Jun let out a pained gasp as the goblin shaman's earth spear blew through her barrier and slammed into her chest. It hurt like hell, but a quick look down showed only scuffed cloth over her right breast. Her mother's enchantments held. Recasting and strengthening her barriers, Jun refocused on the fight, lashing out with several conjured snares to grab several swarming goblins and fling them away from Cian.

Her chest throbbed painfully with every beat of her heart, and moving her arm sent a sharp stabbing pain through the area. The uniform Shiori enchanted for her did its job, turning the potentially fatal wound into something less serious. Fighting through the pain, Jun summoned more of her mana and shoved it into her [Purging Missile], coalescing a volley of magical bolts that she sent at the goblins after only a moment's hesitation. Half the magical projectiles zigzagged randomly as they rocketed at the shaman, while the rest peppered into the swelling group around Cian.

Loud cracks split the gloomy air as stone pillars intercepted Jun's spells. The conjured stone backed by the goblin's mana was hard, far harder than natural stone, and most protected the goblins from Jun's spell. Except for one unlucky warrior who flinched away from the protective pillar, moving out of cover. Jun's spell took the goblin in the chest, punching a fist sized hole through its heart. With a short gurgle, the goblin fell to the cold ground, joining some of its kind dead or dying on the Forest floor.

Before the goblins could recover from the volley and sudden appearance of obstacles around the battlefield, Cian charged amongst the warriors, his spear stabbing as he hopped from pillar to pillar, using the shaman's own spell to foul his aim.

The sound of rock smashing against rock announced one of the shaman's earth spears shattering against a pillar as Cian fought, and Jun heard what could only be a curse in the goblin's tongue. Adding to the confusion of the fight, Jun conjured more snares and barriers, the twisting spells seeking out goblins and pulling them down or lashing them against pillars, while her barriers turned the battlefield into an impromptu maze.

Another set of snares anchored to Jun's back appeared and hauled her into the Forest canopy, giving her better sight of the combatants, but also exposing her position to the shaman. Crashing sounds filled the air as more stone spikes fired into the air around her and slammed into branches, though unlike the Mage Hunter she'd previously fought, these spells lacked the power to penetrate the thick ice cap. That didn't mean Jun could afford to be hit again.

Clenching her teeth against the pain in her chest, Jun darted about through the canopy, dodging the shaman's attacks and responding with her own, though neither of them managed to hit the other again. The shaman's earth pillars were too dense for Jun to break through, and Jun's own barriers and mobility were enough to foul the shaman's heavy spells. Each was the other's worst magical matchup, too similar in fighting style.

As the battle raged on, Shiori nodded at her students' progress. Already half the raiding party's number lay bleeding out in the cold gloom of the Forest, or otherwise dead, most by Cian's hand, but a few dying to her kitten's well placed spells. The warrior continued to tear through the goblins in the maze formed by Jun and the shaman, the small groups of goblins nowhere near a sufficient threat for the skilled young one. As he worked his way through the maze and the goblin raiders, her kitten darted about in the trees exchanging fire with the shaman.

With every movement Jun made, Shiori could see her slowing just a bit, the glancing blow she took having shattered her collar bone and cracked several ribs. A simple enough injury for Michael to heal in a few seconds, but Michael wasn't part of the current fight.

Shiori glanced to the side where Michael and Keira leaned against a tree, resting but alert as their eyes and nascent mana senses watched their teammates fight, though never for too long. As Shiori looked at them, first Keira then Michael stopped to glance around. Shiori could feel their novice mana senses groping about the area. Further away, but still within range of the students, Aya flitted from patch to patch, her mana senses growing ever sharper as she hunted for Winter Truffles, though she didn't put so much focus in that she forgot to watch her surroundings as well.

Good, they learned, Shiori thought to herself. They'd improved over the past two weeks, and it'd only taken a few surprise ambushes while they thought they were safe to teach them to remain vigilant. The Academy's ambush training was quaint and fun, but it lacked the true threat of harm to properly sharpen one's claws. Her students' enemies would not fight with dulled weapons and padded arrows.

Still, there was no sense ambushing them when they were prepared for it. With a casual flex of her power, Shiori let her teleportation spell fizzle, allowing the Bronze ranked monstrous rats to continue gnawing on tree roots in their hidden tunnels.

Turning her focus back to her kitten and Cian, Shiori nodded approvingly as Jun hauled a pair of goblins out of the maze and lobbed them at the shaman, forcing him to move rather than block with another pillar. The goblin cursed at Jun in his guttural language, insulting her parentage, not that her kitten could understand him. But Shiori did, and amusement warred with the desire to squash the pathetic goblin and his wagging tongue. Controlling her anger, Shiori smiled as Jun used the shaman's distraction to land a glancing blow with one of her spells, the snares silently dropping from the branches above and wrapping around the shaman's neck.

The shaman struggled as her kitten's spell hauled him up into the trees, his face turning purple as Jun's spell strangled him to death. It took longer than simply breaking his neck would have, but Shiori knew her kitten still struggled with killing. It was ironic that instead of a merciful and quick death, her kitten's distaste for lethal blows ensured the shaman died slowly and painfully. Still, it was an improvement. That Jun could bring herself to still attack with the intent to kill was enough.

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With the shaman's death, his conjured earth pillars began to crumble into dust. The shaman had been powerful and experienced, but his will was lacking based on the speed his constructs fell apart with his demise. Holes appeared in the maze as the pillars started to fall apart, opening up new passageways that allowed the remaining goblins to better find Cian.

From above her kitten let loose another volley of her [Purging Missiles], the spells quickly finishing off the goblins she'd thrown and a small group that'd been about to ambush Cian from behind. Without the shaman's interference, the two kittens quickly finished off the raiding group.

