Down in the dense forest, a scout from the Desert Sultanate Academy cautiously approached a peaceful, flowing river to check for water-traps. He kept his footsteps light, his eyes darting back and forth between the trees and the edge of the bank. But contrary to his worries, the area was quiet and completely harmless.
The scout let out a soft sigh of relief and bent down to inspect the mud. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, his hand reached toward a smooth, gray rock sitting quietly along the bank.
*POOF!*
The gray rock suddenly transformed into a hyper-aggressive, fat forest squirrel.
"WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE ABYSS?!" the scout shrieked, his eyes bulging in sheer terror.
The squirrel instantly launched itself forward, using the scout's chest as a stepping stone and kicking him squarely in the nose with enough kinetic force to shatter his protective goggles. The scout stumbled backward in a blind panic, waving his arms wildly. He tripped directly over his own feet, lost his balance, and went tumbling headfirst into a pre-set elimination trap hidden in the brush. A bright flash of light erupted, and the trap instantly teleported his unconscious body out of the arena.
Sora giggled out loud, skipping happily back towards the safety of the dense forest while still in her fat squirrel form.
After a few hours, and after taking a well-deserved nap under the shade of a large tree, Sora woke up feeling refreshed. She was not in a rush, and she definitely did not want to arouse suspicions among the other students by moving too fast.
Meanwhile, in a nearby rocky ravine, a powerful battle mage from the western marches discovered what appeared to be a high-tier healing potion resting on a stone altar.
"Finally! A resource drop!" the mage laughed, his eyes lighting up as he eagerly uncorked the glass vial.
But before he could even comprehend what was happening, the red liquid inside the potion instantly expanded with a sudden, burning sensation.
*BOOM!*
His whole body exploded into pieces, instantly turning into a shower of light as the arena's safety charms recorded his elimination. And as if his potion was a trigger, a chain reaction of other loud explosions occurred in several other directions where the enemy contenders dwelled. Thanks to Cassian's careful preparation, he had been able to get hold of a large supply of these volatile potions and had Sora plant them vastly all around the forest. And of course, the members of the Crimson Vanguard had been warned ahead of time about this explosive plan, meaning they stayed far away from the altars as much as they can.
Now transforming into a large, white rabbit with long ears, Sora hopped into a small clearing and looked at a girl standing across from her. The girl was a Western swordswoman, and she looked steady and ready to jump on the rabbit to hunt it down. However, the girl nervously shivered as she slowly drew closer, her blade trembling slightly.
The rabbit looked at her dead in the eye and it was an abnormal response from a mere animal. Then, without a single shred of warning, it jumped straight at her face.
The girl screamed in terror while Sora delivered a rapid, devastating double-slap across her cheeks with his strong hind legs. Before the girl could recover, Sora leaned down and bit the girl's dominant hand—the very hand she used for handling swords. With the bite secured, he bolted into the thick bush with an impossible speed.
The Western swordswoman stood completely frozen in the middle of the canyon, her cheeks bright red from the slaps, staring down at her throbbing hand. The bite was incredibly deep, and the sharp teeth had pierced right through the nerves of her hand.
"I need to find a healing potion quickly," she groaned, clutching her wrist, "—before the wound gets worse."
"A healing potion you say? Well, I'm a healer so let me help you."
The girl jumped, startled by the sudden voice. Her reaction speed was far too late, and she hadn't noticed the two students who now stood shoulder to shoulder as they approached her from the shadows. She looked down at their dark, drake-leathered uniforms, and her eyes popped in utter surprise.
"You are—"
"So you are the remaining one we have been looking for this entire time," the healer mage said with a sweet smile.
"We already got five of your teammates eliminated," Honda added, her voice dropping as she whispered into the wind. "So why don't you surrender to us without any hassle beautiful lady?"
The two Crimson Vanguard girls narrowed their eyes into dangerous slits, their smiles twisting into something lopsided and evil.
The Western girl instinctively tried to draw her sword out all the way with her aching, injured hand. "Curse you, Edrath scum! I will fight you to the death!"
"So we are doing this the hard way after all huh?," Honda said flatly.
She swiftly drew her daggers. Even before the girl could form her proper combat stance, the after-image of Honda was already right in front of her face.
"So slow," Honda muttered. "This turned out pretty easy, actually."
The girl gasped in shock, but the complaint died in her throat as the illusionary dagger pierced through her forehead, triggering the arena's immediate token of elimination.
"Whoa! That was so cool, Honda!" The healer mage jumped up and down, clapping her hands excitedly in the middle of the ravine. "You looked exactly like His Highness just now!"
"I did?" Honda's cheeks heated up, an embarrassed blush forming on her face, but she still proudly folded her arms and snorted her nose in the air. "Well, it is only natural that we take after our Commander!"
"Urgh, you guys, will you please stop fooling around!" a voice called out.
Felix sighed heavily as he approached the two girls from the trees, with Helena silently following right behind his heels. "Time is not on our side. We only have tonight to garner tokeny, kill off our competition, and hunt down the monsters that are infesting this forest."
