Elisa guided them through collecting anything she found while Sordelia and Tan kept an eye out. Neo wobbled onward, assisting Elisa as best he could. He'd only recovered one tenth of the mana he'd used. As he'd infused his body with mana which had damaged it, he would need a day or so of recovery even with Elisa’s herbs and Sordelia’s help.

With night falling, Elisa had stopped and examined the trees around them before slapping one with a smile. Neo watched as the tree’s bark moved to form indents that travelled up the trunk and into the canopy. Elisa gestured for them to ascend the tree.

Neo went last and slowly made his way up, it wasn't a very difficult climb as the tree had placed the indents deeply and had a reasonable distance between each step, it was just tiring. But, thankfully, once they had reached the top of the tree they found a tree house, calling it anything else would be dishonest. They came out from the floor to find there was a nice open living room which had access to a kitchen area with a beautiful table and chairs. This was all lit up with luminous bulbs that were hanging out of the walls. To the right of the living room there were stairs that went up to a second level with four bedrooms and a single bathroom. The bedrooms each had a bed, made from a thin leathery materiel which stretched slightly when pressure was applied, a wardrobe, and a bedside table.

Neo walked back to find Elisa in another room laying down on a bed, she said, "We'll be safe in here, so do what you want till morning. I've been warned that it gets dangerous outside at night but there's no way anything can get to the entrance to get inside the building, and there are no windows. There's no need to worry about breathing as the tree and I will absorb the carbon dioxide and keep the air fresh. I haven't grown any food today, and I have no energy to grow any so..."

She shrugged before trying to move, Neo motioned her to sleep and said, "We’ll be fine, if anyone is hungry I’m sure there will be some berries or fruit that we can eat. So, I'll take the ring and see if anyone wants to eat anything. You should sleep, I probably won't be far behind."

She gave a pained moan, taking the ring off and used a vine to give it to him. After taking it, he went around to check on everyone but found that they had taken to their rooms and were fast asleep. Neo agreed with that thought as he too felt sleepy. Yawning he heading to bed as well.

The next morning he was awoken by his instincts, as there was a spike of surprise. As Neo's eyes opened to the dimly lit room he saw a figure staring at him. They were still by the door but there was some surprise in their eyes as Neo stared into her feline eyes. With her dark fur shifting the shadows around it was really easy to lose sight of her. "Sordelia, what are you doing?"

She motioned with her hands to follow her and he did. Putting on his clothes he grimaced as he rubbed the scabs on his ankle. Checking out the area he found small bruises, but otherwise there wasn't any swelling, just needle sized holes and scratches.

Heleft his room and headed downstairs while rubbing the sand out of his eyes. He found that the light in the living room was as dim a possible, but it still let him see that the team was lying around on the floor by the hatch.

Neo felt it appropriate to whisper, "What's up?"

Elisa cupped her ears and placed a finger on her mouth. Neo waited and listened out for any sound. After a while Neo was alarmed as he heard screaming. It was a human’s voice that echoed throughout the woods. 'It must be another team?' He thought, ‘They mustn't of gotten a good base that protected them from whatever was out there.’ Neo had wanted to jump out and help, but he couldn't even tell which direction to go in the dark forest below. "How long till morning?"

He asked quietly and Elisa answered, "About an hour or so, it'll be safe then and maybe we can find that group and see if we can help them then."

Neo couldn't go back to sleep after being awaked like that. Thankfully, there were things he could do to pass the time, like remake the groups weapons after the beating that they got going through the desert yesterday.

With the time used and runes remade, the only thing left was breakfast. After their mainly fruit and grain breakfast, they left. Elisa informed the group that the woods were safe in the daytime, but they had to get back before nightfall. It was then that they decided to split up and go in opposite directions to scout and collect. It was the best way of seeing where they might get the most points and held more of a chance of finding the team that was screaming.

Neo and Elisa headed east while Sordelia and Tan headed west. As the two of them travelled the woods it started to give Neo the creeps as he noticed that there wasn't a big animal of any kind. The bugs werestill around, but only the flies, any insects on the ground were impossible to find, even under rocks, leaf litter, and debris. It did make Neo wonder how the woods could still have a healthy eco system without them, he was sure it was interesting and most probably connected to the nighttime creatures.

