Arden Arena

  Recommended Equipment LVL: 75 15*

  Labyrinth Tier: 3 9*

  Unique Drops: Training Sentinel Set, Nindo Badges, Arden Energy Cores

  [*Story Mode applied. Please clear Story Mode to access the full Labyrinth freely.]

  The time has come for the final exams for the third-years at Nindo. This year, a surprise is in store; the faculty has gotten permission to host their exams at the groundbreaking, cutting-edge arenas at Arden!

  Prepare yourselves, students, for your harshest test yet, and don’t forget to show off to the crowd while you’re there, you’re the next generation of heroes, after all!

  Assemble Your Seekers*

  [S-Rank] Setsuna 'Truth-Piercing Eye' [Apotheosis] (LVL18)

  [?-Rank] Estelle '???' [Burden] (LVL15)

  [A-Rank] Hayate 'Wadatsumi's First' [Herald] (LVL15)

  [S-Rank] Kagura 'Keeper of the Moon' [Nature] (LVL15)

  [*Special team has been applied for Story Mode. Please clear Story Mode to access the full Labyrinth freely.]

  Are you prepared to enter this Labyrinth?

  [YES] [NO]

  loading…

  “Woah,” Hayate gawked at the massive coliseum with shining eyes as we crossed underneath its towering shadows, “I thought it was cool when we rode down on the gryphon during summer break, and even when we went to watch that Evaluation, but man… it’s even more impressive to be walking into this place!”

  Kagura sighed.

  “Could you please shut up for a second? Yes, we get it, you love Arden. Why don’t you get a Sangferran citizenship and renounce your seat as the next Duke of Wadatsumi already?”

  “Haha, sorry, Kagura, but you gotta admit it’s at least a little bit exciting, no? Never thought I’d get to be here before I got my Registration done!”

  Setsuna’s eyes flicked to the side as the crowd of students were slowly ushered inside of the gigantic arena.

  She frowned.

  “Spectators,” she uttered simply.

  I followed her gaze.

  Yes, indeed there was a massive line of spectators lining up outside of the stairwells and lifts to the spectating area, slowly flooding the seats as they trickled in.

  It was a rather massive crowd, no less impressive than what the seasonal Evaluations would bring in.

  It was a bit intimidating, to be honest. I was expecting at least some kind of crowd when the announcement was made this year’s finals would be hosted at Arden for the third-years and up, but nothing like this.

  I thought it would have been like a junior-league sports game or something, not the bloody Olympics.

  “Aw, what, Setsy, don’t tell me you’re getting nervous!?” Hayate playfully bumped into the stoic swordswoman, eliciting a frown from her.

  “Hardly,” she scowled, pushing him away as she fidgeted with her blade, “I have no qualm with the gathering of strangers to witness my blade, to stare in awe at its perfection.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “Even if praise is acceptable, ‘tis still a bastardisation of mine art to brandish the blade for the sake of spectacle,” Setsuna huffed, “My forms of the sword are not for the spectator to gawk at with shallow praise. They are works of art, which force the opposition into submission through an implicit understanding of their beauty. It is in its precision, technique and artistry that my blade draws beauty, not in its flashing lights.”

  “I feel you, Setsuna, but you just have to deal with it,” Kagura shrugged, “anytime one of the nobles compliments me after I finish one of my ritual dances and they compliment me on how beautiful I was, I just want to throw a needle through their damn skull and tell me after that whether or not they think my divine ritual arts are still ‘beautiful’.”

  “I suppose it is not all sunshine and roses in the life of a noble…” Setsuna frowned, “there are blessings indeed when it comes to a vagrant’s life.”

  A couple of the passerbys waved at me, recognising me, specifically.

  “Young Miss Symphonia! Is that you!? I didn’t realise you were at a student at Nindo! Good luck on your exams, I’ll be cheering for you!”

  “Hey, lass, go break a leg out there! I’ll give you a discount if you place on the podium for your favourite mushrooms!”

  I laughed, reciprocating their greetings.

  “Speaking of nobility and celebrity,” Kagura rolled her eyes.

  I chuckled, blushing a bit.

  Mother was a legend of Arden, and as her eldest daughter, it was hard to escape that fame whenever it came time to visit this city.

  At the very least, I could be glad that most of the people that recognised me and cheered me on were mostly local store-owners who I visited on a monthly basis whenever I needed to restock on something or help Mother out on an errand.

  Before long, we were all gathered inside of the massive arena, the hundred-or-so large cohort slowly being split off into familiar groups of four as we lined up along the waiting rooms.

  The lockers and benches were filled to the brim with excited, anxious students, a subtle tension thickening in the air as steel clattered, grimoires were flipped, and spells were prepared.

  Everyone inhaled and exhaled, calming themselves.

  The time for dilly-dallying was over.

  Slowly, the speakers started to come to life.

  “Alright, ladies and gentlemen… welcome, one and all, once again, to the beautiful, gorgeous city of Arden. Now we’ve got a special event lined up for today, isn’t that right, partner?” One co-host started.

  “That’s right. Now, all of you know about the massive renovation Arden has gone through in the past two decades, drawing in all sorts of talent from across Sangferrus, but now it seems we might have taken the next step into the future, because we were recently approached by none other than the mysterious, mystical elves of Tenmai to host an event of theirs! Now that’s not something you hear of every day, is it? The reclusive elves of the east coming out, making an offer of diplomacy to Sangferrus? And least expectedly of all, to us! Humble residents of Arden! We were just country bumpkins a decade and a half ago! And now look at us, even those elven nobles are scrambling to get into our good graces, what a day, hah!?”

