The escape didn't feel like freedom.
We moved fast through the dorms, not speaking, not thinking too far ahead. Dave was already dying in the system. I could feel it, like a countdown ticking behind my eyes.
Kazim went straight for the storage lockers. Not the official ones. The forgotten ones. Old training gear they didn't bother cataloging anymore.
I grabbed the first thing that felt right.
Two short axes, connected by a thick, heavy chain.
They were ugly. Scratched. Too heavy for finesse. But when I wrapped the chain around my wrist, the weight grounded me. If I dropped one, I wouldn't lose both.
Kazim took a compact energy rifle—an old model, limited charge, but accurate. Something that rewarded calm hands, not brute force.
Aira hesitated, then picked up twin fire-resonant blades. Not constantly burning, just waiting. Like her. Dangerous only if pushed.
Ren didn't say much. He armed himself with a reinforced spear, wood and metal fused together, the kind meant for distance.
We didn't look like soldiers. We looked like people pretending. The outer gate opened into the forest. And the world changed instantly.
The academy lights vanished behind us, swallowed by trees so tall they blocked the sky. The air was damp, heavy, and alive in a way the academy never was. Leaves crunched underfoot. Insects clicked and hissed from places we couldn't see.
Every sound felt too loud. We ran.
Branches tore at our clothes. Roots reached for our ankles. My lungs burned, panic climbing higher with every step.
"We don't stop," I whispered. "Don't look back."
That's when the forest went quiet. Too quiet.
No insects. No wind. No movement.
I felt it before I saw it.
The portal opened without light.
Without pulsing.
Just a wrongness in the air, like reality had taken a breath it couldn't finish.
Something slid out.
It was tall—too tall. Its body bent in places bodies shouldn't bend. From its core, long tentacles uncoiled, each one thin, flexible, and sharp, like blades.
They reflected the faint forest light as they moved, slicing through bark without effort.
Aira froze.
"Don't run," Ren whispered.
Too late.
A branch snapped under Kazim's foot.
The creature turned.
And it noticed us.
The sound it made wasn't a roar. It was worse. A wet, scraping vibration that rattled in my skull.
"Move!" I shouted.
We ran.
The forest exploded behind us, trees splitting, ground tearing open as tentacles lashed out, cutting through everything in their path.
One blade skimmed past my shoulder.
Another missed Kazim's head by inches.
Ren shouted, spear flashing as he knocked one aside. It screamed a high, tearing sound that made my vision blur.
Kazim fired.
The shot hit. The creature recoiled but didn't fall.
"It's not slowing it down!" Kazim yelled.
"Then don't aim to kill!" I shouted back. "Aim to survive!"
A tentacle wrapped around Kazim's leg.
I reacted without thinking.
I swung.
The axe bit deep. Black fluid sprayed across the forest floor, steaming where it landed. The creature shrieked and flung Kazim away like he weighed nothing.
He hit a tree hard.
Too hard.
"Kazim!" Aira screamed.
The creature turned toward him.
Toward the broken body at the base of the tree.
And for the first time since the academy, I felt real terror.