“So,” Ashlin breaks the silence while the girls are starts to prepare for their next move, “When are you going to tell us about your magic, Gallian?”

Gallian, who is still on lookout duty, gets caught off guard by Ashlin’s comment. “Wh-what? Why would you wanna know that? Did you just forget about our situation? Magic is nulled, right?”

“But, we do have magic,” Ashlin looks at Selica who is busy scribbling spells from her other books to her easy-to-access notebook. “Thanks to her. Just spill it out already, I know you are itching to gloat about your magic from the get go.”

But instead of being annoyed or angry at Ashlin, Gallian seems to be more hesitant instead. “I don’t think my magic will be useful for this situation. Yes! It won’t. Even if it does, you guys won’t need to worry about it at all.” Gallian speaks faster than usual, burying the subject all together.

Ashlin has adopted Selica’s method of surveying Gallian’s eyes to see her true intention, and just like her friend, she is able to uncover Gallian’s true feelings about the subject. “You know you could just say you’re not comfortable with it.” Ashlin answers back. ”Wh-what? No I’m not-!” Gallian immediately tries to retort but Ashlin immediately replies.

“I said it’s okay. I doubt you would let us be in harms way just to hide your magic, anyways.” Ashlin stands up and slings over her backpack. “I can trust you that much, at least.” ”That’s a lot of trust to put on someone you just broke their arm a while ago.” Gallian’s hesitant eyes slowly returns to her calm and observative state. “You sure you wanna gamble with that?”

Ashlin looks at Gallian from head to toe. As if inspecting the credibility of her question. She looks at Gallian’s eyes to make sure if she is being honest, and sees two clear confident eyes staring back at her. When Gallian notices what Ashlin is doing, she gives off a confident grin. ”Like what you see?” Then starts walking towards Selica. “Hey Selica are you done scribing yet?”

“Okay!” After minutes of silence, Selica finally finishes scribing spells to her spellbook. “I’ve got all the spells I think we’ll need. So what’s the plan again?” She looks at Ashlin expectingly, waiting for her to rehash their plan.

Ashlin kneels down closer to both Gallian and Selica, grabs a random stick she found, and starts drawing on the ground. With a bit of effort, Ashlin is able to draw the entire arena and even pinpoint their location. ”Wow that’s some memory.” Gallian commented.

“Thanks, learned it from Bigz.” Ashlin places the stick on the center, showing the newly formed hill in the middle of the arena. “So here’s the deal. The said goal of the test is to reach the chamber inside the hill, but they only pointed out that our only entrance is on top it, through the monument.” Ashlin begins the discussion. “And to reach that we’ll normally have to circle all around the hill just to reach the top based on the hill’s topography. Like a spiral staircase.” Ashlin does a spiral formation from out of the center going inside. “But what if the monument is just a bait?” She taps one side of the hill closest to them. “What if we can enter the supposed chamber by the side instead?” ”From our perspective, the monument is barely visible to accommodate any person going inside, let alone hundreds.” Gallian adds in, “So in theory, It doesn’t matter where we are entering the chamber, as long as we enter it, right?”

“Yes, so the only possibly way to actually enter it without dying is through the foot of the hill.” Ashlin continues. “If we follow their instruction, it would be suicide for any mages, even one with a “Psy Shield” on, to run around an enemy-occupied area, out in the open. And I honestly doubt that there would be any magical teleportation waiting on the monument as one wrong crack on that monument will expose the portal to the rain, nullifying anyone’s chance of completing the test.”

Selica is mulling over their plan for the longest time. Originally the plan came from Selica first, but some suggestions from Gallian and Ashlin made it more well-rounded. After hearing the plan laid out she starts to ponder some questions on things they might miss. ”Question,” Selica starts, “Are we not as vulnerable if we burrow through a hole on the side rather than moving up?” ”Yes.” Ashlin immediately answers, “If magic, or firearms, are involved. But this heavy Psy Rain will nullify any form of magic, and explosives they might throw at us, and when it comes to anyone trying to enter through our hole, we only need to worry about enemies from one side. Worse come to worse we would need to close up the cave behind us.” Ashlin looks at Selica who is smiling a little bit impishly while holding a piece of paper in hand, “But I suppose you’ve already have a contingency for that.”

“Yes,” Selica excitedly answers, holding the piece of paper close to her chest. “But it’s a stupid idea, it’s best to just use it as a last ditch effort.” She replies.

“I have a question,” Gallian raises her good arm, “What are we going to do if there are other mages who will follow us in?”

