Sub-45

There were over a hundred of these wolf-like creatures lurking around in the forest, watching the three boys. Each of the creatures glowing eyes were filled with hunger, and they looked like they hadn't eaten in months. The creatures also made sure to stay with in the darkness. No matter how far Lucius extended the reach of the light, the creatures stayed just out of ranged, seeming to prefer roaming in the dark. Raiden raised a hand into the air, and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Overhead, the sound of thunder was audible. A bolt of lighting crashed against the barrier. "Seems like I can't use a lightning storm." Raiden turned to where Hayato was standing, charging up a wind attack. One hand was raised into the air, and his eyes were closed. "How long will you need." 

Hayato didn't respond for a few seconds, calculating. "45 seconds." 

Raiden turned back to face the creatures in the forest. "45, that should be easy enough." He cracked his knuckles, directing his next words to Lucius. "These guys can absorb magic, so that's off the table We'll have to resort to physical abilities." A beast charged at Raiden from the forest, bearing its fangs. Raiden smoothly dodged out of the way, before grabbing the beast by its tail and chucking it at a tree. The beast died on impact, its spine shattering. Multiple other of the wolf like creatures jumped out from the shadows in some sort of group attack. Raiden didn't even flinch and dashed straight at them. 

He dodged two of them before grabbing them and using them as makeshift weapons bat away and block the other ones. One of these creatures managed to slip past Raiden, and went straight for Hayato, seemingly drawn towards the gathering of Mana. Lucius stepped in front of Hayato and summoned a blade made of brilliant gold light. The handle guard took the shape of a circlet or crown with six places for jewels that were empty. It took the shape of a sword you would commonly see in movies about the chosen one, who uses it to slay the dragon. Lucius fittingly named it, "Excalibur." As the creature got closer, Lucius made a downward slash with the sword, seemingly ignoring Raiden's warning. However, the beast didn't absorb the slash from the sword made of pure magic. Instead, it was cut in half and its body completely disintegrated. 

After dealing with the monster, he turned to look at Raiden who was still fighting off the monsters. He decided it would be the perfect time to poke a little fun at him. "You seem to have forgotten a key thing about magic, in that there are three types. Elemental, Law, an principle. Your Magic falls under the elemental classification. I on the other hand, fall under the Principle classification. So while that beast may be able to absorb elemental magic, that doesn't mean it would be able to absorb the other types. Besides, my principle type light magic purifies all evil creatures." Lucius finished his condescending explanation and it fulfilled its purpose greatly, as Raiden tossed the body of a creature at him, clearly annoyed. Lucius batted the body away before walking over to Raiden's side. Despite the fact that over a hundred bodies were scattered around the forest, nearly triple the amount of eyes had appeared to replace them. 

"This obviously isn't going to work." Lucius stated. 

"Oh yeah smartass? What do you suggest?" Raiden responded cynically. 

Lucius thought back to when one of the beast had charged past Raiden and went straight for Hayato, who was in the middle of charging an attack. He also glanced back into the forest, and the hundreds of pairs of glowing eyes staring at them. Specifically the massive glowing red pair in the center of the all. "Raiden, just focused on channeling as much magic as you possible can." Raiden looked like he wanted to ask a question but decided to just roll with it. He put a hand up into the air and began to gather lightning magic around it. The blueish, purple veined lightning flickered violently as it grew in intensity. Lucius looked into the forest and noticed a shift in the demeanor of the beast. They had been laying back, sticking to the shadows, but now that Raiden began to charge his attack they seemed to be put one edge, like they were ready to pounce at moment. 

So they are attracted to mana. After confirming his theory, Lucius told Raiden to turn up the power, which he did gladly. As soon as Raiden turned up the intensity and power of his magic the creatures seemed to snap, and now every single one of them were charging straight towards Raiden, who was surrounded by a violent flickering mass of lightning. Lucius smiled as he entered a stance charging up an attack. He waited until they were nearly completely surrender before unleashing a massive wide scale downward slash of light. "Judgment of Light!" The massive wave of light that Lucius fired tore through the hundreds of creatures turning all of them to dust. The only one that remained was the large one with glowing red eyes, which let out a large roar, shaking the wisteria leaves above. 

After his attack cut through all of the smaller monsters, Lucius turned to Raiden and shouted, "NOW!" At the same time, the massive monster finally took a step into the light. It's fur was a bright white color, and it was covered in scars that glowed a bright green color. It looked like a polar bear, but was easily the size of a semi-truck. As the massive bear like monster charged it opened its mouth, revealing a massive concentration of wind magic that the creature had been building up while hiding in the forest. It released the attack, the wind cutting through the ground and tree trunks like butter. Raiden brought his two hands together, channeling all of the energy he had been building up into a great sword made of lightning. He swung the blade in an arcing downward slash, sending a massive wave of lightning out, that sliced straight through the wind attack, and cutting the beast clean in half. "Thundering Pulse!" 

The two half's of the beasts body fell unto the ground, raising tons of smoke and leaving craters in the ground. The forest Infront of them was heavily damaged, the ground chopped up and burnt by wind and lightning. Raiden and Lucius high fived before turning to face Hayato, who was now fully charged. He waved his hand in the direction of the tree, letting out a massive blast of wind that completely vaporized the massive branch blocking their way. The three boys stood proudly in front of the newly opened pathway, their hair and clothes blowing in the wind. Hayato mockingly pretended to look at an invisible watch on his wrist. "It took you guys 46 seconds to get rid of all of them." 

