Morning in the Gloomwilds was a slow, grudging affair. Light didn't break; it seeped through the canopy like diluted broth, doing little to warm the bone deep chill that had settled overnight. Kael's team was breaking camp with the quiet efficiency of people who'd rather still be asleep.
Dominic stamped out the last embers of their fire with his boot. "Spiders. Wolves. Cultists. What's next? A territorial patch of angry moss?"
"Don't give the forest ideas," Justin groaned, stretching. A satisfying pop echoed from his shoulders. "I swear I slept on a rock that was actively trying to spine adjust me into a pretzel."
"That was my foot," Daniel's voice said from empty air near Justin's bedroll.
Justin jumped. "Do you have to do that?"
Daniel materialized, looking unfairly well rested. "Yes. It's in my contract. 'Section 12: Obligatory Morning Startling of the Knight.'" He tossed Justin a strip of dried meat. "Stop complaining. You snore like a sawmill."
As they bickered, Kael took first watch on a low rock, scanning the mist shrouded trees. The laughter from last night's spider debacle had faded, replaced by a low grade, persistent vigilance. They'd made enemies. Not just Corvin, but whatever organization those cultists belonged to. And in a 'no rules' environment, enemies didn't wait for convenient times.
He saw Sora teaching Ellora a basic flame-kindling trick, their heads close together. Lisa and Camila were deep in a whispered, technical debate over the spider venom samples, using terms that made Kael's head hurt. Sophia was checking everyone's gear with a sergeant's eye, finding loose straps and poorly secured pouches with merciless precision.
It was… domestic. In a weird, battle ready, potentially lethal flora kind of way. A fragile bubble of normalcy.
Unseen, two hundred yards southeast, that bubble was being studied through a far seeing crystal with cold, clinical interest.
Theron Von Gale lowered the expensive magi-scope, a slow, calculated smile spreading across his handsome face. He stood not with his usual entourage, but with two carefully selected assistants. Brant, a hulking earth aspected silver-vein with a face like a friendly boulder and a loyalty bought with Theron's coin. And Lin, a slight, sharp eyed girl with bronze veins and a talent for subtle herb lore and charm craft.
"See the pattern?" Theron murmured, his voice smooth as polished oak. "The Valore boy is the shield. The Osborn kid is the wild card. The big one and the shadow are the guards. But the heart… the weak point in the armor…" His scope's crosshairs settled on Ellora, who was laughing at something Sora said, her red curls bright against the gloom. "Is the spirit girl. Campbell."
Lin nodded, her fingers twitching as if already mixing tinctures. "She's the emotional anchor. The healer. The one they rally to protect. Isolate her, and the whole structure gets… wobbly."
"Precisely." Theron's smile didn't reach his eyes. "And we're going to invite her for a walk."
His plan was elegant in its cruelty. He'd spent the early hours not hunting beasts, but harvesting a very specific, rare herb: Queen of the Night Flower petals, which grew in a secluded, rocky hollow a half mile from the main test routes. It was a legitimate, high-value resource. The perfect bait.
"Here's the script," Theron said, turning to his accomplices. "Brant, you and I 'discover' the patch mid morning. We make enough noise to be heard. We express frustration, it's too much for two people to harvest safely before the daily sun shift wilts the petals. We need a third with delicate hands. Spirit-attuned hands."
Brant frowned. "Won't they all come?"
"No," Theron said, patience coating his words like syrup. "They have quotas. They'll send the specialist. It's efficient. And Campbell is kind. She'll volunteer to help." He looked at Lin. "You'll be our insurance, upwind. A light dispersal of Dreamer's Bane pollen just enough to lower inhibitions, cloud judgment. Make her… suggestible. Not unconscious. Just… agreeable."
Lin paled slightly but nodded. The ethical line was being crossed with casual precision.
