Free Web NovelChapter 206: Chapter 199: The Wrong Way Forward
Day 4 — 04:20
Team Six
The trail marker appeared ahead of them, and Team Six stopped.
Renn recognized the cut immediately — he had carved it into a twisted tree the previous afternoon. One candidate stared at the symbol. "That is impossible."
Renn approached without touching the bark. "The cut is mine."
"We left it behind us."
"Yes."
"Then how is it ahead?"
He looked across the disturbed landscape. Low hills beneath a grey sky, sparse trees at uneven distances, blackened ward stones forming a broken line along the nearest slope. Nothing appeared to move. That had stopped being reassuring.
"The distortion is folding direction," Renn said.
Caldus checked the compass. The needle pointed east. The rising sun remained behind them.
"The compass says the marked point lies that way."
"The compass has lied for two days."
"The sun may also be distorted."
Renn glanced upward. "Then we are in greater trouble than the compass suggests."
Caldus removed the rescue flare from his harness. Nobody tried to stop him. He held the sealed tube without removing the cap. "If distance is folding, the destination may not exist where the map places it."
"Perhaps."
"Then continuing may be pointless."
"Perhaps."
Caldus frowned. "You are agreeing too easily."
"I agree that we do not understand the terrain. I disagree that ignorance and impossibility are the same thing."
Another candidate looked toward the ward stones. "The distortion grows stronger near those."
Renn nodded. "And whenever we move away from them, we return to an earlier position." He studied the placement of the blackened markers — their angles faced inward. The formation hadn’t been designed to keep people outside. It had once contained something at the centre. Their destination lay beyond it.
He packed the compass away. "We move toward the strongest distortion."
Caldus returned the flare to his harness. "If this kills us, I intend to complain."
"Survive first. Complain later."
Day 4 — 06:10
Team Four
The hoof tracks ended beneath a wall of pale stone.
Team Four had followed them through the western ravines for nearly two hours, descending into a narrow basin where the morning sun hadn’t yet reached the ground. The knight responsible for the earlier water loss raised one hand. "Wait."
He crouched beside the tracks and examined the dust. Several sets approached the basin. Fewer left.
The engineer looked at him. "Predator?"
"Possibly."
"Water?"
"Almost certainly."
The team leader studied the basin. "What is your name?"
The knight hesitated. "Rellan."
They had travelled together for three days without anyone needing it.
"Rellan," the leader said, "you approach first. No mana unless attacked. If you find water, do not drink until the basin is clear."
Rellan nodded — no protest, no reminder of rank — and entered alone while the others watched from the ravine mouth.
A narrow spring emerged between two stones at the rear wall and collected in a shallow pool. Rellan didn’t move toward it. He circled the basin first. Ash-hound tracks marked the damp ground, many of them. He returned to the team. "Fresh water. Fresh tracks. A pack uses the pool."
"How recent?" the engineer asked.
Rellan looked toward the shaded basin. "Recent enough that I would prefer filling quickly."
They entered together — two watching the ridges while three filled every usable container, checked the water, and drank measured portions. For the first time since deployment, the tension across their shoulders eased.
A howl rose beyond the eastern ridge. A second answered from the south.
The engineer sealed the final container. "The owners are returning."
Rellan lifted the damaged vessel he had carried since the earlier fight. "It holds water now."
The engineer examined the patched seam. "It leaks."
"Slowly."
"That is the most optimistic thing you have said."
They left before the first ash-hound reached the basin. Nobody suggested fighting for territory that belonged to thirsty predators.
Day 4 — 07:45
Team Seven
Team Seven’s remaining ration contained less food than five knights wanted and more than none.
Arven divided it without ceremony. "This is breakfast."
Daren studied his portion. "This is a rumour of breakfast."
"It becomes smaller when you insult it."
Pell tightened the repaired glove over his wounded arm. "We need food before tonight."
They had reached higher forest ground where small tracks crossed between roots and stones — edible shoots, berries, possibly ground birds. Daren looked toward the trees. "I can hunt."
"With mana?"
"It would be faster."
"So was attracting the prowler."
Daren accepted that with less irritation than he would have two days ago.
They divided the work. Oris and Pell gathered plants under Arven’s direction while Arven and Daren built simple snares from rope fibres, bent branches, and sharpened pegs.
Daren examined the first trap. "This will catch something small."
"That is the intention."
"We are knights."
"The rabbit remains unaware."
Daren looked at him. "You enjoy this."
"Immensely."
By midday, one trap held a ground bird and another had been triggered without result. The meal wasn’t generous. It was enough.
Daren cleaned the bird while Pell sorted the plants. "No beast attack," Pell said.
