Chapter 460: Greyfen March

They left Dunmere before sunrise the following morning.

Rowan had insisted on waiting rather than entering northern Greyfen in darkness, and after seeing what had happened to the Gravehorn Ravager, nobody argued.

They spent the night gathering supplies, questioning two more hunters and marking every recent monster sighting on their map.

By morning, Rowan had abandoned the old logging trails entirely. Whatever was happening deeper inside Greyfen had pushed enough monsters south that familiar routes could no longer be trusted, and he had no intention of walking five people through a path every frightened predator in the region might also be using.

The change in Rowan became obvious almost immediately after they entered the forest. He moved twenty or thirty paces ahead of the others, sometimes disappearing between trees before returning without explanation and changing their direction.

He checked the wind frequently, avoided low ground where recent tracks overlapped and stopped twice simply to listen. Sage never questioned those decisions.

He walked near the middle of the group with Iris, while Mina and Lucan alternated between the front and rear depending on the terrain.

Sage could have activated his Aetheric Insight Eyes and searched for mana signatures himself, but that would have defeated part of the reason he had come.

This was an Adventurer investigation, and Rowan understood this environment better than anyone else present.

Several hours into the journey, Lucan finally noticed they were moving east instead of north.

He stepped over a fallen trunk and glanced toward Rowan. "Our destination is north. I’m reasonably confident of that because we’ve spent the entire morning discussing all the horrible things waiting for us there. Why are we going east?"

Rowan stopped beside a moss-covered tree and pointed toward a patch of ground Lucan had nearly crossed. "Because north is occupied."

Lucan looked down. At first Sage saw nothing except leaves and dark soil. Then Rowan moved several branches aside, revealing several shallow depressions.

"Ironhide Boars," Rowan explained. "At least nine. Maybe eleven. They passed through less than two hours ago."

Mina stared toward the northern trees. "We could beat eleven boars."

"We probably could," Rowan replied as he straightened. "But we’re investigating Greyfen, not trying to fight everything inside it. Every unnecessary battle wastes mana, damages equipment, makes noise and leaves blood that attracts something else."

Lucan nodded slowly. "East suddenly seems beautiful."

Rowan continued walking.

By midday, even Sage had begun appreciating how much information Rowan extracted from things everyone else would have ignored.

A strip of bark missing from one tree told him a large horned monster had passed recently. Droppings revealed whether an animal had been eating its normal prey.

Broken spiderwebs across an animal trail told him something had crossed after sunrise. Once, he stopped everyone because several birds suddenly flew from trees ahead. He watched them for less than ten seconds before leading the group around the area without investigating.

Iris eventually asked him about it while stepping carefully through a shallow stream. "What did the birds tell you?"

"Something disturbed them."

Iris waited for more before realizing that was apparently the entire explanation. "And you didn’t want to know what?"

Rowan looked back at her. "Curiosity kills researchers too."

Iris frowned. "That’s an unnecessarily targeted statement."

Sage laughed quietly.

They stopped near midday beside a narrow stream, where Rowan allowed everyone enough time to eat before moving again. Iris used the opportunity to kneel beside the water and place two fingers beneath the surface.

Pale blue mana spread outward in delicate threads, travelling against the current before disappearing around several stones. Her eyes remained closed for several seconds.

Sage watched with interest. "What are you doing?"

"Checking disturbances in the water," Iris explained without opening her eyes. "Anything large entering upstream changes the flow. Water remembers movement briefly if you know what you’re looking for."

Lucan glanced between Iris and Rowan. "Wonderful. The hunter interrogates dirt and the Mage interrogates water. Does anyone here use normal methods?"

Mina bit into a piece of dried meat. "I hit things."

Lucan pointed toward her. "Finally. Someone reasonable."

Rowan’s head turned suddenly, the humor disappeared.

He lifted one hand and everyone became silent.

Sage heard nothing at first. Then something faint reached him through the forest.

Rowan moved immediately. He crossed the stream, crouched beside the opposite bank and examined the trees beyond it. "They’re coming from northwest."

Lucan’s hand settled on his sword. "Toward us?"

Rowan listened again. "Not intentionally."

That was worse. The forest erupted less than a minute later. The first Ashback Wolf burst through the undergrowth so violently that it nearly collided with a tree. It was larger than the wolves Sage had seen near Dunmere, with coarse grey-black fur running along its spine and blood staining one flank.

Another appeared behind it, then three more.

They weren’t hunting, they were running.Then the lead wolf saw the group. Fear became aggression almost instantly.

Rowan drew his longsword. "Seven! Two coming around the right!"

Lucan’s sword cleared its sheath with a metallic hiss, and every trace of his usual amusement vanished from his face.

His posture lowered, his free hand shifting behind him for balance as mana began flowing through his body. Sage noticed the transformation immediately. There was nothing theatrical about Lucan now. No expensive nobleman’s smile. No jokes. His eyes tracked the approaching wolves with cold concentration.

Iris reacted just as quickly.

She drove one palm toward the ground.

Earth mana surged beneath their feet.The muddy bank rose in a violent ridge, forcing three charging wolves to split apart. At the same moment, water tore from the stream beside them, spiralling around Iris’s arm before whipping across the clearing. It struck another wolf across the legs and knocked it sideways.

"Mina, front!" Sage ordered.

Mina was already moving.

The largest Ashback Wolf came directly at her.

