To their west, Dean had already reached the point nearest to the horde. Just two trees away from him, a pincer was sleeping under the warm sunlight. But that was not his target. His target was the one beside him, the pincer which was almost awake.
Coincidentally, the beast had its back facing the two challengers. It seemed to have noticed the rest of the group's presence from a distance, but still didn't consider them a threat. Sam and Dean themselves were hidden behind a wide tree, analyzing it from its blind spot.
Grasping the hilt of his sword firmly, he glanced at the tree Conrad had been strategizing. He could sense someone watching over him, but wasn't sure whether it was Elias or someone else. Whatever it was, it didn't matter to him in the moment.
Once the group attacked one side, the horde was prone to lose all sense of direction, running off wherever they felt safe. Dean and Sam were sent here to make sure the horde didn't scatter off in the wrong direction.
They just had to take care of the one pincer who was awake on this side. It was enough for the horde to choose the other direction over theirs, going away from the tower.
Sam was hiding behind Dean, sneaking glances from his back now and then. Unlike Dean, he was anxious to the point where he wanted to run in the other direction. But he couldn't just leave his brother alone either.
'I hate this.'
Checking their escape route once again, Sam came to his side and spoke feverishly.
"Nice. Let's wait for Conrad's signal. Then we just have to kick that pincer, and we can get out of here—"
Dean cut him off, his voice deep.
"You still don't understand it, do you?"
Sam fell silent. He knew his brother well, too well even. Dean never tried to pick a fight with him, nor did he ever order him to do something. That was perhaps why whenever he saw his brother like this, he could do nothing but listen.
Dean continued, his eyes still on the pincer.
"Our father is dead, Sam. Do you think we can sit around while the rest of the clan supports us? You've seen it too, haven't you? How those old fossils look at us like vultures. How long do you think Mother can hold onto her authority? Sooner or later, someone will try to pull us down. What do you plan to do then?"
It looked as if he wanted to say more, do more, but he decided otherwise.
"I won't force you, Sam. This is a choice I've made for myself. I'll do it alone if I must."
He didn't wait for Sam. Unsheathing his sword, he walked past the tree.
Sam simply looked at him. He had a lot to say, too, and he knew his brother, being the older one, had a heavier burden than he could imagine. Despite being as talented as he was, he was still nowhere near the prodigies of his generation.
It wouldn't be too long till his brother met his demise in such a situation. That was, if Sam hadn't been there.
Unsheathing his sword, he followed his brother into battle.
'No, Dean. You won't be doing it all alone.'
Standing beside each other, the two brothers scaled the enormous pincer in all its glory. When they were just a few meters away, it had noticed their presence, as well as their intent. They were here to kill the beast, and the beast was fully aware of it.
It was strange, really. Dean had known that even when sitting in a position, the pincer was about two feet in height. Seeing it now, standing on its eight slender legs, looking down at the two of them, he felt a strange emotion rising in his chest.
Perhaps it was rage, for all the injustice he had faced in his life. Or perhaps it was guilt, for aiming his killing intent at a beast that was known for its neutrality.
Either way, the outcome would be the same.
The pincer walked toward them passively, each of its legs unnaturally steady.
He lifted his sword, hovering it right in front of Sam.
Sam lifted his empty hand and held the bare blade. He winced as crimson drops of blood fell on the whistling blades of grass, tainting them with his blood.
Suddenly, the grass stiffened, crystallizing with a bright red hue.
The blood travelled from his palm to the tip of the blade, covering it entirely. Just like the grass, the blood crystallized, covering the sword in a sturdy casing. But it was more than just a covering for the blade.
The sword itself felt as if it weighed more, much more than Dean, even. Yet, it was as light as a feather. Despite being completely still, even the wind avoided passing through it.
Sam removed his hand and covered it with a piece of cloth. The cut only looked severe, but it was healing at a rapid rate.
Dean threw a glance at the blade, the bright sun reflecting in it.
By then, the pincer was already just a few steps away from him.
Instead of wasting any more time, Dean lunged forward. His movement was swift and precise, heavy enough to push himself against the wind and light enough for the sleeping pincer to ignore him.
