Jack and his team barely slept. For all their lives, their parents had told them terrifying stories of Red Beasts and entities that loomed closer and closer drawn in to possess naughty children - obviously white lies in order to get their children to behave, but everything else they spoke of was real. Scarlet recalled her encounter with an imp: four foot, mischevious little skinny and boney grey fire monsters similar to monkeys, only a more demonic nature and appearance, that usually hunted in large packs. More commonly known as 'Little Red Devils', a single adult imp scout had stumbled upon the large back garden of the Fox family mansion and their eldest daughter setting up little bird feeders. Just a child at the time, it took the innocent girl by surprise when it set aflame and screeched horrificly at her. Luckily, her father was nearby and managed to warn off the creature before it attacked. The pack of twenty were driven away after Protectors. Alex told the group the story of how his grandfather 'heroicly' lost his leg to a siren, a water species with illusion Power that had rumoured to only work on the small-minded, Jack told them how his father witnessed a griffin drinking at the local fishing river - the simple fisherman didn't stick around for long. Black hinted at encounters with some beasts and the fathers' obsession with wanting to control them, but didn't want to go into any details. Eventually, their conversations lullabied them to sleep and they all dreamt peacefully on the night of their dangerous Physical Exam.

The plain yellow sun rose slowly on a chilling winter morning with gentle silver droplets of snow swaying from side to side to the ground. As the teams converged on the shore where their teachers awaited, tension turned to sickness and fear. Alex didn't show a bit of it - his encounter with a dragon at the beginning of the year left him with more than enough confidence with facing other foes. "Imps," he'd spat, "my mother used to call me a little devil when I shoulder-barged one of the family cattle. I'll crush their throat before they spit any fire, don't worry, guys." Scarlet admired his confidence, but knew it could potentially be the death of him. It was the same for Black too, he didn't appear at all worried about the onslaught that was to be reigned upon them. With the sun at it's highest, all thirty nine students in their physical year manned the boats and set sail. There was chattering among them all, some discussing battle tactics whilst others attempted to calm themselves. Silence fell after a light mist dropped on them and incoherent whispers sent chills down their spines. The smartest of the year had weapons drawn already - mist was known to be a perfect setting for siren attacks. Even creaking of boats made others cautious, those that felt brave held a strong defensive position at the head or the back of the boats. By now, every student gripped a weapon in hand. Jack watched the ripples of the boats pressing onward through the thickening fog. There was a ripple that came into view, heading toward them, and lead on another, then another. Boats had slowed to a halt and there was nothing but a steady creaking and the gentle sounds of water against the wood. The first student to place an oar under the water sailed safely on through the blinding mist. There was nothing to hear or see, even the ripples of water had stopped. There was a sudden crash and a single plank of wood was cast back to the boats. Water splashed around and one or two courageous cries echoed until silence fell upon the atmosphere. A young lady in blue came from the silence and slammed into another team, who were lucky enough to have a student on board that caught her. Following them, a snake head with draconic features dived at the boat in the middle of the class, the crash of it dividing them all into two. Another head hurtled toward BlueSabre's boat, in which Black made easy work of decapitating the attacker. He landed with perfect balance on the tip of the boat, looking toward his friends. "Done. Let's go, before there's something else." Just as the team had themselves moving again, a burst of boiling water materialized from the mist and tackled Black down despite his best efforts to block. An extra two heads snaked their way along the sides of the boat and lifted it, crushing it slowly with every terrifying moment. The team simultaneously leapt in different directions to save themselves; Alex requipped into tight water-resistant light armour just in time to hit the water and swim out of the way of sining debris, Black transformed in the last possible second to swiftly dodge broken wood and escape danger, Scarlet realised her disadvantage compared to her teammates and instead climbed the neck of the beast to stab her blades into it and ride it to safety. She didn't get too far until she was catapulted onto the beach and hit the sand with a hard thud. Black came to her aid, dragging her further up the beach away from danger. As she looked around, she noticed Alex surface and run to her and her classmates crawl and run up the beach toward the forest in fear. It had only been a few minutes since the exam had truly began, but it seemed most had already given up and accepted defeat.

The trio searched desperately for their leader, finally coming to realise the full danger of their situation: this was life or death. Their foes were much greater than them, nothing like the Amber Island, their foes knew nothing of reason or restraint, nothing like each other, they had never faced mythical beasts such as their current attack, nothing like the Stirly heirs, there was no one that could come and save them, nothing like a court trial. They were well and truly on their own, it was unlikely that another student would put themselves in danger for someone they don't know - vice versa. With still no sign of Jack, the team began to think the worst. Chaos still unfolded in front of them, bursts of boiling water attacking students that tried to fight back and violent waves lapped the poor shore. Mist still covered the beasts' body and made quick and easy work in creating distance between anyone that tried to venture into it. Black took charge. If no one else was willing to accept their leader may be lost to them, they would all surely die right there on the beach. As the underdog team, everyone had already predicted they'd fall apart rather quickly - even before the events of the Physical Exam were revealed to them. However they were determined to prove Headmaster's inspirational quote right - if they weren't going to come out on top they'd rival the other team that were. Unfortunately, it seemed they were already falling apart, already losing a leader. They were so conflicted whether to fight or flee that they'd forgotten why they were fighting, until a trio of heads charged down at them. In panicked reaction, Scarlet threw her arms up in front of her but felt nothing smack her like she expected. Removing her arms, her gentle gaze landed on Jack, struggling to keep one of the heads at bay with his sword piercing it's eye. "Black, fire!" He ordered, springing the team back. The fearless leader removed his sword and performed a three-sixty spin to gather all the force he needed to bring his sword down on the neck of the beast and decapitate it. Simultaneously, Black ignited his daggers and slashed down on the other side of the neck, clashing his fire with the pure white light that looked to have extended off of Jack's sword. A vivid flaming red and orange light burst out of the clash of the two weapons and temporarily blinded them all. In the confusion, they fled into the forest, gripping onto one another to stay together. A rather heroic and rapid moment, but in the grand scheme of things they were doomed if that's what made the class struggle. This was the Red Island, the land of kill or be killed for all living things.