“I never liked him anyway,” Bacheo growled.

“Jeez, I know the kid prefers to keep to himself but this is just childish,” Rylo growled.

“He’s from Central, isn’t he? An Elite? I’ve heard they’re all like that,” Jinnai said.

“He’s a potential Elite…” Anthony corrected her. “He has to prove himself as a regular soldier before he can ascend to that kind of status. That’s probably what he’s trying to do by going off on his own, but he isn’t thinking this through at all. Come on, we have to catch up to him,” Anthony said. “Elite, soldier… whatever you want to call him, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s still just a kid. It’s dangerous for him to be going solo.”

With Anthony in the lead, the group set off after Jonah at a canter. It had only been a few minutes, but Jonah had managed to put a considerable amount of distance between himself and the group in just that short amount of time, but Anthony knew how risky it was to set off at a gallop after him. If they wore out their horses in ghoul territory, it would be over.

The sun was starting to set behind them by the time they reached the edge of the forest, and the soldiers paused at the top of the hill to gaze out at the scenery before them. At the bottom of the hill was a thick forest spanning over several miles. While there was still about an hour of daylight left, the forest was shrouded in an ominous darkness due to the thickness of the trees.

“C’mon, we should keep moving,” said Anthony. He coaxed his horse forward and the rest of the squad followed in a tense silence.

“This place is beautiful,” said Izo, a soft-spoken recruit with an unusually gentle personality. He had dark hair and a lean build with long bangs that covered half his face, leaving just one brilliant sea green eye exposed as he looked around him in amazement.

“Izo…” It was Nova who spoke up. “You do realize that a forest means inevitable death, right?” she asked. The look of bewilderment on Izo’s face quickly changed to one of concern as he turned his attention to her.

Reima couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed with Nova’s pessimism. Izo was always someone who managed to see the beauty in everything around him, no matter the circumstances. It was a rare trait that Reima thought the world needed more of. “We can always start a fire if it gets too dark,” she pointed out. “That should be enough to keep the ghouls at bay, right?”

Nova stepped up to ride alongside Reima. Her brow was scrunched up as if she were contemplating something. “You know, I’ve never understood that logic,” she admitted. “If their weakness is something as simple as light, how did they end up so powerful?” she asked.

“They’re ghouls, Nova,” Reima said dryly. “Literally nothing about them makes any sense. That’s why we’re out here.”

The group paused upon reaching the edge of the forest. The trees towered over them and cast an ominous shadow that only darkened as the path led into the woods. Even if there was still an hour or so of daylight left, the forest appeared to be entirely deprived of light, and the branches on the trees seemed to claw at the sky as the squad gazed up at them.

“D-Do we really have to go through here?” Izo asked nervously, all traces of awe now gone from his face.

“We’ve been on the move all day,” Jinnai agreed. “Maybe it would be better for us to set up camp and continue when the sun is high?” she suggested.

“We don’t have a choice, Jinnai…” Anthony said as firmly as he could, though Reima could tell he was just as nervous as the rest of them.

The darkness continued to envelope around them as they trekked through the forest. Tensions rose with each step and Izo edged closer and closer to Reima until their horses were brushing shoulders. She noticed his breathing was ragged and she could swear she heard his heart pounding against his chest.

“Izo…” Reima said softly, making him jump. “Do you really want to be a Vanguard soldier?” she asked.

Izo seemed to catch on to what Reima was implying and averted his gaze awkwardly. “I, uh—” His answer was cut short by a shrill whinny from one of the horses behind him.

“HELP!” someone cried, and Reima’s blood froze when she recognized the voice. It was Mel.

No…

She spun her horse around and raced towards the back of the group where the scrawny blonde boy had been thrown from his horse, who was now down on the ground and struggling to break free from a bony black hand that had wrapped around her leg.

Suddenly, Elias leapt from his saddle and charged toward the chaos, ax in hand. There was no hesitation as he brought the weapon down on the long bony arm, dismembering it from its owner in one swift motion. There was a screech of pain from the ghoul and what little remained of the arm recoiled back into the shadows as Reima helped the fallen soldier to his feet.

