"Trust your senses. And Markus, trust yourself."

Markus focused. Trust.

"ALICE! That Mage!"

Markus raced forward, taking a steep angle away from the purple haired Mage and straight toward Jerome.

"Lesson number one hundred seventy four of Paige's guide to combat. Trust.

"Trust your Party to have your back. Trust your body to respond to your thoughts. Trust that in death, you have done all you could."

He remembered pausing at that statement. He turned as he frowned at his favorite aunt. His aunt must have seen that look before.

"We all will die one day, Markus. Every battle may be our last. Every moment may be our last. Don't tell Zenith, but I've done some research in life and death. And guess what secret I've found."

Markus looked suspicious at that statement. His aunt, doing research? Her next statement confirmed it.

"There is a one hundred percent rate of death around the world. Mhmm. Everyone will eventually die."

"And if they don't?"

He would never forget the look on her face. Her face stilled and glazed over, her body shuddering hard. "...then the right weapon wasn't used. But that's lesson for lesson five thousand eight hundred sixteen! This lesson is based around Trust.

"As with any close combat class, the focus must be on other close combat classes. A balanced Party can handle most, if not all, situations for that very reason. So, today's lesson is this. Don't be afraid to jump into the breach. Trust that your Party will have your back. Now, for our exercise..."

Markus gathered his thoughts. He had to trust that Alice knew how to fight with a close combat party member. And Alice had to trust him to block the others.

He ran forward, and his heart dropped as four of the five close combat enemies focused on him. He could tell the man with the ax was going to ignore him, his line of sight only on Alice behind him. Welp, as his Aunt Paige always said, "In combat, If at first you don't succeed, cheat."

He saw the wave of mana coming toward him and tched. He hated Mages.

A voice echoed across the clearing as the mana converged below him. "[[Earthen Spike]]!

Markus dodged the spire of rock and stumbled toward the ax user. Markus stopped and turned, keeping half of his body hidden as the axeman fell into a defensive stance...an obvious choice, given his tactics this far. Feeling for the silk strands that were neatly hidden beside his sword belt sheath, he tugged and pulled it loose with his pinky.

A small vial of black liquid swirled inside the capped jar. With a swing of his arms, Markus launched the thin tube, watching with chagrin as the axeman attempted to parry it with the blade of his axe. With a sharp crack, the vial broke and a heavy smoke bellowed out. Without any wind to sweep the smoke away, he was sure that his opponent would not be able to get out of it before it naturally dispersed.

'Wrong move. You should always dodge if you can.'

Holding his breath, he charged at the man and tackled him to the ground. He could hear him suck in a sharp breath as he hit, and he pushed the ground and dumped the man outside of the cloud.

He still didn't know what was exactly in the bottle, but it could knock Boary out for at least a minute, which was what he needed.

Jerome paused. "More poison? What are you, a Rogue? Warlock?"

Jumping to his feet, Markus grinned as he placed his left hand back on his sheath. A bluff, since his aunt was stingy with 'external help', but it was hopefully enough to force them to fight him as a priority target. It was times like this he wished he had Tyler's defensive skills. Or even a taunting ability for situations like this. If it wasn't early morning, he'd have already hidden himself with [Dark Step] and gambled on their perception being lower than Tyler's to take control of the situation.

...his aunt was going to kill him if she ever found out how this battle was going.

A pulse of mana rushed out from Jerome, and Markus quickly jumped over it as it passed. It didn't look dangerous, but he wasn't about to find out first hand what it was either. Alice should have noticed the mana wave, as the sound of rushing water behind his back started getting louder. Alice was manipulating the water, though he couldn't hear any spells being launched.

"Focus on the Trap Warrior first. I'll pin him down," Jerome stated wearily.

Four people. What could go wrong?

--------

Apparently a lot could go wrong, Markus thought as he deflected another high slash. Four warriors. Well, three warriors and a Mage, which, in hindsight, knew better than to charge him all at once. And even worse, his opponents were getting better at distracting him.

Jerome steadily pulsed his mana out, a wall of earth shielding him as the ground wobbled up and down. He had to be wary of the waves, as any one of them could become a earthen spike. His stance was terrible as he shifted another two feet back, but there was nothing he could do about it. Cursing, Markus spun as the wave of mana shot upwards, and he hasitly hit the spike and rotated around it, forcing one of his opponents to back up slightly.

Hit, block, dodge, block, spin, low cut to transition into a wide swing. At least his aunt's training was working for him.

