Damian’s group met up, Noah, Asela, and Everest, both had their own signs of wear and tear. 

 

“Where did you lose Kyrion?” Domain asked.

 

“We’re not sure. When we doubled back there were no signs that he was taken. So we waited for a bit and he didn’t surface.” Noah explained.

 

“He said that he was taken underground. I think.” Damian sighed as he put the map on the ground.

 

Everyone looked down at the map. Rabbits that seemed to protect an area are now dead. A burrow somewhere nearby in between where the big rabbits were stationed. Kyrion must have been taken by them while they traveled near one.

 

Nico looked at the map and scratched his chin. “Something isn’t right. Before I thought we were facing dumb rabbits under the command of a beast with the ruler classification. We still might be, but this level of subtlety shouldn’t have been possible. There is probably another even stronger being pulling the string. Hopefully it’s just a fledgling rank, else we may have to end this test early.”

 

Damian nodded grimly.

 

“I see… Well at least this rabbit was dumb. It started laughing on its back mid fight. “Everest said, trying to calm them down. “They can’t be too smart.”

 

“Yes. The one I fought was similar. Highly reactive but had no talent for thinking things through. Right or wrong we need to save Kyrion. I get the feeling things are worse than he realizes.” Damian told everyone.

 

The group left in search of the entrance to the underground burrow.

Kyrion was about to get impaled by a fork when a serpentine head rose up from the ground and bit into the rabbit’s fat leg. 

 

“We had a deal.” Said the serpentine voice. “The child for power over this area. My king won’t be happy if you kill him.”

 

The rabbit scowled. “That child ate my prey and killed my people. I deserve to eat the boy!” 

 

“Rabbits and snakes can talk too. Go figure.” Kyrion said to himself as he looked for an exit. There he saw a teacher on the ground near the door. He had been attacked, and his skin was heavily discolored as though he was poisoned. Kyrion then noticed two large holes in the man’s back. That teacher looked familiar. He looked similar to the guy Kyrion met outside the gates. “Jump guy!” 

 

Kyrion tried to drag the guy out of the room when a hand of earth reached up and gripped his leg, rooting the child in place. 

 

“Where do you think you’re going?” The snake hissed as its head to address the child.

 

“You know. Away? I don’t know what’s going on but you guys look like you’re going to fight and I very much don’t want to see it.” Kyrion tried to move his leg but found himself unable to break free.

 

The rabbit took the chance to bite the snake when its guard was down. Unfortunately for the rabbit, its teeth shattered on its scales and only irritated the creature. The snake, in response, turned around and attempted to swallow the giant rabbit who put up a fight. However, the beast was hard to get down.

 

Kyrion took the chance to crush a few seeds, pouring the liquid down the teacher’s mouth, which caused the man’s eyes to open. “Eat these, not sure how much it’ll help but that snake is strong.” Kyrion handed the rest to the older boy.

“Yeah. To get the drop on me it would have to be. Still I do have plenty of training to go through. I’d say it was at least practitioner rank poison. I have a decent resistance which is why I wasn’t dead. What you did pushed me over the edge, thanks.” Lingar broke the binds on Kyrions feet with a kick. “Hold on.” 

 

Lingar grabbed Kyrion’s torso and jumped straight up, shooting towards the ceiling as a dome of sharp wind spun around the pair, and they found themselves flying through the ceiling, landing outside.

 

The snake hissed as it tried to shoot its way out of the hole, but its recent addition made it too heavy to follow. So instead, it started hacking up the rabbit with a groan as it was even harder to get back out.

 

“We should probably run. That thing you gave me only delayed the effects we need to go now.” Lingar put Kyrion down and let the boy go ahead before he followed behind.

 

As the two ran, Kyrion was struck with a question. “Am I out now?” He asked.

 

“Probably, but seeing as i’ve just received orders to flee with as many students as I can within the hour. It shouldn’t matter. You have a different kind of talent. I’m sure the school that I’m a part of would gladly take you in. Heck, I’ll even put in a word with mine. I’m two years away from graduation after all.”

