Everest was in a bit of pain. After attacking the serpent, he found that he didn't stick the landing and broke his ankle. But that wasn't what hurt him the most. Instead, it was his pride and regret that flowed through him. That Leon dude had forgotten about him, and the teachers took too long to find where he had landed. He found himself reasonably bored after getting his foot bandaged up, opting to muck around on his sore foot in crutches.
Everest found his friend Noah nursing his shoulder not too far away from the group. He was looking off into the distance. "I can't believe I missed lunch, we had so many plans to do well in this test but it ended early." The taller boy's stomach seemed to growl.
"Hey Noah, long time no see. How are you doin?" Everest asked his friend.
"Where did you go? You did that big thing early on but I didn't see you do much else." Noah asked suspiciously.
"Long story short I broke my ankle. Why don't we go get lunch then? It's still early." Everest deflected.
"They are only giving out rations at the moment. Dinner will be starting early today, in a solid three hours." Noah pulls out a stale bread-like thing.
"I see… Should we go find the rest of our groupmates?" Everest tried to help his friend up when he realized he wouldn't be able to do much with his balance at the moment.
Noah got up on his own and pulled and looked solemnly at Everest. "We're going to have to speak with the girls and Nico first. Since Damian and Kyion are in critical condition."
"Lead the way then."
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Asela looked at Wura and Kiara in confusion as Nico sat across from them. A book and pen in hand, writing what seemed to have been noted with an unnatural enthusiasm.
"What was that thing you did with the arrow? I didn't know that was even possible." Asela asked with a look of curiosity evident on her face.
"That was something Nico told us about. Since Wura can shape the liquid and I can freeze it. I could make what he called a great bow. It took the two of us just to pull the string far enough to launch it where we wanted. Later on I should be able to do the same with just my mana. Or so I've been told." Kiara explains.
"Nico, why are you here? You have all the knowledge already and you know more about our powers then we do." Asela askes suspiciously.
Nico adjusted his glasses, "My mother was a scribe and my father considered himself a poet and scholar, when I came along they had a collection of books from all over the world at my disposal. What they didn't know back then was the fact that I can't forget what I've seen or read. It's like a talent, I read every book at home and in a library owned by the guild of scribes. I learned many things reading historical accounts of techniques along with all kinds of books. When I awakened my father had me enroll here."
Nico turned the page of his book, not looking up. "I'm here to learn, I just have a more academic start."
"That aside, what was that fire thing you didn I never saw you make a fire that hot before." Wura tried to change the subject
"I don't know. It felt like a big rock when I fed it, mana. It also seems to be able to eat the nearby fire and get stronger. It ate all of our mana along with the fire made by the angry deer." Asela conjured a ball of fire in her hands, and it shrunk a little before disappearing. "I can't do it without a proper setup.
Everest hobbled into the group with his crutches. "Hey! How is everyone?"
"So that's the limit. When I think about it, that was a good amount of fire you absorbed. What made it so strong?" Wura asked.
"It worked like our mana compressions. The more concentrated it was, the stronger I could make it. Didn't do much to the snake however." Asela sighed.
"Hello?" Everest asked.
"We see you. They're just discussing abilities, speaking of which. I didn't know you could grow that large, Noah."
"It's draining, It uses up a ton of mana to start it and continues to pull a little just to keep it up. It also makes me hungry after using it." Noah answered. "Dinner is in three hours. Should we check on the others, in critical?"
"Yeah. To the tent!" Asela said.
Everest looked at Nico, squinted, and mouthed the words. "You did that on purpose.."
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Damian's day was going pretty bad. Most of their plans failed, his team members were probably hurt, and he was in a lot of pain. He had been in and out of it for who knows how long, but it was always there. He sensed everything around him moved much slower than it should, and he couldn't move at all. Damian entered a meditation in an attempt to clear his mind.
After a long period of time, he found that the pain had stopped, and his mind was starting to clear. His eyes opened to what appeared a flash of light followed by the glare of an elderly woman standing over him.
"He's good now. The antivenom worked. Quite an insidious toxin, I recommend drinking lots of water to flush it out over the next few days.
The woman talked so slow that Damian reached up to move his arm but found it also seemed to move that way.
"Are. They. Ok?" Damian managed to get out, softly the feeling from moving his mouth lingering after he spoke.
"Ah yes, most of your teammates are fine. The one called Kyrion is suffering from a stronger dose however. It seems he was under the effects of mana poisoning for quite some time. So curing both will take a little time. However, Lingar has already made a full recovery and the fruit he found seems to have a decent healing capacity so his healing required less mana." The old woman put down a clipboard and began to leave his tent.
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Damian tried to say something, but nothing managed to come out in time as the doctor made their way to the next tent. Finally, Damian closed his eyes and found himself asleep.
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Kyrion found himself trapped in his center as a mist-like serpent wrapped itself around the tree. Jala and Issac were staying as far away from the creature as possible, and Kyrion himself felt sick just being here.
The snake bit down onto the tree, and he watched as it began to wither and decay into nothing within seconds as the serpent began to consume it.
"Nooo!" Kyrion yelled as he tried to move towards the serpent, but his feet couldn't make a purchase on anything. As though he was running in free fall.
The tree turned black and then burst into splinters, leaving behind a seed that the snake tried to consume. From the seed came an eerie green glow that seemed to pulse throughout the area as a familiar rending sensation seemed to spread to everyone present.
The two forces seemed to fight for dominance, one a green serpent, the other was something he couldn't discern. Issac and Jala were flung around the area as a storm of power exploded.
The two forces found themselves at a stalemate. The aggressive snake poked at the seed and had its attacks rebuffed. While each strike seemed to drain the seeds total mana. The snake eventually found an opening and finally bit into the seed.
