Essairyn spun nimbly on her toes and swayed to the left before an approaching enemy. Before the other person's sword could reach beyond the upturned position of a descending blow, she stabbed the poor fellow exactly on his heart. The bracelet prevented her sword from ever going past his clothes and into the flesh, but she hoped that he didn't feel too much pain from the phantom injury. Promptly after her strike, the boy froze under the effects of the bracelet's magic. His life points, as shown by the green bar that encircled his bracelet and only appeared when being struck, plummeted to nothing. Both the apparatus and the body went lights out. He plopped to the floor as if in a sleep.

Seeing the "dead" boy, Essairyn's eyes bulged at the realism of it. She tutted and cursed inwardly at the knights' cruel training methods. The only thing missing from this scene is blood and... With a disgruntled huff, she turned away and set about striking others at vital points. In this manner, the group was finished off in just over a minute.

Surveyed the strewn bodies in sleep, Essairyn sighed with her hands on her hips. "What a strange scene this is... they look so damn peaceful too, it's almost creepy." She cringed and shook off the eerie impression.

Darren chuckled while wiping a few drops of sweat from his forehead. "It really is, but now we know at least how the fighting mechanism works. Although, I suppose it's not of much helping knowing now after we won."

Essairyn smiled and opened her mouth to reply before closing it upon realization that no device had dropped from anyone's body. Once someone was killed while holding the device, the small cube would drop near the body. So, as long as a team member retrieved it before the opponent, they had lost the battle but not the war.

"Shoot." She speared her sword straight into the ground and crossed her arms. "They got us. The device isn't on this ground group. They must have returned to the treetops. Yes, that must be how they're moving about after this outcome. It's the only way. But now they must've seen us kill everyone and run away."

"It has to be because I didn't see anyone get away unless the person with the device had split up before we got to the group."

Essairyn nodded slowly. She ruffled her hair and loudly sighed. "I wish I had thought of this."

"Who knew? It's not like you can guess everything beforehand. Besides, moving through the treetops is still just a theory until we know for sure how they're getting around." Darren's words that bordered on harsh were softened by the even tone of his voice.

"Yeah..." Her head hung slightly as she leaned on the handle of her sword. "Well, let's go follow them and find out if it's true then. It doesn't do us any good to stay down here."

Darren nodded in agreement, and they headed off to a more secluded area away from the station to ascend to the treetops. With the use of a magic circle, they flew up past the web of branches. What greeted them upon their entrance nearly took their breath away.

"This..." Essairyn murmured and lightly stepped off the magic circle as if in a trance. "...is beautiful. It's like a different world."

Despite having witnessed many fantastical occurrences, landscapes, and creatures in this world which was mystical in itself, it didn't diminish the impact or amazement that Essairyn felt while regarding the expansive space above the trees. While the branches and foliage looked dense from below, beyond the mostly flat ceiling, which was now the floor, was a carved out hollow in the treetops. The area stretched out as far as the eye could see with only the main trunks of the trees obstructing it partially along with a few branches traversing to the new concave ceiling. The height was no less than a story at the most shallow spots and more than two stories at the tallest points. The only gaps were around the trunks of the trees, most notably, of the larger ones. It was likely that through these, they had been spied upon.

"Just what is this..?" breathed Darren in astonishment.

Essairyn slowly walked on the boughs and even ventured past the security of the large branches to the smaller ones. The interlaced floor didn't even shake when she stomped on it, only the topmost layer quivered before bouncing back up. A quick flash of using it as a trampoline entertained her mind for a second.

"No wonder they could get around so easily. I can't hear anything down below much less for anyone on the ground to hear me."

"Hm, now the question is how they figured this secret out so quickly. Obviously, the knights know about this and purposefully withheld the information in order to add another hidden layer to the exercise." Darren paused for a moment, reflecting upon his words. "Um, no pun intended. If that's even considered a pun."

Essairyn giggled. "Haha, that was a good one though! Anyway, we better stop goggling at everything and track down that device!"

"Right." He grinned and sprinted off with Essairyn. They made sure to keep an eye on their surroundings for anyone approaching.

"Maybe we should split up to look for the guy?" suggested Darren after a minute.

"Probably. Give a shout if you find someone."

They departed in opposite directions going forward. After a few minutes by herself, Essairyn started to become concerned, wondering if she should head back in case they were too far away from one another. Now that she focused on this issue, she became aware of how similar her surroundings were. It's easy to get lost in here... So how did the other team keep track of where they were? And did the knights mark the boundaries up here too? Hoping that she hadn't disqualified herself from the exercise by unknowingly wandering beyond the borders, she surveyed the area for red markers. Finding none, she began to become concerned whether their theory was actually true. Perhaps they were actually the ones who had discovered this area out of paranoia about the mysterious situation. So perhaps they had technically disqualified just now.

