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The wind roared in their ears. They fell through the cold air. The white ground rushed up to meet them.
Elias bent his knees. He used a small burst of magic.
He slowed his fall. He landed softly on the deep snow. Dee didn't use magic.
She landed hard. Her boots crushed the snow. The ground shook slightly.
She stood up and brushed the ice off her dress.
"That was a long drop,"
Dee said.
"Are you hurt?"
Elias asked.
"Nope,"
Dee smiled.
"I am awake now."
Loud thuds echoed around them. The other examinees were landing in the forest.
Some landed well. Some fell into the snow banks. A loud howl ripped through the trees.
Red eyes glowed in the dark shadows of the pine trees. The Beowolves were already here.
"Let's move,"
Elias said.
"We need to find the outpost."
They ran forward. Three large Beowolves jumped out of the bushes.
They snapped their jaws. Dee didn't stop running. She pulled her fist back.
She punched the first wolf in the face. The sound of breaking bone cracked in the cold air.
The wolf flew backward. It dissolved into black smoke before it hit the ground. Elias didn't even slow down.
He swung his hand. A sharp blade of dark energy shot through the air.
It cut the other two wolves in half. They turned to ash.
"Too easy,"
Dee said.
They moved through the forest like ghosts. Nothing could touch them.
Whenever a Grimm blocked their path, they destroyed it in one second.
They didn't break a sweat. They didn't breathe heavily.
They reached the center of the forest in less than ten minutes.
An old stone building stood in a clearing. It was the military outpost.
The door was broken. They walked inside.
A metal box sat on a table.
Elias opened it. Inside were fifty silver tokens.
Elias took one. He handed one to Dee.
"Objective complete,"
Elias said.
"We just need to go to the extraction point."
"The test lasts for three hours,"
Dee noted.
"We finished in ten minutes. What do we do now?"
Elias walked to a broken window. He looked out into the forest. He could hear gunshots.
He could hear people yelling.
"We watch,"
Elias said.
He jumped out of the window. He climbed up a tall pine tree. Dee followed him.
They stood on a thick branch high above the ground.
They had a clear view of the battlefield.
Down below, the real test was happening. The rough mercenaries were fighting the Grimm.
They were doing surprisingly well. They didn't fight fair. They didn't use fancy moves.
One large man with an axe kicked dirt into a Beowolf's eyes.
Then he chopped its head off.
A woman with a shotgun used the trees for cover. She hid, shot, and moved.
They were surviving through pure experience.
They knew how to stay alive in the mud and the snow.
A few hundred feet away, Winter's team was fighting.
It was going very badly.
Winter stood in the center of her team.
Her white uniform was already covered in dirt.
"Hold the line!"
Winter yelled.
"Standard formation C! Protect the flanks!"
Her three teammates tried to obey. They tried to stand in a perfect square.
But the forest wasn't a flat classroom floor.
The snow was deep. There were rocks and roots everywhere.
One boy stepped backward and tripped over a hidden root.
He fell hard.
A Beowolf lunged at him.
"Get up!"
Winter screamed.
She rushed over and stabbed the wolf through the chest. She pulled her thin sword out.
She was breathing heavily.
"The snow is too deep!"
A girl on her team cried out.
"I can't move my feet!"
"Don't make excuses!"
Winter yelled back.
"Academies train us for all environments! Keep your guard up!"
A group of mercenaries ran past them. The large man with the axe stopped for a second.
He watched Winter's team struggle.
"Look at the greenhorns!"
The man laughed loudly.
"Your textbooks won't save you out here, kids!"
"Shut up and fight!"
Winter snapped at him. The man just laughed again.
"Don't die, little princess,"
The man said. He ran away, easily dodging a Grimm.
Winter's face turned red with anger.
She swung her sword wildly at the next wolf. She killed it, but she lost her balance.
Up in the tree, Elias watched closely.
"They are failing,"
Elias said.
"They rely too much on perfectly clean tactics,"
Dee agreed.
"They don't know how to fight when things get messy."
"She is stressed,"
Elias observed Winter.
"She is trying to prove the mercenary wrong. She is swinging too hard."
"Should we step in?"
Dee asked.
"Not openly,"
Elias said.
"If Ironwood sees us help them, they will fail the exam. They have to pass on their own."
"So we help them secretly,"
Dee smiled.
"Exactly,"
Elias said.
Below them, the situation grew worse. A new pack of Beowolves charged out of the trees.
There were at least twenty of them. Winter's team was surrounded.
"Close the circle!"
Winter commanded.
Her voice was shaking a little. Her teammates were terrified.
Their guns were shaking in their hands.
A massive Beowolf jumped directly at Winter's blind spot.
She didn't see it. It was coming from her left side.
"She is open,"
Elias said.
"I got it,"
Dee said. Dee didn't jump down. She reached into her pocket.
She pulled out a small, heavy stone. She flicked her thumb.
The stone shot through the air like a bullet. It hit the jumping Beowolf perfectly on the side of the head.
The force was incredible.
The wolf's head snapped to the side. It crashed into the snow, completely unconscious.
Winter spun around.
