“Dirty!” the broad shouldered man yelled at Sepeti’s back as he flailed about on the grimy ground. “Low-life! How dare you take me b–”

“Back of the line, aspirant,” the assistant instructor interrupted. Their voice was rendered robotic somehow. Possibly some enchantment on the mask they wore. “Now.”

The broad shouldered man spluttered as he scrambled to his feet. “Rematch, I demand a rematch!”

Sepeti chuckled as he passed the brawny woman at the head of the line. He’d always found impotent rage tiring and amusing.

“Good move, I’ll be doing the same thing, if you don’t mind,” the woman said as she reached out and patted Sepeti’s shoulder. “Instructor, I choose to go first.”

The assistant instructor turned their masked gaze on the woman and nodded. They motioned toward the ring.

“Combatants, approach.”

Sepeti settled back into his spot at the back of the line. He smiled at the broad shouldered man who was busy glaring at him rather than paying attention to his approaching opponent. Sepeti felt the woman had a chance to notch an easy win as long as she launched herself at him. Her hammer seemed heavy but she’d swung it about easily during her first match. As long as she didn’t give the man time to utilize his bow then she would be fine.

“That was pretty smart,” Malia said. “Thanks for the help with calming my nerves earlier.”

Sepeti nodded and was about to respond when a loud explosion shook the training grounds. Someone wailed and a commotion rose up from one of the distant lines.

“It’s ok, she’ll be fine!” Ms. Lina’s loud voice cut through the babbling before it could get any louder. A bright light illuminated the ring before a pair of uniformed Association employees appeared with a stretcher.

The pair hustled over to the ring and Sepeti was able to see what had happened as the crowd parted. An examinee lay on the ground clutching her side. She looked wrong, blackened by intense fire. Sepeti quickly realized that she was missing an arm. Standing just outside the ring was the lanky noble looking guy. He was busy dusting himself off. The ends of his shoulder length hair curled up at the tips.

“Wonder what magic that was,” Sepeti mumbled to himself as he turned his attention back to his own ring. Malia held a hand over her mouth like she was fighting back the urge to vomit.

It appeared that the ring was enchanted against outside interruption as the pair in his group’s ring were already grappling. They hadn’t noticed the explosion or the commotion. The assistant instructors hadn’t even turned to look at the ring where the disturbance had occurred, busy as they were juggling the officiating of two rings each.

Sepeti watched as the brawny woman, hammer already discarded, slipped around the back of the broad shoulder man. He had his swords out and he was smashing down on her hands and forearms with the pommels. That would have been enough to force anyone to loosen their grips and even break some hands but the woman was coated in a thin layer of protection. Her skin looked like metal and the wooden pommels clanged off her arms like they were beating against a slab of thick iron.

“Oh wow,” Malia sucked air through her teeth. “She has |Harden Skin| and has it upgraded to the metal stage.”

Sepeti grunted as he kept himself from asking too many questions. She was nice enough but she was just another point of potential competition.

The brawny woman’s grip tightened and the broad shouldered man screamed. He flailed harder, whipping the dulled swords over his shoulders and smashing at the woman’s arms. He threw his head back and kicked, anything to get her to let go. The woman dropped her hips and Sepeti smiled as he watched her execute a beautiful suplex, lifting the man up and throwing him out of the ring. Her muscles bulged, looking like they’d also been enhanced, as she caught herself in a body bridge with her arms extended over her head.

“Winner, Helena P. Please step over to this side and form the winner’s bracket line. Niklaus U., please step over to that side to form the losers bracket line.”

“Oh, I get it. She’s a physical skill specialist. She’s focused her skill growth on close combat body enhancements. I wonder how many she has so far.”

Malia’s running commentary was a godsend for Sepeti. He knew nothing of what she was talking about but he was able to pick up a little of it. If what she was saying was anything to go by, most people were able to pick and choose what skills they got and usually specialized down a certain path. He tucked away a mental note to ask Gran about these things later. The chances of him forgetting were high, what with this host body and it’s leaky, faulty memory unit and whatnot. If he were the type to pray to deities or higher beings, which he was not, he would have asked for one of them to repair his forgetful ways.