 

Kyrion had realized that the old man wasn’t much older than he was. Probably.

 

The boys made it into the forest when a giant scorpion appeared from the ground and attacked them with its long tail. 

 

Kyrion redirected the tail with a wind wall, and the appendage struck the ground. Embedding itself deep in the earth.

 

Lingar swept his arm in an arc, and a blade of wind tore through the creature’s carapace cleanly.

 

“How did you cut the creature with wind? I can’t cut anything with mine.” Kyrion said, looking down.

 

“Lots of training, show me next time we encounter an enemy and I'll tell you what I see.” Lingar answered as they continued running.

 

It didn’t take long as a one-eyed bear came out of a cave and was running straight towards them. Paired with a tiger and lion as well.

 

“Lions, and tigers, and bears. Oh my. Get the tiger.” 

 

“Rend.” Lingar encased the other two creatures in a sphere of wind that he instantly turned into a shredder. Blood filled the spear and rained onto the ground.

 

Kyrion used a blade of wind on the tiger, and it flung the creature on its back. It gasped for air, reeling from the impact.

 

“Oh. Makes sense when I see it. You won’t cut anything living by doing that. Quite insidious.” Lingar said as two orbs fell from the sphere and floated towards his hand. He then walked over and killed the tiger in a way that also seemed to produce an orb which he handed to Kyrion. “Your foe your orb.”

 

“What do you mean, makes sense? Also thanks.” Kyrion pocketed the orb.

 

“I bet you only used your power on non living targets before. Am I right?” Lingar stated more than asked.

 

“Yes. How did you know?” Kyrion asked.

 

“It’s obvious when you think about it. That fruit you gave me had a healing ability right?” Lingar started

 

“Yes it did. So?” Kyrion followed.

 

“Just follow carefully. If you have an ability that involves healing, wouldn’t it bleed over to your other powers as well?” Lingar stated sagely.

 

Kyrion scratched his head. “You kind of lost me.”

 

“Your wind heals what it cuts.” Lingar stated plainly.

 

“Ohhhhh. Why didn’t you say that?” Kyrion chided,

 

“Because it isn’t that simple, so to speak. You’re going to need to earn a bit more control if you want to separate the two natures. Otherwise you may never cut or heal properly. Healing affinities are quite rare so consider yourself lucky. Should you mature properly, your abilities may gain the ability to resurrect. It’s not likely but it has appeared in records.”

 

“You sound like my friend Nico now.” Kyrion scratched harder as they made their way forward.

 

“Well if your friend Nico is looking to become a teacher tell them it's a thankless task. My stubborn little brother doesn’t listen to anything I say sometimes.”

 

“So you're teaching here to look after your brother?”

“Kind of. We came here to scout the potential applicants. He’s technically been a student at my school since he could walk. “

 

“Wouldn’t that just be cheating?”

“It would be if he flaunted his abilities. But he has a bad habit of holding back.”

 

“So the opposite of me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know how to hold back yet. It feels as though I use either too little mana or too much. Like I have a storm in my core at times and I keep passing out.”

“I see.” Lingar made a mental note.

 

Damian’s group had arrived, but there was only a gouge in the dirt as though the land in that area just collapsed, and there was no sign of Kyrion.

 

“I should be able to find him from here, give me a minute.” Nico stated.

 

Nico summoned an Ebony Husky that seemed to have fire leaking from his mouth. The dog looked at Nico, and the two seemed to have a conversation among themselves. Before they pulled out an ornately decorated box that contained a lock of dark crimson hair.

 

“Nico? When did you get that?” Asela asked suspiciously.

 

“I took it when I learned about his penchant for getting lost. He gave it willingly if that’s what you’re asking?” Nico lied.

 

“I see..Totally not creepy. Who’s the dog?” Asela shifted the subject.

