Alex and almost all first years had assumed that because the sieving stage was a battle royale, the students would be fighting in a large stadium that would cater for their large numbers, but what he was currently seeing was not what he expected.
Instead of a large stadium, what Alex and everyone saw was a forest with spread-out trees of different species, heights and forms.
In the distance were also landscapes such as mountains, hills and bodies of water.
The environment created an interesting scenario where the students would have to play cat and mouse in order to thin their numbers.
This introduced a degree of luck into the battle and if anyone was able to avoid being detected until the last 1000 students, they would qualify.
