The Rankings

The competition went on as Xilo spectated from the sidelines with a small ball of darkness twirling around in his hands. His goal was to make sure absolutely nothing happened to Tearia or Marie during this. The rule of this place was no use of one's strength outside of each event so most wouldn't unless they had ways to conceal it. The darkness in his hands was one of those exceptions, he had been holding it out for a while now and nobody had noticed. "That or they're just waiting for me to do something with it." If Hazel didn't try anything then there would hopefully be no need for it, he doubted it though.

"One can hope."

For the most part it was a pretty silent show as each person worked their hardest to meet the requirements. Keltal's student was also doing a pretty good job from what little Xilo understood. He still couldn't remember anything about them but he did cheer them on a bit. A younger kid like him being able to do that well was impressive to a lot of the people there. Soon one hour ticked by and they were coming into the second half of it all. The beginning for the most part was pretty tame, now though is where most people would start making mistakes.

"Concentrating for this long can take a surprising amount of energy."

Observing each and every person there Marie combined everything together as she got close to finishing. She knew in her heat that she would get first place, no one here could actually beat her. Especially after watching everyone, even Tearia who had the best chance. "She might get close." From watching everything Tearia did she saw how she did things very simply with a surprising amount of precision about it. "Very strong basics, not much else though." Basics wouldn't get you very far against Marie. Still a part of her hoped she would have seen more from Tearia who seemed so into it.

Putting another ingredient into the bowl Tearia controlled everything the best she could while following the words her Grandmother taught her. She was aiming for first in this event even against Marie. "She's got way more experience than me." That didn't mean much to her though, instead it just made her want to do better than before. "First place is mine." Chucking in some powder she mashed up she stopped paying attention to everything else as the last hour passed. With a minute left to spare Tearia finally finished her medicine as the judges voice rang out for everyone to stop regardless if they had finished or not.

"Alright, time's up. Your medicine will be examined whether or not it's finished so try not to worry too much. I'll be coming around myself to personally inspect each person, so wait patiently until your turn please."

An older man with a cane in his hand started walking up to the first competitor as he examined it. After a quick glance he gave the unfinished product a four out of ten and walked to the next person without saying another word. Left to hang their head in defeat, the next person was given the same score as the first. Time went on as more people got a bit higher scores but no one had gotten one past a seven yet. Hearing each number thunder in his ear, Xilo was a bit confused. "Why hasn't Hazel done anything?" He had watched her for two hours aggressively stare at Tearia without doing a thing. Combined with the previous competition where they only did a little bit of damage to him Xilo wondered what was up.

"For people who seem to hate me so much....they aren't really doing much yet. Why?"

He thought he would see a lot more foul play from them so honestly he was quite confused. "What exactly are you all planning?" Instead of feeling relieved though that feeling of unease grew stronger. If they weren't doing anything big yet it just meant they had something big in store for the future. He just didn't know what quite yet and that put him on edge. "That Laven is a dangerous person." Hazel was someone who acted with emotion first from his knowledge of her and even she hadn't done anything yet. Laven though, was someone that put logic as the priority for the things he did. If he even got Hazel of all people to listen to him then something nasty was coming for them.

"If I had to guess they don't care for petty revenge, the first event was probably just a bait to set us off track....maybe. They probably want to end us all at once, everything else is just a small annoyance if they can get away with it. They want us paranoid enough to make a mistake. When they'll pounce though I don't know. This might be a little rough."

Trying his best to piece it all together Xilo hid his energy as the judge got further into it. Most people had been scored now and some had even got a seven. There were only a couple more people left and then the results would be done. "The last ten." Ten people stood unscored with Marie and Tearia along with Keltal's student standing in that group. Going up to one of the first people in that group who was a slightly middle aged man the judge examined his work. Silently he studied it a lot longer than any of the past ones. After a minute the judge looked up at the man and announced his score.

"An eight."

The man who heard that felt excitement rushing up inside of him.

"I should also note that even though I'm giving you an eight that everyone here in the final Ten can't be simply judged by silly scores of one through ten. After I give you all your scores I'll be going back and explaining my reasoning more and give you your actual placing in the Final Ten."

With that the man's bubble of excitement popped as the judge moved on to the next person who was a smaller girl. Standing in front of her for a couple minutes he gave her a score of eight as he moved on to the next person. Once everyone was done he was left with two final people being Tearia and Marie. Stopping in front of them for more then Ten minutes he carefully made sure of his thoughts as he announced their scores. Backing up a bit he faced the audience, Both the girls felt their nerves spike a little. Even with all the confidence Marie had she still had some doubt in herself, same with Tearia.

"Marie will be given the score of...nine and finally Tearia here will be given the score of...eight."

Tearia's heart dropped as she heard her ranking get lower then Marie's.

"With all of that out of the way let me now tell you the ranking of each member."

Before anyone could say anything the man continued.

"In Tenth place is..."