-Minutes later-

"Is that it?" Aylin asked the others, her hand held out in front of her, as if she were assessing any damage that might have been done to her skin. But it was flawless and uninjured.

"I would hope so," Kaya said, "That was a lot of Moles to knock out."

Somehow, that was still an understatement. All around them were at least a hundred moles and there were even some that had fallen right back into the holes they had dug in the earth and leaped out of.

The entire thing had turned into some game of wack-a-mole. They struck one down and another would appear out of another hole, tossing out an earthen attack before vanishing back into the ground to appear again later to do the same thing if not knocked out.

"Burrow-Moles are vicious little things. They're herbivores so they don't attack to eat. They attack almost for the fun of it," Eloise said.

"These things?" Aylin asked and she sounded disbelieving.

"They just tossed rocks at your face, remember?" Kaya said.

"They did the same to you," Aylin retorted.

"Yeah, but I'm not the one who thinks they're too innocent to kill," Kaya said.

"Looks can be deceiving," Eloise said,

"Burrow-Moles—technically a redundant name since all Moles 'burrow'—have pack mentalities. They swarm as one, overwhelming their opponent with superior numbers and their affinity with the Earth. Which just means they can heave out large chunks of rock from the earth to toss out. As such, they are very strong. Can lift ten to twenty times their weight.

They also know how to harness that strength within their legs for high and powerful jumps which is how they achieve all those leaps out of their holes to toss the Earthen clumps they carry."

"So we're not meant to feed them?" Kaya asked.

"No," Eloise answered, "They are more than capable of fending for themselves."

"So what makes this a test?" Aylin asked.

Eloise shrugged.

"I guess survival. A lot of beasts that one stumbles upon in a Forest are not meant to be tended to but put down with forceful pacification.

Burrow-Moles are attuned to the vibrations in the earth. They can sense hundreds of meters away from their locations which can extend further than their 'fields' due to the underground routes they dig out for themselves."

"So what?" Aylin asked.

Kaya sighed and shook her head.

"I refuse to believe you're this dumb," she said.

"What?" Aylin asked, confused and upset.

Eloise cut in,

"Remember how I said Burrow-Moles attack for the fun of it? Well, once they sense the vibrations on the surface of an approaching prey, they make a rally call to other Moles and then ambush the prey. Attacking to kill."

"That's horrible," Aylin said.

"And should have been obvious without Eloise having to spell it out," Kaya said with a scoff at the grey-white haired beauty.

Aylin opened her mouth to say more then but Eloise cut in.

"It's a bit horrifying. But only for prey they can actually kill. For prey that can withstand the barrage, it can be cute."

"Cute," Aylin said like she found that very hard to believe.

"I'm with her," Kaya said, "Nothing that comes after me to kill can possibly be cute."

Eloise shrugged.

"Hey, just calling it as Professor Gilligan dictated in the notes," she said.

She looked up then. There was a spinning disc outside the netted dome and its crystal seemed to focus especially on Eloise. At least that was how she felt although the screen where all this was being projected probably encompassed a larger view than a single person.

Kaya noticed Eloise looking at the disc and stepped closer.

"Think they're watching?" She asked.

"Who?" Eloise asked.

"Your parents— Your family," Kaya said.

"Probably," Eloise said with a little laugh that wasn't all that joyful.

She knew her family wasn't 'probably' watching her right now. They were 'definitely' watching. A test that involved Combat Magic was something they wouldn't want to miss. With how they had co-opted the original purpose of Sound magic and turned it into a combat tool, they were definitely hoping she had learned to do the same.

"What about your folks?" Eloise asked, looking over at Kaya.

"Probably watching too," Kaya said with a shrug but didn't punctuate her words with a laugh. False or true.

The truth was she was really unsure. She never really felt like she belonged in the Aiesling Family and a lot of the memories she had of home were through that lens. Even if they were watching, Kaya couldn't bring herself to imagine they were proud of her at the moment.

"Well, I know for certain my family's watching," Aylin said from behind her teammates and then waved a hand at the spinning disc as she smiled widely,

"Hey, Mom!"

