In the silence that followed the battle, I took a moment to recenter my mind. Several deep breaths drew mana back into my body, and I briefly observed my sword. Despite being mildly reinforced with mana during the forging process, the edge now bore the first signs of dulling. I had a whetstone in my pack, and I could sharpen it if we had a moment, but I would need to use it more cautiously for now.

Glancing around the battlefield, I counted nine disabled machines. Two had been destroyed by me, while Leon, Simon, and Amelia had finished one each. By far, Sophia was the most effective of us all, defeating a shocking four without any apparent difficulty. It seems her lightning magic was by far the most effective weapon against the constructs, although its potential to destroy the maps left it a risky choice.

"Good work, but we have no time to waste. We need to get to the edge of this clearing before any other teams stumble onto us."

A few minutes later, we had the constructs' wreckage laid on the ground in a row. Leon and I knelt by one, and he gave me a conflicted look before retrieving a small, decorated hunting knife.

"I don't want to use up too much mana, but in this case, speed trumps being economical," Leon said, before closing his eyes.

Several seconds passed before the slightest haze of teal mana gathered along the edge of his blade. Opening his eyes after a moment, Leon took several breaths before slowly lowered the knife to the edge of the armor. I watched curiously as the blade sunk into the metal without any apparent resistance, tracing a long, thin line into the armor.

"Wind mana is...excellent for cutting...when concentrated like this," Leon said, a strained tone in his voice. Despite the tension of our situation, I felt a rush of excitement and took the chance to observe, eager to learn the skill. I had once theorized about using the same trick on my sword-staff, and it seems Leon had the same thought.

Withdrawing the blade after slicing several lines through the torso plate, he turned to me and continued, "That should make it much easier to open. You can start working on that one, while I finish cutting open the other eight."

I nodded, reaching into the torso with gloved hands and slowly prying open the armor plating. As I began grabbing pieces and removing them, I heard dirt crunch and saw Sophia kneel next to me, slipping gloves onto her own hands before reaching in as well.

She must have noticed my surprised look because without turning to me, she simply said, "Time's a factor, and two hands are better than one."

In the end, it only took the three of us around twenty minutes to cut open and strip the ants. All nine boxes were hidden in each torso's bottom, just like the spiders, and all had map fragments inside. Unfortunately, one was burnt to a char due to Sophia's lightning magic, but the cost was worth avoiding injuries for the most part.

Leon seemed to disagree, alternating between glancing at the burnt scrap and looking at Amelia, who was currently being treated for injuries. Simon had finished wrapping her forearm in bandages and was now treating a second, smaller cut on her upper leg, wisps of blue mana telling me he was mixing healing magic into his ministrations.

"I should have considered that Sophia's magic could damage the map fragments and planned accordingly. And our plan was imperfect. If I had been smarter, we could have nine pieces, and Amelia would be unharmed." he commented, muttering a few swears under his breath.

"It was an honest oversight, sir. We have never faced these sorts of foes in a battle, and none of our preparations took them into account." I responded, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"It does not matter. A leader has to consider all the possibilities if he wants to succeed." he insisted, shaking my hand off with a grunt.

I took a minute to reply, finally deciding to say, "I believe that perfection is impossible to achieve, even for the greatest leaders. Mistakes happen, and learning from them is as important a step as any."

Turning to me, Leon raised an eyebrow, asking, "Did you learn that particular lesson from Girem?"

Chuckling, I shook my head, replying, "By the Founder's no. If I make mistakes, Girem is after my head."

Bursting into laughter, Leon sat back, before nodding.

"Fair enough. We have eight more pieces now, though its possible we might have identical fragments. Once Simon finishes patching up Amelia's leg, we can head back."

I glanced at Amelia as Simon wrapped her leg in bandages, feeling another flush of anger at myself as I remembered my reaction.

I knew it was possible, even likely, that she would be injured in battle. It was a consequence of this tournament, and even with her skills and abilities, it was unavoidable. Yet the moment it had happened, I had let my emotions get the better of me.

What if she had gotten seriously injured, and in my anger, I lashed out with a spell? Or I teleported and tore a machine to pieces with my sword-staff? It could have been a disaster and set me back months of careful planning and secrecy.

It was idiotic, reckless, and more than anything, a mistake I could not allow myself to repeat. And unfortunately, there seemed to be only one surefire way to ensure that.

I needed to cut it off now before it went any further.

I sighed, shaking my head but knowing it was the unfortunately pragmatic decision. A relationship sounded appealing, and I knew from most perspectives that Amelia was an excellent choice. But I also knew that it was a distraction that I could not afford if I wanted to change what I saw in my visions.

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After the tournament, I would ask Sig what he thought I should do. I felt it was the right choice, but nearly everything I knew from relationships came from fictional stories I read in my spare time as a child and observing the servants interact. And if nothing else, I was not one to move without feeling sure of my decisions.

Pushing aside my relatively mundane woes, I grabbed all of our map pieces, laying them on the ground face up and staring at them. It took me a few minutes, but I began to notice details along the edges that told me which pieces sat next to which. Judging by the map's size, we needed around sixteen pieces in total to make a complete picture.

Despite that, the ten pieces we had so far gave me a good idea of where we should go. Or rather, where we should avoid.

Right now, it looked like we were in a small forest in the south-east corner of the tournament space. To our west was the small lake I noticed earlier, and to our north was flat plains. Further north-west was what appeared to be a valley of some kind. Unfortunately, that section was mostly incomplete, but what I could see was enough.

"How's it going?" A voice asked quietly, and I glanced up to see Amelia standing above me, favoring her uninjured leg slightly.

