As a young girl Miria had often looked up at birds and imagined how nice it must be to fly up in the sky. Miria now knew how great that is, and it's amazing. Mira was flying above the Imp. She had used two spells to achieve this. First was a Light magic buff on her legs. Second, was a Wind magic to boost her jumps. With these Miria jumped from wall to wall. Before jumping towards the Imp in the center. Adrenalin was pumping, and Miria was in her own little world thinking about how fun flying is. This only lasted a brief moment when she saw where she would land. Miria prepared a Wind cushion where she was about to land since the Imp’s cage wasn’t too soft.

*Thud*

Miria and the Imp looked at each other while grasping what had just happened. The Imp began forming an attack. While Miria jumped off of the cage and formed magic of her own.

“Smoke!”[Miria]

Miria cast the Dark standard spell smoke. This time it wasn’t to powerful for her. She just needed the fast casting time. From Miria’s hands came a cloud of smoke. Normally you would use smoke to make a fast escape or make a big cloud to hide in. In both cases you would you the smoke on yourself, but Miria had a different thought. The smoke covered the outside of the cage not able to reach inside, but it still accomplished Miria’s goal. The smoke screen blocked the Imp’s view of Miria. Miria started running around the cage while random bolts came firing out. Miria was ecstatic as she ran around the cage. She was hyped up on adrenalin, and wasn’t thinking about any of the danger she was in. Then a quick pull came on her from behind. Miria was pulled out of the circle, and landed on her but. Unlike everyone else who was caught by Mr. E.

“Ouchie.”[Miria]

“Congratulations Miria, the moment you touched the cage you passed. You were even able to stay there for quite some time, but I want you to look at where you just were.”[Mr. Abgon]

Miria looked towards the Imp only to find a mess of thorned vines thrashing about the area where Miria had just stood.

“Think about how you would have avoided that and why you weren’t able to, but for now you can sit down and wait for everyone else.”[Mr. Abgon]

“Good job Miria! Just wait for me over there I’ll be right over.”[Alexia]

Alexia ran into the ring the moment she was allowed. Miria and everyone else thought that Alexia would do the standard for Fire mages and run around before roasting the vines, but Alexia shocked everyone. She ran in covered herself in flames and ran straight towards the cage. Some roots came up to block her, but they were far too few and all turned to ash. Alexia ran straight through the circle tapping the cage on her way through. She arrived at the other side before Miria had sat down.

“So how'd I do?”[Alexia]

“You passed, and may take a seat. However, you turned your back on your enemy. Be careful about that.”[Mr. Abgon]

Alexia and Miria sat next to each other before talking about what happened.

““How did you do that?””[Alexia and Miria]

“...I’ll go first, but what part?”[Miria]

“The flying of corse. Its so cool. I want to be able to fly too. So come on tell me!”[Alexia]

“It wasn’t really flying. I used Wind magic to boost my jump. Although I’m pretty sure high level Wind magic lets you fly. Now lets hear how you did that. With all the fire and stuff.”[Miria]

“Well, everything I did was based on you. My original plan was to start in the inner rings then move to the outer rings when that got too dangerous, but after you went I knew that all I had to do was touch the cage to win. So I just ran straight through to pass.”[Axexia]

“No, but how did you get through? There are normally so many vines there’s no way you could burn all of them.”[Miria]

“Oh, you didn’t notice? The vines are very powerful, but they take time to form. When Borick charged he got pretty far before the vines could form enough to stop him. From there no one charged so the Imp had plenty of time to prepare the vines. Because of this I charged from the begining to minimize the number of vines I had to deal with.”[Alexia]

“What do you mean the vines took time to prepare? I thought they were waiting underground.”[Miria]

“Well that begs the question ‘why keep them underground?’ It would be better to just keep them above ground and ready to act. They reset the ring at the beginning of each run. So all I had to do was charge through before the Imp could stop me.”[Alexia]

“Hmm was it really that easy? Ah, Borick is up again.”[Miria]

Borick stepped up to the circle ready to challenge the Imp again. So far every Fire mage, several other mages, Miria, and two rogues had passed, but no warriors. Borick was determined to be the first warrior to beat the Imp. He stepped forward ready to go.

“Hold on Borick.”[Mr. Abgon]

Mr. E stopped Borick while Mr. Abgon got the attention of the rest of class.

“For the second round the Imp will remember your previous failure. So try to base your plan around that. Also I shall give you a hint to winning. That Imp is one of my summons. If you can remember enough from my class then this will be easy for you.”[Mr. Abgon]

Borick stopped and tried to remember anything from Mr. Abgon's class, but soon gave up since he couldn’t remember what class Mr. Abgon taught. Borick decided to go with his original plan. He ran into the inner ring, and then stopped just inside the inner ring.

“Stone Spirit!”[Borick]

Just after stopping a brown glow enveloped him. Borick used one of the few spells he knew to increase his defence. This spell was extra powerful if he stood still. Borick was committed win or lose, and he would do it here. The Imp was surprised by Borick’s actions it had not expected magic, and was prepared for a charge. Because of this Borick had more time to prepare before small vines started wiping at him. As the vines attacked Borick held his ground and blocked as many vines as he could.

“Ouch.”[Borick]

But he couldn’t block all of them. Vines went through his defense and hit Borick. Some of the vines were cut, but they were quickly replaced by more. Soon Borick was standing still blocking his vitals, and taking all of the Imps abuse.

“Hey isn’t this getting dangerous? Shouldn’t you pull Borick out?”[Miria]

“He found his own way to beat this challenge. I’ll pull him out when he can’t take anymore.”[Mr. Abgon]

Borick kept taking the attacks. He wanted to step back. Everything in his body told him to step back. All he had to do was step back and all of this pain would end, but he couldn’t. No, he wouldn’t Borick would not step back, because to him stepping back meant him losing. He couldn’t bear that, but he didn’t want to keep taking these attacks any longer. So Borick made a rash decision. He charged forward.

One would think that after all the charging that Borick did the Imp would be ready, but because Borick’s sword was covering his front the Imp was concentrating his attacks everywhere else. Leaving a straight shot from Borick to the Imp. Bloodied he approached. The Imp charged a bolt of nature magic to stop Borick. He knew this would be dangerous, but could not stop running. For him it was all or nothing; win or lose. He was prepared to win no matter the cost. It was this that allowed him to reach the Imp’s cage and hit it with the tip of his sword before being pulled out of the circle.

“Even without touching the cage you passed. Take this potion, and sit down.”[Mr. Abgon]

Borick chugged the potion as he walked over to Miria and Alexia.

“Congratulations Borick!”[Miria] “Congrats.”[Alexia]

“Thanks. Hey Miria, can you heal me the potion wasn’t enough.”[Borick]

“Of course.”[Miria]

A warm light enveloped Borick. As the three watched the rest of the students. Most students were able to pass on their second try. A few on their third and the last on the fourth, but no one else passed by touching the cage.

“Congratulations everyone on passing, but don’t let this go to your head. The real thing will be much harder and unexpected. Monsters that can use Nature magic are dangerous, and these lessons are some of the most important you will receive.”[Mr. Abgon]