Along their travels they found many herbs that Elisa collected and stored in the ring, which Neowas still carrying. They eventually reached the edge of the woods where Elisa dragged Neo to the ground and pointed out into the plains. "Look over there, it's a herd of talmellts. Haha, amazing they're a difficult creature to see let alone hunt. They, are magical creatures with little intelligence, and high constitutions…"

Neo looked across the plain see a huge herd of talmellts with their golden scales that covered their bodies, limbs, and theirbig, chunky tails. Their heads were covered in brown-blonde fur. Elisa also explained that the male had a large thick horn growing out of their heads while the females had a beautiful crest.

Elisa and Neo decided sit and observe with the camouflage made by Elisa concealing them.The plain didn't seem to have many resources, the only things out there were grasses, some shrubs, and of course the talmellts. Neo looked over to Elisa who was writing and intensely watching the creatures.Neo made sure to observe their surroundings, but to get over his boredom he asked Elisa, "So what do you want to do in the future?"

Elisa didn't look towards him but still replied, "I'd love to become a biologist, as you could probably tell, I love plants and animals and learning about them and their effects on ecosystems. What about your … Nevermind, you're kind of stuck as a Feller aren't you? No one has any idea what you guys do apart from being related to death, I wonder how you fit in to the ecosystem, mm."

She was now looking at him in contemplation. "Neo, when you find out more about what you do, could you comeback and find me to tell me about it?"

Neo didn't see any harm in it, "Yeah, sure. If I'm allowed to tell you anything I will,promise."

A broad grin crossed Elisa’s face, "Thank you, it'll be awesome insight into the universe."

Elisa went back to doing what she loved. After about an hour of observing Neo's backside was getting numb, as he went the change his position the Tal gave a loud shout of alarm with their deep voices and they became agitated. Elisa scribbled even more as she watched.

Neo looked around for any predators that could have caused them panic. The herd’s panic increased and they started to move as one, causing the ground to shake. Neo couldn't see anything on the ground so he looked to the sky and saw a small flock of vulture-like creatures but with large differences. The creatures were the size of a pony and had along neck with a plume of feathers that then travelled down to their wide bodies, with a large grasping claws, and green beaks. They came flying over Neo and Elisa’s hiding spot.

Neo thought, 'No wonder they're causing a ruckus, they're freaking huge.'

Neo tapped on Elisa’s shoulder and when she looked back Neo pointed up. Elisa’s mouth made an “oh” face, but she kept silent until the creatures started ascending. "Neo, those are screal's. They use supersonic abilities to knock out their opponents. They are the main predators of the talmellts as they disrupt the herd’s charge and can do a lot of damage.

The talmellt's started to charge around the plains and Neo's mouth dropped as the herd rubbed shoulder to shoulder.Thunder could be heard evenover the sound of their hooves, soon Neo could even see lightning arc through the herd jumping from tal total.

Meanwhile the Screal's had gotten some height and were now dive bombing the herd. As they swooped over the herd extremely loud noises could be heard. Even over a kilometres away Neo had to cover his ears and it was still quite painful. But to the surprise of Neo none of the tal's fell. They kept running and returning fire, as an arc of lightening shot up and out of the horns toward the giant birds. The screal dodged the incoming fire however. Elisa had gone back to scribbling in her book whileNeo watched intensely as another screal tried its luck. This time Neo saw the gold crest of the female tal's form a protective bubble.

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

An arc of lightning struck the screal in the chest, causing it to fall heavily to the ground.The apparent loss of one of their owndidn't seem to faze the screal at all, as more of them dived on the herd. This time Neo saw a pattern in the attack the screal used, after a few dives they kept striking the same place again and again,wearing down the female protector.

Meanwhile, the arcs of lightning shot out in ever more volume, turning the scene into a storm.The land became scorched as the charge continued. Neo saw a few screals fall but he noticed that the one that had fallen earlier had risen and re-joined the flight.

It wasn't long before the badgered female’s protection failed.As the sonic blast hit, the unprotected tal's fell unconscious, taking out dozens more due tocollisions.Even if they tried jumping over their fallen comrades, they would crush them under their hooves.

Having accomplished the hunt, the screal's landed and struck at the unconscious talmallt’s, bleeding them out onto the ground. Elisa rose, having finished writing in her book and spoke, "Hey, Neo let’s see if we can sneak up to them and kill a screal. We can drive them away and collect any Tal's that are left."

