Chapter 143: Hunting Practice (4)
The cloaked figure moved through the forest like a shadow given direction.
It didn’t touch the ground more than it had to branches, trunks, the occasional boulder used as a stepping point before launching forward again.
Fast and quiet, leaving nothing behind to mark its passage through the trees.
It reached the cave entrance in minutes.
Without slowing, it ducked inside and pressed deeper into the dark tunnel, passing the dim lights embedded in the rock walls until the passage opened up into the wide hidden chamber beyond.
The other demons were there, scattered in loose groups across the space.
And at the center of the chamber floor, crouched over the ground with a long dark blade in hand, was their leader.
He was carving something into the stone — slow, precise lines that connected and curved into a wide circular pattern, its shape complex enough that it clearly wasn’t being made from memory alone, but from something carried much deeper than that.
He stopped when he heard the footsteps.
He looked up.
The demon who had entered, his name was Marshel. He was breathing slightly harder than usual, and there was a tightness around his eyes that hadn’t been there when he left.
"Marshel," the leader said evenly. "What happened?"
Marshel straightened and crossed the chamber toward him. "You were right about people entering the forest. But it’s not a small number." He paused.
"There are many of them. Young, from the looks of it. All wearing the same grey uniform." He met the leader’s dark blue eyes.
"It appears that....they’re from an academy."
The chamber was quiet for a moment.
The leader straightened up slowly from his crouch, the blade still in his hand, and stood to his full height.
His expression didn’t shift into anything dramatic — just the particular stillness of someone turning new information over carefully and finding it more useful than expected.
"An academy," he repeated.
He thought for a moment.
Then the corner of his mouth moved. It was not quite a smile, but close to one.
"That’s not a bad thing."
One of the other demons frowned from across the chamber. "What do you mean? How is that not a bad thing?"
The leader turned and looked at the unfinished circle carved into the floor, then back at the group.
"We needed sacrifices to complete this ritual," he said, his voice unhurried and matter-of-fact.
"The original plan was to go into the city and bring people back from there. Finding enough without drawing attention would have taken time and carried significant risk." He gestured loosely toward the cave entrance.
"But now there are already people in the forest. Young students, separated into small groups, spread across the trees with no city walls around them." He let that settle over the room. "Our work just became considerably easier."
Several of the demons exchanged glances. Nods began moving around the chamber.
But one raised his hand slightly. "There’s a problem with that. If they’re here on academy business, that likely means instructors are somewhere nearby.
Possibly stationed at the forest edge or patrolling. If those instructors are experienced fighters, confronting them directly would be dangerous for us."
The leader nodded, acknowledging it without any resistance.
"You’re right. Which is why nobody confronts anyone directly." His eyes moved across the group with calm precision.
"We don’t need to fight them. We only need to bring a few of them here. Lure them — carefully and quietly. If you try to take them by force, there’s a strong chance their equipment sends an alert signal back to those instructors. We cannot afford that kind of attention before the ritual is complete."
The chamber was quiet again, everyone absorbing the distinction.
"Draw them in. Don’t corner them. Make them come willingly if you can, curiosity, confusion, whatever works. Once they’re deep enough inside and separated from their groups, bring them here." He scanned the faces around him and pointed to three demons, naming each one in turn.
"You three. Go. Spread out across the forest and find your openings. Take your time and do it carefully. The moment you cause a direct confrontation, everything falls apart. Also .."
He look at tone particular demon between them having dark maroon hair. "For you...it will be easy to lure them. Bring them here as fast as possible."
"Yes,Leader." That demon said.
The two other demons he had named straightened and bowed their heads in unison.
"Yes, Leader. It will be done."
They turned and moved toward the tunnel, cloaks drawn, and disappeared into the dark passage without another word.
The remaining demons settled back into the chamber, the energy between them shifting into something quieter and more anticipatory — the kind of atmosphere that came before something that couldn’t be undone.
The leader lowered himself back down to the floor.
He set the blade against the stone and resumed carving, his hand moving with the same slow and deliberate precision as before.
The lines of the circle extended outward from where he had stopped, curving and connecting, forming patterns that had no equivalent in any common script or language.
The faint scraping of metal against stone filled the chamber.
Outside, deep in the green quiet of the forest, three cloaked shadows slipped between the trees.
---
After some time, on Damien’s side.
They moved deeper into the forest, the trees growing thicker around them as the sound of the outside world faded further behind.
Then the growling started.
It came from ahead. It was low and guttural, the sound that vibrated in the chest before the ears fully registered it. The group slowed instinctively.
They understood that ahead of them were other monsters.
And then they saw them.
Four large wolf-type monsters stepped out from between the trees, their bodies bigger than any natural wolf had a right to be.
Dark matted fur, eyes glowing faintly amber, saliva catching the broken light as their lips pulled back from rows of yellowed teeth.
Damien didn’t wait. "Let’s attack!!"
He was already moving before the last wolf had fully emerged.
His sword came out in a clean draw. Mana particles move beautifully aroudn his blade and a golden light bloomed across the blade as he closed the distance in a straight line, fast and direct. Like he had simply decided the space between himself and the nearest monster no longer needed to exist.
Behind him, Arisha had already raised her bow.
She nocked an arrow with practiced ease, drew back, and released.
Swiss!!
The shot crossing the gap in a fraction of a second and burying itself into the shoulder of the wolf on the far right, pinning it mid-lunge and sending it crashing sideways into the undergrowth.
Leonard came right behind Damien, spear leveled and blazing. Fire had wrapped itself around the entire length of the shaft, burning steady and hot without consuming the weapon itself.
"You can’t kill all of them alone. Let me fight them as well."
He drove it forward into the nearest wolf with a shout, the impact carrying the full force of his charge, and the burst of flame that followed on contact lit up the shadows between the trees for a brief and brilliant moment.
