Adrian gave a sharp laugh, swinging his axe onto his shoulder. "Finally, sothing worth the sweat."
rlin said nothing. His gaze slid over the terrain, the tall trees, the undergrowth dense enough to hide a squad if they crouched low, the uneven slopes where roots tore out of the soil like gnarled veins.
It wasn’t just a battlefield. It was a labyrinth without walls.
—
[Objective: Eliminate all opposing teams. Last team standing wins.]
The text burned bright across rlin’s vision, then dissolved into mist.
A horn sounded in the distance, low, tallic, echoing like the call of sothing ancient.
The match had begun.
—
"North," Elara said, already setting the pace, boots silent against damp ground. "We need higher ground before they find us."
Nathan twirled his blades nervously. "Or before we find them."
rlin followed, his hand on his sword hilt, golden eyes flicking through shadows. Every sound mattered, the crack of twigs, the hush of leaves, the too-loud silence after the birds stopped calling.
It didn’t take long.
The first clash ca sudden and sharp.
An arrow hissed out of the fog, narrowly missing Liliana’s shoulder as she ducked.
"Contact!" Adrian barked, dragging her behind a tree as two more arrows followed, thunking into bark where her chest had been.
Shapes moved in the mist, figures, five of them, spreading wide with bows raised. Another team.
Elara raised her spear, her voice sharp. "Liliana, shield! Nathan, flank left. rlin—"
But rlin was already moving.
His sword flared with faint arcs of lightning, a whisper of what it could do. He darted forward, feet silent against the loam, cutting through the mist like it belonged to him.
An arrow ca straight for his eye. He tilted his head, let it pass, and in the sa motion cut the bow in half with a clean upward swing. The wielder gaped, then fell when the flat of rlin’s blade slamd into his ribs.
[Opponent incapacitated.]
The text flickered faint, but rlin ignored it. He pressed forward, cutting through another archer’s defense, not with overwhelming strength but with precision so sharp it dismantled them piece by piece.
Behind him, Elara burst into the fray, her spear glinting silver as she drove two back at once, her strikes asured but unrelenting. Adrian’s axe sang through the mist, chopping down branches as much as it struck steel. Nathan slipped through shadows, vanishing only to reappear at soone’s throat.
Liliana’s water barriers caught arrows mid-flight, dissolving them into harmless mist. She moved constantly, weaving protection without pause.
It was fast, brutal, and then it was over.
The last archer hit the ground, and the system announced:
[Enemy Team Eliminated.]
The mist shifted. Silence followed.
Nathan let out a laugh, chest heaving. "One down. Two to go."
Adrian cracked his neck. "Not even ward up yet."
Elara didn’t relax. Her violet eyes scanned the trees, every muscle still tense. "They heard that."
rlin sheathed his sword, though his hand stayed close. "...They’ll co to us."
He was right.
The second team arrived minutes later, not with arrows but with steel. They charged in as a unit, shields raised, swords braced, their front-line formation tight enough to break bone and spirit both.
"Formation!" Elara barked.
But before they could adjust, the third team struck.
The forest exploded with chaos.
From the east ca fire, blazing through the mist, setting roots alight, heat pressing like a furnace. Two stood tall behind their front line, fireballs blooming in their hands like miniature suns.
From the west ca the crash of steel, the second team’s vanguard slamming against both Elara’s spear and Adrian’s axe at once.
It was no longer one fight. It was three colliding.
—
rlin’s blade was already out. He cut low, deflecting a spear, twisting, and driving the hilt of his sword into the jaw of another student who stumbled too close.
His eyes flicked once to the mage in the distance. Fire. Too much of it. If Liliana faltered for even a second—
"rlin!" she shouted, voice sharp. A wall of water shimred around them, hissing as fire crashed against it. Her face was pale, sweat clinging to her brow. "I can’t—hold—forever!"
"Elara!" rlin barked.
She had already seen it. Her spear spun in her hands, eyes flashing. "Adrian, Nathan—front line! Hold them!"
She sprinted into the fire.
rlin didn’t hesitate. He followed.
The enemy’s fire roared hotter, brighter, as if it would consu the entire forest. But Elara cut through the flas like a silver cot, her spear carving arcs of light that split fire apart.
rlin ca behind, lightning hissing along his sword. He didn’t aim to kill, this was still an exam, but his strike cut the mage’s casting circle in half, scattering flas into harmless sparks.
One gasped, wide-eyed, then crumpled as the flat of Elara’s spear slamd into their chest.
[Opponent incapacitated.]
The battlefield staggered.