  “I can hardly believe it myself, friend, and boy, let me tell you, did they manage to pick a good batch of representatives for our first collaboration together. Now, ladies and gentlemen in the crowd, I assume most of you know what you bought tickets and seats for, but let’s go through the formalities, anyways. Gimme a loud holler if you’ve heard of the legendary school of Nindo.”

  A massive wave of cheers echoed through even the dark halls of the waiting rooms, sending trembling vibrations through our bones.

  “Yes, that’s right! Nindo, the source of hundreds and thousands of legendary heroes across the years! The dream of every young man and woman on this continent and even the next! The crown jewel of Tenmai, and home to the largest library on Manusyara, beating out even that of the Citadel’s! Yes, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Arden Arena is playing host to this vaunted school’s final practical exams!”

  Another wave of cheers reverberated.

  “Now, lemme tell you, you are all in for a treat today. You might think it won’t be all that impressive compared to the Evaluations we usually host, after all, these kids are fifteen at their youngest, how strong could they possibly be? Well don’t forget, these are the most talented, prodigal kids in the entirety of the Realm. Even the third-graders, at minimum, are equal to our B-Rank Adventurers! Our B-Ranks! And you’ve all seen how impressive they can be, right?”

  “Yeah, I’m not forgetting about ol’ Stoneskin Ahrholdt anytime soon, I still think about him biting off that sword for fun time to time.”

  “Oh, looks like we don’t have much more time to waste, look at that! The arena’s already terraforming! No more stalling for now, it looks like the first part of today’s event is underway. Let’s see what expectations we should set for the rest of the day, because now, ladies and gentlemen, you’ll be watching the third years at Nindo take on their finals!”

  The earth started to rumble, the magnitude of the quakes sending a few of our classmates stumbling.

  The shutters in front of us started to open.

  From the bottom of the opening doors, we could see the terraforming technology of Arden Arena start to work its literal magic.

  “Oh, looks like we have a forest arena this time.”

  Flat rocks and dirt toppled over, flipping into luscious grass before one could even blink.

  The dirt trembled as massive oaken tendrils burst through the ground, spraying rocks and moss everywhere as spiralling roots and trunks climbed into the sky, fanning out into massive trees.

  “That’s right, the first part of the third year’s exams is simple, race to the end of the forest! Fight your way through all the monsters!”

  “Everyone, let me hear all you got! Gimme a countdown, let’s send these third years off with a roaring start! I wanna hear Arden shake from the sound, make some noise!”

  “Three!”

  Hayate grinned, shifting his spear over his shoulder as he lowered himself, ready to leap.

  “Two!”

  The door continued to recede into the roof, brightening the dark lockers and benches.

  “One!”

  Setsuna kept her hand on her blade.

  “LET’S GOOOO!”

  Hundreds of students burst out through the gates, sprinting through the still-transforming forest.

  I kept my eyes locked on the forests end as I ran, watching as the depths of the treeline grew darker and darker as nature continued to sprawl into existence.

  “Aw, right, now this is nostalgic!” Hayate roared, “it’s like initiation all over again! Except this time, we’re not late!”

  “Hmph, a simulacrum of the Twilight Forest?” Setsuna narrowed her blade, “nostalgic indeed. Very well, let us see how far our years at Nindo have taken us.”

  We disappeared into the trees, the cover of bark and leaves muffling the roaring crowd by just a bit.

  It brought back memories of our very first day at Nindo, before we even knew we would be friends, chaotically running through a massive forest of monsters as we scrambled to reach the end before anyone else.

  To think three years had already passed, huh?

  It really seemed like time had started to fly.

  They were just strangers back then, but now, I couldn’t imagine having anyone else but these three by my side.

  It was time to see how much we had improved since we were freshmen.

  Almost immediately, nature started to shake, and the trees begun to move, shifting in real time to form hazardous walls and paths, twisting into an endless, dark maze.

  “And there we go, here’s our first obstacle, and one that will continue to plague our students until they reach the forest’s end. The trees are alive, and will do everything in their power to stop the kids from making progress! Blocking off their paths, littering the floor with wooden spikes, summoning walls of thorns, you name it! Let’s see, how will they deal with this one!?”

  “Setsuna!” Hayate called out, “you’re up!”

  Setsuna leapt forwards ahead the rest of us, brandishing her blade and dragging it along the jagged rock wall besides us, creating heated sparks from the friction.

  “Minamiken, Nikata: Kyoka!”

  ‘Blade of the South, Second Form: Torchlight’.

  The sparks flicked across the forest, guided by the swipe of her blade.

  And then just before dying out, they roared in anger, finding life beyond their dying embers and transforming into a massive, vertical blazing slice emanating from Setsuna’s sword, cleaving through the wall of roots in front of us.

  “And look at that! An impressive show of swordsmanship has Team 6 clearing the first wall without even stopping, giving them an early lead!”

  “Oh, but I don’t think the forest likes that. You hear that rumbling, pal?”

  The trees around us started to groan, uprooting themselves as we continued to sprint through.

  “I sure do, you should remember the first rule when it comes to visiting forests, no fires. Best be prepared to deal with the consequences.”

  A massive oaken claw swiped at us from the side.

  Setsuna scowled, pivoting on her foot and jumping back towards us to intercept it.

  “A quick reaction from the young swordswoman saves her teammates!”

  She cleanly sliced the wooden arm off, brandishing her sword as we slowed down.

  The twisting trees unwound and straightened, growing massive legs to stand on to match their monstrous arms, dark, glowing eyes flaring and glaring at us hatefully.

  Kagura whipped out her gohei and immediately started to chant, ignoring the pair of treants moving to smash her.

  She’d come a long way from being that nervous, sheltered girl who had never seen a day of combat in her life. Now she was the first to react to the presence of hostility, and implicitly trusted her life to her comrades.

