Note: To any who are curious, Lemons will be taking place, but only late into the story. There's still a TON of work to be done before then, so please be patient. For now, enjoy this chapter which I slaved away making.


Chapter 164 - Spec Ops Exam PT 3

After a rather blinding flash of light, IF slowly opened her eyes, blinking several times to clear her vision as quick as possible. 'Ugh, now THAT was a trip. Guess MAGES. was right about this simulation technology…' the brunette tought, massaging her temples with her right hand alongside her ocular-based actions. This resulted in her being able to sharply identify her surroundings in a few seconds once she lowered her hand and looked around, and when she did so the brunette found herself standing in front of one of the HUGEST forests she had ever seen. Her eyes shone with wonder whilst her jaw slightly dropped at the sight, though she quickly made note to examine everything she could before things truly begun. The trees themselves looked like they were as tall as skyscrapers, the wilderness remained so thick that she could hardly see anything remotely deep inside of it, and lastly, she could hear the sounds of countless lifeforms scuttering throughout the entire place. It looked to be the afternoon judging by the position of the sun, whereas its bright rays failed to illuminate what lay deeper inside the forest. The darkness concealed the multitude of differently shaded greens, browns and blacks that the trees, leaves, branches, vines, bushes etc consisted of. Glancing behind her allowed IF to see a metallic fence, and when she traced it to her right flank the brunette theorized that it surrounded the entire perimeter of this forest. Not too far from her was a river which ran straight through the forest, and with a quick jump IF just barely managed to notice a roof deeper inwards, which caused her to realize that there was a tower located in the exact centre; whereas she also calculated the forest's radius being about ten kilometres in any direction from that centre.

'So… this is the battlefield which was chosen for my team and our opponents to do battle in… the so-called 'Forest of Death…' the brunette thought, landing on the ground with a THUD and in a kneeling position as she looked up at the forest, all the while she recalled what had happened leading up to this scene. Catching up to Tekken hadn't been as easy as they would have liked given how fast the black-haired martial artist was, much faster than the brunette had estimated. Not only that but they as a group, once they'd caught up to her, got lost a few times thanks to the deviation from the pre-determined route. It had been a fortunate encounter that MAGES. had found their route once more and guided them back to where they were supposed to be. After their little trip, the girls had arrived in a… rather spacious looking room, complete with a set of pod-like structires lined up along the sides and the back of the room which were hooked up to the walls by wires and pipes. Looking at them had made the brunette remember those kind of stasis pods which were used to keep people in cold sleep during trips through outer space, but she couldn't think that way for long. The reason for that had been due to how she had been the first to be ushered to one of the few remaining empty pods (them being the second last group to arrive) by a worker in a baggy green jumpsuit and strapped inside.

The worker, who was a male, had then proceeded to inform her that the simulation would be made to be as real as possible, meaning that anay abilities, weapons, armour or skills she had would be replicated inside the simulation, whilst if she was dealt a crippling or fatal injury then she would be ejected from the simulation back into her true body. Furthermore, everything inside the simulation, such as hazards like animals, fauna, etc would be able to damage her not just the enemy teams, making it feel like an actual battlefield. It had seemed simple enough at the time (whilst it also amazed her that such technology was even a thing now, probably thanks to Planeptune's contributions), though that would NOT have prepared her for the freaking rollercoster ride into it that she had experienced during her transportation here.

Still, looking around the place IF couldn't help but be amazed with how… real, everything looked. Not just the sights around her, but the sounds, the smells and the sensations beneath her boots felt all perfectly real, like she was ACTUALLY in this weird ass, yet dangerous place. Part of her wanted to relish in these sensations, bathe in the sweet smell of the nearby river, absorb the sounds the river made; however, the brunette didn't let that distract her from the real objective here. The objective for this battke wold be to take out the opposing teams, and each of them save for one team had a head start on hers already. Who knows what kind of traps they might have set up, or what kind of abilities they had?

Just like what Ibiki had told them back in the first half of the Exam, they needed accurate intel and FAST, otherwise things here could get REAL dicey alright.

Nothing in her mind said that this would be easy, no way in hell. IF wasn't nearly arrogant enough to think that her condition as a BOW would allow her some smooth sailing on this Exam, that wasn't how it worked, according to Chifuyu. If she were honest, this test felt a lot like a more practical version of Ibiki's, a kind of 'alright you got the lesson done, lets see you put it to use' kind of deal, and if that were the case then this should be an ideal proving ground. If she wanted to pass, she had to SHOW she had the skill necessary to do so. As strange as it was for Spec Ops Agents to be put into teams, it had to show that whilst they greatly favoured independence over teamwork, they didn't completely neglect it either. As long as they can keep fighting, anything would be ideal. Shaking her head, the brunette scowled as she activated her RYOKUGAN, trying to see if she could pick anything up with it, but unfortunately for her the density of the Forest made it so that she either couldn't or there wasn't anything there to begin with. 'Heh, in that case, then the only way for me to get anything done would be to use one of my other abilities…' the brunette thought whilst kneeling down and inspecting the ground before her by running her hand along the soft grassy surface, her eyes narrowing in contemplation.

'The others will soon be here with me, so I should probably see if I can glean any kind of information with my ZEN SHIYA here. It was said that these battles aren't going to be recorded, instead we are simply given free reign to fight according to our own desires whilst everything which happens here, is stated to STAY in here, meaning that even if someone knew what I can do they wouldn't be able to report it to anyone. Not to mention that any staff members are sworn to secrecy about this stuff unless the Agents themselves agree to share intel on their powers out in the field.' IF thought, smirking as she raised a fist to her eye level, clenched it, and then drove it down into the ground in front of her. This allowed her fist so sink deep into the dirt beneath her boots, reaching up to her wrist whereas she then began ejecting Biomass out of her limb to form the ZEN SHIYA. This action was meant to spread it out beneath the entire forest, a forest of 10 kilometers in any direction if one stood at the centre, however for someone like IF who'd been saving up massive reserves of Biomass for this occasion, she would be able to do this several times in a row and still have power left to spare for other things such as combat, or survival. Recon would be where the ZEN SHIYA would come in, and by the time her comrades would get here IF hoped to at least have SOME information ready for them.

One could only hope in her situation, anyways.


Several moments later, IF heard several flashes of light behind her, glowing out so that it reached both sides of her peripheral vision. This caused IF to nod silently to herself, standing up from her previous crouching position before turning her head to look at the sources, finding her comrades MAGES., Tekken and Cecil to be standing there. Like how she'd been, it seemed the three of them still had some disorientation going on judging by how befuddled they each looked. You guys alright there? Got here safely?" She questioned, approaching them whilst pocketing her hands in her Coat pockets.

"Uuuuuu… My head… it aches like its on fire…" Cecil moaned painfully, putting both hands on her forehead and rubbing her temples to soothe the apparent headache she had been put under. This would mark her first time in experiencing a simulator dive like this, and so far, she didn't like it. Mostly due to this headache which thrummed within her skull, slamming into the interior as hard as a thousand jackhammers repeatedly. If this HADN'T happened to her, then she would have likely enjoyed it more, but right now she could only focus on her own plight.

She wasn't the only one though, something which would be apparent in the next few seconds.

Tekken became the next to speak as she glanced over with one eye open, the other closed, towards their newest member. "Yeah, I can feel you there, girl… I have one too, but Its not too bad…" she stated, having been doing the same thing as Cecil only slightly less so. Essentially, whilst it seemed that Tekken had a headache going on hers was significantly weaker than the blonde's, something IF attributed to Tekken having experience with head damage before.

