Fifteen minutes, that's what it had taken them, fifteen minutes to beat creatures four times their number and twice their size.

As the clock ticked on top of the Proffesoriates stand, Oliver ran through the field, not from one of the big, theatening creatures. But towards one of them, hasty and panting, only to see how a rain of flares obliterated it before his eyes.

When he stopped, abrased by the heat and blinded by the light, his hears capted a couple footsteps. When he was able to open his eyes, the boy was already over him.

— Move out, scum —

He heard the readhead said quietly as he passed by. Not proud, neither hateful, just diminishing. At that moment, Oliver felt a whole world separed people like Riot and him.

It had happened in a blink, from the announcement to the moment the creatures had entered the field. It must had been a hundred or more of them, coming out from the darkness, like a pack stalking on them. The image of the very first one was already burned in his head, much like it was now the floor under his feets.

There, while watching the Tiger panting into the field, Oliver remembered a school trip he did when he had twelve years. Growing up the way he did, he had had very little opportunities to watch such an amazing thing. Behind the bars of a natural reserve, the enormous creature looked mighty, fierce and dangerous, so much that he spended the whole next week dreaming about it. That day, without any bars to hold it, it looked even more menacing than then.

And it didn't took it too much to become precisely that, maybe out an urge, but probably rather more because of it's nature, Oliver saw how the eyes of the beast got fixed on it's prey, him. A taunting feeling of murder, mixed with the anxiety of hunger, was what Oliver noticed in the eyes of the creature as he realized he was the prey the beast had selected.

There, looking at the tiger swooping, when everything seemed to be doomed, was when he realized the distance between his world, and the world of the Fae.

It was as quickly as switching a light, a straw of sparks, and then it'll rain fire. Even when he didn't believe it at the start, even more with Kiki's opinion on that side, Riot had set himself for standing out of the crowd. To be the only winner in an elimination game. The only man left after the hunt. And alreaady know the rules, hat could only be made in a few reasanoble set of ways.

That was how Oliver got to the same conclusion than Riot, a thing that sooner than later, as the redhead unleashed a rampage of fire across the field, everyone had to realice too. It all went down to a simple prime, if the goal of the test was getting points from a hunting pool, then hunting more than once would reduce others chances pass. That way, as more as you hunted, less would be those in the next stage, and the next after that. Looking the first beast reduced to a burning coal, next to nearly a dozen of them follow, made born in Oliver a deeply rooting fear.

By the moment he had taken conscious over the fact that upon the initial challenge, to act with wit and quick was part of the test and how. The fear that he may be already late for that struck him out of nowhere, leaving him paraliced.

— Hey! —

Said a familiar voice shaking him by the shoulder.

— What the hell are you doing? move! —

It was Kiki, completely covered in sweat and with a couple black hairs stuck on her face.

— Your hair —

Answered Oliver

— Eh? —

— You're sweating —

Oliver said, raising a hand.

— What the hell are you talking about? —

Then he was striked again by her words.

— I... I'm sorry, everythin is happening too quick —

Then she took the hand he has raisen and looked it up, drop it down, and did the same with the other one.

— You... haven't you got any point yet!? —

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Then Oliver saw her right hand, the one holding his, and noticed a few lines running through her skins. There where four of them, and they seemed imbued with an outwordly scent, like something was burning inside of them.

— I get it now —

He said, making her confused.

— Shit —

She bited her lip, thinking.

— Just follow me, okay? we'll do it like in your backyard, you hear me? —

Then Oliver watched her with wide open eyes

— Y-yes, thank you —

She buffed out.

— Thank me when you had gotten a point God dammit —

And so that way, she started to run, fast, and then faster. Faster than it would be humanly possible. There was when Oliver realized his first mistake. He hadn't learned anything from his past experiences. He felt dumb, and then, he thought in the only Hex he had time to draw while waiting in the underground. It was in the base of his wrist, a circle containing the Strenght rune, overlapping a star made of two triangles, a black and a white one. Then, the Hex started to shine.

