"That's a tad reckless." Rhiannon muttered to herself as she watched the Fire Wielder propel himself above the tree canopy, escaping the trap she had laid; she had planned to swamp him with residual water from the trees she had cut down but he had instead increased the distance between them. A small part of her admired his snap decision while the other was losing patience; the outcome was clear and she had lost patience with someone who had attacked so many people at once.

No matter how skilled they are, the conclusion is foregone.

That was when she noticed the strange colour of the flame he was generating, pointing it towards the group.

"Is that Black Flame?" She cursed but was too late to put up a water barrier around the two who had first been attacked along with her. The fireball blasted down and instantly she could feel the change in the water as it became highly heated from the single attack. Hot air struck her face like a force, making her instinctively shy away even though she was some distance from the source of the impact. Seeing her chance, she broke her cover and closed the distance between herself, the boy and the river.

He was clearly out of breath from the shock of his fall and a little disoriented so he had little to no chance as she came careering out from the foliage and tackled him back to the ground. Before he could move she gripped his face with her gauntleted hand and pressed her elbow down onto his throat, moving his head back uncomfortably. She had pinned both his arms down with her knees squarely pressing down on his wrists.

"Don't move. I'm sure you know what the human body is mostly made up of and by now you know I'm a Water Wielder. I don't know what your problem is but I don't appreciate someone trying to burn me to death for something as stupid as an entrance exam. Especially when violence is the least efficient way to succeed." She glared at him, masking her bluff with anger at being attacked right off the bat. She had no intention of killing him, nor did she have knowledge of extracting water from a human body using her power, but had concluded it would be best to negotiate from a position of power.

"If we travel as a group, we all get out alive. If you start attacking people you'll draw attention to yourself and then you're playing a whole different game. I can see you're talented, more than me anyway, but there are people out there better than you. And they'll kill you. Think smart for a moment." She noticed the lack of an emblem on his clothes and smiled grimly. "Also think how many nobles out there would love to put an upstart like you or me in their place."

Nova closed her eyes as instructed and allowed herself to be led along through the steam that the fire had been reduced to. There was so much going on around them that Nova was beginning to feel overwhelmed, her extra sense of the world working against her. Exhaling slowly, Nova shut it down as best she could, deciding to rely on the Dark Wielder for the moment. Just when she thought they were out of the woods, that the Fire Wielder was beaten, the boy showed he had at least one more trick up his sleeve. Blasting them with another fireball, Nova stared at the darker flame with complete horror. She had never seen anything of the sort, but she had certainly heard of it. Her father was still training to achieve the black flame, something he didn't seem close to quite yet in his life. Feeling the impact with her weapon, Nova's eyes welled up with tears, the blade of the scythe disintegrating before her eyes. "Jerk." She hissed, slamming the now soft weapon on the ground at an angle, breaking off the 'infected' portion. She was left with a decent portion of the shaft, but she knew the weight distribution would be too different for her to use it effectively in a fight.

As she stared at the useless weapon the space around Nova seemed to get heavier, like a foot pressing a rock into the dirt. It was only temporary, however, and Nova was unaware of the subtle shift that she herself had just caused in her anger. Clipping what was left of her weapon to her back, Nova popped the joints in her neck to calm herself down. "I am the bigger person... I will make the responsible decision..." She muttered to herself, chewing on her bottom lip. "Nope. No, I'm going to punch him in the face." Nova growled, marching forward in the direction the Wielder had jumped.

"Now now, you really should be thankful none of that reached your skin. The scythe shielded you well. While... sentimental value might never be properly restored, I promise I'll come with you and shop for a new one once we're back in civilized lands." Olivier told Nova, stopping her from her angered trot. "As for our shoddy berserker, I have a way to keep him in check."

Olivier closed in on the water wielder that was pinning down their foe, and smirked ever so slightly at her remark. He'd once known a water wielder that could blood wield, and he knew just how rare they are. Anyhow, her on-the-spot thinking was to be applauded. "I must applaud your performance. Quite a display of... haphazard destruction. By the way, I'm Olivier Chian, and delighted to meet someone so proficient. As for our little idiot, I have something more... safe than mere taunts prepared for him."