She saw the fallen wolf. She looked confused. She didn't know why it missed her.
She quickly stabbed it on the ground.
"Good hit,"
Elias whispered.
"My turn."
On the other side of the circle, the boy with the rifle ran out of bullets.
He fumbled with his pockets. He dropped his extra magazine into the deep snow.
"I lost my ammo!"
He panicked.
A Grimm snapped its jaws at his face.
Elias pointed his finger.
He used a tiny thread of dark magic. The magic was invisible in the shadows.
It wrapped around the dropped magazine.
The magazine flew out of the snow.
It popped directly into the boy's empty hand.
The boy blinked in shock. He didn't question it.
He slammed the ammo into his gun and fired.
The Grimm fell dead.
"Keep shooting!"
Winter yelled.
She was still fighting three wolves at once. She stepped backward.
Her boot hit a patch of solid ice hidden under the snow.
She slipped.
Her knee hit the ground. Her thin sword stuck in the dirt. She couldn't pull it out.
The largest Beowolf roared. It raised its giant claws to strike her.
Winter closed her eyes. She braced for the pain.
Dee moved faster than the eye could see. She vanished from the branch.
She appeared behind a thick tree trunk right next to Winter.
Dee stomped her foot on the ground.
She sent a shockwave of red Aura through the dirt.
The shockwave hit the ground beneath the Beowolf.
The ice shattered. The ground exploded upward. The Beowolf lost its footing and tumbled backward into a tree.
Dee vanished again.
She appeared back on the high branch next to Elias.
The whole thing took less than one second.
No one saw her.
Winter opened her eyes.
She saw the Grimm rolling on the ground.
She yanked her sword free.
She jumped forward and finished the monster.
She breathed heavily.
White steam came from her mouth in the cold air.
"What is happening?"
Winter muttered to herself.
"Are we just getting lucky?"
"Keep moving!"
Winter told her team.
"Push forward to the outpost! Don't stop!"
They kept fighting. They kept making mistakes.
Every time they made a fatal error, Elias and Dee fixed it.
When a girl swung her dagger too late, Elias sent a burst of wind to push the Grimm away.
When a boy left his back open, Dee tossed a pinecone with enough force to crack the Grimm's ribs.
They guided the team through the forest like unseen guardian angels.
Winter's team fought hard.
They were tired. They were bruised. But they were not dead.
They finally broke through the tree line.
They saw the stone outpost.
"There it is!"
Winter pointed.
"Run!"
They sprinted across the clearing. They burst through the broken door.
Winter saw the metal box. She ran to it. She grabbed four silver tokens.
She handed one to each of her teammates.
"We did it,"
The boy with the rifle gasped.
He leaned against the stone wall.
"We secured the objective."
Winter looked at her hands. They were shaking. She looked back out the broken door.
The forest was quiet now. The first wave of Grimm was gone.
"We survived,"
Winter said softly. She stood up straight. She fixed her collar.
She tried to look proud again.
"Of course we survived,"
Winter lied to her team.
"We are from Atlas Academy. We don't fail."
Her team cheered weakly. They were just happy to be alive.
Up in the pine tree, Elias and Dee sat down on the thick branch.
"She is very stubborn,"
Elias smiled.
"She is,"
Dee laughed softly.
"She actually thinks her standard formations worked."
"Let her think that,"
Elias said.
"She needs the confidence. She has a hard life ahead of her."
"We did a good job,"
Dee bumped her shoulder against his.
"No one saw a thing."
"Ironwood is probably watching from a camera somewhere,"
Elias pointed out.
"Did he see us?"
Dee asked.
"I doubt it,"
Elias said.
"We moved too fast. If he watched the cameras, he just saw a very lucky team of students."
"Good,"
Dee said.
"Now we just wait for the extraction ship."
"We still have two hours,"
Elias reminded her.
"There will be more waves of Grimm."
"That is fine,"
Dee cracked her knuckles again.
"We will just sit here. If the kids get in trouble, we throw more rocks."
Elias chuckled. He liked this plan. It was simple.
Down in the outpost, Winter paced back and forth. She looked at her silver token. She held it tight in her fist.
She thought about her father. She knew he would be angry that she was taking this test. He wanted her at home.
He wanted her to attend boring meetings. But holding this token made her feel strong.
It made her feel like she owned her own life.
"We hold this position,"
Winter told her team.
"We defend the outpost until the ship arrives. Don't get comfortable."
The team groaned, but they raised their weapons.
Elias watched her through the broken roof.
"She is a good leader,"
Elias noted.
"She just needs to learn how to bend a little."
"She will learn,"
Dee said.
"Eventually."
The wind blew hard through the trees. The snow started to fall again.
Another howl echoed in the distance. The second wave was coming.
Elias leaned back against the tree trunk.
He pulled a small silver coin from his pocket.
He flipped it in the air.
"Ready for round two?"
Elias asked.
"Always,"
Dee smiled.
They watched the tree line. They waited for the monsters to appear.
They would make sure the little princess and her team survived the day.
They would get their licenses. They would go home to Neo. Everything was going exactly according to plan.