As the figure dropping down from the balcony came plummeting towards my face, there was a split-second to decide how I was handling this. If I could get off in time, it would be easy enough to fuck with their landing, potentially shattering their leg from the fall.

I hesitated, drawing my hand back.

Despite the clear ambush, muted reaction to the preceding series of events led me to believe it wasn’t entirely as it seemed. That left only one real possibility. This was a test.

And that, placed me entirely within my comfort zone.

I hopped backward easily, letting the figure land hard directly in front of me. Sae’s mouth was tightened in concentration, her body off-balance from the fall. She was fully decked out in lightweight armor, a glowing escrima stick in her hand. Behind her, I saw Nick reluctantly drawing out a much larger stick with a cross-guard.

Now that I think about it, recruitment went a little too smoothly.

A small smile played across my lips. Okay. They had no intention of making this fair. If I went all out, there was a possibility I could win, but that would likely reveal far too much and put me at odds with the team. The point of this was probably to assess how well I’d do in physical situations. Still. They were Users with access to Selve and healing potions.

Meaning, there was no need to make this easy.

flared in my mind, guiding my movements. I stepped in, grabbed the side of Sae’s head and spun her, anchoring a foot between her legs to keep her off-balance, and slammed her face into the foyer table. There was a crack of wood and an audible yelp.

The stick in her hand clattered to the floor, still glowing.

I needed a weapon—either the stick or something else non-lethal. Pulling either the dagger or crossbow would have the same effect as pulling a handgun in a fistfight, and that wasn’t the sort of impression I wanted to make.

Nick wasn’t going to give me time to breathe. He charged forward, practice sword extending backwards. triggered in my mind, a whispered warning that the attack was a skill, and the strike would be far harder to dodge than it appeared.

So, I didn’t attempt to dodge. I grabbed a handful of Sae’s dark ponytail, yanked her up from the table, and planted a foot in the small of her back, shoving her hard towards Nick, positioning the girl between the two of us as she stumbled.

Only, Nick didn’t panic.

He canceled the attack and hurdled over Sae, with a practiced ease that immediately invoked his sports background.

But the detour gave me time to grab the stick from the ground.

flashed in my mind, and I ducked low instead of rising, feeling a breeze as the practice sword slashed diagonally through empty air where my shoulder would have been.

If he keeps this level of aggression up, he’s going to steamroll me. I need to get him to back off.

Instinctively, I pulled my arm back and slammed the stick into his newly healed leg.

The reaction was immediate. Nick hit the ground and rolled away from me, hand inspecting the place of impact, sheer terror on his face.

His leg was spasming, likely due to whatever buff Sae had placed on my commandeered stick.

Nick’s terror faded almost immediately to a particularly sour look. I couldn’t blame him. I hadn’t done it intentionally. My strategy in every fight so far had hinged almost exclusively on exploiting weak-points. It was the only way I was winning, and the strategy itself was becoming second nature. Despite its healed and restored appearance, I’d targeted the leg subconsciously, hoping to knock him out of his flow state.

Only, it appeared that all I’d managed to do was piss him off.

Every nerve in my body warned me that Nick was a cut above the opponents I’d been facing. He was likely either close to my level or higher, and his base physical stats would have started much higher than mine. If I underestimated him for a second, it was over.

Even knowing that, it was unbelievable how fast he was. His strikes came in blisteringly quick combination, each attack effortlessly flowing into the next, giving me little window to do anything but retreat.

I backpedaled wildly through the house, the rubber soles of my shoes squeaking, until I hit something that rattled behind me.

That should have been it. Nick pulled his sword back, immediately ready to capitalize on the distraction, when he hesitated, his gaze flicking behind me. I used the moment to dodge away, snapping my head out of the way of a horizontal swing.

It gave me just enough time to take stock. The living room was aesthetically bohemian, littered with small, expensive looking furniture, and tiny statuettes. The object I’d backed into was a cabinet with glass panels, filled with small porcelain dolls.

That’s right. It’s his aunt’s house. He wants to avoid wrecking the place.

I shot him a nasty smile and reached towards the coffee table.

