The group scoured the area for an entire two hours, but In the end, they couldn't find a trace of either Luna nor the banshee; both circumstances worried him in equal parts.

"Are you sure you saw them together?", asked Nero.

Selene looked at him.

"Luna and Marcus, I mean."

She nodded.

"They were both sitting at their bonfire; they had just lit it up."

"Which explains why we saw no smoke and caught no scent.", said Sharmon.

"Then, how did you know what was going to happen?", asked Khina.

"I didn't,", said Selene, "after taking note of their location I circled around them to keep exploring the forest and after a while I noticed all the animals running south, and heard Luna cry for help. Then, Marcus also started to shout, and at that point I got really scared and ran back in a straight line towards you."

"...and only a few seconds later, the banshee screamed.", said Nero.

"Yes."

"Do you think the banshee attacked Luna and Marcus attempted to help her?"

"I'm thinking that's what happened."

"Were you able to listen to what the other boy said", asked Sharmon.

Selene shook her head.

"Luna's voice was a bit clearer, since she was shouting louder, and only said "help me...!", but I couldn't catch what Marcus said."

Sharmon crossed his arms in deep thought.

"I see, so that was it."

"Were you able to put together what happened?", asked Khina.

He nodded.

"By the sound of it, the banshee is likely sated."

"What do you mean...?", asked Nero.

The summoner looked at him.

"Banshee feed on arcana. They scream to stun their prey, and take some if not all of the life force of their victim afterwards."

"So you mean...?"

Sharmon nodded.

"The banshee has had her meal."

"No way.... no way!", said Nero, looking down.

Just a few hours ago, he had found her timidly walking around the entrance to the College, and had accompanied her to the auditorium, where she had shyly greeted the other contestants.

The thought of such a delicate girl being dragged into the forest by some dark creature for her to be exposed to such a devastating shriek at point-blank range and having her life sucked out of her body was incomprehensible to him.

...but then again, everything made sense, and no matter how much Nero disliked Sharmon at times, the sorcerer was never wrong when it came to magical knowledge.

"The danger has likely passed", continued Sharmon, "for lack of something better to do, we might as well keep looking for the girl; we shall confirm my suspicions upon finding her."

Nero lifted his head at Sharmon, giving him a "you mean it?" look. The sorcerer understood his eyes and nodded at him.

He let out a sigh of relief; at least he wasn't on bad terms with his familiar anymore.

"But, where do we look now?", asked Khina, "we found nothing here..."

"We have scoured south and east of the bonfire," said Sharmon, "we must head northwest if we are to seek for clues."

With their new route decided, the group resumed their search.

----------------------------------------

GROWL...

"Are you sure we're gonna find something here? I'm getting hungry...", complained Nero.

"Yeah, me too...", said Khina, rubbing her belly.

Selene said nothing, but she was probably sharing in their feeling. It had been another three hours since their last stop, and none of them had eaten anything after having had their breakfast some twelve hours ago.

"Eat while we walk. Your grandmother packed food for you.", said Sharmon.

Nero knew that, but he was hoping he would get a chance to actually sit down and enjoy his lunch.

...damn it, he should have eaten after burying Brad and the other loser whose name he couldn't remember. Jason...? No, James.

Anyway, Nero opened his bag and pulled out three sandwiches. Each of them were really big, but they were all Nero had.

Grandma Lonia had probably made one for Nero, one for Sharmon -even though she knew he didn't eat- and a third one just in case.

"Here.", he gave one to Khina and one to Selene.

"Is it really okay...?", asked Selene.

Khina took her sandwich from Nero and bit it immediately.

"Youw a wife havew...!", she said with her mouth full.

"I'm a wife what, now...?", laughed Nero.

Khina helped gulp down her food with some water from her leather canteen.

"You're a life saver!", she repeated.

Selene took a bite and chewed in silence.

"Find anything yet...?", asked Nero, taking another bite.

"No signs of life.", said Sharmon, a few steps ahead, walking over an enormous tree root.

