He had no issue ascending to the very-peak of the waterfall. While it was likely not necessary, on account of the water bursting up unnaturally ten meters into the air, he steadied his balance and stood stock still on the extended portion. With his weight, the water was pushed down to five-meters, and a circular downpour appeared underneath him.

Since everyone was soaked at this point, it really did not matter much anyway.

"Okay! Fine, if you're not gonna go, then I will!" Ayla said irritably. "Mathias! Stop blocking my path!"

"Huh? Oh. Okay."

With such a quantity of water, he abandoned the artificial buoyancy and was neck-deep in water.

It forced him upwards a little, but as he saw Ayla jump forward - and again with an, "Air Step!", clearing the waterfalls and moat of water with subsequent steps, he channelled the water forward. He anchored it to the peak, growing steel-like stretches of water to curl up on the outer edges and directed it towards the spot in the water's current that sent people back to the training field.

"Well, here goes..." he said nervously, rechecking the supports he attached.

He slid all the way down just before seeing his feet on the strong, upwards current, and jolted up enough to clear the ledge. His lower body was submerged for all of a few seconds.

"Don't let go of it yet!" Lisanna shouted, apparently all but giving up on being concerned at how transparent her shirt was and how exposed the cloth wrapped around her chest appeared.

She just wanted to leave that formation - and decided to borrow his slide.

The environment stifled any practical ability or spell she could have used in that environment.

"Kya?! C-cold?!"

She screamed as she instinctually struggled against the frozen surface, letting out a girlish scream that ended only when her water-logged shoes hit the ground.

"KYA?!" Erik, too, screamed.

James, Eldrich, and some others that stole the use of his slide apparently were not pleased with the pleasant cool-feeling one got when ice pressed against their wet, clammy skin.

A few seemed to have thin layers of their wet, cold skin ripped off.

Granted, there was one pale-skinned girl that seemed to appreciate it even if she only offered a small nod in appreciation.

Once it seemed like there would be no more joy-riders, he collapsed the slide. It was tiring to hold up and many others just opted to climb back down.

However, oddly, it seemed that once one on the inside stepped into a current, it would launch them back to a new point - on the inside.

It was a difficult situation. Interesting, if difficult.

Except even Ayla did not carelessly charge towards the floating, spinning rocks.

Clearing it originally took less than twenty seconds for her; however, even if she could read where the air currents where, she was liable to be blown in the wind as well if she wasn't careful. She wasn't exactly heavy-enough to resist that fate. That, paired with dodging, and advancing into ever-strengthening winds meant she would have little free time to think if she was alone.

"So you finally came around, huh? So slow! Let's do this already!" Ayla said with a strained smile, seeing the group right behind her.

"Wait. It doesn't seem smart to just wander in. Eldrich, help me out, okay?"

James stepped forward to the edge of the revolving rocks. "Earth Wall!"

James did not bother briefing Eldrich who seemed to understand the other boy's actions. "Earth Wall!"

Two walls of rock and sediment formed a rough corridor; however, they lasted only a few seconds before the wind and stone tore the wall to pieces - with more shrapnel appearing in the air's currents.

A clear path was made for a moment, though.

Which brought a genuine smile to Ayla's face.

"Nice! Let's do one step at a time then. We just have to get through this one once and then won't have to deal with the rest. Erik, use 'Wind Wall' too!"

She was careful to not activate the spell in her planning; however, she did not expect a boy to just wander into it alone.

Excessive amounts of ice covered two short staves as he smiled at the interesting experience. Despite his general dislike for martial training, he was always interested in more strange methods of training. His father's obsession with atypical methods was exhausting, however. There just were few opportunities to allow Mathias to choose his own pace. When encounters like this arose, it was more than enough to get him moving.

As he was just bathed in water, he unconsciously grabbed ahold of much more than he would normally carry. As such, two, razor-thin kite-shields of completely transparent ice appeared on the wooden staves like folding fans on the left and right of each.

Mathias went low into a crouch before bolting forward. He rose the staff-shield to block a spike going towards his neck from the side, keeping the majority of his attention to the right as the winds circled clockwise around the formation.

However, he was forced to raise his left as a slowly moving boulder rotated into his path and the raw force of the wind pushed him towards the jagged edge.

He rolled off the boulder, pulling his head back, and crouched. A man-sized rock clipped the boulder he was braced against and rolled off without so much as scattering a single flake.

The raw ingredients of this formation were reinforced beyond belief.

With a few more movements, he found himself at the base of the jagged hill, with a small indent acting as shelter.

The ice on his staves was rebuilt, strengthened more, and he looked back.

Ayla sat outside, pondering and pacing - before muttering, "hmm, hmm! Well, I don't want to give up my lead to anyone - let's go! Onwards!"

""Earth Wall!""

""Air Wall!""

"Fire Lance!" Lisanna shouted, targeting the man-sized boulder that headed towards the wall. While some of the flames were siphoned away, it still held enough force to shift the boulder up with the combined force of the hot air and impact. It just barely cleared the six-foot tall wall the two boys built.

It seemed even though the wind impacted an ethereal wall, the moment a physical object - like the rock - appeared, it was all for naught.

It only extended the duration that the Earth Walls would last before being torn apart. Not wanting to take the easy way out for this particular challenge, Mathias started climbing once he noticed Ayla and Erik began to move forward.

It was a cue, certainly, but no race to him. He did not pay much attention as the bodies passed him, and he kept his staves bound to his shoulders with icy straps as he climbed.

Occasionally, his hands, arms, or legs would get slashed, but those were glancing blows. There was no real impact if one hugged the wall. The formation was intended to be possible with physical prowess alone, it seemed.

