Hunting in the Bronze Forest

Five beasts previously hiding behind trees, swooped down from above and hovered a few metres ahead of them, challenging the five teenagers to a battle.

The beasts were large, black hawks with large gray beaks and two sets of red eyes that resembled dots. It was one of the less colorful types of Drachs and ones more prone to violence and viciousness.

"Great. That's one Item for each of us." With a loud, quick smack, Zake closed his book, placing it in his Compartment Bag as he regarded the Drachs. His book was mostly dark red in color with the pictures of eyes and fangs as well as a lock on it which symbolized how important it was to him. His Charm were a pair of cufflinks on his sleeves, shaped like eggs.

  "Shadow Casting: Black Gloves!" Yuri called upon his Spell, releasing ominous shadows extending from his arms and moving towards their targets, the Drachs known as Avadarks.

He knew it would be easy to battle them aa his Power Watch read that were at Stage 3.

Everyone on the team was at Stage 3 except Yuri and Kuro, the latter being at Stage 2.

With his strength, it didn't take long for him to kill the Avadark he had chosen to strangle. In its death, it left behind a kind of crystal shaped like a feather which he quickly picked up and stored.

He rested his back on a tree as he waited for the other members of his team to finish their battles.

An Avadark swooped down and tried to cut off Staria's head with its powerful, sharp wings but the teenager ducked down before leaping backwards.

"I like my head right where it is, thank you very much." Staria made a striking gesture, diagonally hitting the air and bringing out nothing visible to the eye. But that was the

point.

By mimicing throwing or movement actions, she was able to almost perfectly recreate a particular phenomenon, one no one could detect with the naked eye as it was invisible.

With her attack, she easily took out the Avadark she was in combat with.

Zake, like Staria avoided sweeping attacks from the feathers of the Avadark and flipped backwards and backwards, showing his great agility before landing against a tree. But he was completely calm, placing his hand on the ground.

"I already have one of you in my collection, so no need to get another." Zake smirked as the ground lit up and what appeared there looked like it had been pulled out of randomness itself. It was... an egg.

But not just a regular egg used for cooking, it was a large egg that was about 4 feet and its width was pretty big. It was also colored red with purple stripe marks all over it like a decorated easter egg.

"Drach Casting: Old Beast!"

The egg hatched right in front of him and the Avadark tried to use this chance to swoop and incapacitate him but out from the egg came a large, red tiger with fangs hanging out of its mouth like stalactites in a cave. It also had two tails that were whipping in opposite directions against the wind.

It was clear that this was not your average wildcat and based on his statement, one could easily deduce that it was a Drach.

At the Drach Caster's command, the red tiger fired at the Avadark that was a few feet in the air away from it and out from its tails came magic blasts and hit the other Beast head on.

Without even using a Charm Spell and instead sticking to basic ones, Ayato was beating the Drach he was facing like a monster. At first, it did its usual routine and tried to incapacitate him but he grabbed a hold of its feathers and redirected them into a tree before pining them down with his feet and hurling fireball after fireball at it.

While doing so, he couldn't help but frown as he split his focus, looking at someone else in slight exasperation.

Before he could say anything however, someone beat him to it and he was decently surprised at who it was.

"Kuro!" The Snow Caster was a bit stunned, hearing his name called out like that and turned to the direction of the voice, although he knew that it was Yuri's.

"Umm... yes-"

"Why are you hiding?!" When he said that, Staria and Zake turned around as they were basically done with their task.

Seeing all those faces staring at him triggered bad memories and trauma for Kuro so Yuri rushed to him and hid him around himself.

"What are you guys looking at?!" As he said those words, Staria and Zake whipped their heads away and engaged in unproductive activities such as twirling their hair and whistling while reading a book. Respectively, of course.

"Because..." Kuro answered, "I don't have what it takes. I've never had what it takes. I don't even know why I'm here. What am I-" As he said those words, the Shadow Caster could see he was visibly shivering.

This whole time, the Avadark that was meant for Kuro to engage in battle with had just been keeping its distance from them as Yuri released a dominating and intimidating aura without knowing. However, the bird was not smart enough to fly away.

"Hey," Yuri pulled him into a hug and caused the Snow Caster to blush. It wasn't as warm as when Ayato hugged him. It was different, but in a good way, "I don't know who told you and you probably don't want to tell me. But you don't have to care what that person said."

"You can be your own self. You don't have to do what you're not comfortable with but I know one thing. You can do it, okay?" This act of comfort from the Shadow Caster was a surprise to Ayato and it was able to empower the Snow Caster.

"Thank you, Yuri." Kuro whispered, moving from the teenager's embrace and facing the Drach that was ready to face him. A ring on his finger glowed as he activated his Charm.

"Snow Casting: Snow Golem." He mainfested a small round monster made of snow. The Drach, as unintelligent as ever dived in to face its new opponent but in a second, it was covered completely in ice and landed on the floor as an ice statue.

Kuro walked over to it and smashed it with its foot, prompting it to disperse into nothingness, leaving behind nothing but the crystal feather.

"Wow, Kuro. You're so strong!" Ayato expressed, having completely decimated the Avadark he was fighting and collecting its crystal, causing the prone-to-blushing teenager's face to go red.

Bending his back, he aimed to pick up the Valuable Item but a flash of a figure went by him and lifted it right off the floor, running away.

Seeing that action, Ayato was completely pissed off, "Hey!!! Give that back!!" Ayato shouted at the student who was still in his sights. He was not from their class so he couldn't recognize him.

"Make me, Half-of-a-Caster!" The student stuck his tongue out as he made his escape, conjuring wind beneath his feet to run away.

"Get back here!!" Ayato casted a lion made out of red flames and chased after him with it as it allowed him to levitate and so did Yuri and Kuro.

"Wait, what just happened?" Staria and Zake had gotten too distracted and had only brought their focuse back when they heard the Fire Caster's loud yell.

* * *

Meanwhile...

Arina and her team had successfully taken out all the Drachs, completing their objective in the Drach Hunt as they had acquired three ice spikes each, one of which rhey could keep and could be used to create heat-resistant gear of some sort. Although something told Arina that Serena had something else in mind for how to use hers.

As they headed back to the starting point, all cheery and conversing, that's when a student ran past the Light Caster, pushing her a bit more than lightly.

Soon after, they could see Yuri, Ayato and Kuro a good couple feet away from them.

"Arina!! Stop that jerk from getting away! He stole from us!!!" Hearing that, Arina's body reacted and she instinctively stuck her hands out, pointing at the boy that thought he was going to get away with what he did.

The heavens smiled upon the Light Caster as she had unlocked another Gem on her Charm and instead of shooting a regular 'ol light ball, she launched something much more flashier and more potent.

With all five fingers our on each hand, she chanted, "Light Casting:..." She opened her eyes fiercely, "Ray Blast!"

A powerful, orange blast of magic left her hands and hit the students straight in the back, causing him to stagger in pain before he fell to the ground, right where they had started the Hunting.

"What's going on here?!" Class A's Homeroom Teacher Nex asked, rather furiously because of how they had just abruptly gotten there.