Essairyn blinked at the arrow which hadn't even pierced the ground of foliage. She casually reached out and picked it up, twirling the shaft between her fingers. Spinning around to face the intruder, she whistled. "No wonder I didn't feel any threat from behind me. That was a pretty lousy shot. You might want to practice archery a little more before trying to sneak attack. Good try though, and I know you're behind a trunk three trees away from me, so there's no point in hiding now."

The man in question jerked in his hiding place, trying to remember how many trees away he was from the two members of the opposing blue team. He stood stiffly in place, still not wanting to reveal his location in case it was a bluff. In reality, Essairyn just made up any random number as she proceeded to step forward toward his "hiding spot." Hearing the girl's footsteps, he opted out of being a sitting duck and bolted away before she got near. At least, he would have the advantage of distance to run away before they caught him.

Seeing the fleeing man, Essairyn shook her head amusedly. Instead of blindly walking straight to find his hiding spot, she was sidestepping to the right in order to catch a glimpse of where he was. But the man inadvertently made her job easier, thinking that she wouldn't be able to reach him in time. With a charming grin, she raced after him. In a matter of seconds, he was prone on the ground, dead from a slash to the back of the neck.

"Well that was easy." She swung her blade as if to clean off imaginary blood and then insouciantly glanced at it before placing it back in its sheath.

"Do you think more spies are coming back not knowing the situation at station nine?" queried Darren, coming up from behind her.

"Perhaps, but now with that sneak attack, we lost sight of the battle below. Although... I guess I got distracted before this even occurred." She coughed, smiling sheepishly up at Darren. He lightly chuckled while shaking his head and waved her back to the tree gap above the station.

"Let's go join the fun then." A roguish, lopsided grin flashed across his face as he turned back to look at Essairyn. She grinned back in agreement, and the two of them jumped down from the hidden world. Essairyn used magic to slow their descent just enough to safely land beside the station. Since no one expected people to be falling out of the trees, their surprise arrival allowed them to take down any enemies within arms length of landing.

"Where the hell were you two?!" bellowed their former assault team leader after recognizing them.

"Didn't you see just now?" said Darren mock-innocently, pointing above them.

"Ha ha. Very funny." The leader turned away with a last grudging reproach. "You could have arrived sooner. Now we have the situation under control, but we lost quite a few men."

"Geez man, you're really starting to sound like a knight!" joked Darren nonchalantly as he fended off an opponent with a shove of his sword. Essairyn's ways seemed to be rubbing off on him. But perhaps, this was his true nature that was finally starting to relax and reveal itself.

The leader shook his head, saying nothing. He wasn't surprised by Essairyn's stunt ever since being in the same class with her. But he figured at least Darren wouldn't be the same based off his initial impression of him earlier that day. However, it looked like the rumor was true about them being travelers who arrived together. Eccentricity among travelers wasn't uncommon. Usually, that was a sign of greater potential as the opposite case was being too scared to survive in this world. Many such cases were found in Neu'arth.

Thus, after surreptitiously observing Darren's combat abilities, the leader mentally accepted him into the advanced class. He was unlike the others who loathed such cases of partiality. As long as those who moved up from lower classes were capable, he paid no further mind to the situation. But not everyone was like the straight-laced assault team leader. Most didn't care one way or another after an initial spark of jealousy. It was the outspoken ones who ended up setting the tone of the entire class.

"If you don't want to become a knight, then why're you here?" jeered a tall, well-built man as he suddenly engaged Darren with a seamless revolution of his sword from a just finished fight.

The swift maneuver unbalanced Darren as he sought to parry the spinning blow. Taking advantage of his teetering steps, the taller man quickly gained the upper hand. Noticing the situation nearby, Essairyn jumped in to help.

"I've got it!" yelled Darren through gritted teeth. He sidestepped to generate momentum and space in order to leap away and gain enough distance to recover his balance. If the Knights believed that he could progress enough in the advanced class to better prepare for the Farinheld mission, then he needed this kind of challenge. The weak station stealing team from earlier were not worth mentioning as more than a heated warmup.

Seeing the determination in Darren's eyes only increased the animosity of the other man. But even as he sped up his attacks, putting Darren more and more on the guard rather than on partial offense, Essairyn didn't interfere. This was his battle. And she was the one who had put him in this situation. If she treated him like a handicap, it would do neither of them any good for the long run if they stayed together. Besides, only he could break the limit on himself.

Just as the man was about to land a vital strike on Darren, he suddenly grasped his surroundings, noticing that he was alone. His yellow team had fled the scene in order to safeguard the device. They had been purposefully losing in order to distract their attackers and allow the device holder to slip away. So, the man inwardly cursed and leapt back to make his escape before the blue assault team could encircle him. Even if Essairyn wasn't going to interfere, that didn't mean others wouldn't.

"F***! You let him get away! What if he had the device?!" screamed the ashen brunette who Darren remembered was from their assault team. "What're you even doing in the advanced class if you can't even beat the class below us?!"

Darren narrowed his eyes at her senseless outrage and lack of tact. This was only an exercise. She didn't need to get so worked up about an opponent escaping. They could easily pursue him rather than waste time to argue over a technicality. Essairyn would have chased after the man too if it weren't for the dark veil that dropped over Darren's face. As she instinctively stepped forward, an abrupt shout penetrated the budding tension.