For a heartbeat, all three teams clashed in the clearing,shouts, sparks, steel, magic colliding until the forest itself seed to reel from the noise.
rlin’s chest heaved, sweat running down his temple. His blade humd, alive, eager. He could feel it again, the gap, the gulf between him and them. Six stars against threes. A storm against a drizzle.
He could end this. Right here. Right now.
But his grip tightened. And he didn’t.
Because the mont he did, everyone, students, instructors, gods, would see.
So he pulled back. Struck with precision, not devastation. Guided, not crushed.
And still, the ground trembled.
—
Above, in the instructor’s gallery, Morgana leaned forward, eyes burning with interest.
"Do you see it now?" she murmured.
Vivienne didn’t answer. Reinhardt scowled, arms folded, saying nothing but watching every cut, every dodge, every strike that wasn’t quite as strong as it could be.
Morgana’s lips curved. "Six stars. Caged inside a boy who pretends to limp."
Her eyes glead brighter as the clash below roared on.
"And the cage is cracking."
—
The fight didn’t end. Not yet.
The clearing rang with the noise of four teams colliding, and rlin’s sword sang among them, every strike a careful promise, every parry a leash against his true power.
But for how long that leash would hold—
That was a question even he didn’t know.
—
The clearing had beco a warzone.
Smoke curled from burning branches where fire had kissed bark. Water hissed in the soil where Liliana’s barriers had drowned the flas. Steel clashed against steel, cries rang out, and the mist that once cloaked the forest was now torn apart by sheer violence.
rlin’s blade cut another strike wide, his body moving almost on instinct. The clang of impact rang through his arms. He countered with the flat of his sword, dropping the boy before him without pause. His golden eyes snapped toward Elara, she was a silver blur, weaving through fire and steel alike, her spear singing arcs of light that turned chaos into order.
To their right, Adrian’s axe ca down with thunderous weight, each swing rattling the shields of the team holding their ground against him.
Nathan was a shadow, slipping in and out of the fray, daggers flashing, a grin on his lips as he left opponents bleeding with shallow, incapacitating cuts.
And Liliana, her hands shook, her lips pale, but her water shields curved around them still, catching fire and arrow both.
They were holding. Barely.
But the other two teams weren’t letting up.
—
"Push them! They’re tiring!" a boy shouted, rallying his shield-line. Their formation pressed harder, their shields braced shoulder to shoulder, a wall of iron crawling forward.
From the opposite side, a fire-user hurled another roaring sphere of fla, forcing Liliana back as her barrier hissed under the heat.
"Elara!" rlin barked.
She saw it too. Her spear lashed out, catching the advancing line at their exposed flank, breaking their rhythm for a heartbeat. But a heartbeat wasn’t enough.
"Too many," Nathan hissed, twisting out of the path of a spear. His grin had faded now, sweat glistening down his neck. "We’re fighting both teams at once—they’ll bleed us dry!"
"Then we make them bleed first!" Adrian roared, slamming his axe into the dirt, the shock rattling the nearest fighters off balance.
rlin felt his chest tighten. They were good. All of them. But this wasn’t a duel. This was a storm. And no matter how sharp their blades were, a storm didn’t care.
Unless...
"Focus fire!" rlin shouted suddenly, voice cutting through the clash. "Forget holding both! Pick one—take them out first!"
Elara’s head snapped toward him, violet eyes narrowing. Then she nodded once, sharp. "The fire-mages. Nathan, rlin, cut through their backline. Adrian, with , shield wall won’t hold if we break them at the center!"
Orders fell into place.
—
rlin darted forward, Nathan a shadow at his side. Mist clung to their boots as they wove through chaos, every step a gamble. A fireball roared past, close enough to singe rlin’s sleeve. He ignored it, cutting through a spear haft and driving its wielder back without slowing.
They were there. Three of them. Two already shaping fire, one with wind coiled in her palms, ready to fan the flas into an inferno.
"Together?" Nathan muttered.
rlin’s lips twitched. "Together."
They struck as one.
Nathan’s daggers carved quick and low, hamstringing the first mage before she could finish her incantation. She cried out, collapsing, the flas in her hand sputtering uselessly into sparks.
rlin t the second mage’s fire head-on. His sword cut through the sphere of fla, lightning sparking as heat roared against steel. He stepped through the smoke and slamd the hilt into the mage’s gut.
The wind-user tried to retreat, but Nathan was already there, sliding from shadow to shadow until his dagger rested at her throat. "Don’t bother," he whispered before the system blinked:
[Opponent incapacitated.]
[Opponent incapacitated.]
[Opponent incapacitated.]
The backline shattered.
And with it, the second team’s formation faltered.
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