Racing back to him, his heart pounded in his chest and adrenaline coursed through his veins. The beast was even bigger than he remembered, a nightmarish creature of black fur and powerful muscles. It stood over Plvoer and ripped into his stomach, bearing down with its claws and eliciting an agonizing cry that ran chills down his spine.

  Ben knew he had to get the beast away. Without a second thought, he barreled forward and threw his shoulder into the beast's flank. For a moment, all went silent, and the beast stopped its attack in shock. He had not budged it an inch, but he had succeeded in gaining its attention.

  The beast was upon the badgerman in a moment, and he barely had time to react. His body moved on instinct alone as he thrust the shadowy blade up and between two of its ribs, stabbing deep into the thick hide. The mana coursing through him made the blade bite even deeper, and he felt it slice through something vital inside with a sickening sensation. Before the monster could counterattack, Ben let go of the blade, and it dispersed into shadows, triggering his Bleed skill as it vanished. He ran towards its tail, stabbing it three more times with increasing ferocity, each strike deeper than the last as the Bleed skill intensified. Blood spurted from the beast's wounds as it roared in agony.

  The monster was well and truly angry with Ben now, but he didn't care. He wanted the beast to chase him.

  He jumped a log and heard the beast crash through it just behind him, wood fragments stinging his back like tiny daggers. It growled in anger and frustration, but he heard it coming closer, relentlessly pursuing him. He jumped over a root and darted behind a tree just in time as the beast flew wildly by, its claws desperately scraping against the scree of the jungle floor. Ben didn't dare to look back; he changed direction and sprinted ahead with everything he had. His Lair Team was only a dozen meters away now. He just needed to make it to them.

  “It’s behind me!” Ben yelled in warning as he got close. “I’m running through, comrade Robin, comrade Rober, taunt the rotten beast. Comrade Alphonse, I need you to run with me, Plvoer is hurt.”

  He heard Robin yell back first, “Bring it in, Burion, we got it!”

  Ben adjusted his run toward her voice and barreled into a small clearing with several recently cut down branches and leaves. He was impressed by the clearing. It also made it easy to spot Al.

  He ran between Robin and Rober and heard them shift behind him followed by a heavy thud as something made a meaty impact.

  “Lead and I’ll follow,” Al said, already running just behind Ben.

  Ben didn’t need to be told twice. He ran, leading Al quickly through the jungle, following the scent back to Plvoer.

  They found him quickly, and Al slid down next to him, his hands already glowing with golden light. Ben moved across from Al and started First Aid. He put pressure on any bleeding wound, adding tourniquets to limbs. Anything to keep him alive long enough for Al’s healing magic to save the eagleboy’s life.

  “He’s losing too much blood,” Ben noted as he tried desperately to staunch the bleeding. He could see the cuts and rents in the flesh of the eagleman. The beast had attacked major arteries. It was a miracle he hadn’t bled out already. “Comrade Alphonse, I don’t think we can save him.”

  “Yes, we can,” Al ground out, his hand glowing brighter, the energy seeping from his hands to envelop Plvoer’s entire body. “I’m not losing anyone else because of me, not when I have the power to stop it.”

  The amount of mana pouring out of the dogboy was dangerous. It was more than he should have even had. And yet . . . “If you’re that determined to save him then stop holding back!”

  Al glanced up at Ben, a rictus of anger on his face as sparks of electricity danced across his eyes. Thunder suddenly rumbled overhead as the air became electrified. Ben felt a shock leap from Plvoer to his hand, numbing it slightly and making him jerk back.

  “Stay back,” Al warned as more thunder rumbled overhead.

  Without warning, lightning struck, electricity pouring into Al as the golden glow intensified to a blinding light that blotted out everything. Mana suffused the air all around Ben such that he could smell and taste . . . life in it. It was . . . incredible.

  As the light faded, Ben saw Al slumped over Plvoer. He moved to check on him and felt relief to find Al was still breathing, just unconscious, if slightly charred from the lightning.

  Then he looked at Plvoer. The birdman was alive but unconscious. He was also completely uninjured. Not a scratch or cut or rent in his flesh remained. There wasn’t even any blood on his skin or pooled on the ground beneath his body. It was as if Plvoer had never been injured at all.

