It was an unusually beautiful morning in the dense jungles outside Banos. Hundreds of first year Rohad Academy students and teachers stood in a cleaning, just in front of the entrance to the jungle. On a makeshift wooden platform placed in front of the jungle, was the acadamy's famous headmaster, Zoan Hadeison. Unfortunately, the supposedly famous man, didn't look so glorious. He was hunched over, his long grey hair reached the small of his back, and his beard was equally as long. He was claded his a black shaw, with matching boots, and hat. Next to him were 2 of the 6 only teachers left in the Rohad Academy, the only Wielders that weren't mobilized and drafted to join the United Armies of Ladria, ready to fight the Surcoth. To Zoan's right was the acadamy's infamous Master Klamath, nicknamed Snake for his constant lisp when he said a word with the letter s in it. But students know not to laugh at this lisp, or they would be given an insult for the ages. To Zoan's left was Gira, a beautiful woman who looked young, but was actually much older than she looked.

In the jungle heat the first year students still found it easy to make friends with on another, even the new teachers were socializing. Most of them were confused, orientation was supposed to be at the academy, in Ladria. But they were in the jungle, in Banos, most assumed there would be some sort of surprise, maybe a party. They realized that all there questions would be answer when Zoan held his hand up as a signal to quiet down.

"I assume you are all very confused, why are you miles away from Ladria? Both new teacher and students alike will be testing here in this jungle. You are to make your way out of the jungle, to the find the finish line on the other side. You only have 48 hours to make it out, if you do not, you are not worthy to become a Rohad!" Zoan said with voice stern and loud, much to powerful with the look of the man. Murmurs arose in the crowd, some frantic, angered, or excited. "Zilenxe!" yelled Master Klamath yelled, instantly hushing the crowd. Zoan nodded to Klamath and continued on, "You are allowed to use any means necessary to make it out the jungle." Zoans' face immediately darkened, " Even if it means killing another student to push yourself ahead. Anything goes." The air stood still, and the jungle went silent, "If you still wish to participate, stay were you are, leave if you are feint, of heart." Zoan said despondently.



Zoan's expression changed once again, a smile formed on his face. "Alright then, we will give to you the famous Rohad Teacher Tournament. Unfortunately, we only have 2 teachers with use, so they will duel on another, at least this will make this Ceremony a bit normal." He said with a little chuckle. Both teachers stepped of the stage and bowed in respect to one another. The crowd stepped back and watched in awe as the teacher readied themselves for battle. Smiling crudely, Klamath took up his stance, Gira took her own stance.

A few seconds passed before the battle began, Gira brought both her hand together and created two balls of wind. She flung them. A trail of dust left in it's wake as it flew towards Klamath. He simply stomped his feet and an earth wall rose before him. The two balls disintegrated as they slammed into the barrier. Klamaths' brown emblem, which currently rested on the dorsal of his glove, sparked as he pushed his hands forward. The rock wall that at one time stood still, raced towards Gira. She did not even flinch as she shot thin gusts of wind from her hands, they created green ripples as they navigated through the air. It cut the rock into thin slices, the pieces hitting the group with a loud thump. The glow light green glow of Giras' emblem intensified as she wielded wind to boost her speed. She zigzagged past each attacks, closing the distance between her and her foe. Klamath remain calm, in fact, a smile formed on his face. He dug both hands into the ground and cut out a large chuck of rock. The teacher smiled devilishly before he threw them lump of earth at the woman. Gira stood still, but brought her hand up to meet the object. A green water link energy coated her hand, she smashed into the object and it shattered, into hundreds of pieces, all falling around her. Unfortunately, she had to time to think before the hundreds of shards shattered once again, and lightning bolts flew from the debris, right into Gira. She was thrown 10 feet away, crashing to the ground as if she was a rag doll.

Klamath made a move to attack, but Zoan held his hand up, to signal that the battle was over. "As you may know, Klamath is a Duel Wielder, you will be learning under him if you a gifted enough to gain this ability." He said sternly. "Now that you refreshed with this fight, it is time for use to begin the Orientation. Both teacher and students alike will participate in the event, this was the best we could do to assess all you abilities, so we didn't waste time with the weak. A war is coming, we don't have the time to have the weak hold up back." He said angrily. "It is time, all of you, as I said before, have 48 hours to exit the forest on the other side. Anything goes, wielding, usage of weapons, traps, we don't care, whatever it takes to get to the other side. You may begin whenever you feel like it." the old man said with a sly smile as he walked of the stage. Gira finally picked herself up and limped of after the Headmaster, Klamath in pursuit.

Jack was dressed differently to the students around him. Their uniform was clean, sharp and crisp. Alongside this many wore emblems of nobility and means, a site Jack was very much used to seeing. Most of the first years were young, fresh faced, and buzzing at the prospect of the run through the jungle. Jack had been at the Academy for a number of years now, if only as a researcher rather than teacher, and had heard the stories from second and third years students, still strong in their memories. Jack looked like a sore thumb in the group. His face was sullen and dull, rather than pink and excitable, his uniform was a pair of black combat boots, fitted khaki trousers, a white vest and a solid travelers jacket. Finally he also had a medium sized khaki hat, whilst he normally despised hats, it was useful here for keeping bugs and the sun off. As well as any water from the trees. On his back was the emblazoned sigil of the Academy and on the front of his jacket was a brass pin with his own family seal on, a rising sun with a spear running through it. Finally Jack had also brought three of his throwing knives, attached to his belt, but had left his sword at home. He wasn't here to kill students.