"We harvest together," Theron continued. "I am the picture of noble courtesy. Then, a sudden 'beast threat' Brant, you can fake a tremor, spook some Rock-Runners. In the confusion, we get separated from Brant. I lead her to 'safety' through a narrow canyon I've pre-scouted. A quiet place. A private place." His gaze grew distant, possessive. "Where we can… discuss her future prospects. Away from her overprotective friends."
It was a predator's pattern. Isolate the vulnerable from the herd. Create a scenario of plausible deniability. Use social pressure and chemical assistance to bypass consent. He'd done variations of it before at noble functions with commoner servants. The Gloomwilds just provided a more dramatic backdrop.
"And if the Valore boy comes looking?" Brant rumbled.
Theron's smile turned icy. "By the time he finds us, her reputation will be in tatters. Who will they believe? A hysterical commoner girl found alone with a noble son in a secluded grove, or a Hale heir who simply offered comfort during a stressful test? It'll break him. And she'll have no choice but to cling to the one who 'protected' her honor." He brushed non-existent dust from his sleeve. "Now. Positions."
Back at Kael's camp, the decision was made. Lisa's inventory confirmed they were behind on rare floral specimens. The Queen of the Night Flower was a major score.
"It makes sense for Ellora to go," Justin said, though everything in his posture screamed reluctance. "Her spirit magic can sense the flower's vitality, pick the perfect moment to harvest."
"I'll be fine," Ellora said, squeezing his arm. "It's Theron and Brant. Annoying, but not… spiders."
"I don't like it," Sora said, her dragon-keen senses prickling. "It feels too convenient."
"Everything in this forest is too convenient," Dominic grunted. "Usually right before it tries to eat you. Daniel?"
"On it," Daniel said, already fading into the background. "I'll be her shadow. If Gale so much as looks at her wrong, I'll introduce his boot to his own backside."
Ellora set out, following the sounds of Theron's 'discovery.' The plan proceeded with sickening smoothness. Theron was charm personified. Brant was convincingly clumsy. The flower patch was stunningly beautiful, dark petals shimmering with captured starlight. Lin, hidden upwind behind a Baryte Stone outcropping, released her pollen on a gentle breeze.
Ellora, focused on the delicate work, inhaled. A wave of mild dizziness washed over her, followed by a soft, fuzzy warmth. Theron's voice seemed to grow more reasonable, his smile more trustworthy.
"Careful now," he said, his hand brushing hers as he passed a harvesting tool. "Such delicate work deserves a gentle touch."
Daniel, watching from a crevice in the cliff face, saw it all. He saw Lin's hidden position. He saw the calculated brush of hands. He saw the faint, glazed look entering Ellora's eyes. His blood went cold. This wasn't bullying. This was hunting.
He didn't run back to camp. He dissolved a portion of his own shadow, sending a Shadow-Wisp their agreed emergency signal streaking back the way he'd come. It was a pulse of pure, distilled alarm.
At the camp, the wisp erupted from Daniel's empty bedroll.
Kael saw it. Justin saw it.
There was no discussion. No plan. Justin's face emptied of all expression, transforming from the kind, honorable youth into something primal and lethal. The air around him didn't just chill; it crystallized with intent. He moved.
He didn't run. He unleashed. Boots tore the earth, ferns and roots disintegrating under his passage. He was a comet of silver rage, a straight-line demolition through the forest. Kael and Dominic were a heartbeat behind, their own panic sharp and cold.
They crashed into the flower clearing just as Brant, following the script, slammed his fist into the ground. A fake tremor shook the rocks, and a family of harmless Rock-Runners scattered with indignant squeaks.
"Beast!" Brant yelled, overacting terribly. "This way, Miss Campbell!"
Theron, the picture of gallant panic, grabbed Ellora's wrist. "I'll protect you! This way!"
Ellora, muddled by the pollen, stumbled after him toward the narrow canyon mouth.
"LET HER GO."
