The Start of the Storm

The sky was clear, leaving only light from the crescent moon to shine on the forest. When the screams died down in the middle of the night, the forest got eerily quiet to even fall asleep. Ray realized this a little too late when he woke up in the middle of the night after recovering.

"Well, at least we are alone," he muttered after sensing no animal within the fifty-meter radius. "A little too alone. Where are the animals?"

"They all ran away, probably because of something that happened in the Dragon Nest," Rose answered.

"Hey, babe. how have you been?" Ray asked, rushing to her.

"Pretty well. got the entire swamp cleared, no opponents left, the rest of the team is getting ready to go and meet the captain, they sent me to bring you all." Rose slowly combed Ray's hair with her fingers. "Why is your hair so messed up?"

Ray didn't say anything, he just watched as she cleaned him up. fixing the hair and zipping the jacket, a little annoyed look on her face. She looked perfect, with her hair properly tied behind and clothes so clean as if she wasn't living in the forest for the last few days. Ray finally broke the silence, "Who are you?"

"What?" Rose replied, confused.

"Rose would never act so distant after being separated for several days. she is never so soft either, you think she cares about how my hair and clothes look?" Ray grabbed the neck of the person in front of him.

The illusion came off, revealing a member of team 7 losing color in their eyes. It was hard to figure out the reason for the approach, but the objective was clear. Ray held the neck until the opponent was fully unconscious, he tied the hands and legs for good measure when he dropped down to the camp, and he was met with Isaac and the opponents he had caught.

"Hey man, sorry but I got more this time." Issac smiled cheekily, "Drop that one with this lot, they all are in the same team."

"When did you get up?" Ray asked.

"When that loud sound came from there." Issac pointed towards the southeast. "It was like a low-pitched roar."

"A dragon?" ray asked.

"I don't know… but there should not be any dragons here, it's winter. it could be any other animal, but I don't sense one in the area. maybe you should try looking for one." Issac suggested.

ray closed his eyes and focussed on the movement of mana around him. when there was a source of energy around, the mana moved away from it, like heat from a hot rod. the amount of mana leaking from trees was different from that of animals.

Trees are energy efficient, they tend to absorb more energy than they can emit which goes opposite to how animals work. The energy balance of most animals tends to be more on the side of emitting. That emission causes the mana around the animal to move away from them. Like how animals use thermal vision in my original world to see, the mana can be sensed that way by using skin instead of eyes.

Ray was able to sense this movement of mana in a fifty-meter radius from him, anything beyond that was a blur and void to him. This made it hard to sneak up on him unless the person was not emitting any mana at all.

Ray only knew a few more people that were more sensitive than him in sensing the movement of mana. each had a different way to do so, personal and secret to the user.

Ray had scanned the radius multiple times, but not even a single rat was there. "Either every animal in the area is dead, or something has scared all of them off," Ray said.

"I bet it was that roar from earlier… Does every kind of dragon leave when winter hits?" Issac asked as he put out the campfire.

"Unless it was unable to fly, why would any dragon stay here in winter?" the realization dawned on Ray, "We have to leave, wake others up."

As soon as others woke up, Issac summed up the situation and they all ran towards the river. they didn't find a single animal on their way there, even the bugs were gone. "It's so eerie." Cerene commented. "it was full of life when we all went to sleep. what happened?"

"I was awake until they summoned all the opponents we tied up. they were all teleported at once. There were a few bats still flying around, I don't know after that. I was asleep a few moments later." Finley answered, who was strangely calm in this situation.

"I know one thing for sure, something scared everything off in the two-three hours we were asleep. either a storm is coming, or something more dangerous is in this forest right now." Issac was not making any, just looking ahead with concern in his eyes.

Ray kept scanning his surroundings in hopes of finding anything moving in the forest, but it was to no avail. They crossed into the Nursery swamps and that hindered Ray's ability to sense mana flow. Water bodies were not something he could scan in, or over for that matter. but that wasn't needed. The river was flowing, but there was no sound of water.

They all stood in that silence, looking around to see any signs of life. Ray broke the silence first, "by the authority of Cosmos, I use Protect."