He was meet with silence, as Raiden and Lucius had already moved on ahead. 

"Hey! wait up!" 

 * * *

For the most part, the rest of their journey through the forest was uneventful. They spotted multiple other monsters, but they all seemed to back away from them. Moreover, the fog in the area was beginning to increase, making it even harder to see than it already was. Raiden, nearly triple over some sort of stone and began to grumble. "This place is more tedious to travel through the scary." 

"Don't complain, your the one who wanted to come here." Lucius pinned the blame for this on Raiden. 

"Don't act like its all my fault!" 

"It probably is, if were being honest." Raiden looked at Hayato with a betrayed look on his face. 

"And here I thought we had reached an agreement." 

Hayato simply shrugged as if he had no idea what Raiden was talking about. "It was a one time thing. Equivalent exchange. Besides, you got what you wanted, didn't you?" 

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Lucius interrupted the two boys conversation, reminding them of his prescence. 

"Business matters." Raiden replied 

"Bribery." Hayato said at the exact same time. 

"Do you two have no shame?" Lucius said critically. 

The boys friendly banter was interrupted by a loud piercing sound that sent a shiver down their spine. It was high pitched, and seemed to rise in octave endlessly, until it suddenly dropped, almost as if it was being submerged into water. It didn't help that the fog seemed to grow thicker. The sound was identical to that a whale would make. All three boys froze at the same time, looking around them. It was to no avail however, as the fog was too thick to see much of anything. However just in front of them, the fog seemed to clear slightly, revealing a temple like building in front of them, surrounded by four fountains on each side, each of them emitting a different color fluid. Gold, Blue, green, and one of them seemed to be broken. 

"What the..." Was all Hayato managed to get out. Lucius however, was already walking forward approaching the door to the temple, which seemed to be made out of marble. He put a hand to it, attempting to push and pull it open, but nothing happened. He turned his eyes to a stone tablet off to the side, and before Raiden and Hayato could even think of a comment to make, he began to read. 

"Element to law, law to principle. Black knight of an empty throne, Champion of the chosen queen. Chain linked to both, fated battle, where only one blade, will remain clean." Lucius turned back to Raiden and Hayato. "The last time we came here, this wasn't here...Right?" 

Hayato and Lucius nodded their agreement. Just as Lucius opened his mouth to say something, they heard the sound of rumbling and their eyes all snapped back to where they had come from. Someone had opened the entrance. Their minds began to race, thinking of who it could possibly be, and they all came to the same conclusion. 

"Yami!" The prospect of their teacher finding out they had snuck into the Forest of Life utterly terrified them. Without even sharing a single word, they devised a plan. Split up, and meet back at the entrance. 

They disappeared in a flash of lightning, light and wind. 

 * * * 

Yami had walked into the clearing just as the three boys had left. He looked over the temple, and indescribable expression on his face. He glanced down at his stop watch. 15 seconds had passed. He looked at the three directions he saw the boys run in, thinking over which one he should go after first. He knew that they were planning to meet back up at the gate to try and escape. He smiled. "Did you guys manage to reconcile?" Then he turned and walked down the direction of where Hayato had went. 

Within a few seconds Yami was easily able to locate the path that Hayato had taken, looking over the displaced trees leaves and rocks. Normally, Hayato would have been more careful in hiding his tracks, but he was obviously opting for speed, over stealth, which would've been the right option....

If it wasn't Yami who was chasing him.

Yami instantly teleported forward, predicting the path that he knew Hayato would take. Hayato noticed all to late, and tried to change his route, using wind magic to blast him the opposite direction, but Yami's ability overpowered his. A small vortex opened up above Yami, dragging in any and everything around him. The vortex pulled Hayato forward, and Yami knocked him out with a swift chop to the neck. Yami immediately turned and teleported in the opposite direction. 

30 seconds. 

Yami knew that Lucius and Raiden wouldn't be easy to catch, as both of them could easily move at the speed light, being able to harness the element power of lightning, and principle of light respectfully. It would have been an extremely difficult task. 

If it wasn't Yami on the hunt. 

Lucius was halfway towards the exit when he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. When he looked behind him, he saw Yami, dragging Hayato's unconscious body. Lucius cringed at the sight of his fallen comrade, but he knew it would e a fruitless endeavor to try and rescue him. Lucius turned to make his escape, however it seemed like the gravity had been increased 12 fold and Lucius was brought to his knees as the ground around him cracked and shattered. The sudden increase in pressure knocked Lucius out as well. Yami released the pressure before grabbing Lucius

40 seconds. 

Raiden had nearly made it to the entrance, but he knew he couldn't leave until the others had arrived. He had made every correct decision, covered his tracks nearly perfectly, and made sure his route was direct but hard to follow. He was flawless. But it didn't matter. 

Because Yami was his pursuer. 

When Raiden burst out into the clearing he was meat by a horrifying sight. Yami, leaning against the barrier, holding the unconscious bodies of Lucius and Hayato by their collars. Raiden, froze, knowing it would be a fruitless endeavor to try and escape. So he raised both of his hands and did something he vowed that he would never do again. 

He surrendered. 

It took Yami 44 seconds to catch all three of them.