In every run one teacher was needed to make it too, since certain individuals HAD to make it through otherwise a large sum of funding would stop. Jack was not nearly that important however he also wasn't a student, and so received no such treatment. But with the war coming ever closer the current Non-Wielding Combat teacher had been recruited and Jack had been forced to take his place. Especially to the disdain of almost everyone else, as a non-wielder Jack was considered an outsider by everyone at the school, and since many students were older than he was, they used that age as another excuse to bully him mercilessly. Though Jack always got his own back in lessons, it seemed that because he didn't need to focus on wielding, he could spend a lot more time sparring and practising. Making him a better fighter than anyone else in the school, without wielding. Of course he did lack the ability to throw fireballs or bring up a stone wall to protect himself.

As the headmaster spoke after the teachers dual Jack just amused himself by kicking a small stone. He had a place at the Academy, there was so few teachers left they couldn't let him die. The headmaster was the only person Jack had met at the Academy who hadn't made Jack's life a misery and Jack respected the man, but he was long overdue retirement and the only reason it had been put off was because any of the candidates were very strong wielders and were needed for the army. It seemed the Academy would end up running it's headmaster into the ground. As the headmaster finally declared the 'event' open Jack waited around for a minute. Many of the more excitable youth had instantly leapt off into the jungle, whilst most of Jack's charges stayed where they were. It seemed either they were in fact smart, or their money ridden brains couldn't decide if getting some bruises was worth the Academy.

Finally, after some more students started to move, the group of money bags' started their way into the jungle. Jack quickly reached down and touched his toes, limbering up and stretching his muscles he begun to walk into the jungle. preparation was the key to any survival course and he had already read up, and spoken to some of the other students, on what was safe to eat, where some sources of fresh water were roughly and if there was a safest route. They had mostly said the same thing. A couple of fungi were safe, one type of berry and most of the little mammals you could catch were safe. There was a long source of fresh water running through the jungle that wasn't to hard to find and that there was no 'easy' route. Most involved hiking, climbing, battling insects and camping out somewhere unsafe. Also there was the poisonous organisms that loved to snack on people. Content with his less than basic warm up Jack meandered behind the group, they seemed terrified of this event and it would probably cost Jack something to get them all through afe. Of course if some weren't capable then h would be forced to leave them, he knew the Academy had no time for weakness.

The group started off by simply walking, single file, into the jungle. The trees were less dense here at the outskirts and it was fairly easy going. However the ground turned from solid and dusty into sticky and tacky slop. Combat boots were beginning to become weighted down and so the pace of the party, and their teacher escort, became a lot slower. The sun was beginning to dip but there was still a lot of sunlight left and the group was smart enough to keep walking. Jack overheard them mention freshwater and Jack almost chuckled. It seemed the group wasn't as dumb as it seemed, maybe they would make it after all.

Kel wiped the sweat off of his forehead with the already damp cloth, then squeezed it out. Even though he'd been here for a year, he still couldn't get used to the Jungle. The heat wasn't a problem, he'd lived in such heat all his life, and even fought in it. It was the humidity. Even sweating didn't do anything, as it couldn't evaporate. I should find one of the air wielders among the first years and get them to make a little wind to cool me off. Either that, or go for a dip at the waterfall. Yeah, that would work, he could go swimming in the nearest fresh water supply.

Of course, he was here to try and test the first years. He wasn't sure if it was allowed in the rules or not, but it was tradition. And the first test he had in mind was to see if they were willing to fight for their own survival. They were training to be mercenaries, after all.

After the speeches and fight were over, he sneaked over to a nearby rock and moved it out of the way. Behind it he had hidden a cave, the same cave he had used to move around during his first year. He lit a torch and moved the rock back in place. If any of the first years were decent Earth Wielders they'd be able to find the cave too, but he wasn't going to make it easy on them. He walked down the cave, only bothering to kill the animals that tried to attack him, so that anyone who followed him wouldn't have too easy of a time. The air in the cave quickly cooled him, and he was able to make better time than the people on the surface.

Several hours later he exited behind the waterfall, an exit he had actually made his first year, as this cave ran near a branch from the waterfall's cave, and stood there, waiting for the first years to appear. As soon as he saw one, he focused on them, and put an image in their mind of a large water snake crawling beneath the surface, one of several varieties of constrictors that lived in the local water ways. He also did the same with several others to insure the rumor would spread. After that, he sat down to rest and watched the first years, to see what they would do.

The fight between the teachers came to an end, the shifty looking man the victor. Rhiannon blew out between thin lips, unimpressed with the woman's loss. Or rather, angry that the person she had instantly preferred out of the two had been defeated. Many around her seemed awed by the fight, and in a way she was as well, but she was more focussed on giving herself an advantage for the trials ahead. Her wielding glove glowed slightly as she searched for traces of water, building a small map in her head from what scant information she could gather from the results.

She was one of the few in the crowd who could not display an emblem proudly; her coat was plain. It amused her that an emblem was meant to mark one out but in that sea of faces, the lack of an emblem made one more distinguishable than those display one. Then it was time for the trial, the headmaster leaving with the two teachers he had arrived with. With the start of the entrance exam, as it were, there was a moment of silence with no one really sure what to do.

Then students and teachers rushed into the jungle en masse, as if burning off their energy reserves in this heat would help them. Rhiannon rolled her eyes, sitting on a rock as she contemplated her next move. She only had her Wielding glove, like the other applicants, and was somewhat missing her quarter staff. Although she no longer needed it, having regained most of her physical and mental sure-footedness after the event a week ago, she had grown used to carrying it and have it near. The polished wood had even become a source of comfort, like a prized possession. Shaking her head, she rid herself of such thoughts and focused on her immediate situation.

