Neo and Elisa returned to the tree house about half hour before dusk to find Tan and Sordelia cooking up some meat on the stone stove. The two looked a little guilty when they saw Elisa enter.

"Nice, some meat! I've been craving some for a while now," Elisa said while running over and grabbing a bite with the two's permission, which they gave despite their confusion.

"Elisa, you know there's meat in the ring, you could have had some whenever you wanted." Tan said trying to understand why she was confused.

Elisa answered with a shrug, "Oh, I thought you were vegetarians, since none of you wanted any meat so, I was happy to save it for the points. But if you’re willing to indulge me, then I can save my energy and even get some back."

Tan tried to gain some sort of refill to the hole she'd dug, "We too were thinking about the points, as you were making the food even if it was fruit, mushrooms, and vegetables. And of course I'm not a vegetarian, have you seen these teeth…?"

Sordelia then made some hand sign to which Tan looked aghast and playful slapped her, "They are not! Don't be cheeky, you're not any better."

Sordelia pantomimed grabbing a rock and placing it in her mouth. Then she bit down and moved her fingers mimicking something shattering before faking some tears and making a fuss.

The conversation went on into the night amidst the screams and yells of people and beings as they tried to survive. Neo’s team went to bed with their tummies full and content to their bones.

The morning came and Neo found everyone sitting around the table with a good assortment of foods. They were discussing what happened during their trips the day before. Tan started her scouting report, "All we found in the hills werepacks of wolves, deer, and moose. It was a pretty boring biome with nothing much unique, however, we travelled back along the lake side and saw some lovely looking fish. Not that I knew what they were." She looked at Elisa, "Perhaps they could be valuable to catch, and if nothing else we could eat them.We also saw something big surface, it had lots of spines and they sort of pulsed with magic. We think it was water magic, but it was a bit hard to tell through the water. So, what about yourself, find anything interesting?"

Neo told Tan and Sordelia about what they found and did. Tan commented, "Oh, it sounds like you guys had some fun. Why couldn't we have gone that way? So, the big question, what shall we do next?"

Neo had a smile on his face with an idea. It was quite a large risk, but he was sure that they'd win this tournament. "Why don't we try killing the wyvern?"

There was a round of silence. Tan had a huge smile on her face, Sordelia was silent as ever but Neo saw her eyebrow rise, Elisa had a strained smile on herface.

Tan spoke up, "Let go! I love it! We'll go kill a wyvern and then win, da will be so proud of us and we'll be able to bring honour to our house!"

Sordelia how'd looked a little weary at the challenge presented, and wasn't so quick to rally behind her sister, but eventually she gave a firm nodded.

Elisa wasn't too keen to jump out of the tree house and charge into the mountains to slay a wyvern, thankfully, since Neo didn't want to go out there right now. So it was nice to have someone else with some sense. He was grateful because he at least wanted make some plans, and maybe a trap, which was what Elisa mentioned. "I don't think we should jump right into the wyvern’s den. We should plan what we will do and, even though I do like the idea, with its high risk and higher reward, we shouldn't just rely on us killing this wyvern. In fact, we should gather all the resources we can in the meantime and do it closer to the end of the test.Then we can do it without worrying about if we might get the kill or get beaten."

Her logic seemed to quell Tan and Sordelia’s excitement. Sordelia made some hand signs, "Then we should get planning."

So, they did. It took a little while of discussing, but they made two plans. One was to try and lure the wyvern into a trap, and the other would have them heading into the mountains. But Tan made a good point that they should probably not leave it to the last day, as those teams that survive would eventual get to them and they'd be the strongest out all of the others. It was a good point so they pulled the plan a few days forward.

Today the sisters would go fishing and hunt to collect meat for bait, while Elisa would build the trap with Neo's help. Sordelia would also keep an eye out for any students that might be around to collect their rings.

They would then sit around and wait to see if the wyvern would take the bait.

The third day, depending on if the they got the wyvern and were still alive by then, they decided to relax and hide. Otherwise, if the bait hadn't worked, they'd prepare to go after it, and if they were dead then they had nothing more to worry about.

The fourth day they would hunt the wyvern, and determine whether they thought it was possible to kill. If they had already achieved their goal on the previous day, then they would withdraw from the test.

Tan and Sordelia took the real white ring and disappeared to go hunting and fishing with the rods that Neo supplied. The two that remained walked in the general direction of the mountain, trying to find a good spot for the trap. It had to be wide, and long enough that the wyvern could land in it, while at the same time the trees needed to be close enough that they could use them as cover and ambush spots. Neo did voice his concerns that wood and fire didn’t mix well, but Elisa said that they could solve that problem with the use of water, clearing out the debris, and having Sordelia to place runes on them to kept them moist and cool.

