*** Chapter 4: Defeat ***

There was only one other doorway in the room. At least Eren assumed it was a doorway. A large slab of stone was resting precariously on a pair of rocks. Below it, there was just enough room to crawl. Above it, there was a much wider gap. When he moved around it, Eren noticed it moved to continue blocking him. Eren created an iron staircase to climb over it. Strangely, the wall followed him, floating in the air and stubbornly blocking his path. He supposed that was the test Kena had passed. Evidently, she had done so using the rocks to crawl under it. Not wanting to crawl across the floor, Eren instead summoned another iron bar to hold the wall, and then dismissed the one he was standing on. The wall did not follow him down. He looked back at Kena. She stopped arguing with Yuki and glared at Eren furiously.

"Man, you seriously lucked out on your first test. Must've taken you seconds," Eren called. From the look on her face, he could tell she had taken much longer.

"Yeah, my second test was boring too!" Eren just smiled peacefully.

"Oh, and here I was about to let you out of those shackles. But if this is too easy, there's no point." He began walking through his passageway, smirking at her over his shoulder.

"Wait, you can get rid of these?" Apparently, Kena didn't figure that out from his making the hammer disappear earlier. Eren decided not to dismiss the cuffs for two reasons.

The first was that all conjurers could feel the state of their creations. Eren mostly used this to tell if his weapon was getting too damaged, allowing him to repair it on the fly. But he could sense them at a greater distance as well; as long as the object still existed, he could determine its state and its position relative to himself. Using this, he would keep tabs on the dangerous witch.

The other reason was spite.

Kena had beaten him viscously, even after he surrendered; a bit of revenge was appropriate. The handcuffs would make her next test all but impossible. If I'm right about her, she'll get in another fight before she gets the cuffs off.

Going through the doorway, he still had to duck under the wall-he had only raised it about six feet before it hit the ceiling. But it was still better than crawling, so he was happy. It had been easy for him.

"Next time I see you, I'm going to punch you in the face!"

"Hah! Like that's going to happen."

Once he was through, he cast one last look back at Kena. She was still struggling in vain, doing everything she could short of blowing herself up to break the chain. She didn't seem to know, but the chain would disappear, eventually. It got weaker the further away he got from it, and long-distance casting had never seemed all that important to him. He was a melee fighter through and through. All she had to do was wait.

***

Fire erupted around Kena's arm, turning the earth a dark black. But that was all it did. The cuffs stayed stubbornly in place. Kena had even tried blowing the cuffs up, but they were just too well made.

"Fire burns hot and bright," a cold voice sounded behind Kena, turning she found Yuki looking down at her. She looked as bored as ever. "It cannot escape steel bonds. Doomed to extinguish."

Kena didn’t know what Yuki was talking about. She didn't care either.

"Can you break these?" Kena asked, holding her chained hands up.

"Yes," Yuki said. She then proceeded to not break Kena's cuffs.

"Well... are you going to?"

"No." Kena took a step forward, trying to meet Yuki's eye.

Yuki didn't seem bothered in the slightest. She just kept staring back at her impassively.

"Free me, or you will regret it."

"A fire roars loudly. But its blaze is brief and weak. The cold always wins." This time Kena knew what she meant, and she was not happy.

"You think you're stronger than me? That's what your little riddle meant. I'm the fire, and you're the cold." Kena was rapidly losing her patience with Yuki. She was just so arrogant. "I know we're not allowed to fight the examiners. That's what you're banking on. You can run your mouth all you like, and I can't do anything back."

"They are not riddles; they're haikus," Yuki corrected, showing the slightest amount of disapproval. It was the most emotion she had displayed since Kena had met her. "You are correct that if you attack an examiner, they will disqualify you… unless they give you permission as part of a test."

Yuki smiled slightly, a strange coldness filling the air. "Would you like me to make it part of the test?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Kena wanted to fight Yuki. She was the one who had interrupted her fight with Eren over a stupid technicality. Smacking her around would be cathartic. But she still had handcuffs on, and she needed to keep going through the Trials if she was going to get another crack at Eren.

"No."

Yuki smiled coyly. "New test: you have to leave this room before I can catch you. You get a three-second head start, then I will hunt you like a dog. If I catch you, you fail."

Kena blinked. "Are you joking?"

"Three." She was serious. Kena ran towards the doorway; she didn’t know what she'd do for the next challenge. Or how she would free her hands. But she didn't care; all she wanted was to get away from Yuki.

