image [https://i.imgur.com/sMvGUYQ.png]

The group continued through the open field, looking for their next objective. As they went along the path, they ran into other teams and quickly dispatched them. Making easy work out of the groups of Harpy and Griffon students. After hours of traveling and fighting, the trio happened upon a stream of water where they decided to rest for a while.

“Whew, this day has been tiring. They’re really testing our endurance too, huh?” Carmen said as she crouched down, running her fingers through the calm current.

“Yeah, but it sucks that none of the people we fought today were strong. Where are all the other Wyvern and Phoenix class students?” Mariah replied with great disappointment, setting her bag down as she looked out at the large waterfall rushing in the distance.

“At the rate we’re going, we won’t make it very far. The teams we encountered barely had tokens, so we definitely need a big catch tomorrow.” Elise added. “We’ve got a total of sixty-eight so far…”

“Oh my, Sixty-eight tokens? We wouldn’t mind adding that to our collection.” Said a mysterious, yet familiar voice from behind them.

Carmen’s group immediately turned around and saw Sandra, Vida, and a male student making their way towards the stream. The moment Sandra’s eyes met with Carmen’s, she started to snicker at the sight of her.

“Pfft, I guess the rumors were true about you partnering up with some commoners. Why do you like hanging out with people less than you so much?” She asked with a playfully confused cadence.

“Less than me? What are you talking about?” Carmen replied, her forehead wrinkling as she raised her eyebrow.

“Carmen, I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but you’re a member of a Royal Family. You look weird associating yourself with people like them. You should’ve been on my team since we're both nobles, it would make more sense…”

“Why do you even care? I’ll partner with whoever I want!” Carmen summoned forth Graviton’s Eclipse and dashed forward with great speed.

“Carmen, wait!” Mariah exclaimed, however her plea fell on deaf ears as Carmen continued her angered approach.

As she entered into their space, Carmen leapt into the air and thrust her Manifest downward. However, the moment she made contact, Carmen’s attack was completely deflected by a large, translucent golden shield.

The force of the deflection knocked her into the ground, ripping up the earth as Carmen’s momentum slid her backwards. She looked up and saw Vida holding up her Manifest, a small oval shield, intricately plated with gold and white metals. Its runic embellishments glowed a dull gold as the large shield projection dissipated in front of them.

Carmen got to her feet and shot them an irritated glare, clearly preparing to continue her assault. She aimed her palm towards them and began to exert her Core Energy. Suddenly, a massive amount of gravitational force was dropped onto Sandra’s group. However, within that same moment, Vida’s shield activated and blocked the attack before any force could be applied unto them.

The shield projection buckled and flexed as more weight was added, holding off her attack with impressive effectiveness. Sandra summoned her Manifest, a crooked and thin staff with wooden features. Her weapon looked as though it were a branch torn straight off of a tree, still having multiple leaves and worn bark visible.

She thrust it into the ground and moments later, three wooden figures emerged from the earth below Carmen’s feet. Their bodies were tall, incredibly thin and their limbs were akin to tree roots, snaking around in multiple directions. The dolls had surrounded Carmen and before she could react, one of them sent a swift punch towards her face.

The visceral blow connected, sending Carmen careening backwards into the stream. The impact caused a massive splash of water to rain down, soaking Carmen and her team from head to toe.

Carmen, now feeling incredibly irritated, quickly burst from the water. She landed on solid ground and started her next assault, however, before she made any progress, Elise grabbed Carmen’s arm tightly.

“Hey, can you chill out!? We need to fight them as a team.” Elise said with an annoyed tone, hoping she would calm down.

Carmen looked over with a red eyed glare until she eventually sighed, relaxing her muscles and nodding in agreement with Elise’s request. As they had their moment, Mariah stepped forward with her Manifest and immediately ignited her flames.

“Elise, use your speed to approach them from the rear and cause them to break their formation. Carmen, apply gravity to that shield again, but make it weigh less this time. I’ll take care of those wooden minions and once I’m done, my flames should be at their full intensity for a final blow. Got it?” Mariah directed, effortlessly reading the situation and giving everyone roles to play. They nodded their heads and quickly put Mariah’s plans into action.

Elise summoned her twin daggers and with a single, electrified step, she blasted towards Sandra’s group with blinding speed. Barely a second passed before she found herself behind them, her Manifest eager to slice its way through their formation. Vida quickly turned around with her shield, but before she could activate its ability, she noticed that her arms began to lift upwards.

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“What!?” She exclaimed with shock, realizing that her entire body was feeling light and weightless. Vida looked over and saw Carmen in the distance with her rapier pointed in their direction.

“You should keep your eyes on me!” Elise yelled out as she sent multiple electrified slashes outwards, connecting with Vida’s chest. The voltage from the attack rippled through her body, causing Vida to scream out in pain. As she stumbled back, Elise followed up with a forceful kick to the stomach, knocking Vida away from her group.

“Vida! Ugh, Davon, go help her out!” Sandra commanded the male student, annoyed that he didn’t provide any assistance.

Davon nodded and rushed over, aiming his hand outwards and summoning forth a dark green glove. Once his Manifest fully appeared, a green circle formed under Vida. She began to glow, but within that same moment, Elise continued her assault.

She raced towards Davon with incredible speed and lit him up with an impressive amount of dagger slashes. Green static danced across the air as her Manifest shredded through his uniform, wasting him in a matter of seconds.

Sandra’s attention was redirected once again as she saw their healer be defeated so quickly. She started to sprint towards their direction to provide support, but the moment she stepped forward, a massive wall of searing hot fire blocked her path.