I smiled, feeling a mixture of anxiety and warmth spread through me.

"Good enough. The map is still far from complete, but I think I know where we should head, at least in general. How are you feeling?"

Shrugging, Amelia sat and smiled, replying, "Simon fixed me up, but we'll have matching scars by the time these both heal. Or we would if I wasn't planning on buying something to make mine go away."

"And you declined to share that with me?" I commented with a grin, gesturing to my arm.

Smiling and raising an eyebrow, Amelia countered, "Yours gives you an air of mystique, 'wolf slayer.' Mine is just embarrassing, considering I've been training twice as long as you."

We fell silent, and a large part of me hoped Sig would tell me I was wrong. Another scorned me for my weakness.

Leon broke my musings, walking over and sitting next to us.

"Vayne, have you found anything useful?" he asked quietly, glancing down at the map before looking back up to me.

I paused before replying, "Yes, sir. I think you will want to get the others to tell you all everything I have learned."

Nodding, Leon called for Simon and Sophia, and they both walked over, sitting onto the grass in a semi-circle. After they fell silent, Leon gestured for me to begin.

I stood, gesturing to the parchment on the ground and said, "As you all can likely see, our map is mostly complete, with only a few unfilled portions on the paper. While I cannot say for sure where exactly it leads, I do believe we have enough information to begin traveling."

"Traveling where?" Leon asked me, folding his arms across his chest.

"North-west. The lake to our west is unmarked, as is this forest and the plains. Only the valley portion of our map is incomplete, which means that it is the only possible destination. If I were so bold, my counsel would be to move in that direction, eliminating and harvesting map fragments from constructs as we go. We can stick to the forest for most of the journey, and cross the plains at their shortest point here." I explained, pointing to the map as I spoke.

"That sounds risky. What about the other teams?" Sophia remarked, staring down at where I indicated.

"By my estimates, we have been in this place for around eight hours. It is impossible to say how quickly they are progressing, but I suspect most would not want to move without a full map. Leaving now might give us the chance to reach the valley before the bulk of the remaining teams."

"And that would mean we could avoid fighting any of them and escape without any problems," Leon concluded with a nod.

"Yes, sir. It is a potentially dangerous move, but frankly, we are ill-suited for a protracted battle in this place. This trial heavily favors older students with deeper mana reserves, and waiting too long will only end poorly."

Silence fell on our camp until eventually, Amelia broke the silence, saying, " Sneaking around only gets us so far, and we're going to have to risk it at some point. I say we take the chance."

Leon smiled before saying, "Alright. Try to get some rest and something to eat, and in a few hours, we head out."

Several hours later, we reached the valley's mouth. We had not encountered any other teams during our journey, but we had crossed paths with lizard constructs shortly after exiting the forest. Interestingly, these ones breathed some sort of flammable oil, producing scorching blasts of flames a dozen feet long. Unfortunately for them, Sophia's magic remained highly effective at disabling them even when she kept the power down.

With their map fragments, we had enough pieces to find a single, marked spot. It was located at the far end of the valley, past the sparse grass in a cave of some kind. Double-checking all of our equipment and taking a moment to breathe, we prepared ourselves for the final push.

Suddenly, my mana senses lit up with a potent sensation, moving towards us at high-speed. I turned, feeling a cold sweat form on my back as I closed my eyes and stretched out as far as I could. What I found confirmed my fears.

"We need to move. Now." I said, looking to Leon with a grim expression.

"What is it?" he asked,

"Other teams are moving in, and they are moving fast. I can sense them now, and judging by their raw power, we would not stand a chance in a fight." I replied, laying my hand on the hilt of my weapon regardless.

"I guess our luck needed to run out eventually," Leon commented, looking around the valley before gesturing to one side. "Let's move it. We can stick to the side, move slowly, and go around. Hopefully, they will keep moving straight for the cave and avoid us entirely."

Following his instructions, we ran at full speed to the edge of the valley, where the walls rose into a sheer, craggy cliff. Deep shadows shrouded the base, and we crouched in these, pulling up the hoods of our cloaks and activating the enchantment. They were crafted with a camouflage effect similar to the shelter we used, far from true invisibility but enough to avoid a casual examination.

Creeping along the valley's side, we slowly made our way towards the cave as I kept a careful eye on the other apprentices. They stopped near the mouth of the canyon, and I verified that my own mana signature was dampened, just as Professor Morell had instructed us months prior. Although our team had prepared well, these foes were far more potent, at least third-years if not older.

As the group began moving further into the valley, I held my breath as they passed our location. I could see them, black dots hundreds of feet away, as they jogged towards the cave. My friends tensed next to me, freezing in place and huddling against the wall. When they had become distant dots, nearly out of sight, we let out a collective sigh of relief, seemingly out of danger.

Before we could walk, a thunderous explosion ripped through the tranquil silence of the valley. I saw a massive ball of flames pierce the sky, slamming into the ground and sending up chunks of dirt and rock. Accompanying the spell was a second, larger mana signature that flood my senses. I swore, briefly recoiling before pushing past my discomfort and watching the clash of energy intently.

What I found filled me with no small amount of dread. The team of apprentices that had already been beyond our means was defeated, bested in just seconds. A burst of energy that I recognized as a teleportation spell removed the losing team from the valley, disqualifying them. Almost as soon as I detected this, the mana that had appeared from nowhere disappeared without a trace. Even if I was not the type to consider ambush and stealth, it did not take much thinking to realize what had happened.

"What in the Founder's names was that?" Leon whispered, kneeling next to me.

I turned and smiled joylessly, before replying, "A team of fifth-years, sir. It seems that we have one final obstacle to defeat before we can leave. We have to get past them."