Operation: Hollow Forest (1)

Alexia approached the barrier, placing her hands on it. The barrier was translucent, with a dark blue hue. Behind it, was the Hollow Forest, covered in a purplish-black fog.

Alexia injected some mana into the barrier. She started to smile. It was just as she expected.

Meanwhile, Arlo started to stir. He groggily opened his eyes. He looked around, as he tried to understand what happened.

"Good morning Arlo." Alexia, noticing this turned and faced him. "Or should I say good night? Took you long enough to awaken."

Hearing her voice, Arlo's memories of the incident came back to him. The conversation he had prior before he was knocked out.

Immediately, he tried to get up, but soon realised he was tied. When he looked at his surroundings, he understood where he was. 

"The Hollow Forest?! Why are we—"

"—Don't worry about it." Alexia immediately interrupted him.

"Are you trying to enter the forest? Why now? This is dangerous! We'll get in serious trouble." Arlo asked a barrage of questions.

"Shut it and watch." Alexia immediately silenced him. 

Arlo listened to her. He wanted to convince her to stop what she was doing. But he knew she wouldn't listen. So, intrigued, he decided to watch instead.

Alexia pulled two small black rods from her bag. She connected both rods to different metal scaffolds. 

"Mana Disrupters? What do you plan to do with those?" Chloe questioned. She had no idea what Alexia was planning.

"When I was researching barriers, I discovered something." Alexia started to explain. "The more conditions and functions you add to a barrier, the mana it costs. Seems simple right?

But what about large-scale barriers like this, mana upkeep must be extraordinary. Especially since it has to job of cancelling out the dark mana from the fog. So it wouldn't have extra functions, such as detecting mana signatures."

"How do you know so much about barriers," Arlo asked after her explanation.

"You know we have a report due for magic class?"

Arlo nodded. "Yeah, we can do a report on any specific attribute or system."

"Mine is on barrier systems."

Satisfied with Alexia's answer, Arlo didn't ask any further.

"So a barrier like this would only physical/magical interference and self-regeneration. Any more conditions would raise the mana cost of the barrier to an unreasonable margin. Though it probably would detect if a large hole is created, so busting in is a no-go.

But microscopic holes are always created in the barrier due to the fog, so it wouldn't detect that. That's why the barrier needs self-regeneration to repair itself. But this self-regeneration is a bit flawed.

The barrier connects itself to the nearest barrier of similar conditions, even if it's not the same barrier. So we create a barrier of our own and trick it into connecting to ours, creating an entrance."

Everyone understood the jist of Alexia's plan.

But Shivan had a question. "Surely you're not the only one who found out about this loophole?"

"A barrier like this is just an oversized guard rail. It's only here to ensure the fog doesn't leak out of the Hollow Forest. This place isn't anything special like a government facility. Nobody has any reason to break into the forest."

"So the soldiers posted during the excursion were in case any student faced a dangerous aberrant." Arlo muttered to himself.

After understanding the plan to enter, Shivan, Chloe and Arlo all stood next to Alexia as she prepared to plan to enter. Arlo joined the trio out of his volition because, despite his hate for them, he didn't want them to get hurt.

Alexia created a small half-barrier around them, with the edges connecting to the larger barrier around Hollow Forest. Alexia learned some barrier magic over the two weeks and polished her technique to ensure 

 Then she asked Shivan to move the scaffolds holding mana disrupters to the edge connecting Alexia's barrier and the barrier covering the forest.

Then Shivan turned on the disrupters, creating small holes in the larger barrier. It took several adjustments, but the larger barrier connected to Alexia's barrier.

Then with the help of the scaffold, they traced an outline around the larger barrier that was inside Alexia's barrier. It took a couple of minutes, but the larger barrier fully connected to Alexia's barrier, creating a makeshift entrance.

Immediately the fog started leaking in, so the four of them ran inside the forest and Alexia made her barrier smaller until the barrier covering Hollow Forest fixed itself completely.

Inside the forest, the trio had their first experience of the fog in their lifetimes. Dark mana felt sticky and heavy. The air felt dense and it became hard to breathe. It was suffocating.

They all covered themselves in a layer of mana to protect themself from the dark mana. At first, they were struggling, but it got easier over time.

To Arlo's dismay, the three adapted quickly to dark mana in the fog.

Alexia was about to move further into the forest, but Shivan put his hand on her shoulder telling her to stop.

Chloe was standing still contemplating something.

"Hey Chloe? What's wrong? Let's go!" Alexia called over to her.

Chloe ignored her and turned to Arlo instead. "Hey, Arlo you specialise in guns right?"

"Uh... yeah!" Arlo replied, though a bit surprised at that question. "Why are you asking?"

"Then you'd better use this." Chloe then opened her bag pulling out the sniper rifle that nearly killed them just over a month ago.

Arlo saw the sniper and immediately recognised the company that made the gun.

"HUH?!" To say Arlo was surprised was an understatement. His face was filled with pure confusion. It was one thing to be a slacker at school, but it was a whole different ball game with this.

It was beyond illegal to have unregistered MAWs in your procession, especially gun types. 

"Don't ask where we got them," Chloe told Arlo flatly.

"But...." Arlo trailed off. He wasn't getting any answer from them. After sorting out their equipment, they walked further into the forest.

Shivan's ability to sense the presence of others was greater than Jeanne's, so they avoided most aberrants.

However, they eventually encountered a flock of aberrants of a single species. They were Echo Blackbirds. They were known to form large flocks and use sounds to disorient their opponents.

Despite being herbivores, like all aberrants, they were immediately hostile towards living beings.

Each blackbird was around grade 6, while an entire flock was collectively ranked grade 4, though on the high end.

The four of them readied their weapons to face their opponents.