Damian’s group slaughtered quite a few rabbits as they made their way to their second target. The rabbits seemed to grow more crazed and zealous in their attacks. As though their lives were worth nothing. These rabbits didn’t retreat, which made them more dangerous as they fought tooth and paws.

 

“I don’t like the look of these rabbits. Killing them felt like a mercy. I’m pretty sure one of them had rabies.” Kiara examined a rabbit with an arrow poking out of its skull. While it appeared dead its left foot was twitching and white foam had been frothing from its mouth.

 

“Don’t be silly. If one of them had rabies more than likely quite a few more did as well.” Nico stated matter of factly.

 

“So you’re an animal doctor now?” Wura asked exasperated.

 

“Well no but I read it in a book.” Nico answered, a bit unsure.

 

“Then hush. We have a big fight ahead. Use your thinking brain on that.” Wura seemed a bit aggravated at this point as a vein began to bulge on her temple. “You’re making mine hurt.”

 

“Sorry.” Nico said. “It won’t happen again.”

 

Throughout their trek through their forest, Nico provided everyone with various facts, some helpful, most not, in their current circumstance. Paired with sneak attacks from suicidal rabbits and everyone had been on edge.

 

By the time they made it to the mounted rabbit, it wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch to say that most were paranoid.

 

Damian licked his lips as they heard the galloping of a creature nearby that resembled a horse. 

 

“It knows we’re here. Be on guard.” Damian wielded a single shortsword in his right hand as he always did when his friends were around.

Kyrion found himself far underground, alone and ill-prepared. He had no idea how he got there. One minute he was walking with his friends. The next, he was sliding down a very slick hole as though the earth opened up to greet him.

 

“Huh… I don’t do this on purpose most of the time. These things just like to happen. I done went and got myself lost, again. Please don’t be a maze.” Kyrion sighed, bringing his hand to his head. 

 

There were two paths open to him in his current location aside from the way he got in. Another pair of slides went down to his left and right. Kyrion put his finger in his mouth, before holding it up to check which direction the wind was going. The wind was coming from both directions, which was odd.

 

Kyrion went down the left slide hoping it was the correct path. His new location was a bit more lively than the previous one. Unfortunately, the army of rabbits with the net, were bad hosts. 

Kyrion did what a sensible person would do when surrounded by uncountable numbers of rabbits with enhanced strength. He nodded to the rabbits with a regretful expression on his face. 

“Go on, take me to your leader. I’ll come willingly. No need to net me.” Kyrion offered.

Everest, Noah, and Asela headed towards their next foe, ready for the fight to come. No one had yet noticed Kyrion had vanished as he didn’t kick up much of a fuss when it happened.

 

“The plan is I lead the charge and knock it over. Then, Everest you bind it’s arms, Asela will aim to burn it as much as possible when I cover it in molten metal. Kyrion I want you to provide cover fire with those disc.”

 

“Aye aye!” Joked Everest.

 

“Rodger!” Yelled Asela.

 

Nothing came from Kyrion.

 

The group made it thirty more feet before Noah turned around to address their silent friend.

“Uhh.. Where’s Kyrion?”

The professors watched as Kyrion was taken from his teammates in an unremarkable fashion. What’s worse is it took them so long to realize that he was even gone in the first place. Leon worriedly watched the pool as the scenes played out.

 

“The sword dancers of Phimo’tish sure do put on nice shows when they fight.” Yulon said, trying to change the subject and calm his new professor down.

 

“I know. What I didn’t know was that he fought with two swords with such ease. The swordplay with just his right is sloppy compared to it.” Leon observed.

 

“The answer to that question is a simple one, but I made vows not to speak more on their rules and customs. What I can say is keep an eye on your student outside of class. You may notice something you haven’t.” Yulon told him.

 

“I see.. Wait, what about the boy that got separated shouldn’t we save him?” Leon was back to freaking out

 

“We can get him out with ease. Let’s just see where it goes for now.” Lok said, eyeing the child in a wooden cage that he could easily break out of. “Never thought I’d say this but rabbits make crappy carpenters. Who knew?”

 

Yulon sighed as he looked at Brion’s team, who had just been knocked out. They picked one too many fights without rest. Such a shame. They had so much battle potential. “Lok, you’ll be teaching a crash course on battle tactics after this quarter, correct? See that you include those four, they are going to need it. It seems I overestimated them.”