And all became clear, they were running through the west side of the field, far away from the flames. First overwhelmed by the clarity, but then sharpened because of the Hex's effect, Oliver was able to see the three that had grown in the middle of the field. There, a thick cloud of dust stood, and for a second, Oliver saw two people fighting inside.

The place, initially filled with chaos had become somehow a battlefield, one so difficult to understand that only sympathy users were able to read. And he wasn't able to read the half of it.

— What's happening —

Asked Oliver, alarmed by the vision in front of them.

Kiki stopped, searching for an invisible point in the middle of the ground, and spotted something in the run.

— Those two are fighting against each other —

Answered Kiki

— Those two? —

— The Fire guy and the Tree's one, can't you see it? —

There, Oliver tried to sharpen his vision and remembered what Park had taught him about the Hex on his wrist.

They were standing outside Park's cabin in the woods, waiting for America to bring back provisions, Park standing in front of the diamond shape he had drawn on the floor.

— This is the Runnic Diagram, a thing that every Sympathist should know by heart —

He said while drawing words in each of the extremes of the diamond.

— Life above all, Death goes down, as Nature is always right, only the Spirit is left —

— A Poem? —

— An easy way to reflect contrast —

Replied Park, as he kept drawing on the flour.

— The four pillars of life, each represented by a unique Rune, you can combine them, add, and even creature your own, as long as you know the rules —

Then Park suddenly stopped and pointed at Oliver with the stick in his hand, the dirt blew off from writing on the ground.

— Remember the fight against Schram? —

Oliver nodded carefully.

— The thing you used to boost yourself—

— The strength Rune? —

— Yeah, never use it like that again —

Oliver face turned blank

— Know how your Hexes work before you use them, you were lucky —

There, as Park drew another symbol in the floor, he turned back smiling.

— What's that? —

Asked Oliver, changing the subject immediately, the black-haired boy had drawn a few symbols next to the diamond, which he then proceeded to mesh in a sort of star shape.

— This my friend, is what we call a Witch Mark, a Hex that encompasses the four types of Runes, used for centuries as a way to identify and condemn witchcraft users —

Oliver's skin crawled as Park drew a last symbol in the center of it, making it more similar to the strength rune he knew from Arwan's guide. The same Hex he wore now during the Tournament.

— It's all sorcerer's main boost, it should make you able to see, tackle, and endure things most people can't; wear it everywhere —

Then Park raised the sleeve of his white shirt, the same Witch Mark was there, first in the line of a canvas filled with unintelligible symbols, barely visible as translucid marks through his arms.

There, standing next to Kiki, Oliver was able to feel the energy flowing through his body. It was an odd feeling, yet not so different than the one he had while fighting Schram in the woods.

His head felt light, and his body strengthened, yet there was something clearly different about it. He was able to feel something floating in the air, making it thick and almost tangible. Something like pressure, which source stood clearly in the distance, deep inside the dust cloud, coming from those two.

Almost immediately after he was able to feel those two, he was able to feel a few more "pulses" in the area, at least a dozen in the stands area, and a couple more within the field. One of them was Kiki.

— I... I can feel them —

— And how not? they're oddly strong to be here —

There Oliver thought about it.

— You scared me for a second —

Kiki said, right before turning herself back, something had caught her attention in the middle of the fight. A panting sound in the distance, and then a couple of silhouettes turning their back in the middle of a run.

Oliver was able to feel them before they appeared, and suddenly the figure of a long-skirted girl emerged from inside the dust. Running with a mad face and holding her braids with both hands, it was the girl that had stood next to Oliver in the underground, this time running away from not one, but three beasts.

— Here they are, finally —

Said Kiki, as if she was waiting for it.

— Number ten —

Answered Oliver, trying to reach his sword to find nothing.

— Oh shit, how did you...? —

Kiki was standing aside, her both hands raised in a martial position.

— At the count of three, I go left, you right, you hear me? —

Oliver froze at his spot. Then his words came out of his mouth without thinking.

— Y-yeah! —

He said, having no idea of what to do next.