The traps they wanted to use were ones of restriction, such as a pitfall. They also decided that they wanted to place a spiked net that would snap up and over, cutting off escape to the air. At least that was the idea as Elisa produced a vine net while Neo started digging a huge pit, where he placed metal spikes at the bottom. Meanwhile, Elisa had finished her net and was then building the supporting structure that would spring it up and over.

Once she had finished with that she jumped into the pit and started helping to dig it out. It took a long time to do, even Tan and Sordelia came back having already caught about a tonne of meat and fish. They weren't allowed to rest, and were dragged into the mud and told to help. They managed to finish up much faster and the two sisters were allowed to clean up and rest while Neo and Elisa went back to working on the net. Neo started adding sharp metal spikes to the net, making it quite heavy and he hoped it would cut up the wyvern’s wings quite well.

Having finished their trap preparations, they all wearily returned to the tree house, where they were able to eat, wash, and sleep. It was an excellent feeling of exhaustion, and Neo fell asleep as he was too tired to think let alone move.

The next morning they woke early to get ready, and give themselves enough time to let their breakfast settle, before they started their hunt.

Heading out, they went over what they had planned. They decided that Sordelia and Elisa would observe the trap and the air, as they could hide their presences, while Tan and Neo were the cavalry charge unit. They had the joy of charging and jamming a large spear into the skull of the wyvern before it could destroy the net and free itself, which would cause huge problems for them.

So, they waited and waited, hiding in the bushes and trees. Tan fidgeted and moved around while Neo, accepting that this wasn't going to happen quickly and that watching meat rot wasn't very appealing, tried meditating to learn to understand himself. He wasn’t very successful. ‘If only Tan would stop moving her tail, I’d be able to get in the zone like last time, ’he'd managed to do it several times, but not to the same degree as his first attempt. He'd even asked Elfin about why he couldn't get into the same zone and he merely answered with a proverb. Repeating it in his head Neo wallowed in it, 'A dog can't get close to its own tail no matter how long it takes!'

As the day went on and Tan became even more anxious, she whispered into his ears, causing him to jump, "You sure we can't just charge up there and fight the damn thing? It's real boring sitting here. I'm sure you’ll just do that cool transformation and kill it in seconds. I can feel that power in you, a wyvern is nothing to you, like a hill to a mountain."

Neo sighed, he knew this question would come up. He was a bit surprised that it hadn't before now but he answered her question seriously, "Well, yes, I probably could but I have little control over the monster in me. That’s why I'll only do it in an emergency, as a last-ditch Hail Mary. But I can't be everywhere at once ,so it is also best to plan and prepare within our abilities and not something above that. And, do you really want me doing more than the other day?"

Neo continued in a softer tone, "Sorry about the other day. I don't know if I apologised but I'm sorry. It wasn't me!"

Tan shrugged, seemingly much calmer, and said thoughtfully, "The strong rule the weak, your also part dragon, right? At least that was what it looked like at the time. They're known for their domination and aggressiveness, let alone their anger issues when young. So, I can't blame you if that's true. You sure you don't want to transform and kick ass? I'll survive the fallout."

She finished with her tongue poking out at him, before she changed the conversation topic to her sister. He hadn’t talked to her much since they couldn't converse, but he liked her silent and unmovable persona.

Sighing, Neo listened to Tan's stories about her sister. He solemnly laughed and questioned quietly while they waited.

The sun was starting to set before they got the signal in the form of a red vine that sprouted out of the ground. Their conversation stalled and they untangled they're crossed legs before picking up their four-metre-long spear. The spear had a blue mana frost rune was intended to freeze a large chunk of the wyvern, hopefully killing it.

As they picked it up, they got a green vine and they started their charge down the cleared path, Neo was in front, forming a shield in order to protect them from any stray flames that might travel down towards them.

The two of them got themselves upto full speed and at the agreed point, just as they were a few metres from the clearing, they pumped mana into their bodies. Tan increased her strength so that she could throw the spear as fast as she could, while Neo would slow down the world to observe the area and direct the spear to the weakest spot.

However, when they entered into the clearing there was one wyvern in the trap and another above that was flapping around its partner. Neo had seconds to decided but there was only one course of action, kill the one that could move and was a threat.

