Part 1

- RAPHAEL BLUESCALE’S POV -

The chilly night’s air was carrying the sounds of the forest as softly as it could. Softly, as if trying not to make too much noise, the leaves danced to the tunes of the wind. A faint trail of smoke was rising from a small hole on my side and carried the scent of grilled fish. I was laying down, with my hands behind my head as if they were pillows, peacefully looking at the slow pace at which the clouds moved. Soft, grey clouds, tainted by the night’s darkness and solitude, ran around the sky, sometimes covering the moon, others the stars. It was approximately ten minutes before midnight. In the last two days, I exercised my ability to perceive time without the need for the sun…I really did miss a watch.

“Still out here?” Said Amelie as she crawled out of our hiding place.

“It’s too much of a shame to stay inside with this atmosphere, don’t you think?”

“If I remember correctly, it was you who wanted us to hide in the first place, was it not?” Said the girl tauntingly as she climbed over the hill all the way to my side.

“Haha, yes I did. Though tonight that will cease…there has been enough panic as it is, now we just need to pick up what we sowed”

“It’s basically…harvest” Said the girl. The tone of her voice was expressing a faint trace of fear, but it’s understandable. I grew more fearsome by the day in her eyes.

“Harvest sounds a little…menacing, don’t you think?-” I said with a vague, fake chuckle in between “- Do I seem that monstrous to you?”

“No, ehm. I mean... that’s not what I-”

Amelie’s words were forcefully cut short by three loud rings of a deep trumpet. That sudden sound came from beyond the walls and spilled all over the forest, covering trees and hills alike. The few nocturnal animals that weren’t under the control of Ekisora, scared by the sudden sound, began fleeing. I, startled by that sound much like the rest of us participants, could do nothing but frenetically move my eyes around the vast sky and concentrate on the source of the sound.

“Good evening, dear students-” Said the cheerful yet subtly tired voice of the headmaster. His voice, much like the sound of the trumpet, was being propagated around the forest through some kind of method unknown to me. But it surely was powerful enough to cover the whole area, reaching the ears of each and every student “-I wish to extend my congratulations to each and every one of you. You are the last ones standing upon reaching the third day. It is a commendable feat worth of praise”

[As expected it’s around midnight. Guess my time-telling skills are not so shabby!]

“One more reason to congratulate-” Continued the headmaster “-Is that all the 164 badges are still within the borders of this forest! All those who surrendered or were carried out due to injuries had lost all of their badges-”

“W-what?!-” Shouted Amelie as she fell flat on her ass “- Are you telling me that all the badges are still here?”

“Seems like it but let’s hear more”

“- Hence, since the remaining students proved to be more than capable, I together with all the professors, decided to add a new rule just for this upcoming third and final day. From this point onward, upon surrendering you’ll be asked to drop your badges. This means that all the 164 badges will all remain inside the walls until the event finishes!”

“So that means…only one group can win!?” Exclaimed desolated Amelie.

“Not necessary, but that works in our favor”

“Now I will announce the number of badges in possession of every group and their current position in the leaderboard. Please listen until the end of the announcement”

The final minutes of the headmaster’s announcement were solely dedicated to the slow and lengthy list of participants. It was an enjoyable surprise to hear that my friend’s group was in second position with a wide gap from the third. Though I bet they were all shocked to hear that my group stood on the lower side of the scoreboard, other than the vast number of badgeless groups.

Out of the 61 participants remaining: 20 were in groups of four, 21 in groups of three, 14 in duos and 6 were solo. The latter was probably what remained of groups that lost their members.

“...And with this, I conclude this announcement. May the gods smile upon your success!” With those last words, the loud voice stopped ringing into our ears and the silence of the forest returned to fill the air.

For a few minutes, me and Amelie stood in silence. Though it was for two vastly different reasons. While I was trying to catch the sounds of battles, she stood sitting beside me with the most perplexed face. It was as if her world had just come crashing down.

“What’s the matter?” I asked as I forcibly shook her shoulder.

“Eh? Ah! No, no…nothing. I was just…lost in thought”

“Mhh, what got you thinking so hard?” I asked genuinely out of curiosity.

“Nothing just…how much more difficult this event has become” Said dejected the girl next to me.

“Difficult for the others at the very least!” I said with a loud chuckle as I laid on the ground once again.

“I don’t see how?”

“Simple. Whether they surrender or not, we just need to beat them all and get their badges. I initially was worried that I’d have to run around the whole forest beating everyone in a single night since they could all surrender and keep their badges. Turns out that’s not necessary…Now-” I said as I stood up and stretched my back “- Let’s get a couple of hours of sleep before getting in on the action”

“On the harvest you mean” Said Amelie trying not to meet my eyes with hers.

