Come Back Witch

Finley did not question what Amilie saw; he trusted her words completely. Slowly turning around, shortly debating if dropping the old man was the right choice, he decided against it. With a glance over his shoulder, he checked that Amilie too decided to turn around, he started sprinting away as fast as possible.

While running, he barely managed to get out. "Ami, what happened?" Walking with the elderly man wasn't much of a strain on him, but sprinting was a whole new debate. It felt like he was chained down, and even though both of them were rising grades and already having survived the first instance, they were still only human.

''Lers… Lers is dead. " Amilie's voice was filled with grief and even without looking, Finley knew she was crying. Normally he would instantly get to her side, trying to comfort her, but survival was the highest priority; if it came down to it, he would drop the old man and instead carry Amilie if she were to fall into a panic.

Lers death should've been impossible he was the only rising grade allowed to leave the village alone simply because of his deep understanding of survival and combat instinct. As the son of Dr. Cloves, he also had the best equipment for survival always on him.

"You got any idea what got him?" He probably would've liked to not find out what killed his friend, but information was the most important weapon when fighting causalities.

"Nothing at the spawn or matured grade could've done it, at least not without leaving any clues. There should be nothing higher around here. Dr. Cloves said a rising grade can at maximum handle a mature grade alone.'' Amilie seemed to not even have heard his question, still continuing to spiral down her panic.

"What about Vinces? Was he there too…?" Finley didn't want to ask this, but he had to make sure another life could get lost on a rescue mission. His voice tried to stay as soft as he could, not wanting to pressure Amilie more. But his words once again fell on deaf ears.

"Fuck, fuck, what do I do?" Finley started to also lose his composure; normally Amilie was the one keeping a cool head in dangerous situations or Lers… Well, today was different and no matter what, they will make it out of this forest.

Jumping over a small bush, he noticed a possible lifesaver on their left; from the direction they came from, at the cliff, there was a small cave-looking stone foundation. Exactly what he was looking for, the one Lers showed him about just some time ago.

"Ami, left side look!" Instead of waiting for her to finally listen to him, he stopped until she caught up and grabbed her wrist. ''Wake up and follow me.''

She finally seemed to snap out of her panic and allowed Finley to pull her behind. Getting closer, his prediction had been right; there truly was a cave down just ahead. If they were to reach it before whatever killed Lers noticed them, then they could survive.

His shoulder was killing him, the old man seemed to weigh several times his weight and only increased it each second. IT seemed to have noticed their existence and tried to use causality to slow them down.

But it still seemed to be far away and entirely unsure of their location, so it cast its spell area wide, reducing its effect.

But just a moment after, both arrived at the cliffside, climbing through stones into a small cave. Finally letting out a sigh of relief, he sat the old man down. Meanwhile, Amilie collapsed against a wall.

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"Deep breaths, Ami; try to breathe and relax." Finley had come closer to her but was still letting her keep a safe distance. While Amilie seemed to try to follow his advice, only slowly calming down.

"Can you tell me what happened, Ami?" His voice was soft but also tense.

Only after a few more minutes Amilie finally dared to speak. "Lers was dismembered; it was horrifying, blood everywhere and and and..." But her voice seemed to die in her mouth. Wiping her eyes, she tried to focus.

Finley already could've imagined the rest, so he didn't push any further. "Did you see Vinces anywhere? Or anybody else?''

Amilie just slowly shook her head. "It seemed like Lers was out alone, completely alone, when he died…" Finley would wish there was a way to comfort her, but even he himself was barely able to handle the news. Seeing Amilie crying only made him feel more useless.

Staring at the dead old man lying on the ground, Finley started to plan how they could return to the village. "How long do you think this old geezer will be gone? If he makes it back…''

Amilie seemed to only now remember the man they were carrying with them. "The first instance doesn't take that long. Dr. Cloves was only gone for like one hour, the same as you, but only roughly 30% make it back alive. Remembering them saving somebody seemed to brighten Amilie's mood slowly.

Counting on the old man seemed to be a gamble that Finley didn't want to commit to, but he knew that Amilie would not be ready to see another person die today. "We should rest for now; if he doesn't wake up until noon, we will go without him." If it were up to him, we would stay longer, but the forest day could not be compared to its night. If they wanted to survive, they needed to enter the witch spell again.

Finley just wanted to lay down and finally get a bit of rest as suddenly a loud crash occurred just a few meters outside the cave. As if through a sixth sense, he could feel a terrifying presence outside. The two of them were, of course, hiding their magical presence, but they weren't sure if maybe other senses could detect them. Running now became impossible, hiding would also only work for a bit more until they were detected. In other words, Finley had led them directly into a death trap with something powerful enough to kill the strongest rising grade.

His panic was barely hidden; each second seemed to feel longer and longer. Finley slowly moved towards the entrance, peeking outside, he could see a roughly 4-meter-tall, haired, monkey-like beast. His claws were unnaturally long, but some were broken off, also his left hand seemed to just hang down, not following the movements of its body as it should. His face was smeared with blood but also disfigured like something tried to cut its head off. But even then it seemed to still be easily able to move and hunt.

Slowly moving back inside, he crawled towards Amilie as quietly as he could. It hurts; Lers did a great deal on it. One of its arms seemed to be destroyed and its head has multiple wounds."

Amilie nods quickly, understanding the situation. ''Lers has been missing since this morning, which means a rescue squad is probably on its way in our direction. If we were to wait just a bit more, with the help of the others it might be possible.''

Finley shook his head. "No, we were the rescue, or why do you think Dr. Cloves sent us directly in this direction?" Staring at the unconscious old guy. "If we didn't stop for this guy, we might have arrived in..." Ami rose her hand and slapped him in the face. "Don't say anything like that, we couldn't have known he was in danger and saving humans was our mission. We can't just abandon one for the chance of finding a friend.''

Finley looked down ashamed and angry; he knew the old man wasn't at fault for the death of his friend, but he just couldn't accept it so easily.

The monster outside seemed to only get more aggressive as it seemed to destroy more and more trees trying to find its prey.

They both stared at each other knowing time was running out. It's either time to act now and hope they can surprise the beast or try to hide, giving up the surprise attack and letting the monster bleed out a bit more, maybe gaining them the advantage in close combat.

Whatever they were choosing, they had to do it fast. Finley slowly stood up, grabbing his dagger tightly as Amilie pulled him back down. ''We will wait." Her voice was filled with confidence as if she knew something Finley didn't.

Slowly sitting back down, Finley couldn't shake off the feeling of having chosen wrong. Something was telling him to just sacrifice the others for a chance of his own escape, maybe the others were right about him not being ready for outside missions yet, after all, he was the newest rising. If Lers wasn't able to beat this thing, what chance did he have?

Just a moment before he could spiral into panic, Ami grabbed his sleeve. ''Look, something is happening to the old man; let's just hope he makes it through. When he comes back we might stand a chance.''

The elderly man slowly seemed to start glowing, showing he entered the final step of the First Instance. The monster seemed to sense the magical energy coming from David and started destroying the cave entrance, trying to get in. As its claws slowly dragged away the stones.

As its loose and destroyed eye hung down through the exit.

"No, no, this is bad. A matured beast can't sense magic, he must be at least of the evolved grade. Not even the Doctor tries to fight them.'' Amilie also seemed to start doubting herself again.

The time was up.

Either this old man wakes up now or

All of them will be doomed in this small cave.

Both of them held their breath.

David's glowing body slowly seemed to dim down.

And completely disappeared.