Sprinting pairs of feet sped through the hallways, there was panick and brief moments of pause as a flurry of amethyst flames collided with bare skin lighting it ablaze with a howl of pain. A barrier formed and the pair were off again.
"When did we start running into other people!?" Crusch cried out in outrage.
"They were bound to have been looking for their rooms" Said Ronvel, fumbling through the hallways ahead.
The widened area of the hotel proved to be a hot area for other participants, Crusch and Ronvel only realized this when only a few minutes after landing themselves on the floor did a second pair of candidates almost as haggard and panicked as themselves bounded from a corner up ahead with a detector spinning half madly a spell almost instantly cast in their direction.
They took to traversing for another, the detector leading them through as the sound of howling that echoed through the halls proved to encourage their sprinting to even further heights. Dual casting was something Crusch was aware of but apparently not adept enough to learn, the moment she started casting other spells were the illusions leading the beast astray deactivated. The ground twisted and spiralled upwards, surprising the pair as Ronvel took to grabbing the nearby handle of a door then Crusch's wrist.
"Is this normal!?" Crusch shouted in an outrage, more than annoyed at the sheer difficulty of the trial already.
"An elevator, there's an elevator up ahead!!" Ronvel pointed out.
Sure enough, a golden cage with velvet interiors stood prominently at the end of corridor they were in. Crusch's mind worked instantaneously to get a grip on the ground that now seemed to slosh like swampy waters and harden at her every move, she gripped onto Ronvel's wrist as well and pointed towards the elevator with her wand.
'What should I even use?!'
The basic spells she'd learnt preceding the trials were now a scramble of scattered memories under all the pressure, she knew she'd learned something useful and capable for this but her mind was far from gaining a grasp on it.
BANG!
At that moment did the silhouette of something smash into the walls behind, a grunt of annoyance and a growl emanating from its large grey features and piercing blue eyes that glared daggers.
She stared in fear but the wolf seemed no more better at traversing the liquid like ground than they already were although, unlike themselves was there an air that it was only a temporary obstacle, she floundered for a spell and in the midst of her panick did a violet thin strand of glowing thread pierce through the air to tie onto the elevator ahead.
Crusch's eyes widened in amazement but quickly took a step forward to properly grab at Ronvel by the waist before tugging at the spell then willing it to pull them forward, it was a jolt of speed at which their legs couldn't compete with in the sloshy ground and within moments were they at the entrance of the elevator, Ronvel quickly fumbling and pressing down on a button that opened its doors as the beast behind them seemed to have gained footing as well.
When the doors had widened enough to let them through did they stumble inside, Crusch quickly pressing her fingers on the closest number on the large pad of varying others. The beast let out a roar and within moments was it sprinting through the liquid ground, the caged doors were closing at an alarmingly slow rate as Crusch's wand flicked but the attempt was met with small amethyst sparks and an increasing feeling of exhaustion.
"Use something!! You casted something earlier so don't play completely useless!!!"
Ronvel's own wand, a sleek white and wooden in structure appeared once more with a desperate gesture as the space ahead of the beast stiffened and seemed to freeze forming what Crusch could only explain as a wall of thick of ice, crystalline blue in colour as the air around her dropped to considerably uncomfortable degrees although contrary to the mesmerizing display did the sound of shattering glass unwelcomingly grace her ears as the beast broke its way through with unsettling ease; the barrier lasted no more than half a second after its erection.
Shock, fear, loathing? What was the correct reaction here, "Your life's on the line, you do realize that right?"
"I've explained my skills from the beginning!!"
DING!
The caged doors had closed however and the elevator began to move, mere moments before large visceral jaws opened wide to canine teeth drooling with an obscene level of saliva and an unsettling hunger as it bashed onto the golden cage and the structure rattled vigorously but overall unscathed. It barked and growled, pushing and pulling to make a budge but there was no sign of its efforts and the elevator continued to ascend till its eyes met theirs once more and disappeared.