  “Back off!” Hayate jumped forth, batting the tree monsters away from his cousin with a swipe of his spear, not managing to fully detach them like Setsuna did, but successfully repelling them nonetheless, drawing an unnatural roar of pain from the creatures.

  A shadow descended over me.

  I closed my eyes and quickly rolled out of the way, a massive cloud of dirt and dust kicking up as a wooden hand smashed into my previous location.

  I heard wood groan and topple off to the side as Setsuna dispatched one of the treants with ease.

  I got up from my roll and turned around, lifting my staff and calling forth my magic.

  Sunlight burst through the cracks of the unnaturally dark forest, illuminating the battlefield in a healing light, twisting green tangles of natural vines rising to struggle against the unnatural, cruelly sharp spirals of the oaken sentinels.

  I exerted myself, pushing my mana to expand even further, letting small offshoots of the vines grow into massive tentacles of their own, wrapping around the evil spirits and locking them in place.

  “Wadatsumi, move!”

  Our frontliners rotated around, Setsuna moving to the front to handle the stray attackers while Hayate leapt back to push away the oncoming forces from the sides.

  Another claw moved to swipe at me.

  “Oi!” Hayate announced his arrival, stabbing into it and pinning the massive limb in place as he pierced through it with his spear, sticking it into the dirt beneath.

  His cheek was cut, and there were a few scratches and bruises on him already, having been locked into a deadly tussle with the treants up front.

  I quickly swiped my spare hand over him, not letting go of my concentration.

  Time seemed to unwind as his skin unpeeled and the blood faded.

  “Kogetsu!”

  And in a flash of blinding white light, Kagura finished her spell, banishing the evil, restless spirits of the artificial forest, dissolving the treants into lifeless saplings and branches that fell to the ground uselessly.

  “Now that’s a familiar one,” Hayate chuckled, “come a long way from just using it to knock out a bunch of wolves and spiders, eh? Now you don’t even have to do those long dances and chants anymore.”

  Kagura just rolled her eyes and flicked her sleeves to clear them off any dirt.

  “And you’re just as bullheaded as ever.”

  “Love ya too, Kags.”

  “Come on, everyone, don’t tell me I have to repeat myself again after three years! We need to get running!” I sighed and shouted.

  I let go of my spell and departed at once, running with the rest of my team further into the forest’s depths.

  The forest didn’t cease in its efforts to slow us down, though, throwing endless swarms of monsters at us and blocking us off with whatever obstacles it could.

  A couple minutes later, after an encounter with a rather innocent-looking field of flowers that quickly bloomed into a deadly row of carnivorous plants, the arena stepped up in its efforts to stop us, rumbling the earth in the distance as a massive wall of stone slowly rose, almost blocking the sun from view.

  I looked around, noticing a thousand little lights scattering through the darkening treeline, following us as we ran.

  “Iwawari!” Setsuna shouted ahead of us, cleaving through the stone wall that tried to cage us in.

  “Fireflies?” I scowled, looking left to right, “no, Will-o-wisps! We have a wisp swarm, everyone!”

  From the sides, behind us, above us, a swarm of a thousand fiery lights leered at us, creeping ever closer.

  Kagura skidded to a halt, slamming her hand into the ground and summoning a massive trigram that spiralled around us and raised itself into a wall of light.

  “Shiokusari!”

  A swirl of lunar tides scattered through the air, its elements naturally countering and opposing the spirits of fire, locking the swarm of wisps in place, and setting Setsuna up for her attack.

  The swordswoman leapt up, spinning gracefully through the air as her blade trailed through the droplets of lunar water, gathering them into great brushstrokes of the ocean's tides.

  “Tsubamemure!”

  ‘Swallow Flock’, the Third Form of Setsuna’s Northern Blade.

  She continued to dance and spiral, collecting the droplets into rain, the rain into a stream, and the stream into a dam.

  Setsuna flicked her sword around her and hurled the gathered water forward, spinning it around and unleashing it in the form of a devastating spiral.

  “Tatsumaki!”

  A twister of wind howled as it swept away the spirits, the cutting wind being infused by the divine water left behind by Kagura’s spell, dispersing the fire spirits with ease.

  Trees groaned, finding themselves being pulled out of the ground as they were swept away and hurled into the sky by the massive tornado.

  “Oh, no,” one of the hosts muttered, “now that’s gonna be a bit problematic for our other contestants. Got a bit of a rain of trees coming in because of Team 6’s tornado there, hope the others are in the mood for a bit of log dodging for today!”

  “Well, I think that’s ideal for them. They were slowed down a bit by that encounter with the barkhounds, they’re gonna need some interference if they want to get their lead back, and raining trees on their classmates is sure one way to do it!”

  “Bit of a cut-throat competition we got going on, eh? Looks like even scrapping with other teams isn’t off the table, look over there! Teams 15 and 16, they’re in each other’s line of sights, throwing spells at each other at a distance, trying to hole the other in!”

  “Oh, I don’t favour Team 15’s odds in this artillery fight.”

  “Really doesn’t look good for them, does i- oh, what’s that!?”

  “Using their opponent’s explosion to create a smokescreen to tunnel through the earth and escape! Team 15 gets ahead of their competition with a brilliant bait! And now Team 16 has to deal with two sets of foes at once!”

  I sighed, waving my staff over everyone again to keep our legs in shape as we ran.

  “And Team 3! They’ve gotten lost, and now they’re just in an all-out brawl with Team 19! Wanna make sure you score more than at least one team? There’s only one way to guarantee that placement! Knock the competition out!”

  At the very least, despite being public target number one, Setsuna’s presence was intimidating, and even if everyone wanted to take her down, that didn’t mean they were stupid enough to try and fight us directly, not when they had everyone else and the forest to be competing against.