A few others had stayed in the clearing, some of them too afraid to move while others looked merely nonchalant. She deduced that the latter were probably previous students or, like her, had some experience with adverse weather conditions. Of course, she was a Wielder of the water element so she would have little trouble in finding, or creating, sources of water for herself. That said, there was plenty to be found in a jungle anyway if one knew where to look.

"I suppose that's enough of a head start. They should be suitably lost by now." Rhiannon said to herself before standing up. She rolled her shoulders, loosening her muscles before ploughing into the jungle with all her senses aware. Having been born in a dangerous area full of people she didn't know, the young redhead had a good instinctive feeling for threats and she had sensed immediately amongst the crowd that at least some students liked the opportunity to test their abilities on others. Anonymously.

"They wouldn't have the courage to do it out in the open, now would they?" She muttered to herself, approaching a ditch created by a long-ago dried up stream. She did not break her stride, planting her foot heavily onto the very edge of her side of the tiny ravine and hurled herself across the gap with nimble ease, rolling to break her fall and then rising into a measured jog on the other side.

"First thing's first, how about some water." She had sensed from their time in the clearing a small source of water, slightly off what was probably a lake or some larger body of water, which few students would go to. Most would simply head for the larger source, or find themselves there by accident. Reducing the amount of contact she had with others seemed like the smartest way to go with this entrance test. She burst into the clearing around the small lagoon, with its waterfall, and noticed she seemed to be the first to find it.

A shadow in the water drew her attention and she saw a snake curving its way towards her amongst the mud. Dropping to a crouch she dropped back from the water's edge onto more solid ground and watched cautiously. Unconsciously she flexed the hand with which she word her Wielding gauntlet, ready to toss the snake across the lagoon with a wave. She sensed someone watching her and glanced up to the waterfall but saw no one. Still, it nagged at her and she wondered whether someone else had in fact arrived here before her.

"...An illusion? Best not to test it. There's plenty of similar places nearby." She wasn't good with seeing through or beating such tricks and so dropped back into the jungle, leaving the potential mind wielder to the water. Rhiannon wasn't entirely sure whether it was an illusion or not and already regretted the suspicion that was weighing on her mind but in this situation it would be best not to risk anything. She resolved to research mind wielding techniques in the future; if she had been subjected to the power then it had been by a pupil and she had no idea how to break its hold. This trial in the jungle could turn out to be more taxing than she had first thought.

Nova stood near the front of the crowd, her eyes fixed on the old man that was to be her headmaster. Despite his age, Nova could feel how powerful he was, or at least was at one point. It was almost as if she was transfixed on the being, long before he began speaking. She chuckled to herself as he addressed the 'questions' many of the students were supposed to have, Nova never once having any concerns or thoughts to as why they weren't at the academy. During the battle between teachers, Nova allowed her gaze to wander about the other student, who seemed to be paying close attention to the duel.

The fact that the murder of fellow students was allowed just to earn a place at the academy was disturbing, especially with the number of students who probably new nothing of real combat. Her eyes slid over the many emblems the others wore, some of family history while others were just emblems of their wielding ability. Nova's hand drifted up to her neck where she had attached her unique emblem to a choke collar, the emblem that signaled she was quite different from the rest. She looked around her, but as far as she could see, she was alone in her element... A fact that was both exciting and depressing to the girl. If the battle scythe clipped to her back didn't make her stand out, the particular emblem certainly would.

Lost deep in her thoughts, Nova didn't notice the initiation had begun until most of the students had already taken off. Leaving her and the remaining stragglers, Nova sighed and began walking into the jungle. Unlike other applicants, Nova was not looking around for dangers, but rather taking in the sights of the land, awed by its beauty. She wasn't used to this level of humidity, being from a port town that was always cooled by a sea breeze, but it an interesting new experience for her. Suddenly Nova noticed a beautiful butterfly circling her head, a small creature that looked as if it didn't quite belong with its surroundings. Semi-translucent, the thing seemed to glow as it broke its circle, flying off in another direction now that it had been discovered. Nova smiled and followed after the strange insect, maintaining a slow pace so as not to wear herself out in the process. "Hey, wait. Come back." She laughed, weaving in and out of the overgrown paths of the forest.

Stumbling forward, Nova landed on her hands and knees before a source of refreshingly cool water. Eyes bright at the discovery, Nova dipped her hand into the pool, pausing to let the breeze from the waterfall cool her sweat beaded skin. Moving to dip her hand into the water again, Nova froze, locking eyes with a snake that she had not noticed immediately. Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion while looking at the creature, having seen something like it before. The edges of its body seemed to glow slightly, like the butterfly she had been following had, seeming off from its surroundings. Suddenly remembered of the butterfly, Nova whipped her head around trying to glimpse it again. Sitting back down, disappointment etched into her face, Nova returned her attention to the snake. "Hello you. You haven't seen a butterfly around here have you?" She asked it with a kind smile, reaching out to see if she could touch the creature.

-

Rhea had been sitting silently on a rock near the stage, sweat silently beading on her forehead. She watched the others with only slight interest, and watched with amusement as they all scrambled away, running into the jungle. Once the majority of them left, Rhea started to wander through the jungle. Her pace was steady, and when the terrain was mostly clear, she started to jog.

