Chapter 199: When?

For several seconds, nobody spoke. Tenfort floated where he’d been left in the air, staring in the direction of the rubble that had once been a mountain. Todd and Isabel exchanged glances, then looked to Emily.

A similar scene played out in Evergreen’s viewing room. Even Evergreen’s construct looked completely baffled.

“Did two fighting Rank 6 mages just stumble across the exam?” Lee asked.

“I think so,” Noah said, blinking. “It sounded like the first guy was here for something, though. Weird coincidence.”

“Does this mean the exam will be canceled?” Moxie asked with a concerned look.

“They may end the exam in its current state. It’s already been going for several days,” Evergreen said.

Noah’s hands clenched at his sides. If the exam ended now, then Isabel, Emily, and Todd would all fail. James presumably would too, unless he’d managed to get his hands on a token while he was invisible.

Eline was so close to them, but if they didn’t know she had the tokens, then it wasn’t going to do them any good. Luckily, it looked like Isabel had come to the same conclusion.

“Todd,” Isabel whispered, the screen still picking her voice up clearly, “This is pretty bad. The exam might get called if people that strong are in the area.”

“Shit,” Todd muttered. “We still don’t have any–”

“Which means now is our chance,” Emily interrupted. “Everyone’s distracted, and Tenfort can’t just have the cannon reactivate to pull us back early. They’ll have to pull everyone, and that should take at least a little bit. If we can find a group of students or some monsters, we’ve still got a chance to snag tokens before everything goes to shit.”

“Great. Where?” Todd asked. “Has James come back yet?”

The air behind Todd rippled. He spun as James appeared behind him, wiping some snow from his forehead and flicking it to the ground. Todd suppressed a curse.

“Can’t you make at least a little noise, man? You scared the shit out of me.”

“Literally?” James asked.

“What? No.”

“Good. That’s happened to me a few times. Revin does the same thing, but he always says I’m too loud.”

“Not sure I’d go around admitting that,” Todd said with a curt laugh. “And Revin is delusional, I didn’t hear a thing. Did you see–”

“Yes. And yes, I found something.”

“Really?” Emily asked, her eyes going wide. “Where?”

“There’s a girl heading in our direction. She’s got a giant bag slung over her shoulder, and it’s stuffed full of something. I have no idea what, but it was pretty bulky and she looked confident. It’s possible she’s collected a bunch of tokens.”

“Seriously?” Emily grabbed James by the shoulders. “Where? What direction?”

“From the really patchy trees,” James said, slightly flustered from how close Emily was. He looked like he couldn’t decide between trying to throw her arms away and hide or just sitting there and accepting it. “She’s not doing a good job of hiding at all. You should see her pretty soon.”

Good shit, James. But… Eline wasn’t coming from the trees.

Noah glanced over to Tenfort’s screen, but the proctor was still staring at the rubble of the mountain in disbelief, trying to figure out what had happened. Based on how easily Ferdinand had defeated Tenfort, Noah suspected Tenfort wasn’t in any rush to get close to the mages. It was probably only a matter of a few seconds before he made his final decision.

Back on the other side of the cube, Noah spotted who James had mentioned and nearly choked in surprise. It wasn’t Eline. It was Karina. She had a bulging bag slung over her shoulders and was sprinting straight toward the fort – and her eyes weren’t on the walls. They were on the pile of bodies where Eline was hiding.

“Does she have a death wish or something?” Emily asked, stringing an arrow on her ice bow. “Charging four of us on her own seems like a pretty damn stupid move.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Hold on.” Isabel watched Karina through squinted eyes. “She’s not even paying us any attention. She’s going for something on the ground.”

“What, did we miss a token?” Todd asked. “That feels like even more of a reason to act now. Especially with whatever the heck is happening with the Rank 6 mages. We can make sure at least one of us pass.”

Karina wasn’t waiting around for them to finish their discussion. She lunged forward, rearing back as a large war hammer formed in her grasp. Eline surged to her feet, darting to the side just before the hammer pounded into the snow where she’d been hiding.

Landing gracefully, Eline spun toward Karina, preparing to call on her Runes. She was fast – but not nearly as fast as a Rank 3. Karina’s hammer slammed into Eline’s stomach, picking her off the ground and sending her rocketing through the air in a remarkably similar manner to Ferdinand.

Eline tumbled through the air and slammed into the fortress with a pained grunt. Her shield flickered around her, absorbing the brunt of the blow, and she dropped to the ground.

“Damned Plains, what is going on?” Todd asked, staring down at Eline.

“Don’t care,” Isabel replied, vaulting over the edge of the fort. She kept her hand on the stone, pulling a layer of it out of the wall and onto her body. By the time she hit the ground, she was covered in a thin layer of armor.

Noah noted that Isabel didn’t have any of the blue light that was typically part of her defenses, nor did she form a stone shield. dropped beside her, stone coursing to cover his arms but leaving the rest of his body unencumbered.

“What a coincidence,” Emily called from the top of the fort, aiming the arrow at Eline. “Why were you hiding next to our defenses? And James, could you make sure that the other girl doesn’t interfere?”