That is one question Selica wasn’t ready for. She is forcefully reminded of the carnage happening outside of their little shelter. “Do-don’t we allow them to enter?” ”Really? Because I’ll bet 1000 Yit they’ll just make us do all the work and betray us at the last moment.” Gallian shares her cynicism.

Selica is appalled by her friend’s suggestion. “Are you saying we should just leave them alone?”

“No, but Galli has a point.” Ashlin interrupts them.

“Who are you calling Galli-Ouch!” Gallian almost immediately tries to retort back to Ashlin, but Ashlin fought back by immediately squeezing her bad arm.

“Gallian’s,” Ashlin rolls her eyes, “point is not unfounded. I’ve also met other met mages in my secluded life, and even then most of them are just arrogant pricks. But I also don’t like leaving them behind either. Tell you what, we could help who we could find, but we won’t jeopardize our plan for them.” Ashlin glance at Selica, “This is a test after all, and we have to remind ourselves to save ourselves first before others.” Selica is a bit shaken by Ashlin’s words. She has never been one to form social bonds up until very recently, but to see others suffering and helping them out seems to be second nature for her. Intentionally leaving others for herself is just a tough of a pill to swallow. She shakes her head and looks at Ashlin and Gallian with determination, “Okay. Let’s do it.”

“Let’s go.” Ashlin is about to walk out through the front door before Gallian grabs her by the shoulder. ”What are you doing?” Gallian asks Ashlin a question.

“Leaving the shelter, aren’t we already good to go?” Ashlin looks at Gallian quizzically. ”Yes, but through the front door, really?” Gallian pulls Ashlin away from the door, “Honestly, you people.” Gallian starts walking at the corner she was hiding from a while ago and slowly peeled off the wall from it. Outside of the wall is a small alley way unintentionally created by the newly formed buildings. It’s small and a bit tight, but the rain doesn’t seem to fall that much in the alley. “Here’s our exit.” Gallian points at the newly opened alleyway exit.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“When did you have the time to do that?” Selica can’t help but show her shock, even with a bad arm Gallian is able to peel an entire wall all by herself, let alone make an entirely new door all on her own. ”It’s not that hard, these walls are not really walls, they’re like very condensed sand.” Gallian taps some of the walls and they could see some sand falling from them. “A bit of precise tapping and you can make holes through them easy.” Gallian gives Ashlin a smug look and smiles. ”Ughh fine.” Ashlin starts walking towards the newly opened wall. When she reaches Gallian she gently rubs her head like a dog. “Good job, Galli.” Ashlin smiles then exits the building.

“That little-!” Before Gallian could respond back, Selica already walk out of the wall as well.

*

After a few steps and some necessary preparation, the girls left the alley way and into the open space of the battlefield. With the “Psy Shield” prepared, they didn’t need to worry about the harmful effects of the rain, but Selica added an “Umbrella” spell to her “Psy Shield” to also keep them physically dry as well. As they stood outside for the first time, they immediately survey their current surroundings.

Corpses, both from the mages and Silencers alike, litter the area as the heavy rain washes their bodies away making a literal river of blood on their feet. One can see the desperate struggle some of the mages did as their body shows face down with their hands outstretched. The Silencer corpses on the other hand shows signs of either getting killed by magic or being stabbed by the same iron swords they carried.

“This is horrible.” Selica is the first to comment on the gruesome spectacle. ”Ugh, even for me this is nasty.” Gallian adds as the girls treks through the massacre, Selica hopes to find anyone alive, while the other two focuses in making sure they don’t get heard. After a few minutes, they successfully cross over the open road undetected (hopefully) and went inside another building on a different block. When they entered the building, the girls could see the events that transpired inside it just by looking at the bodies strewn all over. Mages were hiding in the second floor trying to dry themselves from the Psy rain when the Silencers barged in and killed them as they were cornered. Some of the bodies fell from second railing while the rest are clumped together at the corner they died on.

“So they did start entering the buildings, we are soo lucky.” Ashlin pushes through the bodies as she grabs some of the Silencer’s clothes, full of blood and other stains, and places it in front of Selica. Ashlin inspects them a bit, they are just ordinary wool. It’s not the same White Iron material they saw before they entered the city. “Gallian is right, these are just recruits.” She mutters.

“Here Selica.” Ashlin grabs the still mortified Selica and brings her back to her senses. “I think this will fit us.” Their first plan is to make sure they have disguises to not immediately be targeted by Silencers from a distance.