"… Really. They did say to us that there was a chance of Headaches from the transportation into the simulation beforehand, you two. Did you forget?" MAGES., the one who didn't have any signs of headaches and looked pretty much fine, stated with half-lidded eyes at them. This caused the two girls to glare enviously towards her, wishing they were in her shoes right now. Ignoring this, MAGES. looked around their surroundings with a calculating gaze. "So, this is a simulation, hmm…?" she mumbled, tapping the ground with the butt of her Staff. "Seems particularly solid, with the sensors imitating our senses operating perfectly, along with how everything functions without flaws making everything look so real, li we're actually in this place instead of a computer program… not bad." It wasn't often that she found herself impressed these days, especially after seeing the things which her crazy-ass-hell-and-perverted Master had been able to do, but when she did it usually meant that the subject had a particular interest to her. However, the Mad Magician soon shifted the topic after sighing, turning her head to face their fourth member. "In the interest of time, I would like to ask you for any information you have gleaned, Mrs IF."

Upon hearing the Mad Magician's words, IF narrowed her eyes and began to explain what little findings she had managed to glean. "Well, I haven't got much intel yet, but from what I have gathered the main battleground seems to be in this large ass rainforest behind me." She started, gesturing over her left shoulder behin her towards the dense forest. This caused the others to glance that way to take note of it, Cecil becoming rather stunned but quickly focusing back on the brunette's explanation. "10 kilometers in every direction you can think of with a tower in the middle. I guess that's how they're planning to observe the matches, and with how we are allowed to do whatever we please with the non-disclosuire agreement they have going on, whatever we do will be kept secret, so if any of us want to use our powers we can simply go buck wild."

"I see…" MAGES. hummed thoughtfully as she took in this information. Her mind whirred to life with calculations, theories old and new, as well as battle plans in a similar state to the theories swimming in a spiralling whirlpool within her brain. Eventually, she spoke up with the voice of a general leading his men into bbattle. "In that case, we better head inside the forest itself. Trying to map it out would take too much time and we do not have the appropriate resources for it. We should focus on finding somewhere isolated and easily fortifiable to construct some form of encampment. Judging from the state the simulation room was in, I can believe that the other teams are already on the move and perhaps have had their own encounters already, so they will be too distracted with each other to worry about us." She explained, causing the rest of them to nod in acceptance before turning on their heels and dashing straight inside the forest…

Little knowing what awaited them inside.


Meanwhile…

Inside the tower at the centre of the massive forest, it turned out that IF's hunch about it had been right on the money.

The reason for this could be described akin to a front. Outwardly, the tower didn't look all that interesting as it simply looked like a bunch of huts one would see in a poor, underdeveloped village stacked on top of one another. Furthermore, these huts seemed to be made from wood, the walls and windows of each one being coloured a mix of red and blue to hide this fact from prying eyes. Though this may as well have been in vain since the roofs of each 'hut' consisted of wooden planks arranged in a diagonal anglekind of like a slope. Also, it went from biggest on the bottom to smallest on the top, meaning the biggest hut stood on the ground as the tower's foundation whilst, as one ascended it, the tower gradually slimmed down.

As for the INSIDE of the tower… different story altogether.

Like a mask being peeled off, once one got inside the tower (which would only be possible for staff members and Spec Ops Agents due to the amount of concealed security on the premise), it looked like one of those super techy secret hideout places one would see in action movies or those from secret agent ones. The tiles were made from metal and square in shape, the same being said about the walls and ceilings. There were dozens of different rooms scattered throughout the Tower, each with the purpose of allowing staff and Agents to view the Exam Applicants and the general map of the area at their leisure, equipped with futuristic-looking tech. Although nothing seen here was allowed to leave to the outside world, there was STILL a need for security so that the Staff could properly conduct the Exam and check to see if its actually working properly.

In the top room at the very peak of the Tower, a group of Spec Ops Staff members sat at various monitors across the room's edges, each of them clad in similar attire to Chifuyu herself (of course this wasn't true for the few males in the work staff, but the females were like this). Said woman stood in the centre, with her arms crossed and her face stern (some workers would wonder if she was always like this and thus didn't have a life, but never said it out loud for fear of retribution) as she eyed the main monitor carefully. The Main Monitor outshined the rest due to how it practically took half the space in the room horizontally, whilst displaying different screens showing different teams doing their own thing. Some did battle with other teams, others kept to themselves and discretly gathered information about one another so they could plan accordingly, having taken Ibiki's advice to heart. The sounds of typing filled the room constantly whilst the workers silently did their jobs, keeping their eyes glued to their screens like a bunch of otaku nerds being transfixed by a good anime/hentai.

"So… these sare this year's batch of morons, huh…?"

Just then, a flash of fire appeared beside the black-haired woman as a feminine voice rang out. However, Chifuyu didn't let out any signs of acknowledging the new arrival's existence, although said existence didn't need any physical confirmation for this since she knew from past experience with this woman that her arrival had already been acknowledged since she first appeared. That said, from those flames, appeared the same black-haired girl which had been by Chifuyu's side back when she had been announcing the rules regarding the second exam. She stood there, armed and ready for combat whilst also copying the older woman's current posture as she eyed the main monitor. It wasn't long though, before she shook her head in both disappointment and disgust. "Looks like idiot Nobles are trying to throw their dirty little mits again…"

"Yet your task remains the same, Shana." Chifuyu commented without glancing down at the smaller girl, having already foreseen the girl's response to the sights before them. Needless to say, she wasn't the only one who felt this way though, as Chifuyu herself alongside the majority of the staff had similar feelings of condescendence towards children of Noble Houses. Just because they had some stupid epiphany from one of their own didn't change their overall opinion of them as unworthy rejects of society who deserved nothing, but top grovel on dirt, get kicked by monsters and then die the worst kind of death possible. "They may be maggots, but its your job to weed them out so only the ones with potential are chosen. How many have caught your eye so far?" she questioned, although the way it sounded implied that it was more like an order than anything else.

She of course, knew the deal with Shana. She, alongside a couple other top tier Spec Ops Agents, had been chosen specifically for the task of taking part in this Exam, though not as applicants since they had passed a long time ago. Each of them was tasked to oversee the different simulations which were taking place at this very moment in time, their tasks being to judge those they deemed worthwhile to pass into the Spec Ops Rankings as well as those unworthy and thus, had the honor of giving them the boot out of the Exam altogether. It was a system which had been employed since the foundation of the Spec Ops Program which had been set up so that those within could weed out the weaklings in order the truly talented individuals. Only the absolute best, one could say, but the problem with that was that thanks to the Nobles keeing a tight leash on its growth for so many years, it made it so that the quality of potential recruits kept getting worse and worse. Not only that, but with how so many of the Leanbox populace had either perished or had gone missing thanks to the various invading forces, it only made looking for recruits that much more difficult. They may in fact have to lower their standards in the foreseeable future, just to get more into their ranks and keep up their current rate of progress.

But for now, this was the system she was working with, and if she were honest, Chifuyu preferred this one, and would rather see it continue.

As for Shana. The black-haired woman DEFINITELY got the impression that her hate for Nobility shone through all of theirs, so seeing so many of them trying to worm their way into the Spec Ops really must have sickened her to the core. Be that as it may, it was unprofessioanal for that to cloud their judgement in a situation like this, but Chifuyu had heard how Shana had been chosen for this task more tan once, as she herself may be one of the newer members of the Program but she had once an apprentice in the past. An apprentice whom later became her equal in both standing and, in the program, so she would be able to disconcern who would be worth recruiting and who wasn't. Case in point, as Shana eyed the various screens showing the battling Applicants, her eyes scanned them with intense scrutiny with a judging sensation hidden behind her eyes. After a short while, the smaller blackette arched a brow as she noticed something. "Hmmmm… Looks like there are a few, after all…" she remarked, catching not only Chifuyu, but also the rest of the workers off guard too. Shana ignored them though, instead she just raised her right hand and pointed to one of the screens. "Look."