“I’ll see what I can do, but don’t get your hopes up,” James grumbled. He shimmered, then faded from view.

“Fighting in a time like this?” Evergreen asked, her features unreadable as she watched Emily through half-lidded eyes. “Curious. I don’t often see anyone able to properly focus on the task that is urgent rather than the one that is important. Such mental control takes training.”

Living through a bunch of terrifying fights would probably help. See? Trauma is a perfect teacher. No drawbacks to it at all.

“Where’s the rest of your team?” Isabel asked.

Eline didn’t respond. She turned, making to run. A tendril of stone shot out from the ground and looped around her ankle, keeping a wide birth. Eline stumbled and fell to the snow with a surprised grunt.

“Shields stop magical attacks automatically, but we found that they don’t do all that much if you trip over something that just happens to be in front of you,” Isabel said.

Eline’s shield rippled around her and she lashed out, shattering the stone and rolling to her feet.

“Shut up. You’re nobody,” Eline snarled. An arrow streaked down and she ducked, her shield rippling the ice thunked into the ground behind her. “You’re all insane. Didn’t you see the–”

Todd’s fist slammed into Eline’s stomach. Her shield flared with brilliant light and her eyes bulged. A massive crack ripped through the snowy field and Eline was sent hurtling backward once again.

A sheet of rock shot up from the ground behind her and she slammed into it with enough force to crack the stone. Wisps of energy rose up from Todd’s fist and he flexed his fingers.

“What in the Damned Plains?” Eline wheezed, dropping to her feet. Her bag fell at her feet, and a token tumbled out of the opening. Eline’s shield shimmered, cracks running throughout it. “How can a Rank 1 do so much damage with one punch?”

She grabbed for her bag, but an arrow carved through the air once more. Eline yanked her hand back a moment before it could get impaled, and her shield screeched as the shot scraped across it.

Eline’s shield shattered. Fragments of green light rained to the ground all around her, fading before the could reach it. Eline stared at the arrow in disbelief.

The snow bucked as a stone pillar pushed Eline’s bag up and launched it away, spilling tokens across the ground. It rolled over to Isabel’s feet before the pillar expanded, lifting it up to rest beside her.

“They can’t,” Isabel said, a cold smile on her face. She reached into the bag and pulled out four tokens. Two tendrils of stone wound out of the ground and snagged Eline’s feet, taking advantage of her shock to bind her in place.

“We aren’t Rank 1 anymore.” Todd smirked. “That would be lame, wouldn’t it? Could you imagine?”

Eline tugged at her feet, then bared her teeth. “If you think I’m just going to–”

Todd’s fist slammed into her stomach again and Eline doubled over, the air knocked from her lungs. His second blow caught her in the head and she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

“Don’t monologue while you’re trapped,” Todd told Eline’s body. “That’s just bad form, really. Honestly though, Rank 2 is such a significant improvement from Rank 1. I feel so much stronger. Didn’t feel it when I was practicing against you guys.”

“That’s because we were also Rank 2,” Isabel said dryly. A small frown passed her features. “If she loses the bet, doesn’t that mean Revin kills her?”

Noah blinked.

Rank 2? When did all of you hit Rank 2? Sneaky little buggers. They didn’t even tell me.

“Maybe we should leave her a token?” Todd offered, nodding down to Eline.

James appeared beside him, and Todd let out a slew of curses.

“Don’t do that,” James said, his face deadly serious. “Revin will take it really, really poorly if you interfere with his plans. She lost. She doesn’t deserve the tokens. Besides, going unconscious is basically a loss.”

“I’m not so sure I want her blood on my hands. Defeating someone in a competition is different from killing them,” Emily said.

“Revin won’t kill her. Probably.”

“Are you sure?” Emily asked.

James hesitated for a moment before nodding. “It’ll be fine. The other girl left, by the way. Hightailed it the moment Eline went down.”

“Weird.” Isabel frowned, then shrugged. “No weirder than half the other things we’ve dealt with, though.”

Todd’s rock armor fell away and he pressed a hand to his neck, letting out a slow hiss through clenched teeth. “You think we should be worried about the mage screwing with Tenfort?”

“Why bother?” Emily asked with a laugh. “Either he kills us or he doesn’t. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

The others nodded. Noah leaned back, rubbing his eyes and staring at the screen.

“That’s your fault, you know,” Moxie said. “The lackadaisical view toward life, that is. They should be terrified.”

“They’re effective. Being frozen in place helps nobody.” Noah’s hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. “But when is that idiot proctor going to get the kids out of there? They’re going to get killed in the crossfire.”

“Maybe Tenfort has something to do with the attack that launched Ferdinand away?” Moxie offered. “He hasn’t moved for a while, so maybe things are under control.”

Noah blinked. That was a possibility. Tenfort had been still for almost a minute now, just staring in the direction of the ruined mountain. There was a good chance that he was somehow associated with whatever had attacked Ferdinand.

“Yeah, you must be right. I can’t imagine what else he’d be doing.”

But… seriously, when did the kids hit Rank 2?