I crouched lower in the bush, heart racing, trying to decide if I should just give myself up. I mean, what’s the point of hiding anymore? I wasn’t exactly eager to go toe-to-toe with these Representatives. Fighting wasn’t my strong suit, and the thought of getting caught anyway seemed inevitable.

But then again… maybe if I just slink away quietly—

Suddenly, I felt it. That unmistakable gaze. Jazmine’s eyes locked onto me through the leaves like a hawk spotting a field mouse. A faint, terrifying chill ran down my spine, freezing me in place. **She knows I’m here**, I thought, panic bubbling up.

I carefully started backing away, but just as I thought I might make a clean getaway—

“HEY! HELP! SOMEONE’S HIDING IN THE BUSH!”

Balto’s voice pierced the air, his finger pointed directly at my trembling hiding spot. My heart dropped. The bush I was huddled in rustled violently as if mocking me, confirming my unfortunate presence.

Felicity snapped her head toward me with the excitement of a predator spotting its prey. “Get him!” she shouted, her eyes gleaming with battle lust.

I froze, my limbs no longer under my command. **Oh no, no, no—**

Felicity bolted toward me like a force of nature, leaving me with only one option: react. Without thinking, my instincts kicked in. I leaped out of the bush, arms flailing as if I could somehow fly away from this nightmare. Instead, my fingers met the earth below, and before I even realized what I was doing, the ground responded.

Thick roots and vines erupted from the soil beneath the Representatives. They moved fast, far faster than I could’ve imagined. Felicity skidded to a halt, her face now a mixture of shock and confusion as the vines lashed around her ankles, yanking her off balance.

Jazmine, mid-laugh, suddenly found herself tangled up as well, the vines wrapping around her wrists and forcing her arms apart, her fingers splayed helplessly as she tried—and failed—to burn them away.

Philip stood still, his eyes wide with surprise. A smirk crept onto his face as the vines coiled around his body, holding him in place with the others. “Well, well… didn’t see that coming,” he muttered, his arms bound but his expression more amused than concerned.

The three of them were completely immobilized, their hands pulled far apart, fingers individually restrained by vines. They couldn’t move an inch. I stood there, panting, blinking at what I’d just done. My jaw practically hit the floor.

I had them. I had actually trapped the Representatives.

For a moment, the world seemed to freeze, just like them.

Then Philip chuckled, still bound in the vines, looking at me with that smirk that made it hard to tell if he was impressed or just amused at my accidental brilliance.

“Well, this is… unexpected,” he said.

“Uh…” I stammered, unsure whether to celebrate or start apologizing.

Just as I was starting to wrap my head around the fact that I’d somehow captured three Representative Mages, I heard a voice from the distance—a desperate, high-pitched shout.

“YOU DIDN’T GET EVERYONE!”

I spun around, heart pounding, to see someone sprinting toward me at an unreal speed. The guy was tall—maybe about 1.7 meters—his athletic frame moving like lightning. He wore the boy’s uniform but instead of the usual Representative outfit, he had on a grey baseball jacket with an electric theme. It looked so casual, but there was no mistaking the aura he carried. Representative Mage for sure.

"Ko—Kobalt!" Felicity called out, sounding relieved. Great, just what I needed.

Before I could react, the guy—Kobalt, apparently—was right in front of me, his fist flying toward my face like a blur. Instinctively, I jumped, managing to leap over him at the last second. I could feel the wind of his punch rush beneath me. If I hadn’t moved, I’d probably be a pancake right now.

As I landed a few feet away, my legs wobbling a little, Kobalt stood up straight, looking at me with an almost playful grin.

“Not bad, newbie,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “Congrats on not attacking us head-on. Most people try to do that, and it never ends well. You’ve earned your and the others' freedom.”

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I blinked. “Wait… what? Freedom?”

“Yeah, you didn’t just capture three Representatives for nothing,” Kobalt continued, sounding like this was the most obvious thing in the world. “That was impressive. You let them go, and we let you go.”

