I crashed into the harpy with a spell about to leave my lips to disappear into the underbrush of a bush. The plan was that once I was in the bushes' shade, I would cast a spell of shadows. Once I had those shadows, I would be able to meld into them and travel in many different directions. Sure, I would spend a lot of mana casting the two spells I would need, but at that time it was a necessity to get away.  

She was there watching the fight. I didn’t find out till much later, but she was going to wait till the winner was exhausted to ambush them. Since I suddenly surprised her by heading her way, she was- no, I don’t really know what her plan was if she even came up with one that fast.  

What I saw as I crashed into her was a creature with their arms up, as if they were going to give me a high ten or a big bear hug, sharp claws, and dark red eyes.  

Wait.  

Now that I think of it, that creature I left behind to get attacked by Benny also had bright red eyes. Did-did I anger more than one harpy? If I did, I understand why they hated me so passionately.  

She’s still a brat though.  

This all happened in seconds, the surprise she gave me made my heart jump and a rush of adrenaline coursing through my body made it react. I’ll break it down.  

As I crash into her, she wraps her arms around me and digs her claws in. My body reacts with a head butt, forehead against forehead, hard enough to stun her. I didn’t stop there. The moment her grip lessened I used my arms to push hers away and used the most basic of attacks: a straight jab. In-step to get close as she stumbled back, grabbed her arm, and flipped her over my head straight down to the ground.  

By the time the harpy landed on the ground with a thud, the wolf was back on my trail after recovering from my electric attack. I didn’t give it a second thought as I took the harpy’s arm and swung her like a club and hit the side of the wolf’s muzzle.  

A thing to note before I go on, a harpy’s feathers are durable and strangely sharp.  

The hit left behind small scratches on the side of the wolf’s head. I wasted no time and swung her up and down onto the top of the wolf’s head.   

Now that I think about it more and realize all I did to her. I see now why they were very upset. Maybe I brought it all on myself, this is... what’s the word for it? Karma? All the trouble with the harpies started because of me during this test.  

Great. Now I don’t wanna know what else is my fault. Still, it is good to know and understand how some things came to be how they are. I should apologize to them sincerely this time, and eventually, we can move past it. Well, they’re the ones who’ll have to forgive me. Some other things are making sense now...  

Nothing I can do about it now though, other than to continue ahead.  

I hit the wolf with the harpy and cast a spell to further incapacitate the wolf, hopefully, long enough for me to run.  

“Pressure pull,” is a spell that increases the weight of an item over a specific area. In this case, the harpy’s weight along with the wolf’s head fell with a harsh thud to the ground. I almost got pulled in too, but I managed to draw my hand out along with a nice reward. It wasn’t my intention to take the harpy’s scroll but since it was there tied to her waist and my hand had unintentionally landed there... I saw it as an opportunity. 

I don’t know how many scrolls the harpies had altogether, but they did pass the test. As for what I did to that harpy, I don’t really feel bad about it. We all had our challenges to face in that test and I just happened to be hers.  

Either way, the scroll I stole from the harpy became my fourth scroll. This meant I could get a four-star rating, not bad at all. If I could keep all four scrolls, I would pass with flying colors.  

But I wasn’t thinking that while I ran through the shadows. In my mind, there was only pain once the adrenaline from the fight wore off. I didn’t pay much attention to where I was headed, and I didn’t really care till I heard a stream.  

Sweet relief, I thought to myself as I ran towards the stream and jumped in. I barely managed to stop myself from plunging my hand right in.  

“No, cold water is not good...”  

After my mind scrambled for an alternative, I looked through the bracelet with the remaining runes. I still had one more fire rune left. Inspiration hit me in the same way a cool breeze passes during summer.  

Using my left hand to carefully pluck a rune from the bracelet I added the correct amount of mana and flicked it into the stream. The water warmed up where the rune fell but it was too warm to provide relief. I moved a bit further downstream so the water could cool as it traveled, as I waited, I also took out some bandages from my hat. Once it felt cool to the touch, I gently placed my hand in and then dipped my arm up to my elbow.  

The water felt nice and for a moment I had forgotten the test. Bad, I know. This little incident taught me to always check the water before I carelessly leap in.  

