The End of an Era

When Lorena arrived, time seemed to stand still. The ongoing fight stopped, even the bear stopped moving momentarily.

The first person to act was a middle-aged man who accompanied Lorena. He quickly moved towards Loki, analysing him.

"The bear hit him in the chest, he was propelled against a tree." Lily explained to him, in tears.

Lorena approached her and reassured her:

"Don't worry, Jarthen is the best healer I know. Loki will be all right."

Lorena looked at her with a look of pity. Meanwhile, the bear, not really understanding the situation, resumed the fight against Khire, the man who was watching Sora's group. Unfortunately, Khire was exhausted, as his speciality was not fighting against such resistant enemies.

Luckily for him, the second the bear started to move, Lorena turned towards the animal, staring at it with her dark gaze. She reached out her arm and snapped her fingers. The moment the snap was heard, a gigantic explosion occurred in front of the beast, which caused her to move back a few steps.

"You shouldn't move anymore. Now, I'm your opponent." she said to the bear.

It seemed to understand what she meant, for the bear turned towards her, taking her as its opponent.

Soon it began to charge towards Lorena. She didn't move a centimetre, on the contrary, she reached out her arm and snapped her fingers several times. Several times the area around the bear exploded, which seriously injured him. This was not enough to bring the king of the mountain down, but it itself felt his end coming.

His pride, on the other hand, prevented him from giving up. Step by step it continued to approach Lorena. This perseverance made Lorena sigh, and she snapped her fingers again. This time she made the air inside the animal's body explode. Its limbs spread around and its blood stained the leaves of the nearby trees.

On this day, the reign of the uncrowned king came to an end. It was the end of an era.

Not only did the death of this animal save Sora's team, but access to the pass was now secure. Amateur exploration teams were now able to explore the confines of these mountains without fear of battle against this legendary bear.

"Well it's time to go home, Selena." Said Lorena to the last of her companions, a young woman in her twenties.

She stroked the lock of hair that fell on her right eye. A few seconds later, a portal that seemed to tear apart time and space appeared, identical to the one that preceded Lorena's appearance.

"Well, let everyone quickly enter the portal, please. It's difficult for me to hold it up for very long." Selena announced Selena in a faint voice.

Quickly, even Loki, who had been partially treated by Jarthen, got up and entered the portal.

When they crossed the gate, a completely different landscape awaited them. In front of them stood a gigantic building, which they recognised as the dormitory in which they had slept the night before they left for the mountains.

Here, many people were still present despite the event that was taking place. Sora recognised some members of their class, but most of the people were strangers to her.

Some seemed to belong to the school staff, while some were more equipped to explore the mountains.

"Well, I have to leave you here, I have other business to attend to," said Lorena.

"First aid has been practiced, you shouldn't suffer any more and you'll be completely healed by tomorrow".

Jathren tried to reassure Loki, but this was not really necessary, as Loki was used to getting hurt.

So Jathren, Selena and Khire split up from the group, leaving them alone.

"We should rest in our rooms until the next day." Suggested Lei.

"I agree, I don't think I'll be able to do anything else today." Assured Loki.

Sora, on the other hand, didn't agree. The day was not yet over for her, so she decided to wander the corridors until nightfall. Unfortunately for her, nothing happened to her, and even though there were many people outside the building, the interior was almost empty.

At nightfall, Sora went into the dining room. There, the cooks who worked in the shelter had already prepared the residents' meal. She ordered a simple bowl of rice with beef produced from a local farm.

The meal, although simple, was surprisingly delicious. This was probably due to the fact that she had eaten most of the time the same food for several days, and she really missed eating quality food.

After this meal she went to bed. Some members of her class called out to her, she greeted them quickly and then ignored them.

She spent her best night in several days, the comfort of a bed being much better than the comfort of leaves.

The next day, the four team members met in the main room of the building. Midnight was the deadline for the last teams to return home. So now all the teams from class 1C were gathered together, waiting for the results and the speech of their head teacher, who had just arrived.

"Well, first of all I would like to congratulate you, each of you gave your best to help your team in one way or another. Each team was able to defeat at least one opponent, and the results are much closer than I expected. What I am most proud of is that everyone came out of this event safe and sound, with only one serious injury in the end".

"Well, now, what you've all been waiting for: the results. In last place, Team Number 4, led by Walhen, having killed 14 wolves and 0 bears. Next, team number 3, led by Nina, having defeated 19 wolves and 0 bears. In third position comes team number 5, led by Amir, having killed 23 wolves and 1 bear. In second place comes team number 2, led by Lei, with 29 wolves killed and 2 bears. Team number 1 led by Hyacenthe is the winner with 32 wolves and 2 bears. Anyway, you should all be proud of yourselves, I don't think many arcanists of your age can boast of having defeated so many predators. Now, enjoy your meal, in one hour we will leave this place for Suva."

And so each person in 1C ate to their heart's content, enjoying a high quality meal, which some of them hadn't eaten for several days.