Curious, it seemed that Shana hadn't pointed towards any of the fighting teams, the older woman realized, which prompted a spark of curiosity to ignite in her chest. It seemed that Shana didn't even bother to give any of the fighting teams a glance, as though she had written them off from the get-go which helped fan the flames of curiosity she had experienced. Chifuyu used her gaze to follow the direction that Shana's hand pointed towards, to which it landed on the screen showing a group of four young girls, between their late teens and early 20's if she had to guess. However, a couple seconds passed before even her eyes widened by a small fraction, something flashing behind her crimson eyes before it vanished right afterwards. "Those are…"

"Yeah, THOSE four." Shana stated nodding her head as she once again crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her eyes intently gazed at the four girls, one brunette, a blunette a blonde and a blackette just like herself. "Out of these pieces of Garbage, at least THEY show some promise, but I'll not hold my breath." She said, before turning on her boots ahd heading towards the room's exit. "Let me know when the time's right, and I'll head out." She called back without looking back at the older blackette, before she finally stepped out of the room with the automatic doors sealing shut behind her.

'So… even Shana, the Spec Ops codnamed CRIMSON with the title of 'Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter', also known as the 'flame of heaven', sees potential in them. I guess that's to be expected, since she pretty much looks up to VALKYRIE. I wonder then, just how they will perform… Only time will tell then, as much of a cliché that sounds…'


"Phew, we got our encampment set up, and whats better we didn't get attacked! Yay!"

"I wouldn't get so excited about that Cecil; something tells me that we should be even MORE cautious because of that very reason. The fact that we deliberately left ourselves open and nobody took the bait worries me somewhat, and if I'm being honest, its agitating me a little."

"What the Windwalker believes is correct, youngling. It is peculiar that we managed to get this far into the forest AND evade most trouble with as much ease as we did. Perhaps its because the other groups are focusing on one another first, but it seems that there may be something more to it than that."

About 10 to 20 minutes after they had set in, IF and the girls travelled deep into the forest and found a nice little section where they could build a small encampment for themselves. Well, encampment could be debated as to being the right word to describe it, cause in actuality all they did was tear a few holes into soms trees surrounding a tall clearing and making sure each hole could be well-hidden by the many branches and leaves protruding outwards. IF, Tekken, MAGES. and Cecil managed to pull this off in their own unique ways though, not really paying much attention to anything else other than their assigned tasks… well, that was what it looked like anyways. In truth, IF had prepared some early waring systems in the form of insertingher ZEN SHIYA into the ground beneath the trees and had it become large enough for them to be informed of tresspassers onto their territory well before they could get close enough to cause actual harm to them.

That had been the plan which the brunette had discussed with MAGES. about, although she had worded in a way in which only the Mad Magician could figure out since they had a new member on the team who wasn't exactly privy to their past encounters. In a sense, what Cecil felt back before the exam began had merit to it, she WAS an outsider in their group and so far, they had been secretly conducting tests to see if she had the trustworthy nature within her so tey could share their stories with her. After all, not everyone could be trusted even if they were teammates, these four girls coulsd tell this from what they had learned of the world around them. Tekken herself had little problem with the trust department, though that likely was due to her fear of guys playing a part whilst Cecil clearly had the genetailia for being the opposite gender. The only reason SHE hadn't spilled anything was due to MAGES. and IF telling her not to, and as much as she didn't like keeping secrets, the Martial Artist could see their points and thus had reluctantly agreed to their unspoken requests.

Hearing their words, the newest member of the story cast nodded her head in understanding, before she looked around the place and tried to figure out why it could be that they were mostly ignored. "Well… this might sound obvious, but maybe it's the natural wildlife and traps which are the cause. Although there may be teams willing to face one another, I don't think they'd be tupid enough to go in without any prior knowledge, plus a large forest like this HAS to have its own natural hazards, right?" She suggested, holding an index finger over her chin as she gazed dow at the ground below, sitting in her little hole and hiding from view with large leaf-covered branches. "I kept an eye out before, and I saw some… exotic looking creatures as we passed them by, like centipedes, lions and tigers… so…"

"That makes sense, and I would know." Tekken proclaimed, joining the conversation. Like Cecil, she too sat in the hole she'd made in the tree, though sh sat in the Japanese sitting position looking down at her hands as memories of her time training in the wilds came back to the forefront of her mind. "Whenever I train with my animal friends, I always keep myself on the lookut, since I could wind up in the territory of dangerous predators. Here, with all the Abnormals coming around, I have to be EXTRA careful lest I wanna become something's chewtoy." There may have once been a time where Tekken hadn't seen the Abnormals as much of a threat to her wellbeing, but since the Ghoul and Hellverse incidents that tune had QUICKLY flipped itself on its head. "I'm not sure on WHAT this place might be, but if it's a simulation then it has to be based off of something akin to a real place, right?"

MAGES., upon hearing their words nodded thoughtfully to herself, agreeing with their statements. Unlike the previous two, she sat on top of a particularly thick branch which was near her hole. Fortunately, she had decided to add in some extra detection spells throughout their surroundings for extra surveillance. Not that she didn't trust IF's own detection abilities, but she was just used to doing so whenever she went out to gather materials for her projects… projects which had been quickly upgraded in terms of scale due to accessing Abnormal materials upon successfully defeating them. IIt wasn''t like the others didn't know either, since she told them whilst setting up some communication spells between them. "I concur with both of your statements, but you do not need to speculate for I already know what this place is based off of." She explained, causing surprise and shock to spread through the Group, and when she felt their gazes on her, MAGES. promptly continued her explanation. "If I'm correct, then this must ba a simulation of one of the many locations which the Spec Ops use for their training grounds, although why we aren't at the actual place must be due to the fact that its infested wth enemies or something by now. However, I do recall this place having the nickname the 'Forest of Death' due to the dangerous creatures which inhabit this place. Its an ideal place for Spec Ops Agents to train and hone their skills, since they would have to adapt to some dangerous sityuations lest they want to perish like any normal person."

Hearing the Mad Magician's words caused shudders to go down their spines, the other three warily looking around as if by instinct. Which turned out to be especially true in IF's case… though her case had a bit more complexity to it than that. With the name 'Forest of Death' it painted a rather… grave picture in which what this Place would be known for, and its ultimate fate as well. This may be a simulation, but so far everything had been almost scarily accurate in its realism, which could imply that the dangers this place possessed would be perfectly replicated as well. That didn't bode well for the girls, since this place served as their biggest obstacle to advancing into, he Spec Ops Rankings, not the other teams. Speaking of which, if the other Teams were aware of this place's nature, then no wonder they didn't attack them whilst they set up camp.

Then again though, these were still Nobles, so perhaps they could be giving them too much credit there…

"Well, whatever the case may be, it's a fact that so far we have some time on our hands, albeit an unknown amount." IF stated knowingly as she cupped her chin, sitting cross legged on a thick branch. With the information that they had so far, although a lot of it was speculation/deduction and past research at this point, it would be safe to assume that they wouldn't be able to stay in one place for very long. This encampment may serve as their tomb or the instrument of their defeat if they weren't careful, so they had to make a move and fast, but it also had to be well-thought on, otherwise they could step on something nasty and end up with the big L. Not something ANY of them wanted to experience right now, for their own reasons. "Alright then, lets start with…"

Just when IF began to speak, her eyes widened along with MAGES. when their individual detection methods alerted them, alerted them to an approaching set of people. They moved through both the trees and close to the ground according to the ZEN SHIYA and detetion Spells, and the way they did so gave away thatthey knew they had been detected. Before she could speak about it to the rest of them, IF found the blunette to have beaten her two it. "Looks like we've finally got some company." The Mad Magician commented, humming thoughtfully as she thought of how to counter this inevitably. Eventually, she glanced towards Tekken, the most eager out of them as she looked practically like a vibrator left on its maximum setting. Heck, she SO wanted to record the mix of pouting and impatience which had formed on her face, along with the 'Muuuuu!' which escaped her lips. "Hmmm…" After drawing it out just to tease her friend, MAGES. finally concluded it in her head. "Well, if this is the case… Tekken, you go and greet them. We have-"

FWOOSH!

"Gotta go fast!"

