Nightfall came fast, and Shoji had to start swatting the mosquitoes away. “This is the dumbest plan of all time.” Shoji looked at the arguing children in the middle of the field with his spyglass. “You really should’ve given them something to work off of.”

“Refuse lad, this part is to test their ingenuity!” The bullheaded mentor said.

Shoji rolled his eyes. “Ingenuity.” That was some bull. This kind of stuff is why he should’ve done the test instead of Nike. This was stupid.

So much could go wrong with this plan. While both of them had prestiged to the first stage, neither of them were particularly fast.

Shoji couldn’t move through their shadows because he hadn’t anchored himself on any of them. He wasn’t good enough to just, blink places yet.

The chieftain should've just made Shoji proctor.

Nike was someone that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Just a random imp that evolved. He wasn’t nearly as close as he and the chief were, and it wasn’t like a minotaur was some kind of groundbreaking evolution.

His evolution dominated in the physical strength department, but in everything else…

He watched the man pick at his ear and stare at the wax. Sometimes, he assumed the man wasn’t all there.

He turned his spyglass over to the lessers, watching them whispering among each other while they snuck away into the forest.

Meek little shits.

“...You really think they’ll make it out first?” Shoji said, doubt ever present in his voice.

“Aye, I like the lads. They got ‘eart.”

“...” Liked the lessers? What was so great about them? Being weak? Needing to eat more? He looked at the smaller imps inch into the forest.

The only lesser he had met besides the children was that one on the horse. While he had been… useful… he wasn’t what he would call a great man.

The boy with the huge horns, the one with the dragon horns, the one tiny horned one, the swirly one, and the actual dud.

The actual dud’s horns didn’t actually indicate her magical status. They only knew that info because Tododemo had told them.

It was a shame, because from her horns, she seemed like she had a similar capacity to him at that age.

Though she wasn’t ever going to be anything special. He watched as she jumped at the slight sounds as she snuck into the forest with her team, she had the eyes of prey.

Good instincts, He chuckled to himself.

He looked over to “Group 1,” and saw him as well. The boy with the impressive looking flame tattoo. He was told about the boy's intense proficiency with energy. That wasn’t to say the boy had good potential of being a mage, it was too early to tell, but at the very least he’d heard about the boy’s unique flames.

Pure yellow.

Wispy gold.

It took a special level of talent to create those flames no matter how much favor you had. Her flames burned the boy’s neck and face with prestige. He was claimed by the fire goddess in a way that told everyone that she was his patron. Her sharp claws were deep in the boy.

Shoji had no particular opinion on the fire goddess, but he did have a slight worry for the boy as he saw the tattoo’s pure size. Monsters grabbed with tattoos that big usually had a lot of responsibility in their future.

The boy’s eyes glittered with that predatorial energy…

That’s the ticket.

Shoji nodded slowly.

The council would love someone like that. A relationship with the flame goddess would bode well for their village’s fortune. “Well, if we’re placing bets… I think that boy’s team will make it here first.” He pointed to the boy with the tattoo. “Flame?” Nike said, confused.

So that was his name.

“He looks cool,” Shoji shrugged, speaking honestly.

“If Flame makes it here first I’ll eat my pants.”

Shoji glanced over to the man’s black pants that were created to match the style of Shoji's own robes. Then he looked back to his spyglass.

“If you find a way to chew through wards, I will be truly impressed.” Nike laughed jovally, fire and smoke escaping his mouth, forgetting that they were supposed to be hiding.

“SHHHHHH!”

The Minotaur quickly shut his mouth, and Shoji looked at him with a look of ‘DUDE!!!’

Shoji sneered at the Minotaur, before looking back at his spyglass.

Looking through the crystal lens, already fully zoomed, he almost jumped as he saw it. Flame starred in their direction with zero emotion on his face.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He stood in full analysis and debate as ‘he appeared’ to look right into the spyglass. ‘Did he see us?’

It didn’t take Shoji long to get an answer to that question.

After realizing that he had truly seen what he’d seen, or heard what he heard. Without hesitation, the boy fully broke off into a sprint.

Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.

The boy did not even attempt to give some kind of notice to his team. With a smile on his face, Flame charged the pair. Shoji started to sweat as the boy stared down the barrel of his telescope with a critical focus.

He was followed closely by his team. All but the tail imp and the masculine looking female child struggled to follow his coat tail. “They’re coming.”

“What?!”

“Not sure if it was the fire, or the laughing, but they’re coming.” Shoji said sarcastically.

Nike swore under his breath. This was his fault, but jeez these kids didn’t waste time.

Shoji smiled as he watched Flame charge.The was a loud man, but they were a solid ten minutes walk away.

Him and the Minotaur were so far in fact, that sensing the Minotaurs fame or even hearing the Minotaurs laugh was something impressive.

Damn, how much did that goddess pour into the boy?