"The device was found! A guy named Leœss picked it up after the original guy died!"

At the news, everyone forgot about Darren and the short-tempered brunette. They rushed over in the direction of the voice who they recognized as from their team. Essairyn watched them all leave with a stony expression before turning to Darren with a softer one.

"I'm fine." He instantly said before Essairyn could utter even a word. She weakly smiled in return. He had correctly guessed what she would say. So instead, she started speaking something ambiguous without looking at him.

"I thought living an ordinary life was enough for me. I was okay. But I was just fooling myself. Some part of me never gave up that dream."

Darren paused, staring at her with half-lidded eyes. "What're you trying to say?" His tone was curt with a vestige of curiosity.

Essairyn turned to face him. Lucid lavender eyes suffused with quiet intensity bore into his own. "Do whatever you want Darren. What others say you can or can't do... You can do whatever you want."

The words almost seemed laughable in their simplicity. Yet they stirred him, pricked his core. He understood her then. The figure who always seemed spontaneous yet sure of herself, by his side yet ahead of him at every step. He thought he wouldn't ever be able to piece together this irregular puzzle, but in reality, she was the same as him as he in her. Wanting to be more than what they were. Wanting more than what opportunities were given to them. Wanting more out of life and yet never daring to take that step beyond the ordinary. They were not the only ones who had ever felt this way. Perhaps it was a smoldering longing shared by every individual that eventually dwindled to ash in light of their truth. The truth of their existence dictated by the world and their circumstances.

He didn't say anything. She could read his eyes to know that he understood. So with the faintest quirks of a smile, she gestured with her head to follow their team after Leœss.

"Might as well go see that poor guy's fate. At least he won't have to be a corpse long," she chuckled.

Darren returned that lighter atmosphere with his own smile and murmur of agreement. They unhurriedly arrived at the scene of Leœss's death and almost immediate revival after the assault team leader picked up the device from his fallen body. The game was over.

"Well that was anticlimactic. It wasn't even an hour, and yet they boasted that this game would take us forever!" The ashen brunette harrumphed with a roll of her amber eyes and hand on her hip. She glanced at Leœss's awakening body with distaste. "Too bad the standard has lowered this round of recruiting. What a bore." With a final kick at the dirt around Leœss, she pivoted to leave.

"Apologize."

She turned around the threatening voice. It was Leœss who had now fully awoken to dirt being thrown on his clothes. Her scowl twisted into a smirk. "About what?"

"You know." Leœss stood up calmly. He stared straight into her eyes. "The Knights made this decision after evaluating that the intermediate class wasn't suitable for me."

After clicking her tongue, she scoffed and turned away. "Whatever." A secure hand on her shoulder prevented her from leaving. She jerked her head back to glare at Leœss, challenging his intentions to fight. He merely stared with the same expression right back at her.

"Hold up." Two burly arms separated the two figures who looked like they were about to exchange fists. "Enough with that. The game is over. We're supposed to wait for the results now."

The girl glared at the former assault leader. "What results?" she spat. "We won fair and square. There's no reason to deliberate!"

The leader shrugged. "I don't make the rules. Apparently something happened that made them have to reassess the results."

"Well I'm done here." Her ponytail whipped the air as she spun haughtily away. "I don't want to be around the cheats who don't belong here."

"Cheats? What do you mean?" The leader narrowed his eyes at her. His voice was low with a concealed edge of authority.

"Exactly what I said." She raised her brows lightly and pointed flippantly at Leœss and Darren. At that remark, Essairyn lurched forward at the girl, but Darren in front lifted an arm up to block her. The message he sent over his shoulder with his eyes to Essairyn told her not to get involved.

"Instead of being petty, maybe you should focus on doing something that catches their attention rather than whining." Darren referred to the Knights who had bumped both he and Leœss up to the advanced class in mere days after being sworn in as a trainee. It was obvious to them that it hadn't been the same case for the girl. And to those that knew her, they knew Darren had struck a chord. Like entertained movie guests, the crowd readily inhaled the scene.

The girl's red face and tight jaw suggested she was about to blow. However, the swell in her face toned down enough for her to mockingly remark, "That's rich coming from you. At least this dude was at the top of his class." She jutted out her chin at Leœss disparagingly. Seeing Darren's face mix with confusion, she guffawed. "What a way to take advantage of the system."

"Hey, stop making the situation worse. What's with you today?" The team leader piped in again, frowning in displeasure.

"Just ask her," the girl continued with a head jerk in Essairyn's direction, ignoring the former leader. She tromped away after a final sweeping glare at everyone.

Darren followed the indicated direction and met surprised lavender orbs. He tipped his head to the side, perplexed why Essairyn was suddenly brought into this.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he said with a half-hearted laugh. But instead of Essairyn quelling the unpleasant, churning suspicion in his gut by laughing along with him, her face was serious with a tinge of nervousness. "Essairyn?"

Her brows furrowed and then loosened and then furrowed again as her thoughts wavered what to say. How could she tell him that the girl's words were hatefully correct?