"No lost equipment," Oris added.
Arven looked at Daren. "No heroic charge."
Daren continued working. "I regret helping."
The team ate better than it had since the first night, and its pace improved afterward.
Day 4 — 09:30
Team One
The frozen lake appeared unavoidable.
Team One stood at its western edge while loose snow moved across the ice. Their route continued toward a pass on the opposite shore. Going around meant losing most of a day. Crossing meant trusting ice they hadn’t tested.
The mountain veteran cut a long pole and checked the edge — solid — then advanced slowly, striking the surface before every step. The others followed in single file with rope connecting them.
Halfway across, a crack ran beneath the fourth knight. Everyone stopped. The sound travelled farther than expected.
The knight released mana into his legs. "Do not move," the veteran said.
"It is breaking."
"It will break faster if you jump."
The crack widened. The veteran lowered himself and spread his weight. "Back three steps. Slowly."
The knight obeyed. The ice held until he reached thicker ground — but during the retreat, the rope caught a jagged edge and frayed. By the time Team One returned to shore, they had lost nearly a third of its useful length.
The court-trained knight looked across the lake. "We could have crossed with speed."
"We could also have entered the water with speed."
They turned toward the longer route. The mountain had won another argument.
Day 4 — 11:15
Team Two
The forest predator hadn’t attacked Team Two. It had done something more useful to itself — it had pushed them south.
Whenever they moved toward the marked point, fresh tracks appeared ahead. When they shifted away, the signs vanished. The scout-trained knight studied the pattern. "It is herding us."
"Toward what?" another asked.
"Perhaps its den. Perhaps another hunting ground."
"Can we kill it?"
"If we can find it."
The forest stayed silent. The predator had no intention of helping with that.
The scout unfolded the incomplete map. Their northern route crossed a steep stream gorge. The easier path curved south, away from the destination. "That is what it wants," he said.
"So we cross the gorge."
"We may lose half a day."
"We have already lost one following its preference."
They changed direction and moved toward the stream. The predator’s tracks didn’t follow. That worried the scout more than when they had.
Day 4 — 13:05
Team Three
Team Three reached firm ground with mud inside every boot and a compass that no longer pointed anywhere useful. Marsh water had entered the casing. The needle moved reluctantly, struck one side, and stopped.
The court-trained knight shook it. "That usually repairs military equipment."
The border veteran took it away. "You have contributed enough."
Without the compass they used the sun and the map’s terrain lines. The marked point lay beyond a low chain of wooded hills, and the hills at least existed — which was more than they could say for several map features behind them.
They cleaned their equipment, dried what they could, and resumed moving before the marsh found another way to object.
Day 4 — 15:40
Team Six
The inner distortion began the moment they crossed the ward stones.
Caldus tried to reinforce his legs and stumbled — his right foot struck harder than expected and cracked the stone beneath it. He dropped to one knee. Renn caught his shoulder. "Release it."
"I barely used any."
"That is the problem. The field amplified it."
Caldus forced the mana down. The pressure vanished. The others stopped using reinforcement entirely.
Distance behaved badly inside the containment field. A hill that seemed twenty steps away required two hundred. A distant line of trees stayed fixed no matter how long they walked toward it. Renn kept the team moving through physical measurement — one hundred counted steps, a placed stone, another hundred, another marker. No mana sight. No compass. No trust in anything that couldn’t be touched.
After nearly three hours they found the remains of a small ward station — partially collapsed, one wall still standing, a metal directional plate hanging crookedly inside. Renn cleared dirt from its surface. An arrow had been etched into the plate pointing northwest. Their map placed the destination in the same direction.
Caldus leaned against the wall. "So we were right."
"We were less wrong."
"That is not as satisfying."
"It is more accurate."
One candidate moved toward the rear chamber and stopped at the doorway. Fresh claw marks crossed the stone floor — not ancient scratches. Recent. Something large enough to score stone had passed through the station, and whatever it was, the distortion hadn’t driven it away. It had changed what the distortion meant to live inside.
Renn looked toward the dark opening beyond the rear wall and said nothing.
Day 4 — 17:10
Eastern Training Grounds
Observer reports reached Elarion in uneven bursts.
Lucien stood beside Malen while the six active markers moved across the assessment board. Team Four had restored its water. Team Seven had stabilized its food supply. Team One had abandoned the dangerous ice crossing. Team Two had recognized the predator’s effort to redirect it. Team Three had lost its compass but found another way to navigate. Team Six had entered the inner distortion and located the ward station.
Lucas read the reports. "No flare."
"No," Malen said.
"Team Six is walking into a magical containment field with an unknown creature inside it."
"Yes."
