Chapter 8 – Forest of Trials
The gates of the Academy's lower grounds creaked open, revealing a dense, mist-shrouded forest surrounded by ethereal blue barriers. The Forest Simulation wasn't a true dungeon—yet it mimicked one with startling realism. Twisting paths, mana-beasts, illusionary traps, and elemental terrain made it a notoriously brutal trial.
Team 9 stood at the edge, their boots crunching over gravel, eyes scanning the shadowed trees.
A booming voice echoed through a floating crystal orb above them—Instructor Verdan, ever-dramatic.
"This is your first official trial as a formation. Survive the simulation, reach the heart of the forest, and retrieve the Mage's Crest. Along the way, you'll be graded on combat, coordination, and problem-solving. If you're incapacitated, you're extracted and your team penalized. Good luck."
The orb blinked out.
A moment of silence.
Then Elith muttered, "Dramatic man."
Kael smirked. "Let's move."
They entered as a unit—Kael at point, Elith trailing slightly above on an airstep spell, Juno to the rear in reinforced earthen armor, and Lyra off to Kael's left, her palm already glowing with a soft emberlight.
The forest swallowed them. Light barely pierced the heavy canopy overhead. The fog was thick, tinged with a faint shimmer—illusion magic was embedded in the terrain.
After ten minutes, Kael raised a hand.
"Hold."
He crouched, eyes scanning the roots and stones ahead.
"Trap sigils," he muttered. "Arcane displacement. They'll scatter us into random spots if triggered."
Elith landed beside him, wind magic swirling faintly around her boots. "Can you blink past them?"
"Not just yet," Kael said. "But I can mark their boundaries."
He pulled chalk from his pouch and etched blinking runes along the dirt, outlining the trap's radius.
"Everyone follow this line exactly."
They moved silently, bypassing the trap field.
Lyra whispered, "How'd you spot those? I didn't see anything."
Kael tapped his temple. "Mana shifts. They're subtle, but the pressure isn't symmetrical. The forest breathes wrong around them."
Juno gave him a mock salute. "You're definitely the brain."
Kael chuckled. "Then try not to step on a trap and test that theory."
Half an hour in, their first threat emerged.
A sudden growl—low, guttural.
From the thickets ahead, two mana-hounds burst forth, creatures of shadow and flickering embers, formed from unstable magical residue. They were twice the size of wolves, with bone-like protrusions from their backs.
"Scatter!" Kael ordered.
Juno stepped forward, slamming his hands into the ground. Spiked earth burst upward, forming a wall between the hounds and the group. Lyra darted right, flames spinning from her hands.
"Take the right one!" Kael shouted.
He blinked—3 meters to the side, appearing behind the left hound just as it lunged at Juno. With a spark, he tossed a mana-tag under its belly and blinked again, narrowly avoiding its snapping jaws.
The tag glowed.
BOOM.
A burst of kinetic force threw the beast sideways into a tree.
Elith launched slicing air blades at the second one. It dodged, fast—but Lyra was ready. Her flame shot bent mid-air, curving and engulfing the beast's hind leg. It screeched.
Kael blinked again, reappearing in front of it. His hand slapped another tag on its forehead.
"Now!"
Lyra fired.
The tag exploded just as her flame hit it—the combined force ruptured the hound's form into dissipating mana particles.
Silence returned.
Their breathing was heavy but steady.
"Nice coordination," Kael said.
Elith nodded slowly. "That was… efficient."
"Still two kilometers to the crest," Juno reminded them, wiping sweat from his brow. "And that was just the first wave."
They moved faster now, but with caution.
Kael was quiet, mind churning.
Teleporting objects. That pebble back at the dorm. It had worked—barely.
But if he could do it with tags in combat, he could set up ambushes without blinking himself into danger.
"Next time," he muttered, "I try from range."
"What's that?" Lyra asked beside him.
"Just thinking."
She studied him for a moment, her usual teasing tone replaced with something quieter. "You're changing, you know. Even just from the entrance exam to now."
"Is that a good thing?"
"I think," she said softly, "you're becoming someone people will follow."
Kael didn't know what to say to that. So he said nothing.
Elsewhere, Team 2 made their way through the northern path.
Selene stood silent, a faint frost trailing her steps despite the warm forest air.
"You're not even trying," one of her teammates snapped. "Let the rest of us carry your title?"
Selene's reply was a single cold glance. "You have no idea what it means to carry anything."
She launched a bolt of crackling flame and ice, splitting a tree beast clean in half. The others blinked.