Shoji sent out one of his strings. He pulled on his grapple and hoisted himself onto one of the tree’s bigger branches. Knowing that flame would take a little while, he looked over to see what the rest of the group was doing.

The group with the shadow boy chased Flame down the woods with… less than success. The team carried this boy blessed with a heavy shadow affinity on their shoulders.

Space warped around them and Shoji felt his eyes start to play tricks on him. Thoughts in his head of, ‘Oh you didn’t see that, your mind’s playing tricks on you,’ and ‘Ooooo, what’s that over there? Came in his mind when he tried to look at them.’

If he didn’t share an affinity with the boy, he would’ve truly lost the shadow’s group. These children, they hadn’t practiced any kind of cardio and were just sort of galloping with hopes and prayers.

Neither had Flame’s group, but it was clear the strongest of the cradle had grouped together.

So in a purely physical contest they were going to lose. A monster's pure strength was dependent on their size. There were exceptions, but it was especially important at early stages. ‘There really isn’t a chance for the other teams to catch up, Flame’s team is especially fast.’

Shoji thought.

The last team wasn’t even worth mentioning.

Shame.

Shoji smirked.

“Looks like I'm winning the bet, old man.” Shoji said to the minotaur. The Minotaur chuckled slightly and sat on the ground. He opened one of the two gord bottles Shoji brought With a *Pop.* The old man gulped down its contents and sighed.

“Damn, and I was sure the boy was going to use that map thing to find us.”

Map thing?

BOOOOOOM!!!!!

Shoji almost dropped his spy glass as the explosion hit his ears. He fumbled and just barely caught it before it fell to the ground. Scrambling, he pulled up his spyglass to see what had happened.

What happened?! He looked in the direction all the kids were running from, seeing nothing. He looked right. He looked up.

He zoomed back down to ground level.

But then he looked left.

What…

What..?

WHAT???

Shoji’s mouth fell as he watched a boulder pulsating with hues, barrel straight towards them. From a completely different direction than the other trainee's, the comet shot with an unholy amount of force. A piercing light green, a pulsing dark blue, and a roaring light blue.

He watched the lessers all cling to a boulder for dear life. At the front, he saw her, a girl with who he remembered, was the dud.

Her wide eyes and large rounded horns stuck up just like it did when he saw her last week.

The look of fear she had had was replaced with an excited version.

Laughing as she flew in the danger. Spiderwebs of cracks formed as she clinged to the front of the boulder. A spirit of thrill took her.

Next to her was a boy with a blue aura who grabbed onto her and held an… expression. Like someone who was so scared and wanted to scream, but was held so hard by the fear and couldn’t.

Just a mouth open as he screamed dry air.

His blue aura had taken manifest as a thin rope that wrapped around the Two–wait–three? Yes, Three lined at the back.

Three lessers lined in a row facing the opposite direction, all three with large horns. One of them could barely be seen under all the flashing lights. They somehow had found a way to stick behind the rocketing boulder.

The one in behind the blue one had long dragon horns and unconscious smoke flowing from his face as he held onto the waist of his friend for dear life. In the way they were positioned, His smaller friend could easily have fallen off due to the angle he was hanging off at.

He was the Insurance in case the mana rope failed. The imp that glowed green outed words that that Shoji couldn’t hear due to the boulder roaring through the forest. They had somehow picked the path of least resistance, not a tree in their way.

But that didn’t mean they were out of the woods,

Bushes, budding plants, rocks, and various other debris shot sideways like a boat speeding through water. But it wasn’t infinite.

Their speed gradually slowed as they were taken by friction.

This was no stealth mission, this was pure brute force. The minute they stopped they would be a target for sure. Nike looked over at him, smiling as he caught onto what Shoji was gobsmacked at.

“You’re dripping, lad.”

Oh,

Shoji looked down and realized he was dripping. His face was wet with sweat. “Scary bastards right?” Nike asked. Shoji thought long and hard, looked at them for a second, before turning to the giant. “Stupid bastards,” Nike gave him a questioning eyebrow.

“It doesn't matter how much mana that earth mage has, there isn’t a way anyone can hold a spell like that for long.” They had gotten to their location three times faster than anyone else.

However, No earth mage he knew could make a boulder fly that fast for that long. He always knew earth mages as the reliable melee types, not master mages.

And the capacity that it would require and the control was something that would require someone abnormal.

They were going to run out of steam.

“Attack!!!”

The boulder suddenly shot forward with an intense force again, bursting through shrubs and bushes with renewed life.

It was getting closer,

Closer,

Closer!

“WHAT?!”

“ATTACK!!!”

The imp hanging off that glowed green screamed an order that caused the boulder to explode with a kinetic explosion of force.

The imp held by the smokey child's mana shot to a fever pitch. Like a small sun, green and light blue magic swirled behind as it zoomed towards the two members of the council.

Shoji leaped down from the tree. He didn’t have time. Strings immediately wrapped around his companion as he screamed, “GET DOWN!”

He pulled the giant down with all the force he possibly could.