“You ok, Mel?” she asked him.

“Ah… no?” came the shaky reply.

“He’s fine,” Elias said, coming over to where they were crouched on the ground. “Xyozara here might be a different story, though.” He gestured with the ax – which was now dripping a thick purple goop from its blade – to the small paint mare lying on the ground. Her cannon bone had been snapped clean in half, and the dismembered ghoul hand still clung on to her fetlock joint as if it was still trying to drag her into the shadows.

“Was that one of them?” Rylo asked. “A ghoul, I mean?”

Jinnai raised a brow at him. “A tiny screeching shadow beast capable of bringing down a horse and leaves a trail of purple goop instead of blood?” she asked sarcastically. “Yeah, I’m guessing that was a ghoul…”

“This is exactly why brats like this shouldn’t be allowed in the Vanguard!” Bacheo snarled, glaring down at Mel from his horse’s back. “First Scarface runs off… and now that good for nothing twig you call a brother nearly got us all killed, Steiner Bitch!”

Reima felt her blood boil at his words. “What was that, you pompous piece of shit!?” she snarled back, getting to her feet, letting go of Mel’s hand as she tried to help him up and causing him to double over backwards in the process.

“Please… don’t start with this again,” Anthony said, stepping between the two for the second time that day. “Everyone’s on edge and we really shouldn’t be moving in this darkness. Let’s set up camp for now and continue moving in the morning.”

Izo gave him a worried look. “What about Jonah?” he asked.

“He’ll have to make do on his own for now…” Anthony said sadly. He turned to face Elias, who was still tending to the injured Xyozara. “Elias, that horse won’t make it back to Gederah with that injury. I’m leaving her to you.”

Elias nodded in understanding and Anthony led the remaining eight recruits towards a small clearing that was just spacious enough for the squad to spend the night. Elias rejoined them a few minutes later, wiping the blood from his ax.

Before long, Nova had managed to get a small fire started. She, Rylo, and Jinnai immediately arranged their sleeping bags as close to the flames as possible and eventually fell into an uneasy slumber. Anthony and Bacheo had taken the first watch as promised. The two of them sat near the edge of the clearing, talking quietly to each other while Elias, Izo, and Mel sat wide awake and stared into the embers.

It was at that moment that Reima noticed Loca had been scurrying back and forth from the campsite to the shadows. Puzzled, Reima followed after her only to nearly trip over a pile of sticks lying on the ground near a large pine tree.

“Careful!” Loca’s voice called from above. Reima glanced up in time to see her hop down from one of the branches.

“What are you doing?” Reima asked.

“I’ve been setting traps!” Loca replied proudly.

“Traps?” Reima echoed with a tilt of her head.

“Yup! We know hardly anything about the ghouls, so I designed some traps to try to catch one to bring home!” She gestured to a snare hidden in the brush that was attached to the tree she had been in. “I figured if we catch one and bring it back, they can do a bunch of experiments on it and maybe find some kind of weakness!”

Loca seemed so proud of her idea that Reima didn’t have it in her to point out why bringing a ghoul inside the walls was a terrible idea. Instead, she let Loca drag her back to the campsite to show off more of her designs.

Bacheo, who had risen from his seat with a grenade in his hand at their sudden return, immediately sat back down again with a frustrated growl.

Anthony chuckled softly from beside him. “Was that really necessary?” he asked, raising a brow.

“I’m doing exactly what you ordered me to,” Bacheo replied.

“I told you to keep an eye out for anything suspicious, not blow up the entire forest!” Anthony teased. “Where did you even get that thing?”

“Hmph…” Bacheo glared out towards the darkness once more.

“You know, if it wasn’t for that temper of yours, you could really make a name for yourself as a captain one of these days,” Anthony said suddenly.

Bacheo narrowed his eyes at his comrade. “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked.