A little wind started at his legs and spread outwards, fizzling out in a few seconds. nothing happened for a few seconds but after that, the sounds came back. The river currents were deafening, now that they could hear it again. "well, at least now we know how those losers were able to sneak on us." Issac laughed a little. "was that roar a kind of signal to cast an auditory deception on us?"

"Possibly. They had one who was perfectly disguised as Rose, down to the voice. I think they have been targeting us specifically."

"How did you figure out it wasn't Rose that you saw?"

"Dude, she is my girlfriend, you think I can't differentiate real from fake?'' Ray sensed a movement above him. "Look, there she is."

Rose landed in front of him, her hair tied behind her head and had all kinds of things stuck to it. her clothes showed signs of being in fights, but her eyes were still the same. Ray jumped towards her and gave her a hug. "I missed you."

"You had time to miss me when you were fighting for the last few days?" She sounded stern and cold, but her arms were wrapped around Ray tightly. "I missed you too."

"Um, is the test over already?" Issac said, "cause I want to go back to my bed and get some solid sleep."

"Sorry about that." Both Ray and Rose said together.

"Did you meet up with other members dropped in this swamp?" Cerene asked.

"Yes. They are coming in a few minutes. I rushed here first. we all are heading to the source of that roar from earlier." Rose replied.

Terrance floated down with the remaining members of the team that were on this side of the river. Anya slashed a nearby tree with her scythe and the hollow inside was exposed, she examined the tree stump and announced, "Even the termites have fled. Why didn't we?"

There was no answer, no one had even a slight hint at what could scared everything away, maybe even hours ago. whatever it was, no human had felt it moving through the forest, hence the silence. Terrance aimed an arrow in the air and said lightly, "Authority of Ethera, let this arrow Luster in the dark."

The arrow shot up, creating a blinding light at its tip like a shooting star as it fell to the other side of the river. Everyone moved immediately after that arrow was shot. "Well, at least we know everyone saw that it was high enough," Issac said. "How do we know that our teammates know it was from us?"

"We won't." Evan answered, "Unless they give a signal back that we can understand. The arrow was to announce our presence. there is no one on our side, we have to lure out opponents, or maybe even teammates."

They all flew alongside the river, heading south to cross over to the nesting grounds of dragons. It was a risky move to pull before the time of rendezvous, but it was the only other way to actually know the number of enemies that could be a problem. The sky started getting brighter, which meant only around an hour was left before the sun would be in the sky in all its glory. Ray started taking off, "I will go over to the other side, anyone interested can follow me, the rest of you can scour this side."

Finley and Evan followed Ray to the sky. They crossed the river with ease. their destination was the place where the arrow might have fallen, it was going to lead to friends or to opponents. Either way, it was going to be a fun experience, at least that was written all over Finley's face. keeping their distance from each other as they got closer to the arrow, all three landed in the trees.

The trees felt greener on this side, but that just made the silence they bore feel even worse than the eastern side of the forest. After confirming that even this side had no animals, ray flew high up into the sky, barely remaining within the limits. The entire forest was visible from here, and that included the enemies that were storming the dragon's nest, and the smoke coming from the western fruit forest. After calculating the number of enemies left on the eastern side of the forest, Ray was sure that only the enemies left were all gathered in the nest.

"Authority of Midea, create a Crevice for me to pass through." Ray cast a spell, aiming for the smoke pillar that was rising in the west. He felt the space around him bend as a crack formed in front of him. it felt as if his energy was pulled into that crevice as it formed. ray touched the crack and was sucked into it, losing his balance on the exit through the other side.

Gaining his balance before he hit the ground wasn't hard, but it took longer than he was used to. He almost touched the canopy, but his instincts kicked in time. "That was close. these damn gods take too much mana in exchange for their authority."

(Don't badmouth them Ray, they can just as easily deny to lend you the authority.)

"Oh hey, Scribe, what do you mean, deny to lend authority?" Ray asked.

(Alright, let me teach you how these things work. time for a library lesson)

Ray was summoned into his subconscious for the lesson that lasted only one second in real life.