Every eye in the crowd of examinees was locked onto the towering, sky-piercing ancient tree. The air was thick with anxiety, heavy with non-stop whispers. Amidst the hesitant crowd, a slender figure suddenly bolted forward. It was a girl with striking, vibrant blue hair and long, arrogant eyelashes.
Within a single breath, she landed gracefully on the very first branch. The moment her palm brushed against the rugged bark, a bone-chilling aura of frost erupted. In an instant, half of the colossal trunk was encased in thick, glassy, and deadly ice. This sudden freezing turned the lower half of the ancient tree into a treacherous, slippery trap, completely blocking the path of the other examinees.
Below the tree, the crowd immediately exploded into furious jeers: "Cheater! She's playing dirty!" "Wait... isn't she the young lady from that ancient Ice Element clan?" "What?! Seriously? No wonder she's so ruthless!"
Ignoring the venomous gossip and the envious glares stabbing into her back, the blue-haired girl maintained her icy expression, leaping nimbly up the higher branches.
Standing in a corner of the exam grounds, Pip and Kael could only watch in awe. Pip nudged his friend with his elbow: "Talk about a celebrity. She really doesn't hold back, huh, Kael?" "Guess so. With talent like that, even I'd admit defeat," Kael shrugged with a wry smile.
With that, Kael began striding toward the ancient tree. A bizarre phenomenon occurred: the moment the chaotic crowd recognized Kael, they instinctively parted to both sides, clearing a straight path to the trunk as if avoiding a dangerous entity.
Kael leaned in and whispered to Pip, his eyes gleaming with calculated intent: "The maximum distance I can summon a mirror is fifty meters. Within that range, I can blink instantly at maximum speed. But if I try to push any further, my velocity drops drastically."
Before Pip could even process that piece of information, Kael's hand suddenly gripped his wrist tightly. Before Pip could utter a confused, "What the—?", an intense rush of g-force slammed against his chest.
Zing!
Space itself warped in a blink of an eye. When Pip finally regained his bearings, he almost screamed—his feet were dangling precariously fifty meters above the ground.
Kael's strategy was both brilliant and reckless. He summoned a magical mirror at the first fifty-meter mark to act as a teleportation anchor. The moment his feet touched it, he shattered it with a wave of his hand, instantly constructing the next mirror in the empty space above. Just like that, through a continuous chain of spatial blinks executed with millisecond precision, the two of them rocketed toward the summit like a streak of light, leaving the astonished roars of the examinees far below.
Glancing down, Pip shuddered as he realized the crowd that had been throwing a massive tantrum earlier now looked like nothing more than a colony of ants. He swallowed hard, muttering under his breath: "H-holy... that's high..." "Heh, you're talking to me! Once I make a move, nothing is impossible," Kael smirked with absolute confidence.
Kael's gaze locked entirely on the path ahead. However, the moment they hit the fifty-meter threshold, the ruthless pull of gravity began dragging them down. At that critical, life-or-death moment, Kael's eyes widened as he bellowed: "PIP!! NOW!!"
There was no need for a second word.
CRASH!
The first magical mirror shattered into a hundred shards of glass, glistening under the sunlight. Kael thrust his hand forward, his brows furrowed tightly. Exactly fifty meters above their position, a fresh mirror materialized out of thin air.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Like a well-oiled machine, one frantically created while the other borrowed the momentum to destroy, propelling the two figures higher and higher, piercing through the dense layers of clouds.
Watching this absurd display of coordination from below, the Ice Element girl let out a cold smile. She stamped her foot heavily against the ancient branch. Instantly, brilliant azure ice manifested beneath her feet, extending and twisting into a massive frozen spiral staircase around the trunk. With this makeshift icy highway, her speed plummeted upward, rapidly closing the gap on the two boys above.
Pip snapped his head back, his eyes widening in pure shock: "What the hell is that?! Since when can you make an entire ice staircase?!" "Tsk, she's catching up!" Kael's face hardened, his tension palpable.
Pip clicked his tongue, the shock in his eyes quickly replaced by sheer annoyance. He extended his hand toward the icy structure and shut his eyes tightly. Inside his chaotic subconscious, Pip frantically scavenged through the arsenal of abilities he had painstakingly stolen during his hellish training with Lilit.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, his pupils darting around like a radar locking onto a target. With the girl dead in his sights, Pip showed zero mercy, pointing his finger straight at her: "LIGHTNING THREAD!"
A blinding bolt of lightning discharged from the tip of Pip's finger, tearing through the air with thunderous velocity, striking straight at the target. The Ice Element girl knitted her brow. With lightning-fast reflexes, she raised her hand in defense: "ICE GUARDIAN SHIELD!"
