Patient Ambush Predator

"So, you have no idea what could have happened?"

Aayla smiled and rapidly nodded her head. Yup. She had no idea or involvement whatsoever. A wry smile appeared on the professor's face.

"Fine. Well, that's unfortunate. One of the professors will go have a look later."

With that, the questions came to an end. The professor didn't seem fully convinced, but Aayla was just a first year and Deputy Heston was her godmother. There wasn't much of a reason to start an unnecessary fight. So, the professor decided to let it go.

With everyone forbidden from stepping foot outside of the walls, Aayla couldn't go back to her own campsite. Fortunately, Aayla kept her important items on her. She found a quiet place to work on her translation of the journal. She had nothing else better to do.

Soon another professor arrived, bringing the total number of professors to two. The new professor brought critical information with them. The 'snow shark' or whatever it was had not been seen, let alone captured, since earlier in the morning.

However, traces of mana were found that suggested the magical beast was a snow shark, and that it was not alone. One shark could theoretically get lost and travel down the Havrevel. Two or more? Combined with the incidents on the first day, someone was causing trouble.

The True Order was the most likely culprit, though Nafriton did have some suspicions towards CNU. Some from Nafriton were convinced that their longtime rival was involved. Only the CNU team had managed to avoid complete disaster the entire time.

With multiple snow sharks confirmed, the training exercise was cancelled. The professors split into three groups: one to track the magical beasts, one to warn the surrounding villages and another to evacuate the students. The purpose of this trip was training, not a true life or death situation. The universities would not risk losing one of their top students.

By lunch, everyone was ready to go. Aayla's stuff was all outside of the wall. She hated to lose it all since Ramona bought it, but the professors refused to let her out. At least that made packing fast and easy for Aayla.

To be fair, Aayla was the only one with a ride, namely the deer that the lovely students of Tigurum caught for her. The ride back would be an interesting one. The deer was the one thing that the professors would let her take. One of the professors decided to go with her to bring it inside the camp.

After checking the surroundings several times, the professor and Aayla left the Nafriton camp. Her camp and the temporary stable built by the fourth-years were only a few minutes away. However, the fourth-years had cleaned up a lot of the snow around their camp, but not the entire hilltop.

The snow quickly climbed up from their ankles to their waists. Without the trail already precut through the snow drifts, their travel time would have at least tripled. Parts of the trail had strange marks or looked like it had been burst apart.

She had only been to the stable once or twice in the late evening. Something just seemed wrong. The bird song died away as they approached the stable. Several sections of the underbrush looked frozen or torn apart. Even the bases of some of the trees looked more frozen than usual.

Aayla stopped and grabbed onto the professor's cloak. For an instant, she felt something. Aayla had no idea what it was, but something felt close. Only the sound of branches gently rocked by the breeze whispered in her ears. The grunting and munching noises of the deer couldn't be heard. When she inhaled, the wind carried a slight coppery scent.

She closed her eyes to listen. After several minutes of listening, she could hear a light swish through the snow. Whenever that sound happened, she had 'that feeling' again. Ever so quiet, she would have thought it was merely the wind rustling tree branches if she didn't pay attention. Her grip on the professor's cloak tightened.

"Professor, something's wrong. It's too quiet, and there's a slightly bloody smell in the air."

A sharp frown formed on his face. The professor had the same feeling that Aayla had, but he knew what it was. That was mana. Specifically, Aayla's mana. However, it was sporadically appearing here and there in front of them in a circle pattern. And it was slowly inching closer.

"Ms. Glowery, you caused that light from earlier."

"There was a slight mishap when testing a long-range artifact."

"When you spread out your mana in front of us, what do you feel?"

Aayla lowered her eyes and spread out her own mana. Every once in a while, she felt 'something' around them. 'It' was really cold, but also very familiar.

"Ah! That's my mana!"

"Very good. Snow sharks are extremely stealthy beasts. The deer must have attracted its attention earlier. We are going to slowly back away and head back to the campsite. Keep an eye out for your mana at all times, but don't completely focus on that. There may be more than one around."

Aayla and the professor slowly backed away while the shark circled in front of them. Several minutes later, the mana was out of Aayla's range. When the snow dropped to knee height, they turned around to walk quickly and quietly back to the main camp. The main door was soon in their sights.

That 'feeling' suddenly returned behind her. When Aayla turned her head, she could see a fin speeding through the snow. An urge to sprint back to the main camp gripped her heart. A hand grabbed her arm to stop her from running off.

"Keep calm and steady. It's tracking, not accelerating for an attack. It could jump if it wanted to, but the snow is a bit too shallow for it. As long as we keep moving slowly and steadily, we shouldn't attract its attention."

For the next few minutes Aayla could barely breath. She kept nervously looking over her shoulders for the snow shark. Just when they reached the final bend in the trail to move towards the gate, Aayla paused. That snow drift was really high. When did it get so close to the gate?

"Professor, that snow drift is really close."

"I know. Let's stop for a minute."

Several students and the other professor appeared along the top of the wall. Each was fully armed and had a serious look on their face. When Aayla looked closer, she could see several miscolored blotches along the wall. Some looked more frozen while others looked like fresh dirt. The students tossed several ropes down the wall.

Even a ferocious gale or expert class ice element magic couldn't move the snow drift. Two grey triangles peeked out from the top of the drift. They looked like the fin tips of a shark. An ambush was waiting near the gate.

Aayla estimated the size of the shark. It couldn't swallow her whole if she stood upright, but her shield wouldn't be able to protect her. She quietly started to draw in the mana from her surroundings. With her horrible regeneration rate, she would need to stockpile as much as she could before the fight started.

Behind them, she could feel her mana start crossing back and forth over the trail that they just walked over. Then it started moving closer, forcing Aayla and the professor closer towards the waiting ambush. Aayla started looking around for a way out.

The snow drifts had crept forward at some point. Now the snow around their knees was steadily creeping higher. In time, there would be plenty of room for a snow shark. She glanced behind her. Was it that crafty jerk? Why didn't she think that magical beasts could do something like this? These tactics are much too advanced for Terran creatures.

She glanced at the nearby trees. There were several sturdy trees nearby that stretched up tens of feet.

"Should we climb, or maybe fly?"

"Our opponents are too fast. They can't change directions very well, but if they get enough speed, they can jump over thirty feet high and barrel through almost anything. Can you use that magic from earlier again?"

Aayla focused on the silver cuff. In a few seconds, a bow appeared in her hands. The string of light shimmered to life between the ends of the bow. The shark behind them seemed to jolt and scurry back a few feet. It was instinctively afraid of the bow.

"I think so. I've handled bows before, but I just used it for the first time this morning. Literally I've only used it once."

"Things are going to get tricky. Try to reach the wall and grab one of the ropes as fast as you can."

A wry smile appeared on Aayla's face. Chased by dangerous ice monsters while running to safety. This situation seemed so familiar. Hopefully she would still be alive afterwards.