Neo thought it was a good idea with a minimum risk, but they prepared a little just to be sure. Neo asked Elisa to block his ears and he himself made a mask which Elisa then put a film on that would purify anything going through it.

They ran to the killing area before slowing rapidly. None of the screal noticed them as they crawled until they were about one hundred metres away. After checking the wind direction, they adjusted their approach once, and, to Neo’s surprise, they had managed to get within metres of the feast.

Seeing the head screal enjoying themselves, Elisa stopped to grow roots into the ground. Neo waited for Elisa’s roots to burst out of the ground and wraparound several of the screal. As one the flight took to the air, but those within the grasp of Elisa had no chance as Neo’s flying blades sliced their throats and covered the ground in a fresh layer of blood.

Once they had executed the screal that didn't have enough time to get away, the ones in the sky started a diving campaign, which wasn't nearly as successful it had been with the tal's. As they dived Elisa would use her vines to whip at them and then Neo would use his blades to cut their wings. After their attack ended with two more screal's dead and only a handful of them left. The creatures flew around above them for a while before setting off with loud shouts of protest.

Neo watched them disappear back over the forest. Even with the screal disappearing the talmellt still ran around with ever more energy building up, causing them to glow brightly even in the daytime. Elisa joined him watching them and exclaimed, "They’re leaving Haha, it’s the greatest question that we have about the talmellts, very few creatures can do what they're about to do!"

She watched excitedly with her notebook out in front of her. As the glowing talmellts became difficult to look at they changed direction toward the bubble’s edge and, with a bright flash they started to disappear through the bubble.

Confused, Neo looked over at Elisa and asked, "Won't they just leave the bubble and go to the outside world?"

Elisa smiled, "Nope, they don't. They are in the bubble ways… we think. In one report they say they saw the exact thing we just did, but they were close to the edge and managed to leave the bubble system to the outside world but still couldn't find them. So, they studied the area which they had left and found a similar effect to a bubble way, with major differences, of course. It would be amazing to find a technique to travel the bubble ways however we want. It would be a revolution in transportation and war."

'Wow,' Neo thought. With the last of the talmellts disappearing through the bubble’s edge, they started the difficult task of collecting the corpse of the screal and Tal before something else couldsmell the death that was surrounding them.

They left after about ten minutes, and they were glad that they did as the screal returned in greater numbers and were flying quickly towards them. As they ran towards the forest where they would be safe, Neo used the blades to deter the bird creatures, but there was a limited distance that he could reach and Elisa couldn't stop to get her roots to defend them. Neo sadly found out that they could hit them with sonic blasts outside of his blades reach. Instead he placed a basic shield in the way but, unfortunately, he couldn't blunt the sound as it boomed in his ears. Even with his ears protected by Elisa’s magic, he tripped over as he lost his balance. Elisa hadn't been affected, so she returned and picked up his wobbly-brained self and continue to run into the forest.

It seemed that the screal really didn’t want them to get to the forest as they confidently landed in front of them, stopping their retreat. It was then that a shadow blotted out the sun, causing the screal to try and fly away, but they were to slow asa scaled monster crushed them underneath its huge claws.It was then thatthe dragon roared at the flight and flared out its winged front legs and blasted them with fire. Several screals fell to the ground in flames,unable to get up to get away.

The two screals that hit the ground tried to escape into the forest, but they were curb stomped by the dragon. Neo was going to tell Elisa to get out of the way but she covered his mouth, while she glowed a little bright.

The dragon again roared into the air as the screal retreated back over the forest after having such a bad day. The dragon sniffed the air before grabbing its kills and flapping away, battering Neo and Elisa as it ascended before disappearing toward the mountains. It was out of sight before Neo let out a sigh, which Elisa joined in on. He spoke in a shaky voice, "Damn, I wouldn't of thought that there’d be a dragon in here!"

Elisa spoke sounding like a whisper as she helped Neo up onto his wobbly legs, "That wasn't a dragon, it was a common wyvern. A powerful creature in their own right, but nothing compared to actual dragons!"

Neo gave a simple, "Oh!"

