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"Oh, this? You know what this is, don't you? You're smart. You understand what's going on, right?"

The frost started to run up Sophie and Athena's shoes, starting to make movement harder by freezing them to the floor.

---

This was not good. Not good at all. Now her mind went screaming in ten thousand different directions.

There was the emotional side: KENDO IS BETRAYING US!!!! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!!!!

The logical side: Why wouldn't he? Getting out the strongest enemies in the first round would be the smartest move.

The still-stuck-in-depression side: Ah well, whatever. Knew I was going to fail anyways.

And the totally-completely-crazy-side: WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!!!! AND WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW!!!!????

In answer to the totally-completely-crazy-side, she better get out of there fast. Breaking the thin layer of ice with lots of difficulty, she dragged at Sophie to free her friend as well. All while getting frozen all over again.

---

Kendo laughed, his eyes glinting. Seemingly without moving, he appeared in front of them, his smile wide and calm. He pointed the device at the two.

"Nothing personal, you know? I just need to get rid of the strongest ones first."

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Now she was completely stuck in ice. Why did she think that she had a chance in the first place? Oh right, and she had half a mind to shout at Kendo for betraying his friend who just managed to get out of depression. So what now? Her sword was in hand, but she doubted it would do much.

---

Sophie sang, a full, unleashed song. It was the second time that she had done this since arriving at the Academy, and she really enjoyed it. Singing was one of the few activities that made her feel free.

Kendo was hit with a powerful wave of magic which would strongly suggest for him to leave them alone. Using the resonances of nature, the trees bent their long branches down, looping vines around her and Athena. With a sharp tug, the ice that had started to creep up their legs shattered, and they were hauled up into the branches.

Sophie kept singing, and the jungle around her became a blur of green. The trees were passing them along, branchings flinging them from tree to tree. The girls were heading North at a fast rate.

She harbored no illusions, Sophie's songspell would only stun Kendo temporarily. He was too strong for her to put to sleep, but there was no way he could evade a direct auditory assault from her. She guessed they had a five minute lead tops. Sophie didn't even want to try to mount a counterattack. Unlike Kendo, she cared too much about his future to put him in the lower percentile.

He would keep hunting them. Both of them. Their only hope was to get twenty eliminations each before Kendo eliminated them. As they "traveled" North, Sophie used her song to compel the competitors they passed to give into such beautiful, calming, restful, glorious, sleep. Quick blasts of dispersion magic finished them off.

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. She didn't know how many eliminations Athena had, but she was beginning to border on the realm of possible. Sophie was a weapon of mass destruction; wind her up and watch her go. Her powers were strongest in large groups of people as she could affect multiple people at once. Sophie could also draw energy from those under her spell, and did so now with some regret.

Her hearing was heightened beyond human capacity. Still her blindfold remained on.

---

Right, more proof that she was useless. Sophie would probably be better off without her dragging her down. "Thanks. And sorry." Their targets were near, she had just a few more eliminations to go before reaching twenty. She pushed the matter of Kendo to the back of her mind, focus on the tournament now.

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"Don't worry about it. You'll be in charge of Kendo-patrol next time. How many elims do you have? I have eleven... we both need twenty, stat. There's no way we survive the rampage of Kendo until the royale is over."

She wouldn't leave Athena. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind. But lookig at her friend's face, Sophie could tell that she was thinking about that, and other... dark... thing. Because honestly, Kendo had come at the exact wrong time from a social-emotional stand point.

"Come on. There is the party of six ahead. They're crossing into the Northern tundra."

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"I've got five left." Athena seemed a bit surprised by that, had she really eliminated fifteen people just by sitting on her rock and waiting for people to come by? Get your act together, it's showtime! Ok, that didn't make her any more excited. But it did make her smile, just a little bit. Adjusting her grip on her sword, she could hear the students shouting in the distance.

