*** Chapter 5: Partner ***

Eren made his way through the door cautiously. So far, nothing had happened, but that only worried him more. To say what he saw next was surprising would be an understatement.

This section of the cave was made of marble. The floor, the walls and even the ceiling were covered in immaculate white stone. In the middle of the room, there was a set of steps leading down to a walled-off arena. In it, there was a short brunette girl covered in oil. Hunched over, she raced around the arena, chasing an equally greasy pig.

“What are you doing?” Eren demanded, perhaps a bit too aggressively. Hearing him, the girl briefly turned in his direction mid-dive, falling clumsily onto the floor.

“Finally! What took you so long? This is a team trial, you know?” She stood up slowly, careful to avoid slipping in the oil. She turned to face Eren. He could see the yellow jewel about the size of a pebble embedded in her forehead; it matched the colour of her eyes. “I'm Lyra. Guess you're my partner.”

"What?"

“It's a team trial, me and you. We have to catch the pig. I've been trying, but he's not a normal pig. Got some sort of speed magic. We'll need to work together."

Lyra pointed to the offending pig; it was sitting in a puddle of oil, making a show of looking asleep. "They covered him in grease too, so even when I catch him, he just slips out my hands again.”

"I'm the first one to come through that doorway?" Lyra nodded, looking vaguely confused. Eren was even more confused. All he had done was walk through a hallway. It wasn't even very dark. How could anyone mess that up? Maybe they tripped. No use worrying about good luck.

"You've just been running around in the grease trying to grab him?" Lyra nodded again. "Can't your magic do anything to help?"

"I use lightning magic; if I tried, this whole place would go up in flames," Lyra explained, gesturing to the grease-covered floor. Eren tried to keep his face from showing it, but he felt nervous. Lightning magic was one of few types of magic which had elemental superiority against iron - his armour would be less than useless against it. If it came to a fight, he would be in trouble.

"I see. Well, I might have a solution then." That said, Eren summoned a javelin, aiming at the stationary pig.

"No! We can't hurt it- it's against the rules!" Lyra's shout stopped him just in time. Lyra then launched into a rundown of the rules; some sort of conjured mouth had explained them to her when she arrived. The test was simple enough; all they had to do was catch the pig without hurting it, holding it in the air to prove their success. Besides that, there weren't any limitations.

A sudden feeling directed Eren's attention elsewhere.

Something was happening to the handcuffs. Eren hadn't expected them to hold her forever. But they'd seemed pretty solid until a few moments ago. Then suddenly, the mana supporting them started disappearing. Before, Kena's mana had been fighting his own, trying to overwhelm it with sheer force. This was different. It was as if his mana was being drained away. He knew he couldn't hold her much longer, and wanting to avoid giving Kena more free mana, he dismissed the handcuffs. He needed to focus on his tests.

"Hello, are you even listening to me?" Lyra asked, snapping Eren back to the situation at hand.

"Yeah, sorry. I was just…" checking in on the girl I handcuffed earlier. "...it doesn't matter."

"Whatever. Now, unless you've got a better idea, get down here and help me already!"

Sighing, Eren looked down into the oil-filled pit. He did not want to go down there. But he wouldn’t give up on the Trials because of a bit of embarrassment. "Fine, you're right. I guess I have no choice but- wait, I got a better idea."

“You came up with a better idea that fast?”

“Anything is a better idea than this,” Eren said, gesturing vaguely to the greased-up girl. She gave him a hurt look; before cracking up laughing.

“Yeah, I guess you're right. I probably should have changed tracks a while ago. But Clay just looked so smug, ya know? I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.” Eren sighed again; she had named the pig. Of course. Why wouldn’t she?

“Alright, well, you can keep chasing it if you like. I'm going to restrict its movement."

“How?”

“Like this,” Eren announced, slowly forming his spell. A row of iron bars began growing from the ground, bisecting the room perfectly. The bars weren’t too tall, just tall enough that the pig wouldn’t be able to get over them, but Lyra could.

Sensing something was wrong, the pig began running around the room. But it couldn't escape its new smaller cage.

Lyra didn’t chase it; she waited for Eren to bisect the area again. And again. It wasn't too mana intensive, as he could dismiss the loose ends each time. The amount of iron needed slowly dwindling as the pig’s cage grew smaller and smaller.

Pretty soon, Eren trapped the pig in a steel cage with barely enough room to move. Careful of the oil, Eren began making his way over, forming the iron bars around the pig into a cage with a handle.

“Would you like to do the honours?”

Lyra hollered, picking up the cage with a brilliant smile. “Not so smug now, are you Clay?”

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Lyra hoisted the pig into the air. The door opened shortly after.

“I guess that means we pass. I got to say, I expected more of the Trials."

Eren touched a sore spot on his chest where Kena had burnt them.

"It's still early days yet. Don't get too comfortable."

***

Kena couldn't believe she was still stuck in the handcuffs. Walking through the dimly lit maze, she cursed Eren. The handcuffs were just too strong; no matter how many times she tried to blow them up, they just wouldn't give.

It was like Eren was mocking her. She couldn't believe he'd just turned tail and ran, refusing to finish their match. Leaving her with a constant reminder of it wrapped around her wrists.

