The first Gravecoil reached Liam before he reached the swamp.

Its armored body tore through the air with a wet, grinding hiss, jaws opened wide enough to swallow him whole. Liam twisted mid-fall, his eyes narrowing as he read the angle of its attack in the space of a heartbeat. Its scales were thick, layered over one another like natural armor, but the moment it lunged, the muscles beneath its head stretched.

'There it is.'

Just below the skull, along the neck was the soft point.

Liam's dagger flashed.

A short burst of flame erupted from beneath his feet, not enough to send him flying wildly, but enough to shift his body out of the Gravecoil's direct path. The creature's jaws snapped shut where his torso had been a fraction of a second ago, and in that same motion, Liam carved his flaming dagger across the exposed flesh beneath its head.

The blade sank in cleanly.

Then fire followed.

The Gravecoil's shriek split the air as flames poured into the wound, burning through the softer tissue under its armored hide. Its massive body convulsed, crashing sideways through the branches as Liam kicked off the side of its head and propelled himself toward another tree with another controlled burst of fire.

He landed against a thick branch, boots scraping against bark for less than a second before another Gravecoil came from his left.

Liam didn't stop.

He lowered his center of gravity, pushed Myst into his legs, and released a sharp burst of flame from behind his heel. His body shot forward just as the demon's jaws slammed into the branch where he had been.

The wood exploded and splinters sprayed across the air. Liam passed along the side of the creature's neck, dagger already angled downward.

Another cut.

Another burst of fire.

Another body fell.

The dead Gravecoil dropped through the trees with a heavy, twisting crash, smashing through smaller branches before disappearing into the swamp below. The water swallowed it with a violent splash, but Liam barely glanced after it.

More were coming.

The canopy around him had become alive with movement. Branches shook. Vines snapped. Leaves rained down in torn clumps as the serpentine demons surged from every direction, their long armored bodies winding through the trees with horrifying speed. They didn't move like normal beasts. Their movements were too coordinated, too eager, as if every one of them had been waiting for him long before he appeared.

Liam moved anyway.

He didn't waste motion or swing unless it would kill.

A short burst of flame sent him upward, avoiding a pair of Gravecoils that crossed beneath him like snapping blades. He landed on the side of a tree trunk, feet against the bark for only a breath, then pushed off again as a third demon tore through the space he had occupied. His dagger spun once in his grip before he drove it into the underside of the creature's neck as it passed, using its own momentum to rip the wound open wider.

The demon thrashed.

Liam was already gone.

He fired another burst from his palm, shifting sideways through a tangle of branches. A Gravecoil came from above, descending with its maw open and its red eyes glowing through the gloom. Liam twisted beneath it, dragged the flame-coated edge of his dagger across the vulnerable flesh under its jaw, then kicked off its body as it spasmed and fell.

He counted without needing to.

Four.

Five.

Six.

The numbers barely mattered.

For every one he killed, more came.

Their bodies filled the trees around him, long and armored, sliding over branches, coiling around trunks, launching themselves through the air in waves. Some attacked directly. Others circled, waiting for him to dodge before striking from another angle. Their coordination was becoming sharper with every passing second, but Liam's expression remained calm, almost cold.

He moved from place to place using only short bursts of flame, careful not to flood too much Myst into each movement. The bursts were precise; quick releases from his feet, his palms, sometimes the edge of his dagger, to change direction, slow his fall, or propel himself toward a better angle. He treated the air, the branches, and even the bodies of the demons as footing.

A Gravecoil lunged from below.

Liam stepped onto its snout as it rose, used a flame burst to pin his weight for half a second, then slashed under the side of its head before vaulting away. Another came from behind him immediately after, its jaws closing in from the right. Liam dropped instead of dodging outward, letting gravity pull him beneath the bite before releasing a burst from his shoulder to twist his body midair. His dagger struck upward.

The blade pierced the soft tissue beneath the jaw.

The demon's head jerked back, flames eating through the wound as it fell.

Liam landed on a branch, crouched for less than a second, and pushed off again as two more Gravecoils smashed into the spot together.

The branch shattered behind him.

'There seems to be no end to them,' he thought, eyes scanning through the darkness beneath the canopy.

He needed distance.

Not from fear. Not even from exhaustion. He needed a clearer picture of the terrain. The swamp below stretched in every direction he could see, its surface broken only by thick roots, patches of moss, and the trunks of trees that rose from the murky water like pillars. There was no solid ground. No dry clearing. No visible ridge or safe landing point.

Only trees, water, and demons.

Liam clicked his tongue softly.

'Of course,' he thought, his expression unchanging. 'They didn't just place me in a hostile zone. They placed me somewhere with no immediate stable footing.'

A Gravecoil came at him from the front, another from the left, and two more from above.

He moved before they closed in.

A burst of flame exploded from beneath his boots, sending him diagonally upward. The two from above adjusted, twisting their long bodies midair with unnatural control. Liam saw the correction and narrowed his eyes slightly.

'For just a bunch of Feral-class demons, they're learning my rhythm.'

He reversed his dagger grip and released a sharper burst from his left palm, forcing himself downward instead of up. The sudden change made the two overhead Gravecoils collide into each other, their armored scales grinding with a harsh metallic screech. Liam passed beneath them, kicked off one of their bodies, and sliced through the throat of the one coming from the front.

The fourth demon nearly caught him.

Its teeth grazed the side of his coat, tearing through fabric as Liam bent backward in the air and let himself fall. He used a burst from the tip of his dagger to rotate, then landed sideways against a tree trunk. His boots dug in, Myst reinforcing the soles for just enough grip.

He pushed off.

The Gravecoil slammed into the trunk behind him, shaking the entire tree.

Liam spun once, the flame around his dagger flaring brighter for a split second, and when he passed the demon's neck, the cut was deep enough to nearly sever the head.

The creature dropped into the swamp below.

A wave of dark water rose from the impact.

Still, Liam didn't descend.

He kept moving through the trees, searching.

There had to be solid ground somewhere. Even a small patch would be enough. He could reassess, preserve Myst, and figure out the deeper pattern of the zone. But every glimpse through the broken canopy and twisted roots showed the same thing—swamp, swamp, and more swamp, stretching far beyond what he could immediately cross without wasting more energy than he wanted.

And that was the problem.

This entire exchange had not even lasted a full minute, yet the longer it continued, the more likely he was to be forced into spending more Myst than necessary. The Gravecoils were not individually dangerous to him. Their armor was annoying, their numbers inconvenient, and their coordination worth noting, but none of them were enough to truly threaten him alone.

The issue was attrition.

The academy had dropped him into a zone designed to make him move.

To make him spend.

To make him reveal how much he could do before the assessment had even properly begun.

'Seems like you've managed to really piss me off, Headmaster Thion,' Liam thought as flames gathered faintly beneath his boots again.