A gigantic insect burst through the undergrowth. Its body resembled a prying mantis forged from green crystal, nearly three metres tall with blade-like limbs sharp enough to slice through stone.

It moved silently but fast towards them. One arm slashed downward instantly towards Cassian’s neck.

His shadows exploded upwards. The crystal blade collided against hardened steel-like shadows. Cassian slid backward across the earth with widened eyes.

"That thing almost decapitated me."

The mantis screeched, then vanished back into the forest in a blur but lightning was faster.

Atheline intercepted mid-motion, dagger colliding against crystal limbs sending sparks and electricity flying around.

The impact shattered nearby trees.

The mantis retaliated immediately with six consecutive slashes powerful enough to carve trenches through the forest ground.

Then fire descended. Yander’s blade tore across the mantis’s side in a violent arc. The crystal fragments exploded outwards upon impact.

The mantis shrieked loudly.

Cassian’s shadow suddenly rose beneath it like a spear, piercing through the monster completely.

The mantis collapsed heavily against the forest floor.

Cassian exhaled slowly.

"I prefer the wolf."

The journey continued afterward but it wasn’t peaceful. Attacks came from every shadow of the forest.

Another creature attacked near a broken ravine, a serpent covered in silver fur instead of scales that manipulated sound itself.

Its screams shattered stone and disrupted Aether flow violently enough to make elemental control unstable. Yet, it eventually fell beneath their combined efforts.

Atheline redirected the sound waves using wind pressure. Cassian trapped the creature’s shadow against the ravine walls and Yander ended the fight by driving her fire-coated blade directly through the skull.

Afterwards, they finally stopped to rest.

The place they found barely resembled part of the Spitting Harrows. A small clearing hidden between enormous roots opened unexpectedly ahead of them, untouched by destruction.

Pale flowers glowed faintly around a narrow stream while soft light filtered through the canopy ahead. It looked almost peaceful, deceivingly so in the large dark forest.

Cassian immediately dropped onto one of the roots dramatically.

"If something attacks us directly," he announced," I’m pretending to be dead."

Yander ignored him and knelt beside the stream to wash away blood from her hands.

Atheline leaned his bow carefully against one of the roots before sitting down.

His gaze shifted discreetly to the dramatic Cassian. He couldn’t really place him. When they first met he seemed like a proper noble but at the moment he seemed too carefree for a noble.

It made him even more suspicious even though he did mind the man good at fighting and had helped a lot. He had never thought he would enjoy fighting this much but he genuinely did.

The synergy among them. He didn’t need to instruct both Yander and Cassian on when to attack which felt almost liberating in a sense.

He could say he at least trusted the female lead but not Cassian. Not a chance, the man gave him a weird feeling no matter how cheerful he looked.

Atheline trusted his sixth sense more than anything. At the moment, he was walking expecting to be stabbed in the back at any moment.

He didn’t see a need to attack without reason. He also had to consider the fact that he was a noble didn’t want to make things worse and create a problem where there wasn’t.

He was of great help anyway so it wouldn’t hurt to use him some more.

Atheline came to a decision his thoughts shifting back to his power as he examined himself.

For several minutes, no one spoke. The quiet felt strange after the constant battle they had experienced.

Cassian eventually broke it first.

"You know," he said while staring upward through the trees," this is probably the longest I’ve survived near the center."

Yander glanced at him briefly.

"You come here often."

"God no."

Cassian smiled lazily. " I enjoy living. "

Yander didn’t look impressed by his answer.

"Then why would you say that?"

Cassian shrugged.

"This isn’t the only forest is it?"

She was silent for a moment, then went back to wiping blood from her clothes.

"I suppose."

Cassian glanced between the two of them, then back towards the canopy.

"I wonder how our rankings are with all the killings."

Yander stopped and looked towards him.

"We should have gotten more than five thousand points from the Supreme monsters we have killed if we divided them amongst ourselves. "

Cassian smiled, almost excitedly. "I should be able to enter the top twenty now."

This caught Atheline’s attention.

"With your fighting skills, shouldn’t you be higher?" He couldn’t help but ask.

Cassian chuckled awkwardly. Was he supposed to tell him that he spent most of yesterday just searching for him? If it wasn’t for the fight with the flame prince it might have taken longer to find him and stage a meeting.

"It’s nothing serious, I spent most of my time studying the layout and hunting on the outskirts. You two increased the pressure more than it should have. The hunting competition is always leisurely the pressure only comes on the third day not the first."

Atheline didn’t know how to respond to that while Yander acted like she didn’t hear what he had said.

Cassian turned fully to stare at Atheline, forcing him to look back at him.

"What?"

"Were you the one who fought with the lunatic with the spear?"

Atheline raised his brow, then nodded.

"Lunatic with the spear?"

"Everyone knows him, or knew him but he went silent for a while," Cassian grimaced slightly," he once challenged an S-ranked fire Manipulator at B class during the continental Duels."

Atheline nodded, lost in his thoughts. Yander was the one who responded.

"Thats understandable the competition was nineteen years ago, of many won’t remember."

Cassian nodded.

"You’re right on that. I was only twelve at that time."

"Yeah, I wasn’t even born," Yander said dismissively.

"So what happened afterwards," Cassian asked returning the subject to its cause.

"He retreated."

Silence followed.

Cassian stared at him for several seconds.

"Thats insane."

Before anyone could add further, the sound of approaching footsteps came. All three stood instantly.