Kael ran.
Branches snapped beneath his feet as he pushed through the forest sector at full speed, uneven ground shaking beneath each step. His breathing had already become rougher, chest tightening painfully from exhaustion.
Behind him—
another explosion tore through the trees.
Flames burst against a nearby trunk violently enough to split the bark apart.
"Stop running already!" Brann shouted through laughter.
Kael didn't look back.
Looking back wasted time.
His eyes moved constantly instead.
Terrain.
Elevation.
Openings.
Anything usable.
A narrow stone path appeared ahead through the ruins. Kael turned sharply toward it immediately.
Wrong choice.
The moment he entered the pathway, a burst of compressed wind slammed into the wall beside him.
Stone shattered outward.
Kael stumbled back instinctively as Kellis dropped from above onto the ruined structure ahead.
"Too obvious," Kellis grinned.
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly.
Cutting routes off now.
They were adapting too.
Behind him, Brann emerged through the trees casually, flames flickering around his hand.
Rhett walked behind both of them slowly.
Calm.
Hands still in his pockets.
Like none of this required effort.
"You're slowing down," Brann smirked.
Kael stayed silent.
His breathing betrayed him enough already.
Sweat clung to the side of his face as he quickly measured distances again.
Three opponents.
No direct escape route.
Too narrow for sudden movement.
Bad position.
Then Rhett spoke quietly.
"Left side."
Kael moved instantly.
A fire blast erupted through the exact spot he'd been standing half a second earlier.
Heat scraped against his shoulder as he rolled across broken stone and sprinted through a collapsed opening near the side ruins.
Brann clicked his tongue.
"Tch. Seriously annoying."
But Rhett's eyes followed Kael carefully.
Observing.
Learning.
---
The battlefield grew louder the deeper the evaluation progressed.
Distant impacts shook the terrain every few minutes now. Kael caught glimpses of upper-class students fighting across nearby sectors while moving through the ruins.
A water user flooded an entire stone pathway to trap two opponents before freezing sections beneath their footing.
Elsewhere, a lightning-enhanced student accelerated through the forest fast enough to blur between trees.
Near one of the central towers, students fought openly for control points while mana projectiles lit the air like explosions.
The academy called this evaluation.
But it felt closer to war games.
And weaker students were being crushed beneath it.
---
Kael vaulted over a fallen structure before nearly losing balance upon landing.
His legs were getting heavier.
Too much running.
Too much pressure.
A shallow burn stretched along his right arm from Brann's earlier attack, pain pulsing every time he moved it.
Still—
he kept moving.
Because stopping meant getting cornered.
---
For nearly ten minutes he managed to lose them.
The silence afterward felt unnatural.
No footsteps.
No explosions.
No mocking voices.
Kael slowed carefully near an abandoned stone corridor hidden beneath broken structures.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
His breathing steadied gradually.
Think.
If they searched outward—
then—
"You went north instead of deeper east."
Kael froze instantly.
Rhett stood atop the ruined structure above him.
Watching calmly.
Brann climbed up moments later, visibly irritated.
"Oh come on," he groaned. "How do you keep finding him?"
Rhett's eyes never left Kael.
"He avoids open sectors when tired," he answered simply. "Safer terrain. More escape angles."
Kael's chest tightened slightly.
They were learning him now.
Brann grinned suddenly.
"Well then let's see where he runs next."
Flames exploded outward again.
Kael sprinted immediately.
The chase resumed.
---
Time blurred after that.
Run.
Dodge.
Think.
Move.
Kael's body screamed at him to stop, but his mind kept forcing movement.
At some point, he realized the terrain had changed.
The battlefield no longer looked maintained.
The ruins here were older.
Darker.
Massive cracks spread across the stone pathways beneath faded mana inscriptions that no longer glowed properly.
Even the atmosphere felt heavier.
Quieter.
Kellis slowed slightly ahead.
"…Are we even supposed to be here?"
Brann scoffed. "Who cares?"
Another blast of fire slammed against the ruins near Kael as he barely avoided it.
Chunks of stone collapsed violently into the abyss below the broken pathway.
Too reckless.
Brann was getting frustrated now.
That made him dangerous.
Kael's breathing became uneven again as he forced himself forward through the unstable ruins.
The structures here looked ancient compared to the rest of the academy sectors. Some pathways floated unnaturally beside fractured pillars lined with damaged mana circuits.
Even the air felt wrong.
Behind him, Kellis frowned slightly.
"I'm serious," he muttered. "This place looks messed up."
Brann ignored him completely.
"You could've stopped running ages ago," he shouted toward Kael. "This is your fault now."
Kael nearly laughed at that.
Instead, he kept moving.
Because deep down—
he understood something clearly now.
This was no longer just bullying.
The academy had created an environment where stronger students could do almost anything they wanted.
And nobody cared enough to stop it.
Far above the battlefield, distant observation platforms overlooked the evaluation grounds.
Some instructors had likely already noticed the chase.
Yet nothing changed.
No intervention.
No warning.
Nothing.
Because Kael was F-Class.
Expendable.
Another fire blast erupted behind him, shaking the unstable ruins violently again.
Dust rained from the fractured ceiling overhead.
Kellis finally stopped smiling completely.
"…Brann."
But Brann stepped forward again anyway.
And Kael suddenly realised something terrifying.
He didn't know where they were leading him anymore.
But the battlefield no longer felt like part of the academy.