  “Toukanadzuchi!” Setsuna leapt down from the trees, smashing into the group of mandrakes in front of us, scattering them with explosive rage emanating from her ‘Molten Hammer’.

  Hayate leapt through the cloud of smoke, spear at the ready, impaling its blade on a massive moss-covered root-like serpent as it tried to flee from the burning crater.

  High above, avian screeches crowed as bundles of sharp feathers shot towards us, nicking and cutting away at us as we dived for cover.

  I spun around and flourished my staff, covering us with a small golden barrier of light, simultaneously closing the cuts that had gathered on us from the projectile attack.

  Kagura stood confidently behind my makeshift barrier, raising her gohei to the sky and twirling in place.

  “Great Hell Needles of Binding!”

  Spears of light descended from the clouds, slamming through the colossal bird-like constructs raining feathery artillery on us from above, dragging them all the way from the sky to the ground.

  Then suddenly, a heartstopping howl from far behind us, rumbling through the darkness, stopped all of us in our tracks.

  All at once, every student froze, instinctively looking behind them out of fear.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “Oh, that’s not a sound you like to hear, is it?” One of the announcers playfully chided.

  “No it is not. Better not spend too long dawdling about. Don’t think you wanna find out what that’s all about, do you, kids?”

  “Run!” Hayate screamed, ordering us to flee.

  The great wooden avians screeched in place, struggling and thrashing against the binding spears.

  Setsuna hastily flicked her blade across their necks, ending their struggle as we moved on, desperate to avoid whatever was creeping up behind us.

  “Ah, fuck,” Hayate clicked his tongue as we burst through a clearing and found ourselves looking at a massive raging river, far, far longer than any of could jump, pulling everything it touched downstream with thrashing fury, “Don’t suppose you have a way to calm the river, Kagura?”

  “No,” the shrine maiden frowned and shook her head, “maybe if it was the ocean. I can calm tides, but not a river.”

  “Got anything to part water, Setsuna?”

  Behind us, something massive groaned and screeched, closing in on us as the ground thumped, the tremors growing stronger and stronger.

  “Nay,” Setsuna scowled, “Perhaps for a moment, but not long enough for all four of us to cross. Those Forms of Kitaken are still yet to be perfected.”

  “I can build us a bridge, I think,” I interjected.

  “Well, hurry up!” Hayate nodded back towards the forest behind us, “we don’t have all day before whatever that is catches up to us, and I’m not interested in finding out today!”

  I nodded, hurriedly summoning a length of roots that slowly stretched across the treacherous river, groaning and crying as it struggled to stay intact against the river’s raging torrents.

  I groaned in exertion, struggling to keep the bridge intact against the force of nature.

  It did its job, though, buying us just enough time to cross over before it broke off, leaving whatever was behind that treeline chasing us stranded on that side of the river.

  I started to hear panicked shouts echo from behind us to the sides, coming from our classmates.

  “Oh, you’d best not take too long before crossing the river at the mid-way point in the forest. You’ll find a gnarly surprise waiting for you if you’re being too careful. Might think you’ll be able to guarantee a few rankings by taking out your competition, but if you’re stuck too long in a scrappy brawl, those nasty Grovestriders’ll get ya. And let me tell you, they’re terrifying.”

  “Oh, don’t we know it, huh? I still remember what they did to last spring’s C-Ranks. Almost had to call in the priests for that one, I think a few of them still have nightmares about what happened.”

  “Enough about the stragglers, let’s get back to what the crowd’s really excited about, let’s check in on our frontrunners!”

  “And look at that, Team 6 crosses the river at the half-way mark without issue, cementing them as one of this cohort’s favourites!”

  “Oh and the crowd loves them! Just hear that cheer!”

  “Hmm… wait a second.”

  “Something up?”

  “I think I might recognise one of those faces, crew, can we get a zoom in on Team 6?”

  “Wait… that isn’t… no, it really is, isn’t it? Wow, the rumours really were right!”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have a very special attendee today, not in the stands, but in the maze itself! That’s a very familiar face to the residents of Arden, no!?”

  I bristled.

  Ahead of me, Kagura chortled.

  Hayate just peeked up at the attention, looking around as we continued fighting off the monsters and running through the trees, searching for the hidden observer, waving around wildly with a cheesy smile on his face to greet the crowd.

  “Yes, it really is her! I’d recognise that yellow hair, lavender eyes and white jacket anywhere! Folks, it looks like the rumours were right! Young Miss Symphonia really was attending Nindo this entire time! Give it up for our frontrunners in Team 6, and the one and only, very, very special Estelle Symphonia, daughter of the legendary Black Matter Witch!”

  I blushed as a cascade of roaring cheers rolled through the arena in my honour.

  I pushed the creeping embarrassment aside, focusing on the rest of the obstacle course ahead, aiding my team as we continued to cut a straight line through the forest, leveraging Kagura’s firepower against evil spirits to burn away the enemies, while utilising Setsuna’s all-encompassing swordsmanship to cut away every obstacle that tried to block us.

  “Oh, but hold onto your hats, folks, this race isn’t over yet, the biggest obstacle is yet to come. These standings can change in just a single instant…”

  I held my breath, seeing the end of the treeline, small rays of light peeking through the gaps.

  “Yes, there’s still one massive, massive obstacle standing between our students and the next phase of the test. And this one’s a real stubborn bastard. Wanna take this ol’ big hunk of wood down? Ain’t gonna be easy, folks!”

  The earth trembled.

  Kagura panted as she strained herself, trying to make the last stretch of the forest.

  A massive shadow descended upon all of us.

  Hayate’s eyes widened as he took in the colossal form, turning around and leaping at Kagura to pull her to the side.

