Xarus: “What do you want to do with these guys?”

  Sarah: “Well I don't want to carry them around so… leave them?”

  Xarus: “Well I wasn’t suggesting we take them with us…”

  Selena: “He meant if we should tie them up or something... and yes, we should”

  Sarah: “Ah, oh but we don’t have any rope?”

  Selena: “We shouldn't need it? Don’t you know how to bind?”

  Sarah stared at her with a confused look on her face, but then the confusion was replaced with realisation "oh! You mean like what they did to you?”

  Selena: "N-no! That was a binding trap, I mean basic binding, like just tying stuff together” her face flushed as she stammered out her words.

  she hesitated as she considered something, "wait, Shouldn't you know that at least? it's pretty basic stuff"

  Sarah: “Uh…” now it was her turn to be embarrassed “My education in magic hasn’t really revolved too much around the more utility-type magic” she laughed awkwardly.

  Selena gave her a dead pan stare “...right… I’m guessing it's a no, but what about you?” She asked, directing her question to Xarus, who had his hand placed over his chin and seemed to be deep in thought about something, but upon hearing his name called he quickly focused his attention. She was ready to repeat her question in an annoyed tone but she didn’t need to, it seemed he had heard the question after all.

  Xarus: “uh s-sorry, yea, I know binding magic” he said, flashing an awkward smile.

  surprise flashed across her face "oh? good" She knelt down “then tie those two up” she asked, grabbing one of the unconscious boys and sitting him upright.

  they did the same thing with the other two boys, resting their backs against each other so that their bodies were propping each other up.

  Selena placed her palms on the unconscious boy's chest and began casting the binding spell, a bright purple light began emitting from her palms and immediately after magenta strands burst forth from beneath her palms, weaving around the boy and tightly securing him. Xarus noticed that Selena’s binding had a much more refined and gentler appearance than the purple tendrils that boy, Luke was it?, used to entrap her.

  Sarah: “Woah…” she said in amazement, curiously poking the strands with her index finger. The strands felt soft, but when she pressed into it, they were surprisingly firm, refusing to budge or dent.

  Sarah: “this is so cool… I’m definitely learning this later” she declared with a firm resolve. While inspecting Selena’s binding, red blocky letters manifested on the boy's forehead, OUT

  Sarah: “Out?” she murmured, her voice a mix of surprise and confusion.

  Selena: “What?”

  Sarah: “um, the word just appeared on his head” she pointed to the writing on the boy's forehead.

  Xarus: “It happened when you finished tying him up”

  Sarah: “What?”

  Xarus: “These guys don’t have it on their heads…” he flicked one of the boys squarely on the forehead. The boy’s head tilted back slightly “whoops, a little too strong…” he mumbled to himself.

  Selena: “does that means he can’t participate in the game anymore? Mr Garris didn’t mention this did he?” She recalled her memories but couldn’t remember Mr Garris mentioning anything about the writing, or if it was possible to be outed in the first place.

  Xarus: “He definitely didn’t…”

  Sarah: “so… did he just forget to tell us?”

  Selena: “uh… I'm sure he didn’t forget, maybe he had a reason not to tell us?” she offered.

  Xarus: “he probably wasn’t bothered to tell us”

  Sarah: “... yea that sounds right from what we’ve seen so far”

  Selena: “...”

  Xarus: “I’ll just do the other two then…”

  Selena: “yea... that’s a good idea”

  Following Selena's lead Xarus placed one hand each on the two remaining boy’s chests. A dark glow began emitting from beneath his palms.

  Selena frowned “you’re gonna bind both of them at the same time?” she asked doubtfully.

  He shrugged “Binding is pretty simple so binding two people isn’t that hard”

  Selena: “I can’t bind two people at the same time” she said, narrowing her eyes.

  Sensing that he had said something that annoyed her he quickly spoke “ah, well you should be able to eventually, it’s just practice I guess” he chuckled awkwardly and focused on binding the two boys.

