Neo had been training for four weeks of, as Tan had said, hellish guidance. He’d also gone through more lessons with Dagles. He learned quite a lot.

Within those four weeks, not only had his magic abilities improved, he had also lost alot of the weight he had on him and found that his arms, legs, and stomach had developed a slight muscle tone. But Neo had other things to wonder about other than his thinner physique. before he'd entered the maelstrom of students.

He was looking around to see if they could find them, but the headmaster stepped out into the air in front of the crowd, . The casual use of magic in front of everyone was very impressive, but also very practical, as he had gained everyone's attention. His voice resonated in Neo ears "Welcome, students, to this year's tournament test. In the test this year, the main task is to survive the week. You will be guided with no equipment or weapons. Throughout the test you will be gathering points based on a variety of things. There will be dangers on your trip, so pick your teams of four well. You'll have a single day to form your team and then prepare, plan, and think together."

The crowd started whispering during a pause in the headmaster speech and Neo became a lot more conscious about what he was wearing. He placed his arms in the best way possible to hide his white coloured .

The headmaster coughed to get the attention back on him and then he continued, "You are to come back here tomorrow. If you are not here then you will be disqualified automatically. So, you'd better get started, good luck."

With that the headmaster floated back down and out of view. The of students started moving as everyone went to find their friends or ideal teammates. Neo tried to get away, but he was soon spotted, being recognised by his clothing and colour.

Soon Neo was bombarded with so many requests to join teams that he couldn't actually speak edge wise to any of them. But, thankfully, he didn't have to worry about talking once he saw what was over the heads of the students, As he watched a column of smoke that was charging through the crowd toward him. He then saw a flaming head with lion ears jump up from the crowd before disappearing again. Neo smiled know that a fiery one-woman army was coming. None of the students in front of him noticed Tan blazing a path toward him. The crowd parted and the heat, the reason that she could just walk through, assaulted everyone, drying out eyes and taking their breath away.

Some of the students glared at the lioness and released a variety of mana to cool the air in reaction. Air breezed through, the cooled and the humidity increased. 'Well, she's not a subtle person at all.' Not that it surprised him considering the way she fought with nothing held back and didn’t take prisoners, Neo sigh at the memories before he reddened at what Tan said next and how the crowd reacted.

"Neo's mine!" And everyone in the crowd’s eyes bulged with that statement of ownership and the implication that ran through their mind. Even Tan seemed to recognised her mistake asher tail flailed in embarrassment, still, she stood by what she had said and glared at everyone, daring them to challenge her claim.

After a few moments of no one saying anything, Neo got over Tan’s poor use of language. He did notice a few animal kin with some pity in their eyes as they looked at Neo and Tan, though. This caused Neo to worry a little, as there shouldn't be looks of pity in this situation.

Neo coughed to get some attention, "I am her teammate, so thanks for the offers but I'll have to decline."

Most of the students walked away without another word, while some stayed around glaring and whispering. Not that Neo cared, so he ignored them all and walked up to Tan, . "You can turn down the fireworks, no one's challenging you and we have two more teammates to find, unless you need to claim your love for me as well as claim my soul, too. You might need to talk to Bethany about that first."

With that said, her cheeks overwhelmed her fiery ruby flame before her tail went limp and she apologised in a bit of a whimper, "I'm sorry that came out wrong…"

Neo smiled at her defensiveness but decided he shouldn't push it with her and instead asked her about what she thought about the test.

". With good intelligence and preparations we should be able to handle whatever the test criteria are, whether it is purely getting to the end of the week without dying or if there is something that needs collecting along the way. If it's objective based, we'll need to be quick and strike fast. If it's just pure survival then we’ll need people with knowledge in herbs and animals. Also, it's going to be one of us against everyone else for resources so I think we'll need a hunter, or someone that can hide us or our tracks and can disappear. Which is something I realise I'm not very good at."

Neo nodded having similarly thought that there wasn't enough information to make a good plan or decision, so Neo agreed that covering all the bases was a sound plan. They needed to make sure they could move quickly and still have enough power to defend themselves. They also needed away to grab food in order to keep energy up and a place to sleep or take shelter. "Yeah, I agree, but we need to find away to cover all those weakness by tomorrow, do you know anyone that can cover them."

Tan thought for awhile before replying "Ah yeah, I know someone who’s a good sneak and knows how to disappear, she’s also strong and can hold her own in a fight."

"Her?" Neo said which got a reply, "What, something wrong? Most men would be happy to be surround by women."

"Well, not literally, I also know someone who's pretty good with plants, animals, and illusions, she’s also female."