  I followed suit, rolling to the side.

  Setsuna ran forward, drawing her sword and swinging it at the oncoming object, buying us just enough time to clear ourselves from the attack.

  Steel grinded against steel as Setsuna groaned, sparks flying in her face.

  It wasn’t much of a contest, however, even with Setsuna’s monstrous strength.

  A flimsy, rusted length of steel collided with a towering wall of iron, as long as a street and as tall as a house.

  Setsuna roared and tensed her muscles, pushing the blade to the side, straining her body as she mustered all the strength she had.

  She was barely successful, and the colossal blade fell to the side.

  Even though we escaped unharmed, the earth around us did not.

  The earth tremored as the sword fell, almost cutting through the artificial plate of earth that the arena sat upon.

  One side of the forest lowered, and the other raised itself, cleaved in half by the diverted swing.

  We didn’t get long to rest.

  The blade moved, lifting itself slightly before turning to the side and sweeping across the forest, cutting through all the trees in its path.

  “Everyone, up!” Hayate ordered.

  My three teammates utilised their natural elven agility, deftly hopping up into branches of the final few trees of the forest.

  I had no such luck, and had to utilise my magic to call the branches to me, extending them to my wrist as they pulled me up and swung me forward, sending me clumsily tumbling through the air.

  Luckily, Setsuna snatched me out of the air, propping me on her shoulder as she lightly touched down on a branch.

  The blade continued to cleave through the forest underneath us, eventually cutting through the trees we were standing on, toppling them over and exposing us to the sunlight.

  “And it looks like our frontrunners, Young Miss’s very own Team 6, is the first to trigger its spawn! Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to our good old friend… Forest! Sentinel! Alpha!”

  A gnarled boot of oak slammed into the ground, blinding us with clouds with dirt as we scattered once more.

  We looked up at the massive foe, preparing ourselves for the battle.

  A giant wooden construct, fashioned like an ancient, mechanical knight – part-golem, part-arcane, part-spirit – raised its hand into the sky, the runic engravings along its shell lighting up with the iconic brilliant blue glow of mana as it called upon the terraforming magic of the arena directly.

  The ground beneath us rumbled, before a wall of trees enclosed us into a sizeable arena with the sentinel, the world around us transforming into a luscious grove, paved over by an endless field of flowers and separated from the rest of the arena by a towering wall of trees.

  “Kagura?” Hayate tried.

  “Hell no!” Kagura spat, “I’m good at crowd control and binding! Not giant-slaying!”

  “Worth a shot,” he shrugged, before grinning widely and jumping forward to initiate the fight, “C’mon, Setsuna, let’s tear this guy a new asshole!”

  “Language!” Kagura snapped at him, “Don’t forget your status as the first son of Wadatsumi, especially not when an entire city is watching!”

  The oaken giant groaned as its runes lit up once more.

  From the field of flowers, great tendrils of wood burst forth, chasing Hayate down.

  “Uh, Estelle!?”

  “That’s not me!” I shouted in a panic.

  “Kyoka!”

  In a flash of flame, Setsuna dashed across the field, severing the mass of wood before it could pierce him.

  “Thanks!”

  “Save thy thanks for when there is a moment of rest!”

  She continued right where he left off, leaping up onto the branches of one of the towering trees nearby before springing off and flying straight towards the sentinel.

  The wall of steel that was the construct’s blade heaved itself towards her.

  “Demon Sealing Needle!”

  A spear of light knocked it off its path, sending the massive foe lurching to the side as it tried to recover its weapon’s balance.

  Setsuna landed on the golem’s arm and dragged her blade through it, creating a bright shower of sparks as she travelled upwards, still failing to pierce its armor.

  But that wasn’t her goal.

  She tensed her grip further, dragging her blade along the armor even harsher until she was surrounded by a tidal wave of flickering sparks threatening to become embers.

  Setsuna pulled her blade forwards, scattering the shower of sparks over the golem’s chest.

  “Minamiken, Sankata: Hotaru!”

  And true to the technique’s name, a thousand ‘Fireflies’ were lit.

  Each spark raining towards the golem’s armor became a flaming blade unto itself, charging alongside Setsuna and she stabbed into its chest, barely managing to nick and singe the tough bark armour.

  She twisted her blade into its chest, and called out her next attack, preparing to ignite the thousand flaming blades in a massive explosion.

  “Yonkata: Hiuchiishi!”

  The needles of fire penetrating into the armor lit up and-

  Nothing.

  Setsuna blinked in confusion, before being viciously swatted away.

  The giant sentinel was quick to follow up on the opportunity despite its lumbering stature, swinging its gargantuan sword towards her.

  Hayate flew upwards, intercepting the strike and taking the brunt of the damage himself.

  Before the two of them could be flung any further, I summoned my nature magic to pull them down safely, throwing vines their way that dragged them back to the ground.

  Setsuna frowned at the foe, staring furiously at its barely-damaged chest, a flicker of confusion and frustration dancing across her eyes.

  I followed her gaze, quickly scanning the runic formations that were lighting up on its armor.

  The flaming needles on its chest were literally being sucked and drained, only serving to energise the great construct.

  It was a good thing we were studying runes this year.

  “Elemental absorption runes,” I explained as I waved my staff over the two of them, letting them stand to full height again, “It seems to have some semblance of intelligence. It recognised which of the four Elements you hit it with, and adapted its defenses to the last one it was struck with. Can’t just hit it all with Fire. Have to cycle and coordinate.”

  Setsuna frowned, holding her blade in front of her and staring at it.

  “It is doubtful mine Azumaken and Kitaken shall be effective. To strike it with Water or Wind seems perilous, unless I were to unleash the final arts in their series, all of which are incomplete. And Nishiken… ‘tis more for splitting boulders and mountains than mowing grass or harvesting lumber.”