Smiling from ear to ear, Olivier took out a small piece of paper and a pencil and started writing a contract. It didn't have the shock factor of using blood, but the girl's mention of blood wielding brought back unpleasant memories. In a minute, he was done, and handed the pinned fire wielder the sheet of paper, which had the following scribbled on it: "I will not engage in physically violent behaviour except in the avenue of reasonable self defense, wherefore reasonable is defined as necessary so as to avoid permanent bodily harm, and physically violent behaviour is defined as behaviour that would result in permanent bodily harm to anyone else without them making an attempt at defense. I will abide by those terms for the following 42 hours. Failure will result in the immediate loss of both of my legs." and then a blank space for a signature. Then, Olivier engulfed his second and middle fingers of his right hand in darkness that quickly took the shape of two long, sharp blades, appearing fluid and flowing in a single direction. "You have one minute to decide whether you sign this and group up with us. If you do not, run away in the opposite direction, back to the start, stay there, and lose your academy entry. If you neither run back nor sign this contract, I will slit your throat. Pick wisely."

Rhea heard the scuffle a second before she started to run towards it. She didn't know why She had the urge to run towards the danger, maybe because she thought someone was in trouble, or maybe she was just getting bored. Either way, Rhea was kind of excited for the action. She felt her nerves dance, as though her lightning coursed through her veins.

By the time Rhea got to the excitement, everything had been settled. She broke through a pair of bushes with her two chain whips and her gauntlets on, they looked white hot, and if anyone listened, they would be able to hear lightning crackling through them. Rhea surveyed the situation, a man, surrounded by a woman who pinned him down. Another woman who looked pissed. And a man who wielded two blades of shadow. Rhea hissed, the fight may have stopped, but she was ready to start it up again.

"What the hell are you doing to that kid?" She asked, and she twirled her whips slowly. Her eyes were fierce, like her father had taught them to be. She watched the others eyes, and considered throwing up a water shield. "If he was causing you trouble, you should tie him up and leave him, what you're doing is idiotic. I thought we were training to be the good guys." She pressed her lips together, a bit angry with their moral decisions. If these people were going to be the ones to save the country, she would have to move to a new continent.

The vortex of flame dispersed once Adeen no longer felt the flames of the other boy around her.

"Whew, that was closh - I mean close," she said, correcting her lisp. Being inside the vortex made her blind to the situation outside, so she was surprised to see the boy who made the pretty blue flame pinned to the ground, surrounded by other people who looked really annoyed. Especially that woman with the smoking, melted walking stick - she looked like her mom did when she burnt one of the family heirlooms by accident.

Another woman stepped in, and Adeen could hear the sound of birds chirping. Oh, wait, that's lightning isn't it? Bleh, I don't like lightning, she thought. To her, lighting was flashy and hot, but it wasn't as flashy and warm was fire. Yeah, fire really is the best.

The girl shook her head to clear her thoughts. Right now, what was more important was helping the guy with the pretty flame. He looked like he was being bullied, and it looked like they were trying to drive him away. If they did that, she would never learn how he was able to make his fire color blue!

Adeen thought of the best way to help him. A second passed and she reached the inevitable conclusion on how to best assist Lao. One word: It started with an 'F' and ended with an 'e'.

Grinning to herself, a bright flame burst from underneath Lao, consuming the young man in searing hot flames - well, hot to anyone who was touching him, anyway. Adeens control was truly marvelous, such that she could make it so only the things she wanted to be burned would burn. So though Lao was covered in flames, all he would feel was a mild heat, some difficulty in breathing, and perhaps a bit of itchiness. To everyone else however, it was a flame like any other.

It seemed like the drama at the river was attracting a great deal of attention, just as Rhiannon had predicted. Unfortunately, the new arrival was getting entirely the wrong idea and assuming that the Fire Wielder she had pinned to the floor was the victim in the situation, rather than the aggressor. The first to arrive was someone who was clearly a Lightning Wielder, the crackle emanating from her gauntlet unmistakable. She immediately accused them of being both under-aggressive and over-aggressive.