  Naturally, that was when the pounding of feet running in their direction sounded through the forest. It seemed his team had succeeded in finishing the beast.

  "How is he? Will he live? What happened to Al? I heard the thunder," Coach Liv asked rapidly, sliding to his knees next to them and starting his own triage.

  "They’re fine, I think," Ben answered. "You’ll probably want Yui to check them over first, just in case."

  "Yui, get over here," Coach Liv bellowed as the foxgirl just came into sight. She saw Al and cried his name, almost flying there, repairing the damage, and ignoring Alphonse’s screams of pain. Her way of healing was unique - a blend of spirit magic, medical knowledge, and sheer willpower. According to what Yui had told them during Al’s party, she had been practicing this type of healing for years, thanks to her clan’s teachings.

  Yui began to move in a slow and ritualistic dance, raised her hands, and began the healing spell. A soft blue light glowed around Al, starting near his head, and slowly surrounding his entire body as Yui spoke the ancient words of power - each syllable carefully pronounced like a hymn from a forgotten religion. With each word uttered, her breath seemed to become part of the incantation, and as it swirled around Al, it seemed to enter his very being.

  Ben watched in awe as Yui moved her hands deftly, blue light spread outward, enveloping Al’s burns in a warm embrace as it healed them, his blackened flesh mending itself as if nothing had ever happened to him. Yui moved her hands over Alphonse’s body in a graceful dance of healing energy until every inch of him was whole again.

  Hearing Coach’s voice startled him back to reality, “Burion! Are you still able to track the other one? We need to end this and get them both back to the healers.” His face was stern, his jaw set in determination as he gazed down at him.

  The badgerman nodded, his head swimming with awe at what he had just seen.

  “Good, then get to it. The sooner we find the last beast, the better,” Coach Liv said, sounding very eager to be done with this lair, not that Ben could blame him. Thinking that he’d lost Ben must have weighed heavily on the coach.

  Ben took a deep breath. The scents from the jungle filled his nose and mouth, a cacophony of colors and flavors and smells. Through the press of warm scents, he found only one that mixed grass, fear, and stone into a yellow burst of color. He had the scent. He gestured toward the direction before he let Shadow Cloak envelop him and moved through the jungle carefully, despite the predatory beast having been slain. He didn’t know what the prey looked like or how sensitive it was to noise.

  He followed the scent through the trees for fifteen or twenty minutes when he caught the slightest hint of another scent. There was magic in the air, intermingled with the new scent. The wet foliage and flowers, the normal scents of the forest, were replaced by the smell of sulfur and an almost sweet stench that thickened his tongue and throat.

  He realized almost too late that there was a second predatory beast. He stepped quickly to his left and felt something pass through the space he’d just occupied. He heard and saw large paw prints press into the dirt, but there was nothing there. He carefully drew in the scent, and a beast took shape to his synesthesia. It was wrapped in a halo of pink magic that stank of sulfur, making it slightly indistinct but still there.

  It was smaller than the previous two beasts, but Ben knew this thing was far more dangerous. Magic made everything more dangerous. That it was also nearly invisible just made it more so. It lifted its head into the air, and Ben heard a snuffling sound and felt magic move through the air toward it; suddenly it turned. It was looking right at him.

  The beast leaped through the air, and Ben dove under it, coming quickly back up to his feet and turned to face it, forming two long shadow knives. He wasn’t going to be able to hide from this beast.

  It ran at him, keeping its feet on the ground this time. Ben stepped left then shot right, letting his Footwork and Wrestling skills help him avoid the charging beast while also putting him in a position to counter.

  He leapt, landing onto the beast's back, driving both knives into either side of its neck, cutting into the jugular veins.

  The beast roared beneath him as Ben drove his blades deeper into its neck. Blood gushed from the wound, the hot and metallic scent filling the air. He felt his knives slipping in his blood-drenched hands, struggling to maintain his grip as the creature bucked wildly, desperately trying to throw him off. But he used what he learned from Grappling and slipped his legs under the beast, pushing on its hindlegs to help him keep his hold. He pushed his blades deeper and deeper until the monster’s struggles began to grow weaker and its roars turned to a desperate whimper. Finally, with one final convulsion, it collapsed onto the ground, dead.

