Rian clenched her fists until she could feel the sharp pain of her nails digging into her palms. "This isn't real." She muttered under strained breaths. Yet she couldn't make her legs move forward. Everywhere she looked, she was alone.

Empty streets. Empty houses. The whispers were even gone having been replaced by a dead silence. The heavy feeling of being alone held her body like a vise. She'd always been self-sufficient. People who would call her friend were few and people whom she would honestly call a friend even less. Enemies, strangers, marks, and fools the city was always full of them, and even when she was unnoticed, they gave her strength. The idea of no one just chilled her core.

She tried to force that fear aside and move forward. All she could do was strain and wobble. The sensation of time disappeared. She didn't feel it, but her body jerked half a step forward, outside of her control. Like an invisible force had shoved her. That stutter forward let her glacially continue ahead.

"Sorry." Asper blurted out automatically. He'd bumped into one of the applicants, nearly sending both of them to the ground if it wasn't for the fact it was hard to move anyone.

He'd been distracted by an armored boy wailing. "Rian, I've failed you." As he zigzagged ahead slowly.

The fact that Asper apologized was more embarrassing to himself than wandering into the person. No one had responded to any action he had taken as he made his way further into the third ring, so apologizing had been pointless. At least now, he was satisfied that he was no longer at the back of the crowd. Only one person was up ahead on the dark, gloomy road.

It was eerier that once he was in earshot, the person up ahead was whistling a jaunty tune. He was also barefoot and barely dressed in only a pair of short cut pants. Asper shivered at the sight of such undress in the chilly air. The darkness actually made everything colder. He neared the young man. The whistling stopped, "Is someone there?" Asked the young man as he turned facing Asper, a glassy look in his eyes.

"Yes, I'm…"

"You don't need to talk. I can't hear or see you anyway." The man interrupted. "Clap a few times while I whistle if you can hear me."

Asper did so.

"Amazing that you can hear me and respond. Smell, taste, sight, sound, and most touch sensations are manipulated while I'm here. You must be something special."

"Or a mistake," Asper responded, knowing he couldn't be heard and thinking back on what happened when he stepped into the third ring.

"Not all vibrations are covered, though. The whistling was a little trick I picked up while mastering blind fighting. I'm Raff, by the way. You can tell me your name after we get out of here. If you could take my hand and lead me out, that would be much appreciated. My sense of direction is a little compromised here."

Asper looked at Raff's now outstretched hand and then ahead to the empty dark road. After only a moment of hesitation, their hands clasped. After all, it was better than going alone.

With Asper leading the way down a clear path, they made good time to the archway that was the end of the ring. It was doorless, opening up to a view of trees, bushes, mushrooms, all lit dimly by the light filtering through the canopy.

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Raff was unsure about his new ally. Mostly about if they were real or not. He knew that it was one thing to think you've beaten something that was making your senses lie to you, and another to actually do such a feat. Horrors continued to flicker past his sight. Screams yelled into his ears. Needles raked his skin. He just followed that gentle tugging sense coming from his hand. It wasn't like he could feel the hand on him, just the momentum forward.

Then there was a popping feeling, and everything that had been going on bled away. The earthy crunch of twigs, leaves, and dirt felt from under Raff's bare feet. The smell of pine, wood, and greenery filling his nose. It was heavy and encompassing, so strong he questioned if it was real for a moment.

"Gah! Feels like I swallowed a forest. Roots, trees, birds, and all." Groaned a voice next to him. Raff turned and looked at the unremarkable young man next to him. He had to work on memorizing the boy's features for fear he would forget him a short time from now. Which was a feat for Raff who prized himself on his memory. He hadn't expected his guide to be so dull.

"You're the one who helped lead me out of there," Raff said with a glance back through the arches to the darkened street.

"Yep. I'm Asper. Just let me catch my breath. I've been to the woods before, but this is unreal. Everything on this journey has been weird so far."

Raff took a deep breath and pulled the state of everything into him. It was richer, more intense than even his time on the icy roof had been. He let the energy of it all fill his body up again after whatever he had burned off while navigating the first three rings. If only he had known, he would have entered Pricore Academy as soon as he was of age. "It's perfect."

Raff watched Asper shoot him an uncomfortable glare before he straightened himself up and finally seemed to relax a little. "There's no path. Where do we go next?" Asper asked.

Raff shrugged, not feeling a need to rush off and do anything. After watching and then experiencing what had happened in the last two rings, he wanted to get a better idea of what was going on. As uninteresting as his new friend seemed to be, he had managed to accomplish something Raff had been unable to do. Something he wasn't used to. "Let's wait for the others to show up. No point in not being in a group." The others would show him more of how this place affected people than Asper, he figured.

Asper knew what Raff said wasn't wrong. But, the young man gave off a vibrancy that gave the feeling that he could go off alone here and be perfectly fine. If someone like that was staying here until more people showed up, then Asper would as well. It's not like he wanted to go off into the dimly lit woods alone anyway. He watched as Raff sat down calmly on the debris-strewn ground and started to just focus on his breathing.

Giving up on standing, Asper tried to copy him and immediately got a stick jabbing him in a tender place. He quickly brushed away the things underneath him and tried again. Normal breaths at first until he started to pay attention to what Raff was doing. It was similar to the technique he used when he had to give that extra effort so he wouldn't utterly fail at a task, except all the time and focused. He could almost see Raff's chest slowly expand from the top down to take everything in until it was full and then exhale slowly.

Maybe if I, he wondered and started to fill his lungs. "Ack!" What followed was a coughing fit he could barely control.

"You alright?" Raff asked him.

Wheeze. "I'm fine. Too much fresh air, I guess." Slower this time, he promised himself. The woodsiness of it all didn't help. After a few minutes of trying, he felt himself get into his own pace and relax a little after the sights he had seen. He continued working until he was calmer than he had been when he started the day dejected from not getting accepted into the academy. Now he was in the lead to the goal of getting to see his status. He let his eyes close and relaxed.

He opened them when something sharp poked his nose. He couldn't keep himself from falling back onto the hard ground. The pointed head of an arrow pulled back in a bow had been what poked him. "You aren't a Three. You jump areas or someone trying to sneak you into this year's class without going through the trials? Should be hours before one of those Zeros makes it past the arch. Answer me!" A green-clad blond-haired woman growled at Asper.

Asper's eyes darted around to find Raff, but the nearly naked boy was gone. He tried to grasp words to explain everything, but his hind drew a blank, and when he opened his mouth, only one word came out, "Um."