Taking aim, Neo helped with his telekinesis. He let Tan threw the spear while he directed it at the free Wyvern and it soared through the air with a loud boom. The tip of the spear cracked the scales of the wyvern and burst through into the soft tissue and organs, destroying them. As the spear came to a stop the frost rune activated and started battling against the small amount of magic in the wyvern’s body, slowly freezing a fifty centimetres diameter around the spear tip and catching a part of heart and stopping it.

'Well at least the plan worked,' Neo thought, 'almost.'

As soon as the wyvern dropped to the ground dead, the area stilled and the world went quiet. Neo looked over at the other wyvern, it was staring with its eyes focused solely on the other wyvern. Its eyes blanked before a raging flame engulfed its eyes. The wyvern thrashed around madly, uncaring of the spikes shredding its delicate wings.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Neo felt a spike of regret in his heart as he felt the sorrow in the wyvern’s eyes. Its recklessness destroyed the net and it climbed out of the pit, leaving a messy trail of blood that flowed down from the cuts under its scales and damaged wings. The wyvern headed straight toward its partner while spewing flame at Neo and Elisa who ran out of the way. With the space given to it, it nudged the corpse, and, seeing that it got no reaction, made a low whining sound.

There was a crack of a branch from the other side of the glade, attracting the wyvern’s ire. It took a few long, deep breaths and let out such a huge amount of flame that it consumed half of the glade, causing the runes on the edges to activate, stopping the fire.

Neo’s sadness was immediately changed to one of fear and worry as Elisa had made her hideaway where the wyvern was spewing its rage fill inferno. Once it ran out of breath it again took a single deep breath and flooded the same area with flame again. This time, to the surprise of Tan and Neo, the runes started failing as some trees started lighting up in the area, they thought the runes would last for at least a dozen fiery attacks.

Neo made the decision to regroup, so he shouted out to the others. His voice drew the attention of the wyvern which swept its head and flames towards them. Tan grabbed his shoulder, turning him about, and they started to run. They weren’t fast enough. Tan tackled Neo to the ground and crouched over him, using her own flames in order to try and protect them. As the wyvern’s flame enveloped them, Tan cried out in pain as her flames were being torn away and stray flames from the wyvern managed to make it through.

The flames let up and Tan collapsed onto Neo, who inelegantly did his best to get her over his shoulders before the next round of flame burned its way through forest. He ran again, this time getting far enough away to safely stop and figure out which direction to go to the rendezvous. Tan had fallen into unconsciousness along the way.

He finally made his way back to the tree house and laid Tan down on the ground, resting her against the tree.

He called out to see if anyone was in the tree house. When no one came down, Neo tended to Tan’s burns. Taking off her hot metal armour she made a sharp hiss as it rubbed the sores and blisters. Neo grimaced and apologised before using his telekinesis to pick her up off the ground, "Sorry!"

It wasn't good as far as Neo could tell. At least she wasn’t burnt black, though there were some black patches on her tail, but the huge blisters that were forming all across her back weren’t good. Neo had to surgically remove her clothing and every time he found a piece of cloth that was stuck to her skin he tore the clothing around it.

Neo then built up a large bubble to surround her unconscious form which he filled with cool clear water. He made sure to change the water every five minutes for fifteen minutes. In that time Elisa and Sordelia had joined him in his worries. He’d worriedly asked Elisa if she was ok as he noticed that one of her arms had wisps of smoke and black spots, but she shrugged off his question. "It got a little warm, but I managed to avoid the worst of it."

"Yeah, we didn't, Tan tried protecting me with her own fire magic, but it got torn up and the flames managed to lick at her,” he thumbed up at her. “She'll need some antiseptic bandages, antibiotic tablets, and anything else that will help her survive!"

Elisa nodded but paused in mid-step, "That's not good, you said she used her magic? Then she should have been fine since wyvern’s uses a chemical flame. If it destroyed Tan's flames then there was magic in it. It seems it really is going to kill itself…"

Neo questioned Elisa, "Why would it want to kill itself?"

"They mate for life. Once its partner dies it too will go raving mad, attacking and destroying until it is killed or it kills itself through mana depletion."

"Well, knowing that earlier would have been useful!" Neo said, slightly annoyed.

"It didn't come up, and the one we saw was alone. When they become mated partners they never travel alone, they're always together. I wouldn't have thought that there was more than one in the area. Maybe the one we saw was this couple’s child…"

Neo put his hand up to stop her, "Sorry, so will it destroy the forest?"

Elisa slowly nodded, "If it doesn't run out of life before then. It can't fly so it'll just burn everything around it, taking it anger out on the land."

Neo sighed to himself, hardening his resolve, and looked into the bonfire glow in the distance. "So, we need to take it out before it destroys our little hideout and we haven't got long before night falls. We need some ideas, preferably a quick and clean method."

