“Our team is quite strong in terms of individual strength,” Lothian concluded.“We only need a battle formation that suits us.”

The five beasts all sat down in the forest, in deep thought, as they tried to figure out a battle formation. The examination would take place in a few hours, and it was vital to not only create the battle formation but also to practice with it before the test.

“Does anyone have an idea?” the young boy asked.

“This one does,” Luna said. All eyes came upon her. Even the Arcane Jaguar who seemed quite disinterested stopped with what he was doing in order to listen. “How about if… Zerki and this one stand in the middle and Lothian and Rulah guard the front? Zerlos can hide in the shadows and wait for an opportunity to strike.”

Lothian thought for a brief moment. He then said. “That seems to be the best but yours won't work in the examination."

“Why?” Luna blurted out. She thought her plan was perfect.

“Because in the test, I would guess Mogaro will want us to fight with the forest dispatch member in the open so that everyone can see the battle. If we fight in the open, there won't be anywhere for Zerlos to hide. Therefore he won't be able to do a sneak attack."

“That’s right, Lothian, but did you forget what I just told you?” Zerlos interjected with a scowl. He looked at the young boy and said. “I can use stealth, remember? If I go into stealth, I can ambush the forest dispatch member. As long as you bunch can keep him busy, that is."

“But, you can only use stealth within shadows, right?” Rulah said. “There won’t be any shadows in an open plain, will there?”

To this, the Arcane Jaguar laughed. “As long as there are clouds in the sky, there will be shadows on the ground. Even if you can’t see them with your puny eyes, I can.”

“So you mean to say, that you can turn invisible almost anywhere?” Lothian asked, quite shocked. He knew of Arcane Jaguars abilities, but this was almost too frightening. To not be able to see the enemy until the enemy strikes… the young boy never anticipated the Zerlos abilities to be as great as this.

“Almost,” Zerlos grinned. “Thought the effect won't be as good as normal.”

Lothian nodded. Then, however, he discovered a problem. The others in the group hadn’t realised it, but he had. How were they to practice the formation? Against thin air? That’s right. They had no opponents. “We have a problem.” the young boy cleared his throat, then said. “We don’t have any opponent to practice on.”

Everyone’s face darkened. They understood what he meant. “Then how are we going to train?” Zerki chirped worriedly.

“We can't,” Zerlos answered quicker than anyone else. He paused for a second and then said to everyone. "And maybe that's the real challenge for the test. To execute a battle formation without having practised with it, as well as when everyone’s watching –  this shows one's ability to adapt and improvise in fights.”

“Then that mean this trial is harder than we expected,” Rulah said with a sigh.

Having understood the true purpose of the first trial, the group understood how important it was for them to get started. First, they had to properly make the basic formation – where each of them would stand

“Since Zerki is so small, how about if she sits on Luna’s shoulder?” Lothian said as they were trying out the positions. “If she does that, Rulah and I will be able to more efficiently protect the two.”

The others nodded, and they made the adjustment. After about half an hour, they had successfully created a basic battle formation. Luna and stood in the middle. Rulah was directly in front of them and would serve as protection their, hindering enemies from closing in. Lothian and Zerlos were one on each side, and their main focus was to attack.

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Luna and Zerki would stand in the middle, and Rulah would directly in front of them and would serve as protection their, hindering enemies from closing in, while Lothian and Zerlos would be one on each side. The young boy and the Arcane Jaguar's focus would be to attack.

“What if enemies come from behind?” Zerki asked. “I can fly into the air, but Luna doesn’t have any escape. She can use her moon particles to send moon blades, if its a powerful attacker, merely this won’t be able to stop the enemy.”

“That’s a problem indeed,” Lothian nodded. “Our formation is like a bow. You two are the string, and we three are the tree frame. The bow itself, the frame, is stable and sturdy, but if an enemy comes behind and targets the string, the bow won’t work anymore. So just as you said, we need to find a way to protect from behind.”

"Hey, Zerlos, do you think you can keep an eye on the back as well?" the young boy turned to Zerlos and asked.

"I can try," the Arcane Jaguar admitted. "But If I'm on my way to ambush someone, I might be too concentrated to notice it."

As the group was slowly beginning to come closer to each other, and learning each other's strengths and weaknesses, time slowly crept forward. Morning turned into soon lunch time, and the forest silence was interrupted by a shout from a certain golden bear.

"Shit, we only have about one more hour until we need to gather in the camp," Rulah swore loudly. "We need to get onto showing each other our abilities!"

"I'll start."

In the forest groove, a light slowly began to shine. A golden, mystelike aura surged around the young boy's fists. "My skill in controlling light sprite isn't very high, so I can only use this one technique, of shrouding my fists, to attack," he said, and proudly stuck out his chest. "Nevertheless, I will pound out enemies to dust!"

"Like this!" The young man struck the ground below him with his fist. A deafening sound sounded out and dirt spewed in all directions. What was left in his wake was a small crater the size of a diameter. "I call it「Light bringer」

"Ok, my turn next." the golden bear said. He roared, and everyone held their ears. They felt their mind shake, and they almost lost their balance. If they had been in a fight, they would all have been disrupted and forced to retreat. "An innate ability of the golden bears.「Majestic Roar」Then, Rulah slash out with his claw. A claw of flame magically appeared in the thin air and struck a young tree not too far away, causing it to break like a twig. "And this is「Fire Claw」

Suddenly, a stream of water shot out toward the tree whose branches had combusted. It was Luna's doing.

"This attack is called「Water Gun」And though it might not hurt very much,  it can certainly distract them. " She said after closing her mouth from which the water had shot out from. "This one also has some other skills. This one can heal wounds and create moon mirrors, protective barriers able to reflect others' skills."

Luna placed her hands together and dunked the ground with her tail. A beautiful, clear mirror appeared not too far away from them, about three meters tall and two meters wide. Lothian looked into it and could see his own reflection as it stared back at him. A truly beautiful mirror.

"Let me try it, to see if it can still reflect my attacks!" Zerki chirped and flew up. "Behold, fire thunder tornado ultimate attack!"

Over the little bird's head, a gigantic swirl of red and yellow began to converge. Flames churned and thunder crackled. The swirl spun faster and faster, and then with another high-pitched chirp from Zerki, it shot down toward the mirror.

As the fire and thunder tornado hit the mirror, a strange scene unfurled. The mirror broke into pieces, not able to withstand the attack, and at the same time, the swirl of thunder and fire was ricocheted, reflected back toward the little bird.

"Ahhh, help me!" Zerki shouted and hurriedly flapped her wings, avoiding her own attack by a hair's width. She looked at her friend with ghastly eyes. "Do you want to kill me or what?"

Everyone laughed, except for the little bird, of course, who had gotten a scare for a lifetime. "Hey, guys, this is no joke. I could have died!"

"Zerlos, your turn," Lothian said to the Arcane Jaguar.

“Sure. Then take a good look.” Zerlos nodded and began to crouch, his paws lightly touching the ground in rhythm. Slowly but surely, the patterns on his fur began to glow. The others were showing signs of surprise. The light shining from the patterns were beautiful and exquisite. Almost a bit eerie. Purple and blue and gold joined together and created a canvas of colors, before the crouching figure began to fade into the surroundings. Just like that, before anyone was able to react, the Arcane Panther had turned invisible. 

"So, what do you think?" A whisper was heard from behind them a couple of seconds later. They turned around and found the Arcane Jaguar's stare, who had appeared from the shadows and deactivated stealth so that they could see him.

Lothian grinned. "I think it's good that you are on our side."

 "