But before she could settle on this disconcerting notion, her eyes caught notice of a leaf passing by. Now, it wouldn't be uncommon to find falling leaves in a forest. However, this was actually the first time she saw one fall inside this treetop space. Although rather than fall, it was flying! Alarmed, Essairyn chased after the zooming leaf and snatched it out of the air. The faint light particles around it trembled before dissipating. The magic had been interrupted by her actions, unable to resist against her enclosed fingers.

"HUH!" The sound was louder than she anticipated due to her chagrin at finding out how the other team could communicate with one another. So sneaky... but smart. She praised them grudgingly and gripped the leaf with determination. Although she couldn't replicate the spell without having attached a tracker or magnet of sorts on Darren, based on the information scrawled across the leaf, Essairyn had enough time to reach him as well as catch the culprit.

The shorthand writing repeated itself in her mind as she ran. X return to station nine to recoup. Party Z wiped out by two opponents. Device is safe. Returning myself, Y. From this she garnered that there were at least two spies along with the group they had just annihilated. It seemed strange that they had created such a weak group for stealing stations, but at this point, Essairyn thought anything was possible. Although she was getting closer, she couldn't predict the enemy's strategy.

Propitiously, Darren shared the same previous concern of Essairyn about straying too far away from another. He had noticed the homogeneous surroundings earlier than she and began retracing his path back from where they had split. In their eager haste, they didn't register their environment well enough before making the decision. After passing what he believed to the separation point, he continued on for a bit before calling out her name. He didn't care if he alerted anyone at this point. It might even give him a clue to where they were if they made enough commotion running away.

Essairyn heard Darren before she could see him. One might think that leaves would muffle noise, but the sound bounced off better in an enclosed space. So, she quickly redirected herself and met up with him several seconds later.

"Darren! Look at this! This is how they've been communicating with one another!"

He grasped the slightly tattered leaf and scanned the contents with growing eyes. "Man, I can't believe my silly guess was actually right on the money. But wait, this means that they could potentially know where our device is!"

Motionless in thought, the girl's lavender eyes blinked once before replying, "I don't think it'll be that easy for them because of the wait time before being allowed to move. It hasn't yet been thirty minutes, so they haven't seen anyone recharging the device." She paused and then added with a half-chuckle. "At least, I don't think our team is stupid enough to do that... But they could be more relaxed in the beginning knowing it takes time to reach the base, so they recharged it before moving. Either way, going back to tell them about this finding will only let the spies and device get away."

With the advantage of the other team not yet knowing that Essairyn and Darren had discovered their secret, the two made haste for station nine. They made sure that they were on the right course by checking below the treetops through the trunk gaps. Several minutes had elapsed since entering this leafy realm, so even with their speed, catching up to the spy was no easy feat. After their surprise assault and outnumbered fight, they were starting to feel slightly fatigued due to running on full power for a length of time.

When they spotted the back of person racing many meters ahead of them, Essairyn nearly wanted to yelp for joy. No matter how clandestinely charming this treetop space was, the repeated scenery eventually became irksome, at least, while running through it like an endless maze. Keeping quiet, they watched the man jump down through a trunk gap. It seemed they had reached station nine.

Approaching the gap, they stealthy observed the situation. The man from earlier was explaining something to someone who appeared to be the leader of the group. The leader didn't seem too pleased and quickly shouted orders while gesturing. While Darren and Essairyn couldn't hear anything, it was enough to see.

"It looks like they're forming another group. Should we wait and ambush them when they come up?" Darren looked at Essairyn and she back. They nodded in agreement. It was time to clean up what they had started.

They quickly hid behind some nearby tree trunks and counted down the seconds for the enemy's arrival. A minute passed, and then two, and then four. Nearing five minutes, Essairyn finally popped up from her crouched position in exasperation.

"Just what's taking them so long?!" she exclaimed under her breath and stormed over to the tree gap above station nine.

She knelt and peered down with narrowed eyes and two palms flat against the leafy ground. To her surprise, a battle was well underway at the station. Their former assault team along with the secondary one were laying siege to the station and cutting off any means of exit for the opposition. In the time since they had left their group, reconnaissance had revealed that the yellow team had most of its forces spread out at each station under control. Unluckily for station nine, the wielder of the device happened to be also there at the same time. The opposition were caught off guard just as a new station stealing group was being formed.

Essairyn smirked in mild amusement at how they had unknowingly prompted the coincidence to occur. Seeing the girl's entertained face as he approached her after leaving his hiding spot too, Darren curiously bent over to look beyond the gap. At the sight of the tussle, he let out a snort. No wonder it was taking the spy and his new group so long to return.

