Jun ducked and weaved as more abominations flooded out of the dark, warped limbs trying to grab her and pull her down. She pushed her mind to the limit, splitting her attention again and again as she threw her magic about.

A swarm of barriers appeared, darting about as they blocked rending swipes and grasping hands or rushing enemies to bash them away to give her space to move, space to breathe.

Snares burst from the ground, dragging abominations down and strangling them or throwing them about. Anything to slow their approach and foul their attacks.

Even as she slowed the horde down and pushed them away, balls of mana appeared by the fistful, quickly coalescing into magical darts that punched through flesh and bone. The warped creatures died by the handful as she never stopped moving, always pushing forward. Or what she thought was forward.

Every direction looked the same to her as she constantly moved, her body dripping with sweat from the effort. She lost track of where she was headed as she changed direction constantly.

A dozen of the twisted beings hemmed her in, blocking her way forward so she chose a new direction, a new way forward.

Tired steps became a dive as she shot through another abomination's legs, using the momentum to get back to her feet and ran. A conjured snare reaching down from the canopy above as she pushed deeper into the darkness, the tentacles snapping up monsters by the neck and dragging them up with the sound of snapping bone.

More monsters loomed out of the darkness, blocking her way, and so she flowed, moving out of the way as her mana responded to her call, forming barriers and grasping tentacles to block and slow, delaying them until she could send more darts shooting out to kill them.

As the monsters pressed in, she danced away, teasing them as she moved and cast, filling the air with corrupted blood.

Hours, minutes, days passed as she danced, always moving, never time to rest. But the Forest never changed. It always looked the same, filled with monsters as she searched for a way out. Blood flowed freely, filling the air with a metallic stench. She could feel it all over her body, like she swam through a lake of the stuff. The taste of it filled her mouth as she licked her lips, swallowing the precious drops that were the only sustenance she had. The only thing that kept her moving. Kept her alive.

More snarls as another wave of monsters moved like flickering shadows through the dark. She was exhausted. Her core near empty as her mind raced for a solution. A spell came to her. One she'd never learned, and didn't know what it did. But her instincts told her it would help. Following her instincts, she began to cast the strange spell. A glow of mana surrounded her as she scraped what meager mana she had together for her spell, her core straining as it emptied . The spell surrounded her as it coalesced, forming—

The Forest vanished before Jun could finish casting her spell. For a timeless moment, Jun thought of nothing, simply floating in the darkness, unthinking, unmoving, unfeeling. Memories of fighting drifted past her mind, barely acknowledged as she drifted, until slowly, sensation came back to her.

Warmth surrounded her. For a time she just laid there enjoying the warmth as her mind slowly woke up, processing her memories. She remembered running through the Forest with her friends, being chased by goblins, fighting.

Jun bolted into a sitting position, her eyes darting about searching for threats as her mana started flowing into a spell. Her heart pounded, adrenaline coursing through her veins as memories of the last fight popped into perfect focus. An invasion of her body and mind as something tried to take her over. A battle for control of herself against some alien monstrosity, one that seized her magic and tried to kill her friends with it. She pushed it out at the last moment, but she wasn't sure how it ended.

As a swarm of barriers formed in a dome around her, Jun's eyes finally registered what was around her. She sat up in a firm bed, the linens were light gray and still seemed clean, though she could feel damp spots where her sweat must have soaked into them. The room was utilitarian, the only furniture being the bed she sat in and an unornamented wooden table and chair.

The room was lit by a single glass window that let in the watery sunlight of winter, and her Void Bag, a gift from her adoptive mother, hung from a hook on the back of the closed door. Getting out of the bed, she flinched as her bare feet touched the cold, worn wood of the floor. With her barriers surrounding her, she took a step towards the door, only for her legs to give out as she spilled forward with a shriek, catching herself on her spells as she fell.

As her hair flew into her eyes, she heard footsteps rushing from outside the door moments before it slammed open with a thud.

"Miss! Are you alright? I heard a scream!" a boy's voice said in a worried tone as the footsteps approached her.

Swiping the hair from her eyes, Jun got her first look at the boy, only seeing a broad chest covered in the Academy's uniform, a healer's amulet and Bronze student medallion hanging prominently at eye level. The man's stance was open, his hands held out as if to catch her, only to be blocked by her still active magic. Seeing the familiar uniform, Jun started to relax. She wasn't sure where she was, but an Academy uniform and healer's amulet should mean she was safe.

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As she pushed herself back up to her full height, she found that she still had to look up to see the man's face, so much was the difference in their heights. Besides the healer's height, Jun realized that he was about her age, with the athletic build and slight tan of someone who was active, but their life didn't revolve around working out. His face was clean shaven, though the slowly growing stubble made him look more mature than his otherwise young features would imply.

"Uh, m-miss?" the healer stammered, his eyes flicking down from her face for a moment before he made eye contact with her, his cheeks reddening as he did.

