Rhiannon suspected that the group was not okay with bringing Lao along and cursed her sentimentality; how had she forgotten that the boy had actually tried to burn them to a crisp? Of course, they had all lived through the attack with nary a scratch and yes he may have been misguided in enacting his class irritation but that hardly changed the facts.
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, weighing up whether in actual fact it would be more beneficial to decamp at night with the others and leave him behind. She knew no one else would trust him and they would make no headway if they were constantly expecting a fireball to the back. Still, for now at least they needed to act as a group. The first hours would be the most dangerous, with the highest chance of encountering another student in the jungle. Once they had spread out it would become far more unlikely to end up in a pitched fight; the hot heads would have wiped each other out and only those focused on the end goal of passing the test would win. A thought suddenly occurred to her and she glanced at the group again, chewing her lip before speaking.
"I know this is a bit out of left field but... what if this test is evaluated on how long it took us to get out of the jungle? Maybe the headmaster simply encouraged the in-fighting to weed out those unsuitable for the Academy in the early stages and there's no fixed number of potential applicants? He only ever mentioned a time limit as the criteria for this test." Rhiannon was largely musing out loud now, speaking slowly as she worked her way to a relevant conclusion while thoughts buzzed around her head and she attempted to select the relevant ones.
"I... think what I'm trying to say is that we're clearly not going to work as a group. Most of us want to tie up and leave Fireboy - I mean Lao - here. It certainly lowers all our chances of beating that time limit if we're all expecting a fireball in the back at any moment. I know you promised not to but, no offence, I don't know you at all besides the recent events and that's not much to go on." She looked to the others and spread her hands, shrugging.
"So I think a compromise is in order? The larger our group, the less chance we'll be distracted or interrupted by any of the idiotic hot-heads - sorry Lao - lashing out at everyone simply because they were allowed to. They'll all kill each other off by the end of the first day while those remaining will either be the strong ones or people who are more intent on passing this test than testing out their powers." She licked her lips nervously as she came to the crux of the matter.
"...So in the end, the best solution for us is to travel as this group until nightfall. We can then re-evaluate the situation and see whether it is worth continuing as we are or splitting up if the large part of the danger has passed. I believe that's probably the best strategy... for all of us."
Then the redhead stopped speaking and looked down at the ground, shuffling her feet.
"Unless... anyone else had thought of something else?"
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, weighing up whether in actual fact it would be more beneficial to decamp at night with the others and leave him behind. She knew no one else would trust him and they would make no headway if they were constantly expecting a fireball to the back. Still, for now at least they needed to act as a group. The first hours would be the most dangerous, with the highest chance of encountering another student in the jungle. Once they had spread out it would become far more unlikely to end up in a pitched fight; the hot heads would have wiped each other out and only those focused on the end goal of passing the test would win. A thought suddenly occurred to her and she glanced at the group again, chewing her lip before speaking.
"I know this is a bit out of left field but... what if this test is evaluated on how long it took us to get out of the jungle? Maybe the headmaster simply encouraged the in-fighting to weed out those unsuitable for the Academy in the early stages and there's no fixed number of potential applicants? He only ever mentioned a time limit as the criteria for this test." Rhiannon was largely musing out loud now, speaking slowly as she worked her way to a relevant conclusion while thoughts buzzed around her head and she attempted to select the relevant ones.
"I... think what I'm trying to say is that we're clearly not going to work as a group. Most of us want to tie up and leave Fireboy - I mean Lao - here. It certainly lowers all our chances of beating that time limit if we're all expecting a fireball in the back at any moment. I know you promised not to but, no offence, I don't know you at all besides the recent events and that's not much to go on." She looked to the others and spread her hands, shrugging.
"So I think a compromise is in order? The larger our group, the less chance we'll be distracted or interrupted by any of the idiotic hot-heads - sorry Lao - lashing out at everyone simply because they were allowed to. They'll all kill each other off by the end of the first day while those remaining will either be the strong ones or people who are more intent on passing this test than testing out their powers." She licked her lips nervously as she came to the crux of the matter.
"...So in the end, the best solution for us is to travel as this group until nightfall. We can then re-evaluate the situation and see whether it is worth continuing as we are or splitting up if the large part of the danger has passed. I believe that's probably the best strategy... for all of us."
Then the redhead stopped speaking and looked down at the ground, shuffling her feet.
"Unless... anyone else had thought of something else?"