"Damn, not a single clue, huh...", Khina noted.

"That is not what I said."

"What do you mean?", frowned Nero.

"I meant what I said literally. There is no wildlife around us."

Nero and the girls looked around them.

Everything was quiet. There were no birds chirping, no squirrels running about... not even insects crawling up and down the flora.

Thank the gods for that one last detail.

"Now that you mention it...", said Nero.

"...so quiet.", added Selene.

Sharmon made way through some bushes and stopped at another clearance, physically close to the bonfire, but one they had taken some time to arrive at since they were sort of wandering about.

"This is the area zero; the banshee has screamed here.", said Sharmon in front of them.

Nero shuddered at the thought.

They had been walking in circles, so they weren't that far away from the site where they had battled earlier, but it would still take a decent hour and a half for someone to reach that point from their previous location.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Are you sure...?", asked Khina.

The sorcerer took a step to the side.

"See for yourself."

Three people lay on the grass, motionless. They all shared the same symptoms as Marcus... except they were far paler.

"Three boys...", Khina observed.

"And no medals.", said Sharmon, "this confirms my suspicions."

"What suspicions?"

Nero's familiar crossed his arms.

"It should have been obvious to you since the moment we found the first body by the bonfire, boy.", his eyes shone with bright intensity, "that the banshee and your friend are one and the same individual."

"WHAT!?", spit Nero in outrage.

"How...? that makes no sense at all...", said Khina, nonetheless trying her best to understand him.

Selene took another bite of her sandwich, seemingly taking what Sharmon was saying at face value.

"If you tie the clues, everything falls into place."

"It doesn't! Aren't banshee fairies to begin with!?"

"They are."

"So where were Luna's wings!?"

"You ignorant fool. Not all fairies possess the same features."

"Let's not start this again...", laughed Khina nervously.

Khina was right... Nero let out a sigh to try and calm down a little; he didn't want to get into an argument again.

"How did you come to this conclusion?", he asked him, in a much calmer tone. He was making a very big effort to achieve this.

Sharmon walked to the three bodies.

"They are all about to die."

Khina froze. Nero frowned and walked up to Sharmon and stood in front of the bodies, next to him. Selene took another bite and didn't move an inch.

Nero barely recognized their faces. One of them was the one that had shouted at ser Eldrich regarding the whole medals thing.

"...there is no helping them, either, is it?"

"There is not."

"Ain't the College gonna do nothing about this...?", asked Khina from behind.

"That, I do not know."

Then, Nero felt it. It was that sensation again... the feeling of being observed.

"There she is."

Sharmon leaped ahead and above the lying contestants, and ran straight into the forest.

"Wait up...!"

The group hurried behind him. The sensation was getting stronger, more intense... yes, they were approaching the source of it. The source of the arcana.

Finally, the group stopped.

There was a short figure sitting on the grass, with her back against a tree. She wore a white eastern dress that was dirty and torn to the point of it being essentially ruined. A very specific shade of light strawberry blonde and ginger hair fell around it beautifully, and a small pair of very white hands were covering her head, which was pressed against her knees.

She was not moving.

Nobody dared to say a word. Was she really...?

Sharmon took a step forward.

"Pssst...! What are you doing...!", hissed Nero.

"I told you before, boy. She has fed already.", Sharmon turned back to Luna, "lift your head, girl."

Luna did not.

"Is... is everything gonna be alright...?", asked Khina.

"I don't know...", murmured Nero.

"What are we gonna do if she screams...?"

"I don't know...!", he repeated.

"We'll probably die if she does.", said Selene in a rather loud voice.

"...weren't you scared just a while ago?", asked Khina in a suspicious tone.

"I was."

"And now that you're literally in front of her, you're not...?", asked Nero.

She shrugged.

"I trust Sharmon."

Right. He had said they would be safe from her, and all.

"Man, you really do have faith in him, don't you?"

"He keeps his word, and is not a loser like Brad.", said Selene.