They made their way through the forest, but, unfortunately, they were confronted by another team while Neo rested to get back his balance. They were really confident in themselves as almost as soon as they were seen they pretty much strolled towards them. Neo, looked at the uniforms of the students since that was all they had for defence, unlike Neo’s team, and it gave information about the students’ magic. There was a red user, a brown user, and a black user.

That made things difficult as anything Neo threw would only get absorbed by the black user or blocked by a shield from the earth user. Neo whispered to Elisa, "This seems like a slight problem, but if they do something, they're all yours Elisa."

Neo released mana into the ground to stop the earth user from just spiking them from below, but he was also aware of Elisa as she too started directing mana into the ground. It felt like a hand shake as the ground allowed Elisa to pass through without touching or disrupting one another. He then prepared to form a shield around them in seconds if needed. Elisa looked a little annoyed and said aloud, "Come on you lazy human, making me do everything! Perhaps I should put that muzzle back on you!"

Doing as instructed Neo place his mask on, breathing easily while the three figures laughed at his display of obedience. The Black mana user, a long-eared elf in his slightly scruffy and broken gear, finally spoke, "So, you don't look like you've had a good day. Perhaps we could help you, for a price of course. We had bad night but we're strong and we survived."

Neo could see the only weapons they had were some rough stone spears, a rough iron dagger, and an equally rough iron sword, which might have been enchanted. Neo couldn't tell. But comparing their weapons to Neo’s team’s steel enchanted equipment, it looked as if they were the one having a bad day.

While Neo had his mask on Elisa spoke for him, "No, thank you, we're good, if you need any help by all means ask."

The black mana user shrugged, "We're fine, got rid of the weak ones last night so we no longer need to split the resources. Good day to you."

The group didn't walk away from them but instead they stepped towards them, intending to walk past them towards the plains. Neo sat confidently, trying not to show any weakness. As the group passed the elf got a closer look a Neo, causing him to stop, "You really are that human that got a lot of attention at your examination test and became the centre of attention at the tournament test with your white mana. I even asked you to join our team, which you declined, how's that working out for you?"

He snorted, Neo got annoyed, which his instinct approved of, and replied with a snarky, "Yeah, far better than yours it seems!"

The elf spoke holding the anger back in his voice, "Don't be so snarky, don't you know who I am?"

Neo replied honestly, "Who are you, I never did get your name but I doubt I'll know it even if I did."

These words didn't go down well with the elf and as he pulled out his weapon so did his lackeys. Elisa pulled out her thorn whip and Neo did nothing, since his blade was already flying behind the group. The elf spoke with annoyance, "I wouldn't insult me, for I am Ether Highmore. My house controls the Highmore bubble. I was going to leave you be but you've insulted me many times so I must get retribution. Your white ring will do!"

Neo thought, 'What a joke, he didn't attack us because he knew he would lose considering his state.'

But when he spoke there was a cheerful undertone which was slightly muffled by his mask. With a tone that didn't care about the threats he asked, "So who is Highmore house? Oh well doesn't matter, so Elisa how's your part?"

She lost the frown on her face and spoke aloud with a smile, while he listened Neo could see the light leave the eyes of the elf’s team. "They should be out in a few more seconds."

Neo was surprised about how simple that trick was. "Great job, I didn't think that would of worked so well."

Elisa shrugged, "It wouldn't have it they had attacked straight away, or figured it out and used fire magic to burn my spores. Thankfully, there is very little wind in the forest so it was a lot easier to do. All strength and no sensors or observers, they probable lost them last night."

"Sensors?" Neo asked.

"Yeah, someone with strong instincts or senses. This trick wouldn't have worked on Tan or Sordelia, since they have strong senses. As they were all elf’sthey had a lot of magical strength and intelligence, but few instincts or awareness."

Neo walked over to Ether to get his white ring before he woke up but before he could a blackness cameout of the ring and formed a black shell around them. "Oh, hmm, should we wait to see if we can get the rings from the judges?"

Elisa looked at a tree and answered Neo’s question, "We have about three hours till night and it'll take us about an hour and a half to get home, so we can."

Neo nodded and they decide to wait. About ten minutes later a group of five dropped from the canopy and collected the three students, throwing the white ring at Elisa before they ran off in the direction of the plains. Neo, being impressed by how quick they got there had wanted to find out how they did it, but his wobbly legs were slowing him down, so instead they headed back to their camp. They didn’t meet anybody or anything else along the way.