"And we consider this progress?"
Cedric looked up from the observer notes. "They made no progress outside it."
Lucas closed the report. "I dislike situations where danger becomes the efficient option."
Lucien watched Team Six’s marker. "That is why judgment matters."
A signal officer entered with the latest observation. "Fresh tracks inside the station. Unknown creature. The distortion is interfering with the observers’ equipment."
Lucas looked toward Lucien. "That seems like the sort of detail the candidates would appreciate knowing."
"They were told to survive," Lucien said.
"They are receiving an impressive amount of supporting material."
Day 4 — 19:20
Team Four
Team Four climbed out of the western ravine with full containers. The ash-hound pack reached the spring behind them and howls echoed through the basin.
Rellan looked back once. The team leader noticed. "Regret leaving?"
"No."
"Good."
"I regret not filling the damaged container completely."
The engineer lifted the patched vessel. "It is leaking onto your leg."
"Then I remain informed of its condition."
The engineer looked at him. "That may be the first useful thing the leak has done."
Rellan adjusted the strap and kept climbing. The howls carried through the stone for several minutes before the distance swallowed them.
The water problem had been solved. The route problem had not. The detour had pushed the team several kilometres west of the marked point, and the terrain between them and the destination was broken ridges with little cover. The leader unfolded the map. "We move east until dark."
The engineer studied the sky. "The temperature will drop quickly."
"That helps."
"It also means the hounds may travel farther tonight."
Rellan looked toward the ravine. "They have water. Why follow us?"
The engineer tapped the leaking container. "Because you smell like their spring."
Rellan looked down at his damp leg. "That is less encouraging."
They moved east. Nobody suggested washing away the scent with drinking water.
Day 4 — 20:10
Team Four
The team found shelter beneath a shallow stone shelf — little protection from wind, but the ground around it gave a clear view in three directions. No fire. The night would be cold, though not cold enough to justify announcing their position.
The water was divided again. Rellan received the same as everyone else and drank slowly this time. The leader noticed. "Improvement."
"I have learned that thirst can become administrative."
The engineer looked at him. "You argued when we measured it."
"I was younger then."
They settled into rotating watches. The damaged container went inside the shelter with a cooking vessel beneath the leak. By morning they would either preserve most of the water or own two damp containers. It was still better than having none.
Day 4 — 21:40
Team Six
Stone scraped against stone from beyond the collapsed arch.
Team Six formed around the narrow opening. Renn stood nearest the gap with his field knife ready. Caldus held the rescue flare but kept it sealed. The scraping stopped. For several heartbeats the station was quiet — then something struck the fallen masonry from the other side and dust drifted from the arch.
One candidate whispered, "Large."
Renn shook his head. "Strong. Not necessarily large."
A second impact shifted one of the upper stones. The team moved back. The gap widened and two pale claws appeared through it — too long for an ordinary beast, jointed in a way that Renn disliked immediately. They gripped the broken stone and pulled. A narrow head pushed into view, its skin carrying no fur or scales, only stretched grey hide marked by thin lines of dim mana. Its eyes had clouded over, yet its head turned toward the knights as though it could see each one clearly.
Caldus tightened his grip on the flare. "What is that?"
"Something the ward failed to keep contained," Renn said.
The creature forced one shoulder through the opening and the distortion inside the station shifted — mana gathering toward it. One candidate instinctively reinforced his arms. The power left his channels faster than expected and pulled toward the creature’s skin. He released it immediately. "It drains mana."
"Then stop feeding it," Renn said.
The creature came through the gap. Renn moved sideways and its claws crossed the space where his chest had been and tore through an old wooden support. The roof shifted.
"Do not fight inside!" The station had already partially collapsed. A full exchange of knight-strength attacks could bury all five of them.
Caldus looked toward the blocked doorway. "Exit?"
"Clear it."
Two candidates began moving stones while Renn and the others kept the creature near the rear chamber. Without mana their knives barely marked its hide. The beast struck repeatedly, each movement unnaturally fast whenever it passed through one of the warped mana currents drifting across the floor.
Renn watched the pattern. It wasn’t fast everywhere — only along certain lines.
"Stay off the dark seams!"
The floor held thin black cracks, almost invisible beneath the dust. The creature used them like roads. Team Six shifted onto the intact stone between them. The beast lunged again and slowed as it crossed the gap between two seams. Caldus struck its forelimb. His knife entered this time. The creature recoiled.
"It is weaker away from the distortion lines."
Renn pointed toward the doorway. "Draw it outside."
The blockage came free. Cold evening air entered the station. One knight threw a loose stone at the creature and retreated through the opening. The others followed in sequence. The beast pursued.
