Alice was about to shoot the person with a wind bolt so strong it would propel her backwards but he put his hands up.
"I'm not trying to attack you. I wanted to team up !" He said. He put his arms up to show that he meant no harm.
"And why would we do that" Alice was ready to throw hands with him.
"I know the source of the attacks" He had to reveal his bargaining chip early.
"And what do you want from us in exchange. It doesn't seem to be a fair deal between us. We get information and what do you get ?" Tania asked.
"You will help me until the end of this exam" He said, sweating a bit as it was his hail marry.
"That depends on how helpful the information you give is." Alice glared at him. The stressful situation really didn't help her.
The guy exhaled before saying "It's an upperclassman most likely. His rend let's him go invisible, but he can't move while casting"
Alice didn't have enough time to keep asking questions as she saw a massive fire ball fly towards them. It was scorching hot. She could feel her adrenaline pumping but she knew she had to react.
"Tania! Shield us" She screamed.
The moment tangled roots started spreading to create a big shield, Alice started watering them to prevent the fire from burning them down. They all started to sweat from the heat. They could feel as the scorching fire tried to break through their shield.
"Make yourself useful and spray dust around so he won't sneak on us!" Alice could feel her blood pressure increasing as she was inches away from being turned into crisp and all he could do was stare at them.
He started throwing dust everywhere. They could see the dust outlining a silhouette of a person. Alice grabbed Tania over her shoulder, kicked their new teammate in the ass with air buildup to get him out of the range of their enemy and created a ramp with her dryad rend to run away. She ran and ran. The feeling of exhaustion building up as her adrenaline started to wear off. She stopped running when she finally found the guy she kicked earlier.
"Tania are you okay ?" Panting Alice asked.
Tania was very embarassed at being handled this way by her "Im fine..." She answered. Not really caring about the exam at the moment.
"Tania ?" She repeated.
"Oh yes I'm totally fine" She snapped out of being focused on the wrong thing.
"And you ?" She threw a water ball at their new teammate "Also introduce yourself so we know what to call you"
"Ouch my fucking ass hurts so much. Did you have to go so hard on me ?" He could barely stand up.
"I will kick you again if you don't tell us your name" She readied the spell. Her patience running short, and so did her mana.
"My name is Mathew and i-" Before she could hear the entire sentence she felt her entire body dropping. She started sleeping instantly because of how exhausted she was.
...
When she woke up a massive forest was around her. She stood up and saw Tania next to her. Humming happily as she didn't realize Alice was awake yet.
"Did you make this forest ?" She asked Tania.
"Good morning" Tania hugged her. "Yes i did. Matthew told me to thank you and ran away. But he did tell me what his rend was to show his thanks. The reason neither of us could see him sneaking up was because he can remove his own presence. But he said he can only do it to human targets."
Alice nodded. But she decided to check the entire forests mana to feel any disturbances. But she couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary. She sat next to Tania and put her head on Tania's shoulder.
"I wonder how long the exam will last for" She sighed.
"No matter what it is we will probably pass" Tania was still humming.
"Why do you think so?" Alice was confused as to why Tania was so carefree suddenly.
"Fu fu fu. Because in this forest no one can sneak up on us !" She was very proud of her work.
"I have to say that it is very impressive. Even with your level of magic skills it doens't look easy to make" Alice praised her.
They sat like that for a moment before a loud announcment could be heard.
"ONLY FIVE HUNDRED OUT OF THE ORIGINAL ONE THOUSAND PARTICIPANTS ARE LEFT. THE AREA OF THE GAME WILL BE SHRUNK"
As soon as the announcment was over they could feel some kind of gas entering the forest, and doing so rapidly. Both of them started running to the opposite direction.
Because of Alice's jog the day earlier they were very far away from safety. When they finally got to the safe zone Alice jumped up and could see that the area left was way smaller. So much so that contestants started dropping like flies.
"It seems they want to finish this today" She thought to herself.
They couldn't use their dryad magic's detection skills in area like that because there was no way to tell who was disturbing the flow of energy. Another loud announcment took place.
"THERE ARE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED CONTESTANTS LEFT. THE MOMENT IT REACHES THREE HUNDRED THE EXAM WILL STOP"
But it seemed they left out the fact that the gass closing around them would continue doing so. Alice and Tania dodged everyone on their way as sounds of fighting and screams could be heard all around.
"Only a bit more ! We can do it !" Alice kept encouraging Tania.
"And then our school live will start !" Tania was as excited as Alice.
The number sat at one contestant away from ending the exam. Alice looked back at Tania all happy but then her face changed into a terrified one as the invisible person grabbed Tania by her leg.
Tears fell down Tania's face as she was about to be caught.
Alice couldn't let that happen as she used everything she could. Even her main rend she didn't want to use during her school. She pumped her momentum into the other direction and proppeled herself with fire before using herself as a battering ram to knock the person away. By accident she knocked the invisible figure into another contestant knocking both of them out.
"AND WITH THIS THE EXAM CONCLUDES"