The final hours of their journey through the magical forest tested every aspect of their endurance and determination.
As daylight began to fade through the canopy above, the environmental challenges intensified dramatically.
The fog that had provided navigational guidance also concealed increasingly dangerous magical creatures whose territorial instincts made them hostile to large groups of traveling students.
Ren's enhanced senses detected predators shadowing their movement through the undergrowth; creatures whose magical signatures suggested capabilities that would challenge even experienced practitioners.
Only the sheer size of their group, now numbering nearly twelve hundred students who had followed his corrected navigation, seemed to be preventing direct attacks from entities that would have gladly hunted smaller parties.
This was also why he hadn't attempted to prevent the students that followed them from doing so.
