"Calm, angry human. We need to stay calm. Be ready for anything."

I take a shaky breath and nod my head. "Doing my best."

I freeze as movement catches my eye to the right. It is a blue shark's fin cutting through the mist a little ways ahead. My blood goes cold and I duck behind a tree, peeking out to make sure it's not coming closer.

The shark slices through the mist without a sound, and then I see it... Two waters hiding behind a large rock. They don't realize⁠—

I open my mouth to warn them but it's already too late. One of them is yanked under the mist with a strangled scream that is cut off instantly. The other makes it a few steps before the shark leaps above the mist and bites the back of their head, triggering their stasis immediately.

Malakai... the shark means he's close. That, or he simply told it to go out and hunt down anyone it could. The only saving grace is that he may not find their frozen forms beneath the mist. The shark may have just saved their lives.

It swims through the mist, curling around the rock to disappear in the distance, searching for more prey.

It takes all my willpower to start moving again, but I do it. I remind myself that I've trained as hard as anyone here. Maybe harder. I'm unbound. I'm tethered to a fucking ancient water dragon. I can do this. I need to do this, because my friends might need me.

The sounds of struggle are already becoming less frequent. I stop twice when I see organized groups of five or more jogging through the trees like patrolling soldiers. Everyone else seems to be scattered in small groups.

"Perhaps Malakai's groups were teleported in together?" Typhon guesses as we watch another group pass far ahead in the distance, trailed by a team of deadly elementals.

"I wouldn't doubt it. The corruption goes all the way to the fucking top, apparently. Titus and Corpus may have just split from their groups to hunt down more people before they could find their groups."

I get back to searching. I have no idea how I'm going to find anyone like this, so I start taking the risk of whisper yelling for my friends when I think there aren't any enemy groups nearby. "Mireen? Beck?" I whisper.

A branch cracks to my left, seemingly in response.

"Ambrose?"

But no response comes, and cold starts to drift up my spine.

An earth elemental erupts from the ground—a massive boar of living stone, tusks sharp enough to gore. A tall student with a green earth mark steps into view behind it.

"Found one," he calls to someone unseen, voice chillingly casual. "It's Thorne."