  “No worries,” Hayate wiped away a dribble of blood, pushing himself into a ready stance again, “Kagura, looks like you’re up anyways. Hit it with Water with everything you got, and we’ll open it up for Setsuna. One-two, got it?”

  “Ugh, fine,” Kagura grumbled, rolling her eyes as she flicked her arms out, letting her sleeves billow gracefully as she inhaled to calm herself, emptying her mind to concentrate only on her dance.

  “Alright, everyone else, you know the drill!” Hayate shouted.

  But before he could start to move, the earth began to move.

  The oaken construct lifted its claw to the sky, activating its runes and calling upon the arena’s terraforming magic.

  The soil around us destabilised, summoning a circle of wooden tendrils that tried to break Kagura’s trance.

  “Shit, Setsuna!”

  “On it!”

  “Estelle, you’re with me, but keep your eyes on them!”

  “Coming!”

  We split into two pairs; Hayate and I occupied the sentinel while Setsuna fought off the spawning tentacles and protected Kagura.

  It didn’t take long for Setsuna to clear away the tentacles, but those weren’t the last of the hazards that spawned.

  The flowers started to twitch and spasm, before erupting upwards in ugly bursts of plant flesh, swelling into gargantuan, monstrous plants with bulbous heads that threatened to burst, a faint purple poisonous pollen leaking from them.

  Hayate landed back on the floor after dodging a swing of the massive sword, and mistakenly took a sharp breath.

  He coughed, feeling something burn inside of him.

  Teary eyes swept side to side.

  “Shit, poison!?”

  I slammed the hilt of my staff into the ground, summoning a cloud of light that dispelled the poison’s effects and expelled it from our systems.

  Kagura hurried through the motions of her dance, rushing through her spell before the poison could reach her.

  “Mangetsu no Yobidashi!”

  ‘Full Moon’s Call’.

  A pillar of pressurised water burst from beneath the sentinel’s feet, sending its towering figure stumbling.

  Setsuna paused, looking between the plants that threatened to burst with poison and the Forest Sentinel Alpha, which was in prime position to be struck.

  I coughed into my hand, some of the hazardous mist seeping into my lungs despite my best efforts to dispel it.

  “Focus on the Sentinel!” I called out to her, trying not to gasp, “I can take care of it!”

  I swivelled my head to the side.

  “Kagura!”

  In response, the shrine maiden slammed her hand into the ground, summoning a trigram with runes comprised of Tenmai calligraphy.

  “Mikadzuki no Kagami!”

  ‘Crescent Moon Mirror’.

  A transparent barrier of hard blue light erected around us, isolating us from the poison’s flow.

  I slammed my staff into the field of flowers, wresting back control of nature as I summoned my own encirclement of vines, smothering the pods of poisonous pollen and enclosing around them, choking and strangling them until they receded back into the ground, freed from the construct’s magic.

  I was able to safely clear all the ones nearby, but the furthest pods were slower to fall, gaining the opportunity to grow to their full height and swell and burst, exposing Hayate and Setsuna to the poison as the former created an opportunity for the latter to unleash her Minamiken.

  A purple fog billowed outwards, slowly spreading to cover the sentinel’s upper body.

  “Shit,” I clicked my tongue and braced myself.

  If Setsuna’s concentration broke for even a second, she would be unable to unleash her sword forms.

  I couldn’t let the poison affect her.

  She was still jumping forwards, steadying herself and emptying her mind, unaware of the encroaching fog.

  They were too far away, my magic couldn’t reach from here.

  I would have to make a run for it and expose myself.

  “Kagura, it’s safe!” I shouted behind myself as I ran past her and swiped my staff over her, blessing her with one last lingering restoration spell as she lowered the barrier and focused on her next incantation.

  The flower field shifted as I made a mad dash towards the sentinel, jagged spikes of vines and wood not unlike the kind I summoned trying to interrupt me, tearing at my clothes as I narrowly avoided being impaled.

  A trail of poison snuck into my breath as I gasped for air after diving.

  I hacked and coughed, a small bit of blood dribbling onto the grass as I tried to ignore it and pushed on.

  I couldn’t afford to back off here, Setsuna was relying on us and trusting us to keep her focused.

  I ran forward.

  My lungs started to burn. I felt the nausea creep in and something sickly pierce my bloodstream.

  I waved my staff over myself as I pushed myself forward, my healing magic barely outpacing the poison’s effects.

  A migraine pounded. I grit my teeth and just forced myself through the pain.

  I climbed up on my own loose mass of vines, gaining the last bit of height I needed.

  I grabbed my staff and flung it around myself in a massive arc, sending out a desperate wave of golden light out towards the distant poison mist, barely scattering it in time for Setsuna to leap past it with closed eyes.

  From below, one of the flowers violently spiralled and expanded, shooting out a volley of thorns upwards as it sacrificed itself to keep its guardian safe.

  I slammed the hilt of my staff into the ground, sending a pillar of light through the earth and letting it shoot up directly to cover Setsuna, healing her from the thorny bullets’ damage as it happened in real time.

  Thanks to my efforts, she was able to maintain her concentration just enough to gather her energy to unleash her sword right as she closed the gap.

  “Minamiken!”

  The world turned red.

  “Rokukata!”

  A colossal projection of flame burst out from Setsuna’s blade, swinging in a tall downwards arc across the construct’s exposed torso.

  The defensive runes on its bark armour lit up, desperately trying to switch from Water to Fire, but it was too late.

  “Nichibotsu!”

  ‘Sunset’.