After only one or two minutes, Rhea crouched down, looking around herself for threats. She needed water, badly. The humidity and the all around heat was killing her. She glanced around once more, and raised her hand above the ground. Her palm was flat, but as she curled it into a fist, water started to rise from the ground below her. It was clear, and Rhea didn't think about purifying it. She coaxed the water up to her mouth, and started to drink it. Afterwards, now refreshed, Rhea decided to make a sort of map that she hoped would lead her out of the jungle. Her mother had once taught her the basics of geography, and since she came to this place without anything such as a blindfold to hinder her vision, she knew they were in the jungles of Banos.

With luck, if she remembered the route here correctly, she would just have to go straight. And eventually, she would make it out alive. The next order of business was surving the night. She knew she wouldn't make it out in the span of one day, the jungle was far too large, with far too many variables. So she had to simply travel forward, and in the hours before dusk, she would have to set up camp.

So many thoughts danced through Rhea's mind. She wondered if she would make it or not. She couldn't start to panic this early, if she did she definitely wouldn't get through with this simulation. So she tried to focus on survival, she hummed to herself to keep calm, her braided hair resting comfortably against her skin. She got up, and started to walk again.

Olivier looked around with mild interest at the locus where they were moved, recognizing Banos from some older maps. As he listened to the nearly dying old man that apparently ran the place talk about their challenge, Olivier was strategising, running scenarios through his head, thinking how best to utilize the resources at hand (other students) to get to the end, and how useful the unrestricted killing of others would be to him. He didn't pay much attention to the mock duel, however, easily spotting that the teachers were not fighting at full strength in the first minute. He did, however, file away their respective Wielding powers in his memory.

The crowd of students was mostly comprised of nobles, which made Olivier ironically consider how much more wealthy and known he actually was than the average aristocratic youngster there. No matter. To make matters worse, most of them wore gauntlets of quite boring elements, like fire, wind, water and earth. So, useful people for pathfinding as a whole, but nothing too great to be a necessity.

He finally decided to wait around until the crowd narrowed a bit. As far as he could tell, he was the only Darkness Wielder around, and the fewer knew about his abilities, the better. The heat and humidity, quite like nothing that Galio ever offered, was starting to wear him down, but finally, most students were gone and he could put his abilities to work. As such, Olivier conjured a thin sheet of shadow over his forehead, to diminish some of the heat. He was about to trot on, maybe start off with finding shelter, when he spotted her.

Stunningly beautiful, the girl was four or five years older than him, had flowing hair, and deep, blue eyes. But what was most eerie was her gaze - unfocused yet intelligent, as if lost in a realm of ideas. Coming closer to inspect her, without being spotted himself, Olivier saw something that intrigued him even more - her wielding gauntlet represented Space. How peculiar. He decided to follow her as she wandered off apparently aimlessly. Maybe this one would be useful later on.

Following fifty yards behind the girl, Olivier matched her moderate pace as he marched, the shadow lattice on his forehead protecting him from most of the heat. Also, as they walked through the trees, he would often pull at their shades for temporary shelter. This was more mentally taxing than not Wielding at all, but he was neither heated up nor thirsty, which amounted to a net benefit. Finally, after a while, they approached a clearing with a pond. The girl rushed towards it, stopping as she saw a silhouette within the waves. Getting nearer, Olivier could distinguish a constrictor snake. Apparently unfazed by the creature, the girl stood in place, extending a hand towards it. "I would advise against that course of action." voiced the darkness Wielder, getting nearer. "This is a local species, from what it appears. Due to low density of hunting targets, these snakes have developed extremely aggressive tendencies. Better be handled with care."

Without waiting for her to respond, not wanting to so carelessly let such an interesting Wielder get offed, olivier picked a very small rock from the ground and threw it, not at the snake, but slightly above it. He then concentrated his mind on the moving shape of the rocks shadow, intending to give it depth and sharpness as it approached the snake's head, killing it. However, something weird happened - as the rock went above the snake, its shadow simply vanished. After being puzzled for a second, Olivier left off a small chuckle, then sat down next to the beautiful girl, cupped his hands, and went right on to fill them with water and drink a mouthful. "Light diffraction. A mind wielder must either be nearby or have left a reiterating pattern over here. The water is safe to drink. But I just realized that I haven't introduced myself properly yet. I am Olivier Chian, a Dark Wielder. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

Lao
Junjuri Jungle
12:33 PM

Lao stood in the clearing for a few minutes, waiting for the last of the stragglers to leave. Better judgement would have most people running as fast as they could to get a head start, but he didn't need such handicaps. He wanted to be the last person to begin, so that everyone in front of him couldn't make excuses when he beat them up, they were "in his way". Lao looked down at his gloves, a red stone set into both of them, representing fire. He had already master the first level, and he was adept in the second, but the third felt like it would never come. He needed that power, and when he would need it most, he was afraid I would not come.

Lao shook his head and focused back on the task at hand, he was the last and only person left in the field, perfect. Lao sprinted out of the clearing and into the jungle, jumping over bushes and dodging branches with ease. Despite the situation, Lao was having fun, which was great, he didn't want finishing first to be boring. He did met some students as he ran through the jungle, but a quick ball of blue fire dispatched them quickly enough, at least before they could react. Explosions that shook the ground could be heard throughout the the jungle, no doubt scaring some of the students. Lao smiled and let out a whooping laugh, this was exciting, finally all his anger could be vented here.