Another wave, and the soil below his feet changed, quickly shifting between sand, mud and packed earth.

Jerome was trying to get his feet stuck, making him an easier target for the others. A solid plan, one even his family would approve of.

He cursed as the swordsman launched himself forward, his sword slashing down from above his head. A feint, he realized, and he stepped forward to force the swing to connect. He moved with the momentum and took another step back.

His foot hit the stream and he cursed as he heard Alice behind him.

"Out! Shock!"

Two words, too late.

His muscles froze as a shock traveled through his body. Of course, his opponent wasn't having an easy time with it either since their swords were touching.

'Lightning!?' Markus's heart fell. Sure, he knew how to defend against thunder strikes, but his aunt was sure it was a one-time attack. None of his lessons dealt with fighting a Mage who could shock him continuously!

His mind spun before he noticed something at his feet. He could feel the rushing water change direction.

Three...two...one… Markus shifted and grabbing the arm of his opponent.

"Hah!" Markus shouted as he threw him into the stream to his side.

"Alice! A path!"

Spinning around, he jumped and was glad that a few rocks were now above the water.

Maybe his aunt's lessons at the lake would be helpful in very specific-

Danger!

Markus curled his body up instinctually as he heard something heavy and fast behind him.

Crack!

His mind went blank with pain. A small part of his mind took inventory on his body, and he could tell that his shoulder blade just shattered with that last blow. So much for his Aunt supposedly making his armor better. It was even worse than before!

"Markus!" Alice screamed.

A pile of water solidified as he hit the ground, and he thanked all the gods he could remember that he landed on his opposite shoulder.

He gazed at the pile of ooze drifting down the stream and chuckled. Was that the other spell Alice knew?

Worst. Party. Member. Ever!

"You had your last chance," Jerome called out. "Drop your badges and we'll let you off easy."

'Rule number ten, don't get your hopes up in battle.' He could see violence in the eyes of the warriors. And judging from his broken shoulder blade, being beaten half to death was turning into a real possibility.

The tree tops shifted ominously as they stood at an impasse.

Markus forced himself up, the pain in his shoulders making his head spin.

He wasn't one to give up without a fight. He was already in pain, what was a lot more going to do to him?

A soft voice echoed in around him "..ten seconds, Markus."

He watched as Jerome lifted his staff, the mana cloud around him turning him yellow.

He wasn't going to get five seconds.

"[[Earthen Spike]]!"

"[[Water Jet]]!"

"[[Shockwave]]!"

"[[Wind Blade]]!"

The world turned colors as Markus felt the world spinning around him.

This was without a doubt, one of his worst ideas in his life.

----

"..kus. Psst, Markus."

Markus could feel the warmth spreading from his arm across the rest of his body. Besides a raging headache, he twitched his fingers and felt a response.

'Good,' he thought to himself. Still, he settled in and let his body keep healing.

"Five more minutes," he said.

"Your Aunt's here. She's not happy."

"It wasn't my - ouch!"

Markus held his forehead as he looked at what he hit. Lily held a hand to her head with annoyance.

"That's the last time I heal someone like that. I knew Isabella was teasing me about healing someone on your lap…” Lily grumbled.

Blinking the stars from his eyes, he scanned the room and noticed Aunt Zenith arguing with a group of other Teachers.

There was that egotistical combat teacher, Renvi something, and that earth mage from the entrance exam. But what got his attention was his aunt.

She was really worked up over something that was being said. His aunt was unusually red in the face. “Know what they are saying?”

Lily shrugged. “Mentor set up a formation as soon as their tempers started flaring up. Think ‘Miss Paige made a mistake’ kind of mad and you’ll get the gist of her temper.”

That was bad. Incredibly bad, actually.

“Sooo, you two do know each other?”

Markus turned and almost groaned aloud.

Alice was still there, and so was Isabella. But Alice was the worst teammate ever! Ignoring her question and her existence, he turned to Isabella, who stuck her tongue out as he made eye contact.

"You needed healing, and Lily wanted to try her hand at it."

Markus eyed her as she looked away. She was a terrible liar. From what he could tell, she could barely heal flesh wounds. It was more comforting that Lily was able to heal, though he guessed that someone else had healed his shattered shoulder blade. Isabella gaze wavered as she glanced toward the teachers. "Also, I'd think of a good excuse if I were you. They are really, really mad at you."

"What happened after I fainted?" Markus asked.