I was enjoying the cool water on my hand when I felt a tug on my arm. As I panicked, I noticed a small whirlpool forming around my knees. My mind began a list of the potential creatures that could be attacking me from the water: a water nymph, a water mage, a mermaid, a selkie, a kappa... a siren. None of them were good news for a battle in their territory.  

The hand underneath the water had the bracelet with all twelve of my runes on it. Sure, I could risk adding mana without directly touching it but that would be dangerous. I could harm my hand even more, so I decided to scrap that idea.  

I had to think of something else. Maybe, I could get myself out of the water but as the whirlpool shifted the sand and rocks beneath my feet it caused me to slide along the bottom. Two, three, four futile steps later, I realized I could not easily get out. As I grew frantic and took a bigger step than I meant to, my foot slid too far back to keep my footing. My knee hit the riverbed, both rocks and sand dug in despite my stockings.  

They could drown me, I could die, it could be unintentional, but at the very least I could be seriously hurt. I felt a tug trying to pull me deeper into the water. I can swim, of course, but knowing how to swim means nothing against a creature whose strength doubles in the water.  

My quick thinking usually gives me good results with a drawback. The drawback is often dangerous and seldom without any consequences. But I can’t say it’s all bad, most of the aftermath has given me plenty of experience, hasn’t necessarily made me wiser or taught me not to do it... what was my point here?  

Anyway, the idea came to me from frustration and the feeling of wanting to yank my arm free. I took a deep breath and went under to grab my own hand. As I did this, another hand joined my struggle and tried to pull me deeper in. The water should not have been deep, and there should have been no way for me to lose my footing, but I did.  

It was scary being unable to see because of all the sand stirred up from the whirlpool. Yet, I did not lose my focus. The throbbing pain in my arm from whatever held it kept my concentration on one task: to free my arm.  

There’s no specific way to label runes because the carving can only be of the rune itself. So, even though I had reached the bracelet on my hand, I had no way of knowing which rune was at my fingertips. Considering that I had already used up the two electric runes my options were limited. I try not to do things on impulse without considering my safety first, but this time I don’t think I had a choice.  

I picked a rune at random from the ones I had left, so the reaction would either be air, water, earth, or ice. My hope was to grab an air, earth, or wind rune, any of those would be great provided they reacted well. Once I had it between my fingers, my joy was broken as I realized I had my glove on... 

Out of frustration I stuck the rune in my mouth, pulled the glove off with my teeth, grabbed the rune again, and activated it pretty close to my face. The whirlwind went in the opposite direction of the whirlpool, ending its pull on my body. I took that opportunity to surface and take a deep breath. I had let most of it out when I had stuck the rune in my mouth. The urgency of that activation caused me to be reckless but thankfully I got a good result.  

“Piercing rows!” I choked out with my hand outstretched up and my fingertips spread. This dark spell cast with both an incantation and with my hand summons a flurry of dark arrows. Bringing my arm down directs the arrows down into the water.  

A good thing to note here, your spell can definitely hit the caster. I had to cast this spell above my head so it would hit the thing holding me down as well as a distraction for the second part of the plan.  

Yes, I did hit myself in my rush. Luckily, only a few scratches, the important part is that they hit my assailant. The good thing about being a dark witch is that my attacks work on both physical and non-physical bodies such as a specter or a creature using water to hide. Non-physical attacks have a downside in that it’s not very powerful unless I concentrate on a non-physical attack with a lot of mana behind it. So, is it really a boost? Well, in this instance it hurt enough.  

I didn’t see the caster, but I did feel the moment they became more physical because of the hand that still held my arm. The moment I felt it I said my second spell.  

“Bah-boom.” Another basic spell in my book that takes the caster’s attribute to explode in the same way an egg breaks on someone’s face. In my distress, it became a small explosion that sent my assailant flying backward out of the water. At the same time, my spell hit I also got pushed back into the water.  

The cold and refreshing splash into the water calmed my mind. I had to think of my next move against the caster. I used a lot of mana so far and using more could put me at risk of exhaustion. But as I stood up in the water ready to cast a slime spell that would make my assailant a sticky mess and earn me some time to think of a second spell to hopefully knock them out, I found my assailant knocked unconscious. Their whole face was covered in something that looked like soot and something red.