It wasn't long after that when he came upon a stream, he could here voices in the distance. Before he got to the stream he jumped up on a tree to get a better look. He saw 2 girls, one on the bank of the river, and the other not to far away. The one near the embankment seemed to me talking to a snake. But another student immediately disproved that, he was a dark wielder, very dangerous. With the snake, that meant that there was a mind wielder nearby. Lao knew that there were to many people to fight, he couldn't decide who to fight. He simply shrugged and smiled, he didn't have to choose. Lao summoned a series of small blue fire balls, he looked as if the sun was surrounded by moons. Suddenly the fireballs launched themselves at the unsuspecting students bellow.

Just as the tips of Nova's fingers brushed the surface of the water, a voice from behind her caught her attention. She turned her head to face the stranger, smiling warmly before returning her attention to the snake in the water. "There's always an exception, this one might just be lonely." Acting a little more cautiously before, Nova hesitated with her decision to touch the snake, leaving enough time for the boy to toss a rock at the creature. It was tough to tell what surprised her more, the fact that the snake wasn't real, or that its non-existence was proven by another advanced Wielder. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she peered into the clear liquid, a small laugh escaping her chest. "That certainly explains a few things." She commented to herself, crossing her legs in front of her and resting her hands on her knees.

"A pleasure to meet you Olivier, I'm Nova. Nova Blake." She smiled and extended a hand in greeting, simultaneously scanning the area about them. "The climate is much different than Galio, isn't it?" She asked with a sigh, already starting to miss her home. There were times when Nova would be mistaken for a psychic because of the things she could tell about people, but it wasn't like there was a big trick to any of it. She could tell the man sitting across from her was from Galio because it was where she grew up, and the man emanated the feeling of the home she missed.

Mind beginning to wander again, Nova shook her head and reached back into the pool of water, splashing some of the water on her face to cool down. "This place must be huge if they're giving us 48 hours to escape it... I wonder how many people are going to waste the first night sleeping." Nova was beginning to formulate a plan of action as she sat downstream from the waterfall, thinking back to all she had learned about jungles in the past. Temperatures between night and day weren't significantly different, at least not usually. But the absence of the sun was bound to be a big help and so she decided to pace herself through the first 24 hours without sleep then nap just before the end.

Nova had opened her mouth as if she were going to speak again but quickly snapped her head up and to the side, watching in slight horror as a blue fireball raced in their direction. Without thinking, Nova leapt forward and grabbed Olivier by the arm, yanking him sideways into the water to avoid being struck by the blue flames. "Why the hell are they chucking those at us, we weren't doing anything." The look in her eyes was sad, but quickly shifting into anger. Disconnecting the stone from her choke collar and unclipping her gauntlet from their position on her scythe, Nova expertly fit the stone into place and slipped her right hand into the glove. "I hate these gauntlets so much." She growled under her breath, pushing herself back up to a standing position.

Standing in the back of the crowd, Abraham observed that from what he could tell he was the oldest student in the crowd, and probably the poorest. So many nobles who bought their way in to the school stood there, their emblems shining brightly in the hot sun. He saw this as an advantage, as he was probably the most experienced student there and also most of them were probably very soft and spoiled living their entire lives with anything they wanted a finger-snap away. When the old headmaster said that any means were acceptable to win Abraham grinned. Perfect. The teachers duel was pretty impressive, and he especially paid close attention to the woman. She was a wind wielder, and so was he. He heard that wind wielders were quite rare, so he was glad there would be someone who would be able to teach him to master his wind-wielding skills, even though he would probably spend most of his time studying under the dual-wielding teacher. He was a bit upset by her loss, but the other guy was a dual-wielder so it was quite unfair.

Once the tournament begun, most of the students rushed into the forest eager to gain an advantage over the rest. Fools. They would just get lost, or worse. He realized that since this would be quite a challenge, he should probably find some powerful allies for this journey. He looked around at the few students who were still waiting. These are the smarter ones. He was searching for someone who looked like he would make a strong ally, and then he saw him.

Two years back Abraham got into some serious trouble with a local gang. He owed them lots of gold, and they gave him a week to get it. If he would fail to bring them the money, they would kill him, simple as that. He thought for some time of his options. He wouldn't run for they would surely find him, and there was no way he would manage to steal that amount in a week's time. Then he remembered the rumors of a man who could get anything done for you - for a price. He was known as The Contractor. Abraham got very interested in this man, and so he managed to set up a meeting with. Abraham told the man that he wanted a certain gang to "vanish". In return the man said he wanted 7 years of Abraham's life - one for each life he would need to take. Abraham decided it was well worth it, and signed that deal in blood. He never heard of the gang again.

And there he was two years later, The Contractor himself. He saw that The Contractor and him were probably the only ones here with connections to the Underground and the Black Market, and decided that he had found his ally. He saw The Contractor walk into the forest following a young woman. Abraham followed him. When it started getting hot he used his wind power and gave himself a nice breeze. He started getting thirsty, and was happy when he saw The Contractor and the girl he was following had stopped at a lake and were now talking.
Abraham was about to reveal himself to them, when suddenly the girl pulled The Contractor into the water and a blue fireball struck the exact spot where the two were kneeling a second before. Abraham felt the heat from a few meters away. He dropped to a crouch in the bushes, waiting to see how the next moments will unfold.