Their little gathering didn't come up with anything, so Neo decided to give them all a few minutes to think while they helped a very wet Tan and bandaged her wounds. Thankfully, the blisters didn't grow as much as Neo thought they would, but they were still pretty bad. After very delicately hoisting Tan up into the tree house they placed her face down on her bed. They left a jug of water and a little food for when she woke up as well.

The group met in the living room where Neo looked expectantly at everyone, not that he himself it could think of anything. But Sordelia patted herself on the chest and then a formed an illusion. The illusion had two wyverns then another illusion appeared but while the original faded. The wyvern that was left looked confused and then another spear came out of nowhere, striking it in the chest.

Neo was surprised. It was basically the same plan, but without the pitfall and just a distraction instead, but they didn't have Tan on their side to bring the power. Of course, he could transform, but he'd only do that if the plan didn't work and he couldn't come up with anything better. Maybe they could get Elisa to replicate Tan’s power as he doubted that he could do it, even with his telekinesis. "We might be lacking the power the break through its scales. But I like the plan also would you be able to use the illusions in that fiery tornado of death?"

Sordelia patted a water skin and gave a smile. Neo shrugged, he didn’t have anything better. They created another spear, a bit shorter this time, and snuck around behind the wyvern. The creature had been only burning the part of the of forest that they had previously escaped into. It allowed them to set up with little worry, but everyone was very careful over of making any sound.

They also found that they wouldn't have the time to pick up the supernatural speed that they did last time as they had to be able to see the glade, so they added a slight curve to the path. Neo did voice his concern overtripping on any brush orroots, but Elisa said that she'd taken care of it, and who was Neo to say otherwise.

Neo was in front again and he watched as Sordelia produced the illusion while making the dead wyvern disappear. With that done, she caused a loud cracking sound to get the wyvern’s attention when it had used up its breath. At the same time Neo and Elisa started their attack. The wyvern froze in place as it saw its mate standing, moving, and alive. It took a shaky step forward and made low grunts towards his partner. It took another step forward and the wyvern was about to start running to its mate before its side was racked in pain!

As soon as Neo had thrown the spear toward the wyvern, he knew that it wasn't going to pierce its hard scales, so he continued running straight at it as he didn't want to be within firing range. The spear hit the wyvern in the chest, knocking it over and cracking it scales. The freezing effect activated, freezing the area about a metre or so off the ground. Neo followed right behind it, taking off his ring since the wyvern was getting back up.

The wyvern was making its way onto all fours with a lick of flame in its mouth as Neo's body changed in to his dragon form. As Neo went to punch the wyvern in the head, it ducked it's head down and his hand streaked straight over. Having not expected that, Neo pulled back and the wyvern made a low, sorrowful sound that stopped Neo in his tracks as his instincts gave a confused feeling that spread throughout his mind and body. After a moment the instincts came to some sort of understanding, which just left Neo confused, but he decided to trust his instincts. Even if the two of them hadsome boundaries to form and rules to set up, Neo trusted that his instincts wouldn’t risk their life.

As he stepped forward Neo saw the ground move slowly around the wyvern, seeing Elisa he waved his hand, wanting her to stop. Thankfully, she did but she was still ready to move. Neo gauged the wyvern and he realised that it hadn't ducked but had bowed and still was. Neo sat next to it and placed his clawed hand on its snout. Being closer to the creature, he noticed the state it was in. He could see that its wings were basically gone, leaving only stumps, the wyvern’s left front foot had disappeared, and the wyvern was bleeding from the cracked scales where the spear had hit it, and one of its eyes had turned grey, looking like stone.

As it gave another sorrowful roar, both he and his instincts felt sad and regretful. His instincts then sent a feeling of flight and freedom Neo knew what he meant and thought the same thing. There was no way that the dragon was going to live a good life, even if it could get over its partner’s death. The only thing left was 'freedom.'

Neo and his instincts thought of the best way, but Neo wasn't a killer. He didn’t know the cleanest way to do things, while, on the other side, his instincts just told him to do it quickly and as violently as possible.

Neo knew that it had a brain and that that would be the quickest way, but it was surrounded by hard scales and bone. The only experiences he had of killing one was with the team and the time on his own inside of it mouth, and he really didn't like putting himself in a similar circumstance like that again. The Wyvern gave a low whine that hit him in chest and Neo thought about how this had all seemed like a good idea two days ago. They had all thought about how it would be awesome to hunt an amazing creature and then they'd win.