  He let the blades disperse and stood on shaky legs. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through him. He also felt a bit of joy at having been able to take out such a monster on his own. He was alive, and it was dead. Kill or be killed, that was the way of lairs.

  “A second hunter beast?” Coach Liv asked, startling him slightly. Ben hadn’t heard him coming.

  The badgerman nodded shakily. He could feel the adrenaline of the moment starting to fade quickly as his limbs became heavier. “I got lucky.”

  “I’ll say you did,” Robin commented. “It took all of us to subdue the last one. Though I suppose this one is smaller.”

  Ben glared weakly at the beargirl and was about to retort when his Handler cut in. “We can worry about the extra beast later. Right now, we need to finish the hunt. Mister Belov, are you good to continue?”

  Ben nodded. He was tired, but tracking the last beast would be easy enough. He breathed in the scent again and started to follow, the rest of his team hot on his heels.

  Thankfully, there was no third predator. They caught up to the prey beast about ten minutes later. It was a tall creature with four limbs, an abundance of brown fur and four antlers atop its head, each with eyes of its own. It stood almost as tall as he was and it was fast. As soon as it spotted him, the creature took off running. He growled, angry with himself for letting that happen. He should have tried to sneak up on it.

  He caught up to it a couple of hours later. It was panting heavily between lapping up water from a shallow pool of water. He stuck to the shadows this time, using his Cloak to hide him. With its fur as thick as it was, he wasn’t sure he could kill it in one hit. The odds of hitting something vital were just too low. However, the fur around its ankles looked much thinner, patchy even. He imagined it lost fur to underbrush as it ran. He could hamstring it. Keep it from being able to run away.

  He stalked around the pool until he was behind the beast. He dashed forward, slicing into the back of the beast’s leg. He expected a retreat, but instead, the beast spun around on its hooves with a swiftness he wasn't prepared for. With a powerful kick, the beast struck him with both feet, one striking him hard in the gut, and the other landing with a sickening crack on his arm. He felt his arm snap from the strength of the attack and dropped to the ground in agony.

  Even though it was wounded, the beast still hobbled away from him, leaving him lying helplessly on the ground. He waited for his team to catch up as he gasped in pain from his bruised gut and shattered arm.

  “You alright Burion?” Coach Liv asked, coming into view first.

  “I’m fine, follow the blood trail and finish this mess,” Ben said, not bothering to get up.

  Signore Barducci’s face came into view a minute later. He stared down at Ben, judging him for a moment before speaking, “I am starting to worry for your health, Mister Belov. This is the second time you have taken significant injury in this lair. Are you perhaps some kind of masochist?”

  Ben gave his Handler a wry smile but groaned, “Maybe.”

  “Miss Nakamura, might you be willing to patch up young Mister Belov here?” Barducci asked, looking to his left.

  “Maybe he should suffer for a while. Might teach him to be nicer to certain people. Maybe even encourage him to not get hurt so often,” the foxgirl offered.

  Ben had a feeling Yui didn’t care for the way he talked to Alphonse. Either way, he didn’t appreciate the delay in healing. Thankfully, Signore Barducci intervened on his behalf, though he seemed reluctant to do so, “No, you may as well heal him. I do not want to carry him out of the lair, and it would be bad form to just leave him behind.”

  “I suppose you have a point. Very well,” Yui said with a sigh, then she came over to Ben and started to work. She seemed to lack any bedside manner as she forcefully yanked at his broken arm, manually realigning the bones before her hands glowed with white healing magic.

  Ben heard Coach Liv nearby yell, “Beau, take Rober with you and go get Al and Plvoer; a portal opened where we killed the last beast.”

  “There, that should be good enough,” Yui declared, the white glow of her healing magic fading from her hands as she stood.

  Ben moved his arm gingerly. It was working but still sore. It suggested he wasn’t fully healed, and based on the smirk on the foxgirl’s face, she knew it. She also hadn’t healed the bruising on his stomach at all. He decided then, he didn’t like Yui and maybe he would help Al avoid her in the future.

  Once Rober and Beau returned carrying the two unconscious youths, they moved as a group to the portal. It wasn’t an exit portal but a swirling blue mass that looked a lot like the portal Yum used to send him to his team.