  Black energy violently erupted from beneath his palms and zigzagged around the boys, Instead of the creepy tendrils from before, or the gentle strands that Selena produced, the binding that Xarus used appeared much rougher, it was mostly black in appearance flecked with shifting white specks that made it strongly resemble stars in the dark night sky, the binding fizzled and crackled, its surface flickering like tv static. And just like with the boy that Selena tied up, Writing showed up on their foreheads, big blocky red letters that read OUT.

  Sarah: “Guess that the writing wasn’t just something weird with that kid” she said, indicating towards the boy that Selena bound “Oh! And you actually did both of them at the same time, good job!” she suddenly praised, lightly slapping Xarus on the shoulder causing him to jump.

  He stood up “what? You thought I couldn’t?” he asked, rubbing his shoulder and tilting his head with a curious look on his face.

  Sarah: “I mean… casting multiple spells simultaneously is extremely difficult to learn" she stated matter of factly.

  Xarus recalled the first time he cast multiple spells, it was years ago and it happened completely by accident, he didn’t realise it was such a tricky thing to do “I think once you do it once it becomes easy though, right?” he placed his hand on his chin “I couldn’t do it before my first time but afterwards it was pretty standard for me”

  Selena: “How did you do it then?” she asked sharply, her sudden question causing Xarus to jump, it was the first thing she had said anything since Xarus cast his binding spell, he had almost forgotten she was there.

  He took a moment to calm himself down and then he held up his hands and confidently stated “you just do the normal stuff, but in one hand each” he waved his hands slightly for dramatic effect.

  She stared at him blankly “That's not helpful at all!” she suddenly yelled, startling both Xarus and Sarah, she was loud enough that her voice echoed through the forest.

  Xarus: “...”

  Selena: “...”

  Sarah: “...”

  Selena: “that… was louder than I meant it to be” she said, fidgeting uncomfortably “l-let’s just go” she said, picking a direction and walking away from them.

  Xarus exchanged looks with Sarah “was that bad advice?” he asked.

  Sarah: “It… wasn’t great” she said awkwardly.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Xarus: “oh…”

  Sarah: “anyway we should catch up with her in case she gets stuck in another binding spell or trap or whatever”

  Xarus: “Ah yea, not that that’s likely though”

  Sarah: “Well you never know”

  They quickly chased after her.

  Xarus: “Well, looks like we found the flags” he said matter-of-factly as he looked out from the trees towards the clearing.

  Since leaving the unconscious boys behind they had been walking through the vast forest in search for the flags, eventually stumbling upon a clearing that held exactly what they were looking for.

  In the middle of the clearing stood 8 flags arranged in a circle, and at the front of the circle was their teacher, Mr Garris.

  Although he was supposed to be diligently guarding the flags, he was instead casually lying down on the grass, he appeared to be asleep, the only movement in the clearing was from the flags swaying in the wind and the gentle rising and falling of Mr Garris’s chest as he breathed.

  Sarah: “Is… he asleep?” she asked, bewildered by their teacher's behaviour “should we just go in there and yoink a flag?”

  Selena: “No way!” she said loudly, startling Sarah, “He’s probably faking being asleep to catch us by surprise!”

  Sarah: “you think so? It’s definitely convincing though”

  Xarus patiently watched their teacher for a few moments before saying “He’s not faking, I think he’s actually asleep”

  Selena: “oh come on! There’s no way you can tell that from here!” she exclaimed in disbelief, clearly irritated by his observation.

  He shrugged in response “it doesn't really matter, he’d wake up if someone got too close to him or the flags” he spoke casually, but didn't take his eyes off the clearing.

  Sarah: “alright, so assuming he is asleep, we just need to be super quiet and sneak in”

  Xarus peeled his eyes away from the clearing to face her “... I did just say he’d wake up right?”

  Sarah: “uh yea? But that’s why I said we should sneak in”

  Xarus shook his head “No No, He’d wake up, there are plenty of ways to detect people that don’t evolve hearing, and he doesn't need to be awake for some of them either” he returned his eyes back to watching the clearing.

  Noticing some movement on the opposite side of the clearing he focused his attention on it, after a few more moments a boy and 2 girls popped out from behind the trees and entered the clearing, “Finally” he muttered under his breath. He had been waiting this entire time for someone to make a move for the flag, besides his team he knew there were at least 2 others in the area.

