The moment Aldred's blade severed the last corrupted vine, the forest didn't calm—
it screamed.
A deep pulse rippled through the soil.
The Gaiadrake's twisted body jerked once… then twice…
and the sickly green in its eyes ignited, burning so intensely the light cast long streaks along its stone-plated face.
Its stone armor split with sharp cracks.
Beneath it, veins of corrupted earth-mana glowed like molten roots.
Vines bulged across its fused wood-and-flesh torso, twisting unnaturally, tightening until they looked ready to explode.
And then—
RRRRAAAAAAUUUGHHHHH!!
Its roar tore through my ears. Birds fell from trees. Loose leaves disintegrated into dust.
Aldred's voice dropped, low and grim.
"Someone's forcing the guardian into a berserk state… even if it kills it."
Guardian.
Not heart.
But something precious to the forest—something the forest relied on.
And someone was corrupting it intentionally.
Before I could even process that, the forest changed.
The ground shifted beneath us.
The healthiest roots—thick, centuries old—twisted like serpents, tips sharpening into blades.
Tree bark peeled itself off trunks, hardening into jagged shards.
The air filled with glittering pollen that burned my nose and eyes.
A single breath scorched my throat.
"The forest itself is turning hostile!" Aelira shouted.
Kazen barely ducked as a branch sharpened like a spear whistled past his face.
The Gaiadrake moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
It dashed between trees with impossible speed, stone armor smashing through trunks like they were nothing.
Its vines snapped outward—whip-long, whip-fast—slashing through the air.
The ground ruptured under its slam, sending a shockwave that nearly knocked me off my feet.
Kai stumbled, catching himself with his katana.
"That thing wasn't this fast before!"
"IT'S BEING PUSHED," Aldred barked. His black aura flared like storm clouds. "MOVE!"
But none of us were fast enough.
The Gaiadrake lunged.
A tail—thick as a tree trunk—slammed into Varein, the sound sickening.
He flew, skidding across dirt, coughing through gritted teeth.
"R-ribs… think a few cracked…"
A sharpened wooden spear shot out of a corrupted tree—
Piercing through Kazen's shoulder.
He screamed, dropping to one knee.
Theon tried to raise an earth wall—
"Earth barrier—!"
—but the roots erupted through it, shredding his construct and sending him flying. Blood dripped from his nose.
Seraphyne dodged a vine by inches, but the end still sliced clean across her arm.
Pink flames sputtered with her pained gasp.
Kai was thrown against a boulder, the impact bruising the lower part of his back.
"Ah—damn—!"
Liam grunted as a chunk of stone shot from the ground, slashing deep into his calf.
Aelira's ice flash-froze a section of corrupted earth—
—but the backlash surged into her own arm, frost creeping violently up her skin.
Liraeath slammed her shield into the ground to form the main protective barrier around the group—
but the corrupted shockwave struck harder than she expected.
Her aura overloaded.
The plasma colored aura crackled violently, blowing back into her arm.
She let out a strangled cry, dropping to one knee as her shield shook from the impact.
Arion was hit next—a boulder-sized stone shard colliding with his stomach, knocking the wind from him.
And me—
Vines slashed across my cheek, drawing warm blood down my face.
This wasn't training.
Wasn't a school exercise.
This was survival.
Aldred stepped forward.
His black aura flared like smoke ready to devour light.
"Stay behind me!"
He intercepted the Gaiadrake's next vine swipe—
Aura-coated sword tearing the giant tendril in two.
The guardian screamed, thrashing.
Then—
CRACK.
The ground bulged.
A concealed stone spike burst upward.
Aldred moved—
—but not fast enough.
The spike pierced clean through his arm.
Blood splattered across the grass.
"INSTRUCTOR ALDRED!" Seraphyne yelled.
Aldred didn't fall.
He didn't even flinch.
But the pain twisted his face.
"We cannot… allow this thing… to consume the whole forest…" he gritted out.
We were losing.
All of us.
And then things got worse.
The Gaiadrake turned its gaze toward me.
Not random.
Not instinct.
Intentional.
The corruption pulsed—
glowing brighter—
as if it sensed something in me.
It lunged straight for me.
"RAIN—MOVE!" Aldred shouted.
I tried. I really did.
But the Gaiadrake's speed was unreal.
Varein intercepted with a gale strike.
Seraphyne dragged me backward.
Kai sprinted in with reckless abandon to slash its leg.
Theon slammed another earth wall between me and it, veins bulging from overuse.
Even so—
its head snapped toward me again.
Why me?
What did it sense?
What in my chest was reacting so violently?
The pressure inside me throbbed, deep and turbulent.
Then the battlefield split.
With a roar, the guardian slammed both its hands into the ground.
A tidal wave of roots surged upward—
Sweeping between us.
Separating us.
Me, Varein, Aelira, and Kai ended up on one side—
Aldred, Seraphyne, Kazen, Theon, Liam, Liraeath, Arion on the other.
"AELIRA! RAIN!" Seraphyne's voice was muffled behind the wall of moving roots.
"Stay alive!" Aldred ordered.
The roots kept shifting, preventing reconnection.
We were trapped in two different arenas.
The Gaiadrake activated a new ability.
It reared back, slamming its head into the earth.
Massive, sharpened roots erupted in a spinning ring around it.
A death circle—anything within would be shredded.
Kai stepped forward but Varein grabbed him.
"You'll be torn apart!"
"We need to break it!" Aelira shouted, frost forming around her wounded arm.
Kazen on the far side aimed his bow through gaps in the shifting roots.
"Just weaken the damn ring and we'll rush!"
But even as we coordinated—
the Gaiadrake's intelligence evolved.
It predicted Varein's blast angle.
It anticipated Seraphyne's attempt to dash through root openings.
It swatted Aelira mid-lunge.
It baited Kai into overextending.
It forced me to defend others by redirecting vines toward them.
This wasn't a mindless monster.
This was a guardian being puppeted like a weapon.
And then—
As the Gaiadrake spun, a glowing symbol flared on its back.
Only for a second.
Aldred froze on the other side of the battlefield.
"…no… this can't be…" he whispered.
"This is worse than I thought."
He recognized it.
And whatever it meant, it terrified him.
My aura reacted.
Water compressed around my core.
White thunder crackled faintly at my fingertips.
Something inside me wanted out.
Wanted to respond to the corruption—
or oppose it—
I couldn't tell.
But the pressure built so quickly it scared me.
Not yet.
Not now.
Not like this—
I clutched my chest, staggering.
"Rain?!" Varein yelled. "What's happening?!"
"I—I don't know!"
Before any of us could understand it—
The forest floor started glowing green.
Stone cracked.
Roots coiled around each other like serpents.
The air hummed with corrupted earth-mana.
Aldred's horrified voice ripped across the battlefield:
"EVERYONE—MOVE!
MOVE NOW!"
The ground beneath our feet began to collapse—