"We're simply defending ourselves and educating him on the benefits of teamwork. Tying him and leaving him here will mean someone will kill him while he's defenceless. That would make us murderers even if we didn't commit the actual act. Especially as a lot of nobles would love the chance to kill a commoner with no penalties." She turned her attention back to the young man and slowly released her grip as a show of good faith.

"There's a lot of water around here in this jungle so don't forget who has the advantage." She warned. Just as she spoke fire erupted from the ground underneath, targeted at her. The Fire Wielder seemed unharmed and Rhiannon's attention was drawn towards the young girl who also wielded Fire; it was clear she was behind this. Leaping back she almost entirely avoided the flames but was forced to roll as embers set fire briefly to some of her clothing. It was easy to stamp out but left uncomfortable levels of heat around her knees and lower arms.

"Let's all just calm down, okay!" She said loudly, holding her hands up in a peaceful gesture. "Fighting amongst ourselves just lowers our chances of succeeding in this trial. It's clearly designed to cause infighting so let's not fall into that blatantly obvious trap and work together, at least until we're out of the jungle, okay? That or I suggest we go our separate ways before this turns into a bloodbath."

Lao
Junjuri Jungle
1:00 PM

Before Lao could get up , he was quickly pinned back down to the ground by the red headed Water Wielder that he had noticed before. He had to admit, her skills were admirable, but in this situation, her ability was more than infuriating. Lao did see that her comment on how they should work together did make perfect sense, and in all truth, it did not put that much of a dent in his iron wall of pride.

Lao was about to agree and maybe apologize when the dark Wielder threatened him with a contract, if he didn't, he would have to forfeit the race, or die, he only had a minute to think about it. Sweat beaded down his forehead in anticipation and anger, the Dark Wielder sounded like the tax collectors in Surcoth. Lao instantly hated the Dark Wielder, the contract the guy created left Lao pretty much defenseless unless and attack would hurt him bad, that did not mean they could hurt him. It also did not help that another girl had appeared, that was apparently a Lightning Wielder who thought it would a good idea to tie him up, that did not look fun at all.

Suddenly, the ground under Lao burst into flames, engulfing him, he felt nothing but a little heat. He glanced at the little girl on the other side of the stream, it was obviously her. Lao smiled as the Water Wielder jumped away, freeing Lao, he immediately jumped up and backed away, his back to the jungle. "I agree with you all." He said with a smile, this was the first time he had talked to anyone all day. " I have no problem working with you all, I apologize for blatantly attacking you all." Although he seemed not to be sorry. "I won't accept your contract, but I will make a deal. I won't attack, everyone in this little area here." He sweeping the area they were in with his arms. " You will not attack each other, or me, is it a deal?" He said with a sly smile, although he was completely honest. He also remembered that he would have to thank the little girl for turning the situation around.

Kel watched as they dealt admirably with the imaginary insects. The fire wielder realized that it was an illusion fairly quickly, and the others were teaming up to fight them. When the Poison Wielder attacked them, he let the illusion fall. That was good enough for now. That was, until the fire wielder started attacking again. He waited and watched, but when the Lightning Wielder arrived and started attacking. Then the other fire wielder started too, and things got out of hand.

Though he was only half recharged from his earlier uses, he knew he'd have to jump in and stop them if they tried to kill each other. He climbed into the water and swam over. The cool temperature of the water felt great in this weather, but he couldn't indulge himself now. He climbed out in what he hoped was a blind spot behind the largest group and hid behind a tall, leafy plant. Sure, losing his legs if he used his powers outside of self defense was a bit harsh, but he had just attempted murder for no reason. If that's what was needed to keep him from murdering people, he would allow it.

He focused on the ground underneath the attackers, including the one being offered the contract. If they tried to hurt else, he would shake the ground in the area and break the ground under any attackers. Hopefully knocking everyone over would keep them from killing each other. Short of obvious Earth attacks and defenses, he didn't know what else he could do to keep them from killing each other. After all, they could see through his illusions too easily, and they drained him faster than Earth Wielding would.

