Three days later, Glenn's team -- Lafite, Chris, Nina, Robinson and Robin -- reunited.

Alastair parted ways with Lafite when Glenn appeared. Alastair and Lafite were both great sorcery students. And they had a history in killing the knights for the kids on the ship. They could have made a good team. But Glenn's emergence as the vanguard for the team had shifted the landscape. Alastair was a driven man, and he thought that parting from the team was in his best interests.

Lowry left too, but for a different reason. He felt frustrated and humiliated about not being able to save Nina from the swamp. And Nina was insulted in front of him. He could not live with that fact. Lowry was not a warrior. But he stepped up at least, so he had Nina and the whole team's respect.

Lafite sat down on the body of a fallen tree in this Bremble Forest. She cleared out a plot of ground, which was covered with layers of leaves, then she laid the map on the ground.

"We are here." Lafite put a pin in somewhere on the map. "Based on our guess, the second shipment of mirrors is going to land in here. It's not far from us. So we're in a good position. And this valley is hidden in the depth of the woods. We are less likely to be disturbed."

"So we're safe for now?" Nina inquired.

"Yeah, unless someone speeds around and reveals his energy." Lafite squinted towards Glenn and snorted.

"Glenn, you are amazing. I've heard about how you shielded yourself from Lafite's arrow. How did you do that?" Robinson had learned part of the story. He was informed about Glenn's astonishing survival story but not of his big fight with Lafite.

Lafite cut in before Glenn could answer Robinson's question, although Glenn had no intention to answer at all.

"He is amazing. He is without a doubt the best among us. But Robinson, at least you and I have fought together, and we know how we can strategize against a common foe. Him? A hermit!A loner at best."

Robinson choked.

"Lafite is right. We can't afford to work alone. We need to figure out how to cooperate. We need synergy," said Chris who was holding an axe over his shoulder.

"Yeah, we need synergy." Lafite had recovered her composure and emphasized "synergy".

Chris' sorceries were related to Hematology Sorcery and fell under the umbrella of violent offense. He could turn into a wolf while confronting an enemy. He would become faster and stronger. Glenn estimated his offense power ranging between 15 and 50 points, and for a second or so, it might exceed 70. That was awesome. But Chris's current magical force could merely sustain three or four exercises of the sorcery. Power came at the cost of depletion of magical force. So if Chris could not take his rival down in three or four rounds, he would be in real danger.

That was when Nina and her sorcery came in handy. As mentioned before, Nina's sorceries were mostly auxiliary. Specifically, she could transfer her magical force to the one who was in need of it. More wonderfully, she had mastered a sorcery that could replenish her magical force quickly. Besides, a sorcerer student's magical force was roughly determined by hisher mental strength. To be precise, one's magical force would fluctuate up and down around ten-times of hisher mental strength. For example, Glenn was tested by the crystal ball as having a mental strength of 13 points and a magical force of 125 points. In rare cases would one's magical force surpass that 1:10 ratio. Nina was that rare case. She had a magical force that was much higher than ten times of her mental strength. She and Chris together could overpower a beast.

"With Glenn's great power, we fear nobody." Chris boasted.

"We are not that strong. Nina and I are not good at close range fights." Lafite warned.

As for Robinson, his sorceries were designed for guerrilla warfare. He was said to have studies dark elements, which made him more mobile and flexible in surveillance and in sneak attacks. And he was excellent in not getting caught.

Robinson's girlfriend Robin had had a sorcery which Glenn disapproved of. It was associated with the Agreement Invoke. Living things on the Foreign Land were regarded as slaves for sorcerers. A level four sorcerer could own a regiment composed of slaves from the Foreign Land. Students were not qualified to obtain one for their use. However, they could invoke them through Agreement Invoke. Robin had gotten two by doing so.

One was a boar. It was 1.5 meters high and 4 meters long. As can be imagined, it was used to protect her from attacks. The other one was a green-eyed monkey. It would lie on her shoulder and acted as a third eye.

The group had already witnessed Lafite's potent arrow. One thing that had not been mentioned was the arrow's range. It could easily reach beyond 50 meters. That was not an unusual distance. What distinguished it was that it still carried a 30-40-point of energy even 50 meters after its launch. Glenn's Firebird sorcery would decimate everything that came in the way, but it worked only within 15 meters. So it could be imagined what a threat that arrow meant. More horribly, she had four Hurricane arrows placed in the sheath on her back. If the arrow that hit Glenn had been one of them, Glenn would not have lived to see Lafite. Besides, Lafite had also learned something about medical treatment.

So they decided that Chris, Nina and Glenn were responsible for the frontal offense. Lafite would flank. And Robinson was charged with detecting signs of potential invaders, and in certain circumstances, he would assume the task of distracting the enemy.

Night fell.

A black shadow sneaked into Glenn's tent. Glenn's sensitive nose had sensed the visitor, but he didn't move because it was Lafite. They started making out soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Four days later, 14 students from the Light and Shade School of Sorcerers bumped into Glenn's team. It seemed that the school fellas had teamed up for a better survival rate.

"The Black Isotta?" The girl who was leading the team provoked. She was wearing a dress that had a slit a little below her waist in the front. A whip was wiggling in her hand. It was said to be a cane created using a Magical Tool. Some said it was a creature invoked from the Foreign Land.

"Hmm, kids from Light and Shade. Son of Sun[1]defeated GoldenEye[2],so what? Do you think you stand a chance of taking us?" Lafite was not afraid at all. She knew nothing about fear, and had Glenn.

Yesterday, GoldenEye had lost out to Son of Sun and was chased almost through the whole Testing Ground. The fight was seen by many.

That girl watched and licked her lips with her tongue. She still hadn't decided whether to give the order for attack.

"What are they waiting for? To fight or to surrender? What are they nagging about?" Chris was vexed.

"Hah. We'd better listen to Lafite. We're aiming for the second batch of mirrors. The Magical Tools are deemed to cause real trouble to even the Desperaters[3]. We will try to gain the initiative," said Robin as she tried to calm Chris down.

----------------------------

Footnotes:

[1],[2],[3]: Son of Sun and GoldenEye are among the Desperaters, the ones who are so powerful that they make their opponents desperate. In the brochure sent out to the students by each school before the test, it records seven Desperaters from six sorcery schools. They were deemed as potential sorcerers and had been received as students by senior students or even sorcerers. Son of Sun is from the Light and Shade and Golden Eye is from the Black Isotta.