"That spell…"
"She's dual affinity?"
Selene ignored them, eyes drifting west—toward the sector where Team 9 was.
"Kael," she whispered. "I wonder how far you'll go."
Back in the forest core, Kael's group reached a clearing.
Floating in mid-air was a silver emblem—the Mage's Crest. But guarding it were three constructs of pure arcane energy. Tall, humanoid, faceless, each holding a weapon of glowing mana.
"Constructs," Elith breathed. "No elemental weaknesses."
"Then we outmaneuver," Kael said. "Lyra, focus fire. Juno, protect her. Elith—keep them off balance."
He turned his eyes toward the field.
Time to try it.
He gripped a tag, charged it with mana, and threw it.
Just as it arced mid-air—Kael focused.
Blink.
The tag vanished—and reappeared directly behind the closest construct.
BOOM.
It staggered forward, armor cracking.
Juno slammed a shield wall into it, Lyra fired from behind, and Elith sent a wind burst to knock it into a tree.
One down.
Kael grinned, heart pounding.
"I can teleport things."
This was only the beginning.
Kael was quiet, mind churning.
Teleporting objects. That pebble during training—he had moved it using Blink, but not himself. It hadn't been intentional… but maybe it could be.
If I can blink objects… even small ones…
He tapped a finger against his leg as they walked. He needed to experiment—but not during a real mission. Still, the idea nagged at him, teasing with possibility.
Another hour in, the trees grew darker, more twisted. Fog thickened, muting all light except for Lyra's glowing ember orbs. They floated above her head, casting long shadows. The air tasted metallic.
"We're close," Kael murmured. "This terrain… it's denser with mana."
As they moved into a vine-covered ravine, they found it—a clearing encircled by standing stones. In the center floated the Mage's Crest, a glowing crystalline sigil the size of a fist, humming with raw magic.
And guarding it—
A Thorned Wyrm.
It rose from the earth, long and serpentine, scales like ironwood bark, a crown of brambles atop its skull. Its eyes glowed molten orange.
"Final challenge," Kael whispered.
The beast let out a screech that rattled their bones, and lunged.
"Juno, defense! Elith, keep the wind between it and us! Lyra, flame bursts—hit the joints!" Kael shouted.
They responded without hesitation.
Juno slammed up a wall of stone between the team and the wyrm's path. It burst through, but it gave them seconds—precious seconds. Elith danced backward, blades of wind forming crescents that sliced at the creature's sides. Lyra launched controlled fireballs, aiming for its underbelly.
Kael blinked left, then right—testing distances. Still only 3 meters, but fast, disorienting. The wyrm snapped its head toward him, jaw unhinging.
He blinked again—but this time, something different.
A rock flew with him.
It clattered beside him as he reappeared.
It worked. I brought the rock with me.
Not thrown. Not placed. Moved. Like he moved himself.
His heart pounded.
He pulled a tagged stone from his pouch, focused his mana, and blinked.
The stone vanished with him, dropping at the spot he landed.
He grinned.
"Let's try that again."
The wyrm charged Lyra, jaws wide. She threw up a flame wall—but it wasn't enough. The creature smashed through—
Only to be met with a stone exploding beneath its eye, a shockwave Kael had blinked into position mid-charge.
It reeled.
Kael dashed forward, blinking three times around it, tagging weak spots.
Then he blinked to a high root and shouted, "NOW!"
Elith launched a wind blade.
Juno hurled a sharpened earth spike.
Lyra threw a spiraling flame ball.
Kael blinked again—right behind the wyrm's skull—and triggered all three tags at once.
The coordinated strike landed perfectly.
With a violent roar, the Thorned Wyrm collapsed, crashing into the clearing.
The air went still.
Kael approached the Mage's Crest.
The sigil floated up to meet him—recognizing the leader of the victorious team. It pulsed once and then faded into his palm.
A voice echoed from the trees—Instructor Verdan again.
"Team 9: Full clear. Fastest time this cycle. Impressive."
Kael turned to his team.
Juno slumped to the ground. "I'm dead. That was terrifying. Can we nap here?"
Lyra laughed, wiping sweat from her brow. "Not bad, Team 9."
Elith simply nodded, wind gently swirling around her.
Kael looked at the sigil embedded in his hand.
Object teleportation. Strategy. Coordination. Weakest magic, huh?
He looked up through the forest canopy, the illusion parting slightly to reveal the Academy's towers in the distance.
No… this is just the beginning.
End of Chapter 8