A thick, reinforced shield of solid ice instantly erected, shielding her entire body. The lightning slammed violently against the shield, unleashing a deafening explosion, but it only left a web of fractures across the surface.
Pip clicked his tongue in disappointment: "Damn it... as expected, an ability copied from someone else always loses its potency. The destructive power wasn't enough to shatter the shield."
However, his goal was achieved. Forcing the girl to halt and defend had bought Kael a few precious seconds to continue blinking.
Below them, the Ice Element girl slammed both feet onto the ice platform. The aloof, elegant composure she held earlier vanished entirely, replaced by eyes burning with raw fury: "Ha... Brilliant! You actually dare to stall me?"
A dense wave of deep blue mana suddenly erupted, surging violently toward Pip. Before he could even register it, the freezing vapor solidified in an instant, morphing into jagged, razor-sharp ice spikes that impaled right through the flesh of Pip's arms and legs.
"Kh—!"
The agonizing pain made Pip's voice catch in his throat, but his willpower refused to let him yield. Determined not to go down without a fight, he squeezed out the last of his strength to deploy Angel Case, sealing the girl inside a pristine, sacred cube, temporarily binding her in place.
"Hurry, Kael... I'm injured, I can't hold the skill for long. She's going to break out in a matter of seconds!..." Pip wheezed, his voice trembling from the pain. "Hold on tight!" Kael gritted his teeth, barking an order.
Pip used his only uninjured arm to lock tightly around Kael's shoulder.
SWOOSH!
Kael burned through the absolute dregs of his mana, pushing their teleportation speed into a frantic overdrive that blurred Pip's vision. But right after that final spatial leap, Kael's body abruptly collapsed from exhaustion. The magical glow died out instantly, sending both of them into a free fall through mid-air.
CRACK!
Fortuitously, a massive branch from the ancient tree caught them, saving the two teenagers from a fatal plunge. Numbing his own pain, Pip frantically shook his friend: "Kael! Wake up, Kael! The exam isn't over yet! Are you okay?!"
The only response to Pip's desperate cries was Kael's shallow, ragged breathing. His friend managed to part his lips, his voice barely a whisper: "G... get to the top... Just... a few more branches... I'm... out of air..." "You utter idiot! There is no way in hell I'm leaving you behind!" A streak of ironclad determination flashed across Pip's eyes.
Pip carefully pulled Kael's arm over his own shoulder. By now, every micro-movement of his legs—which were still riddled with embedded ice spikes—felt like pure torture. Fresh blood oozed out continuously, staining a section of the tree trunk crimson. Without hesitation, Pip tore his cloak apart, tying it tightly around his legs to temporarily stem the bleeding, then used the remaining fabric to bind Kael securely to his back.
Squeezing out the final droplets of his mental energy, Pip forced himself to construct small magical cubes to serve as stepping stones, heavily treading upward, step by step. Every single stride he took at this moment felt like a brush with the Grim Reaper. His hands trembled violently as they clawed into the rough bark, using every ounce of his weight to drag their heavy bodies upward. Pip was pushing the very boundaries of his own life force past its absolute limit.
When the final branch materialized before his eyes, Pip dragged his battered body onto it. Right in front of him, just across a surreal layer of clouds, lay the finish line.
Yet, by this point, Pip's legs had completely lost all sensation. His vision began to darken, the world blurring into obscurity from sheer exhaustion. Fueled by an indomitable, terrifyingly stubborn will, Pip utilized his final shred of consciousness to manifest one last cube, gently placing Kael's body upon it, and pushed the box forward into the warm embrace of the clouds on the other side.
After witnessing his friend safely cross the threshold with his own eyes, a faint, contented smile played on Pip's lips. He whispered softly: "The other side... must feel really nice..."
With that, the final thread of his consciousness snapped. His body went limp, slipping off the branch and plunging straight down into the boundless abyss below.
Right at the exact millisecond he was about to sink into the darkness, a hand—bearing the piercing chill of frost yet radiating a strange, profound warmth—suddenly reached out, gripping his back with an iron hold.
As it turned out, the Ice Element girl had broken free from the seal and managed to sprint to the summit just in time. Witnessing the entire spectacle of the blood-drenched boy who had disregarded his own life just to push his friend to safety, she knitted her brows. Looking down at Pip with a deeply complex gaze, she muttered under her breath: "Doing all of this... just for a friend?"
BEEP!
Immediately after, a colossal magical leaderboard manifested across the sky, engraving the top three finishers into stone:
1st: Kael – Total Time: 2 hours 3 minutes
2nd: Pip – Total Time: 2 hours 9 minutes
3th: Ellarish – Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes