Path of the Unmentioned: The Missing Piece-Chapter 81: Artificial Rift [3]

[00:00:00]

A sharp ping echoed from all their mana bands at once.

Kyle’s screen lit up.

——

[Team 7]

Objective: Kill the Vorthal (Grade 1 Silver-Rank Monster)

[Image Attached]

[Location Marked]

——

He tapped the image.

His breath stopped.

The creature staring back at him was wrong in ways that made his skin crawl.

It had the head of a crow.

Black feathers, a cruel, pointed beak. And small, glittering eyes that looked almost intelligent.

But its body was humanoid.

Stretched and warped like a corpse left to rot.

Pale, sinewy muscle gleamed under patches of ragged skin.

Its arms were too long. Ending in clawed fingers that curved like butcher’s hooks.

And the wings.

Short, feathered, and useless for flight.

They jutted from its back like something nature had given up on halfway through making.

Sylvie made a tiny.

Choked noise.

Roland’s grip tightened on his bow.

Isolde was the first to speak.

"Well," she said, voice flat.

"That’s terrifying."

Orion cracked his neck. "Where do we find it?"

Kyle’s mana band pulsed again.

[Location Updated: Nesting grounds - 8.1 km Southwest]

Silence.

’Of course its far.’

"Let’s move"

The forest air hung thick with tension as Team 7 moved swiftly through the twisted trees.

Kyle kept his tachi ready. Every sense on high alert.

The deeper they went. The more the rift felt alive.

The gnarled branches seemed to reach for them, and the ground squelched unpleasantly underfoot like walking on rotten fruit.

Then they saw them.

A Team was getting torn apart.

Five students stood back-to-back against a swirling mass of shadowy fur and snapping jaws.

The wolves moved like liquid darkness.

Their eyes glowing an eerie yellow as they circled their prey.

One boy was already on the ground. Clutching a bleeding arm.

Isolde’s lips curled into a vicious grin.

"Looks like they drew the short straw," she murmured.

Fingers flexing around her montante’s hilt.

Kyle met Orion’s gaze.

No words were needed.

The massive earth mage cracked his knuckles and slammed his palms together.

The ground erupted.

Dirt and roots twisted into thick. Grasping hands that shot up from the earth.

Clamping around the ankles of all five students.

Their shouts of surprise turned to panic as they stumbled.

Just as the wolf pack surged forward.

Kyle didn’t wait to see the aftermath.

"Let’s go" he ordered. Already turning away.

The others followed without hesitation. Leaving the doomed team to their fate.

Not even twenty minutes later. Fire exploded at their feet.

Kyle reacted on instinct.

Yanking Sylvie back as flames licked at his uniform.

Heat seared his face as he rolled, coming up with Zalrielle already drawn.

The black blade humming with barely-contained energy.

"Well, well," came a familiar sneering voice.

"If it isn’t the commoner who got lucky."

Kaelith Duskrend stepped from the trees.

Flames dancing across his fingertips.

Behind him.

His team emerged like wolves surrounding prey.

Kyle’s eyes immediately locked onto Samuel Wilson.

The massive swordsman who’d had fought alongside Cassian in the VR exam.

Samuel sighed. Rubbing his temple.

"Kaelith, we don’t have time for this."

"But we do," Kaelith spat. His beady eyes burning with hatred.

"You humiliated me, Valemont. Now you’ll pay for it."

Before Kyle could respond.

Something remarkable happened.

A whip-crack of water sliced through the air.

Aimed straight for Kaelith’s throat.

The fire mage barely dodged. The spell grazing his cheek with a hiss of steam.

Everyone turned.

Sylvie stood completely transformed.

The nervous, fidgeting girl was gone.

In her place stood someone with perfect posture.

Her grip on the oversized wand firm and controlled.

When she spoke. Her voice came out clear and steady.

"You talk too much."

Kyle had seen this before in VR exam. The moment battle started.

The shy.

Stuttering Sylvie disappeared.

In her place emerged this confident version.

As if the stress of combat flipped some switch in her mind.

It wasn’t exactly a split personality.

More like two sides of the same coin finally showing its hidden face.

The timid noble girl became a battle-ready mage in the blink of an eye.

This other Sylvie didn’t hesitate.

She didn’t second-guess herself.

Every movement was precise, every spell cast with perfect timing.

The transformation was so complete it was almost jarring to watch. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Like seeing a rabbit suddenly bare fangs and become a wolf.

Kaelith’s eyes widened slightly as he took in the change.

Fire blossomed between his hands.

But Sylvie was faster.

[Tidal Surge]

The ground beneath Kaelith erupted in a geyser of churning water.

Slamming into him with the force of a tidal wave.

He flew backward.

Crashing through bushes with a satisfying thud.

Samuel sighed and drew his greatsword.

"Guess we are doing this."

Kyle barely had time to blink before Samuel was on him.

The greatsword carving through the air with terrifying speed.

Steel shrieked as Kyle parried. The impact vibrating up his arms.

He countered with a lightning-fast thrust.

But Samuel twisted aside with surprising agility for his size.

Nearby, Orion fought like a one-man army.

The lightning spear girl danced around him.

Her weapon a blur of crackling energy.

But every time she struck.

His earth-reinforced skin shrugged it off.

His warhammer swung in devastating arcs.

Forcing her to constantly retreat.

Roland’s arrows flew like deadly whispers.

Each one forcing the ice mage to raise new barriers.

The air between them filled with shattering ice and splintered wood as their attacks collided.

Isolde was a whirlwind of steel.

Her montante carved through the air in wide, deadly arcs, keeping the shadowy dagger boy at bay.

Every time he tried to melt into the darkness.

She anticipated his movements.

Her blade always waiting where he reappeared.

But the real surprise was Sylvie.

The timid water mage fought like a seasoned warrior.

Her spells came fast and precise.

Each one perfectly timed to disrupt Kaelith’s attacks.

When he launched a fireball.

She split it with a water lance.

When he tried to close the distance.

She summoned a rolling wave to push him back.

Kyle saw an opening.

He feinted left.

Then dropped into a sweeping kick that sent Samuel stumbling.

[Glacial Spike]

A jagged spear of ice shot from his palm.

Samuel twisted at the last second, but the attack still grazed his side, drawing blood.

Samuel grinned through the pain.

"Not bad, Kyle."

Then the forest shook.

A howl unlike anything Kyle had ever heard tore through the air.

Deep, guttural, and wrong.

It wasn’t an animal’s cry.

It was something far worse.

Kyle’s mana band blared to life.

—

[Vorthal Detected: 500 Meters Southeast]

—

The fighting stopped.

Every head turned as the trees trembled.

Something massive moved in the shadows. Branches snapping like twigs under its weight.

Kaelith paled. "What the hell is that?"

Sylvie’s voice was calm, clinical. "Our objective."

The creature that emerged from the treeline made everyone’s blood run cold.

———