Confused, Jun looked down for a moment, before she felt her own cheeks heating. Wherever she was, someone changed her clothes, sticking her in a thin white nightgown. While the garment seemed loose, it was drenched in sweat, faintly transparent and clinging indecently to her skin such that anyone could make out details she'd rather keep private. Yelping, Jun stumbled back, her barriers instinctively moving to form a wall across the room as she dove back into the bed and covered herself with the sheets.

"A-are you okay miss?" The man said again, his voice cracking as he tried to keep his voice to a professional tone.

"I-I'm fine!" Jun said quickly.

"I see," the man said with a cough. Taking a deep breath, the man's blush subsided. "Still, as a healer it's my duty to care for your health. Can you release your barrier so I can check on you?"

"I said I'm fine," Jun replied, shaking her head. "What happened? How did I get here? Where are my clothes?" The questions tumbled out one after the other, giving the student healer no time to answer. The silence stretched awkwardly for several seconds as her questions went unanswered.

The boy coughed again before he took a step back and gave a short bow. "R-Right. Stay here. I'll go notify the doctors that you're awake." Not even acknowledging her questions, the boy made a hasty retreat, leaving the door to the room half open in his rush out of the room.

Now alone, Jun sighed, feeling her blush subside as she pulled the mana out of her barriers, dismissing them. Slipping her arm from beneath the sheet, she looked at her skin, remembering the numerous wounds from her internal battle. At a glance, her skin seemed as flawless as before she joined the expedition, but looking closer she could see a forest of faint scars covering her skin, though they were faded as if years had passed.

From her vantage point on the bed, the half-open door only revealed a plain plaster wall and more wooden flooring, giving her little detail on where she was. She considered racing out the door, but the weakness in her legs made her pause. She didn't know how she got here, but she was sure if anyone meant her harm she wouldn't have woken up at all, let alone have been healed.

With nothing else to do, Jun looked at the back of the door where her Void Bag still hung. Trying to walk to it was what drew that strange student healer to the room in the first place, but she really wanted her clothes. The boy ran off without answering her questions, but she was certain she would find her spare clothes in her bag.

Sitting in what was obviously some kind of hospital gown without even any underwear just made her feel vulnerable, especially if random men could just pop into the room at any time. Even though the bag was only a few feet away, it might as well be miles away with how weak her legs felt. As it was, she wasn't sure she could make it to her bag without falling. Not for the first time, she wished she had her adoptive mother's ability to move things with her mind. Wait, didn't she have a spell she used to do something like that?

Memories flooded into her of the fighting in the Forest. How she used her snares like limbs, grabbing and flinging goblins about. Maybe… Jun imagined reaching out with one of her snare spell's tendrils to grab the bag and pulling it to her. As if reacting to her mere thought, her mana moved on its own, flowing not towards the spellforms she felt floating in her mind, but towards a point at the base of her spine. A thick, glowing white tendril appeared and reached out over her shoulder, casually grabbing her bag and dropping it in her lap before disappearing.

"What?" Jun yelped, her eyes widening. Heart pounding, she tentatively looked over her shoulder, not sure what to expect, but what she found surprised her.

The plain plaster wall above the sweat soaked pillow and sheets she woke up on was all she found. Looking back at the bag sitting in her lap, she rubbed her eyes and looked again, but her bag was still sitting in her lap, the faint weight unmistakeable on her legs. Hesitantly, she imagined her snare reaching out and picking up the bag. Moving at the speed of thought, she felt her mana flow to the base of her spine as the tendril appeared again, wrapping around her bag and lifting it up to eye level just as she pictured in her head.

Transfixed, she stared at the strange spell that manifested without a spellform for a few long seconds. What she thought was one of her snares was anything but. Where the tendrils created by her spellform were smooth and untextured ropes of pure energy, whatever this was seemed to have a thin layer of hairs, almost reminding her of a tail…

As the thought crossed her mind, she cringed as it dredged up memories of embarrassing memes from her past life about catgirls and tails. There's no way. Feeling the tips of her ears warm, she shook her head and reached behind her, immediately going to her lower back. What she felt filled her with horror. Despite the hospital gown covering her skin, she clearly felt something furry sticking out of her lower back, just above her hips.

Running her hands along it, she felt the fur with her fingertips, and even more concerning, she could feel her fingertips sending electric tingles up her spine as she touched the ghostly appendage. Jerking her hands away as if stung, she closed her eyes and shook her head.

Opening her eyes again, she saw her Void Bag still gripped by the glowing white fur-covered tendril. Imagining the spell letting her bag go, she flinched as the enchanted item flopped to the bed, the tendril subtly moving back and forth as she watched. The faint feeling of air moving ran up her spine as the spell fed her sensations of movement that had gone unnoticed. With a mental effort, Jun willed her mana to still and pulled it away from the base of her spine. Relief filled her as the tail-like spell vanished, only for a pit to open up in her stomach as she still felt it moving.

Waving her hands in front of her, she didn't feel find anything even as her hands swiped through where she could still feel the immaterial spell. So preoccupied with trying to grab the ghostly tail, Jun didn't notice as the door to the room opened again until someone cleared their throat.

"Ahem, I can come back if you need a minute."

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