  The blade embodying twilight descended, covering the world in a dazzling glow of orange and purple as a massive flaming gash tore through the outer layer of the Forest Sentinel’s armour.

  It stumbled backwards, roaring from the pain.

  But that wasn’t all.

  The Sixth Form of Setsuna’s Southern Blade had a second half to it.

  The swordswoman spun down onto the chipped armour, pinning her blade directly into the construct’s core, twisting it in.

  She roared as she pivoted her heel, swinging her hips and imbuing her torso and shoulders with all the energy her body could muster as she dragged the sword outwards and upwards.

  Orange and purple flames descended into deep blues and purples, before erupting outwards as a pure, white light.

  All of Setsuna’s ‘Sixth Forms’ sat at the border of what was logical and possible; when they started to cross into the ‘Seventh Forms’, the attacks started to become abstract and metaphorical in nature, as opposed to purely elemental.

  The Sixth Form embodied that border between practicality and surrealness, transforming ordinary flame into the fantastical embodiment of the setting sun.

  “Tsukinode!”

  The swordswoman pulled her rusted blade free from the wooden armour, bursting it open and exposing the inner workings of the golem’s core with a dazzling geyser of pure white moonlight.

  After ‘sunset’ followed ‘Moonrise’, the last of the techniques of Minamiken before they crossed into the realm of impossibility.

  Having totally collapsed the chest armour, Setsuna lost her foothold on the gargantuan foe, and was forced to jump back, meeting the rest of us on the ground.

  She skidded to a halt as we looked up to assess the damage.

  A bright blue light peeked out from the construct’s heart.

  “I’m guessing that’s the core,” Hayate raised an eyebrow.

  “Yep,” Kagura sighed, “C’mon, one last push.”

  Just as she said that, the crowd came to life, drowning the world out with cheers over something happening in the distance.

  Far, far away, I saw a towering figure – another one of the Forest Sentinel Alphas – collapse.

  No, it wasn’t just one. It was two.

  “And look at that!” The announcers called out excitedly, “Teams 9 and 13! Setting their differences aside, they realise they work better as a singular group of eight, utilising their perfect synergy to take down both of their Sentinels together faster than they could individually!”

  “Oh, but it’s not over yet! That’s just the first part of these finals! And the exit to this portion and the entrance to the second half is nowhere in sight! That’s right! There’s a trick here! Can these enterprising students figure out the secret of how to get to the next portion of the text before everyone else catches up!?”

  Setsuna scowled as she tossed her head to the side, her eyes sharpening with intensity as she observed the giants falling to the ground.

  Uh oh. It didn’t seem like she liked the fact that the other groups had acted ‘dishonorably’ – something that was defined completely arbitrarily – and collaborated with each other.

  “We advance at once! We shan’t let them overtake us!”

  She put both hands on her blade and jumped forwards the recovering construct, not giving us any time to think about our next move.

  Hayate just sighed as he picked up his spear again.

  “Yeah, that’s Setsuna alright…” He mumbled, before leaping ahead of her to take away the Sentinel’s focus.

  I giggled.

  “Well, seems like the more things change, the more things stay the same.”

  Kagura rolled her eyes as she unfurled paralysing talismans from her sleeve.

  “Really wish things wouldn’t stay the same.”

  She scattered her talismans out, forming a rectangular formation around the sentinel’s feet that locked it into place.

  The sentinel let out a monstrous screech as it dropped its sword, its armor twisting and sharpening into a more feral shape, enraging and growing desperate to stop us from advancing.

  Its once deliberate movements grew animalistic and rapid, swiping with its sharpening claws at our frontline with speed that should have been impossible for its mass.

  I hurriedly pulled my staff forwards, aiming at the swiping arms as a length of vines extended towards it, barely pulling on it hard enough to slow it down.

  Still though, it did its job, giving Hayate the time to properly bat it aside and pull Setsuna up with him, tossing her onto the monster’s body.

  “Kagura!” She yelled from far away.

  “On it,” the shrine maiden flourished her gohei.

  A rush of mana surrounded her, lifting her hair and fluttering her sleeves.

  “Tsukikido!”

  ‘Moon’s Orbit’.

  The enraging sentinel lurched, finding its arms pulled together and forced to its knees by a mystical gravity.

  The bright mana surrounding Kagura flew outwards and upwards, spinning out in a circular thread that accelerated until it became a ring of water, crushing and strangling the beast with a bind of the ocean that threatened to crush it, centred around its elbows.

  The defensive runes lit up, switching to cover Water as it tried to free itself.

  “All on you, Setsy!”

  “Don’t call me that, fool!”

  Somehow, the pair found enough time to banter in the midst of the chaos.

  Nevertheless, Setsuna jumped forwards, holding her blade above her as she leapt for the golem’s exposed core.

  Her rusted blade dragged on thickening air, heating up like lava before it came a mass of molten steel.

  “Toukanadzuchi!”

  The ‘Molten Hammer’ struck true, punching a hole straight into the monster’s chest.

  “Yonkata!”

  Recognising her mistake from last time, Setsuna had already begun flowing into her next stance, trying to finish the fight before it could get a chance to switch to Fire absorption with its runes.

  “Hi-uchi-ishi!”

  And finally, she was able to invoke the attack that had earlier been negated, unleashing ‘Striking Flint’ at its full force.

  The molten hammer of Setsuna’s blade exploded outwards, using the steel as flint, the lava as tinder, and the construct itself as firewood.

  A great explosion of fire and smoke rung out, almost rupturing our ears from the sheer volume.

  Burning wood groaned as the figure of the Forest Sentinel Alpha emerged from the smog, collapsing backwards lifelessly as arcane sparks flittered uselessly from its core.

  Hayate and Setsuna touched down on the grass, watching as the arena of flowers and trees receded into a barren wasteland.

