They did it.

Despite who they were fighting, despite the fact their target was a legend from the stories of her childhood, they'd done it.

She had reached Prince Erion, her sword ready to fall when she had come to a halt.

Fanilly nearly collapsed on the spot, but she managed to catch herself to listen to the Prince's words of congratulations. He may not have had any idea what their next challenge would be, but that didn't mean that it wasn't an immensely satisfying experience to be congratulated by a figure out of legend.

He may have been a magical recreation of some form, but he had the personality and memories of the original. She was being praised by Prince Erion himself.

It was overwhelming, in fact. Fanilly barely knew what to say.

But she wasn't so overwhelmed as to miss the blue light in the sky.

She tried to open her mouth and yell for the knights to scatter as fast as possible, but they'd been far too distracted, and---

Fanilly had no idea how it felt. She hadn't the slightest idea what the process of her whole being eroding away by such a powerful spell was like.

It had happened so swiftly.

Suddenly she was standing there, perfectly fine once more.

... If she hadn't been so distracted by the Prince's praise, would she have been able to evade the blast? Would she have been able to warn her knights? Was that part of the test?

As she began to internally curse her own failure to pay attention, she noticed the drifting form of the missive as it descended towards them.

Their test---

It was just a particularly destructive way to get their attention.

The second test was to reach the top of the hill.

The Knight-Captain steadied herself, taking a deep breath as she cleared her head.

"Sir Gerard is right. We should take advantage of the time we have to scout the perimeter of the hill," Fanilly began, trying not to show any sign of being shaken. Her hands trembled slightly, but she wouldn't allow herself to falter, "Any routes with more potential cover are a blessing, but I doubt that we'll have too many advantages."

This was meant to test them against a powerful mage, wasn't it? A singular target whose range outstripped nearly everyone there, who could attack in ways that bypassed armor.

"Fighting against a powerful mage at range isn't simple, but there's some obvious tactics we can make use of, especially since our only task is to reach the top of the hill. To begin with, we should split up as much as possible and approach from different angles. While she may be able to switch targets quickly, if we remain apart it will be difficult for her to strike more than one of us with a single spell, or block any of us from climbing."