Kaya and Eloise shared a look. Eloise smiled lightly. Kaya rolled her eyes aggressively.

Unlike them, Aylin didn't have any reservations with her family or parents. At least not in the same way. Aylin was the apple of her mother's eye and while there were challenges, they were not related to that relationship and were about external factors. Such as her neglected brother and his nonexistent support within the family.

With that mostly happy thought in mind, Aylin leaned against the netted Dome wall and it didn't give.

"Hey guys," she said, "We're still locked in."

"Of course we are," Eloise said, "We've only dealt with the first wave of Burrow-Moles. The advance party, if you will. If these don't return within the next minute or so, the others will seek escape."

"Oh, so once they're gone, we can leave?" Aylin asked.

"I don't think they can leave actually," Eloise said, "I'm pretty sure the Dome keeps them within this field as much as it does us."

"And what happens if they can't get away," Kaya asked slowly and in a tone of one who was being faced with a possibly troubling situation.

"Well, then they'll emerge," Eloise said, "And this time they won't attack for escape. They'll attack for survival."

"So they'll be more ferocious," Kaya said.

"Yeah," Eloise answered.

"How long?" Aylin asked and an icy blue spell circle appeared as she prepared to attack.

"I can feel them rumbling," Eloise said after a moment of closing her eyes to focus, and then her eyelids flew open, "They'll be here soon."

And just like that, the earth practically ruptured.

Driven by a desire to eliminate a threat and survive from an apparently inescapable location, the Burrow-Moles didn't/couldn't even follow already burrowed tunnels and instead broke right through the ground in gigantic numbers.

Kaya had her nature spell circle ready.

Eloise formed a specific set of seals with her fingers and a magical musical note appeared and played a sound like the thrumming of a very deep bass guitar that unleashed vibrations.

As the vibrations thrummed, Eloise opened her mouth, and in an incredibly sweet-sounding voice, she sang a tune that complemented her conjured thrumming vibration and the combination struck the Moles who were then caught in mid—air by the sound and trembled while pressing their paws against their ears to block out the sound.

"They're organized by vibrational frequency. I'm disrupting the frequency to make them inactive long enough for you to act," Eloise said as she looked to the side at her impressed teammates realizing she needed to spur them to action so she yelled,

"So ACT!"

"Oh right," Kaya and Aylin said in such unison, that they shared a look before getting into attacking the inactive Burrow-Moles.

It became somewhat of a competition then as it was now about who knocked out the most Moles.

Kaya seemed to have a natural advantage at this because her vines could wrap and grab tens of Moles at a time to slam against the ground and render unconscious but then Aylin cast an Icy-speck spell that hit double that number with snowflakes that spread and wrapped the targets in icy holds.

Aylin controlled the icy holds and slammed the Moles against the inner Dome wall where the ice around them shattered but they went limp, unconscious.

At the end, the count was largely equal. There were so many Moles to knock out that keeping an exact count became very difficult and pointless.

"Please tell me that's it," Aylin said when all the moles were down.

There was no longer any space they could stand without stepping on Moles who were all laid atop each other for lack of space.

"What, are you tired?" Kaya asked.

"More annoyed actually," Aylin answered.

This was such an easy test to get overwhelmed by. Considering how much she had felt from the rock attack earlier despite the Protective vest she had on, these could have turned very painful, very fast.

It just seemed like too much. Especially for the first Beast habitat they happened to come across.

"I don't sense anything in the ground," Eloise said.

"Hey, we can walk through," Kaya said then as her hand went through the Dome wall.

Without another word, all three ladies leaped out of the Dome happy to put that behind them.

A floating disc spun closer then and projected a screen. On the screen were the words 'Study of Magical Beasts Points' as a header. Beneath that were their names and a small Avatar of their faces. Next to that were numbers clearly meant to signify how much they had gained from that one exercise.

However, before they even addressed that, they saw something beneath their names and scores;

[Broadcasting Scores…]

"What does that mean?" Eloise asked even though she could already guess.

Aylin let out a sigh.

"It means trouble," she said.

Kaya smiled.

"No," she said,

"It means opportunity."

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