TBATE - Lightseeker

"Come on! We're gonna be late." Ada yelled back at us excitedly. The three of us - Jack, Ada and I, were finally going to attempt the AA-rank examination. The test would take place in the Forest of Failure with 12 teams of 1-3 people and would last 3 days. To pass, each team must acquire both an Earth scroll and a Sky scroll, and make it to the large hut in the middle of the forest within 72 hours. Each team of adventurers wanting to advance into AA-rank would be required to participate with at least 1 other person, and adventurers wanting to advance into S would need to complete the exam alone. The three of us walked around to the back of the Xyrus Guild Hall where we saw the other very strong-looking participants. There were two large carriages for our transportation to the forest, and we all climbed in. We avoided small talk with the other participants, as they would soon become our opponents.

.....

We finally reached the forest on the edge of the Grand Mountain Range, far from the main border checkpoint, and we all hopped out of the carriages and walked over to a small tent and desk with five adventurers with bright red bandanas tied around their arms.

"Those must be the official overseers." Said Ada. We all stood in front of the overseers and they gave us the final briefing before the assessment would start. The overseers instructed us to walk around to a different gate so that everyone was starting in a different place. I checked the small pocket watch I was given by one of the overseers and got ready to start the 72-hour countdown whenever the loud bell rang to signal the beginning of the test. "Jack, what scroll do we have?"

"Earth."

"Alright. I suggest we wait until two teams start fighting and swoop in when they are distracted and tired and steal their scrolls. We only need one of each so we can just give the other back."

We all agreed to follow my plan of action, and shortly after I spoke the loud bell rang from deep within the forest, and the 15 gates all swung open. We immediately lept into the trees, Jack's sound magic silencing any noise.

After about half an hour of running from tree to tree, we heard a loud explosion to our left, and darted off in that direction. "Don't immediately engage. We will observe the situation and step in when get confirmation on a Sky scroll." I stated, and the two of them nodded in understanding. We silently stalked the two fighting teams of 3 below us, both showing an expert display of magic, until one team finally lost two of their teammates, with the last of the three surrendering. One of the fighters was unconscious, one was encased in a brick of earth, and the final held up his hands, drawing an Earth scroll from his dimension ring. "Not the one we want, but stay vigilant. If the team that just won takes it, it's almost confirmed they have a Sky scroll. We will follow them when they leave."

the victors quietly celebrated, and a tall woman with long brown hair and her back turned to us took the scroll from the defeated adventurer and it disappeared into her ring. "Alright, when they leave we will follow them. We could either attack them from behind while they run or wait until they rest." Jack stated, and we began to discuss plans. The team had not yet left, likely waiting until the defeated squad was far away.

"They have two conjurers and one augmenter. The conjurers will probably stick to the ground and the augmenter will scout from the trees. I say Jack uses his Spectre beast will to stun the augmenter and make him fall down to the ground, and Solis and I ambush them while they are confused." Ada suggested and we all agreed. The trio of adventurers raced off into the depths of the forest, and we followed close behind them from the trees. "Don't get too close, they might have a sensory-type mage," I whispered to my teammates. We followed the adventurers in front of us for roughly 15 minutes before they entered a small clearing with only a few small trees. As the augmenter in front of us jumped down from the trees to rejoin his teammates, Jack let out a blood-curdling shriek that stunned him mid-air and he fell to the ground clutching his head.

"Now!" I shouted out to Ada and we emerged from the trees. 

Ada activated the first stage of her beast will, a large ribcage of mana forming around her with a large skeletal arm and hand extending from the back. The hand reached out and grabbed the confused conjurer who had picked up the Earth scroll and clutched her tightly in its grasp. Jack jumped down from the trees and landed next to the augmenter, pointing his sword at him. "Don't move."

The final conjurer conjured shards of earth and flung them at me, and small birds of white fire collided with the earth shards and all of them broke. I shifted behind the conjurer and held a conjured dagger of light to her back. "Where's the Sky scroll?"

She dropped her small wand and held her hands above her head, a Sky scroll forming in her palm. "Throw it in front of you." She did as I said and Ada picked up the scroll and we left before they could try anything funny. 

"Good, we have both. Let's hurry to the middle. Maybe we can even beat Rindo's time if we hurry." Jack jested.

"Impossible. Rindo did it alone, and he's way faster than any of us. Not only that but we will probably have company soon. It's only been an hour or so since the start, there's no way anyone but us has both scrolls. Another team could have watched us take the Sky scroll and is following us right now. 

Jack, you think you could cast an illusion over us to make us appear invisible?" I replied and asked Jack for some help.

"Sure." He touched his palms together and our figures faded from view. "We can still see each other, but anyone else will probably not see anything. A sensory-type mage will still be able to sense our mana signatures, though."

We continued running for another three hours before taking a rest in the trees, sitting down on a large, thick tree branch. After 15 minutes of resting and eating rations, a soft whistle came from my left, and the three of us dispersed to different branches, looking back at where we were sitting to see an arrow of mana lodged into the thick branch.