When the Fire Wielder offered a counter-offer, he sighed. That would work out much better, and he wouldn't have to reveal himself. Such talented students, he thought. If we can get them to behave, they'll make valuable members.

As Olivier saw the Lightning Wielder, he knew immediately that she'll end up on his black list. "I for one did not sign up to be a... good guy. I signed up for war. And you know what wins wars? Structure, order, and certainty. He who can make predictions and subdue the opposition will emerge victorious..." The Dark Wielder was interrupted by a sudden burst of flame centered on their captive. He, however, immediately recognized it as generated by the child, much more flashy than powerful, and barely went a step backwards. This was all that the captive needed to escape the grip of the water wielder, now finally no longer pinned, to free himself. Still cocky, unapologetic, as if nothing had happened, as if time was not wasted, as if he did not cause needless damage and nearly killed them, the fire wielder even had the nerve to propose a deal with no failure clauses. As much as Olivier appreciated the value of blending in, this was too much. Not only for his sanity, but also for his sense of safety. In addition, he made quite liberal use of his powers today, and was nearly completely drained.

"The absurdity of the situation is astonishing to me. In fact, I straight up refuse to deal with such travesty." he declared, in a mildly annoyed tone, as he circled back and started walking. "Whatever the others may decide, I refuse to deal with you on equal terms. I am leaving. Whoever wishes to come with me, except that cocky bastard, is free to do so." As he strode away, Olivier threw one last glance at Nova, then returned to his path.

Nova stood back away from the conflict, watching from a safe distance. With all of the Wielders at each others throats Nova knew that she probably wouldn't stand a chance is they all started fighting again, especially now that her weapon had been destroyed. Poking her head out from behind a nearby tree, she watched with wonder at Olivier's dark and mysterious power. She had never heard of another Wielder with abilities like his, so terrifying and fascinating at the same time. "I'm sure glad I'm on your good side." She mumbled to herself with a chuckle, hiding as yet another Wielder showed up, spouting flames where flames should not have been. "This is getting ridiculous."

Sensing Olivier's rage, Nova stepped out, hoping to see the situation to a conclusion. She hesitated, looking at the others before rushing off after Olivier, recognizing him as her only ally at that moment. "I'll give you some company." She smiled warmly in an attempt to make him feel better, not liking to see people she considered friends upset.

Rhea looked towards the dark magic wielder. He was just as much of a cocky ass as their captive, but he was ultimately strong, and willing. With a small sigh, Rhea sheathed her whips, keeping her gauntlets on. She stood up fully, confidently, and started to walk forward. Before she did though, she noticed how the darkness wielder had lingered on the girl with blue eyes, and she felt like gagging.

Romance? Already? First he tries to kill someone, now he's all starstruck. What a creep. Albeit a successful creep. With a roll of her eyes, she caught up with the dark wielder and the blue eyed lady. She looked at them, her expression blank. "I don't know how you like to function. I do know that you like to lead though, so as long as you stick to my directions, you can command. Just until we get out of here. I can help you, and I'll make a good follower. For now. As for you, lady friend. I don't care about how we interact." She started to recall her map that she had made in the dirt, although she had veered to the left, she knew it was the same idea.

She waited patiently for a response, her hands feeling like small weights under her gauntlets. She didn't hate the accessory, and excepted it as her sign of power. She wondered what others thought about them, and the thought made her tune out. She forgot about the dark wielder and sighed, her rapid thoughts taking over. "If you need gauntlets to wield, who found this out? Did people keep dying? Or was it just fashionable and it worked. What if I took off my gauntlets?" She muttered, talking to no one but herself.

Adeen's eyes flitted back and forth between everyone who had gathered here.

Hm . . . I don't like him, I maybe don't like her, she's alright I think, she's wierd, aaaand I like his fire! thought Adeen about Olivier, Nova, Rhiannon, Rhea and Lao, respectively. Of course, most of her judgment came from how they looked like and ow they acted - she didn't bother too much to listen to what they were saying. Her impromptu judgment was of course not created on who would make the best allies but on who looked like the friendliest. Lao was of course, on the same level as Rhiannon in this case, he just got bonus points for letting Adeen witness his blue flame.

