With a belly full of fish and a warm fire heating her up in this cold autumn night, Elise Auxil felt as though the very atmosphere was wrapping around her like a bunch of cozy blankets. This caused her eyelids to feel heavy, and her thoughts proceeded to drift away, as was wont to happen to anyone about to enter the realm of sleep.

And then, all of that was snapped away when Cadmus brought up the pair that had almost defeated them today: Zane Brycen and Tanya Louise. Cadmus and Elise had managed to escape them for now, but Elise had no doubt that the pair would be hunting after them. They had seemed quite adamant on taking them down, after all—even if it was for reasons she didn’t quite understand.

Actually, no. They had seemed quite adamant on taking Cadmus down. Elise was his partner though, and his defeat meant her defeat, so she was included in this strange vendetta as well.

“The forest vines they were manipulating,” Elise remembered, “They were immune to my fire spells, and they were used very competently to both attack and defend at the same time. To defeat Brycen and Louise, we’ll absolutely have to find a way to stop those vines.”

“My sword managed to cut through one of those vines, so we know that a magic blade will work,” Cadmus said.

Elise nodded, “Yes, but they’re using so many vines that getting close enough to cut them is suicide. We need a spell that can cut them from range.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know any spells like that. Do you?”

Elise gave it some thought and tried to remember, but nothing useful made itself known.

“No,” she said, “I don’t know any spells like that either.”

Silence enveloped their camp as Cadmus descended into what seemed like deep thought. Then, after a few moments, he said,

“What about creating a new spell then?”

Elise blinked, “A… new spell? That’s rather unfeasible, isn’t it? We don’t have any laurite, nor do we have enough time.”

Cadmus dipped his head, “Sorry, I misspoke. Rather than create a new spell, what I want to do is modify an already existing spell to suit our purpose. Since the spell has already been created and refined, I won’t need any laurite to test the different variations of the formula that I come up with.”

“And… you can do that in the time we have left?” Elise asked.

“Perhaps,” Cadmus said, “It is the field of biology, which is my speciality, and I do have a spell in mind that I think would be a perfect fit for this situation if modified just a little.”

Despite his words, there was a troubled look on his face which made Elise suspect that things wouldn’t quite go as smoothly as Cadmus had made it out to seem.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

Cadmus took a moment, looking as though he was searching for a way to word his thoughts, “I do think that this is a valid strategy… however, it may be better to consider it a sort of backup plan. Modifying spells is far easier than creating new ones, but magic formulas are fickle. I can’t be sure if modifying the spell I’m thinking of to work the way I intend for it to is even possible, so simply relying on this plan would be tremendously risky. I think it would be better if I worked on this myself while we come up with another, more reliable plan.”

Elise found herself curious as to which spell Cadmus intended to modify, but she didn’t push the subject. It was best if they stayed on topic,

“I see. Do you have any other ideas then?”

“What about that spell that turns the ground into spikes?” Alice asked, looking up at Cadmus, “The spell travels through the earth, and you can choose where to make the spikes appear right? That way, the vines won’t be able to defend against it at all!”

Cadmus seemed to consider her proposal before shaking his head, “No. [Ground spikes] would certainly be able to bypass their vines, but its movement is too slow and visible. Brycen and Louise would have more than enough time to notice and dodge the spell.”

“Oh…”

“I was thinking that we should take a more defensive approach,” Cadmus said, “They want to fight us, but we have no obligation to fight them. We can simply use a defensive spell, like [earth wall] to fend off their barrage of vines, and use the cover to retreat. They will be forced to spread out their vines to go around the [earth wall], and that will give us a chance to cut them down with our [magic swords] without being overwhelmed. We can even work together to create more than one [earth wall] and…”

Cadmus was still talking, but Elise found her focus shifting to something else. What Cadmus was saying was undoubtedly important, but seeing him meticulously working out what to do next, Elise couldn’t help but remember all the doubts she had held of him ever since the start of this round.

All this time, she had wondered about Cadmus’ true nature. He barely possessed any skills, and yet he had been quick-witted enough to escape from Zane Brycen and Tanya Louise. His plan for this round had hit so many stumbling blocks, and yet he had continued to boldly move forward with it.

Was he a masterful, calculating schemer, taking everything into account and choosing only the most optimal course of action? Or was he just an arrogant, moderately clever student, always believing himself to be right, and usually getting lucky by being so?