 

“Hunter, and before you ask he is the same spirit that forms the two balls of fire. He has a brother which I call Ravager but manifesting them both like this is asking for trouble.” Nico pushed his glasses up as he placed the hair up to the dog’s nose.

 

Wura and Kiara seemed to exchange a few words with each other before they followed.

 

Damian looked to Everest and Noah, who had backed away ever so slightly. “What’s with everyone?” He asked the two. “It’s just hair.”

 

“It's the box.” Everest started, “Have you ever put a friend’s hair in a keepsake box that preserves freshness?”

 

“I would if I knew I needed to preserve the smell. Isn’t that what the keep part is for?” He replied.

 

Noah shrugged. “I just don’t like dogs. Don’t know why but they just seem to rub me the wrong way.”

 

“We’re all on different wavelengths. It seems.” Everest stated.

 

“You know? You and Nico are similar it seems.” Damian chuckled.

 

“Don’t say that. Nico probably has more in common with Kiara.” Everest scowled.

 

Hunter looked at its master for a very awkward second before sniffing the air and bolting off in a different direction than the one they were headed previously.

Kyrion had managed to get somewhere relatively safe, and the two climbed a tree. Kyrion looked down and got a view of the nearby area. Somehow Kyrion seemed to have gotten way off course in their fleeing of the scene. The duo had come across many monsters on their way towards this area. But, for some reason, they seemed to always go after Kyrion first.

 

“Why do monsters keep chasing after me?” He asked Lingar.

 

Lingar had a mischievous look on his face that faded into mock seriousness. “I hear monsters love the taste of small children. To them it’s like a delicacy.”

 

That statement reminded Kyrion of something. He sniffed himself. “I still smell like food….” Kyrion updated his map and went to wash off in the river.

 

“Really? Nothing? You have nerves of steel.” Lingar was surprised.

 

“Nope. I know that look, I’ve had that look, and I’ve seen that look on my siblings. Nice try. It would probably work on my sister though. She’s a little gullible when it comes to these things.” Kyrion explained as a wall of wind shielded him from a torrent of flames.

 

A four-armed buck stood on its hind legs, fire roiling from its body and its eyes were bloodshot. Kyrion saw the creature, and for a second, panic and fear rushed through his body. It left as soon as it came, however. Lingar, however, was not as resilient as it seems and was paralyzed in fear.

 

The buck moved to attack Lingar with its antlers. Kyrion saw it and moved to help his friend. When he noticed that Lingar had that look in his eye again. Kyrion remembered that Lingar was probably much stronger than the creature.

 

The buck crashed into a sharp invisible blade and was bisected instantly. Which would have been great had an army of ten similar-looking creatures not loomed over the horizon.

 

Kyrion heard something come from the forest as a fire-breathing black dog came running out of the treeline, trailed by Nico, Damian, and the others.

 

“Kyrion!” His sister yelled, running up to hug her brother.

 

“Aww I missed you too. You won’t believe… Why is your hand red?” Kyrion paused when Asela was in hugging range, realizing dawning.

 

Kyrion was hit with a red hot uppercut in his lower jaw, losing a baby tooth in the process. That one had been bothering him for a while.

 

“That’s for not putting up a fight!” The worry in her eyes, fading.

 

Kyrion’s jaw was already healing from the impact. “Fine, but we have bigger things to worry about.” Kyrion pointed to the deer on the horizon.

 

Nico looked there and back at Kyrion. “Deer aren’t aggressive, but they do seem rather territorial. Just keep your distance and… I stand corrected.”

 

The bucks started charging towards the group. Water evaporated where they stepped.

 

“Battle formations!” Damian yelled 

 

Wura and Kiara went forward. The latter froze the water to create a small wall of ice, while the former coated the ice with her mercury ability which froze after it made contact with the ice. The two retreated as Everest set up sharp wire traps while Nico drew odd symbols on the ground. Asela began to pull on the fire that had landed nearby and waited. 

