Chapter] The "Limit" Forest

At the same time that Jay and Syvis were busy, in another part of the academy, specifically at one of the hunter training grounds, several shadows were moving rapidly through the vast forest.

Of all the facilities the academy possessed, few would be as large as the hunter training grounds, which amounted to huge forests occupying tens of thousands and thousands of acres.

Because the most popular professions among the academy's graduates were either heroes or hunters, there were specially designed grounds to prepare them for situations they would encounter in the future.

Such as this particular forest, which had the simple name of "Limit" and was located among the largest and most dangerous grounds that the academy had in its possession, coming to house a huge amount of rank (D) and (C) monsters.

Of course, with its large size and the risk it possessed towards the students of the academy, this forest was located in the outermost areas of the academy, as well as being closed and only accessible by 4th grade students or 3rd grade students with a gold badge.

The shadows that were moving around were nothing more than 4th grade students, who were currently trying to complete a mission.

"We've been looking for quite some time now and we still haven't found anything, isn't this supposed to be the camp with the most monsters in the whole academy?" Said one of the people, a slender blond boy with an attractive face.

Hearing his comment, a slim looking girl with brown hair that was tied up in a tail replied, "Maybe you scared them away with your clothes, you're practically an abstract painting with legs, if I was a monster, I wouldn't hesitate to avoid you at all costs too."

"Shut up, Carol, you don't understand the true meaning of fashion!" Replied the young man, visibly offended by what the girl had said.

As for the reason for this gratuitous insult, it was because said young man wore clothes... flashy so to speak, combining colors such as green, blue, yellow among so many others, these colors having one characteristic in common, and that was the fact that they were all phosphorescent.

Moving her gaze to meet the young man's, the girl spoke again, with a teasing smile, "If that's the true meaning, I'd rather live the rest of my days without knowing it, being honest."

Watching the exchange between the two, the other members of the group couldn't help but chuckle a little, except for one young woman, the one who was leading the way and was the leader of this group.

Her hair was short, barely reaching her neck, painted a bright red color that seemed to be almost as striking as Ramnel's clothing.

Traces of her keeping herself in incredible physical shape were visible on her body, having a body that while full of muscles, they were not too many as to give her a heavy appearance, but that of a strong and agile person.

"Alright, leave Ramnel alone, if he doesn't jeopardize our mission, all good." She replied in a normal, soft tone.

Although she had spoken normally, the others in the group quickly calmed down, showing the respect they had for this young woman, leaving aside Carol and Ramnel, who were still having a staring contest, both of them unwilling to accept defeat. 

This was not because they did not respect the authority of their leader, but because the rivalry between the two was not a light thing at all.

Seeing this, the red-haired girl let out a sigh before turning around and thinking about her mission, 'Hm, Ramnel is right, it's been several hours already but we still haven't found anything...'

Due to the obvious lack of monsters in the camp, this made the leader suspicious as well, after all, this was something that hadn't happened to them before.

They had already done this 'mission' several times in the past, which consisted of nothing more and nothing less than collecting monster bodies for the academy, with the only difference now being that because they had just entered fourth grade, they, being silver badge students, just recently gained admittance to the 'Limit' field this year.

This was a rather dangerous research job, but of course, the pay for this was also incomparable to normal jobs, especially in "Limit", a field that was famous for its abundant amount of rank (C) monsters.

For that very reason, the 6 of them immediately coordinated to get permission to access this field, eager to be able to earn a good amount of merit points relatively easily.

However, the current situation was quite different from what they had expected, the only thing they had accomplished so far being a walk through this thick forest.

Turning her gaze skyward, the red-haired girl, Iza, made a decision at the same time as she stopped running, "I think it's time to go, it's about to get dark and I really don't want us to run into a monster in those conditions."

"Ehhh?"

"Leader, really?"

Immediately, voices of protest came from their group, making it clear that they didn't agree with what she had just said.

It was a common reaction considering how much they had prepared for this task, each even carrying various potions, pills, and other special items to help them both take down monsters and heal themselves if they were to come to harm.

"Do we really have to leave now? It would be a shame if we came back empty-handed, especially after I bragged to everyone that I was going into the Limit today..." Ramnel said, seemingly more concerned about his reputation than completing the mission they had, 

"While I don't care about Ramnel's reputation, he has a point, we can't just walk away after having invested so much time, let alone that the next time we can return will be in a month at the earliest." Carol added.

What she had said was also true, being such a popular place in the academy, usually all shifts were taken by gold badge students.

In fact, the only reason they were able to get in relatively easily was because they had started preparing for this since last year. 

The other members of the group, although they did not add anything else, also supported the idea of staying longer.

Faced with so much disapproval, Iza was in a dilemma, she knew very well that it would be dangerous to stay longer, but her companions also had a point.

"Then...hm?"

However, just as she was about to say her verdict, a particular scent came to her nose, although it was extremely faint and an ordinary person wouldn't even be able to identify it, to her, who was a rank (C+) pugilist, it was something simple.

"Raise your guard, I smell blood!" She shouted as her eyes turned to the right, which was where the smell had come from.

Simultaneously, everyone in the group didn't take a second to take their positions before activating their abilities.

Iza stood at the front along with two other young men, in the middle were Ramnel and Carol, and at the end was a young mage woman standing in the middle of a small magic circle.