The voice was not a shout. It was a low, vibrating command that seemed to still the very air. Justin stood at the edge of the clearing, his sword still sheathed. But the power around him was palpable. Jagged, silver lines of force the ghost images of a hundred righteous cuts shivered in the space around him, making the light fracture. His eyes were not amber anymore. They were chips of frozen topaz, burning with a promise of annihilation.
Theron froze, his mask slipping into genuine shock. He hadn't expected this speed, this… intensity.
Justin took one step forward. The ground didn't shake. It screamed. A geyser of solidified sword energy, not of metal but of pure, cutting fury, erupted from the earth between Theron and the canyon. It wasn't an attack on flesh. It was an attack on possibility. It annihilated the path, scouring the stone clean.
"You will unhand her," Justin said, each word falling like a guillotine blade. "You will step away. You will not speak her name. You will not look in her direction." He took another step. The silver energy around him intensified, singing a lethal chorus. "If your shadow ever touches hers again, I will unravel you. This is not a threat from House Valore. This is a vow from me."
The raw, personal hatred in his voice was more terrifying than any spell. Theron's grip went slack. Ellora, jarred by the violent eruption of energy, blinked, the pollen's fog clearing into sharp, cold fear. She pulled her wrist free and stumbled back toward Sora, who had just arrived, flames wreathing her hands.
While Justin held Theron in the thrall of his wrath, Kael and Dominic moved.
Dominic went straight to Ellora, his solid presence a wall between her and the world. Kael turned to Brant and Lin, who was now slinking from her hiding place.
He didn't attack. He simply looked at the mana in Brant's fists, at the residual pollen dust on Lin's fingers. With a focused thought, he unmade the structure of the spells they were forming. The earth tremor Brant was trying to summon died with a soggy pop. The charm lines Lin was weaving frayed into nothingness like rotten thread.
They stared at their impotent hands.
"Leave," Kael said, his voice quiet but absolute. "Now. Before his promise becomes my task."
They didn't need telling twice. They fled, abandoning Theron without a backward glance.
Theron stood alone, exposed, in the shattered clearing. The elegant predator was now a rabbit in a wolf's gaze. Justin's sword remained sheathed, but the promise in the air was sharper than any blade.
From the high rocks above, Princess Elara Everglade watched, her usual composure shaken. She had seen it all: the setup, the pollen, the calculated predation, and the devastatingly personal response. She saw Justin's protective fury, not as a noble's duty, but as a man's deepest vow. She saw Kael's chilling nullification. She saw the team's instinctive, perfect cohesion.
Her pen flew.
*Predatory conduct by Subject Theron Von Gale confirmed. Attempted chemical and situational coercion of Subject Ellora Campbell. Intervention by Team 7-B was immediate and disproportionate in moral force. Subject Justin Valore's response transcends disciplinary action; it was a territorial claim written in conceptual sword energy. Social annihilation of Subject Gale is now complete and irreversible. His future at this academy is untenable. The political ramifications for House Gale will be severe.*
*Observation: The 'no rules' environment does not eliminate morality; it amplifies it. Team 7-B has demonstrated that their strongest weapon is not individual power, but the ferocity with which they protect their own. This changes the calculus entirely.*
She looked down at Theron, small and broken in the clearing, and felt not pity, but a cold, judicial satisfaction. The forest's true law had been enforced, not by proctors, but by a boy with a sword and a heart full of fire.
Justin finally moved, walking past Theron as if he were a stain on the ground. He went straight to Ellora, his terrifying energy dissolving into palpable relief. "Are you hurt?"
She shook her head, tears of shock and gratitude in her eyes. "You… you came."
"Always," he said, the word simple and absolute.
Kael looked at the ruined clearing, at the trembling Theron, at his team whole, safe, furious. The line had been drawn in silver and shadow. Some costs, it seemed, even the Gloomwilds respected.
"Let's go home," he said. Their camp wasn't home, but in that moment, with this group, it was the closest thing they had.