  “And Team 6 is the third team to complete the first half of their exams! They still have an opportunity to pull ahead, as Teams 9 and 13 are arguing about where the hidden entrance of the second part could be.”

  Hayate groaned as he pulled himself up.

  “Any ideas, team?”

  I hurriedly waved my staff over everyone, restoring them back to fighting condition.

  “Thanks,” he mumbled quickly before turning to Kagura.

  “Hey, sense anything in the mana around us?”

  Kagura closed her eyes and concentrated.

  She frowned.

  “No,” she shook her head.

  “Setsuna-”

  “The wind whispers nothing,” the traveller got ahead of him, “it blows nowhere, reveals no secrets. No tunnels or pathways. Only silence, and a breeze of normality.”

  “I’ll see if I can get us a vantage point,” I sighed as I panted, lifting my staff to summer a tower of nature to bring us higher up.

  I summoned my mana and-

  I blinked.

  Huh?

  “Something wrong?” Hayate frowned.

  “T-the ground… there’s no life under it,” I looked down at the soil, puzzled.

  But there was clearly life there just a minute ago. I had called upon a nature spell right before the Forest Sentinel fell.

  Did something change in the meantime?

  Well, thinking about it, the transformation of the small arena seemed to be tied to the Forest Sentinel’s continued functioning. Maybe there was a hidden component to the reversion part of the terraforming magic it used?

  I tapped my staff on the ground, sending a pulse of mana through it.

  I was lucky, my Earth and Fire attunement made nature very responsive to my call.

  My eyes widened when I received the response.

  Or rather, the lack of response.

  “T-the floor beneath us! It’s hollow!”

  Hayate’s eyes widened.

  “Setsuna!”

  The swordswoman heeded his words silently, lifting her blade high above her head, grasping it with both hands, and looking down.

  “Everyone, brace yourselves, we’re gonna be falling!”

  “Nishiken, Yonkata: Daichiwake!”

  ‘Dividing the Earth’, the Fourth Form of the Western Blade – its capabilities were self-evident in its name.

  The barren ground beneath us cracked as it gave way, revealing a slanted tunnel that descended deep underground.

  Thankfully, the slight slant of the cavity let us get a small foothold, allowing each of us to slide down slowly as opposed to simply tumbling helplessly down a void.

  Well… all of us besides Setsuna, anyways, who like the monster she was, just decided she was more comfortable just running downwards like it was flat ground.

  The voice of the announcers paradoxically became softer and louder at the same time, as the speakers above became quiet and the ones buried underground became noticeable.

  “Without anyone to argue with, Team 6 shoot ahead and are the first to discover the entrance to the second half of their final exams! Oh, but I don’t know if they’ll hold onto their lead for long, because the second half to these finals is much, much different compared to the straight forward race up until now.”

  The light from above slowly disappeared, and all of descended into darkness.

  I inhaled and exhaled, steadying myself.

  The first half of our practical finals every year was always like this. A straight forward test of our adventuring skills as we battled and navigated our way through whatever dungeon or labyrinth the faculty wanted to throw us into.

  The second half, however, was a wild card, depending solely on however cruel or wild the teachers felt like being that year.

  Last year, they decided to throw all the students into a molten crucible and active forge, asking us to solve head-scratching puzzles while being worn down by the unbearable heat and deadly traps, and to navigate through a maze of technological marvels of magma and steel; testing our composure in the most extreme and isolated of environments, all the while every student was faced with the possibility of encountering other competition in their journeys to escape.

  Who knew what they wanted to throw at us this year?

  Eventually, we came to a stop, reaching solid ground far, far beneath the arena.

  It was quiet.

  A cave shadowed in dark-blue lighting greeted us, ominous stalagmites hanging threateningly from the ceiling.

  We walked forward.

  I held my staff in front of us, using a bit of my magic as a makeshift torch.

  The hole down which we descended disappeared as we went further into the cave.

  We came out to a massive circular dome, giving us open space.

  “Something wrong, Estelle?” Hayate frowned, noticing the uncomfortable look on my face.

  We didn’t seem to be in a cave anymore.

  It looked like an abandoned street in a city.

  “No, just… something about this layout… it seems familiar.”

  Abandoned wagons, crumbling houses, shadowed in an ominous dark-blue lighting, painting the ruined city in a dreary atmosphere.

  Had I been here when I was younger?

  I bristled.

  “T-this is…!”

  “Hm?” Setsuna frowned, responding to my anxious tone with flickering concern in her eyes.

  I was here before.

  I had seen this very street when Auntie Chang’e showed me around for the first time.

  “It’s a recreation of Arden’s commercial district!”

  “Huh?” Hayate blinked in confusion.

  No sooner than I finished that sentence, something lit up on the far end of the circular roof above the simulacrum of a district of Arden.

  A magical display lit up, flickering with a mysterious message.

  ‘100 REMAINING’

  We clutched our weapons tightly, slowly making our way through the eerily quiet city.

  One-hundred what?

  SKILL UPDATED

  [?]

  Passive 2

  Do you think you can pay the price?

  LOCKED

  NEW EFFECT UNLOCKED

  [?]

  Passive 2

  All of Estelle’s Life Loss is reduced by 30% unless it was from Enemy Hits.

  Do you think you can pay the price?

  LOCKED

  This one’s late because planning these out can be a bit of a pain sometimes and also it ended up being longer than I thought it would have.

  This was supposed to end on a cliffhanger that set up the true difficulty of the second half of the finals but it was already getting really long so I just cut it off early.

  I don’t think it should go to three parts?

  Estelle will be a lot more active in combat next chapter, and we’ll see what makes her unique as a healer in Seekers of Lost Sin.