Adeen just stood there and waited, her heels bouncing about, anxious for them to stop talking already. Of course she wasn't concerned about their topic of discussion and would much rather run to where Lao was and pester him endlessly with questions, but she thought of herself as a girl that was raised properly, and girls who raised properly don't interrupt other people's conversations.

And so, she waited.

. . .

For about a grand total of one minute, then she took off. Then again, given her usual patience, this was an accomplishment

The twelve year old shot forward towards Lao, right as Olivier turned around. Her excitement agitated the fire inside her, and as she ran towards the other fire user, various things in her path were set ablaze. Rocks, plants, trees, water - if it was near her, it was probably already on fire.In fact, a good portion of the jungle around them was lit up and on fire.

Of course, as she had no intention of actually burning anything and was just excited, the fire reflected that; nothing was consumed by the flames. They stood as they were, seemingly unaffected, but still radiating heat. It was quite suffocating really.

Then Adeen reached Lao and set herself on fire with excitement - again, literally.

"That blue fire wash - I mean was - so pwetty~!" she exclaimed, pausing momentarily to correct her lisp. "You have to have to have to HAVETA SHYAOW ME HOW TA DO DAT~!"

Nova looked at Rhea with confusion, sensing some of her agitation, though at what she couldn't tell. Instead of dwelling on it Nova chose to wear a smile and extend her hand in greeting. "I'm Nova, it's a pleasure to meet you." She hoped that she could become friends with the Wielder too. She didn't seem to be as unique as some of the others with her Wielding element, but the skills and quick thinking displayed by the girl were brilliant in her eyes. The eyes that had begun wandering now that things had cooled off between everyone. Nova had reached her limit at suppressing her extra 'sense', all of the feelings of the jungle now pouring in.

She could feel other students in the distance, animals and plant life alike, the life of the very forest surrounding them were all things she could "see". Usually it was toned down, but this was the result of trying to ignore it all... Even if it were only for a brief amount of time. Her distracted gaze wouldn't hinder her ability to keep up with Olivier and Rhea, however she had begun humming a song softly to herself, admiring the scenery as they walked on.

Olivier was glad to see Nova come after him. For a while now, he really did start to view her innocence and plain lucidity as just pleasant traits, not just tools, as hard as it was for him to admit to enjoying another human being's company. He was somewhat surprised, however, when the lightning wielder came along. This was much of a mixed blessing - on one hand, she was as strong as him, which said a lot considering his Contract boost, and also well rested; on the other hand, her arbitrary sense of "morality" might prove to be a hindrance in the future. In the end, he decided the benefits outweighed the cons. That didn't stop him from being a tad ironic, however. "Welcome aboard! As long as you don't find yourself passionately discoursing about the sanctity of life in the middle of battle, I'm sure we'll be able to tolerate one another."

Saying that, he noticed that Nova trailed a bit behind them, taking in the scenery. Space wielders could be weird indeed, but Olivier was not frightened for her now, that he saw the girl having better dodging reflexes than him. He still, however, said to her "Try not to veer off too far back, please, Nova.".

Meanwhile, the lightning wielder seemed to inspect her gauntlets intently. Her question was something that puzzled Olivier too for the longest time, and it was only a year previous that he had found out. "I happen to have quite a good understanding of how we got to gloves, actually." he explained, quickly adding, with a small grin: "It is, however, the case, that I have illegally broken into an archive to find out, which may or may not have required silencing one or two guard. So, would you like me to explain, or would that make you feel complicit in murder?"

After the ring of fire was put out, Abraham silently crept away from the group. Once he reached the shadow of the trees, he circled back and reached the lake a bit behind the group. They were all surrounding the fireboy and they seemed to have forgotten Abraham. Good. He kneeled, took water in his hand a drank a bit. Then, he took off his glove that stopped anything he touches from being poisoned, and plunged his hand into the water. Now, that will take care of thirsty students in the future! He saw the greenish poison starting to spread throughout the water. In a lake as big as this the poison might not be lethal, but it will be enough to make whoever drinks it sick for a while.

