Just then a tall, lean man appeared in front of Jayde, he had striking silver hair with pale blue eyes, the attractiveness of his face was marred by his sneer.

"So this is our new contractor," the man said, his eyes showing disgust. "Really Number One, the contractors of Doha are getting worse each time, you really scraped the bottom of the barrel for this one."

"White!" Isha said reproachfully.

"Oh please Number One, look at her, shit look at those puny little arms, does she even have the strength to lift a sword, and you expect her to save —"

Isha threw a warning look at White as he spat out: "White, enough!" Interrupting whatever White was about to say.

Jayde's eyes narrowed as she listened to the exchange between the two men. Tilting her head to the side as she watched the interactions between the two, Jayde analyzed their facial expressions and body posture. Observing the two made Jayde realize that she had made a serious mistake, she had been treating Isha like one of the AI computers back in the Federation, which was a severe miscalculation on her part.

From the little bit of the conversation that she had overheard, and from the way Isha interrupted White speech as well as the warning look he was currently directing at White, Jayde came to the conclusion that this artifact seemed to have its own agenda. She was no longer in the Federation, but in another dimension which had its own rules, and she needed to adjust her mindset, she couldn't expect things to be the same as it would in the Federation.

Jayde wondered what sort of being Isha was, up until now she had assumed he was an artificially created construct, but now that she had met him face to face, she had an overpowering feeling that he a flesh and blood person. White also gave Jayde the sense of being a flesh and blood humanoid, but different from Isha. Jayde wasn't sure why she was confident that the two men in front of her were 'real', but she was convinced that she was right.

And if she was right, then what the hell was this artifact? While it might seem strange but Jayde was more comfortable dealing with an artificially intelligent being, at least then she knew that it had rules and parameters built in, but a 'real' person — that was a whole different ball game.

Just then Isha took a deep calming breath, before turning to Jayde.

"Jayde this is White —"

"Mr. White," White interrupted.

"This is Mr. White your new martial arts trainer," Isha continued.

"I haven't agreed to take her as my student," White said disdainfully. "She needs to pass my assessment first, only then will she be worthy of becoming my student."

"White," Isha growled softly. "I never agreed to any assessment."

"Hmph. Well Number One, you also know that it is up to each trainer's own discretion to take on a contractor as a student," cocking an eyebrow as he stared at Isha he challenged: "Are you going to try and force me?"

"Of course not," Isha said. "But the student also has a choice to accept YOU as a trainer," and with that statement, he turned to look at Jayde.

"Well Jayde, are you willing to undergo White's 'assessment' test?"

Jayde looked at White, trying to gauge the man's character. From the surly look on his face, Jayde could blatantly see that he looked down on her, and more importantly, she could feel his animosity towards her, which confused her as she had never interacted with the man, so why did he despise her so much?

Just how difficult could this assessment be, Jayde thought. With that thought, she nodded her agreement to undertake White's assessment.

Seeing Jayde nodding her head in agreement, White waved his hand, and Jayde found herself sucked into a new place.

Looking around she found that she was in an open prairie. The area in front of her was as flat as a pancake and as vast as an ocean, there were no mountains, no hills, nothing to block the view to the horizon, huge fields of tall yellow grass gently swayed in the breeze, as far as the eye can see.

Really the power that these entities have is was quite disconcerting, she thought.

Just then Jayde heard White's disembodied voice: "The assessment test is simple. You just need to survive until the end of the test."

Jayde doubted that the test was as simple as White said, he did not strike her as a simple character, and he came across quite disgusted about having her as a student. Jayde was convinced that whatever this 'assessment test' was, he had set it up for her to fail, but then he didn't know just how stubborn Jayde could be, nor what she endured in the Federation.

Just then, as to confirm Jayde judgment of White, multiple howls pieced through the air.

A pack of beasts appeared on the horizon, taking out her sword, Jayde analyzed the creatures approaching.

The beasts, although bipedal, seemed to be an expert on all fours. Their heads resembled wolves from old Earth history, but their eyes glowed a deep ruby red. Their bodies were muscular and covered in coarse black fur, while their hands and feet were tipped with serrated claws. Jayde could see just by looking at them these creatures were apex predators, designed to rip and shred their prey — and that she was their current prey.

One of the beasts lifted its head and howled, it seemed to be communicating with its packmates.

The pack split, surrounding Jayde. In that frozen split second between standoff and fighting Jayde could see their ruby red eyes glowing with hunger and battle frenzy madness. Not giving them a second to respond Jayde leaped into the air, her sword swinging, the sun reflecting off the metal, expertly slicing the jugular of the beast nearest to her.

Not waiting to see the beast fall, Jayde immediately charged the next creature.

The beasts howled in fury when they saw one of their packmates fall, viciously they attacked Jayde. With her sword swinging back and forth Jayde desperately tried to defend herself, her agile body arching and swaying as she avoided those deadly claws. Her sword was ruthlessly harvesting the life of any creature that got too close.

Soon the yellow grass was darkly stained with blood as the creature's corpses began to pile up.

A sudden burst of pain jolted through Jayde chest. Looking down with disbelief, Jayde saw one of the beasts arm's sticking out of her chest. It had snuck up on her, and punch through her back, penetrating her chest.

Her chest ached terribly, her arms lost strength, and her legs began to weaken. Her tongue was soaked in the taste of blood, as her mouth filled with blood. With her lips coated in blood, Jayde's eyes began to darken.

Falling ever so slowly, the terrible ache that filled her chest had faded away to an icy numbness. Blackness started to fill the edges of Jayde's vision, and the only thing she could hear was the slowing down of her own heartbeat.

Fuck! Jayde thought as her fragile human heart — beat one last time.

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© 2019 DJ Rogue. All rights reserved.