I just stared at him, my mind blank. **Freedom? Captured them? I wasn’t even trying to capture anyone.** I was just trying not to die!

“Uh… I didn’t exactly plan to capture anyone,” I admitted, feeling the need to clarify before this situation got even weirder. “I… I just panicked.”

Kobalt laughed, an easy, laid-back kind of laugh. “Ah, even better. Unplanned victories are the best kind.”

I stood there, utterly confused. He spoke like he’d been watching me for hours. “Wait, hold on. Have you been watching me this whole time?” I asked, trying to make sense of what was happening. “How long have you been here?”

Kobalt nodded, crossing his arms as if recalling a fond memory. “Since you slipped out of the mess hall. You got lucky there. Almost ran into me.”

I opened my mouth to respond but then closed it again. Was this supposed to be a compliment? Because all it did was make me feel… worse? **I almost ran into him? Great, so I’m terrible at even avoiding people.**

“Thanks?” I said, though it sounded more like a question than a statement. This was supposed to make me feel good, but all I could think about was how I’d accidentally done everything right without meaning to.

“Don’t sweat it, you did well,” Kobalt said with a grin, patting me on the shoulder before turning toward the others.

I just stood there, feeling a mix of disappointment in my skills and relief that I hadn’t been vaporized by these insanely powerful mages.

I walked over to the group of students trapped inside the dome, trying to figure out how to help them out. I focused, reaching down to manipulate the earth beneath us, opening up a small tunnel from the outside into the dome. I could feel the strain in my muscles as I guided the tunnel’s formation, but at least it was big enough for them to crawl through.

The girl who had led the charge crawled out first, dirt on her hands and knees. She dusted herself off, standing up straight before looking at me with a grateful smile.

“Thanks for that,” she said, catching her breath. “I’m Naomi, by the way. And these are my friends: Neriah, the walking tree with no sense of coordination,” she pointed back at the bulky elf struggling to squeeze through the tunnel. “Paul, the nervous squirrel,” a blonde kid who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else gave me an awkward wave. “Virtue, the queen of plants but allergic to flowers,” a girl who looked unamused nodded. “And, uh, Bartholomew—”

“*Balto!*” The blonde-haired kid crawling out next shouted in protest. “It’s Balto! Bartholomew is for the textbooks.” He shot me a glare, clearly offended by the full-name introduction.

“Right, right, *Balto*,” Naomi corrected herself with a smirk, rolling her eyes playfully.

"Nice to meet you all," I said, suppressing a grin as Neriah finally managed to crawl his way out of the tunnel. "You good, Neriah?"

“Sup, man!” Neriah said, flashing me a big smile. Clearly, he wasn't fazed by what had just happened. He seemed like the kind of person who’d greet you the same way after either a big battle or a shopping trip. I could see why Naomi had him on her team.

Before Naomi could continue thanking me, Neriah’s voice boomed from inside the dome. “Yo, Eitri, this tunnel’s too small! I’m not fitting through here with this bulk! Plus, Paul’s claustrophobic, man!”

I sighed, scratching my head. “Sorry, I’m not skilled enough to make it bigger right now. My mana’s running low from making this one,” I admitted.

Virtue, standing nearby, piped up. “Why don’t you use your own earth manipulation to help? Make the tunnel bigger.”

Before Neriah could respond, Kobalt laughed, clearly amused by the suggestion. “You sure you’re not a Magus, Virtue?” His voice dripped with sarcasm as he crossed his arms. “Look, kid, Eitri’s already used up most of his mana on the tunnel and holding us Representatives down. And Neriah, you’ve just been in combat with Felicity and Jazmine. None of you have enough left to pull this off without burning out.”

Neriah grumbled but stayed silent, clearly understanding the situation.