A faint gust of wind blew by when Tekken practically BLASTED off towards the direction of the incoming 'guests' without letting her finish. The wind settled down as did her hair, the Mad Magician closing her open mouth and then chuckling in amusement. IF stared at her blankly whilst she'd done this. "You knew she'd do that, and you did it anyways…" she remarked, trailing off as she and Cecil glanced at each other… before they burst into chuckling fits themselves.

"Why of course, what good friend would I be if I didn't tease her THIS much?" MAGES. retorted, smirking as she glanced in the direction which Tekken had left. "Since she's gone ahead of us, we'll stay here and conserve our strength in case we get some other visitors. That way each of us get a chance to stretch our legs when the opportunity arises." She explained, before she heaved a sigh and clicked her fingers, a magic circle appearing by the side of her ear. "Now then, with the comm set up between us, lets see how Tekken will perform for us, shall we?"


Further from their position…

"You sure we're going the right way? This place doesn't feel too good…"

"Of course, what you doubt my sensing abilities when they've gotten us this far?"

"Well… they DID put us in range of that snake nest before, and then there was that field of quick sand…"

"Shut up!"

"O-Okay!"

A group of four men jumped from tree branch to tree branch, the ideal way for them to travel if anyone asked them. The men themselves didn't look anything special, if anything they looked like generic ass hell NPC's trying to make it big in the world instead of sticking to their intended roles. Out of all of them, only the leader of the group seemed to be the most notable one, which wasn't saying much in comparison. The Leader wore a suit of large, crimson purplish coloured Heavy Armour to show his wealth and status, whilst at his hip was a long sword and his back a torso sized shield. He stayed in the front of the group as if to display his importance and that HE was the one in charge to his lackeys in an obnoxious and self-centred kind of way. Like their leader, the other three didn't have that much in the way of armour, rather they wore some gear made from leather, which made them look less like soldiers and more like hunters or something with a similar profession. For weaponry, they each sported a pair of swords similar to their leader's only his looked more decorated and extravagant, whilst theirs looked plain and boring.

'Tch, damn servants… the only reason they dare talk back to me is due to the rules surrounding this place…' the leader, who obviously seemed to come from a Noble Family, thought with a sneer as he continued their advance towards one of the teams his sensing abilities had picked up. 'Really, what is it with the Nobles and these filthy peasants who think themselves superior? We're the ones who are better, so they should be kneeling before us and begging us to let our heirs into their ranks! These Spec Ops eat our funding like its groceries, they borrow our rightful property to conduct their business, and most of all we even allow them to be graced with our presence! Therefore, isn't it only fair that they compensate us accordingly?!'

It looked like the opinions of the Spec Ops Agents got reflected largely in the Noble'smind too, not like either party knew this. The Noble had been one fo the many who didn't have a properly decent opinion of the Spec Ops Program, but really whats new about that at this point? Born into a rich and comfortable life, living with every wish he had ever wanted granted, gave him a nilistic view of things. So what if things were looking bad for them, so what if people were dying left and right, as long as it wasn't happening anywhere near him, then he couldn't give two shits about it. Though, if anyone thought this to be anything new, where had they been throughout the rest of the story? In the end, this NPC pretty much served as this story's version of a generic asshole Noble who wanted nothing to do with the world's problems, thinking them not his problem.

In any case…

'They're close, I can feel it… Looks like my senses weren't playing tricks on me after all, then. There IS a team holding up here, and it does seem like they've noticed us… well, whatever, I'm sure that I'll be abel to persuade them to join my side once I let them know who I am. People may think otherwise, but there's NOTHING one can do when against the influence of nobility, there's nothing we can't do or barriers we won't cross to get what we want! If there's any weak lnks in the team, I'll just use them as a hostage so they will be easier 'convinced' to follow me. Like father always told me, use everything you have to your advantage, and you will go far in life.' The Nobe thought with a sickening smile spreading forth onto his lips, already imagining the look on the faces of his enemies once he corners them, and if they were women then maybe he should have some fun with them, get some of this stress relieved from his system…

Wait, what was that shadow rapidly-

POW!


POW!

The moment that she slammed her fist into that grinning leader's face sent electric jolts through Tekken's body, the girl practically beaming at the chance to finally let loose after so long of just waiting around and not doing what she loved the most. 'Yes! A hit! A clean hit with nothing else! A plain, ordinary hit!' she sqeuealed in her mind, temporarily forgetting who it was that she had hit or even the fact she had hit someone at all in favour of relishing in this seet relief which exploded inside of her. Finally, she got to punch someone! She hadn't gotten to punch someone, or anything at all up until now and it was reaching a point where she could hardly contain herself, proof being when she dashed off before MAGES. (Tekken may not have shown it, but she DID feel a bit miffed at being teased like that by her friend, said friend whom OBVIOUSLY knew how she was in terms of fighting) could finish her speech.

'Mou! MAGES. can be so mean! I'm SO going to spike her drink with something later!'

After that thought, Tekken found herself slowly coming back to reality from the high of her first hit. As a result of her attack, whomever she hd just punched got sent crashing into the ground below, which sported just enough space for single combat to be a thing although there wee also vines and ranches of varying thickness swerving about. Probably could be used as platforms themselves at some point, as both the punched victim and the blissfully ignorant Matrtial Artist fell down to… well, fell to would be a kind way to describe it. The reason for this being that whilst Tekken landed in a crouch like a professional olympc gymnast, the Noble fell flat onto his back, a shrill cry of pain resleasing itself from his lungs.

It was at that point, that Tekken finally managed to acknowledge the presence of those whom she had hit beyond 'just some simple punching bags for stress relief'. "Oh! Hey there!" she cheerily greeted, waving a hand energetically as the Noble flailed about like a chicken with its head cut off. "Sorry bout that, but thanks to you I feel WAY better now! Thanks for letting me hit you, its been a while since I punched something and I was getting, well, you know… stressed. Name's Tekken, nice to meet you!" she questioned, tilting her head in the Noble's direction, though question marks popped in and out of existence above her head when she saw the state the Noble had been reduced to by her own hand. "Hm? Why are you flailing about like that? Come on, lets fight!"

'You were the cause of this, iditot!'

That thought came from the three servants whom landed on the various thick vines and branches, landing in a triangular formation behind their leader who slowly recovered from the sneak attack dealt to him. Though, whilst they dared not show it for fear of what the Noble would do them, deep down each of the servants felt a bit of sadistic pleasure in seeing him get hurt the way he did. To them, they weren't as confident with the whole confidentiality thing this Exam had going on as others would be, knowing the ruthlessness of their leader who inherited that from his father. Still, they each knew their place, and since this Exam pretty much demanded it, looked like they would have to fight, and so when their leader got up the lackeys readied themselves to draw their weapons and attack whenever they were commanded to.

"You...!"

"Hm?"

"You... Bitch... how dare you...! How DARE YOU ASSAULT MY BEAUTIFUL FACE, YOU WITCH!" The man yelled out, though it also had a bit of a scream mixed in as he pointed his finger at her. His eyes shrunk with an insanely ferocious expression on his face, not unlike that of an animal. "YOU DARE TO HIT THE HEIR OF THENARDIER, ZION?! THIS WILL NOT STAND, I WILL NEVER LET IT STAND, DO YOU HEAR ME, WENCH?! TELL ME WHICH FAMILY YOU ARE FROM AND I'LL BE-"

POW!

Instincts screamed at him to move, and out of habit of always trusting them, he obeyed. Good thing too, for the moment that the man hopped to the side, a large blast of a mix of things, light being the main force whilst sparks of... something arced off it, shot past him and into the distance behind him. Everything that it touched got incinerated upon immediate contact, so when the beam vanished practically nothing remained but a long fissure with boiling edges and small smoke trails rising upwards here and there. "Y-You..."