Tan smiled, "That's great, but I doubt we'll have the time to recognise your fantasies. As I hear it, these tests are very difficult and stressful, we won't have time to even mess about."

They split up to find the intended saviours. Neo quickly searched through the crowd trying to find Elisa, without success. He hadn't been to many of the classes that droned on about whatever it was that they did. With few exceptions, he snoozed in them as much as possible while his burning muscles repaired and rebuilt themselves. He sat next to her as much as possible for the interesting classes.

It had started to annoy him as to why he was doing some of those classes, but it wasn't important right now as he left the crowded field, declining invites left and right. 'So where might Elisa be?' Neo thought while looking around the area. Seeing a disturbance in the forest that lined the fields, he noticed a vague figure that sort of blended in. He could see a humanoid standing there, and considering that he didn't know any other tree folk, it was most like Elisa.

He didn't really have enough time to sneak up on her, but it seemed that he didn't need to, as she was away with the fairies. He hadn't been quiet while approaching her, yet she still hadn’t noticed him. Staring at the back of her emerald green hair, Neo thought, 'That's not a good thing to have on a team. She needs to stay in the now and focus or it may cost us the win.'

Neo put a hand on her arm and the small branches poking out of her uniform shook. Neo wondered what she felt to be so nervous and fearful. As she snapped back to reality she jumped, face filled with fear, but she didn't run. She just stood staring at his .

Neo thought he knew why she acted like she did so he simply asked, "Why are you so scared of me?"

Elisa just stood staring at her feet without reacting to answer his question, so Neo decide to threaten her. ‘If she didn't like me touching herthen I'll use it against her,' he thought.

"If you do not ."

This got a reaction from her as she glanced at him making eye contact. She looked away again before speaking. "You feel immense, never-ending, untouchable, cold, warm, with overly abundant force of life, and yet you’re surrounded by death

She took a breath, "It excites me and terrifies me. We of the plant forms respect and love death. As it feeds us and slowly takes us, we do not run from it and we do our best to make an impact on the world around us before you come for us. There are ancient stories about beings who observed and are always there when one of our ancient trees die. It's become a tradition to accept them into our groves, so they may guide our families over ."

Taking another nervous breath, she continued, "I know you are one of those who guides. It explains everything, it's told to every young sapling what you feel like. But I had no idea!"

Neo suddenly became conscious of his eyes and wondered what they looked like. , he'd just have to assume that it was just Elisa and tree folk, as he was normal in the mirror and as no else had reacts to him. "So what if I’m not totally human, is that a surprise? If you know what I am then why are you shying away from me?"

She was still staring at her feet, making it difficult to hear her, "When I first bumped into you I was pretty cocky and overconfident in my abilities as a young Eldertree. That image was shattered when I met you and looked you in the eyes. I shamefully lost my mind and ran."

She had a defeated air and few tears ran down her cheek. she wiped them away before continuing in a croaky voice, barely holding the tears back. "I asked the ancient trees what I should do, as they had meet your kind before, and they told me to be respectful by avoiding eye contact, since your don't like being recognised. If we don't get a good image of you we can't disrupt your important work. But they also laughed it off saying that I might not meet another for hundreds of years, and that I should be grateful for the experience and honour in seeing you let alone talking to you."

As she reached the crescendo of her explanation she looked as if she was going to break down and cry, "And then you walked into my class and looked me in the eyes and I… I just ran, again, without a second thought. I was so terrified that I was so disrespectful to a being who are held in high regard."

She cried and Neo couldn't help himself as he hugged her. It felt right and as someone who was caring, protective,and supportive, he definitely understood her as he shared in her fear.

After a few moments of hugging her, she'd settled down and a was seemingly enjoying his embrace, considering she was surrounded by death. Her red eyes where now looking at his chin while glance at his eyes, "Sorry about being so disrespectful, and crying."

Neo smile, "That's ok, it's overwhelming for me, too, and I had no idea that you were being disrespectful. So, it's really fine. I don't have much experience in this world, let alone being ahh, what do you call us?"

Neo saw her blink a few times before replying,"We call them Fellers."

Neo could help but laugh of course trees would call a someone who kills trees or are around for their deaths, Fellers. "I haven't been a Feller for very long and am just getting use to it. So, yeah, I'm learning, too. Elisa, I do however need you to keep this yourself."

Elisa nodded and said, "Yes, of course. It's the least I can do for you."

Neo gave her a quick hug, "Thank you, Elisa. Do you perhaps have a team to compete in the tournament?"

She stopped and looked out over the lot thinner crowd and cried out loud and face palmed, "Ow , what will I do now? I got into thinking who I might team up with and got distracted."