***

Back outside, Eren saw the messy-looking examiner was still standing where he had been when Eren had left. He approached the mysterious man.

“I would like to trade tunnels.”

Contestants could only enter their own tunnels. But they could change tunnels. As long as both agreed, or the tunnel they wanted was unoccupied. Eren was banking on the hope someone had already failed or quit. It would mean trying to beat a test that someone else had already failed. It would likely be very difficult, but he didn't have any other choice. At least, not one he could think of.

Ash turned to him with a knowing smile. “The girl got you? Well, I tried to warn you- still… nice one figuring out you could try again. You're the first one, though admittedly the other losers weren't exactly in any state to continue...” Ash laughed to himself; it sounded airy and distant.

"What happened to the others?"

Ash smiled coyly. "You all knew the risks."

Eren gulped. He did not like the way Ash was smiling.

"Come now, have a little sense of humour. It's pretty funny, don't you think? At the start, you thought so little of her. Yet she beat you."

"Hilarious. Can we please get on with this? I'm currently in the middle of a race, and in case you didn't notice, I'm in last place."

Ash clicked his tongue. "Okay, okay, what tunnel do you want? Oh, bitter contestant of mine?”

“What's available?”

“We've had four dropouts, meaning there are now four available tunnels. Three, twelve, eighteen and twenty.”

Eren briefly mulled over the options. He briefly considered investigating the choices like he did at the start. But this was a race, and unlike before, the clock was ticking; he had no time to waste. "I'll take twelve."

It was the closest one to him. Maybe not the best criteria, but at least it meant he wouldn't have to spend as much time running over to the entrance. The moment he turned his back, Ash spoke again.

"That should be interesting. Enjoy~"

"Wait, how did you know I thought little of her at the beginning?" Turning around, Eren found Ash had disappeared. Frowning, Eren ignored him, heading back to the tunnels.

"More ominous half-hearted warnings. Just what I needed."

"Oh, so you have a sense of humour after all," Ash said. Eren didn't even bother turning around.

***

"Zero." The moment Kena heard the word, the floor turned to ice. Moving so fast, Kena couldn't help but slip. Her hands being cuffed made catching herself impossible, forcing her to land awkwardly on her bruised side.

"Ow," Kena moaned, regretting antagonising Yuki. She didn't have long to regret her decision; Yuki was sliding towards her impressively fast.

Kena shot a wave of flame at her pursuer. Yuki didn't even slow down, gracefully curving around the blast with a gratuitous spin.

She melted the ice under her to stand. Turning back to face the door, she continued melting the ice in front of her with a wave of fire, letting her run safely. Hopefully, it would also slow down Yuki- because at the rate she was moving, she would catch Kena soon.

"Trust that fire guides you. You trust its safety and warmth," Yuki chanted. Kena just ignored her. She knew that turning to see her would only slow her down. Her best option was to just keep moving forward as fast as she could. "The cold closes in."

If Kena had turned around, she would have seen Yuki casting her spell. She would have been able to dodge it without incident and continue running for the exit. Unfortunately, she did not.

A sudden wave of snow knocked Kena off her feet. She fell onto her back painfully. Yuki had refrozen her water as fast as Kena melted it, allowing her to make a beeline straight for the downed fire mage.

Kena had no time to get to her feet-so she did the only thing she could think of. Lying back on the ice, she aimed her feet and hands at Yuki. She blasted her with everything she had. "Eat this!"

Yuki countered with a wave of snow, stopping her attack with contemptuous ease. But that didn't matter. Kena raced backwards across the ice-covered field towards the door. She didn't move with nearly as much grace as Yuki, needing to wave her hands about wildly to avoid an unpleasant crash. It worked. She shot through the door and into the next room. She passed the test.

"I win," Kena announced, standing up to face Yuki. It wasn't a proper fight, but it would have to do. She had proved her point. Skating towards her, Yuki smiled serenely.

"This time." That said, the door slammed in Kena's face, leaving her in pure darkness. Looking out into the inky blackness, Kena couldn't shake the feeling that Yuki had tricked her somehow.

"I still won," Kena yelled, strongly suspecting she was speaking only to herself. "That's what matters."

It was only then that Kena realised she had completely forgotten to follow up on her questioning about Elestine.

"Hey! Open this door! I have questions for you!"

…

"Damnit!