"Oh, sorry, I just thought you were all like 'I really want my face punched in, so lets get this started already!' she proclaimed with a smile... a smile accompanied by a dark shadow over her eyes whilst her form radiated a malicious aura. Her fist, which she had used for both the light attack AND the sneak attack (her Devil Arm Beowulf had only briefly appeared for the former) just now. Plus, when he had been yelling just then she had that urge to just punch something, his face looked like a punchable target, so in the end, she'd wondered: why not?

Obviously, the Noble known as Zion Thenardier did NOT like that, not one bit as he gave a loud and frenzied war cry as he charged at her, closing the distance for a sword slash aimed directly towards her heart. However, Tekken smirked as a bloodlust expression formed on her face, and as the blade cascaded towards its target, she simply thwacked the blade aside with her left hand and clenched a fist, delivering a right hook with it soon after. She didn't stop there though, as after he stumbled back from the blow to his neck (power level restrained so she didn't accidentally kill him), Tekken crouched and hopped into a spinning low kick, knocking him off balance and into the air. By the time his body had become horizontal, perfectly parallel to the ground beneath him, Tekken had risen into a straight back kick which slammed into his side. This hit had been a ferocious one, as the sounds of bones breaking under the Armour resonated throughout the surroundings, whilst Zion's face contorted into an ugly exression and his underlings winced at the blow.

Because of said blow, Zion got sent flying across the battlefield, tumbling across it until he reached the opposite side, and once he stopped did the man start doing something else: howling in intense agony as he gripped his side. He flailed about just like he had before, only it looked even weirder since some movements aggravated his injury more than others, with tears of pain and fury streaming down his face.

"AAAARRRRGGGHHH! MY HIP! MY HIP-MY HIP-MY HIP-MY HIP-MY HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!"

"Wow... the leader's baling out like a baby..."

"His father won't be very happy about this..."

"When is his father ever happy though?"

"True..."

'Whoa... what a cry-baby, did he really expect to get through this with no injury?' Tekken wondered, snapping out of her funk temporarily when she saw the miserable sight before her. 'I even held back, too... awww man, is this guy going to be one of those pushovers? That Armour didn't even last a second against my kick!' the martial artist whined, pouting as she began to realize that these guys likely wouldn't be able to give her the thrill which she had been hoping for. Only just one hit and this guy looked to be down for the count, whilst his lackeys just remained there, watching with stunned awe. 'Really... I wanted to fight someone strong, darn it! Why can't that happen right here?!' she whined mentally, looking like she was about to stomp on the ground in frustration.

Seeing as these four were a bit preoccupied with their Leader, Tekken groaned as she reluctantly decided to end it here. After all, since that guy looked like he couldn't fight anymore just from that one injury it would seem that she wouldn't get the chance to stretch her legs as much as she wanted, much to her dismay. "SIGH# maaaaan…. I was hoping for a challenge..." she whined, rubbing the back of her head whilst aiming her free hand in their direction. She then summoned Beowulf onto it then clenched her fist, feeling the Devil Arm changing up its power. After countless hours of training, she had become able to partially manifest Beowulf onto one of her arms, as well as awaken all of its abilities which made her want to test them out. Unfortunately these guys didn't seem like they would be worthwhile opponents anymore, and she had gotten her hopes up when she had launched that light blast earlier. Such a disappointment...

And then the Devil Arm unleashed a blast of pure white light rays when she punched forwards.


"Hmmm..."

Up in the monitor room, Chifuyu hummed as she watched the proceedings, a stern frown on her face especially when she saw Tekken dispose of Zion Thenardier along with his minions. 'So, that incompetent flesh bag's out of the running, good riddance... however, this can potentially impact us negatively wit the Thenardier household. Its Lord and head, Felix Aaron Thenardier, had once been one of many son's competing to be head of the clan, has become a Duke so he has great political influence. Hearing that his son failed the Spec Ops Exam will be a sure-fire way to get his irritation...' she thought to herself, nearly falling to the urge to rub the bridge of her nose in frustration at the building headache. Not to mention the pitiful display by his heir didn't make things better, in fact it hadn't been much of a fight, more like a one sided beatdown from the former, though Chifuyu couldn't really expect much else. Zion Thenardier, born as a Noble of that same name, may have had SOME decency in swordsmanship, but he didn't pay training much heed and as such, he was considered to be nowhere NEAR strong enough to be qualified as part of our ranks. Hopefully this would serve as a much needed wakeup call, but she doubted it.

Still, it seemed that Tekken shared her disappointment as she soon left once the unconscious forms of the men she'd wiped out vanished in white flashes, letting her know that they had been transported out of the simulation. Watching the monitors, Chifuyu saw how she communicated through some sort of magic circle probably a communication spell of sorts, with the rest of her team to relay the results of her beatdown. It looked like the rest of them seemed almost dumbfounded that someone so weak would have been allowed to take the Exam, but they didn't seem to ponder on it for long, since they soon detected more teams coming to their position. Apparently, it seemed that many eyes had been on Thenardier's position for a chance to knock him out of the running, and since these upstarts in their eyes took their chance from them, its only natural that they would want a piece of them.

As such, more fights happened between them and the girls, whom each followed commands issued by either the brunette or the blunette, the two taking turns to devise their strategies to throw their opponents off their games. It helped that the two seemed to be on a similar wavelength with each other, not just from their communicating, but in how they directed the flow of each encounter. 'This could only come from fighting together on the battlefield, to a point where they share an intimate knowledge of each other's thoughts in fighting, their movements, abilities, everything which helps them survive and establish their identities. As for the other two, it seems they too possess the ability to survive on the front lines, and have placed their entire trust onto their comrades. The only way they could do this would be to cast aside any and all doubts and unnecessary thoughts, just to focus on the battlefield.' The woman thought, nodding her head. Although her expression didn't chance, Chifuyu did admit to herself that these four weren't mediocre like Shana had said. 'Looks like Helen's got the eye for talent, as does Shana, it seems... Still, they have a long way to go, there's a few too many risk taking and guesses, and the only reason why they're winning so far is because they have subpar opponents. Should they have some adequate adversaries, then...'

"YAHOOO! CHIFU-CHAAAAAAAAAN!"

"?!"

All of a sudden, a commotion exploded out across the Monitor room when the doors to it slid open, letting someone joyously bounce through who then proceeded to collide with the stern woman too fast for her to dodge. The person turned out to be a woman, one in her 20's at that whilst standing at just under 5 foot. The woman herself sported a mane of waist length green hair which was messy and uncombed. Her entire body was wrapped in bandages, with a tattered maroon cloak with droopy ears attached to the hood, which left little to no portion of her form uncovered. She also wears a floral scarf around her neck. Both her eyes remained cloaked in darkness thanks to her bandages and tattered cloak's hood, but just from her mannerisms one could TELL just how hyperactive this woman was. "Hehehehehehe!" The woman giggled cutely, almost disturbingly so as she bounced up and down whilst hugging the other woman, who just gritted her teeth and tried to push her face away to little result. "Hey there, Chifu-Chan, long time no see! How's it been? You been doing well? Has your brother been eating his greens like a good little boy?"

"Cut the small talk, Yoshimura." Chifuyu stated, scowling angrily as she finally managed to pry the woman off her. Or rather, the woman known as Yoshimura Eto, simply let go of her and hopped backwards, placing her hands behind her back and leaned forwards to try and imitate a cheeky young schoolgirl. Whilst the two had this interaction, the rest of the workforce looked at them in shock, surprise and confusion wondering what the heck was going on yet not voicing their complaints. The moment that they saw Eto enter the place, each of them quickly made sure not to invoke her ire, especially given her reputation within the Program. Out of all of them, only a select few dared to challenge her head on, and one of them happened to be the woman standing as their boss in this Exam simulation. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be judging exam applicants in another simulation?"