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"Alright. Then we have a choice. The six ahead of us are engaging with two more. My prediction is that only five of them will emerge uneliminated. So you can either take your five, and get out of here, impressing the idiots that need to be impressed in the process, or we could split them. Your call."

The trees had slowed them down, and Sophie smiled. They were now moving at a stealthy pace, and the foliage had shifted to the sharper branches of scraggily pine trees. The girls were almost right above them, and Sophie watched the two v six with mild interest.

She shot a smile at Athena. A smile that conveyed her distaste for the arena, for the people below, for Kendo fighting them. A smile that spoke to her happiness to still be in the arena, the adrenaline coursing through her veins, her gratitude to Athena for sticking by her.

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"Do you really think I'm just going to take all the glory for myself? I would've been eliminated back there if it wasn't for you." One of them were eliminated. The boy who'd done it was boasting when it was pretty much a lucky shot. At least this gave her a reason to get him out.

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"Alrighty. I just thought it might have been nice to see the look of surprise and approval on a certain [w]itch's face. You know, rub it in a little, because at this point, you would probably be the first to qualify."

She could hear them traipsing around in the snow. The students below had all the subtlety of stampeding rhinoceroses, which was to say, none. She glanced in Athena's general direction, and adjusted her blindfold.

"Ready?"

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"Heh, I'd love to, but victory isn't mine to claim. Let's get them." Athena tightened her grip on her sword, ready to charge down there and start slicing people up. Not literally, of course.

---

Sophie leapt down nimbly, following Athena. A quick compulsion was enough to send the two closest to her to dreamland. Two pulses of dispersion magic from the technology the council had given them teleported them out of the arena, and out of the competition. Athena could handle the other two, and Sophie straightened up, looking in the direction her friend was fighting in.

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Two quick slashes, the students barely had time to react. The second hesitantly tried to block her sword - too late. Her sword didn't really make a cut or anything, it just kind of passed through, and the students vanished. It still felt weird, she couldn't fight with Starlight, as that was an actual blade, so she had to use this council authorized one. And you can't say she was used to it. But it did its job, so there we go, two down, three to go.

---

Listening intently, she could follow the sounds of human disturbance deep into the tundra. But they had a choice: continue North in the tundra, or head East into the archipelago, and take their chances island-hopping.

Sophie glanced back at Athena, raising an eyebrow above her blindfold. "Islands or snow?"

---

Athena did some quick calculation. The islands were nearer, someone had to be hiding around there, and she'd hadn't actually tried actually fighting in snow. "Islands."

---

Sophie began to sing again, and they clambered back into the trees. They were spirited towards the water, and set down on the edge of the shore. Sophie emptied her pockets, removing the rocks she had gathered, and set them by her feet. Taking note of the shoreline, she could see divets in the sand. Divets that made her think of a certain magical creature.

She began to skip a few stones across the water. A stream of bubbles became visible a few meters offshore. She tossed the last few into the water, scattering them around the bubbles with huge plops.

Sophie pulled out her bone flute, and played a single low note. She held up a hand to Athena signifying quiet. Sophie waited patiently, listening for vibrations. She repeated this process a few times. And then the ocean erupted with bubbles.

Using her length of rope like a lasso, she harnessed the hippocampus that had emerged onto the shore.

"Miss Lediana, your chariot awaits." Even with the blindfold, there was an amused glint in Sophie's eyes. Her over-dramatic words were designed to make her friend laugh.

---

Athena smiled slightly. "Thank you." She patted the hippocampus carefully. She knew how to handle them from secretly taking care of the ones that her mother used when needing a water transportation.

---

They sped off into the water, the hippocampus making incredible time. The first island slowly came into view. Sophie could sense a few isolated teams roaming the island. The two largest teams appeared to be in a stalemate from a siege.

"Should we land here?"

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"Yep that's good." Seems like coming here was a good choice after all. "Which team do you want to aim for? I think we only need to take out one or maybe two teams to get to twenty."

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