BLOOD & SIGILS

Chapter 67: Marked for Death

The Academy Notices…

Deep within Eldoria Academy, the Headmaster's Tower pulsed with unstable mana. Enchanted monitoring crystals—each linked to a student's life force—flashed erratically, flickering between dim light and outright failure.

Professor Selwyn Draeven, the First-Year Combat Instructor, sat stiffly before the display. His mechanical arm, normally steady, tapped impatiently against the desk. His sharp silver eyes narrowed as he analyzed the growing casualties.

"Three confirmed dead. Five critically injured. Several missing."

His jaw tightened.

This wasn't normal.

The Survival Trial was meant to be brutal—but controlled. A test of endurance, strategy, and teamwork.

But this?

This was a slaughter.

Heavy footsteps echoed behind him.

The doors to the chamber swung open.

Headmaster Varian Drakos Eldoria entered, his black-and-crimson robes flowing like liquid shadow. His golden eyes burned with barely concealed fury, his mere presence pressing down on the room like an oncoming storm.

Behind him, Lady Seraphine Eldoria, the Fourth-Year Instructor, followed. Her midnight-black coat, trimmed with silver, clung tightly to her athletic frame. A high-grade enchanted longsword rested across her back, secured in an intricate sheath.

Selwyn stood immediately.

"Headmaster," he greeted, voice clipped. "We have a problem."

Varian's gaze remained locked on the crystals.

He had already felt it.

The shift in mana.

The tremor in the island's balance.

The death of students.

Seraphine frowned. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

Selwyn's mechanical fingers flexed, metal creaking. "It's worse than we thought. The island's mana levels spiked unnaturally about an hour ago. Something's wrong—far beyond our original predictions."

Varian's golden eyes gleamed sharply.

And then, in a voice that left no room for argument, he declared:

"Prepare for intervention. You and Seraphine are going in."

Selwyn's mechanical hand clenched into a fist. "Understood."

Seraphine's grip tightened on her sword. "We'll get there before it's too late."

With a final glance at the pulsing crystals—

They moved.

Damien Nocturne – The Trail of the Coward

Damien Nocturne ran.

Branches whipped at his face. His feet pounded against the jungle floor. His lungs burned.

"I just need to reach the teleportation point."

His mind screamed at him to keep moving.

But deep inside?

He knew.

He wasn't alone.

The Alpha Mana Beast was hunting him.

And worse?

It was toying with him.

Suddenly—

A group of students appeared ahead.

Weaker nobles.

Commoners.

All battle-worn, injured from their own struggles against lesser beasts.

Perfect.

Damien didn't hesitate.

"THE BEAST IS COMING!" he roared, staggering toward them. "It's too strong! We need to fight—together!"

The desperate students turned, their faces pale with exhaustion and terror.

One—a commoner named Eryk Vallon, a dual-wielding swordsman—gritted his teeth. "Fight? Against an Alpha?! Are you insane?!"

A lesser noble, Freya Lorne, a wind mage, clutched her arm, blood seeping through her uniform. "We need to run—"

"RUN WHERE?!" Damien barked, his face twisted in fake desperation. "It's faster than us! We need to stall it!"

The students hesitated.

Then—

A deafening snarl.

The Alpha's golden eyes burned through the dense undergrowth.

The students panicked.

And Damien pushed them forward.

He shoved Eryk straight ahead. "FIGHT!"

The moment the poor commoner turned—

The Alpha struck.

A blur of black and silver.

A single flash of fangs.

Blood sprayed across the jungle floor as Eryk's headless corpse hit the ground.

Freya screamed.

Damien shoved her next.

The Alpha barely slowed.

Freya's body was split in two, her wind magic utterly useless.

And Damien?

He kept running.

Shoving one student after another into the jaws of the beast.

Buying himself seconds.

Only seconds.

But it wasn't enough.

Because the Alpha had already marked him.

And now?

It was just playing with its food.

Kael's Hunt – A Predator Answers the Call

Kael Veyrin moved swiftly, his blade already stained with the blackened blood of multiple slain beasts.

His crimson eyes burned with focus.

He had hunted beasts before.

But this—

This was different.

The air was thick with unstable mana.

The jungle was too quiet.

Then—

A sound.

A distant scream.

Then, a burst of mana so powerful that the very air trembled.

Kael stopped moving.

His expression darkened.

"That's not normal."

A predator's instinct stirred in his blood.

His grip tightened on his sword.

And then—

He moved.

Lucian & Darius – Sensing the Chaos

Elsewhere, Lucian Eldoria and Darius Zephyrion stood amidst a battlefield of fallen Greater Mana Beasts.

Their bodies bore signs of battle—cuts, bruises, burns.

And yet?

Lucian's golden eyes remained sharp.

Something was wrong.

Darius wiped blood from his mouth. "Tell me you felt that, too."

Lucian's jaw clenched. "The Alpha has started its hunt."

Darius exhaled, electricity crackling along his fingertips. "Then we'd better move."

Without another word—

The two vanished into the jungle.

Mira Valcroft – A Decision Made

Mira washed blood off her hands, staring at her own reflection in the river.

She had survived.

But just surviving wasn't enough.

Cassian's words echoed in her mind.

"Why do you need to be strong?"

She had thought it was to prove herself.

To fight against noble oppression.

But now?

She realized it was to never feel helpless again.

She clenched her fists.

Then—

A pulse of mana.

Her instincts flared.

Something was happening.

She grabbed her sword—

And ran toward the chaos.

Selene & Evelyne – Watching the Storm Approach

Selene Duskbane and Evelyne Grimthorne stood atop a rocky outcrop, their gazes locked onto the jungle below.

They saw the movement.

They felt the shift in mana.

Selene's silver eyes narrowed. "The Alpha is drawing them in."

Evelyne cracked her knuckles. "Good. I was getting bored."

Selene didn't respond.

Her mind was already three steps ahead.

Because she knew—

This wasn't just a battle.

It was a reckoning.

The Final Hunt Begins…

The island was no longer just a battleground.

It was a graveyard in the making.

The Alpha Mana Beast—on the cusp of evolution—had made its move.

And soon, every student would learn—

That survival wasn't guaranteed.

Even rescue… might come too late.