Lily gave him an aggrieved look. "What do you think happened? Actually, you got into lots of trouble. And I had to come to your rescue."

He saw her smile and rolled his eyes. Or attempted to, before his head split in pain. He closed his eyes instead to let Lily get an ounce of satisfaction. Well, a whole pound of it really. She rescued him, after all. He could feel her body moving, and already imagined her ticking her fingers off one by one.

"Well, from what I can tell, fights on the first day of school rarely happen. So the Teachers were taking their time coordinating their response. Then, when somebody decided to attack out of the blue, rhey panicked as they went to get antidotes.

"The teachers weren't expecting you to do a dark spell, so the [[Dark Mist]] caught them off guard. Combined with [[Aqua Jet]] that girl used, they had to shield themselves and the area to prevent further damage to the school grounds.

"Then someone ran off, but they had to stabilize the poisoned people before they could follow."

"Someone set traps in the forest and they had to seal the area and rescue the additional poisoned people there."

"And then there was a magic brawl at the end."

"Lily did really well though!" Isabella supplied helpfully from behind her. "You though… well, I think you had better days?"

Markus scoffed. That was given. At least his shoulder didn't hurt any more. Still, from all his training, he thought he would have done better than he had. Markus looked suspiciously at Alice and nodded inwardly. It was probably all her fault. Alice looked a bit roughed up, probably from the brawl at the end. But she still had her student badge pinned proudly above her breast.

Markus looked down at his now empty chest. No badge. "Am I still a student?" Markus asked.

"Maybe? I think they're debating that now."

"-k you, Renvi! I know what I saw! Markus!"

Markus, Lily, and Isabella cringed as Zenith's voice bellowed out.

Markus rose to his feet and almost fell from dizziness. Whatever spell Lily had used hadn't healed him back to full health.

A breeze stabilized his body as his aunt caught him by the shoulder. He blinked in confusion.

One minute she was by the Teachers, the next she was grabbing him.

But he hadn't seen her move.

"What was the liquid you used?"

Zenith's voice was hard. He was in deep trouble.

Markus faltered. When in doubt….blame his aunt! "Emergency liquid number five. For use to debilitate and escape from a battle," he said gravely.

Everyone stared at him. Markus wilted under his aunt's gaze. "...also useful for battlefield healing, putting guards to sleep, infil-"

"Be serious! Those other kids haven't awoken yet. What. Did. You. Use."

Markus coughed. "... it's not actually poison. It's a failed mana potion. Aunt Paige was teaching me how to make a one and-"

Zenith swore as the other teachers murmured. "She did what!? That-urah!" She turned to Odessa. "She solidified their mana core! Put them on their side so they don't choke on their own tongue."

Odessa frowned. "Is that why the antidotes weren't working?"

Markus listened closely as he saw his aunt nod. "Their bodies shut down since they lost access to all of their mana! The coma is a natural response to avoid mana exhaustion."

Renvi stared at him as he shuffled behind his aunt. "What is the efficacy of the potion?"

They both stared at Markus.

"...it could put Boary to sleep for a few minutes," Markus mumbled.

"Based on what dosage?"

"... A few drops."

He saw his aunt's hand tighten into a fist.

"... they'll be out for at least a month. Maybe even two. Odessa, get an Alchemist to make a nutrition potion and feed it to them."

He was in deep, deep, deep trouble.

Markus kept his head down as Zenith went back to talk with the teachers.

Lily waited until she couldn't hear them talking before she spoke.

"Do you think I could grab some of that potion?" She whispered.

Markus frowned. "I'm already in trouble. Don't get me into more."

Lily coughed lightly. "Tyler and I used all of ours up on fighting wolf packs."

Markus glanced at her.

"Tyler smeared his entire shield with the stuff while he was waxing it."

"Is that why you said we shouldn't eat their meat?" Isabella whispered.

Lily nodded. "If it can drop a wolf just by touching it, there's no telling what would happen if we ate their meat. I'm glad I thought of that."

They all got quiet as they waited for his punishment.

"... I'll get a few more bottles. Aunt Paige keeps them under her bed, so we'll borrow some during dinner or something," Markus mumbled. It was the least he could do for her.

"Her morning training, maybe? She is a creature of habit, after all," Lily chuckled.

They all stayed quiet as the teachers temper clearly flared inside the magic circle.

"Hey Lily?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for the rescue at the end."

Lily smiled. "A Party Leader protects her members.” She paused. “And you're welcome."