fight themselves. The teachers took turns taking their aggressors out, ensuring that no group ever remained without a familiar face to lead them.

That didn’t mean they couldn’t find evidence of the beasts’ manic resistance, though. Broken trees and shattered bodies littered the path they walked on. The smell of blood and viscera was thick in the air, and occasionally a child stumbled on lingering bone fragments.

If you asked John, though, the worst thing was definitely the smell. The stench was becoming thicker with every step. It was to the point that John and many of his comrades felt forced to conjure rags to serve as mouth and nose protectors. It almost felt like he could taste the blood in the air in some spots.

They ate lunch and dinner on their feet. Not one child could be seen complaining about that. How could they, when their teachers were rushing about whilst trying to protect them?

John wondered just how many sets of clean clothes each teacher must have stored inside their cores. There was no way they could remain unscathed with all the destruction they were causing, yet he never saw even the smallest stain on them.

He shook his head. ‘No sense deceiving myself,’ he thought. He was only trying to distract himself from the fact that the beasts were still this numerous after weeks of fighting. Just how many had been there before?

“They’re congregating on us. We might not even be the reason for that this time. It’s more like…they don’t want their prey to get away?”

John snorted. What kind of prey committed mass murder on its predator? He would never understand just what could compel these beasts to throw themselves at humans in a manner that could only be described as suicidal. It didn’t make sense, from both a logical and an evolutionary standpoint!

And where were all these animals even coming from? Though the forest was indeed massive, there was no way it could sustain the numbers it was currently inhabiting. Not to mention that even herbivores seemed to transform into predators whenever they saw them.

“Stop thinking about unimportant problems. You’d be better served concentrating on getting out of here alive. You know, what with the invisible assassins running around and all,” the marble reminded John.

John breathed deeply. The marble was right. He needed to remain vigilant at all times. It was a pity that his armour didn’t make him feel any safer. He doubted that a sheet of metal would do anything to help his chances against something that managed to pierce through the teachers’ protection.

A surprisingly close roar shook John out of his thoughts. It died down in a split-second, but that did not hinder the children from whispering amongst themselves. Being situated in the middle, it took a while for the news to reach him. It seemed like Greg had thrown something into a bush that then exploded into a gory mess.

“Speak of the devil.”

“Jinx,” John cursed under his breath. The exit of the forest was still quite a way away, and yet those things had already appeared? That was not a good sign. “Are there any other unpleasant surprises waiting for us? Like, is something capable of instantly annihilating us in the vicinity?”

“Don’t worry about those. You lot might as well be passing air for the beings capable of that.”

John’s heart skipped a beat as he realised that the marble’s reply was not a direct denial. He took deep breaths and forced himself to keep track of his surroundings, lest he trip and fall. No good would come out of pursuing this conversation any further.

He cursed himself for being too nosy. What little safety he felt had instantly vanished at those words.

“I’m loving this more with every second,” John said with a sigh.