Every year, the Great Magic Academy of Last Heaven held 2 large tournaments: one for teens under the age of 18 and one for young adults under the age of 25. These competitions were an opportunity to appease the masses and at the same time instill fear.
The nobles used them to flaunt their power. The academy used them to evaluate their students. However, Ana planned to use this system as a means for revenge.
The fact that Charles and his goons would participate was a no brainer. Those who got into the top 4 were given the right to skip a year and were hailed as geniuses. So, not only could she beat up Charles in front of the entire city, but if she made it to the semifinals, she could join the 2nd year class. There, Oliver's brother called the shots and her safety would be somewhat assured.
So, when the boys decided to enter the forest, Ana jumped at the opportunity. She claimed to have nothing better to do while they thought she was scared to be alone. However, her real goal was to gain combat experience by fighting demon beasts.
'Hihi, I duped them.'
Ana thought she was the queen of tricksters. Unbeknownst to her, the boys weren't exactly honest themselves.
Oliver claimed he wanted to find herbs, but his real purpose was to get closer to his target. Ethan claimed he wanted to advance his alchemy, yet plants were not the resources he was looking for.
These were just their surface level goals. The web of machinations in the 2 teens' heads was several layers deeper.
Sadly, among the beings facing each other that day, the goblins were likely the most honest. They saw 3 juicy meat bags and went in for the kill. Who would have thought these half grown humans could fight back?
Not only did the goblins fail to catch their prey, but at the last moment, another tribe started hunting them. What the youths saw from atop of the wall were large canines chomping on heads and giant paws ripping bodies to shreds.
"Rank 2 wolves…" whispered Ethan. "We're F***d."
Ana lowered the team back under the walls and sealed the top with a thick layer of soil.
"Are we just going to wait it out?" asked Oliver. "Our sacks are outside."
"Better to suffocate than to be cut to ribbons." concluded Ethan. "Though, it's only a matter of time before they finish off the goblins and come to check out the mound."
"Maybe they'll overlook it."
"Indeed, praying for a miracle is the correct choice right now."
There were still a few cards Ethan could play, like his poison coated knives and their group's stalker. But, the problem lay with numbers. Even if he disregarded the wolves' organized ambush and the bone chilling presence leading them, there were simply too many eyes to enable an escape.
"Can't you confuse them like always? We need just a few seconds." said Oliver.
"Those are parlor tricks. A level 3 will see right through them. Plus, we'll need to be miles away to escape their noses."
"L, level 3?"
"Stop making noise." said Ana. "I have a plan."
As an earth mage, if she had to escape, then her choice of direction would clearly be down. She lowered the floor slowly in order to reduce noise. Ethan picked up on her thought and smiled.
"Get us at least 12 feet down or they'll hear us even at a snail's pace."
"I don't have that much mana."
"No problem." He put a hand on her shoulders and the other on Oliver and began channeling mana from both of them towards Ana. At the same time, he began gathering mana from the atmosphere and had Oliver feed them vitality pills.
"We'll overdose."
"And, that's a problem?"
After going deep enough into the earth, Ana covered the pit they left behind, so it looked like a normal mound. Then, hunched down to save mana and at a walking pace to reduce noise, she pressed forward.
Within the darkness, the group made good progress. Oliver pulled out a pill and after shaking it a few times, it started glowing brightly. Using it to verify the tunnel, they maintained a relatively straight direction. To where? No one knew or cared.
"Darn…"
After a few hundred meters, Ana hit something hard. She removed more earth, and the smooth surface of a large stone plate was revealed.
"Can't you dig through it?"
"Let's go around just in case."
However, even after a 5 minutes detour there was no end to the stone. Ethan was losing patience.
"Screw it. Just, dig through."
The girl tried to do it, but the progress was slow. Her mana consumption more than tripled and everyone started to get weary.
"Stop." said Ethan. "At this rate, we'll suffocate."
They made it thus far thanks to him pumping mana into the girl and thanks to her for poking small ventilation holes at regular intervals towards the surface. But, the mana concentration within the ground was nowhere near like on the surface. Combined with the increased effort, Ethan was finding it difficult to keep up.
"Let's go up. We should have put enough distance between us by now."
It was a bit of an optimistic guess, but they couldn't wait forever. The group took another vitality pill, sharpened their senses and slowly rose up.
"Awooo!"
Not a second had passed after seeing the sky and they were already surrounded by 7 angry wolves. One of them howled and the rest approached slowly.
"He's calling for reinforcements. I'll make an opening, but we need to run now."
Ethan was getting weary. Gathering so much mana from a place with such low concentration had put a huge strain on his mind. No amount of vitality pills could fix this.
While blasting mana through his circuit to maintain focus, he threw his knives towards the 2 smallest wolves. Though they had yet to break into the 2nd rank, only one was hit.
The group poured all their mana into their legs and made a run for it. Surprisingly, Oliver was the fastest.
However, they were no match for the large 4 legged hunters. After just 50 feet, the wolves were already upon them. Ethan threw a knife, but the creature dodged. This time, he couldn't afford to pull it back, so he abandoned it.
One of the bigger wolves took the lead and was closing in rapidly. They were quickly running out of options.
"I'll stay behind and distract them."
"Don't you dare!" bellowed Ana.
But, it was too late. The wolf had already reached them. After one final leap, it extended its paw and tried to swipe the group out of existence.
- Smack! -
3 semi-transparent blue swords dropped out of nowhere onto the creature's snout.
"I'll cover you, so keep going!" a boy's voice was heard.
Afraid to waste another second, the group continued without looking back.
'Stalker to the rescue.' thought Ethan with a grin.