Seeing him now… Elise could tell that she was at the precipice—the precipice of a fundamental understanding of Cadmus Guiles. Just a little more probing, and she felt that she could finally satisfy her burning curiousity.

Honestly, there was no point to it. Pursuing this would yield nothing of value. It would be better to just leave this be and focus on what Cadmus was saying right now.

But…

Under the light of the blazing fire, Cadmus’ narrow green eyes seemed to flicker a ruby red for an instant.

…For some reason, this was simply one curiousity Elise could not shake off.

“Guiles,” She found herself saying, interrupting his words, “What would you have done if I hadn’t partnered up with you?”

Her question seemed to have taken Cadmus by surprise,

“…What do you mean?”

Elise explained, “I know that you went into this round with the assumption that you would easily run into an animal, but with Vinari, you wouldn’t have been able to track any animal, and thus wouldn’t have been able to figure out that the animals in this forest are warier of humans than usual. What would you have done then?”

Cadmus looked curious, but he dutifully answered her question,

“I would have figured something else out.”

“And you’re sure of that?” Elise asked.

Cadmus nodded, “Of course.” He pointed at the skewers they had cooked their fish in and set aside, “For example, even if I hadn’t been able to find an animal, I would have changed our objective to finding a river. No matter how wary of humans fish are, their range of motion in a river is far more limited than animals living on land. If there’s a beacon orb hidden in the river, then a fish would have easily been able to lead Oliver and me to it.”

“And if there wasn’t?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Cadmus asked, looking genuinely curious, “It’s the same answer as before: I would have figured something else out.”

And with those words came understanding.

Arrogant or calculating? Elise’s question had been flawed from the start. Cadmus wasn’t one or the other. It was simply that he was both.

Relentless calculation caused by an unrelenting arrogance—that was the essence of Cadmus Guiles.

Cadmus always assumed he would achieve victory, and that was why he never stopped trying to figure out the method to achieving that victory. It was a strange way of thinking to Elise. Most people only became confident in winning when they had the process or strategy figured out, but Cadmus was the complete opposite.

He was always confident that he would reach the destination he was aiming for, all he had to do was find the path that would lead him there.

Elise had no way of confirming whether she was right, of course. She could have just as easily come to the wrong conclusion. But, she couldn’t help but think that her conclusion was right nonetheless. Everything that she’d seen about Cadmus Guiles, everything that she’d heard from him… it all led to this answer.

Having finally resolved the puzzle of Cadmus Guiles that had vexed her for all this round, Elise dipped her head in apology, and said to him,

“Sorry for interrupting you with my questions. Please, continue what you were saying before.”

After his rather uncharacteristic outburst against Ardea, it had taken Oliver approximately five minutes to come to his senses, after which time he was assaulted by a sudden flood of regret. Yes, Ardea’s words had been annoying, but he really shouldn’t have lost his temper like that. They were still in the second round as a team, and things would be so immensely awkward between them now.

Besides, The Dragon Princess was scary and powerful—both, in the combat and political sense. If she felt that he had wronged her too drastically, then there was no telling what she would do.

Thankfully, his worries had been mostly unfounded. Once Ardea had exited the temple with the beacon orb and found him waiting at the entrance, Oliver had opened his mouth to apologize or make excuses—anything to smooth things over.

However, Ardea had merely held up a severe hand, and pinned him with a furious glare,

“Don’t speak another word. You’ve already said your piece. Now we will simply take this beacon orb back outside, and that will be the end of our association. Understood?”

Oliver had never nodded so frantically in his entire life.

The silence between them as they travelled through the forest was still a little awkward, and Oliver couldn’t help but flinch whenever Ardea made a sudden movement, but since she had so clearly defined what they would do next, a lot of the expected awkwardness simply didn’t show itself.

By the time night had arrived, they had already managed to reach the river. Ardea proceeded to start a fire and hunt a few fish.

As expected, she offered none to Oliver this time.

The next morning, after having gargled and washed their faces in the river, Elise had a minor panic attack when she couldn’t find Orange anywhere. For a second, she suspected that Orange had grown too wary of them and had run off into the night.

Alice quickly explained that he had simply gone for a hunt, and would be back soon. She was proven right when Orange did indeed slink back into their campsite about twenty minutes later, his furry muzzle dripping with blood.

