The familiar text of the announcements appeared below the prize notification.

[Speak the word Depart to leave the First Advancement Trial.]

"Before we leave, we should prepare to be attacked. There was still a battle going on when we entered, so there are likely Hill Giants nearby, and we don't know which side will be holding the area around the exit." Karl reminded them as everyone prepared to get moving.

Once they were in formation, Karl tapped Lotus on the shoulder, and she spoke the magic words.

"We would like to depart, please."

[So polite.]

The notice appeared in the air below the other notices, and then they were standing on the battlefield, next to the portal, and in the middle of a fight between the teachers who were guarding the entrance and the Hill Giants who were determined to break through.

[Time to work everyone, show them what you've got.] Karl instructed.

There was a large group of Ascended Rank Hill Giants to Karl's left, until he hit them with a Royal Rank [Shred] layered with [Lacerate].

Those that it didn't kill outright were severely maimed and bleeding heavily, even missing limbs from the brutal arc of energy.

The Hill Giants scattered as they realized that there was a Royal Rank Elite on this portion of the line, doing their best to get out of his line of sight while they fought their way to the Trial entrance.

"What's the situation?" Karl asked as he moved next to one of the Mage Class teachers who had come to reinforce the portal area.

"The Hill Giants knew that the portal would open. We don't know how they knew, but it sounds like that was the reason they were attacking. One group of Hill Giants made it into the Trial, but they haven't come out yet, and we've got the rest of them pushed back now." The teacher explained.

"How did we find out that they knew?" Karl asked. That seemed like important intelligence that should have been shared in advance if they had it.

"The Giants Celebrated that they were the first ones to open a Trial. A number of us among the Academy speak Hill Giant." He explained.

"Crap. If that is why they're attacking the border, to create a conflict that will open a trial, this war just got a lot more chaotic.

The rewards in there were powerful.

Very powerful.

"If the Hill Giants get control of a few of those trials, their combat power is going to skyrocket. I recommend that we send a team of students so we can build up our total number of Commanders, and once we can, send another team of Commanders in, ones as close to the bottleneck as possible. If my team had been closer to the bottleneck, we might have had more Royal Rank fighters coming out just now, instead of a team of strong Commanders." Karl explained.

"We sent a team of Ascended Rank students with a pair of Commander Rank leaders from the defensive lines near the anomaly in as soon as your team came out. It wouldn't let anyone else in until then. Either the limit is two teams, or one team from each species." The mage explained.

From overhead, Karl heard Hawk mentally laughing as he formed flaming bird - shaped fireballs and hurled them into the Hill Giant ranks.

They exploded in grand style, sending out a spherical shaped [Rend] attack instead of shrapnel, and they were tearing holes in the offensive line.

[That's quite the combination.] Karl commended him.

[They make beautiful explosions after I added Rend to them. Just fire was alright, but it was a bit lacking. Now, they're perfect.]

It was a bit like a shotgun, as the Rend effect wasn't quite solid, and seemed to flay everything it hit with hundreds of light wounds. There was no deep penetration, just the shredded surface and the burns from the actual fireball explosion.

Karl heard swearing behind him, and saw that there was a whole team of Commander Rank Hill Giants pushing out from the Trial, while another team ran in between them, headed inside.

It had happened too suddenly to stop them, and the newly advanced team was retreating to consolidate their gains.

As soon as they were in, the entrance seemed to change, turning from a solid distortion to something much more transparent, the way it had looked before Karl and his team had entered.

The teachers pushed forward to check, sending a team to walk through it, and out the other side.

As soon as the Hill Giants saw that, they retreated a little, no longer trying to claim the portal, but staying close enough to allow their participants to rejoin their team safely.

"Professor, we should form lines on our side of the portal for now and hold. I think it will reduce casualties." Karl offered.

The Professor shot Karl a dirty look, but Karl just shrugged and continued to pick vulnerable targets for his arrows. He was only aiming for Giants attacking Elites who were in trouble, doing his best to minimize losses and strain on the Clerics. But keeping this offensive up when they couldn't even send another team into the portal was a waste. If they went to their own side, the Giants most likely would not follow until their team was coming out.

The teachers conferred on battle strategy for a half a minute, then began sounding the retreat, to bring the lines back to their side of the portal.

Immediately, a tense ceasefire began, with both sides easily in attacking range for their ranged abilities, but nobody doing anything as they waited for their teams to come back out of the Trial.

Karl had to admit, if the Hill Giants knew that they could trigger this First Advancement Trial by fighting with the humans along the border, it was a brilliant strategy to try to push a few more of their numbers over the breakpoint and into Royal Rank.

It was a shame that the human side wouldn't manage to get many more Royal Rank fighters, but none of them had expected the trial to close so quickly.

From what the teachers were saying, most instances were either first come, first served, or they were open for exact days. Whether that was one day, seven days or twenty-eight days was a mystery the first time, but it was almost always precise.

So, this four team limit didn't make sense to anyone on either side, and now they were left wondering what to do about it.

The next team out was the human team, who raced back to the lines, quietly celebrating their success while the Academy forces retreated.

If the Hill Giants got a Royal Rank advancement out of the trial, they didn't want to be too close to the action. Worse, they might have prepared a whole team right at the advancement point, and although they had only sent a five-person team instead of the ten that the humans did, it would still be a massacre if all five of them came out at Royal Rank.

The tension continued to rise until the Hill Giant team exited the Trial and made their way back to their own lines. They were up by one Royal Rank Hill Giant, an even gain compared to the humans, and apparently not as good as they were hoping for, as the force immediately began to retreat.