With that done, Abraham put his glove back on, and started walking in the direction of the finish-line. All of them are fools. They can fight for as long as they like, I'm going to finish this tournament. Without getting killed. They were still there talking. He crept past them quietly in the cover of the trees. Once he could see them no longer he smiled to himself. It's good being smarter than others.

As for allies, he guessed he would have to find better ones.

Rhiannon rolled her eyes as the group split apart leaving her behind with the two Fire Wielders. The situation had taken a small turn for the worse due to, what she assumed, was male pride and stubbornness. No one person was to blame but Lao was the closest so he got her fierce gaze directed at him.

"If you'd shown a bit more humility there would be far less trouble. Let me guess: now you're here you think you're out from under the thumb of the nobles? Well if this is how we commoners act maybe it's for the best we're under the thumb. I, for one, have no intention of taking out decades of class angst on people I've never met before."

She turned on her heel and strode after the others before whipping back around, long hair swirling as she did so.

"Come. You and I will make a deal. If you do anything I suspect to be dangerous to us then I'll cut you in half. You remember how I cut the trees earlier? At least, that's what we'll tell them." She jerked a thumb at the receding group with a sly grin on her face. "That way everyone's satisfied and you get a better chance of living."

She jogged to catch up the others, arriving as introductions were made.

"I'm Rhiannon, Water Wielder. Nice to meet you. Fireboy is coming with us but he's agreed I can slice him in half if he does anything I disapprove of." She glanced at Olivier, the one who had objected most to the equal offer before. "It's not a binding contract but I intend to hold up my end of it. I hope that's satisfactory?"

Unfortunately, Lao's deal was immediately rejected by the Dark Wielder. He couldn't help but wonder if the guy was sort of like a control freak, but who wasn't, he was probably just afraid. If anyone was being unusual, it was the dark wielder, if he was in Lao position he would have most likely made the same deal, he won't attack them, they won't attack him. Lao scratched his head in confusion, why were people so weird? He did not know. Of anyone was being a "cocky bastard", it was the Dark Wielder guy.

Lao was about to shrug and be on his way, but the little Fire Wielder girl sprinted into Lao, fire trailing behind her. "Crap." Lao mumbled as she barreled into him, still on fire, she really needed to learn how to control that. Lao rapped his hand around here lovingly, which was a surprise to him, and he out his finger up. All the flames, as if attracted to his finger, all came to him, creating a baseball sized ball of fire. He dispelled it, all the flames that had once scared the jungle was gone.

"That blue fire wash - I mean was - so pwetty~!" "You have to have to have to HAVETA SHYAOW ME HOW TA DO DAT~!" she exclaimed. Lao rubbed his he ear, the little girl was unusually loud. He knew the she wouldn't leave him alone, but it didn't hurt to have someone who was skilled, she would prove useful. "Here I'll make you a deal." He said kneeling down to her size. "You listen to what it say, do what I tell you, no questions asked, and you call me Master Lao. Think about it." He said as he stood back up and started to walk away
Lao glanced back at the Red head who had pinned him before, her comment wasn't exactly correct. They would always be under the thumbs on nobles, bit at least in this school, they could be considered equals. "Sure, deal, I can live with that." He shrugged as he followed the girl. When they caught up to the group she introduced herself and told them of Lao, which he had not problem with. "Fireboy is not the proper term, it's Lao." He correct as he grabbed his khoshep and slashed one of the trees they walked by, and deep gash appeared in it's bark.

Rhea smiles playfully as she listens to what Olivier says. She looked behind him at Nova, and waved politely.She considered what Olivier said, and her smile curved slightly. She wanted to know, and she didn't want to seem like a total tool. "Hmm. My curiosity overwhelms my sense of moral. Explain these gloves to me." She replied, nodding and looking at Olivier. At the angle she viewed him from, he looked rather handsome. His face was nice enough, and his posture showed confidence. Yet, as Rhea found herself thinking this, she also thought of his personality. He was an ass, and he was overconfident. He was probably a playboy too. She could never like a man like that, so she forced her eyes away, staying on the path.