“Call it however you want. My goal is to win and all those inside the forest are currently my opponents. I don’t need to feel pity for them”

“Not even if the opponents are our friends?”

“Pftt hahaha, might as well take this opportunity to have a real fight with them. Not just a spar. So, are you coming inside or not?”

“Ah! Yes, yes, I’m coming!” Said Amelie now rapidly cleaning her pants from the dirt and going towards our hideout entrance.

[I’ll show you a real harvest my dear spy…trust me!]

Part 2

Around four hours passed since the announcement. The faint light of the morning sun barely even showed itself as the moon still shone brightly up in the sky. The only hearable sounds were mine and Amelie’s fast steps. No battle was taking place, at least not close to us.

With only 61 students remaining all scattered around that vast forest, if we were to find a group every couple of hours we would’ve been considered lucky. In all honesty, I wanted to act sooner but the fact that I didn’t get a wink of sleep that night goaded me to take advantage of the situation. Hence, acting at the first sight of light.

“Shouldn’t we *huff* run towards the center?” Huffed out Amelie as she struggled to keep my pace even though I wasn’t using any boost.

“It’s pointless. Right now the center of the forest is probably empty. Everyone’s goal is to first eliminate the chances of being ambushed after a fight, hence eliminating the smaller groups. The center will be very busy once only the top groups remain”

“So what are we looking *huff* for? Strong groups or weak ones?”

“...Groups” I replied as I increased my speed.

It was only after one hour of running and short breaks that we finally came across the first group. Three students around my age, maybe slightly older. Two males and one female. The female one seemed to be either half-elf or half-dwarf due to the slightly pointy ears, though the former seemed more probable since the height of said student was quite considerable. The other two were a frail-looking human with dark brown hair and clothes way too large for his build, and a beastman of the wolf type, one of the most common together with the cat and dog type.

“You are *huff* supposed to be a *huff* mage-” Said Amelie as I crouched behind a fallen tree around ten meters before the sleeping group “- how can you have *huff* so much stamina?!”

“I was trained in the sword by my father and I still do so in a dojo-” I replied with a low tone of voice not to be noticed by the opponents “- Now lower your voice. There’s a group in front of us!”

“What!?-” Shouted Amelie “-Where?”

Of course, because of her loud voice and the sensible hearing of the beastkin, our ambush was discovered even before we could begin the attack. Rapidly, with swift movements , the beastman jumped on his feet and with a loud enough voice to bth call out to us and to wake his companions up, he shouted.

“COME OUT!-” Shouted the boy “-IT’S USELESS TO HIDE, I KNOW THERE’S SOMEONE THERE!”

“What’s wrong Frerat?-” Asked the half-asleep girls as she rubbed her eyes “- Why all this screaming?”

“We are under attack! Get in position FAST!-” Said the beastman while kicking the still sleeping frail human “-...COME OUT AND FIGHT HONORABLY I SAID!”

“Sorry Raphael-” Whispered Amelie with the least apologetic face she could muster. Rather she seemed to have done it on purpose “-It’s my fault. I’m very sorry”

“No use apologizing now-” I was sure my face expressed disdain as I stood up from behind the fallen tree trunk and walked towards the opposing group now in full formation with their backs against each other “- You, beastman, you seem to be the leader of the group. I wanted to get this over fast since I’ll have to clear the whole forest but I guess it’s impossible now [Because of that bitch of a groupmate I have!]...Well, curtesy calls for me to introduce myself, I’m Rapha-”

“I know who you are-” Interrupted me the half-elf girl “-You’re Raphael Bluescale, second year”

“Oh my, you are going to embarrass me. So, who are you guys?” I asked as stopped around three meters before the groups.

“You don’t need to know our names!-” Said the beastman with a growling voice “- NOW FIGHT US!”

Upon finishing his words, the three of them jumped backward and extended their hands towards me. The distance was now around four meters and it was clear they were trying to shoot me down with three of their spells. Using a [Shield] or a [Wall] type of spell wouldn’t have been the best option since the nature of their spells was unknown. A direct approach was far better I thought.

“Damn, I didn’t want to use it so soon-” I complained as properly positioned myself for a fight “- Thunder boost armor!”

My body was soon clad in blue bolts of lightning, right on time to dodge the first spell, a [Fireball], coming from the half-elf girl. It only took me one step to the side to evade it. The straight trajectory of the fireball was very much predictable, so much that I didn’t even need to use a speed boost. My enhanced normal speed was enough to counter that level of spells.

