I woke up around dusk to voices attempting to whisper.  

“It’s true! The forest is on fire near the top!” One said, especially loud. “Where the goal is!” 

“What do you think that’s about?” Another voice, so there were two.  

“Is it part of the test?” A girl’s voice, three people.  

“I heard screams from that direction,” another female voice added. “We’ll have to go around to be safe.”  

“But going around now, it’ll take-” The first voice I heard spoke up again.  

“We have to risk it. There’s no other choice if we try to go around now, we could miss our chance.” The final voice joined the conversation, he sounded confident as a leader should be.  

“We are nearing the twelve-hour mark...” The girl's voice sided with him. She sounded shy, it made me feel happy there were other shy students.  

“I don’t think it’s worth it. What if that fire is meant to burn the scrolls we already collected? What do we do then?” The second female voice questioned the fifth voice.  

The drama continued as an argument broke out among them. Eventually, it led to a standoff where people picked their leader and left in opposite directions. From what I understood, just based on their voices. The first voice and the shy female went with the fifth voice, while the second female went with the second male voice. Number five’s group went straight and faced the fire up ahead. As for number four’s team, they went around as fast as they could before the countdown ended. 

In the end, both teams made it. Number four and her companion made it just in the nick of time to find number five’s team beat up in the healer’s tent. Who was the smartest one there? Number four, she was the smartest one that day. She wisely chose to go around and avoid big trouble.  

I should have followed her example, but I wasn’t as confident that I would make the time limit. Plus, I did have a smidge of curiosity.  

The plan came to my mind as I wiggled out of the trunk and brushed off all the leaves, twigs, and bugs. I would follow close behind them, and if there was trouble, they would serve as a distraction for me to just saunter out of there.  

As I drew closer, I saw why they said the forest was on fire. It wasn’t fire consuming the trees, it was an aura. A bright red aura that expanded over a large area. It just appeared as a raging fire from afar.  

Whoever has this much mana will surely be someone difficult to fight, I thought in not those exact words. How could I avoid fighting them without having to go around? One simple idea: I fly. 

A rudimentary broom is quite simple to make. All you really need is wood and a tail end. Usually, this is the straw part of the broom, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be straw. The easiest way to explain it is to think of an arrow, it has a clear pointy end that shows you which way it should go. The same principle applies to a broom, it needs to have a clear point.  

I chose a reasonably sized branch and broke it. Then I created a false tip with my last bandages and left several small branches with leaves at the end. After I completed wrapping and pruning it, I began sweeping.  

I swept east to west like how the sun rises and sets. This is very old school to power up a broom. I’ll emphasize it more. VEEERRRYYYY OLD way to power up a broom without wasting a lot of mana. It went out of use for the same reasons runes did. It’s very inefficient and only lasts maybe five minutes per sweep. Plus, it’s difficult to tell once it has gathered enough power for it to fly safely without dropping you off mid-flight. I decided to risk it since I only needed enough energy to get over the wall of mana and then run. Simple plans are best.  

It didn’t go down that way at all. While I was preparing my broom, I heard fighting sounds which I figured were from number five’s team, the person whose voice sounded confident in their abilities.  

It startled me first, made me question my resolution second, and convinced me to get moving before the owner of the aura defeated them.  

I was ready to go once the leaves of my broom went from green to a slight orange and the wood became subtly warmer. It should be enough to get me over, but just in case, I decided to climb the tree I took the branch from for some height assistance. Once up there, I activated two sigils of protection which, if nothing goes wrong, should last about five minutes.  

There weren’t many things I could plan for, but I am paranoid enough to run a few scenarios in my head, going from the worst possible to the most favorable. The first scenario began with the leaves burning in flight, the second if anyone jumps at me to grab a ride, the third is getting hit with a spell, the fourth with a sword, and lastly, being ambushed from below. The protective sigils I had activated should give me enough coverage for a few seconds for me to cast a spell. I could use either a gloom, piercing arrows, or swift spell, which is a dark wind spell that would help me move quickly. Once I thought I had enough plans prepared, I thanked the tree for its service and jumped.  