She turned around and noticed that her wooden minions were reduced to ash, standing absolutely no chance against Mariah’s intense flames. Mariah slowly approached with her spear in hand, the temperature of the area increasing the closer she got.

‘Ugh! She just had to have a Fire Affinity. This isn’t a fight we can win.’

Sandra weighed her options until she eventually thrust her Manifest into the ground again. The floor shook violently as multiple vines and branches burst upwards, covering Sandra completely. Beyond the flames, Vida and Davon were also engulfed by vines, fully wrapping their bodies like bandages.

Within seconds, the vines crashed downwards and pulled them into the earth below. Once the dust settled, Sandra’s group was nowhere to be found, having escaped through the freshly created holes and tunnels in the ground.

‘Tch, what a bunch of cowards…’

Mariah put her Manifest away and crossed her arms, annoyed that their first challenging fight of the day ended so prematurely. Carmen and Elise walked over, also feeling a bit disappointed by the outcome. Before anyone could voice their grievances, a terrifyingly loud grumble could be heard from Mariah’s stomach.

“You can’t be serious right now.” Elise said with a blank stare, feeling as though this was not the time to be hungry.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help it. Everytime I use my Manifest’s flames, I get hungry. I’ve gotta fuel this thing somehow!”

Mariah let out an awkward laugh as she gripped her stomach, making light of her Manifest’s fairly inconvenient cost. Elise sighed and looked over in the distance, trying to figure out where they should go. Suddenly, Carmen pointed at a small forest situated a few miles east from them.

“Let’s go there. I don’t sense anyone in that direction.” She said with a confident tone. Her group agreed and after gathering their things, they set off to find a place to rest up from such a long day.

After a brief trek across the fantastical landscape, the once golden colored sky was now starting to shift to a dark purple shade. The Core Depths was entering its night time cycle. Elise looked up and admired the change in color, noticing that even though the sky was darker, the amount of light around them hadn’t changed.

As they meandered around the forest, the group eventually stumbled upon a fairly shallow cave that was only roughly ten meters deep. They entered inside and after Carmen used her gravitational abilities to place a large boulder in front of the entrance, they were finally able to rest their tired feet.

image [https://i.imgur.com/d60vRFl.png]

On the southern area of the playing field, Caleb and his group finished off a team of Wyvern students with relative ease. As the students faded away from their defeat, one of Caleb's teammates counted the tokens they had obtained.

"Nice, looks like we've got 144 tokens now. We've gotta be in the top 10 by now, right?" He asked with a cheeky grin.

"Probably, but we can't afford to get complacent now. Keep your focus up, Jaire." Caleb replied, continuing to keep his wits about him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Mr. Prince Charming."

Jaire quickly opened his bag and placed the token pouch inside, securing it snugly into an internal pocket. However, once he zipped the bag closed, they heard a voice speak from the bushes.

"So this is where you were, Caleb. I knew that power of yours felt familiar." The soft voice playfully said.

Caleb's group immediately got into position and prepared themselves for battle, summoning forth their Manifest's in anticipation. The bushes rustled and out walked Bridgette Vandal, running her fingers through her long, silky blonde hair. She gave them a smile before stopping a few meters in front of them.

"Oh my, you boys are ready to go, huh?" She commented with a light chuckle. "Take it easy, I just wanted to say hi."

Caleb stepped forward and motioned for his team to stand down, prompting everyone to put their weapons away.

"Where's the rest of your team?" Caleb asked, his eyes darting around the area to make sure they weren't being ambushed.

"We split up to cover more ground. The rules didn't say we HAD to fight together the entire time, so we decided to divide and conquer. So much more efficient, don't you agree?"

Bridgette let out another light chuckle as she smiled at them, finding the stunned look on their faces to be quite amusing.

"How many tokens have you guys gotten from doing that?" Jaire asked with a curious tone. Bridgette looked towards the purple sky and tapped her chin, pondering a response to his question.

"Hmm, let's see, I've gotten 150 so far and Cassidy said she had 110. I'm not sure how many Linus has, but it can't be far off from us." She casually replied.

"WHAT!?! There's no way you have that many!!"

"Hey, I'm just answering your question. No need to get so upset. I'm honestly surprised you all don't have that many as well."

Jaire scowled at Bridgette's smug expression, feeling the incredible amounts of disrespect coming from her tone. Suddenly, Bridgette started walking casually towards Caleb, putting his team on edge. They tensed up, but just as they were about to re-summon their Manifests, Bridgette stopped directly in front of him. She simply brushed some dirt off of Caleb's uniform jacket and fixed his tie.

"There, much better. You've gotta take better care of your appearance, babe." Bridgette said with a warm smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have more tokens to get."

"You're just going to leave without fighting us?" Caleb wondered with a confused expression.

"Yup. We'll have plenty of time to play with each other later, Caleb."

Bridgette walked past their group and just as she reached the treeline, she turned around and blew Caleb a kiss. She smiled one last time before disappearing into the forest, leaving just as fast as she appeared.

"Gah, I can't stand that girl! She always acts so high and mighty! She's lucky I didn't attack her first, I guarantee you she'd regret it!" Jaire yelled, clenching his fist tightly in a rage.

"Calm down, will ya? If anything, we got off lucky this time around. She's not someone we need to be fighting this early into the exam."

"Tch, whatever, Caleb."

"C'mon, let's get going. If they've got over 300 tokens, we are incredibly behind right now."

Caleb pointed towards the northern direction, motioning for his team to follow. Jaire rolled his eyes as he slung his bag over his shoulder and started marching toward the trees, still wearing a fowl expression. Their other teammate agreed and after gathering his things, he quickly followed after Caleb and Jaire to continue their search for more tokens.