How were we found... A sensory-type mage? Archery is a common path for sensory mages...

We traced the trajectory of the arrow and saw three individuals of vastly different sizes standing roughly 30 meters from us. A huge man, at least 200 meters tall, a short boy with a blue note drawn on his white mask with a cute white fox perched on his shoulder, and a woman with short black hair and simple leather armour and a bow in one hand. 

Is that Note!? 

"We don't need to fight these guys. We have our scrolls. I suggest we run." 

"Run!? Hell no! I've been wanting to fight Note ever since he showed his lightning deviancy." Ada yelled back to me.

"Jack, what do you say?"

"I don't mind. Let's fight."

"Tch. Alright." After I spoke, the three of us dispersed and closed in on the trio who attacked us. The three adventurers followed suit and chose their opponents. The small giant of a conjurer stayed where he was and let Jack come to him, Note jumped to the ground and began trading blows with Ada, and the archer veered off to the right and I followed.

The archer and I stood on opposite branches from each other and prepared to launch our attacks. 

She has the range advantage, but she needs to be looking at me at all times if she wants to hit me. This will work in my favour...

I flooded my eyes with mana, my vision becoming ever-so-slightly tainted yellow, and the world around me became more clear. The woman's eyes widened slightly after making eye contact, but immediately resumed forming her arrows. I conjured an identical bow of my own, copying her pure mana creation technique with my own light creation technique and forming 1-to-1 replica arrows, firing them at her at the same time. Most of the arrows collided, but some made it through to our targets. I dodged and weaved around the arrows aiming for my body, and one of my arrows plunged into her left thigh. I looked at her again, the tomoe in my Eyes rotating slowly. My body burst into a flock of birds and scattered around the trees, reforming as identical clones of myself right before her eyes.

She is a sensory mage, but can she distinguish real from fake, illusion from reality?

She fired numerous arrows at all of the clones, and they simply burst into a flock of birds and reformed as more clones. The real me continued to fire arrows from far above her on a tree branch out of her view, keeping her constantly on her toes. "This is taking quite a while... I wouldn't want to be the last one back. Let's kick things up a notch." I conjured a set of wings from my back, allowing me to glide down just above her, and I landed deftly behind her. "Boo."

She spun on her heels and attempted to stab me with an arrow she had created, but had nothing in her hand. "W-what the-?" I closed the gap faster than she could react and drove my fist into her stomach, knocking the breath out of her. "*cough*"

I broke the illusion I had placed on her and withdrew the mana from my Eyes, making my vision return to normal. I carried her over my shoulder, running back to the place where the others were fighting.

"Looks like I made it just in time." Jack had defeated his opponent - with relative ease, most likely. There's just so little one can do against a powerful sound mage. Jack's Spectre beast will only makes countering his attacks even harder. Ada, however, was out cold. She was leaning up against a tree trunk, blood streaming down her face. 

Note got her good...

Jack and Note were now opposite each other, though they were hardly 'fighting'. Note, being a swordsman, was most powerful in very close range, and Jack was excellent at keeping people at a distance. 

They are both probably low on mana from their previous fights...There is no reason for me to fight Note. We have already won this battle - Jack is still conscious and I still have enough mana for a short bout. Note, however, has lost both of his teammates and looks very tired from fighting Ada and holding off Jack.

Jack was showing signs of fatigue, his sound magic gradually becoming quieter and easier to resist, and Note was struggling to stay on his feet. I appeared in front of the Note and gave him an ultimatum. " I'll give you two choices. Continue fighting and I knock you out as well, probably removing all chance of your team qualifying - and I take your scroll, - or you give up and wait for your friends to recuperate, and hand over your scroll willingly. It hasn't even been 4 hours since the start of the exam, so your team should have more than enough time to find both scrolls. Your choice."

He stood still for a few seconds, our masks preventing us from reading each others' expressions, before sheathing his gorgeous blue straight sword and placing his Sky scroll on the ground in front of him. I conjured a raven to pick it up and bring it to me, and I stored it in my ring. I let Note walk over to his large earth conjurer friend and I placed the archer lady next to him. Jack walked over to Ada and slung her over his shoulder. "Good day, Note. I hope to see you at the hut." Jack and I vanished from our places and Note was left alone with his two unconscious teammates.

...

Jack and I sat around a small campfire in a shallow cave, hiding from the rain, while we waited for Ada to regain consciousness. My Holy Flames unfortunately burn anyone other than me, so I couldn't heal the small wound on her head.

Eventually, Ada stirred away and groaned about the pain in her head, before eating her rations and going back to sleep, telling us to wake her when it was time to move. We didn't need to go any time soon, and we were quite safe here as long as no one saw the smoke wafting from the cave mouth. I asked Jack if Xyrus Academy had any healing arts classes, and to my satisfaction, there actually is one.

I'll have to look into that when I start attending.

.....