He dipped it in the river, washing away the blood, and after gulping down some water, seemed eager to start moving. Neither Elise nor Cadmus saw any reason to remain here, so, after a moment to make sure they weren’t leaving anything behind, quickly set off.

As they walked alongside the lazily curving river, Elise couldn’t help but feel a little lighter than the past few days. After the revelation she had arrived at last night, a significant portion of her mind was no longer constantly analyzing Cadmus, trying to deduce his true nature.

Plus, the bright rays from the sun didn’t hurt either.

Then, after an hour or so, they came across an area with signs that indicated that another camp had been created here, and a weight that Elise had managed to forget for a while once again settled inside her mind. It wasn’t the fact that another camp was here that brought her down, but her eyes had grown sharper throughout this round, and with those sharpened eyes she managed to spot a few strands of conspicuous red hair that sat in the dirt.

Her Highness…

Of course, there was no guarantee that it had been Ardea who had made camp here, but the strands of red hair had reminded Elise of her all the same. Besides, the way the skewers lying on the ground had been fashioned…

Thin and elegant. Just like Ardea had taught her to make them.

“You seem troubled again,” Cadmus said, snapping her out of thoughts, “It’s been a common occurrence ever since this round started.”

Elise’s lips unconsciously pressed into a thin line, “It… it doesn’t matter. Let’s continue on.”

Orange seemed to agree, because he turned back and let out a bark that sounded a lot like an impatient, ‘hurry up!’

Elise was about to follow after him, when suddenly, a dull cracking sound resounded from deeper within the forest. For a second she worried that the sound had come from vegetation or wood snapping underfoot of an enemy team close by. But no. This buzzing, rippling quality… that sound had more closely resembled—

“Lightning…” Cadmus muttered, looking towards the direction where the sound had come from.

Cadmus and Elise shared a look, before Elise said, “Do you think Gale Holland is there?”

“He’s certainly not the only mage to use lightning spells, but we can’t ignore the possibility that it might be him. We have to go check.”

“Or we could just continue following Orange,” Elise said.

Cadmus firmly shook his head, “No. If that’s really Gale Holland, then seeing how he fights before the third round isn’t an opportunity we can just pass up.”

Elise had to admit, he made sense, so she nodded her head, saying as she heard the sound of lightning ring out again, “Let’s hurry then.”

“Alice,” Cadmus said as they took off running.

Alice understood immediately and, using the magic circle she had already prepared, let out a few barks towards Orange. Orange seemed hesitant in following them, which made sense to Elise. If the animals in this forest had learned to be cautious of magic, then running towards magic probably wasn’t very high on his to-do list.

Still, Orange followed in the end, even overtaking them as they raced through the greenery. They could tell they were rapidly getting closer, because the sounds of lightning were getting louder and louder, sounding more like they were piercing through the air instead of just ringing into the distance now. And soon, other sounds joined the loud cracks of lightning as well, though they were more difficult to place.

Orange came to a stop at the edge of a grove, and Cadmus and Elise followed his example (with Cadmus once again breathing far harder than he should have been from having run such a short distance). They quietly knelt behind the green vegetation, making sure that their profiles were completely hidden, before peering outside the grove.

In front of them was a clearing, and within it was a familiar lineup of mages:

Gelida Olvo, Candice Regis, Morgana Le Fay, Gwen Eviere, Gawain Le Fay, and his partner (whose name Elise had never learned). They seemed to be working together against only a single enemy team consisting of Gale Holland’s brothers: Connor and Elis Holland. Those two had been the ones using the lightning magic, as evidenced by the beasts made of lightning emerging from Connor’s magic circle, and the vaguely sharp-looking lightning projectiles emerging from Elis’.

Cadmus didn’t even try to hide his disappointment.

However, neither Elise nor Cadmus made to leave. Despite this battle not containing Gale Holland, it was still worth spectating. Not only was it six people against two, but the six people almost all had some sort of fame attached to their name.

Gawain Le Fay was said to be almost as skilled as Arthur Pendragon, Gelida Olvo was known for her innovative ‘cold spell’, Morgana Le Fay was skilled enough in magic to have created her own unique spell, Gwen Eviere was said to have known healing spells, and even Candice Regis had grown by leaps and bounds during the attack in Lorem forest, allowing her to make better use of the gifts her magically-inclined blood provided her. The only unknown one among them was Gawain’s partner, an average-looking boy with straight black hair.