Seeing the blood-covered clothes is almost enough for Selica to barf. She didn’t expect that this would how she would start her life as a mage of Magecraft City. But she calms herself down, everyone is also suffering she says to herself. Once this test is over, everything will be okay. Selica places one of her hand at her satchel where her notebook is, and the other above the Silencer clothes. ”Mirage” Selica’s hands starts to glow a vibrant brown as sand like particles slowly fall over the clothes. Bestowing a “Mirage” spell on these clothes will allow them to slip through everyone, both Silencers and Mages presence as if they are simply a trick of the eye. After casting the spell, Selica tries to clean the clothes as well, but Gallian stopped her since making them look clean at this stage will make them suspicious.

Reluctantly Selica wears the clothes. The smell of damp blood is so empowering she almost immediately puked.

“Hey! You saw them right?” A voice from outside the building breaks the torrential silence, “three kids running through the building.” ”Yeah, I think they went over here.” Another voice responds. ”Great, they’re here.” Ashlin immediately comments as she starts to wear the rags over her “Come on Gallian, wear yours already.”

Gallian, who has been assigned on scouting duty again, is silent as she stares at the two Silencers coming closer to them. “Tsk,” Gallian immediately snarles, “Not good, plan B.” Gallian immediately walks away from her perch and dives straight into the bodies. Blending herself as one of the dead corpses.

“Shit, really?” Ashlin immediately tore the scarf away and threw it as far as possible. “Selica, throw the scarf now!” She immediately hides herself amongst the fallen bodies as well.

“Ugh, wh-what?” Selica fumbles as she pulls the scarf, but it gets stuck on her neck as she tries to move away. “ghuk, ghak! Help please!” She falls down the ground, creating a big ruckus. At this point the “Psy Shield” she created vanishes as she tries to grasp for air.

“They’re here!’ One of the Silencers hears Selica’s fall and starts running towards the building. It took them only mere moment before the Silencers are able to bust open through the door. The first thing they see is Selica on the ground desperately trying to unscarf herself. “This is horrible.” But instead of malice, the two Silencer just greets Selica with pity. One of the Silencers walks closer to Selica and loosened the scarf.

“Haaah!” Selica took a deep breath, as she tries to recompose herself. “Thank you-Wooah!” She looked back to thank her savior but sees a Silencer staring pitifully at her. “No, no please!” She struggled to crawl back away facing the Silencers. Her eyes are darting left and right, horrified on what the Silencer’s will do.

“Please, take it easy.” One of the Silencers slowly put down their sword. “God I hate this job, why did Threshold even ask us to do this anyway?” One of the Silencers is so sullen that she’s barely looking at Selica now.

“You’ve seen the district they’ll be in, right? I honestly think this challenge is just appropriate.” The other Silencer answers, he is farther away from Selica but is also sullen with his demeanor. “They’ll be on the forefront of that...thing. So they’ll need to be able to fight under these conditions.”

”What thing?” Suddenly Gallian breaks her silence and jumped out of the corpses she was just hiding in, “Hi guys!” Gallian waves as she winced in pain, but she held it off as she distracted the Silencers. ”What!” Both the Silencers looks back and immediately runs straight towards Gallian, but the moment they left Selica alone, they heard a word from her.

“Torrent” Suddenly a huge rush of water sprays from Selica’s hand heading directly towards both of the Silencers. “Ashlin, now!”

“Stay frosty, okay?” Ashlin finally emerged from her position and punches the torrent sending an electrical glacier inside it. Before the Silencers could react, they are immediately electrocuted and frozen still at the same time. Both Silencers are unconscious as their bodies are suspended by a frozen glacial branch originating from Selica.

“Wew, good job team.” Gallian immediately congratulates their small success, “That was some good acting as well, Selica!” ”I wasn’t acting, you idiot!” Selica is still catching her breath from nearly being choked to death, again. “But it did help with the plan to be more convincing. I was worried you two would have left me alone.”

“Of course we won’t.” Ashlin slowly walks towards the unconscious Silencers. “But thankfully we were right about them.” She grabs one of the Silencer’s heads and slapped them conscious. “Hey, wake up.” ”Ughh, what?” The Silencer quickly regains her senses, “What happened?” She groggily looks down and sees herself suspended in ice. She looks around and sees Selica still on her knees and catching her breath, “You, you planned all this?” She asks grimly.

“Yes,” Ashlin answers confidently, “Well, except for the choking on her part, that got real for a second.”

Gallian walks closer to Selica and help her up. “That was an amazing acting Selica! You gotta teach me some time!”

“Shut it, Galli!” Selica shouts at Gallian while snickers as she helps her up.

Ashlin, on the other hand, refocuses back to the conscious Silencer. “It seems like we have a lot of discuss on our hands, fellow Silencer. Mind if we talk for a bit?”