“Next combatants.”

Sepeti snorted as he was jolted out of his meditation by Ms. Lina’s loud clap. The prelims had passed without much for him to fuss about. He’d easily won his second match and had planted himself in the winner’s bracket next to the brawny woman, Helena. She’d nearly talked his ear off as they watched the rest of the examinees continue to fight. Before long, he’d lost himself in meditation. He didn’t like the idea of becoming one of those weird sage people who only ever worried about cultivating their cores and circulating their manas. But it was a necessary step to continue to temper his weak body so he did it whenever he had spare time. And it was a good scapegoat so he wouldn’t have to engage in inane conversations.

“Attention, my dear little birdies!” Sepeti flinched as Ms. Lina addressed the group. “We will now be moving into the single elimination loser’s bracket round. All loser’s bracket examinees, please line up in front of me so we can get this show on the road.”

Sepeti yawned as the loser’s bracket shuffled by him and his fellow winners. Most of the winners bracket group came from his original NG line. Unfortunately, young Malia had dropped her last two matches and ended up in the losers bracket. Sepeti was both relieved and a bit disappointed that she wouldn’t be able to join him in the winner’s bracket.

“All winners brackets, please line up here,” the assistant instructor in charge of Sepeti’s line announced once the losers bracket was lined up in front of Ms. Lina.

As he watched the other winners' brackets meld into his line, Sepeti couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed in himself. He realized that he’d neutered his chances of advancing by not paying attention to the other rings, let alone his own. It really was quite stupid of him to decide to meditate rather than gaining information on his adversaries.

“So, you can handle yourself. Better than that dumbass Nik, anyway. Good for you,” a familiar feminine voice said as the strange woman swaddled in black flopped down next to him. “Shoulda expected as much from somebody who could sneak up on me. Your name’s Sepeti, isn’t it? Mine’s Willa. No hard feelings for earlier, eh? We were just caught off guard. That’s all. I definitely was. I had the probabilities of meeting someone interesting, other than lanky fucker over there, hovering right around two to three percent. So I wasn’t really expecting to meet someone who could skirt my spatial awareness.”

Before Sepeti knew what was happening, Willa had shaken his hand, made herself comfortable, and was already deep into a conversation he wasn’t even sure he was a part of. It was easy to mask his surprise, seeing as part of his face was obscured by his eyepatch, but his brain froze as he struggled to keep up. He chose to let her continue speaking.

“I’d thought my info networks would be good enough to catch everyone, but you proved me wrong. Where you from? I for sure never saw you around before. Me and Nik came from the mainland. Heard the Hunters out here are a little more active, what with all the business from the outer islands and stuff. How long you been here? You with anyone?”

“Not here,” Sepeti grunted as he tried to adopt an air of mystery. She spoke so fast that he was having a hard time cutting in to get a word across. He was already feeling tired from trying to keep up.

“Oh, you don’t wanna say? That’s fine with me. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough,” she winked at him as she adjusted the scarf that was double looped around her neck. Why the hell was she wearing a scarf on a half-desert island? Now that he looked at her closer, she didn’t look like she belonged at all. Her black clothes appeared to be an attempt to make her look stealthy but it just made her stand out amidst the sea of dressed down examinees who were all wearing worn, generously used clothes that would allow them to move easier in a combat situation.

Recognition dawned as a niggling memory from his homeworld wriggled to the forefront. He remembered some of the media he’d studied when his parents had taught him and his brother about the mirror worlds. Some of the stuff they’d studied had been the various forms of popular media from their sister planets, specifically the one called Earth. And here was someone who was very obviously emulating one of the most popular shadow figures of those picture books and videos he’d imbibed in. Maybe there was a group of secret villagers or a highly militarized country on this world who dressed and acted that way.

Maybe. But he didn’t believe in coincidences.

