A large, jagged rock rose from the little island as if it were its horn, and standing atop it was the bandana-wearing teen, pointing at the leaf floating toward their little river sanctuary.

  “Oi hands up,” Alron shouted, shadowed by an outstretched leafy branch that crept over the thin, pebbly beach that they approached. “State your purpose!”

  “We’ve come to trade,” Kal shouted back, hands raised. “We heard you’re the one with the Siren Carapace.”

  “You may as well turn around. Don’t think you’re getting your grubby thieving hands on my carapace!”

  “Alron,” a short, freckled boy beside him whined. “Please, at least hear them out.”

  “Get back to building the raft, Micky. I’ve got this worked out.”

  So, that’s their plan. Build a raft and sail back to land.

  “The shore is a long way away. Awfully long distance to travel on some rickety raft,” Kal said as they reached the beach. “Not sure I’d want to risk that with how fast the Aerie’s current is here. It might not look so bad from above, but I can guarantee you that water is moving quickly.”

  “Don’t listen to him, fellas. He’s just another thieving scoundrel after our objective. Using his words to try and trick us into giving up our hard-won points. But it ain’t gonna work, is it?”

  Disheveled and concerned glances rose up from the shoddy raft as the three boys on the other side of the island attempted to tie logs together.

  “Come on, be reasonable. You don’t want to be responsible for your team drowning,” Kal said, hopping off the leaf and walking across the tiny island—only a dozen yards across.

  “Alron, please,” one of the boys pleaded. “My hands are all blistered up.”

  “Blisters? What are you whining about? Do you want to be a mage or not? Now, get back to work and stop listening to this scoundrel. He’s just trying to tear us apart. And you, get off my island!” Alron said, directing his open palm at Kal.

  “Did you forget the rules or something, buddy?” Ellie glared at Alron. “You can’t attack us.”

  “Who said I was going to hit you? If I accidentally shoot the ground and a bunch of dust and rocks just so happen to burst into the air and fly into your eyes—well, I can hardly be held accountable for that, now can I?”

  “What do you mean you can’t?” Arix protested.

  “It is what it is; you can’t prove nothing,” Alron shrugged. “Not my fault if you walk into my spellcasting area.”

  “Look, it’s still the first day of the exam,” Kal said. “Our team is already ranked twenty-fifth, and we only have 20 points. Most teams haven’t even found anything yet. Why risk drowning when you can score a quick twenty points, climb the ladder, and go find something else?”

  Kal had checked the leaderboard as they sailed over and had been pleasantly surprised that most teams had yet to score any objectives.

  “He’s got a point, Alron. It’s only 60 points, and this thing isn’t anywhere near finished.”

  “Shut up, and no, he doesn’t,” Alron snapped. “60 points puts us in the top five. That’s the kind of thing that scores you a spot in a top-tier academy. Now quit yapping and get back to raft crafting!”

  Vae's gaze shifted between the group's team members as if considering possible solutions.

  “Come on, in that thing?” Kal said. “I hope you have a spell to plug leaks because you’ll be sleeping with the fishes if you try to sail to land on that… whatever it’s supposed to be.”

  “You heard him, Alron. We’re not boat builders. We don’t know what we’re doing here. Please, I don’t want to die,” one of the boys pleaded.

  “Aye,” another nodded tearfully. “I’m too young to die.”

  “Are we really going to die? Before I even reach an academy… before I even touched a girl’s—” one of the boys began to whimper.

  “Would you three cowards quit it already? We’re not going to die! Don’t let him get in your head. We’re going to be fine. It’s only a river, for crying out loud. It’ll barely even take us a few minutes to reach the shore, and when we do, we’ll go collect the rest of the objectives and finish this stupid exam at the top of the ladder.”

  “Yep, you might,” Kal yawned. “Or you might capsize and drown to death in cold, grimy water.”

  One of the boys began crying and sobbing “Mommy” under his breath.

  “Come on, seriously? Pull yourselves together!” Alron berated his teammates. “No one is going to die.”

  “That’s what he says, but I wonder how many boats he’s built in his life?” Kal said, lackadaisical, as he picked dirt from his nails.

  “Alron, tell us. How many boats have you built?” One of the boys said, his tone turning urgent.

  “What? None! You don’t need to be a shipwright to string a few logs together. Now, get back to work and stop listening to him. And you, get back from my boys and shut your mouth before I fill it with dirt.”

  “What, you scared your boys might change their minds? That they might think for themselves and save their lives?”

  “Hey, don’t test my patience! I’ll shoot this thing, and while it might not do any serious damage, I can guarantee it won’t be pleasant.”

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  “Eh, it’s a bit of dust. I’m fairly certain I’ll manage,” Kal shrugged.

  “Oh really? I warned you, pal,” Alron growled and shot the ball of pressurized power.

  Without even breaking from his lazy stance, Kal cast Swift Step from the side of his arm, sending himself shooting out of harm's way as pebbles and sand were kicked up into the air.

  “Bit slow,” Kal yawned.

  “Slow? Oh, you’ve gone and done it now, kid,” Alron’s brow twitched, and he fired again, but Kal shot harmlessly out of the way.

  “Why you, stay still!”

  Explosive blasts smashed against the sand, sending debris flying, and Kal shot from side to side. Alron might have been able to score a hit if he had been aiming directly at Kal, but he couldn’t risk hitting him. As annoyed as he was, he maintained enough sense to avoid disqualification.

  A few shots later, Elron was practically toppled over and panting.

  I’m surprised he had that much in him.

  The boy’s mana potential was average for a mage, at 60. He doubted Alron could have had more than 30 effective mana, meaning he casts the spell for less than 5 mana. That wasn’t a big deal for Kal, but he had been using magic since he was a toddler. As stubborn and easy to bait as Alron was, Kal gained some respect for him.