Olivier was quite surprised at the discovery, not as much that the girl was from the same state as he was, but that she could trace him back there. During his life, he had only met two space wielders so far, and neither could do tracking quite like that. And track wielding it was - the girl was probably not aware of his infamy; otherwise, she'd be much more reluctant to offer her friendship. "Nova... beautifully suggestive name. It is, indeed, quite unlike home. But when we will be mercenaries, we won't have the luxury of fighting in bearable weather, so this place is a mixed blessing of sorts. And I full heartedly agree that stopping for the night is a horrendous idea. Not only is finding a suitably safe place for a shelter a waste of time, but whomever has endurance pitiful enough not to endure two days of sleeplessness scarcely deserves to enroll." As he was talking, glancing at the thoughtful girl, she yanked him by the arm with surprising force, pulling him into the water. A ball of blue flame passed right over them.

Dismayed by the wetness of his new garments, but thankful for Nova's good reaction times, Olivier helped himself up and her aswell. "I believe some hot shot new guy fails to make a difference between being able to kill other students for strategy and for kicks. Either way, we shall deal with him as he deserves." Saying such, Olivier set himself into fighting position, which for dark users like himself meant eyes half squinted and the gloved hand waving arcane symbols.

The next blue fireball that came their way turned black slowly on its trajectory, withering away into nothing. This was a rarely used technique of Dark Wielding - a Dark Wielder could intercept the creations of other wielders, corrupt them, and fade them away, similar to a functional counterspell. It was rarely used because the energy it took for the Dark Wielder to counter the opposing ability was roughly 50% higher than that expended by the aggressor, which rendered countering all but useless in attrition or long battles. However, since dark wielders themselves were quite rare, Olivier was hoping the student who attacked them simply didn't know those facts, and would be intimidated by what he just did. Also, rather than taunt him, The Contractor spoke thusly, intending to make the situation as little bothersome as possible: "Beyond being outnumbered, out-supplied, and likely out-sustained by us, since you've been yanking those balls of blue mild heat for a while now - it's pretty audible - you're attracting enough attention to yourself that you're only going to get even mre outnumbered, out-supplied, and exhausted soon. Do yourself and us both a favor and get lost. I assure you we won't follow, it's too wasteful."

After this longer taunt, Olivier scanned the area, both for previously unnoticed threats and other fireballs. He saw an unusually short middle-aged man with shoddy clothing approaching them, and after a second, crouching between a bush to avoid the fusillade of flame. Recognition dawned on him. "Oh, greetings. I quite recount you, albeit not your name, to be completely honest. Arguillan, debtor, mayhaps? Don't bother hiding, by the way, the guy that's targeting us will be out of steam soon."

Kel watched as a girl tried to touch the illusory snake. She won't last long that way. he thought, only to see another kid, a Darkness wielder, show up and prove his illusion a fake. Interesting. He listened to them talk, when another student came up to them and started throwing fire balls. Too enthusiastic. If he doesn't learn to conserve his energy and know when to use it, he'll exhaust himself and be unable to finish, much less battle his way out of the jungle.

He continued to wait and listen, thinking of a way to alter the situation to teach them a lesson. The Darkness Wielder seemed to be the only one that had enough sense to make it at the academy, but how would he react if he saw his enemy in trouble? Would he take advantage of it, and strike the man down, would he help the man, and try to turn him, or would he leave him to his fate, perhaps using the situation to escape?

When the other man approached, he realized that his opportunity had come. The elder man knew nothing of this situation, and wasn't hostile to either side. He would test them to see how they dealt with hostiles. There was a variety of ant in the area that was quite large and would swarm when disturbed, attacking any animal in the area, including humans.

Placing his hand on the ground, he created a small quake in the ground, careful not to use too much energy. A few seconds after it happened, he focused on everyone he could see and made them see a swarm of ants coming from behind the fire wielder. If things worked the way he hoped, they would band together to fight the swarm. He would alter the illusion as they interacted with it, hopefully keeping it realistic enough that they didn't realize it was a fake. It would use a lot of his energy to do this for long, but it should be worth it.

Lao
Junjuri Jungle
12:47 PM

Lao frowned, they all dodged the attack, which meant that they were stronger than most of the other students. "What to do, what to do?" Lao mumbled to himself. The same attack would revel his position, but the element of surprise was still on his side at the moment. He knew he couldn't jump down and fight them head on, since he was obviously outnumbered, but there were other ways to fight dark wielders and space wielders.

Lao was about to execute his plan when another man appeared. He was much older than many of the student that came to this school. Unfortunately, the man was obviously much stronger, he had 2 different emblems. That posed another problem, jumping down and fighting 3 people was stupid, despite the way the descion cut into his pride, he still went through with it. Unfortunately, before he could do that, there was a small quake, and a swarm of ants appeared on the ground below him. "Crap." Lao mumbled as he jumped onto another tree, remembering that they could climb. Attacking the ants would give his position away, but he would still be in danger.

Lao threw a small fire ball at the ants, but after the explosion, they were unscathed. Lao understood what was happening, there was a mind wielder playing tricks on them. He simply chuckled to himself and glance back at the trio on the ground, how he was gonna deal with the the Mind Wielder, he did not know. Fortunately, Lao did have an idea of how to deal with the people on the ground. He brought his hands together and created two basketball sized blue fire balls, and flung one of them and the two students on the ground, and the other at the man in the bushes. Right before the balls of fire came three feet away from the trio, it immediately exploded into hundreds of wisps of fire, surrounding them, encircling them. Lao smiled, a smoke screen would be created a from the explosion, and maybe someone would be injured.

Adeen was wonderfully, energetically, horribly confused. Because of the situation of her clan, she was sent here. She wasn't all right with that, but there wasn't really much she could say to object. Still, she was going to a new academy with all sorts of new sights and sounds and people and things she could set on fire -

Wait, no, bad Adeen! Mama said no burning things without permission! she thought, scolding herself internally. She took a moment to rub her arm awkardly, before realizing that the gauntlet that her mother gave was in the way. Blegh, I don't like this thing, it's ugly. I want a glove instead, hopefully a red or orange one.