 

“What do we do?” Kyrion asked Damian.

 

“Noah and I will act as the first line of defense if anything breaks through. Take it out.” Damian said.

 

“Not you two. I mean me and him.” Kyrion pointed to Lingar, who was slumped over near a rock. He had been eating a few more of those healing seeds to delay the poison.

 

“If you’re able to, just do what you can. He looks like he needs to rest. I don’t know what’s going on but something smells off.” Damian muttered.

 

“Yeah he’s supposed to take us out of here, something happened with the test.” Kyrion explained.

 

A wave of three bucks crashed into the metal ice wall and fell back, metal shards poking like knives from its body before melting into the creature’s flesh. The creatures’ own heat made a brief smog rise as the second wave hit the wall. Two more of their number fell similarly. Finally, the third wave of four ran around the wall of ice and into the sharp wire traps, where they were dismembered and dispatched with ease.

 

The tenth deer approached, and Kyrion noticed that it was an alpha, much bigger than the others with a total of six arms to their four. It threw a boulder into the wall of ice, shattering it. The alpha then let loose a torrent of flames that seemed to melt the ice. But was soon stopped and compressed by Asela, who had a ball of fire the size of an orange.

 

Asela moved the orb over the deer corpses and noted now their bodies began to rise, feeding into the orb increasing its mass slightly. The alpha attempted to overwhelm the ball by using more flames, which made the ball grow and then shrink. The buck backed away in horror as the creature realized that it only made the ball stronger. Asela poured the rest of her pool into maintaining the ball, while Nico seemed to give her his as well.

 

The alpha decided it was best to leave as it felt the power differential between the two abilities. However, it was intelligent and realized that it was better to retreat in a battle where its own were killed so quickly and stopped with so little effort.

 

Sadly the alpha didn’t get a chance to live through its wise decision as a giant serpent head came out of the ground and consumed the creature. 

 

“We meet again, thissss time you won’t get away.” The snake licked its mouth.

 

“That thing’s bigger than I remember.” Kyrion said.

 

“It seems the creature was suppressing its degree of power! That’s an expert rank monster.” Lingar got to his feet and pulled out a red arrow-shaped thing which he lit and let go. It made a whirring sound and a pop as it exploded into red smoke.

 

“We just have to hold off for a bit longer.” He grunted as he got in front of the children.

 

“Monsters can do that?” Kyrion asked Nico.

 

“Really strong ones can, when they need to go into hiding for various reasons.” Nico shakily pushed up his glasses. “We have no chance of beating it as we are now.”

 

“There is always a chance.” Damian said, a sword appearing in each hand. “Hold nothing back, this is do or die time everyone!” 

 

Damian’s swords glowed a bright golden color before shifting to a more coppery texture as lighting began to dance between his swords.

 

Noah transformed; this time, he was around ten feet tall and was armed with all sorts of weapons. 

 

Everest’s thread cutter elongated, taking the form of a green claw. He pulled out an inky black thread, and it began to grow in size in his hands.

 

Kiara had conjured a great bow made from ice, and Wura shaped a metallic arrow around the size of a lance but with its head twisted to a degree. It was then frozen as they pulled the string together.

 

“When did they get that strong?” Kyrion asked.

 

“Your leader was already that strong, he just doesn’t like to show off. The rest are using all their mana to do this. From what I’ve seen you’ve done the same thing a few times. Hit or miss when their mana runs out chances are they’ll pass out. Honestly in normal circumstances their bad form in general. Enough talk, it’s coming.” Nico said.

 

The snake went after Noah first but found a surprising amount of power slowing the strike down, and its teeth were tangled with metallic wires coating it with the odd-smelling concoction. Everest stabbed into the creature with his finger dagger and began scaling down its back, disappearing.

 

Asela and Nico pushed the ball of fire they were holding into the maw of the snake, causing an explosion in the creature’s mouth as the wires were ignited. Then, small blasts happened as the barrage entered its stomach and had a party. 

