Lupos was only sitting for five minutes before seven unsuspecting victims fell into the trap he had laid. Smiling he walked over to the edge of the hole "earth restraints" suddenly seven earthen restraints encased the victims arms and legs. Smiling Lupos leisurely jumped into the pitfall and one by one took each of the seven competitors pendants ignoring each of their protests in turn. 

Happy with the results Lupos climbed out of the trap and sent a message to the magical beasts "thank you for the help I'm gonna move on now so no-one gets too suspicious about a sudden increase of magical beasts mysteriously leading competitors into my traps." the creature laughed "good luck kid, we'll call you if we get in some trouble." Lupos smiled "Good luck." he messaged before moving on once more. 

Using his earth magic to track more opponents Lupos quickly took out three more competitors. Unfortunately it seemed like some of the smarter competitors had gotten a clue to this and were using wind magic to hover above the ground making it impossible for Lupos to sense them with earth magic. 

Sighing at the irritating turn of events, Lupos started to set more pitfalls as well as sinking sand traps surrounding him on both sides of the corridor he was in. When that was done, he created the image of a magical beast out of earth in front of him.

Smiling at his creation Lupos sat before the magical beast statue and pretended to cower. Anyone seeing this scene would assume he was being attacked and might even try to take advantage of it by finishing off the weak looking beast and taking his pendant. 

Smirking at his idea Lupos started to scream as if he was being attacked. "Ahhhhh, quickly someone help me!" sure enough a team of five showed up quickly. "Quick we have to help him!" yelled one of the boys as he started to go forward. "Wait," said one of the girls as the other four started to move closer "there's something wrong with this." 

Lupos skillfully used earth magic to make it look as if the beast was moving to attack him and gave out another cry "please help me!" "We can't wait any longer, he'll get hurt!" cried the first boy. No longer restrained all four took off, the girl left behind. Suddenly she let out a gasp of realisation. "Stop if he was in real danger he would be teleported out, it's a trap!" 

Unfortunately the warning came too late as all four boys were restrained in sinking sand. "Help us." they screamed at the girl. However the girl was more worried about her own pendant and ran for it. Smiling Lupos quickly walked up to the restrained boys and started to take their pendants until only the first boy was left.

"You're despicable," he spat out "if you're a noble then fight with honour." Lupos laughed "fortunate I'm not a noble then, isn't it? I suppose us commoners have to resort to dirty tricks to measure up." Still smiling Lupos removed the boy's pendant and moved on. 

"Now what to do about the girl?" muttered Lupos under his breath. Living in the dark cave system in a forest most of his life had given him a good sense of time and from what he could tell approximately one and a half hours had passed since the challenge started. Normally he wouldn't bother with the girl, but on the off chance she warned another team about him, it would limit his hunting tricks. 

Usually Lupos wouldn't try to win as it would draw attention to his fighting prowess. But as he could claim this victory to be purely because of dirty tricks then no one would be any wiser of his talents and he could safely claim the advantage for the next round. 

Sighing at the predicament Lupos decided to try and track down the girl. Placing his hand on the ground he sensed the girl running straight ahead from his direction, the problem was the girl was heading towards a large group of people so he needed to finish her before then. 

Cursing at his bad luck he suddenly had an idea, although he was too far away to get her pendant, another way to get rid of the girl would be if she was in life threatening danger. Smiling he tried to contact the magical beasts in his mind again "It's Lupos again, I need a favour." 

The beast laughed "What is it this time and I'll consider it." "Thanks," said Lupos "There's a lone girl heading to your location I need you to find her then incapacitate her with lethal force." there was a pause for minute before Lupos heard the beasts voice again this time practically dripping in bloodlust "you sure?" "positive." smiled Lupos "happy hunting." 

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Suddenly a bloodcurdling howl was let off in the direction of the girl and moments later Lupos could not sense the girl as she was teleported out. "Thanks," said Lupos "Let ms know if there's anything I can do to return the favour." there was another pause "There is, direct us to the largest group of humans in the vicinity." 

Lupos let out another bloodthirsty smile "as you wish, the biggest group is two hundred meters to your left and consists of sixteen humans. Have fun." After that communication fell silent and Lupos smiled and moved on to go and finish off any lone stragglers he could find. 

Hall an hour later and a large bell ring could be heard throughout the labyrinth as the round ended. Smiling Lupos looked down at his feet to see a small glowing circle encompassing his feet. Suddenly the circle gave out a bright flash of light and when Lupos looked up again he was back in the arena.

As Lupos looked around he had the sudden urge to laugh upon seeing several hundreds of dirty looks directed at him from the audience. He met their glares with grins fully aware that the number of pendants he had picked up was 84 meaning he had taken our more than a quarter of the initial competitors using what most would consider to be "dirty tricks." 

Still grinning Lupos felt a gap on his shoulder and turned to see Wing standing there smiling. "Hey good to see you made it Gale." Lupos gave the smaller boy a smile that was not entirely fake. "You too. Where's Lucio?" Wing grinned mischievously "I think that's him over there bossing round those kids from the other school." 

Sure enough when Lupos looked over he could see Lucio standing tall lecturing a group of five who seemed to be staring daggers at him. "Poor them." said Lupos in a deadpan voice as Wing laughed. Before they could say anymore the announcers voice rang throughout the arena once more.

"Congratulations to the sixty four competitors who made it through the first round we are now down to less than a quarter of our original competitors. Out of the three hundred and twelve initial competitors one hundred and two competitors were forcefully withdrawn because the judges felt they were in harm and one hundred and forty-six competitors were withdrawn due to having their pendant stolen." 

At this point most of the stands once again turned to glare at Lupos. "The person who took the most pendants and therefore gains an advantage in the second round with eighty-four pendants is Gale Foryst from the first Academy of Magic. in second place is Wing Fidelis with thirty pendants also from the first Academy of Magic and in third place is Lucio Illio with ten pendants also from the first Academy of Magic. Looks like they're the ones to watch folks."  

Upon hearing this a majority of the audience badmouthed Lupos but looked admiringly at Wing and Lucio. Smiling at his fortuitous circumstances Lupos slipped back into the shadows to listen to the rest of the announcement. "The second round is resumed tomorrow at ten o'clock where our winners advantage shall be revealed. Good job to all our competitors and better luck next time to all those eliminated." 

Lupos, Lucio and Wing quickly exited the arena only to see Mervyn waiting outside smiling warmly, well at Wing and Lucio anyway. "Wing, Lucio good job both of you today you truly upheld the academies values and shined light on our schools name. Gale...." the headmaster let out a huge sigh. "What were you thinking using such dishonorable tactics, even if you do not have the integrity of our noble students I expected better, despite your victory." Lupos looked down at the floor and tried to look ashamed despite the grin growing on his face  "I'm sorry headmaster but I thought winning was more important."

The headmaster sighed again "it's ok this time just don't do it again." Lupos nodded while Lucio started muttering about how he knew "a commoner couldn't beat him fairly." But of course, Lupos wasn't done with dirty tricks after all he needed practice on live humans how else would he learn what would be best to kill Mervyn?

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Sorry I know it's another short one but the next one should be longer....probably :) special thanks to Forgiv3n324 for the advanced review I enjoyed reading it even the negative bits, Iv tried to go back and check for spelling mistakes but please point out any Iv missed hope you liked the chapter feel free to comment