“You act all high and mighty, but I think your heart is in the right place,” Anthony explained. “All you want is for everyone to get home safely. You bash guys like Jonah and Mel for their age, but I think its because you don’t agree with putting such young lives in danger.”

“Nope,” Bacheo said simply. “They’re both completely incompetent. We’re in this mess because of their childish ways,” he grumbled. “Scarface is half blind, and the Steiner kid is like six cows away from having an even remotely stable bone structure. They are too immature for this and always will be!” he snapped.

Though his words were harsh, Anthony could just make out the slight pink tint that had formed on Bacheo’s cheeks and he knew he’d hit the nail on the head.

“Right,” he said, trying not to laugh. “You keep telling yourself that…”

Suddenly, there was a loud snap from somewhere in the darkness ahead of them. Once more, Bacheo stood up, grenade in hand, ready to fight anything that moved, but Anthony put a hand on his shoulder and sighed.

“Stop that,” he ordered. “It might be Jonah. Let me investigate first.”

Bacheo relaxed slightly, but remained standing as Anthony pushed past him and disappeared into the shadows.

A few moments later, an agonized scream rang through the air, and before anyone could react, something flew out from the shadows and over Bacheo’s head. It landed right in the campfire with a sickening crash and the entire squad leapt from their sleeping bags in surprise. Bacheo stood frozen in horror as he realized that the mangled bloody object now being devoured by flames was none other than his squad captain. And it was only moments later when something even more terrifying emerged from the shadows in the wake of the corpse. There, with Anthony’s dismembered arm between a set of sharp, pointed teeth, stood Xyozara. Blood dripped from a gaping wound on her neck and her eyes were white as snow. It looked as though pieces of skin had been peeled from her body to reveal an odd black leathery skin hidden beneath. Her hooves had somehow spit in half and now resembled something more like talons. Bacheo watched as she dropped the bloodied arm and lunged for straight for him.

“Shit!” he cursed, feet frozen to the ground in terror. Just then, a familiar red-haired figure leapt into view and plunged a knife into the apparently undead horse’s right eye. It was Jonah.

The impact was enough to knock Xyozara off balance and she fell to the side with a terrifying screech. She flailed about angrily as Jonah kept his hold on the knife, twisting and stabbing ruthlessly as he clung to her neck. Finally, Xyozara managed to get back on her feet. She reached across her chest in a way that would normally be physically impossible for a horse to do. She took Jonah by surprise as she attacked on his blind side and raked her claws through Jonah’s shoulder all the way down to the elbow, dislodging him from her neck and throwing him to the ground next to Bacheo with a thud.

The sudden appearance of his injured comrade lying at his feet seemed to pull Bacheo from his shell-shocked state. Hauling the now unconscious Jonah over his shoulder, he dashed away from the screeching beast to where the remainder of the squad stood staring at the scene before them in a state of utter confusion.

“Why the hell are you all standing around!?” Bacheo shouted at his panicking comrades. “Get moving!”

The recruits didn’t need to be told twice as they bolted for the woods. Reima, however, stood watching as Bacheo struggled to outrun the raging Xyozara while carrying Jonah’s deadweight. She felt Elias’ large hand grab her arm and pull her back towards the trees. “Snap out of it!” he yelled. “We need to move, now!”

“They won’t make it…” Reima said quietly.

“What?” Elias asked incredulously.

Reima pulled her arm from his grasp and charged straight for Xyozara. She flew past Bacheo, whose eyes followed her for a brief moment before landing on Anthony’s burning corpse once again. The captain’s kind eyes and friendly laugh burned into his mind and he felt his blood boil with rage. It was then that he remembered the grenade still clutched in his hand.

I’ll kill you…

He stopped in his tracks and pulled the string before turning around and launching it in the direction of the snarling, slobbering beast chasing after him.

“DIE, YOU FUCKING REVENANT!!!!!”

The last thing Bacheo saw was Reima crashing into Xyozara’s chest before the grenade exploded and he felt himself being blasted backwards.