Before he could come near the beast, the pincer lifted its arms. The pincer knew Dean would attack head-on, so it could just crush him cleanly when he came anywhere near its range.
Dean couldn't care less, though. He stepped right inside its range, ready to keep moving toward the beast.
Thump.
"Wha—"
One moment, Dean was right below the pincer, and the next, he was a few meters away. The change was so sudden that he couldn't really believe his eyes.
He soon noticed that he wasn't even standing upright, but was being lifted by his collar by someone behind him.
"Calm down, hero. The cavalry's here."
Jin's unperturbed voice resounded in his head, serving as an alarm.
Getting back on his feet, he slapped Jin's hand away.
"What do you think you're doing?"
He placed his blade against Jin's neck, his gaze dripping with bloodlust. On the other hand, Jin was still looking at the pincer.
"Where are you even look—"
Boom.
A loud explosion pulled his attention back to the pincer.
He turned to the beast.
Where there was a pincer, now lay just the remains of one. The beast was crushed completely, its innards flowing out, down on the ground. Its bead-like eyes had popped out of their socket, one still hanging onto the skeleton.
But the ground was barely damaged, as if whatever hit the pincer had a sole purpose—to demolish the beast.
Soon, the challenger appeared from behind the pincer, at least what remained of it.
Grunting furiously, Evelin ground her shoe against the grassbed, trying to remove the innards of the pincer from it. Her suit was nowhere as clean as it had been, with patches of greenish sticky fluid spread across it.
"Damn… it…"
No matter how much she tried, the remnants of the liquid were adamantly stuck to her shoe. Jin and the brothers had a perplexed look on their faces.
Finally, having calmed down to some degree, Evelin spoke in her usual demeanor.
"What are you waiting for? Keep moving."
Nodding instantly, the three ran back to where Conrad had been. Celia was already waiting beside him.
Still unaware of the situation, Sam turned to Conrad.
"Um… is the mission cancelled, perchance?"
As he was about to explain the situation, Elias appeared beside him.
Jin looked at the horde behind him, more like what was left of the horde. It was brutal, perhaps even worse than what he had experienced in the fight club. At least down there, he could feel Allen's rage to some extent. But here, Elias looked like he had just gotten done killing a chicken.
The chickens, meanwhile, were either smashed into pieces or crushed through overwhelming force. The pincers hadn't even gotten the time to wake up, having been killed right where each of them had been resting.
Despite all that carnage, there wasn't even a single stain on his military uniform.
Counting each member mentally, Elias parted his lips.
"Good. Everyone is here. I won't explain much. Due to certain reasons, your test has been postponed to a later date. Our objective now is to return to the outpost safely. Until then, no one is to leave my sight. Is that clear?"
Except Jin, everyone here was from a prominent family. So, none of them appreciated being ordered to do something, at least not without being informed about the situation.
But no one objected. Perhaps it was because Evelin, having the highest status among them, didn't complain either. Or perhaps they were just afraid of suffering a fate similar to the pincers.
"Let's leav—"
He turned behind him. It wasn't just him. The rest of the group also noticed something. There was no sound, and they saw no one. Yet, everyone knew that something was there.
Elias narrowed his gaze.
"Step out."
Something shifted in the shadows. Jin unknowingly held his breath.
It all came back to him, the signs he had missed, the instincts he had ignored. He had thought it was just Lian's body trying to resist the mysterious forest and facing the pincers. But it was not.
They weren't Lian's instincts. They were his own instincts that had been ingrained in his being after facing countless enemies and monsters throughout his entire life. The clues were always there, but he was too adamant about moving past Lian's life.
The person stepped out of the shadows. It was a challenger, no different from him. Slightly older than him, but at least younger than Elias himself. From his gear alone, he was another second-ranked challenger of the tower, affiliated with a small guild where he was the highest-ranking challenger.
But Jin could see past his appearance, past the gear as well as the facade. He could see past whatever the person was trying to appear to be.
What he saw made a shiver run through his spine. A single word reverberated in his mind.
'Run.'