Right after dodging, with my hips lowered and my knees slightly bent, I sprinted forward in an oblique direction towards the frail-looking guy who was still in the middle of casting. His reflexes weren’t good enough to predict my attack, and so he found himself struck on the chin by my uppercut. He had so little strength that I could feel my hit reverberating through his teeth.

Two remained after the frail one fell, probably unconscious, on the ground. While the girl seemed too shocked to actually start casting again, the beastman was a different story.

“STONE CRUSH!” Shouted him as he pointed both hands towards me.

It was a nice choice for a spell. [Stone crush] being a practitioner tier spell, is famous for being one of the best earth type in terms of pure strength by having a huge stone the size of a grown man fall from a height of five meters in a point of choice in an area of two meters around the caster. Of course, this spell carries it’s downsides, such as being much mana consuming and slow. Not to talk about the fact that the range of such spell is limited.

“Uhh, it would have been a nice choice-” I said as I dashed again, this time towards the girl. I was facing her with my back due to the speed it took me to fully dodge the falling rock so, after a 180° spin, I struck her with a sound punch on the side, right under the last rib “- If I wasn’t your opponent that is”

My cockyness and the fact that I had already taken out two of his teammates must have gone to his head since the beastman then screamed his lungs out and tried to face me with brute force. He made full use of his size by trying to hit me from the top with both his hands joint in creating a hammer-pose. Of course, due to my speed, the powerful hit did nothing but sink into the brown dirt. The beastman then tried to raise his fists once again only to find my foot pinning his hands down and probably hurting him due to the electric field. When he raised his head to face me it was already too late, my knuckles were all over his face. In the end, he too fell down just like his teammates.

“Thanks, guys-” I said as I stopped the mana supply virtually turned off the thunder boost armor “- It was a nice way to warm up!”

“W-w-what was even THAT?!” Shouted Amelie after jumping out of her hiding spot.

“A badge?” I said as I showed the badge I just unpinned from the clothes of the beastman.

“No, no, not that! I mean that spell. What the hell was that?”

“One of my spells. Nice one isn’t it” I replied with a loud chuckle.

Amelie then wasn’t able to utter one single word. She silently helped me search the unconscious students for their badges and possibly stolen once though unfortunately finding nothing. After hearing the sounds of battle not too far from us and seeing a fireball being shot towards the sky, me and Amalie silently ran towards that direction ready to look for badges once again.

Part 3

- CONSTANTINE GILDOR’S POV -

“Woooo HaHaHa! Look at him go, Eki!”- I shouted as I got overly excited at the image of Raphael facing off against another group “- That’s the fourth one and the sun isn’t even fully up! How many badges does he have?”

“His group now holds 15 badges”

“I told you he was gonna show us something interesting!”

“...Though he has only fought those who had just a few badges so far so…Oh!” Exclaimed Ekisora as she closed her eyes to heighten her concentration.

“What happened? Someone’s trying to fight him?” I excitedly showered her with questions.

“No no, it’s not about Raphael but his friends instead” Answered Ekisora with a troubled expression as she switched the image on the wall of the academy from the bird looking at Raphael to that of Danthe’s group.

“Wait…isn’t that-” I tried to say before getting rudely interrupted by her.

“Yes, that’s the group of third years who’s been crushing their opponents!” She exclaimed with excitement.

[Seems like she’s interested in one of those groups…strange for her to do so though. She’s been impartial ever since the event started. Ufufu, so you found someone interesting uh, Eki!]

- DANTHE HANNES’ POV -

We were just taking a break from all the walking we had been doing since before. The sun was now shily showing itself but we were already up since two hours before that. The reason being that none of us could really sleep after hearing the headmaster’s speech. It was painfully clear to all of us that, at some point, we would be forced to fight Raphael. Either that or we would just have to run away as soon as we saw him. Though I and Lucas were excited at the prospect of fighting him, the two Evergards seemed to be on edge at that idea, Sora in particular.

“Sora-” I asked from the front of the line as soon as we started walking again “- why are you so upset about fighting with Raphael?”

“Ah…ehm, well-” Tried to say the girl as she began fidgeting with her fingers and stutter.

“Who sane of mind would be happy to fight their fianceè?” Said Lucas without paying the slightest attention to his words. It was clear by the reaction he and the others had once they realized what he had just said. Sora began furiously blushing, Youm sunk his face into his hands and violently sighed while the one who caused this looked the most shocked of them all once he realized the mess he caused.

“Sorry, the what!?” I shouted after a couple of seconds needed to take in the piece of information.

