*Alto*

The well dressed, blue haired man chuckled. "Do not worry, Prince Kun told us about you," he said.

"P-prince Kun?" Arima asked.

"Wait, the triplets are royalty?" I shouted.

The proctor chuckled. "Yes, from their mother's side. For royals, they certainly are an odd bunch, aren't they? I guess it has to do with their upbringing in that tiny island nation. Now, do be careful about unveiling that fact to others. Since I can't teleport you away, I will allow you to enter through here." The gates to the forest swung wide open. "Good luck."

We slowly entered the forest. The forest was quite dense with giant two-hundred-and-fifty foot trees but which were spread far apart enough to allow thick growth on the forest floor. It certainly was great terrain for sneaking around.

Those teams with wood, wind, and earth users would have an easier time navigating around here. Fortunately, we had an earth user in Aban to help us.

Adah summoned a yellow sphere that resembled a hornet's nest. "Locate the closest team and return back once you've done so." A swarm of warps flew out of the sphere and spread across the forest. "Let's go and set up camp. My wasps will take care of finding us someone to battle."

Ulisis, Aban, and I gathered firewood while Adah and Onyx gather some berries from nearby bushes. Arima meanwhile went with Zelia to get water.

"Are those edible?" I asked.

Adah nodded. "My wasps told me that they lack toxins so we don't have to worry about poison. Now taste is another matter."

Ulissis took out a water bottle and cleaned some of the berries. Onyx grabbed one of the clean berries. Onyx coughed.

I slapped his back. "Are you alright?"

Onyx  spat out a tiny seed."I'm fine... wow that was most sour thing I've ever tasted," the kid said. 

"Maybe they'll taste better if cooked," Adah suggested.

Onyx sat down on the ground. "Can't we just find a deer or something? Ulissis, don't you have a gun as your wand? Hunt us some game will you?"

"Don't talk to him like that," I said. "He's not your servant."

Onyx glanced up at the stars. "He's rather useless though, I mean he doesn't have real magic so he can't attack anyone. The best use for him is to use him as a shield to block spells."

Ulissis sighed. "He's right. I might as well make myself useful and gather some food." He turned around and saw the girls we had sent off to fetch water running toward him.

"Hey, look what we found," Arima said. Zelia and her each carried two large yellow fish with white bellies.

Onyx's eyes lit up. "I wanted red meat but I'll settle for white meat! Someone start the fire."

"Everyone move aside," I said. I gathered sparks in my index and middle fingers and fired them at the wood Ulissis and I had gathered. Fire spread throughout the wood. I sat down next to the flame. Fire... my father and brother were powerful mages, yet I didn't feel like I could ever amount to anything. I was weak, I didn't even make it far in the representative tournament in Kyuu Seishin.

"Are you feeling well?" Ulissis said. He had his white hood over his face. Was he trying to conceal something? It was a habit of his to cover his face whenever he felt insecure.

I stared at my hands, electricity was still crackling across my fingers. "I'm feeling a little dazed. How about you?"

He turned his fish. "I am feeling tired."

"As am I," Arima said as she sat down next to Ulissis. I hadn't noticed but those two had become quite close, closer than they were when we were traveling to Kyuu Seishin.

When we finished eating we put out the fire and moved on to building ourselves a shelter. Arima, Ulissis, Aban, and I gathered nearby fallen logs and built ourselves the strongest little log cabin we could.

"It's crowded in here," Onyx said, looking around.

"It's not that bad," I said. I sat down near the door and closed my eyes. "We should take turns guarding."

Onyx sighed. "I will take first shift."

"You?" Arima said. She was as surprised as I was. Onyx seemed like a rather stuck up kid, why would he volunteer to stay up late?

Onyx crossed his arms. "I have dark magic. I'll be able to protect us with shadows."

Aban sighed. "I'll keep you company too, little bro," he said, ruffling Onyx's black hair.

Onyx slapped his brother's hand away and pouted.

"I should also stay up late then," Arima said. "Night suits me well."

"Then you take up second shift, rest for now," Onyx said. "We'll need your strength."

Arima hugged the boy and ran over to one corner and closed her eyes.

Onyx pouted. "Go to sleep the rest of you. You two, brother. I'll be fine, it's not like I'm going outside. I'm only going to stand by the..." His ears rose up like those of a dog. "Wait, everyone summon your weapons!"

Ulissis took out his silver revolver. "Someone is near."

Aban nodded. "Yeah..."

A swarm of wasps came into the cabin and returned to Adah's orb. Adah looked up. "There is someone outside, a male, purple hair with a similar physic to Alto and Ulissis. He is holding needles. These descriptions, it's one of those boys you three were talking to before, isn't it?"

"Sounds like it," Arima said. Needles flew through the gaps between logs. Aban shielded us with walls of earth.