"What else do you know? You must have learned a lot, I'm sure." She asked, her voice distant. She had a lot of new questions now, and she was trying to sum them all up. "My biggest question is how do we wield? How was it coded into our genetic makeup? I don't know what I'd do if I found out that question. It's one of the many things that bugs me."

Nova glanced back up the trail at Olivier, who had managed to get a good few feet away while they had been walking. "Afraid I'll et lost?" She grinned and laughed, jogging a few steps to close the distance before slowing back down to a slower pace again. As the Fire Wielder approached from behind, Nova turned her head and shot him a pouting glare, a look not much unlike that of a child who had found out they'd been lied to. She couldn't go as far as to say that she hated the boy, she was mature enough to steer away from such childish feelings, but Lao had seriously upset her and she was not about to forget him. "He seems perfectly capable of surviving this jungle challenge on his own. Does he have to follow us?" She growled, purposely addressing everyone else besides him while staring him down. She truly wanted to travel with allies, she had never had any before and it was exciting to her... But she didn't know how far she could go being followed by someone so mean. Thinking on it, with the amount of energy expelled during his attack, he might have to rest for part of the night, something she knew she wasn't going to do. I can wait until then. When he stops, I'll leave him behind." She thought to herself, turning her gaze to the path up ahead of them, actively searching for traps set out by other students.

So Rhea was not really that much of an extremist. Sigh. When push came to shove, people forgot all about things such as compassion for the dead. Not that Olivier thought that was a bad thing. "The genetic mechanism for wielding is a very complicated and long-winded subject, I do not believe we could exhaust it here, and it might be more distracting than anything. I will tell you about the gloves, however." As he said that, he met her gaze, and it seemed like the girl was measuring him up. How funny. Olivier had never relied on charm before, but, thinking about it now, it was a tool in his arsenal. Mmmno... too cringe worthy... he won't go there. "When you wield, there is a constant feedback loop between your body and the environment. It just so happens, because of the multitude of gateways and ki vertices in your palms, that that is the place hardest to control the incoming flow from. In other words, your palms absorb much more energy than needed, in an erratic fashion. When trying to wield, that is, pull at energy with your willpower without a glove, if the technique you're using is very advanced, you run the risk of changing energy while it is in flux within your body, simply because you don't know it's there. This backlash can completely wreck both your nervous system and your ki pathways."

Olivier glanced back for a second, to ensure that Nova was keeping pace. When she assured him that she won't get too far away with a rhetorical, she resumed his explanations. "This is why we have the gloves. Each emblem has a different core, which absorbs ambient energy while we are wielding so as to ensure we don't accidentally wield what is within our bodies. For a lightning wielder, if I remember correctly, the core should be a highly purified natural magnetic stone. For a dark wielder, the core is river amber with a perfectly preserved insect inside - enough so that its soul is trapped therein. They are literally weakening us to make us easier to control. As for how we came about this discovery, it wasn't death by wielding per se, but everyday, mundane death. For thousands of years, our physicians have been chopping off the freshly deceased to better understand how the human body works, and that gave us the mapping of our ki pathways."

Everything Olivier said was true, if slightly incomplete, due to the time constraints. Turning back once more, he saw the idiotic flame wielder, the little girl and the water wielder making their way from behind. Nova expressed her annoyance at this, and he was feeling in kind. Rhiannon seemed strong enough to keep an eye on him, even though Olivier still thought it would've been much more efficient if he just made a contract to be absolutely sure that no shady business was taking place. But, whatever, the others wouldn't let him for some unknown reason (maybe they really had a death wish) so the point was moot. "We will not befriend each other. But alas, I'm not going to strike you down where you're standing. But don't forget, Lao." Saying that, Olivier raised his open, gloveless left palm, making a ball of brilliant black fire appear within it. "One more foolish act and you'll have more to worry about than lack of legs."

Of course, Olivier couldn't actually wield black fire. He was wielding regular fire and then applying dark wielding to the color to make it look legitimate (kind of like food coloring). But whatever he had at hand to avoid a future needless conflict, he'd use. The flame went out as quickly as it was conjured.