"Haaa" Crusch finally let out a breath of relief, slumping against the elevator till her entire body met its floors.
She was exhausted, both physically and magically. Her mana reserves had been drained almost entirely from the constant use of what weren't supposed to be simultaneous castings at the level of ability she currently possessed, not to mention…
"Are you alright?" Ronvel's gesture of concern felt more annoying than comforting.
Crusch couldn't place a finger whether she was whole heartedly commiting to the role of a weak Witch or quite really as inept as she let on, there was the fact that she was participating in the trials to begin with, it wasn't a mandatory affair nor were the participants hand picked from abilities or a previous test but we're at least prepared so wasn't she supposed to as well? Much less a noble? Yet even in the face of what might've been their deaths as Crusch's parents hadn't steered clear from alerting her that death was a possibility, Ronvel refused to let up on the pretenses of her lacking abilities. Or were they even pretenses at this point? There was the second time when the beast first appeared and her reluctance to use spells on the other participants even when some of their attacks had centered here way, the evidence this far pointed towards most of her words as being truthful yet there was still something most bothering.
"You're so reluctant on telling the truth clearly…" Ronvel stared at her, surprised at the sudden question as she blinked and sighed.
"I've already been as truthful as we agreed upon, if I had any other plans than co-operation—"
"You would've acted a lot sooner, yeah, I get it but I just can't see what's so important that's so dangerous for you not to tell me why" She gazed at her but her navy blue eyes showed no signs of wavering conviction.
"How do your spells do that?" She suddenly asked, staring away from Crusch whose brow's had raised to the question, "Those weren't specialized spells, their basic so why do yours have an attunement?"
She glanced at her, a glare meeting her short gaze, "I could ask you the same"
"You're avoiding the question"
"And you've been avoiding mine for hours" Ronvel stared for a moment then focused on the dial above.
"As you can see, you yourself hold secrets so there's no reason to question each other any more than we already have"
Crusch clicked a tongue in response, "You seem to hold a lot more than I do"
"This is a trial of co-operation, no one here has the slightest reasoning for betrayal"
There was no more than the truth in that either, Crusch still hadn't come around to asking whether the rooms could be accessed without their partner but even if they could, what exactly would anyone get from doing so? There wasn't a reward for elimination it seemed so betrayal indeed felt unlikely, she heaved an annoyed sigh of defeat and stared at the ground which spurred a tired chuckle from Ronvel.
"Really, I thought I'd made it clear that we be friends" She said, exasperated.
"Partners"
"Same thing"
"The latter is strictly business"
"So I'm a stranger?!"
"Perhaps?"
Ronvel seemed aghast, "But you seemed so excited to have paired up"
"I'd take a familiar face of off a stranger any day, even if it was fleeting"
"Aha! So you do see me as more than a stranger, poor choice of words"
Crusch rolled her eyes but otherwise didn't respond as their destination drew nearer.
"That beast, why is it as though its following us?" Crusch asked, the two of them had passed by at least a dozen candidates after leading the beast astray it should have at least met them on its journey to find them so why hadn't it switched victims?
"That, I do not know" Ronvel responded.
DING!
The caged doors opened again, a dimmer lit hallway from the rest they'd come accustomed to met their gaze and an aesthetic to the design had changed drastically, from a deep velvet color to a grim black with portraits now lining the walls and the spaces ahead were alot more murky to discern.
Crusch and Ronvel's gazes met at once.
"Absolutely not"
"Agreed"
Ronvel made a gesture to press on for the next floor but suddenly stopped as a movement in her pockets spurred her to pick out the detector, now spinning far more vigorously than it had since they'd lost their room. She gave a wry smile towards Crusch who groaned at the prospect and lightly stood up, her mana reserves having barely recovered.
"There are handsome rewards for all this, right?"
"I wouldn't lie about potential gains"
They stepped through the gateways as the elevator doors closed shut behind them, almost instantly.
"Of course it does Its job properly when our lives aren't at stake…"