Sepeti hid his suspicion as he tried his best to act normal. As much as he disdained getting mixed up with locals, he loathed the thought of getting caught up in the shenanigans of other Offworlders. Especially if they were ones from Earth. He was already saddled with a quest involving an Earthly Offworlder, he didn’t need to get tangled up in the mess any others might create.

“Well, I’m pretty knowledgeable about the Hunters entrance exams. And I know, for a fact, that tomorrow's field exam is weighed much more heavily than this one. All you have to do today is prove your competence. Most of us in the winners bracket have already basically done that. What we should be focusing on is getting ready for tomorrow. Field exams are almost always conducted in a group setting. Since you seem pretty capable and interesting, how about you form a group with me and Nik? We can shore up our numbers with some other capable folks before the end of the day. Then we won’t have to worry about forming our group tomorrow, which will probably be another test in and of itself. The Collective loves making everything a test.”

“I’ll think about it,” Sepeti mumbled as he pushed himself to his feet. He needed to get away from her. A headache was beginning to form, right around his brow line, and he wanted to be free from the incessant chatter.

The young woman was still talking as he walked away. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t even realize that he’d left for at least a few minutes. He needed to get himself some headspace, being around all these people was taking its toll and having someone nattering away in his ear wasn’t helping. As he walked away from the group, a hand touched his shoulder.

What the hell was up with people touching him randomly?

“You should be careful of that one,” a smooth, proper voice said. Sepeti looked up and found himself eye to eye with the cold, hard gaze of the one Willa had called the “lanky fucker.” The man’s noble demeanor was even more apparent up close. His shoulder length brown hair hung across his face. His face was tight, as if he were in pain. “Her and her partner have garnered a reputation since arriving on island.”

“Good to know,” Sepeti said as he shrugged the man’s hand off his shoulder. “I figured as much.”

He continued to walk away from the group, letting the sound of Ms. Lina’s echoing announcements drown out the slowly building headache. He began to trace the perimeter of the training grounds. Each step allowed him to sink into a meditative state as his breathing slowed. It had become nearly second nature for him to meditate regardless of what he was doing. A small part of him worried he was becoming a bit too dependent on the euphoria meditation provided. The dopamine rush was definitely addicting. Was he really going down the path of one of those weird old sages who spent years of their abnormally long lives cultivating and pondering on stupid things?

Nah, he couldn’t possibly become one of them. Sure, if he was to add up his age when he’d been taken from ‘Oseni and how long he’d spent on the world of the Machina, then he was well into the triple digits as far as conventional age went. But that was a limited view. At least, he thought it was.

The sound of crashing glass once again pulled him away from his meandering thoughts. The losers bracket line was now much thinner. It appeared that those who were knocked out of the losers bracket matches had been dismissed right after. He saw young Malia squatting near the back of the line and a small part of him was happy the young woman had survived the round.

“Gather ‘round everyone! The loser’s bracket portion is done. Time to move on to the fun stuff!” Ms. Lina’s voice was much louder than before. Sepeti didn’t understand why she needed to raise her volume when there were fewer people in the training grounds. “Losers bracket, you folks stay put. Winners bracket, I want you folks to separate yourselves into those with one loss and those with no losses. Chop chop!”

She clapped, not as hard as the first time, and the sound of shuffling feet filled the arena. Sepeti noticed that the summoned rings were much smaller than before. He wouldn’t be too surprised if the shrinking enchantment happened to have a shorter time limit as well.

“Ms. Lina is as impressive and aggressive as I’ve heard,” Willa said as she fell into line next to Sepeti. “Did you know that she always runs the fastest practicals? Most of the other instructors like to run theirs as a spectacle, opening viewing to the public and making a show out of the exams. But she has a reputation for short, sweet, and fiery practicals that barely go past the two hour minimum limit the Collective suggests for prospects to set aside.”

Sepeti sighed softly, trying his best not to show that he wasn’t comfortable being around the chatterbox. He appreciated the commentary but she was a bit much.

“She also has the highest injury rates too. I heard it’s because she believes that examinees need to experience pain and injury in a controlled setting to weed out those who want to join the Collective just to ride out the benefits. And I agree with her.”

