The corruption was strangely frightening.

  It was a dark purple energy that didn't seem to follow any pattern I could recognize, attaching itself to whatever it could find. It looked like everything and nothing at the same time.

  Some sections appeared almost biological. Pulsating masses that moved with small tendrils snaking around trees and rocks. The way they writhed made my stomach turn.

  At other points it looked like spores, purple waves drifting through the air that made me afraid to breathe. Sometimes they'd drift toward us, and we'd have to shift our path to avoid them.

  And at other points it was just complete absence. No movement, no life, just purple emptiness where something should have been. That might have been the worst part. The silence where there should have been sound.

  As we walked, we adapted to a line formation. Anya and Serin took point, the fox spirit's tails leaving faint blue trails as she floated ahead, constantly scanning. Nico moved in the shadows alongside us, appearing and disappearing between corrupted trees, scouting the flanks. The Prince walked a few paces behind Anya, spear at the ready. Aurora was in the middle with Mira, who kept her hands ready to form barriers at a moment's notice. I was near the back with Emberheart and Lina, while Mary brought up the rear, her sword already drawn like she expected an attack at any moment.

  "Corruption doesn't normally spread like this," Emberheart said quietly, gesturing for me to take notes.

  I pulled out the notebook and pretended to write as the enchanted quill did its work, words appearing automatically on the page.

  "It normally takes only one form based on the magic that generated it, then expands accordingly. I've never seen it manifest in multiple forms simultaneously."

  "Could it be multiple sources?" Mira asked, her usual cheerfulness strained. "Like different types of corruption merging together?"

  "Possible, but unlikely," Emberheart replied. "Corruption doesn’t form where there is already corruption. For this to form naturally it would require a massive advanced spell, something like a big group ritual with dozens of spells and about a hundred mages."

  "Then what are we looking at?" Lina asked quietly.

  No one had an answer.

  I glanced around at the others. Everyone looked tense. Even the Prince's usual arrogance seemed muted by the wrongness of this place.

  The atmosphere only got worse as we advanced. The path ahead kept opening up for us, almost invitingly. Following the road was too easy. Nothing came to stop or attack us.

  "It wants us to advance..." Aurora said after we'd been walking for about half an hour. Her voice was calm but concerned. "Whatever this is, it might be trying to lure us deeper. Stay alert."

  The entire place made me feel uneasy. The corruption seemed less active now, like it had given up searching for hosts and was just... waiting. Watching.

  "But the corruption isn't intelligent," Lina said, her voice small. "It doesn't have intention, right? It's just magical contamination."

  She was looking for reassurance. We all were.

  Anya was the one who responded, not even glancing back. "Mages always say that. Makes it easier to ignore the problem when you pretend it's just 'contamination' instead of the consequence of reckless magic use."

  Her tone was sharp, bitter. There was old resentment there, the kind that came from personal loss. It made me wonder again why someone who clearly blamed mages for the corruption would attend a magic academy.

  No one dared respond to her.

  As we advanced, the corruption seemed to prod at us, testing. Sometimes a tendril would creep toward someone, and the Prince or Mary would promptly cut it down with their weapons. Sometimes clouds of corruption would drift in our direction, and Nico would appear long enough to signal an alternative path before vanishing again.

  We were avoiding using magic as much as possible, but the corruption kept throwing different things at us. Like it was studying our reactions.

  "This is outrageous!" The Prince said, cutting down another tendril that had gotten too close to Mira. "This place is testing us like we're rats in a laboratory!"

  "It's definitely weird..." Mira said, her usual cheerfulness replaced by visible fear.

  "It's curious," Aurora said simply, as if it were obvious. "It's inviting us in so it can learn about us."

  "Curious?!" The Prince's voice rose. "If you're so curious, then show yourself!" He directed the challenge at the empty air around us.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then the corruption seemed to listen.

  The shuffle of leaves. A shift in the wind. The purple energy in front of us began to condense, pulling together into something more solid.

  Something massive emerged from the denser corruption ahead.

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  A wolf. Or what used to be one.

  Even on all fours, it was taller than any of us. Its body was covered in that same dark purple corruption, but underneath you could still see hints of what it had been. Matted fur. The structure of bones and muscle. But the corruption had twisted it, elongated its limbs, added extra joints where there shouldn't be any. Its head was too large, jaw hanging open to reveal rows of teeth that looked more like crystal shards than bone.

  Purple energy leaked from its eyes like tears. Or maybe hunger.

  I took a step back. Most of the group did too, except for the S-ranks and Mary. Even Mira, who I'd seen confidently face down practice dummies twice her size, had gone pale.

  "There! Finally something to kill!" The Prince said. He still sounded annoyed, but there was an edge of satisfaction to his voice. Like he preferred straightforward violence to this creeping wrongness.

  "Careful," Aurora warned. "We don't know what it's capable of."

  The Prince either didn't hear her or chose to ignore her, walking toward the creature without hesitation.

  Mary positioned herself in front of our group, ready to intercept any sudden attacks.