What annoyed her the most was that she knew she had been on the ropes. She wasn't about to give up, of course, not even close. But that didn't mean she thought she had a chance. Eren was going to win. The thought sickened her, but she couldn't deny it.

Kena had to find him. She would not let this rest. Not until they had a rematch to settle the score for real. A warrior didn't accept winning on a technicality! She had to win fair and square: no interruptions, no technicalities, showing him just how strong she was.

Then she'd fight Yuki. Sure, she couldn't do it during the exam, but she knew she wanted to. Their little chasing game had been brief, but it was more than enough to prove Yuki was a powerful mage. Kena couldn't help but feel a little excited. These Trials were great; she had met so many powerful warriors, and it had barely begun. It was the perfect challenge. She just hoped there weren’t any more stupid puzzles. She was there to fight!

The sound of footsteps from down the tunnel froze Kena in her tracks. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't get scared by something so trivial. But with her hands bound, she knew she was in no condition to fight. The thought of having to fight like this was horrible. And exciting. No, don't get excited. You can't fight like this.

Resolved, Kena did something risky.

Closing her eyes, she focused on drawing out as much mana as she could into her hands. The problem with doing this was that keeping control was almost impossible. Whenever she did this, all she would manage was blowing herself up - which wasn’t that dangerous for her, but was still not fun. The risk of injury was high, but it had to be better than lying on the cave floor until the test ended.

The mana felt so unstable. It was like trying to hold a hundred flies in her cupped hands, everyone pulling away in a different direction.

But it was working; her chains were weakening; she could feel it.

Then she lost control.

The explosion threw her off her feet, smacking her into the wall behind her. Hard. A loud crack sounded, the room itself shaking from the force. Kena held her breath for a tense moment, worried the entire room would come down on top of her.

It didn't. But the cuffs were still on.

"Damn it!" Her voice echoed out around her, mocking her failure. She couldn't believe how much trouble the cuffs were causing her.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A husky, feminine voice sounded, attracting Kena's attention. Looking up, Kena saw a green-haired woman covered in flowery tattoos looking down at her.

Scrambling to her feet, Kena met her eye, glaring intently. "If you're looking for trouble, you found it."

The tattooed woman quirked her brow. "Threatening me when you're already tied up? You're very... Confident."

Kena smirked proudly, lifting her chin to look down at her. "I can still kick your ass even like this."

"Is that so?" The green-haired woman hummed in contemplation, eyeing up Kena's bound form. "Well... if that's the case, the smart thing to do would be to leave you alone."

That said, she walked past Kena, swiftly making her way down the tunnel. Watching her leave, Kena instantly regretted it.

"Wait! Can you break these?" Kena called. She caught up with her quickly, holding out her cuffed hands expectantly. Stopping short, she turned around, facing Kena again.

"Hmm, that depends…" the green-haired woman drifted off, smiling coyly.

"On?"

"If I can trust you. You haven't even offered me your name, yet already you demand my help after you just finished threatening me." Kena blushed, realising her mistake. She had never been too worried about manners and etiquette, but even she could tell she had been too demanding.

"My name is Kena," she introduced herself, bowing as Eren had earlier-she was pretty sure that was how mages greeted each other. Ash did the same thing back when they first met.

"My name is Jin," Jin replied, bowing as Kena had done. A contemplative look came over her face. "I believe I can break your cuffs. But in exchange, I would like for you to accompany me, to help me pass the remaining Trials."

"I'll do it." Kena didn't have to think about it. She didn't want to have to help someone else pass, but she figured it would be much easier than trying to get through the rest of the Trials handcuffed.

Jin eyed her for a moment, a weird knowing look overtaking her features. "Then it's a deal." Kena blinked despite herself. Kena had expected to need to persuade her a little more. She didn't plan to renegade on their informal deal, but she would have thought Jin would need persuading of such. It would be all too easy for Kena to refuse to help her, or worse, knock her out as soon as she was free. The rules of the Trials didn't specify that deals made between contestants would be enforced.

Jin grabbed Kena's cuffs, inspecting them critically. Kena watched with rapt interest as she placed her finger over her keyhole. A flower tattoo drifted from her wrist onto her finger, then flowed into the cuffs.

She took her hand away. A moment later, Kena saw a small flower with blue petals poking out of the hole. "Cool."

Jin smiled cooly. The flower then started growing. It grew unnaturally fast, a loud cracking sound following it as it shot up, soon reaching the size of Kena's arm, its flower the size of her head.

The cuffs disappeared.

Kena blinked as the flower fell to the ground, its roots digging in of their own volition.

"How did you do that?"

Jin smiled mysteriously, her features obscured by the darkness. "Magic."

Kena fought the urge to roll her eyes. Jin trusted her enough to free her, but not enough to answer a simple question. "Whatever. Alright, now that's sorted, let's get going!"

Stretching her newly freed hands, Kena summoned a small ball of fire, lighting the tunnel. She hadn't done so until this point, fearing attracting a fight, but with her arms free, she welcomed the possibility.

"Not that way. That's the direction I came from; we should go this way." Jin pointed the way Kena had come.

"No, I already came from there. We'll go this way." That said, Kena started walking, not bothering to look back. A second later, the sound of footsteps behind her confirmed Jin was following.