Poison Eve
Chapter 65

"Today everything was eaten on time" Nazareth said. "Good start!"

The man stood in front of the Morfeus Five line under the flagpole with both hands crossed behind his body as usual, and as usual Migi Vox floated on the side of his shoulder mimicking his style. Four ordinary guardians lined up behind him - as well as usual.

Evelyn and her friends exchanged looks.

"But after eating, food needs time to digest" Nazareth continued. "Cannot do extreme movements. So.." he hung up his sentence dramatically and looked around, then added, "From tomorrow you have to have breakfast at five in the morning."

Evelyn and her friends groaned.

The four guardians behind Nazareth hissed withholding laughter.

"Next, I want to give you guys some hard training!" Nazareth added.

Evelyn and her friends were now bowed with helpless faces.

"Now go get some firewood!" Nazareth Instructions. "During lunch, you should be back."

Evelyn and her friends simultaneously bowed respectfully to the soldiers. Then hurried off the flag field.

Time showed at half-ten in the morning as they set off towards the forest with only an axe and a bag of water, as well as a few strands of hemp rope.

The forest on the other side of the hill was about three kilometers from the academy, passing through a steep path surrounded by green scenery that spread widely around them.

"I don't really want to scare you" Altair said. "But the forest there is very dangerous" he told. "Especially because we are forbidden to use the power of light."

His friends responded with tense faces.

"I wonder, did any of you have any experience hunting in the wild forest before the resurrection of the protective elf?" Altair asked.

"Me!" sahut Cleon's.

"Me too!" timpal Evelyn's.

"Me too!" timpal Electra's.

The spirit of Altair began to rise.

All eyes were now on Xena.

Xena bowed grimly with a helpless look on her face. "I never did" he confessed.

"No problem!" Altair tries to encourage Xena. "We're a team, remember?"

"Yes!" timpal Electra's. "We'll protect you!"

"Hmh!" Evelyn and Cleon nodded simultaneously.

"The danger I'm referring to is the potential for a wolf attack" Altair explained. "With the experience of hunting the four of us, I think that's enough too."

"Don't.that's the real test!" electra gumam.

The four friends spontaneously turned to Electra, then exchanged glances with each other.

"Hmmm.." Cleon muttered back as he frowned. "It's absurd!" he said half a moment of silence.

The others responded by nodding.

The bushes trembled as the heels of their armor shoes thudded down the path leading to the field, the dry twigs creeping down on their feet.

At the other end of the field, the ground level again sloped and continued to decline. Skinny trees were lined among the weeds bushes as tall as the waist of an adult.

The five teenagers could not estimate how wide the grass field was.

Three hundred and sixty degrees expanse of blue and earth, mountains and valleys, where blue turns purple then green, yellow, and pale brown.

It was just a moment, a single breath. One moment, when things go up an octave and they feel a vibration in the spine.

From the ramps they saw a lake in the valley near a tree that only looked like a silhouette. The mist floating on the surface of the lake looks like hot water vapor inside the cup.

The trees are only a tall and black shadow, set against a cloudy sky. Nobody's moving. Not even the leaves.

Then simultaneously the five teenagers stopped, distracted by a loud rustling sound.

Krrtrsk. Krrtrsk. Krrtrsk.

Something made that sound.

The five teenagers were shaking, listening. Then glanced at each other through the corner of their eyes with a tense face. They looked on with caution.

Krrtrsk. Krrtrsk. Krrtrsk.

Xena turned around and followed the voice down the hill. The sound grew louder as they began to approach the edge of the lake. He imagined giant snakes along the train laying on the grass.

Silent.

The suspicious silence. They stay alert.

The clamorous sounds of the forest approaching at once towards them from various corners of the forest.

The five teenagers were suffocating stifled as grunting and growling sounds approached towards them.

Xena started to get nervous.

A moment later, a number of wolves shot towards them and attacked simultaneously.

The five teenagers were squealing and their shoes were pounding noisily on the ground.

Cleon and Evelyn leapt in unison toward the pack of wolves as they swung their axes to and fro in rapid motion.

Horrible roars blared into the cliff walls.

Electra pulled a dagger from behind her armor shoes and slashed as a wolf attacked towards Xena. "Step over my corpse first" he growled as he leapt upon the wolf, swung the dagger in his hand and stuck it behind the wolf's neck.

JLB!

The wolf snorted and gasped, then collapsed and did not move anymore.

The other wolf retreated slowly with a curved back, like it was preparing to soar.

Xena wasted no time, she threw the axe in her hand towards one of the wolves, then darted towards the other wolf while sweeping a twisting kick in the air.

BLAAASSH!

Xena's shoe heel landed on the wolf's nape and the wolf snorted and was thrown away.

Altair overcame him by swinging his axe and slamming it on the wolf's neck.

Two-three wolves-maybe more, finally sprawled and not moving anymore. The remaining five wolves were still standing ferociously which instantly leaped towards them with a blind movement.

Altair soared from its spot and swung its front legs at head-high, then stomped on one of them.

The wolf snorted and jolted backwards, but was unharmed.

Xena took advantage of the opportunity to jump and plunge herself on the ground, then twisted in a salto motion while picking up her axe and hurling it towards one of the wolves, and the fifth wolf finally fell down.

Then just as the other four wolves were attacking again, Evelyn and Cleon shot towards them from behind and downed the four wolves in a split second.

Silence ambushed them for a moment, then there was a crunching sound from the heels of Cleon and Evelyn's shoes that pulled her up from a squatting position, then walked over to their friends.

The five teenagers heaved a sigh of relief and exchanged grins.

"Not bad!" altair commented among his thin grin with breathless breath.

Electra chuckled as she bent down to clean her daggers by rubbing them against the fur of one of the wolves that was lying near her feet.

"Good dagger!" praise Cleon on Electra.

"As a side-attacker, speed and flexibility are the most important" Electra said, slipping her daggers back into her shoes. "The axe is too heavy for me" he said, glancing at the axe lying under the tree and smiling sideways.