The collapse of the Heart of Durandal chamber created a deadly gravitational chaos. The obsidian stone walls shattered one by one right behind our heels. Thick dust choked the air. We ran, crashing through the darkness.
"Keep running! Do not look back!" I shouted.
Suddenly, three fossilized Skeleton Guards rose from the pile of rubble. They blocked our only way out.
"Ragnar! Open the path! Throw the one on the left!"
"Get out of my way, pile of bones!" roared Ragnar. The giant man did not use his sword. He rammed his shoulder into the skeleton on the left, lifted it, and threw it with all his might against the stone wall until it shattered into pieces.
The two remaining skeletons raised their rusted swords toward me. I did not waste time drawing the Blood-Iron. Relying on the density of the Troll bone that had recently fused with my arm, I lunged forward.
I slammed my shoulder and right arm straight ahead, crushing the ribcages of both skeletal monsters like a steel battering ram. They instantly shattered into bone fragments.
Blue light from outside became visible right before our eyes.
"Jump!" I yelled, issuing the final command.
The four of us leaped out of the mouth of the ruins, landing hard on the muddy ground of the Forbidden Forest. At that exact second, a deafening blast of blue mana collapsed the entire structure of the ancient temple into the belly of the earth. The shockwave swept our backs violently.
The suffocating smell of grave dust disappeared instantly, replaced by the freezing night air of the forest and the stench of toxic miasma.
Our breathing was heavily ragged. Ragnar fell to his knees, coughing violently to expel the dirty dust from his lungs. Beside him, Virelith's face looked as pale as paper. Her thick glasses were cracked on the far left edge.
The usually calm engineer girl now began to tremble. Logical panic took over as her brain processed survival calculations.
"Kael! That mana explosion just acted like a giant flare!" Virelith screamed hysterically. She pointed toward the sinkhole still billowing blue smoke. "The radius of its soundwave reached ten miles! The probability calculation for our death is now ninety eight percent!"
Ragnar looked up with wide eyes. "What do you mean, Bookworm?!"
"All the mid and high tier monsters from the Outer Zone will swarm to this place!" Virelith's breathing became increasingly uncontrollable. "They are seeking a source of energy! We must run! Find the tallest tree or a cliff crevice before that wave of monsters arrives and chews us alive!"
Virelith was just about to turn around to run into the dark forest fog.
At this very point, I stood up slowly from the mud. I cast aside every remaining shred of the academy cadet mask I had worn all this time. My posture shifted to stand incredibly straight, radiating the killing aura and absolute discipline of ten years on the trench battlefields. My eyes glowed red, staring at Virelith as cold as eternal ice.
"Shut your mouth, Engineer," I said with a baritone tone that silenced her panic instantly. "Use your logic, not your fear."
Virelith swallowed hard, staring at me with a trembling body. "But those monsters will kill us."
"Running aimlessly into the Miasma fog on an empty stomach is suicide," I cut in sharply. "We only have rations for one day. Running will only make us die of exhaustion and turn us into easy arrow targets out in the open."
I walked closer to her, staring straight into the eyes behind those cracked glasses. "Use your brain. If Orvelis Nightbane threw us into this sector, he does not expect us to die naturally from getting lost. He surely sent his executioners after us tonight as well. We are not running anywhere."
Ragnar and Virelith were stunned stiff. The absolute authority I projected made them afraid to argue.
At the edge of that muddy field, Selena watched me in silence. The sociopathic mask on the beautiful girl's face crumbled for a moment, replaced by a gaze of incredibly dense admiration and nostalgia. She smiled thinly.
"Finally. The Commander returns," whispered Selena very softly, speaking only to herself.
I walked forward, using the heel of my boot to draw a sharp angled, elongated line in the muddy soil. My team's shock had been replaced by the absolute obedience of a soldier to their superior.
"We will not run from that wave of monsters," I announced with a loud and firm voice. "We will use them. Virelith! Step up to this line!"
Virelith stepped forward hurriedly. She gripped her staff tightly against her chest. "Ready, Commander. What must I do?"
"Use your Earth magic! Do not destroy the stone, but compact the soil downward!" I ordered while pointing at the line I made. "Dig a two meter deep defensive trench network in a zigzag pattern surrounding the remaining rubble of this temple! Build a thick protective earth wall at the lip of the trench to withstand enemy magic fire. Do it now!"
Virelith drove her staff into the mossy ground. The earth instantly rumbled and split apart. A defensive trench hole began to form with astonishing magical speed.
Ragnar looked at the muddy trench being dug with a deeply furrowed brow.
"Kael, why are we burying ourselves in the ground like rats?" asked Ragnar in confusion. "Those monsters will surround us from above! We will not be able to move to slash them!"
I smirked at him. A predatory smile yearning for blood formed on my lips.
"The arrival of hundreds of monsters is no threat to us, Ragnar," I explained calmly. "They are our meat shields. When Nightbane's elite executioners arrive to behead us, they must pass through and fight that sea of savage monsters first before their swords can even touch the lip of our trench."
Night finally descended completely, swallowing the Forbidden Forest in absolute darkness.
The underground trench network was fully dug. The lips of the trench were perfectly camouflaged using piles of rotting leaves and magical root illusions by Selena. The Deck Hound squad hid tightly within the cold mud of the trench. We held our breath, peeking carefully through the narrow gaps in the defensive earthen wall.
From within the dark fog ahead, ferocious roars and howls answering each other could be heard. The first wave had arrived.
Hundreds of Grave Hounds and other wild forest monsters arrived in massive numbers to the ruins area. They ran around in confusion, searching for the source of the vanished mana explosion. Their growls overlapped one another. They sniffed the muddy ground fiercely and scratched at each other.
Wild chaos truly ruled the surface above us.
But suddenly, all those monster howls were muffled. A highly unnatural, cold, and deadly silence sliced through the forest air. The savage beasts stopped moving in unison. They turned in the same direction with their ears pulled back, sensing a far greater danger.
It was not a dragon's roar that broke the silence. The sound that came was the marching steps of armored boots. Those steps marched with a military rhythm that was far too perfect and elegant for the scale of this muddy forest.
The damp air was suddenly filled with the sharp scent of ozone. The crackle of static electricity was heard striking loudly, making our hairs stand on end as we huddled in the trench.
From behind the thick milky white fog, flashes of bluish lightning struck to illuminate the ancient trees.
The Knight with the Lightning Spear, Henry Percy, stepped out at the edge of the ruins. Behind him, a platoon of a dozen Upper Class cadets marched neatly with drawn weapons and gleaming armor. They stood staring at the sea of wild monsters with the arrogance of an executioner arriving to carry out a mass execution.
Henry Percy spun his silver spear slowly. His cold eyes stared at the horde of monsters blocking the entrance to the center of the ruins.
Underground, inside the dark and dirty trench, I gripped the hilt of the Blood-Iron sword incredibly tight. The density of my right arm felt absolutely perfect and ready to cleave steel tonight.
My red eyes glowed within the shadows, staring straight at my prey up there.
The noble executioner had finally arrived. He stepped forward with utmost arrogance, standing right in front of the jaws of the muddy trap I had meticulously prepared. The true war in the Death Zone had just begun.