It was a simple positioning, with the toughest people at the front, those who had skills to attack from near and far in the middle and finally, someone who served as support in the rear.

Thanks to their experience hunting monsters, they had learned not to panic no matter the situation, as that would only get them to make more mistakes.

Slowly, the seconds passed, with everyone being on alert, wary of any noise or sign that might indicate movement coming from the forest.

Although nothing appeared, for some reason, everyone felt uneasy, it was as if their bodies instinctively sensed that something was wrong, causing them to unconsciously increase the power of their abilities.

Approximately 5 minutes passed, and finally, that horrible feeling, along with the smell of blood, disappeared, causing the group to let out a slight sigh of relief.

Of course, they didn't let their guard down even when that happened, "I'll be honest guys, I have no idea what that was, but what I do know, is that we should leave as soon as possible."

This time, no one said anything about it and they just followed Iza, without turning off their abilities for a moment of course.

After a short while, they all reached the entrance of the forest, but before they could leave, the loud voice of a person coming from deep in the forest interrupted them.

"WHERE THE F*CK HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Shouted a tall, stocky woman in military clothes who was running toward them from inside the forest at breakneck speed.

"M-miss Elaina!" Said Iza, who despite being in a panic, couldn't help but be happy to see her.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU?!"

This woman was the one in charge of supervising this camp, and judging by her tone of voice, she was angry with them.

The moment she arrived towards where they were, Iza hurried to explain the situation to her, "You see, Miss Elaina, what-"

"Where is your companion?" 

Before she could finish, however, Elaina interrupted her, her eyes riveted on Iza's group.

"Companion? We're all here." She replied, turning to count her five companions, "Carol, Ramnel, Urmo, Bertel and ...Tessa?"

Quickly, horror filled everyone's face, and that was because just as Elaina had said, they were missing one person, their support mage, Tessa.

In this situation, even Iza, who knew how to stay calm in most situations, began to become incredibly nervous as a feeling of fear arose within her.

"I..."

Although she wanted to say more, her words were caught in her throat, a product of the shock she had received upon learning that her companion was no longer with them. Something that only got worse when she remembered the horrible feeling they experienced a few minutes ago in the forest.

"Speak at once, girl, where is your companion?" Elaina hurried, while her voice wasn't aggressive, her urgency could be noticed, as she could feel that something was wrong.

At that moment, when Iza felt she could not continue speaking as her eyes began to water, she felt a hand on each of her shoulders, accompanied by two silhouettes that stepped forward from her sides.

"A while ago, we smelled the scent of human blood in the forest!" Said Ramnel, who also seemed to be giving it his all as he grabbed Iza's right shoulder.

"B-besides that, we also felt a creepy aura, it was like there was something watching us!" Added Carol, holding Iza's left shoulder.

"I swear we didn't see anything weird, and we just concentrated on getting away as fast as we could!"

"...We... we didn't notice that Tessa wasn't with us until now..."

It was quite clear that everyone was still affected by the strange encounter from earlier, but seeing that their leader was in trouble, they couldn't just stay quiet while Iza withstood Elaina's pressure.

Watching their expressions closely, Elaina determined that they weren't lying and instead pulled out a circular wooden talisman from her pocket, "Head quickly towards the city, inform another teacher, preferably a mage, and tell them to come. Quickly!"

"Y-yes!"

Faced with Elaina's commanding voice, Iza's group quickly got on the move, even though they were all extremly worried about Tessa, something inside them told them that they had better not go back into the forest.

Or else... they would end up like their companion.

As they left, Elaina held the wooden talisman in front of her before she began to inject her energy inside, causing the talisman to light up at the same time as her eyes also began to give off a light blue color.

***

Deep in the "Limit", quite far from the entrance, an incredibly faint breathing could be heard, accompanied by the sound of meat being chewed over and over again.

However, there was absolutely nothing on the ground, and that was because the noises were coming from the trees, specifically, from the top of a large tree.

In the top of the tree, hidden among the few leaves, two things could be seen, the first was undoubtedly the body of a girl, which was pale to the extreme.

Unfortunately, that was not the worst, but if one looked more closely, you could see something was holding her arm, arm which was almost completely devoid of flesh, creating a bloody and horrible scene.

As for what was holding her, it was not so clear, as it was partially hidden by the shadow of the tree, only leaving visible its arms, which were unnaturally long and white, looking more like bones than anything else.

At this point, the only person who would be able to see the appearance of this being was none other than Tessa.

But perhaps by luck, or simply as a natural reaction to the situation she was in, the girl did not seem to be conscious at this moment.

Suddenly, the forest ground split into countless cracks, which released a faint celestial glow before instantly closing up.

"!"

Of course, this did not go unnoticed by the creature holding Tessa, who at a monstrous speed, moved so fast that it seemed to even disappear, releasing said girl and causing her to fall from the top of the tree.

Just before Tessa's body hit the ground, someone arriving at a speed almost equal to that of the creature caught her gently.

The person who just arrived had been none other than Elaine, whose gaze was fixed in the direction the creature had gone.

She now had two choices, either to chase after said creature, or to stay behind to look after Tessa, who clearly needed urgent help.

But the next moment, without hesitating for a second, she headed with Tessa in her arms in the direction of the nearest city, for her, there were not two options, only one.