Dealing with the Snow Sharks

A few minutes of nothing happening emboldened the snow shark behind them to approach the duo again. The only path through the snow led to either the emboldened snow shark or the patient snow shark. The snow drifts around them were too high to run quickly.

Aayla kept her eyes on the snow shark behind them while she checked her bracelet. Only a little bit of fire element mana remained, along with several shots of ice element mana. How was she going to get out of this one?

The students along the walls quickly prepared something in secret. The door was raised just enough for a person to slide through. The ropes dangling along the sides of the wall slowly lengthened to the top of the snow. The professor standing on top of the walls kept her eyes on the snow shark in front of the duo.

"Professor Brenys! Is anyone else out there with you aside from Ms. Glowery?"

"No. It's just us. The deer is probably dead, along with anything else unlucky enough to be outside of the camp."

The lady professor sighed. So, no one is finding a mount nearby. That will make travelling much harder. The situation was expected with snow sharks nearby, but was still highly undesired. Only a handful of the students had flight magic.

"Hang in there for a couple of minutes. We're preparing a little surprise that should buy you enough time to run for the door or the wall."

Aayla carefully studied the snow around them while the professors talked. The ice element mana from the snow shark wore away at the little bit of her mana left on its skin. Soon, she would no longer be able to follow the snow shark behind them.

One of the two snow sharks, or perhaps both, were causing the snow drifts to rise. Her eyes narrowed. Aayla had the inklings of an idea. Back at Nafriton, the New Moon Bracelet sucked away and refined the fire element mana used by Lysander Foryl's spell. In effect, the spell was cancelled.

When removing the ice element mana from students on this trip, the bracelet followed the ice element mana separately from those of the students. Meaning, the bracelet can distinguish between sources of mana.

"Professor, do magical beasts have their own unique mana?"

The professor gave her a look.

"No is not the time to be reviewing lessons, Ms. Glowery."

"Answer 'Yes' or 'No'. I need to be sure."

"Yes."

A small smile formed on her face.

"I have an idea. It might stop the rising snow, but it also might really, really anger the snow sharks. Just be prepared to run."

'And my godmother,' Aayla silently added.

Keeping her eyes on the snow shark, Aayla reached out with her own mana. Deep within the snow drifts, she got a tiny fraction of rebellious ice element mana that was creating the new snow. It vehemently pulled away from the hungry grasp of the New Moon Bracelet, but once caught the bracelet would never let go.

Within minutes the snow around them was disturbed. Some parts surged ten feet while other spots had the snow disappear completely. The snow shark behind them was confused. No matter how much mana it put into the spell or churned up in the surroundings, the spell kept going out of control.

Suddenly, the snow shark found that it couldn't stop its spell at all. Forced to keep pouring in mana, the snow shark ignored the prey in front of it. There were bigger problems to worry about. It angrily started thrashing about, trying to destroy whatever was sucking up its mana.

By now, Aayla's mark had long disappeared. However, she and the professor could easily tell where it was from all of its thrashing. In an instant, the professor cleared a path straight to the wall. The other snow shark was furious, and slowly retreated back into the rising drift.

"Let's go!"

The professor grabbed her and began to run. A few seconds later, it was Aayla dragging the professor along. A few feet from the wall, a shadow blocked the sun. Aayla nearly slipped when a sudden force jerked her upwards. When Aayla looked up, a gapping maw in an avalanche was bound towards them.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Snow sharks can do that?! What is this, a cheesy B movie?! That's totally cheating! The professor began to cast his magic and pushed Aayla forward. She hastily drew her bow and aimed it right at the wide-open mouth lined with thousands of sharp teeth. At least it provided her a nice, big target.

The instant that she released the mana arrow, a bolt of fire emerged from the professor's hand. Aayla heard the sound of shattered glass followed by a pained scream. Just before the snow hit, a violent gale pushed it away.

A scorched smell of meat flooded her nose as the professor pushed her forward again. Now at the walls, the ropes seemed to come alive like snakes. They instantly wrapped around the duo and yanked them up the wall.

Now behind the walls, Aayla quickly turned the silver bow back into its cuff form. The students and professors kept giving her odd looks. They saw the flash of light from her bow, and could now guess what initially happened to expose the snow sharks.

There was no way to keep this incident from Ramona now. The gossip mongering students would definitely talk about this. Ramona's going to be really, really angry that Aayla left the camp while snow sharks were around. There goes her freedom.

**********

"Ow! Pain! Pain! Pain! Thawt huwrts (That hurts)!"

Ramona sharply pulled on Aayla's checks. Now back at the main village, the Nafriton team had reported to Ramona about the incident. As expected, she was extremely irritated by the incident.

"Well, it should you idiot! What on Tellus were you thinking going out of the camp while snow sharks were around?! Do you have any idea how many times you've almost died this year?!"

Aayla thought seriously for a moment. The major incidents should be the bear attack at Forest Waypoint, the maze incident, the northern glacial boar attack, Lysander's attack and the latest snow shark incident.

"Fwawve (Five)?"

A new wave of pain struck as Ramona pinched Aayla's cheeks harder. Tears formed in Aayla's eyes.

"That was a rhetorical question! Why did you do something so foolish again?"

Ramona's hostile gaze turned towards the rest of the team.

"And you two, of all the students that had to go with you, you chose the first-year still recovering from various medical issues?! There were plenty of fourth-years that knew where the stable was. Better yet, you could fly or use familiars to check out the area first."

"You're absolutely right, Deputy Heston."

"We're sorry, Deputy Heston."

"Deputy Heston this, Deputy Heston that. Tch. Why didn't you think of me before doing something stupid? All of you go kneel facing the wall and repent until I am satisfied!"

The two professors and Aayla gloomily sat facing the wall of a nearby building while Ramona finished chewing out the student leaders. After all, they let a first year go out into a dangerous area. Soon after, the students joined Aayla and the professors reflecting in front of the wall.

Members of other teams casually lingered, trying their best to overhear what happened. They quickly dispersed after a glare from Ramona. The deputy headmaster soon stomped off to go deal with the aftermath caused by the snow sharks.

The Nafriton team wasn't the only one stalked by snow sharks. An entire frenzy of snow sharks had somehow worked their way down the Havrevel River. The Tigurum and Olafssey teams had their own share. Three stalked the Tigurum team while six attacked the Olafssey camp.

To the other teams' silent delight, the CNU team finally had their own accident on their way back. They took a long route to avoid the suspected hunting grounds, but a few snow sharks still ambushed them. Overconfident and snickering about the other teams' misfortune, they left themselves wide open for an attack.

Several more were found attacking nearby villages. In total, over two hundred people died. Most were villagers living on the outskirts of their towns. Many remote hunting lodges and scientific research outposts were wiped out. Among the teams, twelve students and three professors died, mostly from CNU followed by Olafssey.

The death toll was continuously rising. Evidence suggested that several of the outposts were obliterated up to a month ago. Also, the professors couldn't be sure if all of the snow sharks were killed. More could still be freely razing villages in the wilderness.

With that incident, the training exercise came to a close and the teams headed back to civilization. They returned to Forest Waypoint in record time. After a brief chat with military personnel in the city, the teams left for their home universities.