Nero and Khina looked at each other and contained a laugh.

Sharmon took another step towards Luna.

"I know it was you who screamed, girl. I can feel your arcana, and so does the boy. There is no point in denying it."

Her head moved slowly, not upwards, but sideways, and Nero's turquoise eyes were met by a familiar brown-greenish stare.

"...hello, Nero.", she said in her characteristic low voice.

The boy checked her ears just to be sure; there were no traces of blood. He didn't want to believe it, but...

"Hi... Luna. How... how are you feeling?", he asked her.

In reality, he had no idea what to say. Luna blinked slowly, as if needing a moment to process his question.

"Sleepy."

"I can see that," he said in a soft voice, "are you hurt anywhere?"

"...I'm sorry, Nero.", she continued without addressing his question, "looks like we cannot be friends, after all..."

Nero didn't know what was more profound: her eyes, or the melancholy in her voice.

"Wha... what makes you say that?"

"But they came from out of nowhere, and dragged me here, and I didn't want to, but they tried to do it, and so I had to...", she continued her own train of thought.

"Huh...?", at that point, she had completely lost him.

Sharmon crossed his arms.

"It is exactly as I thought."

"What do you mean...?", asked Khina.

Selene sat down against a tree trunk and took yet another bite of her food, thoroughly enjoying her role as a silent spectator.

"Those three were contestants without a medal. They banded together, much like we did, and found Luna and Marcus.", said Sharmon, "they attacked the bonfire and dragged Luna away."

"Why not attack them both?", wondered Nero.

"If that other mongrel and Selene had hit either you or Khina at the same time, you both would have likely been defeated immediately.", said Sharmon, "focus-firing on an opposing force to dwindle their numbers is a standard tactic in combat."

"Right, that makes sense. That way they would be taking us out in two 2v1s instead of a single 2v2 fight, which is riskier...", said Khina.

Nero also crossed his arms.

"Divide and conquer, huh..."

Sharmon nodded.

"In this case, it was a three-versus-one with the intention of a follow-up on the other contestant."

"A follow-up that never took place...", Nero looked at Luna again.

"The cry of a banshee at melee range is near fatal on its own,", stated Sharmon, "and on top of that, the girl took out most of their arcana."

"It was so strong that it even ripped the side of her dress...", Khina observed with worry.

Sharmon's eyes narrowed.

"That was not the consequence of the cry, girl. That was done by a knife."

Everyone turned to Sharmon in shock -except for Luna, who was staring deep into Nero's eyes in silence, despite him no longer keeping eye contact with her.

"You don't mean to say they tried to...", murmured Nero.

"I mean exactly as you think."

"She said they tried to do it...", remembered Khina in a low voice.

"The cry was not about protecting the medal as much as it was for self-preservation."

Nero noticed Luna was still maintaining her stare on him.

He took a step towards her.

"Nero, what are you doing...!", murmured Khina.

"...she wants me to.", he said.

"What...!?"

But Nero had no time to explain it to her. The arcana... no, more than the arcana, it was her eyes.

Those eyes were telling him, and only him, to get closer. She had addressed no one else, and Nero felt that not meeting her demands could be very risky.

The boy took another careful step and knelt in front of her.

"...are you okay?"

She nodded slowly.

"Do you have your medal on you?"

She nodded again.

"That's good," he smiled.

She gave him a single, very slow blink for an answer.

"Listen, how about you team up with us? We all have our medals, too, and we plan to make a breakthrough this evening to make it into the temple, past the other contestants."

"Are you sure about that...?", she asked him in a voice so low it forced Nero to instinctively lean closer to her.

"Yeah...! Why not?"

"She doesn't like me."

"Who?"

Luna pointed her finger straight at Khina.

"Wha-!?", the girl in question was in shock.

"What makes you say that?", Nero laughed.

"I can smell her fear.", said Luna.

Khina frowned.

"The hell...!? I'm not a coward...!"

"Be at ease, girl. She means that in a literal way.", Sharmon intervened.