Flying is not my forte. I haven’t gotten used to it. It’s just something about flying through the air with your feet, not firmly on something that just... I don’t know makes me anxious. Mother said that it’s because I’m afraid of falling. Father just said that I need more practice to get used to the feeling of relying on something besides myself.  

Either way, if I have to do it for a little while, I can manage pretty well. In this situation, all I needed to do was to get across the aura which shouldn’t have been a problem. And it wasn’t, I was cruising until I casually glanced below. I don’t even have to close my eyes to remember how his hair shone brightly against the raging red around him. It was beautiful, and I would have stared longer, except his eyes pierced through my soul. 

In my mind, time had frozen as we stared at each other. The sigils I had activated would burn through the thread if I was attacked. Everything happened so fast, from the moment he lunged at me from below with his sword in hand to the impact that immediately destroyed the sigil, which in turn thrust me forward and down.  

The moments before my freefall, just as I was coasting down, were terrifying. I didn’t have the time to panic because I did want to walk away from this fight. A rushed plan popped into my head that hopefully would get me out of this situation. As I plummeted down, I stabbed the point of my broom into the ground and used it as a focal point for my darkness to spread. I used the branches as guidance since I couldn’t make the branch physically grow as an earth mage could.  

My dark tree’s branches spread darkness within the fiery red aura as they twisted sharply up. I’m not sure if he was caught in the branches of my fake tree. By the time he was swinging his sword down at my creation, I was already running from under it with the few bandages that came off from the point.  

The prince’s slash severed my creation and, by a hair, almost separated my leg from my body. How do I know? Because his slash left a cut on the ground very close to me on the left. A small scream involuntarily escaped my lips as I tried to run faster. Sure, aura users were only allowed dull weapons, but in the hands of a talented young man such as the prince, a dull sword was still a deadly weapon.  

I ran forward, perfectly aware that there was nothing to hinder the prince’s attack. He made sure of that by removing all the trees from the area. I could have used trees as shadows, distractions, or hindrances. I had to think quickly, think on my feet as I ran, trying to get to the edge of his aura and into the woods. But he wasn’t going to make it easy for me to get away like that, so then why should I become easy prey?  

Before completing my second plan in my head, I made a right turn just as the prince flew by me. The impact from the wind behind him startled me, and I almost lost my footing. He was serious, deadly serious, and I was a little mouse trying not to get caught by the cat's claws.  

“Swift,” I cast a spell to make myself move faster and made a long U-turn back to my dark tree. I climbed up as fast as I could, fixing it and increasing its length as I went up. I grabbed one of the many sturdy black branches and winced. My arm was still injured, but I pushed past the pain at the same time as the prince got to me. In my haste, I whipped it around too sloppy. Its long dark form hit its mark but did not drive him back. Quickly I turned the second branch I had grabbed with my other hand and whipped it. He blocked it, but unlike the first one, this one was sticky like honey or glue. Once a spell takes a solid form, like my tree, I can change its properties with a touch. The only thing that occurred to me while in pain and as I rushed was to make it sticky. Simple and effective since I couldn’t use my right hand and arm to full strength. 

The whip caught his arm and sword, and he was open for a fraction of a second. I took the opportunity to kick from above downward. He blocked with his free hand and attempted to grab my boot just as I cast a dark wind spell that lifted me further up my dark tree. As I moved up, I bent each branch downward, making each one sticky and long. I hoped those branches would slow him down enough for me to think of my next move.  

I’m not sure exactly what clicked inside of me while I climbed. Perhaps the feeling of running from a strong opponent reminded me of my grandfather. I’m not exactly sure, but I thought of turning and facing him head-on with a weapon of my own. Thanks to my grandfather’s ruthless training, I had managed to create a spell that could form a black sword sturdy enough to combat him for at least five minutes. But it would drain half my mana, and I had already used up about twenty-five percent. It was a risk. Especially since I was completely sure I was not on par to fight with the prince. I had to have an ace in the hole, but what? I left that key part out and hoped I would figure it out during battle because the prince had already found a way to destroy my branches. 

Once at the top, I jumped fearlessly down while racking my brain over what my next move should be, just as another soul decided to test their luck. I had not seen them initially, but the idea came in a flash. At the very last second, I changed my trajectory with a float spell to purposely collide with them. I say collide, but I’ll be honest I tackled that creature down.