[WARNING: Simulation level has been increased]
[ALL TIER 2 ECLIPSED HAVE BEEN DELETED]
[SPAWNING ADDITIONAL TIER 3 ECLIPSED]
[ESTIMATED THREAT COUNT: 7… 9… 12…]
[ALL SAFETY PARAMETERS: OFFLINE]
The technicians froze at the new info on their screen, this situation was spiraling from bad to worse.
Wasn't the simulation coded to automatically shut off when the doors were open?
Then why the hell was it still running?
Garron, at this point, had also started panicking. Yes he hated the weak, yes, he wanted the kids to face hardships and grow.
But even he knew this was too much.
"Headmistress —" he started but was soon cut off by her.
"Tell the instructors to get the kids out of the simulation," the headmistress ordered.
"What about those two?" Garron said as he immediately ordered one of the technicians to ping the instructors, "we can safely get the others out, but I don't think we can get there in time before they're completely surrounded by tier 3s."
As if to affirm his point, the technicians looked at the headmistress, then at the monitors.
Each one had multiple glowing red markers which indicated a Tier 3 Eclipsed spawning near Nox's and Ayla's positions.
"They'll remain," the headmistress answered.
"Remain?" Garron frowned, "headmistress, with respect, if they stay in there, they'll—"
"They will not die," she interrupted softly, her voice was completely calm.
The headmistress was a lot of things, strong, mysterious and maybe borderline ominous but she had never been wrong.
"Their threads extend far beyond this test, Radiant Boar." The headmistress added with a smile.
"For now," she continued, "focus on extracting the others. Pull them out the moment an instructor reaches them."
"Alright," he hesitantly nodded.
Garron Boar never expected this year's test to be this much of a headache, but all he could do right now was trust in the headmistress's words.
***
Meanwhile Ayla stopped with a frown on her face, well, the closest she could come up with.
She was about to teleport back to Nox when she realized something.....she was completely lost and had no idea where he was.
She could use the energy he gave off to try and track him but for some reason it had grown so weak that she could barely feel him.
And to make matters even more annoying,
BOOM!
She was suddenly forced to jump out of the way as the ground beneath her exploded, giving rise to a cloud of dust and rocks.
Ayla landed on the branch of a tree as she looked at the massive hole where she had been.
A second later, a creature of complete darkness crawled out. It was an Eclipsed that was shaped like some kind of mole.
It let its nose sniff the air for a while before retreating back into the hole. But Ayla knew it wasn't gone yet, it was just hiding and waiting for her.
"Annoying," she muttered.
She could just let shadow spikes impale it while it was in the tunnel but the problem with that was, she needed light.
Without light there were no shadows to control, just darkness and that was a whole lot harder to control.
She silently scanned the floor, looking for signs of vibration before she suddenly hopped off the tree just in time for it to completely sink into the floor.
The Mole resurfaced again, sniffing the air but before her shadows could reach it, it quickly retreated into the hole.
"Fine," Ayla muttered before jumping off the tree and to the forest floor.
Her eyes calmly scanned the area around her before the ground beneath her started trembling.
She waited patiently and just moments before a hole appeared in the spot she stood, she disappeared, leaving behind a pool of shadows.
And just as she expected, the mole like Eclipsed resurfaced, "got you."
Before it could go back down, the pooling shadows suddenly moved, completely wrapping around it and yanking it out of hiding.
The tier 3 Eclipsed screeched as it was violently ripped from its tunnel, its claws flailing as it dangled upside-down.
Ayla just calmly looked at it before folding her fist and the shadows holding the Eclipsed blanketed it, swallowing it whole.
The shadow distorted as the Eclipsed continued struggling within, but spikes soon came out from all ends, impaling the Mole like creature causing it to go completely still.
Seconds later, the shadows dispersed, revealing a rapidly pixelating Eclipsed corpse.
Ayla just took a glance at it before turning back towards the direction she thought Nox was supposed to be and disappeared, at least that was a lot faster than walking and trying to figure out where he is.
***
Astra, on the other hand, had an annoyed look on her face as she went through the simulated forest.
On her way, she could see the Stealth lecturers getting the students out of the simulation.
Some looked terrified, probably because they had faced a tier 3 primal, while others seemed to be a bit injured, but they were all mostly fine.
But the frown was because the blind bat had deliberately delayed the rescue and if she had to guess, she was sure that her lab rat and the girl weren't part of the 'to be rescued' list.
"Tch," Astra clicked her tongue as another tree came crashing down ahead of her, an Eclipsed having thrown it at something in the far distance, "if she let's him get so much as a scratch more than he already has…"
Well, it wasn't like she could actually do anything to the headmistress, but Astra Dawn sure as hell wasn't going to not try.
***
Astra and Ayla arrived where Nox was at the same time, only for the two to freeze and their eyes completely widened.
"Nox…?" Ayla muttered.
He was dangling limply in the claws of a massive Tier 3 Eclipsed, an ogre-like one with a distended jaw and spiraling bone tusks protruding from the sides of its head, and like all Eclipsed, its form absorbed all light.
His body was beaten, broken, bloodied and one of his arm hung at an unnatural angle. His head lazily lulled forward showing that he was completely unconscious.
Astra's breath hitched.
"Oh you've got to be—"
Time seemed to slow down as the shadows around Ayla's feet moved towards the monster and Astra's boots glowed as she prepared to teleport towards him.
But the monster didn't give them the chance to make their move.
The Eclipsed tilted its head a bit backwards and with a single movement, it swallowed Nox whole.
The two froze in shock as the creature completely swallowed Nox. Even more shocked was Ayla who had been expressionless since Nox met her.
But then suddenly the forest floor started rumbling as more and more tier 3 Eclipsed spawned around them.
Ayla's expression turned a bit darker, so did the forest and the shadows from all around started pooling beneath her feet.
All the Eclipsed felt it, even Astra did and she turned to look at the kid in surprise.
But before anyone could make a move, the ogre-like Eclipsed that swallowed Nox suddenly let out a grunt.
Astra's attention was pulled towards it, only to realize that faint cracks of golden light were forming on its skin.
A light that was really visible.
The cracks got larger and larger by the second and the Eclipsed let out a scream of pain, it gripped its stomach and fell on its knees but the cracks didn't eas up in the least bit.
A second later,
BOOM!
It exploded in a flash of blinding golden light which caused both Astra and Ayla to cover their faces.
The light took away with it a couple of Eclipsed but more just spawned.
Astra squinted as the light slowly cleared up, allowing the silhouette of a person to be formed where the ogre previously was.
The flash further faded, revealing who the silhouette belonged to. The person had bright glowing golden hair and eyes and on their now bare skin was a couple of glowing markings that seemed to be in some type of language.
Ayla's aura receded as she looked at the figure, there was no doubt about it, this person was,
"...Nox?"