 

“Sir, I believe you said that they wouldn’t make it through the entire test.” Lok said, catching on to the statement.

 

“I did, but I didn’t expect them to have to be retrieved before nightfall, arrows only fly so far before crashing I guess.” Yulon said with a sigh.

 

“Still. Send a group of four to retrieve them.” Lok stated.

“If you say so.” Yulon gave the order and soon the nearby observers got to work.

Damian’s group made contact with their foe, and it was disturbing in many ways. The bottom half of the creature was some sort of fluffy abomination, a rabbit on all fours limbs stretched like a horse but still rabbit in nature, the hind legs appeared much stronger than the forelegs. Even those were quite beefy. One of its faces oddly connected to its body; it was large but short and attached to its lower chest where a second torso emerged. Revealing an even buffer-looking rabbit torso with muscular features and a long carrot lance.

 

Kiara vomited at its ugliness, blue liquid pulling in front of her feet as she backed away from the creature. “Didn’t mean for that to happen.”

 

“Damian, can you get Kiara out of here? Me and Wura have a theory to test out. Be back soon ok?” Nico summoned his twin balls of fire and began to circle the rabbit abomination.

 

Wura didn’t create a weapon made from the liquid metal and instead summoned it as a spherical glob which she generously spread across the battlefield before retreating a safe distance.

 

The creature gave chase to Nico, carrot lance raised for an attack, tendrils of metallic liquid reached up and grabbed one of its hind legs, tripping it. The lance flew towards Nico, who barely dodged the attack.

 

Nico booked it as though his life was on the line, letting his circle of flame spread throughout the forest. Toxic vapors began to rise as the creature started to hack. Nico didn’t turn around as he ran zigzagging between the trees.

 

Wura lost her grip on her power, and the creature got to its feet, slightly weakened but fully enraged. The creature charged through the forest, chasing the boy who had gotten quite a head start. Trees were displaced, some knocked over, others damaged by the carrot lance.

 

Damian had gotten Kiara somewhere safe on top of a hill when he noticed Nico break through the treeline in a hurry. Behind him, he heard a familiar galloping sound.

 

“It’s coming. Be ready. Should be weakened.” Nico said in short bursts as he dove to the side.

 

Damian nodded as he stood in front of Nico and Kiara, sword in hand.  The beast broke through, favoring its back right leg, lance poised to run the young swordsman through.

 

Damian sidestepped the lance and slashed one of the rabbit’s arteries in its front left leg, disabling that side of the creature as blood flowed freely. He then moved to the creature’s side and stabbed deep where the lower head should be.

 

The creature let out a loud screech from both of its mouths which stunned Damian for a full second and disoriented Nico.

 

“Kiara opened her eyes, summoned her bow, and knocked an exceptionally long arrow which she fired into the creature’s lower mouth, which seemed to stab something vital as the creature bucked and gagged trying to remove the projectile. Growing colder and slower each second.

 

Damian got up and twisted his sword inside the creature’s side, making a cracking sound as the blade passed into something vital. The lower head died, and the creature fell prone, its upper body thrashing recklessly. Unable to get back up and unable to fight back. Damian put the creature out of its misery by removing its core directly.

 

Wura arrived soon after, sweat pooling on her face after having to run around their mess.

“Great you beat it, what’s with that look?” Wura saw that her friends had solemn expressions on their faces.

 

“It’s nothing. Just watched a creature suffer before it died.” Nico said with gravity in his tone.

 

“Oh. You killed all those rabbits and this one got to you?” Wura asked, almost aghast.

 

“You don’t understand. It was helpless and we felt bad for it.” Nico said.

 

“Speak for yourself. That thing was disgusting.” Kiara said.

 

Damian shrugged. “I think you’re overthinking it.”

 

“Oh… ok. Should we check the map?” Nico tried to change the subject. The look in his eyes faded as he realized that his allies had the stomach for this stuff.

 

Damian pulled out his map, noting that only one of the other rabbits had been marked off, and a message was scribbled and almost ineligible.

 

“Hlp am in ground. Pls help me. Kyrion. They keep givn me food. It tastes good. They take me to bath tub soon.” Damian read aloud, a grim expression on his face.

 

“He’s... making progress in literacy. I’ll put more emphasis on spelling after the test.” Nico sighed.

 

“I’ve read worse.” Damian put up the map and headed in the direction of the last rabbit. Along with his group mates.