“You talk a lot,” Sepeti said as he slid his useless axes and whip off of his belt. He piled them at his feet and kicked them aside. He’d made up his mind after his second prelim win that he wouldn’t be needing them anymore.

The woman barked a short laugh. “Yeah, I get that all the time. Can’t help it. Grew up talking and just never got used to not talking. Helps me organize my thoughts and all, ya know? Why you doing that?”

“Don’t need ‘em.”

Before Willa could find another topic to expound upon, Ms. Lina raised her hands once more.

“We will begin with matches between the losers bracket winners and the single-loss group. Seeing as there are a few more single-loss examinees, we will slide some of the no-loss examinees over into slots. As with the loser’s bracket, this will be single elimination.”

Sepeti saw his chance to get away from Willa’s constant prattle, at least for a short time. He raised his hand and walked toward the nearest assistant instructors.

“I’ll fight somebody.”

The instructor nodded before rattling off six more names and directing them to the single-loss line. As Sepeti walked away, he caught a glimpse of Willa poking at his discarded weapons with a sour look on her face. He hoped that he would be able to keep his distance from the strange young woman but had a feeling it would be hard.

As Sepeti expected, the single elimination matches moved fast. Very fast. The rings shrunk at fifteen second intervals. The longest a match had lasted was one minute.

His opponent was a stocky little man wielding a greatsword that was nearly twice his height. Despite how unwieldy the sword looked in his hands, the man hefted it around with ease. Yet the sword's weight still seemed to be a problem for him. Sepeti only had the cesti. He’d decided he was going to be extra aggressive. If aggression was expected then that was what he was going to give.

The stocky man swung at Sepeti before he even had two feet in the ring. Sepeti rolled forward, ducking just under the dulled blade. He launched himself toward the man, using the momentum of the roll. A kick caught the stocky man's shoulder. He fell away from Sepeti, blade anchoring him and skewing his stumble.

Sepeti hopped after him, hands high and tight. A jab-hook to the man’s exposed body elicited a yelp, back free game as he wrestled with his weighty weapon. He turned, swinging the blade horizontally. Sepeti closed the distance, sliding under the off balance chop. An uppercut slid through the man’s defenses as the large blade skidded through the dirt. His jaw crunched loudly as a second uppercut landed.

Sepeti pushed the man with one hand, gaining just enough space to throw a looping cross. His armored fist caught the man in the jaw again. The man’s legs gave out as he fell to his knees.

Sepeti hit the stocky man with one more uppercut.

“Winner, Sepeti.”

“That last one hadn’t been necessary, had it?” Malia asked as Sepeti walked toward the back of the line. The young woman had won her match and she practically glowed with confidence. He was happy that she was the one keeping him company now rather than Willa the chatterbox.

“The ring wouldn’t have let me out until he was completely out.” Sepeti wasn’t sure if that was true but it seemed to assuage the young woman.

He took stock of the remaining examinees. Their numbers dwindled now and everyone that was left had already proven they were able to hold their own in a combat situation. Sepeti was surprised to see the broad shouldered man, Niklaus, had somehow clawed his way out of the loser’s brackets. The man had ditched his dual swords at some point and was now huddled with Willa near the no-loss group.

“Who do you think’s gonna be the hardest to get by?” Malia asked.

“Dunno.”

“I think those two,” she jutted her chin at Willa and Niklaus. “Helena, Mikael, Jovan, and Fey.”

She pointed out each of the people she named. Malia had obviously been paying much more attention than he had. She was smart and useful. He committed the names to memory, noting that the lanky noble guy was just as weirdly named as he’d expected.

“You wanna group up tomorrow?” Malia asked somewhat timidly. “I heard talk from some of the others that field exams are usually group events.”

“Maybe,” Sepeti said. A part of him wanted to. A larger part than he was willing to admit to. But he just couldn’t bring himself to utter the words. “I’ll think about it.”

“Well, you have some time to think. It’s understandable if you want to group up with Willa and Niklaus. He was all but bragging about how his partner was going to recruit all the best prospects. And you were the main one he pointed out.”

