The Wendigos didn't rush at us immediately. They simply stared, their hollow eyes fixed on us with a predator's gaze, as if they were already certain of the hunt's outcome.
If my guess was correct, the troll could control up to four regular spirits, or two predatory ones at once. That meant this had to be an array—one that fed directly on the caster's spiritual energy, allowing them to control more spirits simultaneously than their rank would normally allow.
Then, the Wendigos charged.
They dragged their claws along the ground as they sprinted toward us, building momentum, charging their attacks with every scraping step. Their assault was relentless, aimed solely at tearing through our flesh.
I dodged the first one easily enough, but it didn't leave an opening behind. It wasn't as fast as the second one, but its precision let it close the gap quickly.
I glanced to my side to check how Tom was holding up. Strangely, not a single attack from the second Wendigo had landed on him. He was dodging—barely—waiting until the last possible moment before slipping just out of reach.
But the more I watched, the more uneasy I felt.
What bothered me more than the current situation... was the fact that Tom was still hiding his true abilities. At this point in the story, his reaction speed was supposed to be 0.2. But from what I was seeing, he wasn't even approaching 0.4.
I could've ended my fight easily by activating my ability, but I didn't. I had to stall until midnight. If the troll got scared and fled, thinking we were far stronger than it thought, everything we'd done to get here would've been for nothing.
"I feel like this whole exam has been nothing but a training session for you. I guess this fight could be at least somewhat enjoyable," Ryuk commented, his voice breaking through my focus.
I stopped in my tracks, parrying the wendigo's claws on instinct.
Clang! Clang!
Those words... are deeply traumatising, I thought, as painful memories flashed before my eyes. Accende.
The Wendigo in front of me staggered back, confused and unable to comprehend what I had just done. It could sense the shift in mana around its body, feel the surge of heat building in the air, but it was too late. It tried to repel the force instinctively, but the moment had already slipped past.
Flames erupted across its spectral form.
RRRRAAAAAKKKKKKHHHH!
The creature unleashed a blood-curdling scream as fire consumed it, its hollow eyes wide with agony as the unnatural blaze tore through its corrupted essence.
"Shut it," Moriarty lunged forward in a single fluid motion.
His blade plunged into the Wendigo's chest, piercing its cursed heart. Without pause, he slashed upward, cleaving through the creature's brain and silencing the scream mid-shriek.
The second Wendigo didn't react to my actions—it remained fixated on the prey it had failed to catch.
"Move," Moriarty said calmly, just as the creature closed in, with Tom standing directly in its path.
Without hesitation, Tom slipped out of reach, his movements fluid and precise. In that same moment, Moriarty fired a shot straight into the Wendigo's skull. The spirit staggered, stunned, just long enough for Moriarty to close the distance and drive his sabre clean through its heart.
"We need to get out of here," Moriarty said firmly as Wally loaded the gun in his hands. His eyes scanned the surroundings, sharp with urgency. "Forget the troll—there's something seriously wrong about this whole situation. We need to leave, now."
"You found an opening?" Tom asked, already adjusting his stance.
"There isn't one," Moriarty replied without hesitation. "So we'll make one."
Dad had taught us how to break through a sixth-tier formation. And while this one was an array woven with spirits instead of living beings, the core principle remained the same: every breakthrough begins with analysis. I'd been working on that since the moment we were trapped.
The second step was distraction.
"Close your eyes," Moriarty whispered, raising his gun skyward. "And follow my footsteps."
He pulled the trigger.
The bullet soared into the air before bursting apart into a shower of radiant particles, forming a brilliant sphere of light above us.
The burst of light gave us a fleeting moment—a sliver of time just wide enough to dash toward one of the exposed openings. The array shifted ceaselessly, sliding left and right as its inner defences realigned like the gears of a living machine.
But we had studied its rhythm. We forced it into a position where it had only one path of movement left, we then trapped its pattern. That gave us another precious opening, one narrow space through which we slipped, layer by layer, until we were free.
I wasn't sure if time was still on our side. Even though we had escaped the array successfully, Ryuk's expression hadn't changed—no relief, no frustration. Just that same unreadable calm. And that said everything. If he wasn't disappointed, it meant the danger hadn't passed. We hadn't escaped.
"Some mutated kangaroos really gave you PTSD?" Ryuk asked, half-joking, half-serious.
I was ten. Ten, Ryuk. And after you said those exact words, I got jumped by twenty-nine mutated kangaroos. I ran until my legs gave out, and then they beat me like a drum at a jungle concert. So yes—yes, it gave me PTSD. I said, breath sharp as we kept moving.
"But you didn't die. And you learned what happens when you spend all your stamina without thinking. As far as I see it? That's a life lesson." He chuckled, as if recalling a fond memory.
I hated how he pointed it out like that. But he wasn't wrong. As much as I hated it, he was right, I learned a lot from that.
Although we had made it out, the array behind us remained still. No reaction. No ripple of energy. It was as if the troll had no intention of chasing us.
"Maybe he can't move with all those spirits surrounding him..." Tom muttered, glancing back. "If that's the case, then the array might be restricting whatever they're trying to do to that one fixed location."
He slowed his pace, eyes narrowing, trying to piece it together.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
"...Wait a second. That's not how summonings work… right?" I said, my voice low with sudden realisation.
"What if it's not just an array—it's a massive summoning circle? And we were just... unlucky enough to be caught in the middle?"
"That would explain why the troll could trap us with so many spirits… but couldn't command them all to attack at once. He has all their anchoring objects but lacks the ability to bind them all to himself."
"So we were just at the wrong place at the wrong time?" Tom asked, looking at me as if I were the one who wanted to hunt a troll.
"Yeah... But we should still move away from whatever is happening. We've dealt enough damage to delay it until tomorrow. Given that it's some type of spectral entity, the troll can only summon it at midnight—and by that time, all of the cadets will leave this Zone," I explained.
"Nerd," Ryuk commented with a hint of dissatisfaction.