There was no other option for them except this? Sir Leon de Harrington considered the crude plan for a moment before he sped over to the two lugging around the largest rock.

He wasn't going to throw away this shot.

"Let me guys, give you a hand." He grinned and took over one side of the rock.

One of the men, Thomas, if he could recall their name grumbled. "Make sure you don't squeeze through first if this works, Han made the plan."

"Nah, Timothy, it'd be fine if he went through first. We'll see if it's effective."

Ah, so the name was Timothy and not Thomas. Odd. He seemed more of a Thomas.

Ignoring that matter, he smiled at the other man. "Why thank you, I'd take that kind offer of yours." It was the most that they could do right now, at least there was no pressure plate or any mechanism of that sort. It didn't take too long as they placed the rock close enough to the giant axe. He wondered where the Academy had gotten it. "A half-giant? How much metals were used in this?"

"If you have time to babble, help us out again." Timothy called out to him.

The two of them were still pulling up large chunks of rocks towards the axe. "One is not enough?"

"If the axe cleaves one rock while we're trying to pass—we're finished." Han explained. Deciding it was appropriate, they transferred nearly all of the rocks into a neat pile. "So we'll place the rocks but still leave enough space for us to get over through the next side, got it?"

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.

.

The axe swung and cleaved itself towards the rocks and it had somehow gotten stuck.

And so the plan worked, successfully. Han thanked his Luck stat and the elf girl for blitzing those rocks from the stone walls, sir Leon de Harrington was more than willing to volunteer himself first. Traversing the rocks nimbly, he arrived at the other end of the corridor.

It was a miracle that he didn't immediately bolt towards the finish line.

Perhaps the man wasn't as bad as he seemed, kind of like Timothy then, now that Han thought about it. Speaking of which, he motioned towards the rocks. "Your turn. Better hurry up before the axe manages to crumble the stones."

"You don't have to tell me that." Timothy scrambled up, a lot more faster than sir Leon. Han wondered if it was due to living near the forest.

A rock bonked itself against its head.

Han winced and looked up, the man's footsteps were kicking out the rocks from their formation. "Hey, slow down!" The pile of rocks began to tremble, cursing himself silently—Han began to scale the rocks before they started to collapse. "Hurry up!"

"What do you really want me to do?" Timothy reached the peak of the stone pile and then jumped to safety.

And that was when Han Jing realized that this body wasn't exactly forte with grace or nimbleness. He could see the sharp edge of the axe right in front of his face—one wrong move and he was cut in half.

He slipped for a bit, feeling his most sensitive body part hit against sharp rocks. "Fu—" He sucked in the pain and continued forward, half-crawling and half-pushing himself up towards the peak of the pile.

When he reached the top—the stones collapsed.

The axe forced itself through the stones… and Han was once again acquaintanced with the stone floor in his face. The nitty gritty texture scratching and scuffing his cheek, he raised a head up—to see that Timothy and sir Leon were already running down the hallway.

"Ugh, talk about friendship." Han wanted to befriend the floor for a minute, or even some more. But he pulled himself up with a groan, still feeling the pain from his extremities.

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Ellynn could see the shimmering line of dust that indicated the end of the trial. One last gust of wind to push her forward before anybody else could arrive and she would be the first to finish—she reluctantly looked back, and saw no one.

No one else was coming from behind her.

Was that boy okay?

She had given him some healing potion...but what if it wasn't enough? The winds grew weak and died as her feet met the floor. She could probably wait a minute or two, even if the man came sprinting down—she could easily still win the obstacle course.

And prove what?

That she was better than them? What good would that be… those two only wanted to get into the Academy, they hadn't done anything to her. If anything, doing this would just alienate her further. The Headmaster already didn't like her, and so did the majority of the people.

Thundering footsteps sounded from across the corridor, she looked up to see the two young men—sprinting and running.

But the boy she had saved was nowhere to be found.

No, no.

If there was anything that she had learned from her brief time with her parents before she was separated—it was to never let anybody come to harm if you could stop it. She began to run towards them.

The two young men dove to the sides as she ran back, she fumbled for her potion of healing. Picking up her pace, the winds trembling as they coursed through the hallway.

Only for them to come to a screeching halt.

The boy looked up to see her and grinned, "Hey! You're going in the wrong direction?"

Why had she even been worrying about someone like him? She decided to spin around and turn into the right direction. Now she had missed her chance to come in by second place at least. Sighing and losing her second wind, she trudged back to the finish line.

The boy had decided to speed up a little to catch up with her, "You were pretty great." He was walking by her side, no longer that insistent on running past her. Not that he could do that.

"...Thank you." She felt heat in her cheeks, why was he complimenting her out of the blue? "Are you not worried about coming in last place?" Even without the winds, she could still outrun him. Her very nature would assure that.

"Why should I be worried?" He tilted his head, he chuckled. "I actually think I did fairly well."

That confidence…she wished she had that.

"Hey," He elbowed her arm and grinned. "Want to race to the finish line? No winds, just legs."

How did he… She nodded. "Alright—"

The man was already running before she could agree. What a scheming young man, she chased after him until the end of the finish line. She had so much fun that she didn't even bat an eye when Han went in third place.