And yet, despite facing an alliance of such overwhelming people, Connor and Elis Holland still hadn’t been defeated. They were working in perfect tandem, stopping their enemies from getting close as they launched lightning attack after lightning attack.

Gelida Olvo held out a strange spherical and translucent spell the size of her head in front of her like a shield, which Elise assumed to be her ‘cold spell’. As soon as the sphere made contact with a lightning beast or projectile aimed at her, the attack instantly evaporated into thin air.

“Ha!” Gelida laughed, “Your attacks are just spells imbued with the element of lightning! They may be faster than normal, but they’re definitely not as fast or hot as true lightning, so my [anti-heat] can easily rob them of their heat and dispel them!”

Looking closer, Elise realized that Gelida was right. Though these lightning beasts and projectiles were faster than Ardea’s [flame tigers] and [fireballs], their speed was still manageable, and almost everyone had their own way of dealing with them. Morgana was using some sort of pitch-black shadowy blade to slice through them, Gawain was using a [magic sword] to do the same (smart of him not to use the sword on his waist. The electricity would have undoubtedly travelled through the metal and electrocuted him), Candice was using [rock spike] to shoot through them (with some levels of success), and Gwen and Gawain’s partner were standing much further back, supporting their allies with their own basic projectiles when they could, but mainly staying out of the fight.

In fact, Gelida was standing in front of the last two, protecting them from any spells aimed at them, making sure not to allow the Holland brothers to drag them into the fight as well.

“My, my,” Connor laughed, a bead of sweat travelling down his temple, “Six against two? That’s a bit overkill, isn’t it?”

A lull fell upon the battle at his words, and the flinging of spells halted on both sides.

“You’re complaining now?” Morgana scoffed, “You’re the one who saw all of us together and still decided to attack. Don’t whine just because things didn’t go the way you thought they would.”

Connor chuckled, “Fair enough. But, it seems like we won’t be able to defeat you like this—”

“You won’t be able to defeat us either way,” Gawain said, the firm yet courteous smile on his face, and the set of steel armour he had on making him look eerily similar to Arthur, “It would be best if you surrendered now. Though you were the ones to attack us, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to defeat you when we outnumber you by such an overwhelming degree.”

Morgana clicked her tongue in clear annoyance, “Ever the golden boy, huh?”

Gawain’s smile twitched, and he spared her a glance, “Coming from you, that is a fine compliment indeed, Morgana.”

Morgana glared back at him, but Connor jumped in before she could say anything.

“Thank you for the concern, knight,” he said, “But we don’t need it.”

He said that, but, behind him, Elis’s face was twisted in obvious nervousness.

“You’re right though, as we are, we can’t beat you all,” Connor continued, “So, let me show you our family’s special technique. Though I can’t use it as well as Gale, it should still be enough to defeat you all.”

Cadmus leaned in closer.

Elis looked worried, “B-but Connor! That spell—the feedback—”

Connor held up a hand, shooting Elis a grin, “Don’t worry, I’ve been practicing. I’ve got the size to mana ratio down to a reliable enough level.”

With those words, he sprung into action, handing Elis his magic circle while rapidly drawing a new one in the air. Of course, his opponents weren’t keen on letting him finish, and charged forward, but Elis kept them at bay by firing both magic circles in each hand with reckless abandon.

It was a foolhardy tactic, mainly because, though he would manage to buy some time, such wild firing would only lead to Elis running out of mana all the sooner, and he would be of no help afterwards. The only way the Holland brothers could justify this was if the magic circle Connor was drawing was something ridiculously powerful.

For better or worse, their tactic worked, and soon, Connor was holding an intricate-looking magic circle in front of him. Good thing for them too, because Elis had just hit his limit and had sunk to his knees, his body trembling like a leaf and sweat pouring down his flushed face.

Without Elis’ spells to serve as a barrier, Gawain—the most physically fit of their enemies—instantly closed in on them, his [magic sword] held high, ready to attack. Connor grunted, leaping back and swinging his own magic circle like a blade.

For a beat nothing happened.

In that small moment, Elise thought that perhaps Connor’s spell had misfired or something.

But then, all at once, the ground rumbled, the air shook, and lightning lit up the world. Whatever had happened, had happened too quickly for Elise to see. But, there was no denying its result.

There lay Gawain, collapsed on the grassy ground: his armour blasted open, his flesh within charred, and his body writhing and convulsing violently.

He did not get back up.