  Xarus: “Hey, come watch” he called, beckoning the other 2 over with a wave of his hand.

  Selena: “What is it?”

  Xarus: “Someone's going for a flag”

  Sarah: “Oh? Should we go too?”

  Xarus: “I’d prefer to watch”

  Selena: “what’s the point of that?”

  Xarus: “I don’t know anything about Mr Garris, not his skills or what his magic is, I don't even know if he uses a weapon”

  Sarah: “Oh I see, so you want to watch him beat up those kids and see what he does?" she said, nodding her head in understanding.

  Xarus: “when you put it that way it sounds bad… but that’s pretty much it”

  Selena: “but what if we go in when he’s distracted with them, then we can grab a flag and run”

  Xarus: “their group seems to be the first to try and get the flags, so there should be other and better opportunities for that strategy”

  Xarus kept his eyes on the group as they progressed towards the center of the clearing where the flags stood. They clumsily snuck around Mr Garris and headed straight for the flags, the boy who was clearly the leader of the group had gotten close enough where he could pick up the flag, but he suddenly tripped and fell face first into the grass.

  The two girls in his group stood frozen, staring at him blankly. After a few moments one of the girls rushed to help him ask while the other appeared to ask him something. Xarus couldn’t hear what they were saying but he assumed it was something along the lines of “What happened?” or perhaps “How the hell did that happen!” she placed her hands on her hips and started scolding him, but then she immediately stumbled, falling face first into the grass just like the boy had done previously. He pointed at her yelling “Ha!” loudly enough that it easily reached where they were watching from, the other girl who was trying to help him up looked utterly confused. The girl finally managed to get the boy standing and then moved to help the other girl who had fallen. The boy searched the grass for the cause behind his fall, cautiously sweeping his foot along the ground. Finding nothing he tried reaching for the flag again but right before his fingers grasped the flag his arm snapped straight to his chest, his other arm doing the same immediately after. He stumbled backwards with his arms crossed over his chest in an X shape, once again falling over but this time landing on his back.

  The two girls stared at him in shock, the girl who had helped him up a moment prior looking at him in complete exhaustion.

  Sarah: “It’s like a comedy sketch” she uttered, confused by what she was watching.

  Selena: “I… I think that’s Mr Garris?” she said uncertainly, during the whole situation Mr Garris hadn’t moved an inch, still peacefully sleeping as the group struggled to claim the flag.

  Xarus: “So what's he doing?” he wondered aloud “that doesn't really help out alot…” he grumbled.

  While the two girls tried to pry the boy’s arms away from his chest, Mr Garris finally began to stir, he sat up and rubbed his eyes. He was probably grumbling complaints but Xarus wasn’t really sure from this distance. The group of three didn’t seem to notice him as he staggered towards them. When he finally reached them he raised his arm and delivered a gentle looking karate chop to the nearest student, who incidentally, was the girl who hadn’t been tripped over before. His hand tapped her directly on the top of her head, causing her to lightly crumple to the ground unconscious.

  Sarah gaped “Woah! How’d he do that with such a weak looking strike!”

  Selena: “Well it obviously wasn’t weak then” she scoffed.

  The two conscious members of the team nervously looked at their fallen comrade before slowly looking up at the culprit. Mr Garris causally waved before swiftly repeating the same chop on the remaining two, knocking them both out instantly.

  Satisfied with his work he casually turned around, covering his mouth with one hand for what appeared to be a yawn. An invisible force slid the three unconscious students across the grass, neatly placing them a fair distance away from the flags. Mr Garris didn’t return to sleep, although he looked unhappy about it, he now stood in front of the flags, actually guarding them properly.

  Sarah: “uh… did their bodies just crawl away?”

  Xarus: “I think that was probably something Mr Garris did”

  Sarah: “oh yea, that makes more sense” she nodded in understanding but quickly afterwards a confused expression came across her face again.

  Sarah: “Wait but he didn’t do any hand signs did he?”

  Selena: “You don’t actually hand signs to cast magic. They just make casting easier, the only reason we do it for all of our spells is because we aren’t experienced enough to cast sign-less spells yet”

  Selena paused, frowning “wait we learnt this in grade 1? How do you not know this?” she asked incredulously.

