"Esteemed mages, welcome."
On the dais, five mages stood. The one who spoke was a young human man in beautiful blue robes, three were demons and the last was a lady elf.
"We acknowledge that you have travelled far and wide to take these exams for the prospect of furthering your knowledge on magic. We too were once daredevils like you, but know this, we will not be in any kind take responsibility for your deaths. Passing the exams may be important but so are your lives, don't kill yourselves out there." The young mage announced.
He thrust up his hands and a multitude of metal bracelets formed from thin air and hovered into the wrists of the contestants, clamping themselves.
One made its way on Tiagon's wrist and he saw the number three inscribed on it.
"On your bracelets are numbers, they are the numbers given to your group. Find fellow contestants with the same number and team up. The first exam requires great teamwork to pass. Good luck!"
"Group three huh." Tiagon muttered.
It remained just an hour before they'll get teleported to the site of action, an hour before he finds his mates amongst hundreds of mages.
"Number three, who has three on them?" He called out passing through the scattered people.
The arena where they stood was spacious and people broke into groups with lots of spaces in between, Tiagon spotted mages of various ages, some were spunky teenagers, some were just around his age, some middle-aged and some were quite old. Different age groups of various races, what Tiagon didn't see but noticed was the lack of chiton mages.
Virtually mages of the major races were around but them.
"Number three!" A beautiful voice called from the side.
Tiagon turned to see who it was and a young human woman walked towards him.
"Number three." She repeated.
The lady was in a beautiful laced short dress of black and white, she had flowing white hair and her eyes were brown just like the majority of people.
Tiagon's nose twitched, he took in a whiff of her perfume.
'Smells good.'
"Aarin Remsord." She announced.
"Clyde."
"Now that it's two of us then I suppose it's appropriate."
"What's appropriate?"
"This."
She thrust up her wand and a large light sign that said Group Three shone brightly.
People caught on and quickly replicated her move.
'I didn't think of that.'
Their remaining teammates came through. They were both of demon kind, one was a short green thick demon lady with horns almost as tall as she was and a tail too. Her face was humanoid enough but not attractive, she wore a long green dress that blended with her skin and beside her was a hot and red salamander-like demon lady who wore nothing but little clothing to cover her breasts and little blue shorts.
"Erin." The green demon lady said.
"Tunar."
Tiagon and the human exchanged names and they briefly spoke about the magic they were particularly good at.
After an hour of chatting and staring blankly into space, the mages arrived at the dais again and the same man spoke.
"Don't leave the gathering, there's a crest beneath that will activate any second now."
The assembly listened and many came closer.
Suddenly, the ground beneath flared up in blue light momentarily blinding the mages.
When the light disappeared, the imagery around them changed. It was not the arena anymore, not concrete or glass but trees and the noise of animals.
The human mage suddenly appeared in front of them and by him was the elf mage as well.
"For this exam, each group is to capture a Spiefel, a large bird with a knack for wind magic, you must restrain it without inflicting on it any significant injuries, and your team mustn't miss a member and that includes their death otherwise, it's a loss for the entire team . Each group is to have one till the sun sets, the exam ends then. Also, there's a field over this part of the forest that traps in the Spiefel and also you all, to leave is to forfeit the exam. Do your best not the die." The elegant mage announced and suddenly the two of them disappeared.
They appeared at a distance away from the transparent veil that kept the mages in to a tent and a table with cups of tea and biscuits and an attendant waiting for them.
As they walked, the human mage spoke.
"This year has such a large turnout, hopefully there'll be a few that will ascend to the first class and maybe even our ranks."
"You're always so optimistic." His Elf counterpart responded.
Back at the exam site, groups of mages began scattering apart in search of the birds.
"Let's look too." Said Tiagon and they went further in.
The veil covered multiple kilometers of forest land and space was in abundance.
Erin, the green demon lady began to float, her little legs just inches from the ground when Tiagon held her hand and pulled her down.
"Don't be in a haste."
"What's the problem?"
"Do you think it's going to be that easy? We aren't just fighting to catch a Spiefel, we also going to fight to keep each other alive in here, there are too many groups of mages here for the Spiefel, I sense the Instructor left that out on purpose. You flying will just be you asking to be shot down"
"But why?"
"Because a first-class mage should know. We have got until sunset, there might be trees of sweet fruits or a water source nearby where they might be. They are not very social animals so it's unlikely we run into more than one."
"You seem to know something about these creatures." Aarin, the only human amongst them spoke.
"I loved birds when I was younger."
The team continued on foot passing by puddles, bushes and occasionally mud.
After walking for minutes, they arrived at a creek behind a couple of large rocks but there was no Spiefel.
What stood by the lake was a group of mages also in search of the birds.