Cael's grip tightened on his weapon. "That's… way too close."
Lyra hovered defensively, her glow pulsing faster.
Lucien's mind raced.
Multiple alerts. Close range flares. And now the system was feeding him more data than before, rough positions, overlapping zones, red warnings stacking too fast to ignore.
"This Rift is shifting," Lucien said. "Or something inside it is."
Cael glanced at him, searching his face. "What do we do?"
Lucien closed his eyes for a heartbeat, then opened them, focus snapping into place.
"We reroute."
"What?"
"We don't head toward the beast we detected first," Lucien continued. "We skirt around it, cut through the narrow pass near the ridge, and avoid whatever's triggering those flares."
Cael hesitated. "You sure?"
Lucien met his gaze. Gone was the relaxed confidence from earlier. What stood there now was sharp, calculating, grounded.
"I'm sure enough to bet our lives on it."
That was all Cael needed.
"Lead."
Lucien turned inward, addressing the system again.
"Give me terrain projection," he murmured. "Threat density. Fast."
The interface shifted, simplified but clear. Lucien traced the safest route in his mind, piecing together alerts, distances, and patterns like a puzzle.
"This way," he said, already moving.
They slipped between stone outcroppings, keeping low, avoiding open ground. Twice, Lucien adjusted their path at the last second, pulling Cael back just as distant roars echoed from ahead.
Cael glanced at him, breath controlled but eyes wide. "How are you doing that?"
Lucien didn't slow. "I'm listening."
"To what?"
"Everything."
Lyra drifted ahead, acting as a silent scout, her presence light but alert. When she paused suddenly, Lucien stopped at once.
"Left," he whispered. "Now."
They moved, just as heavy footsteps thundered past where they would have been moments earlier.
Cael swallowed. "Okay. I'm officially impressed."
Lucien let out a slow breath. "Stay sharp. This isn't over."
As they pressed deeper into the safer route, the flares continued in the distance, uneven and chaotic, like warning beacons in a storm.
Whatever was happening in the Rift, it was no longer business as usual.
And Lucien knew one thing for certain.
The hunt had just changed.
Lucien couldn't shake the thought.
Something about this Rift felt wrong, and not in the usual way. The academy drilled into them that fluctuations happened, that beasts migrated and pressure built up and released. Still, this felt sloppy, like someone had missed a step they shouldn't have.
As they moved, Lucien kept glancing at the faint markers etched into the terrain. Anchor points. Safe zones reinforced by the Rift Walkers. Places students were meant to regroup if things went bad. If things went really bad.
And judging by the flares they had seen earlier, a lot of people were heading there.
"Everyone's going to crowd the anchors," Cael muttered as they passed a split in the path. "Feels like a bad idea."
"It's still better than wandering blind," Lucien replied. His voice stayed even, but his eyes didn't stop moving. "Numbers matter when panic hits."
They weren't alone in that thinking. Tracks crisscrossed the Rift paths. Scuffed boots. Drag marks. Broken branches. Signs that other students had passed through recently, some in a hurry.
Just as Lucien was about to speak again, a ripple passed through the bond he shared with Lyra.
Not fear.
Alertness.
She turned her head slowly, eyes glowing a little brighter as she focused on something none of them could see.
Lucien felt it a heartbeat later.
"What is it?" he asked quietly.
Lyra pointed in a hand like gesture.
Her Veil Sensitivity trait had flared, responding to disturbances deeper than sight or sound could reach. The air in that direction felt heavier, like it was pressing back.
"Anomaly," she sent through the bond. "Close. Not stable."
Lucien's curiosity sparked instantly. An anchor malfunction? A secondary tear? Something the academy instruments hadn't picked up?
But before he could even form the next thought, a familiar beep cut through his mind.
The system interface slid into place.
A side quest.
Lucien exhaled slowly. Of course.
Seems like I have to get involved eventually. As he turned to his team. "Change of plans".
Not too far away, chaos had already found its victims.
Three students stood back to back in a narrow clearing, breathing hard and bleeding harder.
"Shit, shit, shit," the elementalist gasped as he stumbled back, barely managing to throw up a weak burst of flame. "Why are there so many of them?"
A direwolf lunged through the fire like it barely mattered, fur singed but eyes still sharp.
"Because this Rift hates us," the warrior shouted, swinging his blade in a wide arc that forced one wolf back but left him open on the side. "Move, damn it!"
The summoner tried to issue a command, hands shaking as his contracted beast hesitated, confused by overlapping orders and panic. "I said flank! No, not there! Damn it, listen to me!"
The wolves didn't wait.
They moved as a pack, circling, snapping, testing. E rank, but hungry and coordinated. One darted in low, raking claws across the warrior's thigh.
"Ah! Fuck!"
He staggered, nearly dropping his weapon.
"Flare!" the elementalist yelled. "Send the flare now!"
"I'm trying!" the summoner shouted back, fumbling at his belt. His fingers slipped, slick with sweat and blood. The small cylinder dropped, bounced once, and vanished into the underbrush.
For a second, all three of them froze.
Then the summoner swore loudly. "No. No, no, no. Shit!"
"You lost it?" the warrior barked.
"I dropped it!"
"Damn you!"
As if sensing weakness, the wolves pressed in tighter, cutting off the narrow path behind them. One snapped its jaws inches from the elementalist's throat, forcing him to fall back and crash into a tree.
Their attacks lost any rhythm they had. Spells came late. Blades swung wide. The summoner's commands overlapped and contradicted each other.
"Why isn't this working?" the elementalist screamed as another wolf lunged.
"Because we're fucked!" the warrior yelled back, blood dripping down his leg. "That's why!"
The wolves surged.
Hope thinned.
But then the world cracked with sound.