  But the wolf ignored the Prince completely.

  It ignored Aurora.

  It just kept walking, its too-many-jointed legs moving in an unsettling rhythm. And I knew immediately what it was after.

  It was looking straight at me.

  Its eyes were weirdly human. Not in shape, but in expression. Like it had learned how to mimic curiosity from watching people. The wrongness of it made my skin crawl.

  It didn't speak. Didn't growl. Just kept moving forward with that horrible, studied curiosity.

  "Hm?" The Prince sounded genuinely insulted. He gave the creature a light thrust with his spear to draw its attention back to him.

  The spear sank into corrupted flesh. The wolf didn't even flinch. Its body simply reformed around the wound, purple energy flowing like water to fill the gap. It kept walking.

  Mary began guiding us backward, her sword raised defensively. The creature's gaze never left me.

  Everyone was looking between the wolf and me now, noticing its target. I was standing close enough to Emberheart that maybe some of them would think it was focused on him instead. But I could see the doubt in their eyes.

  The creature seemed to get impatient with our retreat. It suddenly accelerated, moving with speed that didn't match its massive size.

  Mary swung her sword at it, a clean strike that would have cleaved through a normal wolf. But without mana reinforcement, the blade just cut through corrupted flesh that healed instantly. The creature pushed past her, singularly focused.

  It was getting close now. Too close.

  My mind raced through options. I could write a rule. Something simple. 'The creature cannot move' or 'The corruption cannot hurt me.' But doing that here, in front of everyone, would raise questions I couldn't answer.

  All I could do was thrust my hands forward and try to conjure a mana barrier. The pathetic shield I'd been practicing all week flickered into existence.

  "Aurelius!" Aurora's voice cut through the chaos.

  "Come on, you know he can do it!" The Prince called back, sounding almost amused.

  The creature collided with my barrier. I felt it immediately start to drain, the corruption eating my mana, absorbing it like the barrier was food.

  "AURELIUS!" Aurora's voice cracked with authority so absolute it made even me flinch.

  Thunder deafened me.

  Lightning fell from the clear sky, striking down directly in front of me. The blast of heat and light was overwhelming. When my vision cleared, the Prince was standing over the creature's corpse, his spear driven completely through its skull, pinning it to the ground.

  I had no idea how or when he'd gotten there.

  "Come on, you can do better than that," Aurelius said, looking at me with that infuriating smirk. Like this had been a training exercise instead of a near-death experience.

  "Sorry..." I couldn't muster any excuses. I was just grateful he'd actually listened to Aurora and helped.

  "Had to use a bit of magic," the Prince said, pulling his spear free and examining the blade. "But it shouldn't be enough to matter in the long run." He frowned at the weapon. "It's still clean. This creature didn't even have blood."

  "It was measuring us," Anya said quietly. She was looking at me, and Serin had turned her glowing eyes in my direction too. "Measuring him specifically."

  Great. Just what I needed. More attention.

  "We need to move," Aurora said, her voice returning to its usual composed tone. "We can't afford to keep entertaining these tests. Pick up the pace, everyone."

  We started moving faster, but the corruption around us seemed oddly... satisfied. Like it had learned what it needed to know.

  I just hoped my mana hadn't told it too much.

  We walked for another hour before Aurora finally called for a break.

  "Five minutes," she announced. "Stay in visual range of each other. Nico, perimeter check."

  Nico nodded and simply vanished into the shadows of the corrupted trees. I was pretty sure I'd never get used to that.

  I found a relatively clean patch of ground and sat down heavily, my legs grateful for the rest. Lina sat beside me, pulling out one of her notebooks.

  "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

  "Yeah. Just tired." It wasn't entirely a lie. The constant tension of walking through this place was exhausting.

  "That thing that attacked you..." She hesitated. "Why do you think it targeted you specifically?"

  "No idea." I kept my voice neutral. "Maybe it just picked the weakest-looking person?"

  "Maybe." She didn't sound convinced, she seemed bothered.

  Emberheart approached us, and Lina quickly changed the subject to asking about the corruption's behavior patterns. I was grateful for her tact.

  As they talked, I glanced around at the rest of the group. Mira was sitting nearby, hugging her knees and staring at the corrupted ground with an exhausted expression. Nico reappeared near Aurora, giving her a quick report in a voice too quiet for me to hear before melting back into the shadows. Mary stood perfectly still near the Prince, somehow looking composed despite everything. Aurora was now reviewing something with Anya, the two of them speaking in low tones while Serin floated in lazy circles around them.

  And the Prince was staring at me.

  Not obviously. He'd occasionally glance away, make it look casual. But I could feel his attention. Calculating. Assessing.

  The way the creature had focused on me, ignored multiple S-ranks. That was going to raise questions.

  Questions I really didn't want to answer.

  "Alright," Aurora called out. "Break's over. Let's keep moving. With any luck, we'll reach the village before nightfall."

  As we resumed our formation and started walking, I couldn't shake the feeling that the corruption was still watching us.

  Still learning.

  And I had no idea what it would do with that knowledge.