Finn's boisterous laughter echoed through the twilight. "Kid, Flareblade Academy's crawling with fireblooded beauties! Once we're back, I'll set you up with..." The warrior waggled his eyebrows suggestively, his greatsword's pommel glinting as they trekked westward.
Kael chuckled, adjusting his Starweave Robe's glowing hemline. "Must every conversation orbit around your hormone-driven agenda?"
"Ah, but life's empty without conquests!" Finn flexed armored biceps that could strangle bears. "Women are like unconquered peaks - that crimson-haired sorcery professor Evelyn? Now there's a summit worth scaling!"
Griffin's staff thumped the forest path in irritation. "Focus. Our Sabertooth's likely prowling the northern glades." The mage turned to Kael, his voice adopting the cadence of a field lecturer. "Tier V Fanged Tigers typically hunt solitarily. With Finn's brute strength and our combined magic..."
Their banter faded as Woma Forest materialized through the gloom - ancient oaks twisted like arthritic giants, their canopy blotting out the stars. The air thickened with the musk of wet loam and something metallic.
Finn sniffed the wind. "We'll make camp past the bloodroot thicket." He hefted his blade, its obsidian edge humming faintly. "Two-hour watch rotations. Griffin first, then..."
A wolfish howl sliced through the dark. Kael's staff flared instinctively, casting jagged shadows across their faces.
"Tier I Luminescence?" Griffin's eyebrow arched. "Wasteful."
"Practical," Kael countered, illuminating fungal growths that squirmed away from the light. "Would you rather step on a Glowcap Spore Pod?"
The academic mage huffed but followed the glowing path. Finn chuckled, armor plates clanking. "See kid? This's why I tolerate magic users. Griffin here once tried navigating by star charts and walked us into a swamp."
As midnight's veil deepened, the forest revealed its true character - bioluminescent moss pulsed like diseased veins, and strange chitters echoed from hollow trunks. During Kael's watch shift, his light spell caught movement in the underbrush - something scaled and multi-limbed retreating from the glow.
"Save your power for real threats," Griffin muttered from his bedroll. "That was just a Mudpuppet Lizard."
Kael squinted at the mage's shadowed form. "Says the man using thermal wards to keep his blanket warm."
A rare smirk ghosted across Griffin's face. "Efficiency differs from extravagance, novice."
Dawn found them at a rocky outcropping strewn with bleached bones. Finn crouched, calloused fingers brushing grooves in the stone. "Sabertooth markings. Fresh." His grin turned feral as he hefted his greatsword. "Let's give our furred friend a proper greeting."
The forest seemed to hold its breath as they advanced - until a thunderous roar shook dew from the leaves. Twin ivory blades gleamed in the half-light as the massive feline emerged, its obsidian-striped coat rippling with barely contained violence.
Kael's grip tightened on the Emberroot Staff. The real hunt had begun.
The trio pressed deeper into the primordial woods, Kael's Luminescence spell carving a bubble of radiance through the suffocating darkness. Griffin monitored their progress with growing unease - three hours of sustained magic emission should have drained any third-tier mage. Yet Kael's breathing remained steady, his staff's glow unwavering.
Finn caught the academic's narrowed gaze and tapped his temple meaningfully. Legacy wielder, his smirk declared.
When they reached a moonlit clearing veined with luminescent fungi, the warrior slammed his greatsword point-first into the loam. "Camp here. Griffin - deploy the Sanctuary."
The mage unfurled an arcane canvas that rippled like liquid mercury. As the tent self-assembled through levitational magic, Kael kindled a firepit with a whispered incantation. Flames danced in prismatic hues where his spell intersected with the forest's ambient mana.
"Wasted potential," Griffin muttered, watching firelight refract through condensation on his thermal-warded robes. "Such power spent on camp chores."
Finn sprawled against a moss-cushioned boulder, his armor clanking. "A starless night's no bedmate," he lamented, ever the bard of carnal poetry. "But I'll stand sentry - wouldn't want you bookworms catching chill."
Sleep came fitfully for Kael. The forest's nocturnal chorus of growls and snapping twigs formed a dissonant lullaby. When bladder pressure roused him past midnight, he found Finn wide-eyed and vibrating with combat-ready energy, greatsword humming in harmonic resonance with distant howls.
Then the forest stilled.
Kael's staff flared instinctively as six pairs of phosphorescent eyes materialized in the gloom - lupine silhouettes twice the size of direwolves, their saliva hissing where it struck iron-rich soil.
"Tier II Frenzied Howlers!" Kael barked, recalling bestiary engravings. The wolf pack advanced in predatory synchronicity, rusted-metal fur bristling with embedded shrapnel from forgotten battles.
Griffin materialized in a swirl of defensive wards, his sleep-rumpled academic demeanor replaced by lethal focus. "Flanking pattern Beta," he snapped. "Kael - suppression fire on my mark!"
Finn's answering grin turned feral as he hefted his vibrating blade. "Finally, proper dancing partners!"
The alpha Howler lunged with a shriek that shattered nearby saplings into kindling. Battle was joined.