Hearing the taller woman's words, Eto hummed with a 'mou!' escaping her bandaged lips. "Why so glum, Chifu-Chan? I thought that we had something special?" she remarked with a whining undertone to indicate she had a pouting expression on behind her bandages. She even put her hands on her cheeks as if to make the bottom half of a heart gesture, whilst tilting her head to the right. "Didn't the last few trysts we went into mean anything to you?" she questioned cutely, prompting Chifuyu's brow to twitch at the false implications. Now any NORMAL man would get some... very lewd ideas when hearing the words Eto mentioned, but to those who knew about Eto and her... habits, would feel a mix of morbid curiosity and fascination. Some of the men shuddered in their seats, as if they had the 'privilege' to bear witness to these... habits of hers. There was a reason why she and Ibiki seemed to have a good professional relationship going on with one another, and if anyone dared to be in the same room as them together... well, church bells would ring.

Eventually, though, Eto seemingly caved under the hard stare Chifuyu gave her, sighing in boredom as she patted her cloak down, ridding it of any imaginary dust that it might have accumulated. "Ah, you're referring to those bugs, right?" she remarked, still chipper though a sense of mocking condescendence and scorn along with a slight bout of insanity slowly slipped into her voice. The thing was, Eto herself had been placed in one of the few other Simulations going on other than this one. The number of Applicants even when put into teams made it necessary for several Simulations being put up and running at the same time. Eto had been one of the 'special elements' introduced into the Exams, her purpose? Whelp that'd be obvious at this point. "Well my dear, that's a simple question to answer... I 'squashed' the lot of em." she replied, all too happily at that which caused each of the workers alike to become pale and begin sweating bullets, heck some of the men even covered their crotches as if phantom pains erupted there. "They were SO boring, too! Like, none of them had even a shred of decent oomph to them, I couldn't even FEEL their attacks!"

'Of course they wouldn't, its YOU we're talking about here...' Chifuyu thought to herself, knowing JUST how difficult it would be to even scratch this woman let alone force her to take something seriously. As a Spec Ops Agent of the Upper Echelon, Eto had the large City Class designation down pat, though if one asked her then that threat level could be a bit higher than that. Originally she had been at least large Building Class, but as of recently she had been growing a LOT stronger in terms of raw fighting prowess. Likely due to the influx of Abnormals which have been causing everyone grief.. To Eto, Chifuyu would be willing to bet she saw all this as just another all-you-can-eat buffet to raise her power to new heights. 'If ay of them could have touched you, then I'd personally give them a medal.' In any case, seeing as she was here, Chifuyu got a good idea as to why and how this had been possible, and just the thought of it only gave her a bigger headache. "Then, let me guess... as much as this makes me want some aspirin, you left your post after dealing with your exam applicants, came into this simulation for whatever reason, and figured you'd join in on the fun? Oh, their names are IF, Tekken, Cecil and MAGES. respectively. Yes, that period is meant to be there." she questioned whilst adding that last bit of info as an afterthought. There was a bit more to it than that, but it summed up her thoughts on the matter well enough.

Of course there must have been SOME resistance or some attempt to rein her in, but considering how volatile this woman could be, Cifuyu could guess how that would have went since she stood here before her...

"Yup, I get it girl! Also, now that I think about it isn't it close to the time for that little fire bird to be going out there, too? I think I'll give her a hand, cause judging from the monitor..." Eto paused as she saw footage of one of the fights between IF and a team of four, the brunette obviously holding back and keeping her opponents at bay long enough for her companions to succeed in whatever plan they had. Though, it wasn't long before Eto's calculating gaze picked up on the signs and deciphered the intricacies behind the plan these two had concocted for their fights, and when she did so she did a sharp intake. "Hmph, not too bad I guess..." she mumbled under her breath. Turned out that the plan they had actually had some decent effectiveness to it, the plan they were currently going with was one where one of them, usually either Tekken or IF herself, found an isolated place close to a Team or two, then unleashed a large energy surge which would be picked up by their team's sensor. The enemy would then come to see what was casing the surge, only to find nothing but a barrage of Artillery Spells she recognized from Lowee's Magic reservoir to bombard them from another position. A position which kept changing and they took turns every time this plan was enacted, so one time it could be IF, then it could be Tekken, or even Cecil who had a rather... unique feel to her. They all did actually, which only made her all the more curious about them. "Anyways, gotta go! See ya later, Chifu-Chan!"

With that, Eto hopped back to the entrance and left the room with a lively spring in her step... all the while, each worker heaved a sigh of relief, the sensation of a blade at their throats vanishing with her.

Meanwhile, Chifuyu sighed to herself whilst looking back to the Monitor, her eyes shimmering with complex emotions behind her stern façade, which had been significantly damaged thanks to Eto's presence. 'You brats better make it. As they say, out of the frying pan and into the fire...'


Back with the Applicants...

"Looks like things are proceeding well..."

MAGES. was the one who said this as she stood atop a tall branch with her eyes closed, the tip of her Staff pointed forwards with the rest of the weapon in a diagonal position. As for her companions, IF had engaged their fifth team so far, whereas Cecil and Tekken had their sixth one being tracked and ready to attack at any moment. They just needed a call from herself to let them know that IF had finished her task and had returned to her side, so they could begin their play. On the other hand, the Mad Magician had just finished launching another volley of her Artillery Barrage Spells which had been pretty much one of the major phases behind her attack strategies aside from sealing and detection spells used to both hide her team as well as track their enemy's progress. Thing was, she wasn't using the Artillery Spells a their full power, not even close actually, in fact if she were to use their strongest output not only would she only be able to launch a couple, 4 at the most and only a few times due to the consumption of her Mana reserves, but the blasts they would leave behind would resemble that of nuclear warheads. To be more specific, the strongest kind known as the atomic bomb, she knew this by experience since she'd tested it out.

Most of the destructive power came from this Staff she currently wielded, the weapon which currently emitted a sickening, twisted crimson aura over its form with energy crackling along the tip, as if begging her to release more of its power. There also emitted a sensation off insane madness from the staff as it trembled within her grasp, madness and insanity in a rather potent form... a PERFECT weapon for someone with the moniker of the Mad Magician, if one asked her anyways. MAGES. knew for a FACT now, that if she hadn't been using this particular Staff, she would likely have never racked up the demonic kill count that she had for her research, research which had hit a dead end when regarding this thing's origins. However, she DID know that this thing's nature pretty much was the EXACT kind which Nico had with his various weaponry: a Demonic Weapon...

A Devil Arm, its name being Wabbajack.

She'd only acquired this thing by chance, upon stumbling across an underground Dungeon filled with all KINDS of puzzles, creatures and hazards which could have killed her if she weren't careful. MAGES. may not be an adventurer but rather a scientist/researcher type of girl, but that didn't mean she had stupidity running through her veins. That had been the only reason why she hadn't been ripped to shreds, reduced to ashes, disintegrated into nothingness, or made a mental slave to the Dungeon like she'd seen a few corpses from previous adventurers who tried to get in here, forcing her to put them down. MAGES. managed to brave SO many traps back then, which resulted in her finding a statue which had this Staff in its grasp, built almost as if it were carelessly handing it out to whoever would dare try to grab it, as if to say 'here, take the damn thing already!'

She'd done so, and BOY did she have mixed feelings regarding it.

Thanks to fighting for so long with this thing, MAGES. herself had deduced much about the Staff's powers: powers which were so volatile, wild and maddening to control that she doubted anyone else other than her could even TRY to control the damn thing. It had caused her no small amount of headaches over the many months of practicing with it, and only recently had she FINALLY managed to make it completely obedient to her will. If Demonic Power itself was something difficult to control, then the Staff known as Wabbajack felt goddamn nigh IMPOSSIBLE to control. It had madness amongst madness, it felt absolutely insane and more than once nearly drove her over the edge into a pit where she wouldn't ever be able to return from. Then again, none of those things stopped her from learning more about it, which may in fact prove to the Mad Magician why the Staff even listened to her at all. Her previous classifications of its powers when she met up with Nico before the Gala (you know, the destruction, restoration etc) had been just so she could classify how absurdly BROKEN this Devil Arm really was.

