My Special Ability is Growing Muscles

What happened during the night was an eye opener.

After that, the orientation among the camp changed. The overall mood reverted to what the students first started the mission with, apprehension and fear.

Just like that, some of their friends died.

Just like that, some of their classmates that they've spent the past two weeks in the Academy learning alongside died.

Most of the freshers still couldn't get used to it.

The instructors were practical. Though they left the bodies of the monsters in the wild, they appropriately buried every student that died during the attack.

After that, they said nothing, they didn't even address the students or try to dampen that fears, and that unnerved the students more than anything else.

'Damn… our classmates just died!'

But no one cared. At least, not the instructors.

Compared to the regular freshers though, the instructors could not help but notice that a few of them took the deaths easier than the others… the scholarship students who all survived Major Pain's brutal baptism of blood.

They silently took note of them, keeping their performances at the back of their mind for their instructor's assessment at the end of the mission.

Hours later, dawn found the camp quiet in the wrong way.

This time, there was no more boasting and no flute, only the soft rasp of whetstones and the stiff scrape of leather straps being tightened over bruised shoulders as the students got prepared for today's trek.

The monster corpses from last night smoked where blood had scorched the grass. Every student packed in silence, their eyes a little older and heavier than they were yesterday.

"Rotations!" With his spear strapped across his back, the Captain of Platoon 3, Captain Roran Steelspine barked. "From now on, two squads on the wagons at all times, two on the flanks, and one forward screen".

"I want rotations every hour".

"No drifting, no gaps. If you're tired, tighten up the formation; fatigue is how the Wild Zone eats you".

With that, they moved.

The trek through the Wild Zone continued.

This time, Kairo fell into Platoon Three's forward-left with Mira at his shoulder. He walked light on his blistered feet, his head scanning everywhere with the alertness of someone used to all-around danger.

He ate his from his reserve of roasted meat before embarking on the journey, but hunger gnawed with a meaner edge today. His frame had thinned again, his shirt hanging off a little looser.

The world around him felt too sharp today, from the sound of every twig snap to the shiver of every leaf, even a needle in his ear.

He kept scanning anyway.

Valek glided up on their right, his cloak immaculate despite last night's chaos. His faction clustered around him like the tail of a serpent; the Serpent Prince didn't even look winded.

"Try to keep up, slumrat," he said without looking at Kairo. "Some of us were born for this".

Last night, just like Kairo, he pulled his weight during the sudden attack as he had a few monster kills to his name.

Mira's jaw ticked, but Kairo didn't bite at his provocation. He didn't have energy to waste on words, not today.

After some time, they left the safer treeline and slid into a basin of twisted trunks and root-heaved ground.

Here, the air thickened, becoming hot, sticky, and metallic. A faint shimmer hung over the soil like heat mirage; every exhale was too hard and their breath came back flavored with rust.

"Mana saturation," Mira murmured. "We're deep in this zone now".

"Deep enough to make things go wrong," Kairo said.

Well, his cursed mouth… because it didn't even take long after Kairo's words as the first wrong thing hit them thirty minutes later.

Alert, they kept on moving through the wild zone like usual.

Nobody noticed it.

It looked like a root until it moved. Before anyone could react, it became a rope-thick Vine Serpent that exploded from the earth, lashing around the near wagon's axle with devastating speed.

BAM!

The draft beasts bellowed, their harness creaking.

Before the driver could cut the lash, other roots uncoiled all around them, snapping up like snares.

"THE TREES ARE ALIVE!" Someone screamed.

They weren't alive yet, but the ground was.

Captain Roran reacted first as his spear flashed. He quickly vaulted the wagon and pinned the serpent through the middle, black sap splattering at his boots. "Cut the binds! Don't let it drag the wagon!" He ordered.

The students reacted as they hacked and sawed at it. Yet, every cut on the tree roots like Vine Serpents spawned three more splits, whipping like angry tendons. The draft beast lurched sideways, harness screaming.

But then…

Bam!

Mira slammed a palm to the ground, as the earth surged up in response to her ability, locking the wheel in a collar of stone. Wind hissed around her blade as she severed two coils in a single crescent slash.

Kairo dove under the wagon with his dagger in his teeth, his free hand ripping vines off the axle.

One snapped across his forearm, splitting his skin.

With a grunt, he jammed the dagger into the knot where multiple lines braided, the heart of the lashing roots. His instincts whispered to him that this was it, and without hesitation, he carved a messy X with his dagger.

Bang! Bang!

The serpent jolted, then went slack.

But they were not safe yet.

"Left flank!" Kairo shouted on reflex. "Eyes up!"

They looked, and then they finally noticed… the forest had stood.

Then it stood taller.

Treants pushed themselves out of the ground, not slow and noble like depicted in storybooks. These were hulking trunks knitted with thorny ligaments, with their faces splintered into hooked maws.

Red veins of mana pulsed like living blood or fever lines under their bark. And when they stepped, the earth sank.

The students all paled at the sight of these monsters.

These were not just any threat, they paled because they could feel the aura exuding from every single one of them.

They were all at lease D Rank, maybe even D+ Rank!

They students shuddered in terror.

"Instructors, on me!" Captain Roran snapped, already charging towards the nearest one. "Students hold the line! Keep the wagons moving!"

The C Ranks went in like black banners snapping to full wind.

And chaos erupted.