Going back to the point, she expected to have a fun academy life. At the very least, if it wasn't fun, it would still be exciting. Well, it was exciting for sure, but she als didn't expect it to be so confusing. All she had for instructions were the notes her mother gave her for the entrance of the school, and it said that they were supposed to be Ladria, but then that old man just said they were somewhere else, and then he went on to talk about jungles and tests and survival, then two teachers started fighting and again, Adeen was really confused.

I didn't study for a test, and what does survival mean? where her thoughts.

As soon as the old man (Adeen was starting to think he was the headmaster - he looked like one) everyone started running for the entrance. Adeen looked around wildly, wondering what was going on. In her confounded state, she just stood there, not moving (occasionally setting something on fire. She wasn't sure what, but she was pretty sure she set someting on fire); eventually, only a few students remained.

I . . . think I'll follow them now, she thought as she hesitantly walked towards the entrance. She planned to ask the next person she found for details on what exactly was going about.

Adeen passed by a few students on the way, however, they were busy fighting each other, and no one so much as looked at her - when they did, it was with surprise and incredulity. No one so much saw her as a threat to their entrance of the school. Of course, inversely, the different arguments, fights and colors distracted Adeen, and she completely forgot to inquire for information, and just wandered about looking at things that caught her interest. Her aimless walk brought her to the nearest body of water, and with it, a few more students.

"Why is everyone here so much older than me?" she whined upon seeing them. Really, how was she supposed to make friends if everyone here was so old!

Her attention was quickly diverted as one student suddenly launched -

"PWETTY FIRE!" she exclaimed. The blue globes of flame had caught her attention. Her clan were primarily Mind Wielders, and any Fire Wielders they did have were far inferior to her, so she has never seen a second stage flame before. Naturally, she thought it was very pretty. Adeen of course, was so focused on Lao that she didn't notice the ants.

Suddenly, the person who launched the flames jumped back and climbed into a tree. Huh, what is he doing?

Immediately afterwards, a brilliant explosion of fire occured. Adeen was not a target, but naturally, a spread out flame was bound to reach more than the intended target. Adeen jumped back, a little surprised before realizing that this was a flame that didn't like her very much.

She responded in the best way she knew how: By burning it.

Adeen created a vortex of flame around her. The amount of fire being used was actually smaller than it looked, however, the precision involved and the speed at which it rotated made it an effective shield, especially against flames. The logic behind it was that because of it's speed, the rate at which it consumed oxygen around it increased - the vortex wa literally pulling in all the oxygen for fire to consume. It strengthened itself while weakening others. Adeen of course, had no idea that her technique was so sophisticated, but managed it regardless.

This was a technique she had spontaneously developed when the Fire Wielders were being strict with her training back at home. She found taht she really didn't like their fire, and decided that she didn't want to be touched by it. She also found that after developing this technique, the clan as a whole decided to stop teachng her.

A large portion of the Lao's flames were dying out rapidly as a side-effect.

Nova watched with awe as the next fireball disintegrated before her very eyes, a feat she guessed had to take a lot of energy. Not wanting the man to tire himself out so early on in the game, Nova released the tie that held her scythe to her body and stepped forward. By twisting her body, Nova was able to compensate for wind resistance as she turned the blade vertical (rather than the usual horizontal for slicing). Acting much like a fan, she could not make the flames disappear like Olivier had but instead watched as the fireball dispersed around them, the heat still reaching out like fingers to brush her skin in passing.

She stood poised, ready to defend against another attack while Olivier called out to the Wielder responsible for the blue flames. The last thing she wanted was for someone to get hurt, it was just a simulation to weed out those who weren't strong enough for the mercenary life. By this point she had located the source of the attack, the fireballs belonging to a boy in a tree. He appeared to be a few years younger than herself, but proving to be much more dangerous with his wielding. "I was kind of hoping it was another trick by that Mind Wielder." She sighed with a shrug, ignoring the man Olivier seemed to recognize. If Olivier knew the man and didn't attack, she figured the Wielder wasn't much of a threat to them at the moment. Instead she turned her attention to focusing on the Fire Wielder and predicting where his next attack would spout from. An excited laugh filled the air, a determined grin plastered to the Space Wielder's face. "Now this reminds me of home." She said, referring to the sparring matches she often had with her father before he was sent away to fight.

So focused on trying to feel out the fire, Nova almost missed the ant swarm that appeared just beyond her target. "Seriously?!" She groaned, unsure of what to do. Nova wasn't equipped with anything that could be considered useful against a swarm of bugs, her scythe was too large and her wielding to elementary. At best she could force them back for a few moments, but recovery in a swarm would be too fast for her attempts to matter. Before Nova could figure out how to handle the creatures, the man in the tree attacked again, this time purposely dispersing the flame in order to cover more ground. Finding herself encircled by flame, Nova spun so that she was back to back with the Dark Wielder. "Now this reminds me of home." She grinned, referring to the sparring matches she often had with her father before he was sent away to fight.

"I am known as Abra-" Abraham stopped. A ring of fire that came from the same student who threw fireballs before surrounded him and the other two students. As if that was not enough, a huge swarm of incredibly large ants was coming their way. They didn't seem happy.