Seriously, the following abilities were what she had discovered the Devil Arm was capable of using:

Fire manipulation

Lightning manipulation

Ice Manipulation

Force manipulation

Healing (can heal others or oneself by infusing energy ino her from any source, including others or itself) Heal Other

Can disintegrate foes into nothing

Transformation (very versatile, depends on the whim of the user)

Summoning: mudcrab (really LARGE crabs), daedra (type of demon), rabbit, chicken, chickens that explodes after 20 recorded seconds and transforms back. summons only last one hit before dispersing. Like transformation is very versatile, nearly no limits aside from user.

Mental/ Debuff Manipulation: Invisibility, Fury, Fear, Drain stamina, Paralysis, Unequip target's armor (great for armoured humanoid targets like those Damn World Eater Soldiers)

Can even be used as a bladed weapon dspite lacking a proper edge, leading to possible decapitation

Reanimate targeted dead body (possibly no limits there, MAGES. theorized) with double health.

Can teleport enemies away from her but she has to be able to SEE them, not sense.

… So yeah, anyone NOT get why this Devil Arm's power wasn't broken yet? And people often asked her why she usually operated solo...

But back to the topic at hand, since MAGES. found herself getting off track. The plans she and IF launched into motion kept succeeding in one way or another. They'd so far managed to take out 5 of the other 8 teams with clever planning, predictions, and a little bit of luck as well. Sometimes her strikes would miss, mostly due to either her mixing up h calculations, or one of the enemy members actually having a brain and figuring out their attack strategy before telling his or her comrades and the rest of them running off. Of course, in latter case two of their Groups' members would then take them out one piece at a time, so things still proceeded to move along in their favour. It actually surprised her how much progress they had been able to make in such a short amount of time, the proof of which being the many pillars of smoke which were scattered throughout the entire battlefield, a byproduct of MAGES. and her artillery spells. She had to be careful though, cause if someone managed to calculate where the spells had come from alongside the locations of these smoke pillars, it would then create a path which MAGES. had used to set up the barriers she'd did at the beginning. Then, all they would need to do would be to open an entrance through the barrier and they would be in her group's territory.

If she were frank, MAGES. felt this to be a little TOO easy at times despite the severe risk behind it all, and as such she kept wondering what this supposed 'special element' could be that Chifuyu Orimura warned them about. That had been her sole worry about this Exam, as no matter what she tried the Mad Magician couldn't figure that part out, probably due to how tightly lipped a lot of these Agents tended to be about information like that. It made her wish she could read minds or something, but even as broken as Wabbajack was, that was one of the few things it COULDN'T do. 'At least IF's nearly done with our fifth team, now...' the young Mage thought to herself, a bit weary from all this thinking but otherwise just as ready to fight as the rest of her battle junkie team. 'Still, once the sixth team falls, that means there will only be a couple teams to go. However, that's where things get tricky...' She thought, narrowing her eyes a bit in concentration whilst she cupped her chin in-between her index finger and thumb.

The problem she had foreseen was to do with their strategy, or rather the fact that they weren't the only ones utilizing this strategy. With how many times she'd tried between battles and tactic switches, MAGES. had yet to identify where the last two teams were located, which implied to her that they had been playing the role of observer this whole time. This didn't bode well nor did it sit right for the Mad Magician, for if these teams had seen how theirs operated, its possible that they would have found a strategy to counter theirs. 'If that is indeed the case, As long as we can keep up with this pace, then we shall be able to deal with the remaining teams eventually and pass, without having to get introduced to this special element...'

...

...

...

… Why did she get the feeling she had just jinxed herself?

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

… Oh, that's why.

In one instant, MAGES. whole world trembled as something large, fast and impactful slammed into a space not too far from her position, at least a couple dozen meters away. Shocked and stunned by this, the blunette accidentally dropped all Spells she had been maintaining in favour of shielding herself from the shockwave and debris which succeeded in blowing her off her perch on the tree. Falling down to the ground below, MAGES. noticed this and gritted her teeth, already reacting when she got reminded of her nearly falling into a portal in the Hellverse Dungeon. She absolutely REFUSED to make a repeat of that mistake, so she twirled her staff and aimed its tip below her, releasing a steady stream of flames which weren't big enough to cause a forest fire, but were just enough to slow her descent. Kind of like jet thrusters aimed downwards to create lift in a way, and it ended up succeeding since the Mad Magician landed without much harm. Twirling her staff again, MAGES. stabbed its backside into the ground beside her, eyeing the space before her to see what had the gall to attack her like that.

At first, she couldn't see anything due to the cause being shrouded by a smokescreen, although this didn't last very long thanks to the cause quickly rectifying the situation between them. It flung something out, like an arm or some sort of appendage, and that ended up dispersing the smokescreen... only, for MAGES. to quickly wish that she didn't have to see it when she saw the GIGANTIC creature now leering at her from over 30 feet away. Standing on all four white, spindly limbs, stood what could only be described as a white beast, with several massive blades protruding out of its shoulders which extended longer than her entire body. She could count four in total, each of them sporting real sharp edges for cutting purposes. Out of its upper back, grew many gross-looking appendages shaped onto a massive, crystalline plume, looking just as large as the blades it wielded. The creature's arms and legs remained spindly, yet its body looked disproportionate to them in how massive it was, easily towering over vehicles at least, and at best a single story building. Finally, its face, and by GODDESSES that face looked like the stuff of nightmares. It consisted of a large, mask-like head with four horns and a single eye in the center of the mask with three markings on the left cheek, right cheek and the forehead, as well as a large mouth... a mouth which currently hung open with a long tongue hanging out supported by strands of drool connecting between its jaws.

'Holy... this is a most troubling of opposition...!' the Mad Magician grimly thought, a matching flat line on her lips whilst her eyes narrowed into a resigned stare as she readied her Staff, already prepping to use Wabbajack's power. As someone whom had seen and fought against many demonic creatures in her time in this Dimension, MAGES. could definitely say that the sheer BLOODLUST created by this beast reminded her of the Greater Demons of Khorne, something she felt she wasn't nearly a match for as of her current state. If it were a pure magic battle, then she didn't think she would lose, but Greater Demons usually had strong magic resistance to them which limited how effective her Spells were, pretty much disabling her strongest weapon against them. Fortunately as horrifying and dread-inducing as this creature felt to her, MAGES. did believe this was not a Greater Demon, so she could still take it on. She intended to try to disintegrate the creature before it could attack her, her nerves already settling into a 'how can I beat this thing and live?' state instead of 'oh shit I'm going to die, oh shit, oh shit!' state. She made to point it towards her opponent, but she then noticed some... odd shifting from the plume of those grotesque appendages on its back, something which quickly rung alarm bells inside her mind. These alarm bells quickly made her shift from an offensive strategy to a defensive one, making MAGES. sweep Wabbajack across the ground in front of her, causing frosty vapour to escape its tip and hit the ground, quickly causing ice to sprout forth from it. This allowed her to form a wall of ice as thick as an oak tree's trunk to counter whatever triggered her instincts... or rather, that's what she hoped, but instead the creature's Plum unleashed a barrage of crystalline Projectiles, each of them seeming to have enough power to create a multi foot deep crater within the ice causing her to pale significantly. 'Oh no...!'

SHATTER!

It didn't take long for MAGES. to see her ice shatter like fragile glass before their might, forcing the Mage to put up a barrier in front of her in a weaker attempt to defend herself. Only, it only succeeded in knocking her flying backwards, through several trees and into the tenth one. When she collided with that tenth tree, sharp pain exploded from her back as MAGES. gasped out, slumping down on the ground as she hissed, gritting her teeth to bear the pain. 'Ugh! That was...!' she thought, before instincts caused her to look upwards and, as her eyes shrunk into dots, MAGES saw that the beast had already closed the distance between them, several hundred feet worth to be exact. It even had raised its right arm with its claw in a swiping position, intending to swipe and possibly cleave her head off. 'No...! this cannot be...!' she thought, quickly making to raise another Barrier, this one arguably stronger with how much Mana she put into it, to save herself from being decapitated. It wasn't like she was very good at dodging from this distance, plus the creature had proven to be MUCH faster than herself.