To its surprise, the snake found that it was being drained by the seed. It began to pull away but found that its two fangs had been anchored in, and it couldn't break free.
The two fought for what seemed like an eternity as their powers began to fade all but completely. The glow from the seed and the serpent faded out of existence as the two forces finally died down. Kyron's core was fragmented; Issac and Jala were missing as what lay around him were a desert.
Kyrion tried to leave his center and found that it wasn't possible for some reason, and he began to breathe hard. The only thing that remained present was an innate seed. Kyrion took it with him as he began to look for his spirits.
Outside, the doctor observed the child, who was restrained on a bed in a mix of curiosity and horror. Black Ichor began to drain from every open portion of his body. He jerked uncontrollably and even seemed to attack one of the nurses that had gotten too close. It was as though he was reduced to being a wild beast before he had to be restrained.
After a while, the liquid began to turn a crimson red as it flowed before it stopped leaking completely. The Venom seemed to have been taken care of by the child's immune system. Without the need for an antivenom. Which shouldn't be possible.
The old woman observed the child's condition in terms of mana expenditure and discovered something shocking. His core had been shattered into four parts.
"This is bad. Really bad. We need to act quickly and carefully." She pointed to one of the attendants. "I need you to get professor Lok immediately."
"Yes Doctor!" Said the medic who ran out of the room.
"Something smells fishy about this year." The older woman said as she took a seat.
Lok entered the tent a few minutes later and looked down towards the unconscious Kyrion. "Medicine isn't my thing and you know that but this, I can work with. It does seem a bit more brutal than I imagined. He won't be able to regain consciousness until it's fixed and after starting him on his Journey there won't be much I can do. Good news is the toxicity in his mana has dropped to none. I'm sure his mother would be happy to hear that while she strangles the messenger to death."
"How their kids survive this long is a wonder sometimes." The women said aloud.
"It's safer not to know." Lok summoned a metal rod which he used to poke Kyrions head.
"Kyrion, as of now you are trapped in your center, getting out will take a lot of work but think of it like a form of tra… I mean a game like hide and seek. You need to find them to get back and if you don't you'll be trapped there forever."
Kyrion was building a sandcastle in the desert when he heard a voice in his head. "You can't get me out?" He yelled
"Doing so forcefully will do you more harm than good. I will come by to help when I can but this is something only you can do on your own." Lok told him.
Kyrion looked to himself, realizing that this meant he didn't have to put up with the vocabulary drills anymore. "That just means he'll make me work harder when I get back."
"If that's all you have left I'll open up the paths. Once you enter one you won't be able to leave until after you find the missing spit. Good luck."
Kyrion looked down and mumbled something to himself as three doors appeared in front of him.
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Asela and the others made their way towards the tents when they were quickly turned away. "Your teammates won't be moving around for a while; it's safer for both parties if you let them get better on their own."
Lok exited a tent and made eye contact with the group." Damian will make a full recovery soon but Kyrion will be out for a while. He is in a spirit coma. I can only pray that he wakes up before graduation. Now if i'm not wrong point totals for this year's forest trial are to be announced." Lok continued walking towards where multiple teachers were gathered near the stage.
The kids made their way to some seats in front of a stage where Yulon waited patiently for various groups to arrive. Finally, after ten or so minutes, he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"This year's trial was a bust. It seems an expert tier creature managed to hide itself in our sacred testing ground. Which caused all sorts of problems with our scoring as a few professors were taken quite by surprise so by further ado I will go over our winners of this year's trial. From before everything went bad. Third place is the team led by Brion with 2312 points, which was halved due to us having to resume them early on. Second place is Damian's team with 4,362 points. They performed well and even made it to the end but they were unable to get enough points before the cutoff period. Our first place spot goes to Milo Telersian's team for a total of 5'300 points, they performed well and kept up a good pace and slaughtered every monster they came across. Prizes will be given out privately. It was a good showing this year and many of you showed various schools what you offer to the table. May you all grow well before your next trial."
"I guess prizes and then dinner," Nico said aloud as teachers came to collect them on an individual basis.
"I don't like this." Asela said as she went with a teacher.
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Kyrion took the door to the right and found that he was now sitting in a prairie where two kids were mucking about, and they seemed to look somewhat like him. One had solid white hair and ashen skin, while the other was a bit tanned like him. His hair was black save for a strip that was always red. Kyrion had no idea what was going on, so he looked around.
Behind him was a small cottage with a garden on the side. There were no other homes nearby, and Kyrion knew that this was the point.
The pale one tripped and fell, cutting his leg on a stone, and started to bleed. "Daddy help me!"
Kyrion stood up, noticing that he had gotten much taller, and walked over to the child and placed his hand over the wound as a cool sensation left his body and washed over the cut, cleansing it before knitting the skin back together.
Kyrion noted how the power seemed to only use half the as much mana as he would do something similar with wind, and it was a specific type of mana he could tell.
"You'll be fine little…you know this. As long as I'm here no one will be able to harm you." Kyrion couldn't understand part of what was said and had the feeling it was better that way.
The boy nodded as a distorted voice came from inside the cottage. "It's lunch time kiddos."
The Older Kyrion seemed to gag a bit before he rounded the two up and took them inside. As the older Kyrion walked away, the younger one seemed to stay behind as though he was left. Kyrion was able to walk around the area this time around. Unlike earlier, and it felt natural. The grass under his feet the sound of leaves rustling in the wind. The smell of the earth was everywhere.
"Well I guess I should probably look for a spirit not that I know what to look for." Kyrion mumbled as he walked around. The scene shifted to him falling from the sky. Down below, there was nothing within sight. Above his body was the sky, a sun to his left and two moons to his right. Kyrion fell further and further as time passed, eventually falling into a deep sleep.