"I will take care of the ants, you two take care of the fire wielder!" Abraham yelled to them over the roar of the fire. Abraham breathed in deeply and then softly but firmly let out his breath in the direction of the ant swarm. A greenish gas poured out of his mouth, and raced toward the swarm, engulfing them in the poisonous gas. That should take care of them. While he was doing that, he noticed from the corner of his eye a little girl who was obviously a fire wielder. She was busy surrounding herself in flames. She didn't seem to be attacking them, so he pushed her to the back of his mind for now. The fire surrounding them did seem to weaken though, so that was a good sign.

Rhiannon had already been backing away from the riverbed when the fireballs started falling, a few thrown towards where she had been crouching. Her position made it easier to back into the cover of the woods without any difficulty. The other two who had arrived at the riverbed, but not noticed her presence, seemed to handle the attack fairly well.

A cut above some of the others, I suppose. Although I have nothing to base that on.

She watched as a second salvo was defeated by the male of the pair and deduced, from the method of his defence, that he was a Darkness Wielder. The woman had yet to reveal her power but noticed the scythe as she prepared to use it; whatever purpose it had, other than being a scythe, was not clear to the redhead at the time. She had already decided that it was be beneficial to team up with the two defending against the unsolicited attack and in a jungle, especially by a river in a jungle, she as a Water Wielder had the advantage.

And he seems to have lost track of me. Excellent.

Rhiannon stalked her way through the trees, keeping out of sight while heading towards where she had seen the attacker. As she approached she slowed until her eyes fell once again upon the aggressive fire wielder. Ants were everywhere but her mind was now accepting that a Mind Wielder was around, playing tricks on them, and the Fire Wielder had clearly noticed but was not worried; he had obviously figured out they were an illusion as well.

Glancing towards the river, Rhiannon focused, silently gathering a specific volume of water before bursting it forth in a very thin strip like a blade, scything through the base of the tree the Fire Wielder was on and those closest so that they began to fall en masse, leaving him few routes in which to escape. The young girl took a few steps back into the darkness and watched her handiwork, awaiting the next phase in the combat.

Hopefully they'll calm down and we can realise that, actually, we'll all be better off just getting out of here together rather than killing each other and then getting dropped by someone else later on.

Olivier was relieved that Nova could make do with the flames on her own. It meant he wouldn't have to babysit the rare Wielder up to the finish line. It was also a good sight that all the fighting went well with her. The last thing Olivier wanted on his hands was a shell shocked dreamer.

As the shorter man he recognized came closer and started speaking, Olivier remembered the incident. In hindsight, it was a very funny story. He basically semi-randomized eight contracts for Abraham and the seven from the gang, and Abraham came out of it alive, with little more than seven years shaved off his lifespan, by pure chance. He wasn't going to ever admit that, of course.

It was also great that the Arguillan offered himself to relieve some of their pressure when the abnormally large ants appeared. Now, Olivier thought it might be another illusion, but you can never be too sure. And, in any case, he had his own problems to worry about - a ring of dispersed flame, encroaching on both him and Nova. The girl poised herself defensively at his back, ready to endure the flames. This was good - she really was starting to trust him a significant amount. Anyhow, the problem at hand was rather easy to evade.

While the flames around were too chaotic to counterspell (which requires analysis), he could fade them down enough that they resembled no more than a hot vent or a smoke screen. Then, closing his eyes with a whispered "Close your eyes so loose cinders won't damage them, and follow me, dear." to his companion, Olivier gently took Nova's hand into his own and walked casually out of the smoke, his Dark Wielding extending his senses and allowing him to perceive his environment perfectly, even with closed eyes.

Once they were out, Olivier saw a water wielder with heterochromia cutting down trees with strands of water, trying to pick the annoying fire wielder off. She didn't seem too happy about what she was doing, however, which led the Contractor to believe that she, too, saw the pointlessness of all this fighting. Another non-idiot, then. After her tree cutting, she retreated to a darker side of the jungle, with overarching trees. Ironically, it was dark enough that Olivier could see her bright as day, but felt more urgent matters than approaching her were at hand. And, lastly, a child was at the scene, damping what was left of the troublemaker's flames with her own. She reminded Olivier of himself at that age somewhat.

Lao
Junjuri Jungle
12:57 PM

Lao's plan quickly changed, a young girl who turned out to be a fire wielder, created a vortex that slowly weakned his attack. He immediately grew angry, this wasn't going as planed, it was obvious he slowly being out classed, which wasn't helping his current situation. It also appeared that his element of surprise disappeared, which left him now exposed. Lao thought about escaping now, but that would add insult to injury. Lao stubbornly stuck it out.

Unfortunately, thing weren't getting any better for Lao, the other girl that he had seen before was gone. Suddenly, water burst forth from the river, strong enough to cut the base of the tree he was on. Lao gritted his teeth in rage as the tree fell, he let the girl escape. Lao jumped off the branch, using his flames to propel him upwards, high above the jungle canopy. As he flew he twisted himself to face the students below. He brought his hand forward towards them, another basketball sized ball of fire formed in his hand, suddenly, the flame changed color, from blue it became a purple black. As if it was a laser the ball of black fire, blasted forth from hid hand into the ground bellow, the ray hit the river first before taking a turn and hitting the scythe of the girl below before disappeared. Lao hit the ground hard, air was forced out of his lungs once he hit the ground, he felt as if he was an unable to breath. He layed there in silence trying to regain his baring before trying to stand backup. The water that was hit by Lao's flame was boiling, and looked extremely dangerous to touch, this girls scythe was melting, it did not hit the girls arm but the too part of her weapon was slowly rotting.