In response, Nick looked almost comically concerned. “Matt, don’t—”

Before he could finish, I threw a 1/10th scale bust of Debussy’s head at his face. The throw was remarkably more accurate than it would have been weeks ago, approaching his nose with a spiral and velocity I hoped he, in particular, would appreciate.

His eyes widened as his instincts clashed, and he attempted to catch the bust and move out of the way simultaneously. He caught it, but only barely, half-juggling the statue with his off-hand to keep it from hitting the floor.

“You fucker!”

But I wasn’t paying attention to him anymore. Sae had recovered, and judging from the grim look on her face, wasn’t too pleased with the way her previous attempt had gone. She was sprinting toward me, both hands glowing brightly with an otherworldly blue magic.

Even if this was a test, it seemed best to avoid that.

Actually, I needed a way to get Sae off the board completely. From what I could tell, she was a Magic/Agility hybrid, and I was guessing Nick had told her not to use ranged spells for the test. The only reason I was fairing this well was because their efforts were staggered. If they managed to start coordinating, I was fucked.

Only, my options were limited. I seriously doubted Sae had the same level of deference for Nick’s Aunt’s house as Nick himself did.

The glass door to the backyard out of the corner of my eye stuck out as something I could use.

I ducked beneath Sae’s magic infused embrace and spun away, sweeping her legs out from underneath her. And, aiming carefully, slammed the magic-infused stick into her temple. The muscles in her face began to spasm as she began to press the attack, squinting slightly, her vision impaired. Her blows were small and deliberate, reminiscent of wing chun—Not ideal for something like an MMA fight, but perfect for making contact with a spell.

I retreated deliberately, fighting the instinct from to block rather than dodge. Right when the positioning was almost perfect, disaster struck. Sae feinted with a finger-strike towards my face, and when I reacted, immediately grabbed my arm. The warning from came too late.

Creeping frost spread quickly from my arm to my shoulder. Sae gloated, smiling victoriously.

Without enough leverage for anything else, I reeled my head back, then plunged it forward, my forehead colliding against her already broken nose and—hopefully—obscuring her vision further.

Sae staggered backwards with an understandably stuffy cry of “Motherfucker!” When she rallied, her charge was half-assed and half-blind. Harnessing the momentum, I slid the glass door open, grabbed her and narrowly avoided her glowing hand as I threw her out.

A discrete application of ensured that her stumble was extended, sending her careening, fully clothed, into the pool.

Nick—in the meantime—had clearly lost the struggle to keep the bust intact, as it was lying shattered on the floor.

“Sae seems nice.” I commented.

“Yeah, she’s great,” Nick paused. “A lot better when she has access to her whole repertoire.”

I circled back to the center of the living room, next to the oval shaped crystal table. “Are we done?”

Nick shook his head. “I want to see what you can really do, when you’re not pulling cheap bullshit.”

“Uhuh.” I crouched down and grabbed the crystal coffee table by its base, ignoring the pain in my frozen arm as I brandished the top of the table towards him like an oversized shield.

Nick audibly groaned, muttering something that sounded like “Come on, man.” He was both faster and stronger than I was. No way in hell was I giving him a fair fight.

Before either of us could break the stalemate, a cloud of gold, glowing dust settled over both of us, carrying with it the scent of lilac. I tried to move and found I couldn’t. My entire body felt like I was encased in tar, unable to budge more than a few inches at a time. The table slipped out of my hands in slow motion and landed on the ground, glass unmarred and intact.

“Jinny? You were supposed to sit this out.” Nick said, voice as strained as I felt.

Jinny was sitting sideways at the top of the stairs. Her armor was similar to Sae’s, though it was white rather than black, with flowing white fabric that seamlessly meshed with silver regalia. A single wooden scepter topped with black iron-work framing a violet jewel crowned the top.

“Figured I’d end it, before the two of you destroy our base of operations.” Jinny scowled at Nick, then gave me a friendly wave.

I waved back, though the action was hilariously slow with the spell in effect. If the point of this was to test me, I could see why Nick had asked her to sit out. A single cast of that at the entryway, with the others out of the area of effect. It was a review of the lesson I’d learned on the third floor of the dungeon, facing off against the gnolls:

Magic was fucking scary.

There was an angry sounding knock at the glass door.

I held my hands up in mock surrender and smiled. “You got me.”