 

“Well after I eat all of you the indigestion I get will hurt more than the effort you put in.” The snake reeled back and slammed its head into Noah, who was holding now a red hot glaive. The knife passed through a layer of scales before it snapped, and the boy was hit.

 

Noah was pushed into the ground but held on rooting the snake’s head long enough for Wura and Kiara to launch their first arrow, which the snake ducked when it should have jumped. It collided with the monster’s eye, stuttering into shards that melted into the monster’s eye and mouth.

 

Wura and Kiara fell exhausted after the shot expelling almost all of their mana. Kyrion approached them with seeds from his blue pomegranate and brought them over to Nico and Asela.

 

The snake struck Noah a third time, and his transformation broke. Noah was sent spiraling; Lingar retrieved him and brought him to the others while Damian moved in.

 

Damian evaded the monster’s attacks, dancing through bites and swipes with the creature’s tail while slashing as hit with his swords when he saw an opening. The snake went for a bite at Damian’s left shoulder. But the boy dodged to his right, realizing too late that the attack was a feint. A wave of wind pushed him out of the way just barely as Lingar began to fight with him. Blades of wind crashed into the snake, causing the bite that would have hit Damian to miss and collide with the ground.

 

The serpent seemed to slow down in its relentless attacks as it took a more destructive approach. The serpent unhinged its jaw as an explosion came rolling out of its mouth. The snake blinked and did it again. This time a black gas covered the area. Lingar focused so much on his effort to shield himself and Damian from the smog that he didn’t notice the tail wrap around his neck and slam him into the ground. The snapping of bones echoed throughout the forest.

 

Damian succumbed to the poison, falling to his knees and then fading out. Both of the boy’s swords had vanished, and he was clutching at his throat. The snake laughed as it brought its mouth down to consume the child. 

 

“Had you not gone anywhere, then only you would have been harmed. Now all your friends are going to die. Prey shouldn’t fight back.” The snake chuckled.

 

Kyrion’s eyes went bloodshot as moisture in the air began to boil. Kyrion soon faded from consciousness. His scalara took on an inky black texture as his body stiffened.

Leon had run as fast as he could after he saw the flare. Both he and his wolf were ready to fight. But what? He didn’t know. He saw Kyrions eyes turn red and then white. As water, wind, and plant mana seemed to circle around him in unison. Kyrion closed his outstretched hand, and a series of roots wrapped around the creature pulling it into the ground slowly, the plants nearby growing in while the serpent was being brought into the earth.

 

Kyrion crashed into the ground moments later, but the serpent was as restrained as a Kyrion was ever going to get it. A monster like this was nothing to Leon, but this much was a lot for a fledgling like Kyrion. Leon pulled out his ice-cold sword and froze the creature inside out as he went and plucked the creature’s core. It was pretty nice as far as cores get, but he sensed two more nearby for an odd reason. He opened up the creature’s stomach and retrieved undigested cores. “Not pretty but it was worth it.”

 

Yulon arrived with a few other teachers and one of the healers that they keep on hand. “Good work dispatching this intruder.”

 

“To be fair those kids did a good job and loosened it up for me. My sword met little resistance, it was as though the flesh and bone were made softer than it should have been. It was near the lower limit of practitioner when I killed it, in terms of defense. I think it has something to do with the amount of internal damage it sustained along with the poison from Wura’s spirit.” Leon lied.

 

Yulon chuckled. “Ah, so many little monsters this year. It seems we may need to move graduation up by half a year. You were a little slow getting here, even though you left before we could mount a rescue effort.” The last statement sounded too serious for it to be a joke, and Leon caught on.

 

“I’m not used to this forest. I’ll make the necessary preparations. To be able to weaken a monster like this so much is truly something.” Leon nodded and headed back into the forest to check for any stragglers.

 

Lok approached the unconscious Kyrion and brushed a hair away from his face. Whispering into his ear. “Good job.“