“*sigh* No point in hiding it any further-” Exclaimed Youm as he finally rose his face to look at me “- Sora’s been engaged to Raphael for quite a while now. Our families are old friends so when the two of them met, the families decided to have them married”

As he was telling me this, it could not go unnoticed that Sora seemed to be drowning in her own embarrassment. Her face was so red and hot that she was trying to cool it with wind magic. In any other situation I would have been laughing but the fact that this whole ordeal involved none other than Raphael gave me a sound shock. I tried to look for answers from Lucas but he silently nodded in approval to all Youm said.

“So you’re saying that Raphael…THAT Raphael. The one who barely looks at any woman, the one who never makes a comment about females…that Raphael has a fianceè?!” I shouted with a mixture of envy and surprise swelling inside my stomach.

“Yes…Believe me, I was surprised too when I first came to know it-” Said Lucas with an apprehensive expression and the typical pats on the shoulders of an old man “- Look, my own brother didn’t even tell me anything about her until we met her at the academy…Incredible isn't it!”

“I-I just can’t believe that a guy like Raphael who’s only interested in magic and books, actually has a fianceè…and a beauty at that too! It’s a shame I didn’t know soone-...Wait a damn second! Why the hell didn’t I know sooner!?”

“Since we had just become nobles-” Promprlty answered Youm in a kind of pissed-off manner “- and the Bluescales are commoners, he thought that it would be better for both parties to keep it hidden for the time being”

“I-it just sounds so strange. I mean like-”

“Ohhh, having a conversation in the middle of the battlefield, are we?” Interrupted me a voice from beyond the line of trees.

The relaxed mood that had created around us instantly broke into the usual seriousness of the past days. Everyone faced the source of the sound, dropping whatever they were doing and getting ready for battle.

“Look, Ron-” Said a tall guy as he came out of the trees first “- We’ve found the second in the standings. Quite the lucky catch!”

“Don’t let your guard down, Asmahel” Replied, with a strong decisive voice, the one who seemed to be the leader of the group, since the others seemed to be following after him.

All four of them looked way older than us. They were at least in their twenties, one even seemed way past them. Their leader, a fairly tall guy with short brown hair falling over his forehead and glasses, seemed to look the most troublesome of the bunch. His way of positioning his companions was top-notch. Simply by pointing his fingers, his groupmates would swiftly move to the pointed position and take a battle stance. Maybe it was because of our age difference but they all looked well built, enough to take the fight into close quarters if necessary.

“Danthe, what do we do?” Asked Lucas, the closest to me.

“Try to use the same tactic, test the waters, if it doesn’t work we’ll just go all out”

“Well-” Said the leader of the opposing group as he fixed his glasses “- I don’t see the point of presentations so…FIRE!”

When the command was given, the four members of the group began firing their spells almost at the same time. They were four [Fireballs] at a distance of around six to seven meters.

“Firewall!” Shouted Youm as he saw the first signs of the fireballs being cast.

“Lucas!-” I shouted trying to get the attention of the now conjuring a sword groupmate “-Let’s go!”

“We’ll watch your back!” Shouted Sora.

A second after, we could hear the sound of the enemy’s fireballs hitting Youm’s firewall. That was our cue to act. Me and Lucas rushed out from behind the wall on two different sides. Little did we know that the enemy had already changed position, creating some serious distance between them. They must’ve known our way to fight to some extent.

As the wall collapsed, two spells, one of wind nature and one of fire, were fired from Youm and Sora’s hands directly towards the man who stood in the center of the enemy’s formation. The guy with glasses, supposedly named Ron, promptly jumped, as he was trying to counter Lucas’ rush towards one of his groupmates, and cast a [Stone shield] over his right arm, big enough to cover the upper half of his body.

That little window of time given him by Sora and Youm was enough for Lucas to engage in a one-on-one fight with the tallest student of the bunch. For the first two slashes, he seemed to struggle since the tall guy was barraging him with fast [Stone bullet] at a very close range. Some of those [Stone bullets] were even able to land on him, even though simply to graze him on his cheek and shoulder, nevertheless, those spells weren’t enough for him to be stopped. With the third slash, the fight was decided.

Lucas swang his sword from side to side with his waist lowered almost to the point where his knee was almost touching his elbow. His aim was the opponent's knee and, as expected of him, his sword hit the target. Lucas’ sword was powerful enough to not only make the opponent lose balance but also to drag his leg in the same direction of the slash, making it possible to connect another hit. As the tall guy fell on his back, it was too late for him to react in any way, Lucas’ sword swang from up his head and landed across the enemy’s ribs. Puke and saliva coming out of his mouth were the clear sign of Lucas’ victory.