"Well, I guess that's that. The game ended without us actually stealing the device ourselves. Now we just watch to see whether our team lets this chance slip by." Darren's body loosened some of the previous built up tension and crossed his arms behind his head while observing the scuffle. "Or did you want to join the fight too?"

Essairyn shook her head and smiled. "It's pretty fun watching from here. Besides, in case they miss the device, we'll have to track it so that the spy doesn't escape again."

"True." Darren leisurely bobbed his head once toward Essairyn. "That reminds me, in the fight earlier on our turf, did you notice that you feel feel when you get hit, but there's no cut?" He stood up straighter and gestured a slicing motion across his arm.

"Yeah, I was surprised that the knights programmed it that way. They probably reasoned it's more beneficial for us to experience the physical hardships of war as they always lecture us about." Essairyn's tone was sarcastic upon speaking of the knight's fiendish training methods. "I just hope that the people I hit in the heart didn't feel too much pain..." As her words trailed off, she subconsciously clutched her heart lightly. Essairyn looked up at Darren as she explained, "I figured an instant death probably isn't that painful, right? I mean, they're pretty crazy," she referred to the knights, "but I don't think they're that mean to make us experience the pain of death. Oof, the thought of it just makes me shiver." She stood up and shook off the unsettling notion.

"Yeah, we won't find out until later from those who died. But why the heart? You could've also chosen other vital organs and places too, like the head or neck. And the heart and lungs are covered by a ribcage, so theoretically, it's harder to target."

Essairyn was silent for moment long enough to make it awkward for Darren who began to speculate whether he had said something wrong.

"I guess it's sorta weird to be talking so casually about how to kill people, isn't it?" He turned away slightly as he scratched the back of his head and glanced at the motionless Essairyn from the corner of his eyes.

Seeming to snap out of her strange daze, Essairyn indistinctly jolted before returning Darren's questioning gaze with a soft smile. "Yeah, it is." Another long pause followed. Uncomfortable with the silence, he pursed his lips in consternation. Just as he was about to clear his throat and change the topic, Essairyn spoke again.

"I know how it feels." Her hushed voice was tinged with deeper emotion. "Not being stabbed or anything," she laughed nervously, waving her hands. "But." She casted her eyes down with a wry, vague smile. "The feeling of dying.... maybe." Her head popped up with sudden awareness. "Sorry! That was a little dramatic, wasn't it? I wasn't actually dying; I was fine. I just—" Essairyn stopped short as her mind fumbled for words, unsure why she was divulging this and trying to explain her past experience with Darren. Seeming to collect her thoughts, she slowly continued with assuredness.

"I had an operation when I was young. At first, the doctors said I had extreme fatigue and overexertion. While bizarre, they sent me home, telling me to just take it easy and rest, no heavy exercise. When I returned for a follow-up, I had gotten better, although, not completely recovered." She tilted her head up, thinking of her family. "But we took it as good news since my body was healing by itself as they had diagnosed it would. A few months later, I was rushed to the ER because my heart was thumping on the right side of my chest. It ended up being my lung hitting my ribcage because of multiple small tears. That along with basically all my other organs. They were deteriorating as if something was eating away at them. The doctors still don't know why or how it happened after the operation."

Darren's throat was dry, his chest, tight. Her disclosure rendered him silent throughout her story. He couldn't imagine the kind of stressful back and forth the whole event must have been. To be given startling news, then some hope, then that hope was stripped away for the worst possible scenario. Finally finding his voice to utter a weak response, Darren swallowed hard. "Then you were okay after the operation?"

Essairyn gazed into his eyes, finding genuine concern mixed with bafflement at the abrupt bringing up of a serious, personal experience. She smiled consolingly, appreciative of the unspoken sympathy. Although, she didn't say it make him feel bad. The timing and feeling just felt right. She couldn't stop her heart when it felt a certain way. The emotions would sometimes rush expectedly at her like a torrent at the drop of something reminiscent to the experience. It was likely due to her bottling up her emotions in order to live peacefully without mulling and moping around in perpetual depression. The seemingly tight plug would be jostled loose at the smallest of incidents. She had gotten used to them now and didn't cry every time the sentiments cascaded.

"Hm, I was okay. The recovery was long, but manageable. Life afterwards basically was the same as usual. But it just felt... different. i couldn't do a lot of the things I wanted, but even without this whole experience I wouldn't have had the guts anyway." She chuckled lightheartedly, easing Darren out of a heavy mood. He smiled warmly at her. But before he could say anything in return, an arrow suddenly landed in-between the two of them.