Sepeti snorted. He’d considered it but he just didn’t like the pair. That and the warning he’d received from Jovan, the lanky fucker, was enough to make sure that he wouldn’t be grouping with them.

“Surprising,” Sepeti said. “Thought he’d still be mad.”

“He was but he got over it pretty quick. Guess he’s not as big of a kid as he appears.”

The final match concluded and the loser left the training grounds.

“All right, we’re getting down to it! Time for the no-loss crew to put their records on the line. Everyone get all good and mixed up, we’re going with a random order for this round.”

The two groups of examinees came together and Sepeti noticed that there were now less than twenty people left over. The math didn’t add up, he’d expected for there to be more. Malia was also looking around the room, counting under her breath.

“That’s weird,” she whispered.

“Yeah, way less than there should be.”

“I see you two noticed as well,” Willa interjected. Her voice wasn’t annoying, thankfully, so listening to her was bearable. Just barely. “Ms. Lina dismissed some of the more disappointing winners. Even though it looked like she was only watching over one ring, she was actually paying attention to every single match. She’s flying through this exam. Maybe she has an important date or something set up for later.”

Sepeti didn’t bother engaging. It was obvious the young woman would stubbornly find a way to join any conversation with someone she was interested in.

“You’re Malia right? You’re pretty good. Wanna group…”

Sepeti tuned the conversation out as best he could as she launched into her spiel. He caught the look on Malia’s face out of the corner of his eye and relished in the fact that someone else had to endure Willa’s barrage.

“All righty!” Ms. Lina boomed, cutting off the hubbub that had begun to fill the arena. “I’ll be calling out your numbers, step forward when I call you and be ready to get going. We’re gonna make this an ultra fast lightning round!”

She rattled off a set of ten numbers and, somehow, Sepeti’s hadn’t been called. Willa, Malia, and Niklaus all stepped forward as theirs had been called. They all entered their respective rings and the random draw round commenced.

Sepeti watched the matches and grew bored within seconds. Sure, he could study each combatant to gain the upper hand in the very likely case he would be facing them soon, but that was boring. He wanted some surprise in these matches. So far, none of his fights had been all that exciting. Ms. Lina hadn’t been lying when she’d claimed that they would be lightning rounds. Every single fight lasted no more than thirty seconds a piece. The rings shrunk at a constant rate as soon as both combatants set foot in the space.

Willa and Malia advanced easily while Niklaus had found himself at an extreme disadvantage, what with his insistence that he would be using his bow and arrows causing him to be bum rushed and pushed out easily. The man was definitely an idiot.

“Next bunch, let’s go!” Ms. Lina cheered as she waved the remaining examinees into the rings.

Sepeti found himself approaching the same ring as Helena, the brawny hammer-wielding woman. She nodded at him before they stepped into the ring. The sound of crashing glass rattled all around them as they instantly engaged one another.

Helena threw her hammer. He weaved out of its way using as little motion as possible, lowering his center of gravity as he caught her charge. She’d become too dependent on her shock and awe approach.

She threw her shoulder into his chest and Sepeti let out a little gasp. She was a lot stronger than he’d expected. And heavier than she looked. His legs weakened as she began pushing him toward the shrinking edge of the ring, feet sliding through the loose dirt. Panic bloomed in his gut and he began activating skills at random.

Time slowed, an odd target appeared above Ms. Lina’s head for some reason, his mind felt tighter somehow, his hands began repositioning on their own as he readied to flip the woman over, and his feet sunk into his shadows and negated all of the woman’s forward momentum. Helena grunted as her feet slipped out from underneath her.

Sepeti’s feet popped back out of the shadow and he quickly slid one around her outside foot. He pushed with one arm and pulled with the other while he fell backward. The brawny woman flew through the air, lips twisted in surprise.

The pair hit the ground outside the ring, Helena further outside than Sepeti.

“Winner, Helena!” Ms. Lina yelped as she clapped. “Fantastic you two! Excellent match! Very close there, Mr. Sepeti, very close. Almost had her. That was some impressive footwork.”