  They stepped through, one by one, reappearing in a clearing with several plinths, each holding a reward chest. And in the center of the clearing was the familiar black portal that would take them out of the lair.

  “Burion, think you can tell us which chest belongs to whom?” Coach Liv requested.

  Ben nodded, breathed in deeply, and quickly got everyone to their chests, even Plvoer and Alphonse, who’d both been forcefully awoken by Yui, much to her loud protests.

  He opened his chest, hoping to find one or two skill stones, maybe one or two of those he hadn’t selected from Yum. Instead, he found a book. It was leather-bound and weathered with age. He used his Identify skill on it.

  The Fearless Badger - Mana Cultivation Manual

  Now, that was interesting. He would definitely be giving it a read. After a bath and some food . . . a lot of food.

  Chapter 45 – Mana Cultivation

  It was a breath of relief to smell the fresh air outside of the lair. Once again, they were rushed back to the academy where healers awaited them. Ben was pleased to finally get the healing he needed. When the healers were done, their team was sent up to Dean Weber’s conference room where she once again gave them all a chance to request a transfer to another team, which no one took. Alphonse also kept his mouth shut this time about having him removed from the team. Ben hoped that meant the dogboy knew he was stuck with them.

  As the debrief came to an end, Dean Weber approached Ben, “Mister Belov, a moment of your time please.”

  Ben nodded.

  She smiled, “I heard you had quite the adventure, we should talk. Let’s go to my office. It will be more comfortable, I think.”

  Ben agreed and followed her from the conference room and into her office. As they walked in silence, Ben pulled up his Achievement menu, interested to see his new and upgraded achievements.

  Achievements

  Permanent Lair Defeated II – Plus 2% Strength, plus 2% Agility, plus 2% Dexterity, and plus 2% Charisma

  Heroic Lair Defeated II – Plus 10% to All Statuses

  Wild Hunt Defeated – Improved Tracking

  That plus ten percent was a lot . . . or it could be a lot eventually, if he survived the two new lairs left for first-year academy students to tackle. Then they would be pushed back through the lairs but without help from Coach Liv or the other Professors. Although, Ben wasn't sure about that anymore. They had lost someone in their first Lair, almost lost Yui in the Gauntlet, and Plvoer and Ben both almost died in the Hunter's Run. The Academy may not want them to reattempt the previous lairs without help from the Coaches, not with the increased difficulty level they would face.

  Still, Ben was amazed by how fast the year had already progressed; three months had already come and gone. Time sure flew by when he was putting his life on the line.

  The dean motioned for Ben to sit as she prepared tea, serving him a cup before she also sat down behind her desk. She stared at him for a long moment, undoubtedly using her Analysis Magic on him. Her hands were steepled in front of her face, hiding any facial expression rather effectively. Eventually, she stopped staring and lowered her hands to rest on the arms of her chair. “You are something of an enigma, Mister Belov . . . or whatever your name is.”

  Ben wasn't sure how to respond to that.

  “You have emerged once again with skills that . . . well, let me just say, they make me nervous,” she said.

  Ben furrowed his brows in confusion. What skills made her nervous? He hadn't learned anything that dangerous, had he?

  “I can practically feel your confusion,” the dean said, sounding satisfied. “That is good. It means you don't know what you have.”

  That bothered Ben. But rather than trying to guess what she was talking about, he asked, “What do I have?”

  “How exactly did you learn Mana Cultivation?” she asked, her eyes flashing with silver light. This time he couldn’t resist the compulsion.

  “When I recovered from Torpor, I was hungry. I consumed dozens of my mana-rich savory rolls. I suppose I overdosed,” he answered. “I tried to expel the mana, but my body just kept producing more of it. When I noticed some toxins expelled from my body, it made me think of my Mana Circulation exercises. So, that's what I did. I circulated my mana. When I finished breaking down the mana in my body and expelling a lot of toxins, I had advanced my Mana Control to Advanced rank, and managed to learn both Mana Circulation and Mana Cultivation skills, in addition to unlocking Badger’s Constitution,” he said, annoyed by how easily the answers emerged from his mouth. He hadn't even resisted in the slightest.