BOOM!

Bringing the claw down in a second, the creature saw how it created a massive explosion upon impact with the cold, hard ground beneath it, tearing through anything and everything which stood in its way without any thought of mercy or restraint. The explosion also got accompanied by a shockwave which uprooted much of the forest land, leaving a large crater behind in its wake. However, as it removed its claw from where the Mad Magician lay, it saw nothing but empty space instead, causing it to growl as it looked around for the source... only to jump backwards when a barrage of icicle Shards and Fireballs fell down on the space where it stood. Looking upwards, the creature glared at the airborne MAGES., whom glared right back at her monstrous adversary.

"It appears that... you're the 'Special Element' that we were informed of..." Those were the words she had spoken, reflecting quickly on how she had to use the propulsion of both the attack and the barrier's defensive ability to get further back, then used another barrier spell to propel herself upwards above the forest. It had been a close call, and if she had made even ONE mistake of any level, MAGES. feared the worst. Of course she could have healed herself with Wabbajack's power, along with teleported the creature away from her, but at that point she had been so surprised and caught off guard that neither of those two options had made themselves known to the Mad Magician. That would be changing now though as she eyed all the debris caused by the fight so far, even as the Plume on the creature's back showcased those same signs she'd noticed before when it made to launch those projectiles. "You made a mistake regardless, in making all this Debris, though..."

With that said, MAGES. raised Wabbajack and pointed it down at the space below, letting its power out once again. As a result, every piece of uprooted debris such as trees, bushes, branches, anything not tied down really, it suddenly vanished from sight before MAGES. raised Wabbajack above her head, where the debris reappeared. All of it surrounded her as the creature growled at her ferally, its lone eye trembling with madness and bloodlust as its Plume shook harder. MAGES. narrowed her eyes at this, obviously not liking what that could imply. 'Could it be that it can create bigger barrages than this? If its like that, then...' she thought, quickly swinging Wabbajack down towards her opponent. 'I'll just have to strike first, and beat this adversary to the punch!'

Just as the Debris fell down towards the Creature's position, resembling a shower of meteors in a way, the creature howled as its Plume practically EXPLODED, releasing dozens upon dozens of Projectiles upwards towards the incoming assault. The Debris shower MAGES. had launched using Force manipulation fell towards the barrage, and the two forces collided with one another to result in another smokescreen separating the two of them, although MAGES. knew that she had to act fast when she began to fall, unable to keep herself in the air any longer. As powerful as Wabbajack was, flight was also something which it couldn't help her with, causing the Mad Magician to release a frown onto her features, her hair whipping about as she placed one hand on top her Witch hat so it didn't get blown off. How it hadn't before now was a mystery she didn't bother to think about for the moment, not with things being as they were. 'Tch, looks like I have to invest in some manner of flight magic sometime, as mobility will greatly affect my ability to respond to-'

"GIGYAAAAAA!"

Before she could finish that thought, MAGES. eyes widened in shock and horror when she saw a looming shadow behind her, quickly causing her to twist herself around to come face to face with the HULING form of the massive beast she had been fighting, its lone eye trembling as it gave her a savage grin, a sharp contrast to the rapidly paling skin MAGES. sported. How the heck did it get up here so fast?! MAGES. had no time to think about this as she held Wabbajack out and shot a fireball, creating another explosion which separated the two. Quickly, she made several smaller ones and used them to propel herself away from the scene, heading right back to the massive clearing which the beast had made earlier.

When the woman arrived, MAGES. acted once more, shooting a fireball beneath her to get the lift to help her flip about into an upright position, stabbing Wabbajack into the ground and sending its power into it creating a sheet of ice she used to slide along it. The woman then had the sheet sprout several protrusions behind her, forming an arch which halted her mobility, causing the Mad Magician to heave a sigh of relief at her halted motion, before she hardened her gaze and swung her Devil Arm, dispersing these magical effects from the battlefield. 'Whatever this creature is... now that I think about it, this reminds me of something... something I viewed once before in my Crystal Ball...' she thought as a hint of suspicion blossomed in her chest.

"MAGES.! Girl, you alright? We heard the spells collapse and some fighting on your end, is everything alright?"

Suddenly, the woman smiled, heaving a sigh of relief when she saw a Magic Circle appear beside her head, a communication Circle and judging from the voice, she realized it belonged to her old friend Tekken. After this brief exchange, she could not help but be happy at hearing her voice for once, so MAGES. promptly answered the Martial Artist's question with a bit of strain in her voice. "I am... unharmed, Tekken." she said, not bothering with the chuuni behaviour for a moment due to focusing on the battlefield. "It appears that we may have to contend with that 'Special Element' after all... I was just attacked by something, injuries are minimal at best but the beast has not gone down yet."

"Ah! IF figured something like that was the case, me and Cecil did too! Don't worry, IF's on her way to lend whatever support she can. She saw the destruction and felt it necessary to aid you, you may be strong but if something happens to your Devil Arm, much of your power goes with it, right? Although i'm in a bind, me and Cecil can handle it." Tekken queried at the end, something which MAGES. indeed confirmed. Like she mentioned, her power largely came from Wabbajack as, aside from it having its own powers, it functioned also as a medium for her own Mana. Should it become damaged or unable to be used for her battles, then MAGES. would suffer a HUGE blow to her abilities and fighting potential. As such, she agreed with IF's decision to head on over here, it felt reassuring to have an Agent like her by the Mad Magician's side.

"I see. In any case, how's things on your end? You say your in a bind..."

"Not good, sadly. Some girl with a Katana and blazing red hair which is raining Ember's trying to take me and Cecil out. We're holding our own, but i'll be honest, its going to get dicey."

Hearing this, MAGES. scowled, not liking this. Judging from the sound of it, it seemed that the attacker's identity was the Spec Ops Agent CRIMSON, also known as Shana. If someone like HER was here, whilst this creature was attacking her, then there HAD to be something up. Was this REALLY just the 'Special Element', or was there something more to it? "Copy that. Looks like this element's more complex than expected." MAGES. eventually replied with, shaking her head. "In any case, focus on fighting your opponent and i'll do the same here. We'll not let this stop us from passing this exam, got it?!"

A loud exclamation of agreement was returned to her before MAGES. cut the transmission, looking back to the direction of the Beast's previous position with an owl-like gaze. 'Now that things are like this, I can't hold back any longer. I'll have to find a way to destroy this creature instantly before my Mana reserves run dry. One thing about wielding Wabbajack is that if I have insufficient Mana to control him, then he tends to have higher risks of going berserk on me, so I have to use its power first to exhaust it so that doesn't happen. Learned that the HARD way...' she thought, shaking her head.

"NGH... NOT BAD... GIRLIE...!"

"?!"

All thoughts halted when MAGES. heard a feminine voice, or rather it SOUNDED like one but it also had something distorting it as well, come from within the forest. One second the space before her remained empty, but the next the massive beast seemingly appeared out of nowhere, almost like it shimmered into existence there and looked practically unscathed from her previous efforts, much to the Mad Magician's irritation. "You can speak?" even so, MAGES. had to ask this as she readied her Devil Arm defensively, mentally preparing herself.

"YUP! NICE TO MEETCHYA, MAGES.! NAME'S ETO, BUT CALL ME CANNIBAL! JUST DECIDED TO POP IN AND SEE IF YOUR WORTHWHILE, WHILST BIRD GIRL OVER THERE HACKS AT YOUR PALLY PAL-PALS! I HOPE YOU CAN ENTERTAIN ME, SO I DON'T GET BORED AND END UP RIPPING OUT YOUR ENTRAILS! GYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

...

...

… At this point, MAGES. could only groan to herself whilst facepalming. She may need more aspirin at this point.