Upon hearing, "Air Step! Air Step! Air Step!"

He turned his head to see both Erik and Ayla dozens of meters above the peak.

""Air Step!""

Both, guided by the natural air-flow rather than the formation's, were gently swept away from its influence whilst a larger boy looked towards Mathias.

James and Mathias met eye-to-eye before each stepping onto the peak.

"Flatten!"

The path, rather than being compressed like last time, appeared with floating, severed spikes spinning in the wind. James was already descending but grabbed his sheathed broadsword as he pressed his back against the rough angled path and blocked a nearby spike from cutting his chest.

Mathias dropped in-between two spikes, raised a shield, and blocked an incoming brush of pebbles and dirt from the torn earth wall.

His entire attention was rapt on the task so he did not notice others crying out in pain, screaming, or even calls borne to help those still on the hill.

It was only when he looked to the side and saw Lisanna, Kira, Jasmine, and another girl - the one Erik called cute earlier - helping one-another that he understood the severity of the task. Fire and water joined with the spiralling wind, adding new dangers as Mathias descended, grabbing hold of stationary spikes as supports while his free arm would cover his face.

Since the attacks only came from the side, beyond the strange, stationary but spinning rocks, he managed to dive into a stationary spike as he felt the wind die down.

A man-sized boulder still shot past, just above where his neck would be, as he shimmied the last few feet on hands and knees.

He had a bright smile.

It was interesting.

He felt awake after that one.

However, once he turned to see the annoyed, tired, and anxious faces of those that passed - or those that had yet to move - he thought that others were not nearly as content with the challenge.

Granted, considering Lisanna's group made it out, as did the original ten that were not immediately punished the first day, it seemed like it was quite possible. Others certainly did, too.

However, there were already three that were knocked unconscious - oddly with no major wounds like pierced lungs or shattered spines - and set down gently behind the formation. It was not all lethal - just seemed like it would be.

"Hey Jennifer, let's go," Lisanna said coldly, snorting towards Jasmine as she walked away.

No bonds were made in a difficult circumstance between the two - but a third's inclusion suggested a fledgling rise.

The girl, a water mage who joined the combat tournament only after being told to climb these formations as punishment, groaned tiredly but dragged herself behind Lisanna. "... They weren't this hard yesterday... hah, I'd rather do five whole laps like yesterday than one mountain like this..."

"Well, we're done. Let's go meet up with the others, okay?" Lisanna froze as she saw Mathias half-looking at the sandstorm, half-appraising herself and the others. Her lips twitched. "Ah, Mathias! What was the point of that?!"

"It seemed interesting?" He blinked.

And shrugged. He already had a plan for the sandstorm, but he decided to talk to Lisanna first when their eyes met. It was more akin to an obligation and curiosity, not much else.

"Whatever, I don't care anymore," Lisanna grumbled. "Me and Jennifer are going to the next one, are you coming with us?"

"Yeah," he nodded, but then quirked his head. "Are you working together again? That seems kind of boring, doesn't it?"

"It's only boring if you're used to having giant boulders thrown at your face!"

"... True," he said easily. He did not have that experience directly, per se, but could see that it would be the case. "Actually, I'm going to try the next one solo."

"Do what you want." Lisanna snorted - causing the new girl, Jennifer, to look between the two with a torn, conflicted expression.

She was surprised when Lisanna opted to call her over, but since they did survive certain disaster, more with her skills than the other two girls in her group, she decided it would better to keep going.

Furthermore, with Lisanna's reputation of being hard to approach, she was curious about how the girl really was. And there was the other, strange water mage that slept in class. She restrained her misplaced jealously as she recalled him sleeping in class, each day wishing she could be smart enough to avoid the fine-line of sure-fire punishment if he got something wrong.

Mornings were too much even for her.

However, Jennifer kept quiet as the other two opted for that atmosphere.

Looking around at the two informal leaders of the class, Ayla and Erik, she wondered what they would do.

Except they were just bickering.

"I told you: on zero, we do Wind Wall! This one actually seems to work since the sand is so small!"

"It barely works! It only slows the sand down! It's still not enough to see!"

As Erik said, there was no way to see the peak of the formation. However, no one was a fool enough to walk in, wait a bit, and then walk out without succeeding. Mr. Shields was just sunbathing between the water and air formations, having had a clear view of the task.

And Jenna was on the opposite side, pacing back and forth, appraising each and every student as they passed through various predicaments.

And then there was an eruption on the water formation.

Two boys, shivering and completely dishevelled, finally seemed to pass through that obstacle. And heavy hail started pounding the ground, forming mist from the heat of the midday sun, blocking the view.

It seemed that there was a second atmospheric level like the air and earth formations, exciting Mathias noticeably. Or, perhaps, one more suited to the divergence between water and ice for water mages.

Jennifer watched curiously, as did Lisanna, Ayla, and Erik. Because, once more, he reformed the staves on his person into a braced cross in the front of his chest, as a clear mask of ice covered his face.

He ran inside.

And Mathias' body disappeared behind the veil of furied winds carrying sand.

"... That works too!" Ayla said excitedly, looking at a crestfallen Erik.

"Damn! I can't do that yet!"

"Figure something out then!"

Ayla, more proficient in chantless manipulation since there wasn't a common spell for something so niche, created an angrily blowing sphere around her hand, jostling her short hair every moment, and jumped into the sandstorm.

"... They're insane..."

"Yeah," Lisanna said to Jennifer's murmur, "but we're going too!"

"Huh?!"