  Alron was older than Kal, but only by a few years, and Kal was so far ahead for his age that the comparison was pointless. His display was impressive, but it also indicated that this Pressure Bomb spell was likely the most well-practiced in his arsenal.

  However, no matter how skilled he was with the spell, it was futile against Kal. Kal had only burned through 30 mana himself and had plenty remaining.

  It was amazing how efficient Kal had gotten with Swift Step. Sure, he had been using magic considerably longer than the other students, even those hitting the upper age bracket. But ultimately, Swift Step was an Arcane spell.

  Kal had read that creating your own spells was incredibly hard and often resulted in spells that were worse than those already created. However, if you managed to make a decent spell, chances were that you would grow efficient in the spell far quicker than you would by learning other people’s spells.

  He could only imagine how efficient and powerful his spells would get if he started creating his own demonic spells. Unfortunately, the only spell he had to work with was Necrotic Bite. The necrotic aspect could be useful, but demonic magic was different. The constellations worked on an entirely different concept, so Kal couldn’t just take ideas from human-aligned affinities. He would likely need to learn at least one more demonic spell before he could even think about creating his own, and even then, he would have to be careful about displaying such magic.

  “That all you got?” Kal teased.

  “As if,” Alron spat, but as he tried to cast Pressure Bomb again, the spell fizzled. Stubbornly, he tried again, with the same result.

  “You sure about that?”

  “Just you wait; I’m about to show that smug face of yours a thing or two,” Alron growled.

  “Do you really want to trust this guy making your decisions for you?” Kal turned to the distraught boys. “Look at him; he’s exhausted. He recklessly attacks without a plan and drains his mana in seconds. That’s not the sign of a master tactician.”

  “I’m plenty good—best mage in town, my age. You’re just a freak,” Alron countered.

  “Come on, make your own decisions. He won't have a choice if you refuse to build the raft. Save yourselves. It’s the first day of the exam. You’ve still got plenty of time to score more points.”

  “He’s right. If we just stop building this thing, Alron will have to compromise.”

  “But Alron has always been good to us.”

  “Like trying to get us killed? That’s it; I’m done,” one of the boys said, throwing down his hatchet. “I’m not building this rickety thing any longer. I got too much life to live.”

  “Hey, who said you could stop working?” Alron snapped his fingers and pointed to the raft. “Get back to it.”

  “Yeah, nah. I’m done too,” another boy shaking his head as he stepped away from the raft.

  “Sorry, Alron,” the third boy looked down at his feet and shuffled away from the raft.

  “Not you, too, Micky? What about all the good times? You really think I’d let you down now?”

  “Sorry,” Micky said, drawing lines in the pebbly sand with his boot as he avoided Alron’s gaze. “It’s just–”

  “You don’t have to justify not wanting to die, Micky,” one of the others said.

  “You turned them against me,” Alron hissed through gritted teeth, returning his gaze to Kal.

  “Eh, I just spoke my mind,” Kal shrugged. “So, you ready to trade then?”

  “Alright, fine. You win. We’ll trade the carapace,” Alron slumped.

  “About time,” Kal grinned.

  The leaf was pretty big but not big enough for eight people to sail across the river. Instead, they traveled in groups of two. They made Alron give the Astral Pouch to Micky.

  During the first trip to the shore, Alron traveled with Kal, who ferried them across, along with Ellie, Vae, and one of his boys. On the second trip, Kal collected the rest of them.

  As painful as Alron had been to deal with, Kal didn’t take him for a thief. But nonetheless, caution was to be advised, and he felt Micky and the other boy were just too eager to touch down on dry land to even consider trying something.

  Nearing shore but still within the depths of the fast-flowing river, they completed the trade. As expected, the boys just wanted to get it over with, and Kal probably could have dictated whatever terms he wanted, but he had no interest in breaking the deal when they had gotten what they wanted.

  Not that it was hard to ensure they kept their promise. The leaf could only have one master, and Kal ensured he took control of it before he let anybody aboard.

  Micky handed over the objective, and Kal looked down at the calcified shell that was about the size of a dinner plate. It resembled an isopod with a curled-up human-like shape on the underbelly and webbed hands and feet.

  Weird, so this is what a siren looks like?

  Besides the babarack skull, the demonic botfly, and the ogre, this was the first fantasy creature Kal had seen. And unlike the others, it was by far the most left-of-field.

  Reaching the shore, he spotted Alron on his knees, looking dejected.

  “I can’t believe it,” Alron sulked. “All that hard work just to have it taken away for a lousy 20 points.”

  “That still puts us in the top forty teams,” Micky said, patting Alron’s back.

  Only a couple of hours ago, Team Ebenshire was ranked 26th, but more teams joined the leaderboard as they snatched up the exam objectives. That said, their group shot up to 9th rank on the ladder with 80 points.

  “Wow, looks like the other teams are really starting to get going now,” Ellie said.

  “Yes, we had best keep on our guard high. This is far from over,” Vae said.

  “Agreed,” Kal nodded.

  “Come on, Alron, cheer up,” Micky rubbed Alron’s back. “We can still get through this thing. Remember what you said about coming first?”

  “You’re right, Micky,” Alron raised his head with a defiant glare, bent at Kal. “You’ve gone and done it now. I’ll show you. You’ll see. Team Defiant isn’t done yet. We’re going to finish this thing number one. Enjoy your 40 points because you’ve gone and made a big mistake. From this day forth, consider me your rival, Kal. Remember my name, Alron Von’dries. Because, Kal, I am coming for you. And I’ll make you regret ever crossing me!”

  Wait, what, seriously? Another rivalry? Aww, just my luck.