Kobalt shrugged. “We’ll let you go, but just a heads-up—if you’re out of mana, the next Representatives you run into will capture you in no time. And believe me, some of them aren’t as ‘nice’ as we are.”

That comment left everyone a bit tense, myself included. I hadn’t thought much about the next challenge. I wasn’t exactly eager to keep running into these Representatives, but I guess I didn’t have much of a choice now.

Naomi's face lit up suddenly, as if she'd just struck upon some brilliant idea. "What if," she said, excitement creeping into her voice, "we knock out Felicity?"

Balto immediately grinned and nodded. “Yeah! If we take her out, the dome will disappear since her mana’s tied to it, right? It’s perfect!”

I felt my stomach drop. "No, no, no," I quickly protested, waving my hands in front of me. "That's a *terrible* idea."

Philip, who had been watching us quietly with his arms crossed, raised an eyebrow. “I agree with Eitri. It’s a dumb idea,” he said, his tone as calm as ever. “You’re all still new, and taking out a Representative mage, especially someone like Felicity, isn’t just reckless—it’s suicidal.”

Naomi huffed. “I didn’t say it’d be easy, but we’ve got the element of surprise. And besides, how else are we supposed to get out of here? You heard Kobalt; we’re practically sitting ducks.”

Paul, who had been silent this whole time, finally spoke up. “Even if Eitri made the tunnel bigger for Neriah and me to fit through, the opportunity to knock out a Representative mage on day one doesn’t come around often. We’ve struck gold here.” His voice held a strange excitement, and it made me a little uneasy.

“This is the kind of thing that’ll make us *legends* around the school,” Paul added, his eyes gleaming.

I was horrified. “You guys can’t seriously be considering this…” I looked around, feeling a pit form in my stomach as I saw Naomi, Balto, and even Paul nodding in agreement. They actually thought this was a good idea!

“You do realize what’ll happen if you fail, right?” I pressed, hoping to knock some sense into them. “You’ll be expelled! Or worse—these Representatives won’t be playing nice anymore.”

Naomi brushed it off. “We won’t fail. We just need to hit Felicity fast, before she can react.”

I glanced over at the Representatives. Felicity hadn’t moved, but I could see the storm brewing behind her calm demeanor. Her gaze flickered between Naomi and Paul, her jaw tightening. Kobalt, meanwhile, was watching us with an amused smile, though his eyes told a different story. Even Philip, though cool and collected, had that sharp glint in his eye like he was sizing us up.

This was bad. Real bad.

I shifted uncomfortably, feeling the weight of their stares. The Representatives were *not* going to take kindly to this.

Jazmine, with an eerie calmness that sent chills down my spine, spoke up. “We were *supposed* to go easy on you.” Her voice was smooth, but it carried a dangerous edge. “But now... your opportunity to win the race has just run out.”

Naomi, ever defiant, crossed her arms and smirked. “You’re still all captured, aren’t you? What’s stopping us from walking away as winners right now?”

For a split second, I thought Naomi had a point. But Jazmine’s expression didn’t falter. Without even lifting a finger, she ignited in a blazing aura, and the vines wrapped around her and the other Representatives burned away in an instant, as though they were nothing but paper.

“We could have broken out whenever we wanted to,” she said, her tone flat but final.

The sudden burst of flames caused the rest of us to flinch, my breath catching in my throat. I could feel the heat from where I stood. It wasn’t just the fire—it was the realization that they had been toying with us the entire time.

For the first time, I couldn’t move. My legs felt like they were rooted to the ground, just like the vines I had summoned earlier. The weight of our helplessness settled over us like a blanket. The Representatives’ calm and controlled power was terrifying. We had pushed them too far.

I looked at Naomi, Balto, and the others. The smug confidence from earlier had vanished from their faces. Fear now mirrored my own.

Jazmine’s cold eyes scanned each of us, making sure we understood just how insignificant our defiance had been.

We couldn’t run. We couldn’t fight. We were at their mercy.

And then... silence.