  Sarah: “Well… hehe, I didn’t always pay attention” she admitted abashedly, avoiding eye contact.

  Selena blankly stared at her before facepalming “what a waste” she muttered indignantly "Doesn't know how to bind and now this as well?".

  Xarus sighed “well that’s not a lot, but it’s not nothing either”

  He noticed Sarah and Selena staring at him, Sarah was clearly curious whilst Selena seemed dubious.

  Realising they were patiently waiting for him to explain he began speaking “Uh… it’s clear that his magic can... influence things physically? Because he made them trip over and also caused that guy’s arms to stick to his chest. I don't really know how he does that though, he might be using binding magic, I'd need to get a closer look to figure it out. But that’s probably just Mr Garris casting minor spells and not really representative of his magic as a whole” he shrugged before continuing “But he a teacher and this only a lesson so I don’t expect him to use spells more advanced than that.

  Xarus: “he’s clearly strong, that Karate chop really didn’t have any momentum at all but it still knocked them out easily”

  he paused for a moment before adding one more thing “he didn’t use magic until they were at the flag, so If I had to guess he probably woke up shortly after they entered the clearing and just pretended to be asleep when they walked past him” he finished.

  They both stared at him in complete surprise, clearly they weren’t expecting such a detailed breakdown of something that lasted only a few seconds.

  Xarus: “...What? Did I say something weird?” he asked nervously.

  Selena: “Uh… n-no I just didn’t realise you were able to get so much information from barely anything”

  Sarah nodded in agreement “the only thing I got from all that was that he’s super strong… which was kinda a given already since he’s a teacher here”

  ???: “adding to that, he is insanely skilled with swords, but knowing him he probably won't use it on students”

  Xarus: “Oh? So he uses swords huh? That’s good to know, thanks”

  ???: “No worries!”

  Sarah: “Wait…”

  Selena: “Huh!? Where the hell did you come from!?” she yelled, startled by Axel's sudden appearance, Selena and Sarah quickly assumed offensive stances whilst Xarus stayed relaxed, seemingly unfazed by his appearance.

  Hanging upside down from a tree branch beside Xarus, Axel pointed upwards “we saw a group up ahead, so I was scouting in the trees, turns out it was you guys!” the he was referring to soon became apparent as two more figures stepped out from behind them.

  “Hey Sarah!” Ranni happily greeted her friend, ignoring Xarus and Selena.

  Sarah: “Oh! Hey Ranni!… wait how long have you been here!?”

  Ranni: “um… about 5-ish minutes” she said, scratching her cheek.

  Hayden: “We’ve been debating whether or not to jump you guys”

  Selena: “Looks like you decided that you would then…”

  Axel: “yea!” he chirped happily, still hanging upside down. He dropped from the branch landing on his feet next to Xarus, because of how he landed he was actually facing the opposite direction to them so he enthusiastically spun around to face them. “Not sure if it counts as jumping though, since Xarus totally knew we were here…” he said, resting his arm on Xarus's shoulder.

  Xarus flinched at the sudden contact but didn't seem to mind so Axel continued leaning on him

  Xarus: “... uh no?” he responded unconvincingly.

  Axel squinted “oh? You didn't seem surprised to see us though”

  Xarus: “I was surprised” he insisted, avoiding eye contact.

  Axel: “Right…” he wasn’t convinced but he dropped the topic regardless.

  Selena: “So what now? If you want to get us out, then we aren't going down without a fight!” she said threateningly, or tried to say threateningly anyway.

  Magenta light started emitting from her palms, Sarah reached for her hammer but stopped when she noticed Xarus’s stare telling her not to “I wanna use my hammer though…” she quietly complained to herself.

  Axel: “Whoa! Wait! We don’t actually want to fight!” he said, raising his hands up to show that he didn't have hostile intentions.

  Selena: “O-oh?” she began lowering her hands but caught herself and quickly raised them again “Then what do you want?” she asked cautiously.

  Axel: “so we were thinking why don’t we team up” he suddenly proposed.