Outside, the distortion continued, but the currents were broader and easier to read beneath the fading light. Renn led it toward the old ward markers. "Those stones are broken," Caldus said.
"Broken is not the same as useless."
They spread around the nearest marker. The creature entered the space between three blackened stones and the dim lines across its body brightened — for one moment it moved faster, then the remaining ward pattern caught. A low pulse moved through the stones. The creature dropped to one knee.
Renn understood. "The ward still recognizes it."
"Can it hold?"
"No."
"Comforting."
"Strike now."
The team attacked together — controlled mana only, short bursts timed between the ward pulses, no extended techniques, no displays. Each strike pushed the creature deeper into the failing pattern. Caldus severed one claw. Another knight drove a blade beneath its jaw. Renn struck the brightest mana line along its shoulder. The creature made a sound like metal dragged across glass. The ward stones flashed once, then went dark. The beast fell with them.
Nobody moved for several seconds.
Caldus looked at the flare still in his hand. "I nearly used this."
Renn cleaned his knife. "But you did not."
"Was that praise?"
"It was a recorded fact. Do not become excited."
They examined the creature from a safe distance. Its body began losing shape almost immediately — the mana lines fading, the grey skin hardening into something resembling brittle stone. The engineer crouched beside it. "Long exposure to the distortion altered it."
"Was it once normal?" someone asked.
Renn looked toward the collapsed station. "Possibly."
Nobody found that reassuring.
Day 4 — 22:25
Team Six
The station was no longer safe. The battle had weakened the remaining roof, and the dead creature’s mana residue was pulling the surrounding currents toward it.
Team Six gathered its equipment. Caldus looked toward the darkness beyond the ward line. "We continue at night?"
"We put distance between ourselves and that body."
"And if there are more?"
Renn lifted the damaged directional plate from the station wall. "Then we avoid buildings with fresh claw marks."
"That sounds like knowledge we possessed earlier."
"We now possess it more strongly."
They moved northwest according to the plate. The rescue flare remained unused. Behind them, the abandoned ward station collapsed before midnight.
Day 4 — 23:10
Eastern Training Grounds
The Team Six observer report arrived in three separate bursts, the distortion breaking transmission between each.
Cedric assembled the fragments. "Hostile creature encountered inside the ward station. Mana-draining properties. Team drew it into the remaining containment pattern and killed it."
Malen examined the report. "No flare?"
"No."
"Serious injuries?"
"None."
Lucas looked up from the table. "They fought a corrupted creature inside a collapsing magical ruin and suffered no serious injuries?"
"They left the ruin before it collapsed," Cedric said.
Lucas considered that. "So the strongest tactical decision was leaving a building."
"Many good decisions are less impressive than the alternatives," Lucien said.
Malen updated Team Six’s position. "They found a reliable direction."
"Reliable?" Lucas asked.
"A damaged plate inside a failed ward station."
Lucas stared at him. "Our standards for reliability have declined."
"They are still higher than the compass."
Lucien read the candidate notes. Team Six had entered the most dangerous route, abandoned tools that lied to them, recognized how the distortion moved, and used a broken ward rather than trying to overpower the creature directly. That was the behaviour the assessment was designed to surface — not strength, but adaptation.
A second report arrived from Team Four. Water restored, route corrected, no further ash-hound contact. Rellan had followed team rationing and approached the spring without mana.
Malen read the note. "He is correcting."
Cedric added, "After creating the problem."
"Both matter."
Lucas looked between them. "Your selection method appears to involve waiting for people to become less troublesome."
"That is also most administration," Malen said.
Lucas didn’t answer. The accuracy had offended him.
Day 5 — 00:00
Assessment Record
Team One continued around the frozen lake. Team Two approached the gorge while the forest predator stayed out of sight. Team Three crossed firm ground on sun and terrain after losing its compass. Team Four had restored water and resumed the eastern route. Team Six had defeated the corrupted ward creature and was following the recovered directional marker northwest. Team Seven remained supplied through trapping and foraging.
No additional flare had been fired. Six teams continued.
The fourth day had ended with something the candidates hadn’t been told to look for — that the wrong direction could still be the only path forward, that a damaged tool could still be useful, and that surviving a fight didn’t require finishing everything that wanted to kill them.
Knight Candidate Assessment — Updated (Classified)
Candidates active: 33
Active teams: 6
Rescue flares available: 6
Teams disqualified: 1
Confirmed hostile encounters: 7
Major navigation breakthroughs: 2
Elapsed time: 90 hours, 30 minutes
Ninety-Day Review: 53 days remaining.
Arsenal Before the Breach: 2 years, 328 days remaining.