It was enormous, easily several times the girl’s weight, and its charge carried enough force to knock an ordinary adult from his feet. Mina planted one boot behind the other and raised her shield.

Lucan saw what she intended and snapped his head toward her. "Mina, move!"

Mina didn’t.Mana exploded through her body.

The wolf struck.The impact thundered through the forest.

Dirt burst beneath Mina’s boots. Her coat snapped behind her, and the ground cracked where her rear foot had dug into it.

But Mina did not move backward. Not one step.

The Ashback Wolf stopped. For one absurd moment, the enormous creature remained pressed against the shield of an eleven-year-old girl who had caught its full charge head-on.

Lucan actually stared.

Mina’s face tightened with effort before her expression changed into something dangerously cheerful. "My turn."

She twisted. The movement looked almost casual.

It wasn’t.

Mina redirected the wolf’s weight, lifted with the shield and hurled the creature sideways hard enough that its body smashed into a tree. The trunk shook violently. Before the wolf could recover, Mina crossed the distance in three steps and drove the rim of her shield into its skull.

The impact ended the fight instantly.

Lucan stood frozen for half a heartbeat.

A second wolf lunged at him.

He moved without looking.

His sword flashed upward and opened the creature from chest to throat in one clean stroke.

Lucan pivoted beneath the falling body, avoided the blood and drove his blade backward into another wolf approaching from his blind side.

Whatever shock Mina had caused disappeared beneath years of training. His movements were precise, controlled and remarkably economical.

Rowan engaged two simultaneously.

He didn’t meet either head-on. He stepped away from the first bite, kicked loose soil into the animal’s face and slashed across its foreleg before retreating.

The injured wolf stumbled. Rowan ignored it and turned toward the healthier animal, forcing it between two trees where its larger body lost room to maneuver.

Sage understood immediately.

Rowan wasn’t fighting the wolves. He was controlling where they could fight him.

Iris controlled everything else.

A wolf attempted to circle behind Mina, only for the ground beneath its forelegs to collapse suddenly. It stumbled into the shallow pit, and Iris swept her hand sideways.

Water from the stream wrapped around its neck and hardened under compressed mana. The animal fought against the restraint for barely a second before Mina arrived and finished it.

Another wolf leapt from higher ground toward Iris.

Sage raised one hand. He could have killed it but Lucan reached it first.

His sword intercepted the creature in midair, mana flaring along the blade as he changed the angle of its leap.

The wolf crashed beside him rather than into Iris. Lucan stepped forward and drove his sword down through its neck before immediately scanning for the next threat.

There wasn’t one. The final injured wolf had turned to flee.

Rowan didn’t pursue it.

"Let it go," he ordered when Mina shifted forward.

Mina stopped immediately.

Silence slowly returned to the forest.

Seven wolves had attacked.

Six lay dead.

The seventh disappeared south through the trees.

Sage looked around at the others. Nobody had suffered more than superficial scratches. Iris was already examining the disturbed earth. Rowan cleaned his blade while watching the direction the surviving wolf had fled. Lucan stood beside one of the corpses, breathing steadily.

Then he slowly turned toward Mina.

Mina was wiping blood from the edge of her shield.

Lucan stared at her for several seconds. "You’re eleven."

Mina looked up. "Yes."

Lucan pointed toward the dead wolf beside the tree. "That thing weighs several times what you do."

Mina glanced at the corpse and shrugged. "Probably."

Lucan turned back toward Mina. "What exactly are they feeding you in this Guild?"

Mina grinned proudly. "A lot."

Even Rowan smiled at that.

Iris walked over and examined the cracked ground beneath Mina’s boots. "Your mana reinforcement has improved considerably. You concentrated most of it through your legs, back and shoulders immediately before impact."

Mina nodded enthusiastically. "I’ve been practicing."

Lucan stared at the dead Ashback Wolf again. "Apparently."

Sage said nothing.

He remembered the girl who had once walked into his Guild as a Copper Badge Adventurer carrying a shield and strength that already seemed ridiculous for her age. Since then, Mina had trained, fought, completed missions, entered dungeons and climbed the Mana Tower.

Now she was a 4-Star Master Knight.

At eleven years old. And she was only beginning to understand what that meant.

Rowan suddenly crouched beside one of the wolves. The lightness disappeared again. He examined its paws, then the wound along its flank. The injury hadn’t come from their battle. Four deep punctures ran through the fur near its ribs.

Sage approached him. "Another monster?"

"Yes." Rowan rolled the corpse slightly and studied the wound. "Something attacked the pack before they reached us."

Iris came closer. "Could that be why they were running?"

Rowan nodded. "Look at their condition. Two are injured. They’re underfed. Their paws are torn from prolonged movement."

Lucan sheathed his sword. "So these weren’t territorial wolves defending their home."

"No." Rowan stood and looked northwest.

Sage followed his gaze. They had travelled deeper into Greyfen expecting the evidence to become clearer.

Instead, everything they found pointed toward the same conclusion. The Gravehorn Ravager had fled south. The wolves had fled south.

Different monsters were abandoning established territories, ignoring prey and sometimes even ignoring one another.

And the farther north they travelled, the more frightened those monsters became.

Rowan wiped the last blood from his blade and returned it to its sheath. "We change course."

Sage looked toward him. "Where?"

Rowan pointed northwest, toward the direction the wolves had come from.

"We find out what they were running from."