Arima raised her hand, filling the inside of the cabin with the spirits of deceased animals.

"Go spirits of this forest, bring me the one who shot those needles!" she commanded. The door slammed open and spirits danced around.

We ran outside and saw that the spirits had already found their prey.

"No need to look for me," Hal yelled from on top of a tree. He grinned and shot another round of needles at us.

Adah's wasps shielded us with their bodies, protecting their master no matter what.

Hal smiled and jumped back. "Venosa Acus." Silver wings appeared behind him or so they looked like wings. The 'wings' moved unleashing a barrage of needles.

Ulissis moved in front of the needles. The vanished before touching him.

My friend sighed. "I-it worked, for a moment there, I started to think they might hurt me like Aida's whip did."

Hal's smiled faded. He leapt back into the forest. Ghosts grabbed him. He shot needles out at the ghosts. He summoned a set of black gloves with purple claws at the ends. He sliced the ghosts with his claws and fled deeper into the forest.

"Should we follow him?" Ulissis asked.

"It could be a trap," Arima said. "I'll have my spirits continue to chase after him." She glanced up. Wires came pouring down from the trees. Hal stood on top of the web of wires surrounding our camp site. "Didn't he just run away?"

Needles fell close to her feet. "As if I would run," Hal said, grinning. We were shaken to the ground by an explosion coming deeper in the forest. "You wouldn't get fooled by my decoy so I had to come out earlier."

More wires came pouring down from the surrounding trees. Some of the falling wires sliced through the top of our cabin with ease, sending logs crashing inside and destabilizing the walls somewhat.

"I should've know you would pull something like this," I said, chuckling. I formed a pair of fists and began charging electricity into them. "Let's see who wins!"

"Who is this guy? I didn't sense anyone behind those wires," Onyx said. "Everyone stay back, I'll handle this guy." He leapt across the wires with ease, moving around lightly like a butterfly. "Noctis!" The night suddenly became devoid of all sound. Shadows leapt out of Onyx's back like wings.

Hal moved swiftly across the wires too. He moved too fast for my eyes to even keep up. Before I knew it, Onyx was on the floor. "Next!" Hal yelled.

"Brother!" Aban yelled. He picked up the unconscious Onyx. He raised his head and glared at Hal. Pillars of earth emerged from below Hal.

Hal laughed and jumped into the air and threw needles at him. Aban shielded himself and Onyx by creating a wall of earth. "Not bad, Alby!"

"Alby?" Aban snapped.

Arima snickered. "It's a cute nickname."

Aban's face reddened. "S-shut up, Ari!"

"Fulgur Draco," I chanted, putting my fists together. A bolt flew up from my fists and toward the cloud above, lighting up the night sky. A bolt in the form of an electrical beast descended from the heavens and moved toward the metal wires.

Hal shot needles at the trees. The metal wires came falling down from the trees. Ulissis grabbed Arima and me as the wires fell. Adah and Zelia jumped back from the electrical current in the wires. Aban meanwhile shielded Onyx and himself by expanding his existing earth wall.

Adah's remaining wasps raced after Hal. He tried to escape, but the wasps maneuvered through the forest faster and more easily. He would have to defend.

Ulissis let go of Arima and me and snuck into the woods as Hal continued to attempt to overrun the wasps. The wasps went around Hal, forcing him to come back this way.

Suddenly, Ulissis jumped out and pointed his gun behind Hal's head. "Give up," Ulissis said. "You're done."

Hal grinned. "No, I'm not. I got teammates left. Come out!" Two figures moved in the darkness only to disappear.

"Everyone, keep your guard up!" Arima yelled as she scanned the forest.

Adah shielded us with her wasps as one of the two got closer. "Apis Alvos!" The energy wasps dissolved into tiny hexagonal panels within her sphere. "Trabem Morsum!" Light green lasers fired off of the panels and into the darkness.

Ulissis abandoned Hal and dropped to the ground. Hal dropped to the ground and rolled away. The trees around them corroded as soon as the beams hit.

Would it have killed them if it had hit? Because that would've disqualified us. Or did it affect people differently than it did the trees?

Hal quickly stood up and ran deeper into the forest.

"What power?" a black-haired girl said. Strapped on the girl's back was a puppet. The puppet's eyes lit up as she moved closer. "I think you've burned out your barrier." She was right, the wasps had used up all of their energy firing those lasers.

Zelia stepped forward. "Looks like we won't be getting any sleep tonight."

Onyx winced as he opened his eyes. "Hoin really is going all out."

"Yeah," Aban said, keeping him close. "Stand back, little brother. The others and I will handle them. Just keep an eye on our surroundings. We aren't sure who else might attack."

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter :3. Thoughts, theories?**