Chapter 87 - Forest Trials (3)

The next morning the two groups met up and began their expedition deeper into the forest, however they still maintained a clear demarkation between themselves. The groups traveled at around the same speed, but with a 2m distance between themselves. Both sides were still wary of each other.

The forest was constantly filled with the sound of insects, and small animals going about their daily lives. The group had grown quite accustomed to these sounds, but after running for a while they realized something was off.

"Why is it so quiet?" asked Ronan as he turned to look at Arya and his group, however, he was surprised to see Arya climbing up a tree. Even Arya's own group didn't seem to understand what he was doing.

"What is he doin-" Cairo was about to ask before he heard a roar.

"Wait, is that a Ryen?" asked Ronan, but Marya and Calder were already following Arya's lead. Soon both groups were silently waiting at the top of the tree, hoping that the Ryen was just passing by.

"How did he realize it that fast? It's like his instincts are on par with that of a wild animal." thought Ronan as he stared at Arya.

Arya knew that only one thing could make the forest go this quiet, a Ryen. And from the sound of the roar, Arya could tell it was a fire Ryen. There wasn't a particular type of Ryen that was naturally stronger than another, however, fire Ryen's were hard for humans to deal with due to their destructive nature.

*Hrrrrrrwrrrwrrr* Growled the Ryen as it sniffed the air. The Ryen that was currently only a few meters away from the group was bigger than the ones Arya had met previously. This Ryen stood at nearly 4m tall and was 8m in length. It had three horns protruding from its muzzle forming a vertical line, and snowy white fur with red streaks on its sides showing its affinity for fire magic. This Ryen was close to evolving into another form.

"What the hell!? I've never seen a Ryen this massive." thought Ronan as he began to fear for his group. Sure he and Axel might be able to escape, but that meant sacrificing the young master and he wasn't willing to do that. All he could do now was pray that they weren't found, however that was a foolish wish. A Ryen's sense of smell was on another level, after sniffing the air for only a few seconds it looked right at the tree the group was on and shot a pillar of fire at it.

The two groups quickly jumped off the tree, landing on different sides.

"We'll use them as a distraction" said both Ronan and Arya simultaneously. They both had the same idea in mind, however, the Ryen didn't give them a moment to catch their breath. It quickly created a firewall so wide that it covered 7m in width and sent it at the two groups.

The groups barely dodged the attack due to its large area of effect, and were already becoming tired due to the heat being created by the fire Ryen's explosive spells.

"Arya do you have a plan for this?" asked Calder, hoping that Arya would come up with something like he had done with the Roc. However, Arya knew that there was no way they could defeat this thing. Their only hope was for another Ryen to intervene, but the chances of that happening were quite slim.

That's when things took a worse turn. "Fire come, embrace your kindred with a burning passion. But burn my foes, leave them broken and ashen." chanted Axel as Ronan chanted an air spell as well, amplifying the strength of the fire spell by feeding it more oxygen. However, the queer thing was that the spell was aimed at Arya's group and not the Ryen.

"These ass-" Arya couldn't finish his sentence before the spell reached him. He had to use every fiber of muscle in his body to dodge the spell. However Marya wasn't as fast as Calder and Arya, and she wasn't expecting it so didn't have time to cast an air spell, leaving her whole left side burned.

Arya turned back to look at Ronan's group, however, they had already run away.

"Ronan, are you sure we should've done that?" asked Cairo feeling guilty about leaving the other group for dead.

"They would've done the same young master. That boy is not to be trusted, I just didn't think that we would have to betray each other so soon. Young master this is all for your survival, your father is expecting that I take you to Belgard in one piece." said Ronan as he and his group ran as fast as they could.

"Great, now we're down to one mage, one normal human, and extra luggage." thought Arya as he looked at the extent of Marya's injuries.

"Arya what are you doing? We have to protect Marya, remember the deal," said Calder as he quickly picked up Marya and tried dodging another of the fire Ryen's attacks. However, with Marya on his shoulder, he was too slow and got his back burned. Both Calder and Marya were now on the ground, defenseless.

"If I use them as bait I think I can make it out of here." thought Arya as he looked at the Ryen.

The Ryen seemed to be staring back at him, as if asking what he would do next.

"Pfft. What's to stop the Ryen hunting me down before coming back here? After all, it's not like those two can run away." thought Arya as he realized that running now was not an option.

"Child of water hee-" Arya tried chanting but the Ryen shot out another pillar of fire from its mouth at the area where he stood, prompting him to dodge. "F**ck. Magical beasts don't need to chant." thought Arya as sweat dripped down his face due to the heat of the flames.

"It's toying with you. This could've been over had it been using its body instead of spells. There's no way you can win with your current strength. Of course, there's another way." whispered the dark figure in Arya's mind.

"No, no way.. I'm not letting you control my body again," replied Arya.