>Chapter 44<

The students decided to separate themselves into groups of five, and as they were already deciding what to do in their group, our boys being no exception, they heard a quiet voice that somehow resounded within all their ears quite clearly.

"That is a very good idea, but not enough, so I will have to make a little change to your plan." Instructor Rustica stood up from her lying position.

The students turned their heads and looked at her, paying maximum attention. They didn't want to miss whatever she was going to say.

"Firstly, everyone, please write you names on your paper." The students found small pieces of paper being clutched in their right hand. "After writing your names, throw them into this bag."

Instructor Rustica pulled out a leather bag out of nowhere and waited for the students to finish writing. Once all the pieces of paper were in the bag, she started pulling them out.

The students already had some idea as to what she is doing with this, and they didn't like it at all.

"Okay, so the first group will be Zoe, Olivia, William, Frederick and Patrick."

"In the second group, there is Liam, Oliver …and Timothy."

"The third group…"

After the successfully dividing all the students into groups, Instructor Rustica said.

"Now that we're finally done, try to stay alive for the next week, see ya!" She waved her hand and disappeared.

The newly made groups looked at each other and then all went their own ways after speaking with each other for a few minutes.

As it could be expected, all of the boys from our group were separated. Although small, there was still a chance that some of them still should have been in the same group. They didn't believe that the paper nonsense was at all random. It may not look like it, but they still noticed the groups of people who hang out with each other most often, and now they're all divided so that none of them were in the same group. In a world with magic, there is no way that this wasn't intentional, so the Instructor must have done something, which they hadn't noticed.

And so, all of the groups slowly disappeared into the depths of the dangerous forest, while Instructor Rustica watched from the sidelines while thinking, hopefully, they will figure it out…

POV: Patrick

Right now, we were all on our way to the forest whilst Frederick took the lead with me occasionally saying something as well and giving some ideas. The rest of the group was really quiet for some reason, who knows, maybe they're really shy, or they're not yet comfortable talking with people you barely know.

"How about we make ourselves some shelter first?" I said, looking at the other people in my group.

"Good idea, but let's make some roles here so it doesn't end up with some of us not doing anything." Frederick proposed.

"My element is fire, so we don't have to worry about freezing in this forest." Patrick said. "What about you?"

"W-well… my element is water." A timid girl spoke up.

"Great, now we don't have to worry about getting dehydrated. By the way, my element is fire as well." A red-haired boy spoke.

"Are you crazy? Do you want us to die? Didn't you pay attention in classes when the instructor said that ones the element magic particles are toxic for other people?" A black-haired boy with glasses screamed.

"Oops, looks like I forgot." He playfully slapped his forehead.

"Ugh, well anyway, my element is the earth element." The glasses boy said after facepalming.

"Well, let's all get to work, shall we?" Frederick said, making them focus on more important things than arguing.

Situations of the same kind were playing out in other parts of the forest, in all of the groups currently participating in the training. Though, they didn't know that they weren't the only class participating in this little event…

POV: Timothy

It may not look like it, but I, David, Phillip, Jacob and Patrick were trying to keep all five groups close together.

Now, you may ask, why?

The answer is simple. We were all trying to stay in the limited range of our telepathic ability, since we didn't want to lose contact with each other during this stay in the forest.

In this unknown ground, anything could hapen, really. And we didn't want to take this risk.

We made sure to mark the distance between each of us, because, as we got to know, we kind of work like satellites, making us able to contact the person furthest from us if there's another one in between, who's in range of both people.

I turned to look at the people I'm teamed up with.

There's nothing overly noticeable about them, but I guess that's a good thing, for we don't want to stand out in this gloomy forest.

Though, there was one problem, and that would be Jack. I want to sigh in relief, since he's not in my group, but that wouldn't necessarily help me.

Now, where is the problem with that guy, you ask?

He was giving us hateful gazes from time to time in past month, basically, from the first day of school. We don't know anything, but what we do know is that he hasn't made his move yet. I don't know why that is, but the other boys speculated it might have something to do with the fact that we are kind of close to Caedis.

But, that's exactly where the problem is. Because of our new location, and the fact that no one is here, except for the other group, we are temporarily vulnerable. I mean, what can the instructors do in a situation where five students just disappear in action? They may suspect some other student did this, but they don't have evidence.

So, they had to take care of this minor problem before it became an even bigger problem.

They had no idea how right they were about him…