Asela was furious when they met up with the rabbit with a bow. Her brother, done, got himself lost, Noah was still in charge, and Everest was talking too much. Fire burned in her eyes as a flame appeared, whipping wildly.

 

The rabbit fired an arrow with a red tip on it. Noah intercepted it with a red-hot metal shield that he used to block the attack. Unfortunately, the shield exploded, knocking Noah onto its back as the fire began to spread.

 

Everest disappeared and reappeared by the rabbit archer’s legs poised to bind them with his power. But, as he moved in to strike, the rabbit jumped straight up, firing another one of those red arrows at Everest.

 

It hit the boy directly, setting both the ground and Everest aflame. The cloth wrapping covering his body as he rolled out of the fight releasing the wraps and palming a few healing berries. The fire starts to spread throughout the forest.

“Hey, stupid rabbit! Fire peppers are for kids.” Everest through one of the red peppers that were at the end of the rabbit’s arrows.” Everest proceeded to throw a red pepper at the rabbit, and it burst on impact. Sending burning seeds everywhere and damaging the rabbit.

 

The rabbit grabbed at Everest, but he was too slippery. The boy tied up the archer’s arm behind its back which made a snapping sound.

 

The rabbit jumped onto its own back, enraged, the impact knocking the wind out of the rider. Peppers were flung all over the floor, causing them to burst and pop all at once.

 

Noah was up and fully transformed and wheezing. “Asela do something for crying out loud Can’t let your brother be the only one to get a kill right?” He grunted before charging back into the fray.

 

Asela looked around, noting the excessive amount of fire spreading the area, and started to concentrate. The flames continued to rise and grow hotter as if they were gaining a life of their own. Trees caught fire as they grew, and then Asela felt a connection.

 

The red tiara appeared on her forehead, and the fire seemed to go towards it as though it was normal. Asela gathered the heat and compressed it into the size of a pecan seed. She threw it at the rabbit with all her might. The marble made it ten feet before it fell to the ground next to Noah.

 

The rabbit looked to her, then the marble, and started cackling. Even going so far as to fall on its back. Noah scooped it up and watched as the metal on his armored hand began to glow red hot. He threw the orb into the prone rabbit’s mouth, and it died. It just died, no muss, no fuss. The rabbit died laughing and with no sign of it doing so. Noah moved the rabbit and saw that a hole had burned straight through its mouth and served the spinal column almost immediately.

 

“I guess mi da was right about the tortoise and the hare.” Everest said as his accent slipped. 

 

“That and these rabbits seem especially stupid.” Asela said.

 

Noah laughed softly, trying to clear the mood, and then stopped. “You know that may have been my last laugh.”

 

Kyrion sat in his cage, wondering what was going to happen next. The cage wasn’t even all that strong. But, Kyrion couldn’t say he was bored as the rabbits provided all sorts of entertainment. From little dances to rabbit songs and an odd rabbit blood ritual. The rabbis seemed to be happy to sacrifice themselves.

 

Kyrion was given a large bowl of roasted rabbit stew which he found refreshing before they brought him to bathe in a tub where he was washed with various herbs and fed some more. They even let Kyrion write while they fed him. The meal contained various fruits, veggies, and versions of cooked rabbit that Kyrion had never even heard of. He ate it all and felt stuffed by the end of it all. Which is a feat in and of itself.

   

 Kyrion laid down onto a large bed made from a leaf and was ready for a nap. He was about to sleep when a giant fat rabbit made it into the room, jiggling all over. If it was smaller, one might say it was cute, but it wasn’t, and what’s worse, it carried an oversized fork around the perfect size to impale the boy.

 

Kyrion licked his lips and noticed that he tasted pretty good. “You seasoned me!” Kyrion felt betrayed for all but a second as the rabbit got closer. Kyrion had to do something quickly. But his body felt lethargic.

 

The rabbit got closer and closer as Kyrion began to back up on his haunches. The fork came down, and Kyrion redirected it to hit the floor next to him with his wind power. As he felt a tingle in the back of his neck.

All the screens had gone dark at once, which brought confusion to a few professors ready to dash in. Leon was already gone, like the last screen he saw was troubling. Lok was unconscious, blood coming from his eyes and nose.

 

Yulon stood up. “Time for an emergency evacuation. It seems like our school may be under attack by an outside entity. A strong one at that.”