But hindsight is twenty/twenty, with a good dose more of emotional stress. Neo toughened his resolve as he owned up to his mistake and took responsibility for his plans and their outcomes. Stroking the wyvern, Neo produce a steel bolt three inches long. Looking the wyvern in the eyes, Neo felt a slight connection and understood. Neo moved his hands under its chin and lifted it up and, as it opened its mouth with its final breath, Neo sent the bolt into its mouth and through the top of its head, killing it instantly.

Neo was gently placing the head onto the ground when something strange happened. The wyvern glowed slightly and, as Neo pulled his hand away from it, a blue and green orb formed within his clawed hand. Inside the orb was the image of the wyvern flying in the air with setting sun and its mate by its side, happy and content.

Tears formed on his face as the feeling washed over him. He realized that he had ended that future, as the two would never fly again. Walking over with orb in hand, he placed his spare hand onto the other wyvern and imagined tugging on her soul. At first, he received only a feeling confusion, but Neo sent an image of her partner and feelings of a bond, love, and liberation. She seemed to just fall away from her body, forming another orb in his hands. Neo was suddenly aware that he was hold two souls and had no idea what to do with them. He really didn't want to eat them. He had enough to deal with one eaten soul, adding a second and third seemed like a bad idea.

But he didn’t need to worry, as the world turned slightly grey and three skeleton hands formed from three black holes. Neo shrugged, not really feeling excitable, he guessed this was just a type of collection method for Deaths, so he placed the two orbs onto the empty hands which then withdrew into the darkness.

Neo looked at the last hand that was holding a piece of paper, written on were the words, "Do you think they’ll never fly again? I'll be back!"

Neo rolled his eyes, but he pondered over Death’s words even as Sordelia came running over waving and pointing at the sky. Neo looked up and panicked, thinking that another wyvern had sneaked up on them. There was nothing in the rapidly darkening sky, however. He looked back at Sordelia, who ran past him and touched the wyvern with the white ring and then moved off to the other wyvern before heading into the forest toward the tree house. Then Elisa ran panicked into the forest, telling Neo to hurry up, and then it hit him, the nighttime. "Damn it, stop losing yourself in thought and run home, jeez," he said, scolding himself. He ran and quickly caught up with Sordelia, who watched him fly past with a bit of jealously in her eyes. He'd made it home in half the time, which surprised him, but he knew he could have made it faster if he'd hadn't had to dodge the trees.

With a smile he leisurely made his way up, but noticed that as he got higher that they had minutes until darkness descended and he couldn't see Elisa, so he jumped back out of the tree. He landed heavily and set off to pick up Elisa. He shot back past Sordelia, who was going to be fine. It took him about a minute to find Elisa and then inelegantly sling her over his shoulder, Instinct even took the time to slap her on her back side. Neo reprimanded it for, but it stuck up for itself as she was his as far as it cared. Neo didn’t have time to argue with it, but told it off and tried to educate it that you can't own people. It wasn’t taking the education very well, as far has Neo could tell.

As he ran through the forest, the ground underneath him started to move and a squishy feeling overcame his feet as he ran back to the tree house. He could feel the ground trying to bite him and constrict his movement, but his strength overwhelmed them and they were torn away or uprooted.

As the tree house came into sight the constant constriction was really wearing on him. He was grateful when he finally climbed into the tree house and dropped the silent Elisa. Sitting down, he put on the ring before Instinct could do anything untoward.

Having recovered a bit, he noticed Sordelia was looking at his legs with horror. When he looked down he jumped back, kicking at what he knew had to be some sort of huge leechlike thing that had been torn in half and was clinging to his legs. Its vicious looking teeth scratched his skin as he kicked. Once it was off, Sordelia tossed the white ring to him and pointed at it, rubbing her hands together. Carefully, he stood back, reaching far out in case it was still alive. He sent a small amount of mana through the ring and thankfully it disappeared into the ring.

After creeping him the hell out, Neo shook the feeling from his leg. He then checked on Elisa, who was fine as she had taken another book out and was writing in it. Scoffing at her ability to normalise, he walked up to Tan's room to check on her and found her awake and looking much better. He asked, "How are you feeling?"

Tan looked at him with a small smile. "Like shit, my head is pounding and just everythings aching."

Neo smiled. At least she was feeling something at all. He helped her with her water and food and then left to talk to Sordelia. He told her about Tan and she patted herself and mimed caring for Tan. He then asked how she was feeling and she just shrugged, tapped her head, and then waved over her body before poking at herself and wincing.

He nodded, he too ached. He told her he was going to bed and that if she needed anything or if anything happened to get him. He tried again to talk to Elisa, but she just waved him a good night, so he headed to bed.