Nero turned to look at him.

"How so?"

"Banshee can smell an individual's strongest emotion."

Luna nodded, acknowledging Sharmon for the first time since they had found her.

"She's frightened after seeing Marcus and the other three back there."

"Well... I mean, I guess we all kinda feel a certain level of respect towards your... uh... skill level.", Nero worded it as nicely as he could.

"She reeks of loneliness.", Luna went on.

This time, she was pointing at Selene. If Luna's words had had any effect on her, she didn't show it.

Naturally, Nero had to ask.

"Now you got me curious," he said, "what do I smell like? Wait, let me rephrase that... what do my emotions smell like?"

"Worry. And anxiety."

Ha. Pretty accurate.

Nero turned to Sharmon.

"What do you say? Should we bring her along?"

Sharmon crossed his arms.

"Most definitely."

"Why do you insist...?", she asked Nero.

"Are you kidding? Someone with your abilities would be an incredible help for us!", said Nero.

"Yeah, and I'm not gonna lie... you are kinda scary... but so is that guy over there.", added Khina, pointing her thumb at Sharmon.

"Ah, yeah. You should have seen it; we were being chased by some contestants and we fought, and then this dude called Brad cried for backup, but it didn't show up, but then a body dropped from the tree tops, and Sharmon came out of the woods saying creepy stuff, and kicked his ass.", said Nero.

Harsh words, but accurate. Sharmon denied none of it, too.

For the first time, Luna smiled.

"...and I happened to summon him by drawing some red circle with a ray of light that pierced my skin and made me scream in agony in front of everyone."

"Dude. Not gonna lie, that summoning was spooky as hell.", remembered Khina.

Luna chuckled.

"And that freaky girl back there is eating a sandwich like she hasn't seen a buncha corpses a minute ago, and can also camouflage to the point she's basically invisible. Imagine you peeking your nose and her watching you in silence at a distance of five centimeters without you noticing... she looks like she would totally do that.", added Nero.

Selene was gulping down some water, but used her free hand to flip him.

This time Luna hid her mouth behind her hand to cover her laughter.

Nero got up and offered her his hand.

"Come on, let's get out of here. We got a test to pass."

She took it, and allowed him to help her up. Nero thought her skin was so soft and delicate that it felt surreal to know he was touching a very dangerous... creature?

That word didn't seem to fit her at all, but even if it did... she wasn't the only eerie thing around Nero, so what the hell. Might as well cast his luck with the banshee, especially if he was on her good side.

"Alright, let's get going.", said Khina.

Nero looked up to the sky; it was a beautiful red.

"It is about time we headed towards the temple. We must approach it unseen and plan a safe way inside. Once we reach the site, Selene will scout the perimeter before we attempt an infiltration.", said Sharmon.

The group agreed, and with the sorcerer taking point, everyone got moving again in a rather positive atmosphere.

Khina stretched her arms.

"Mmmh...! Good thing we're all well-fed, now.", she commented.

Nero blurt out a laugh. It had been an improper joke, but a good one. Selene had also laughed quietly at it, and even Sharmon had conceded a quiet "hm." of acknowledgment.

The group walked past the three motionless bodies on their way eastwards, and Nero stopped to look at them for a moment.

"That was not the consequence of the cry, girl. That was done by a knife.", Sharmon's words echoed in his mind.

Nero stared at them lying down, blood in their ears and agonizing in a blissful coma, and suddenly the thought of them dying didn't sound so bad. Trash like that didn't deserve to live, did it...?

"Anger."

Nero blinked, snapping out of it.

Everyone turned to look at Luna.

"...is the visible face of pain.", she finished.

The boy frowned.

"I'm sorry... are you talking to me?"

She kept her silence, not locking eyes with anyone but looking straight ahead instead.

"Dusk will be upon us soon, boy. We have to get moving.", Sharmon reminded him.

"Yeah.. you're right."

And so, the group resumed their walk towards the final stage of the second round of exams without looking back.