In the meantime, I was faced with the two remaining opponents, since Youm and Sora were targetting Ron. The first thing they did was to run and dodge a couple of my fireballs. At first, I thought they were just scared but in reality, there was a pattern to the way the two guys dodged. In the end, I got myself surrounded. One was in front of me and the other behind. No matter how I turned around, they would move accordingly in order to keep the same positions. I had fallen into a trap.

“Deep burrow!” Shouted the one behind me while the one in front of me, a guy circa the same height as me with wide shoulders and thick arms, pointed a [Fireball] towards my head.

It was a feeling. Even if faint I could feel the mana gather under my feet. It was the preamble of the spell [Deep burrow], one of the first earth-type advanced tier spells the academy teaches on the third year. Its peculiarity is that it’s not really considered an attack spell but is used as one. [Deep burrow] rapidly creates a hole a couple of meters deep where the caster chooses it to be. It’s not so effective in a face-to-face battle but it’s vastly used when ambushing.

It would have been easy to dodge if I could’ve jumped either backward or towards the enemy in front of me since I knew that some [Deep burrow] can be created rather wide. The problem was the fireball coming for my head. Hence, I had to improvise.

“Stone pillar!” I shouted as I crossed my arms over my chest and hid my head behind my hands.

As my words commanded, a pillar rose up from the ground slightly oblique and facing towards me. The speed with which the pillar grew was higher than that of the fireball coming towards me. As I intended, I was hit on my forearms by that stone pillar, just in time before the burrow formed and sank down my pillar. The recoil from the hit was strong enough to throw me out of the borrow’s way. It was a gamble in many ways since I wasn’t sure whether the pillar would’ve been faster than the [Fireball] or if the recoil was enough to get me out of the [Deep burrow]. Luckily, I landed, even if quite shakily, right in front of the opponent behind me.

He had no time to react. I turned around as I still wasn’t facing him but his companion. Placed my open palm over his belly and shouted “Fireball!”. The effect was immediate. The point-blank [Fireball] not only burned clothes and skin alike but it also sprinkled my hand with the opponent’s crimson-colored blood. A [Fireball] is not enough to kill a human but it still can deliver quite enough damage to render it unable to fight. Such was the case of the enemy I just felled. Only one was remaining now.

Upon seeing his friend being beaten he rushed towards me with blind fury as he shot fireball after fireball at an impressive speed. I dodged them as I tried to keep my legs steady for my next spell though the clothes on my right side began burning down due to a too close dodge. Once the opponent was in range I finally released the spell I had in mind.

“Fire burst!” I shouted when he was about a meter before reaching me with his clenched fist.

A red hot cone of flames sprang out of my palms and covered the entire body of my victim. His clothes rapidly became ashes as so did his hair and the awful smell of burned skin began filling my nostrils. When I left him, he was still breathing but unconscious. Now the only opponent remaining was their leader.

I turned around to face him the exact moment he fell on the ground as a small stream of blood fell from his forehead. He had been struggling against the combined barrage of Youm and Sora. Their synergy was impressive as expected of twins but it still left me astonished how just the two of them could keep at bay a third-year student soo easily. He was still keeping his [Stone shield] high as he suffered the constant spells of the Evergards when suddenly the now free Lucas landed a solid hit on his head from behind.

“Everyone’s fine?” Asked Lucas as he rested the makeshift sword on his shoulders before it crumbled down. His cheek and shoulders were bleeding, not profusely but still enough to seem mildly painful.

“I’m fine just *huff* give me a couple minutes to catch my breath!-” I replied as I squatted down near one of the opponents to search what remained of his clothes for the badges “- What about you Youm, Sora?”

“We’re ok! Do you need any help?” Asked the white-haired girl.

“Nah, just look for badges then shoot their flares. It’s better if those guys are treated” I said as I pointed to one of my burnt opponents laying on the ground.

“Couldn’t hold back, huh?-” Cockyly asked Lucas “- Were they that dangerous?”

“Yeah, they trapped me good. I had to suffer some damage but it’s fine…at least with this many badges we are now on top, eh?” I said as I looked at Youm taking the bag full of badges from the leader’s possession.

“Let’s go downstream after shooting the flare-” Said Lucas as he grabbed one of the enemy flares “- I wanna have a little break but doing it here might attract too much attention!”

We silently nodded as we gather what was useful and left Lucas to signal the opponent's surrender. It wasn’t needed of us to do so but we would all feel bad if something happened to them in case they weren’t treated. Once the pillar of red smoke towered high over us, we picked up our previous pace and walked downstream the little river, looking for a place to rest and tend to our injuries.