Michael glanced from Shiori to Jun as her kitten gingerly brought herself down from the trees above. Shiori nodded at the boy, watching as he darted off to begin healing her kitten. Despite the controlled expression on his face, Shiori could tell the boy's worry for Jun extended beyond that of a teammate's concern. The boy's pheromones stung her nose whenever he looked at her kitten for too long, not that her kitten seemed to notice. Though she wasn't sure that Michael realized his feelings either.

As Michael set to work healing Jun's injury, Shiori glanced back at Aya. The girl was busy digging, though she stopped to look about every few seconds to make sure nothing attempted to sneak up on her. The Winter Truffle she'd detected was large, on the verge of awakening, and would be the last the girl needed to complete the gathering bounty. It'd taken nearly two weeks in the Forest for her to learn to understand her mana senses enough, but she learned the bare minimum of competency. The battlemage had potential to be truly powerful, but was held back by her rage and her sense of what was right and what was wrong. It kept her focused on her goals, whatever they were, but it also made her rigid and inflexible in her approach.

The way Aya blew up at Jun's previously unspoken attraction to Inari's kit spoke of that rigidity bleeding over into how people should act and how they should be. Such an attitude was learned, not innate, and whoever had injected such a warped view of the world into the girl would pay. But as to fixing it, Shiori didn't know what to do, just as she was unsure of how to address Michael's hidden feelings, Keira's fear of failure pushing her to take unnecessary risks, Cian's shyness, and Jun's past tainted her kitten's view of herself and cast shadows over everything she did. These young ones were broken in ways Shiori didn't know how to fix. All she could do was protect and raise her kitten until she could stand on her own, and train her friends that they might better support her kitten in the trials ahead.

Once Aya finished harvesting her last mushroom, her kitten was healed, and the corpses looted, Shiori gathered the kittens and led them back to their hidden camp. If she tracked the days right, it was time to return to the city.

Kora gritted her teeth, putting all of her strength into it. One of her teeth throbbed painfully where it cracked several days earlier. Fixing the issue would be as simple as taking a healing pill, but she couldn't justify using a lifesaving pill just to fix a simple dental issue. She'd just corner one of the guild's healers and make them heal it when she returned. Besides, even if she fixed it in the field, she'd probably just crack it again in frustration.

Another soft crunch and spike of pain lanced through her jaw as another tooth broke. Closing her eyes, Kora took a deep breath and forced herself to relax, slowly breathing out as she walked using just her mana sense. As her jaw muscles relaxed and her heart rate slowed, Kora opened her eyes again, forcing herself to remain calm as the object of her ire came into view again.

The two beastkin women she'd followed into this Forest were in front of her, exchanging the occasional glance as she was sure they conversed in some silent way. The way the foxkin's tail would twitch with laughter while the catkin's would twitch irritably every few minutes made it obvious. It was like the two women considered this trip a simple walk, not a reckless and underpowered expedition into a wildly dangerous area with underleveled and inexperienced students. That the students in front of them all survived was a miracle.

Making a sign of thanks, Kora sent a bit of mana to the Explorer in thanks. He must have been watching out for the students, as there was no way they could have all survived otherwise.

The past two weeks had been hell as she split her time between monitoring the foxkin and the Silver ranked students, and the catkin and the Iron rankers. It'd taken all her willpower not to interfere the first time one of the students fought a monster over a hundred levels above themselves alone.

Watching Jun take on a low Silver ranked Mage Hunter had felt like she was witnessing a cruel and drawn out execution. The slight girl was only low Iron and despite being a battlemage student, her files indicated she rarely used offensive magic, instead relying on barriers and snares. In no world should such a mage have stood a chance against a Mage Hunter nearly a hundred levels above her.

She'd even moved to kill the Mage Hunter before Jun could get hurt, only for Shiori to block her way and pressure her with an aura blade that, despite coming from someone weaker than her, made her hesitate. The difference between a Peak Gold and a mid Platinum should have been wider than a canyon, but in that moment Kora's instincts screamed that she wouldn't be able to hold back were they to fight. Such a clash would have killed all of the Iron ranked students, so she'd been forced to stand down and hope that Shiori wouldn't interfere if Jun were about to die.

She needn't have worried. Not only did Jun kill the Mage Hunter, she did it alone, turning the creature's strength against itself. Fight after fight, sometimes with her teammates, sometimes alone, Jun grew stronger. Her aura presence strengthened noticeably since the day Kora first met her, marking significant growth.

The slight teenager wasn't the only one who'd grown. Each of the students' aura presences were noticeably stronger. The youngest students had entered the Forest at low Iron, and rapidly progressed as the catkin threw them at various challenges far beyond their ranking. Some of them had been horribly wounded, far beyond what suitable level healing pills could have treated. Just three days earlier the Iron ranked team rushed back into camp with Shiori carrying the young scout Keira, her leg ending in a stump. All that remained of the missing limb had been a shredded calf. Such an injury was expensive to fix, the healers capable of healing that kind of injury charging an exorbitant amount that only the most successful adventurers or nobles could afford. It'd come as a surprise when the foxkin regrew the limb in moments and all the girl complained about was how she would have to replace her pants.

The Silver ranked students under Inari had been worse. She'd watched the students take on Peak Silver and Gold ranked enemies, and nearly every fight ended with at least one of them horribly wounded. Watching the young healer Corin heal wounds that should have been beyond his rank had been eye opening, but that only made it worse. It seemed to embolden them to take on fights any sane person would have run from.

As memories of the past weeks' events flashed through her mind, Kora let out a frustrated sigh. How the fuck was she supposed to report this to Gally?!

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