She then whispered at the end, "I really need learn to stop listening to the song," and sighed.

Neo smiled and thought, 'At least she's aware of her weakness, that instantly makes it better.'

Even though he enjoyed watching Elisa panic, he decided to spare her from agonising , "It's okay, I actually came over to ask you if you wanted to join our team."

Neo was sure he saw sparkles coming from her eyes as she gratefully spoke, "Really?"

Neo nodded and Elisa screeched, "Thank you Neo, who else is in the group?"

Neo shrugged, "Only Tan so far, but she went to grab a friend of hers. We're meeting in front of the main building."

"Tan hm, I've heard of her. Not much of a class taking girl, but I think she in one of my classes, she’s a lioness right?"

Neo nodded. As they walked towards the meeting point Elisa told Neo what she knew about Tan, "Fire mana, top of her class in combat."

Neo hadn't known that piece of information. He spotted Gie and Bethany as they re-joined him. "I didn't know she was top in combat classes. Hello Bethany and Gie, where did you go off to."

Elisa gave a slight bow towards the two of them, "Hello, I'm Elisa Eldertree, pleasure to meet you both. And Neo, of course she is with her father, who is nearly constantly training her. though I've heard her social skills are a little lacking."

Neo smiled and thought, 'Yeah, that's her. She wouldn't even smile until after I beat her. Thinking about it now, that's a little weird.'

Thankfully Bethany spoke, distracting Neo from his thoughts, "Sorry we didn't say anything. We went off to find out what the arrangements will be on the test. It appears that you've been allowed to take it. Every team will get an enchanted token encase of emergencies, so we will be close by but not visible."

Neo nodded and just talked for a bit, trying to get any information out of Bethany and Gie on what they might be facing tomorrow.

They talked till Tan arrived. Curiously she had a large bag over her shoulder, both Elisa and Neo tilled their heads as the bag moved. Elisa was the first to question her additional item, "Hm, this may seem like a silly question but you don't have your friend in that bag, do you?"

Tan looked over with sparkling eyes while the bag over her shoulder moved and said, "Yes, she’s a real pain in the butt to catch, so once I got her I had make sure she didn't get away again."

When Tan stopped in front of them and placed the bag in-between them, Neo spoke, "You do realise that were trying to recruit her, not kidnap her?"

"Of course, but you have catch her in order to talk to her, and I managed to sneak up on her while another team was trying to talk to her, so I snatched her right from under them."

Tan said with a smile on her face. She was trying to show innocence, but she was trying too hard and it felt suspicious, even his Instincts were agreeing with him. But she dodged any follow up questions by pulling the sting that was holding the bag together, "Right let's open it up, be careful she’s going to try and run."

Almost as soon as the bag fell to the floor a black blur rushed out straight towards Gie. As with any time any soft object at high speed meets a hard, unmovable object the soft squishy one flattens their face on said hard object. With a pained moan the black blur became a much smaller black panther kin .

But it seemed that she had enough senses in order to use magic, as the area turned slightly cooler and wetter and she started to disappear. But before she could entirely vanish, the air warmed and dried up as a flaming cat pounced onto the poor panther, with the fire consuming the panthers invisibility magic.

Tan held her to the floor while Neo watched her excited tail swish back and forth. Neo sighed and thought, 'Not the best way to get a cooperative team.'

Neo walked over and knelt by the two felines as they both struggled, and he spoke to the panther, "Hello, my name is Neo, pleasure to meet you. We were wondering if you'd like to join our team."

At least this got the felines attention, she stared at him then Tan but didn't say anything. Tan, noticing that the kitten wasn't fighting back, gave her some room with a triumphant smile on her face. The panther girl started a short series of hand movements towards Tan, taking notice Tan interpreted for Neo, "She said "No"."

Neo was surprised that Tan was communicating with the girl but asked, "Why, do you have another team to join? Since there weren't that many around when we left, I doubt you can find another before tomorrow."

This gave her pause, but Tan started staring at the girl with her eyes widening and growing more pitiful as the moments went on. The panther made another series of hand signs while only emphasising the ending and looking away from Tan.

Tan replied with her puppy dog eyes on full power, "Pleasssssssssssse sister, pretty pleassse!"

The panther struggling to look away but with a mere glance at Tan to see if she was still doing it, her resolve seemed to crumble under the assault. She made more hand movements and Tan lost her puppy dog eyes instantly and smiled while simultaneously acting as if she hadn't just guilt tripped her sister.

'Hold on,' Neo thought, "Tan you have a sister?"

"Yeah of course, she's my adopted sister, I guess. Anyway, we have our awesome team now, what's the plan?"