He looked around the darkened ravine. "There is approximately sixty of us left inside the dome right now. Well, that is only a rough estimation, but all that I am saying is that we should hunt relentlessly throughout the evening. Most of the other contenders will be taking a rest in their camps soon. Even if they are on guard, that gives us all the time we need. After all, the Crimson Vanguard never rests. Our goal is to completely annihilate all of these trials... and right now, we need to get moving."
The girls nodded in unison, but their playful expressions still remaining. Felix turned and led the way out of the clearing, the group moving silently into the dense forest.
"Haa, thank goodness I have done my part for the day," Sora whispered to herself, leaning against a tree trunk deep in the woods. "I am tired, and my mana is nearly spent as well. I need to find a safe place to recover my strength and my mana."
But true to Cassian's strict warnings, whenever Sora spotted the distinct silver-and-emerald uniforms of the Verdant Elven Alliance approaching through the trees, she quickly checked her wild instincts. She remembered his stern warning about her pregnancy draining her core reserves if she fought high-tier mages of her own race. With a low, disappointed pout, she smoothly transformed into a small, nondescript bluebird and quietly flew up into the high forest canopy, safely avoiding the elven patrol lines. Even though he was mischievous, he was definitely not suicidal. His main priority now was to simply find a quiet spot to recharge his mana pool.
*****
By the time the sun began to set over the magical dome, nearly every single foreign academy had reported bizarre, unquantifiable incidents through their communication runes. Teams were complaining about living boulders, aggressive rabbits, moving objects in abandoned ruins, and a suspiciously intelligent duck that had systematically stolen three different teams' secondary supply packs and food. One elite squad spent twenty entire minutes frantically chasing what their scanners insisted was a high-tier magical artifact, only for it to be Sora, who enjoyed every single second of the chaos. And in the end, all those teams either ended up dead or incapacitated because of his distractions.
But what caused most of the remaining students to growl in pure anger was not just the weird magic phantoms of the dome.
It was the Elven students and the Crimson Vanguard students, who had spent the entire afternoon toying with their competitors like they were toying with little kids.
The elves were formidable, but the Crimson Vanguard? They were crazy, unhinged, and downright cruel. Most of their opponents were completely decapitated by their swift blades. The entire stadium watched these gruesome, decisive defeats on the giant floating projection screens. And by the time night fell, it was well etched into everyone's minds that this was not just a simple group of talented academy kids. They were all monsters in training.
The following day the second round of the first trial finally concluded as the members of the Crimson Vanguard regrouped at a vast, frozen field at the edge of the biome.
Helena's vast ice magic had just incapacitated exactly forty students in one single go. The group of foreign competitors had seemingly teamed up to fight against the Vanguard, but they were now frozen completely solid in place, buried in ice up to their necks. They were shouting, screaming out curses, and growling in anger at the students standing before them.
Helena had purposely left their heads unfrozen. For once, she also wanted to show off just like the rest of her teammates had done throughout the trial, wanting to prove to everyone that she was a fully trusted member of the Crimson Vanguard as well.
And their wild card.
"Wow," Felix muttered, looking at the massive wall of ice. "A three-circle mage is truly built different after all."
Helena softly smirked. With a flick of her wrist, she formed exactly five sharp spears of ice, making them float menacingly toward five of the frozen students across from them. The trapped students popped their eyes in absolute horror. And without a moment of warning, the spears flew forward, piercing through their armor badges as if they were merely targets in a shooting gallery.
"Whoa, let me in! Let me in too!" Felix shrieked, jumping forward with a wide grin as if this was merely a fun playground game. "Guys, do you want to make a quick bet?"
"What kind of bet?" Honda asked, wiping her dagger.
"The one who misses a target even once has to buy all of us lunch after the first trial is over."
"Oh, game on!" the other underclassmen roared, immediately lining up next to him.
The frozen students shrieked in terror at the sight. "We are human beings, not targets, you crazy bastards!"
"Shut up!" Felix laughed, raising his hand. "Targets don't talk."
A bright bolt of lightning materialized in his palm, striking the complaining boy's badge and sending him out of the match in a burst of light. The other frozen competitors gasped in fear, but the Vanguard members rejoiced, cheering loudly for Felix's accuracy.
"That was so cool," Honda scoffed, "but it still won't compare to my swift daggers."
"Wanna bet on that?" Felix smirked.
Honda smirked right back, pulling out three of her daggers at once. She sent them flying with a flick of her wrist, hitting three different targets at the exact same time, right at the bridges of their noses. Seeing her success, the competitive spirit flared wildly among the remaining underclassmen as they all tried to outdo each other.
Meanwhile outside the dome, up in the stands, the whole stadium found the situation incredibly unfavorable. The Crimson Vanguard had clearly taken things way too far, and their ruthless behavior was becoming almost unbearable to watch. But every single time a noble or a foreign delegate tried to voice their complaints out loud, they would first turn to look at the Crown Prince seated high up in his royal box.
Cassian was actively clapping his hands, grinning quite widely compared to the quiet, bored moments he had spent during the earlier parts of the trial.
"Ha!" Cassian chuckled wickedly, leaning over the stone railing. "My kids definitely know how to turn a boring tournament into an entertaining one." His chuckle only grew more wicked.
Lucien stood just behind his chair, looking down at the prince's joyful expression with an unblinking, stoic gaze.
'Should I just behead him?' the knight thought silently to himself.
'He is truly evil.'
*****