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?"
