Sam has an unpleasant trip in the back of a cramped troop carrier. All of them are wearing their armour and the fat man is taking up the space of 3 people himself. Sam is wearing his sports uniform and without weapon currently squished in the corner.

The carrier comes to a stop; the golden striped contenders walk out before the fat man struggles to get out, taking two minutes just to get out wiggle and squirm his way out.

Sam is stuck waiting to get out, when he finally does they’re all mocking him for his plight.

‘Is this high school?’ Sam thinks to himself as he recalls their antics.

He wants to say something to these people acting like children before him yet a loud whistle comes from the distance. Everyone’s attention is drawn to it immediately where they spot what looks to be the Instructor.

The instructor is far away at what looks to be a large floating chunk of metal. It’s a remote location that seems to have nothing but a platform and a floating chunk of metal.

“What is this?” the fat man speaks up before anyone else can.

“It’s far away is what it is, let’s move closer.”

“Obviously, I meant what is the metal doing here?”

“Is it storage?” one of the golden striped people asks.

“Is it something ancient?” another one of the questions.

Sam hurries his steps as they devolve into inane questions, he arrives by the instructor that is standing at the bottom of the platform now. The instructor doesn’t speak until the others arrive shortly after.

“Welcome, I bet you’re wondering what this is?”

“Sure.”

The instructor smiles, “This is something simple, it’s a big chunk of metal,” his smile contains a glare that causes shivers to go up the spine of the person that spoke.

It takes a moment for anyone to dare to speak up, “We… know that… sir.”

“If you want answers, be more specific, if you want to know what this is. It’s a big chunk of polymer-iron-something mix. They energise the polymer iron with…,” the instructor stops speaking and clears his throat, “You have to ask the science nerds for exacts. Are you wanting to know why this is here?”

Everyone nods, the instructor continues.

“It is here to act as a beacon, it is vibrating at a high frequency that we cannot hear. It will also piss off any birds and monsters in the area but beasts loooove it. They love it so much they wanna love it.”

“So they try to walk here?”

“No. Let me finish. They love it so much that they’ll come here and try to eat the power cables going into it. The power cables that route a large important backup cable run, we cannot have that…”

“So?”

“So…?,” the instructor’s eyes almost glaze over as he looks at the person that just spoke, “So? Did you just say so to me?”

“Sir… sorry sir, please continue explaining, sir…”

This person almost seems like they’ll break down crying if the instructor continues to stare at them like this. The instructor lets out a sigh and massages his temple before continuing.

“Tthis chunk of metal is, A) disposable and B) replaceable. Thus I present to you all the condition, whoever can do the more damage to this chunk of metal shall win. I will ignore the blatant disrespect you have shown me and the traditions of where we are, if you win,” the instructor glares at them all, “but if you don’t, I don’t care if you are part of the contender squad…”

All of them except Sam blow off this challenge.

“Easy, I cut thicker things all the time.”

“I had to cut thicker to get into contender”

“What if we cut it long ways?”

Sam smiles and shakes his head, he can see that there’s something not simple about the block of metal. The fat man doesn’t seem so arrogant as the others, he is looking at the block of metal with a serious eye.

“If you cut it long ways then I’ll give you all my credits I have accumulated over the past 2 years.”

“That’s like…. 300,000 credits at minimum…” the three golden-striped people mumble amongst themselves while the fat guy walks up to the metal but is pushed back by an invisible barrier.

The fat man forces his hand through the barrier before walking back shaking it, Sam can see that it’s glowing red.

The instructor laughs as he spots the hand, “Yeah that’s how it works. Didn’t you hear me tell you that it stops beasts? Well you guys gonna start or what?”

“How are we doing this?” one of the gold stripe people asks.

“I’m not sure…”

No one steps up, Sam speaks up after waiting a few moments.

“Why don’t we just hit as hard as possible with each other's weapons. They’re all given to use by the military right?”

The others all nod at the same time, the fat man speaks up after, “then we’ll show our strength with our own weapon right?”

“Sure, since you guys said you wanted my great sword then I assume you’re all going to use one?”

The golden stripe people nod, they each play with their fingers. Sam looks at them and spots some rings.

The first one summons a large claymore, it’s covered in golden decorations and doesn’t seem like a killing weapon. The second one summons a large broadsword, it looks as though it's twice the size of a normal one. A chunk of metal is missing in it.

The final person summons a very long sword, a long and thick sword that emanates a cold sensation, Sam rubs his eyes as though he can sense some spirits coming from it.

The instructor looks at that sword, “The mitsuryuu family sword, I heard it was lost…”

“I’m surprised you know it instructor. Yes my uncle found it when he was exploring some ruins, he was able to claim it after some years but had moved on. He passed it down to me, I’m quite happy with it.”

The instructor smiles and doesn’t say anymore, he walks over to fat man giving him a giant hammer. The single hammer just looks like a giant mallet to Sam, he picks it up with easy and sits down on the ground.

The instructor walks over to Sam, he quietly passes him the weapon that was stored until now, the one these people have been after, the harbinger.

Sam picks up the sword and feels the evenly distributed yet not heavy weight as it emits a soft hum.

The other people are almost drooling over its appearance but they don’t dare make a wrong move with the instructor here.

“Do we take some practise swings?”

“Hurry up.”

One of the golden stripe people walks towards the metal chunk, everyone else has moved far away.

It’s the person with the golden claymore that has moved up first, he’s standing near the metal. He tries to place his hand on it and suffers burns like the fat man too.

He doesn’t suffer any damages as he pulls back his sword, his stance is firm and his sword is flat and unwavering.

Sam nods his head at the stance, the sword glows a red colour and then a purple colour.

“HAA!”

The man strikes out once the sword turns gold, “Golden strike!” he yells as the sword contacts the barrier around the metal.

*TNK*

His sword is bounced back in an instant, everyone is stunned by what happened. The next person is up with the same sword, the same effect happens.

They turn to the instructor, they seem confused and angry at the situation yet the instructor laughs in their face as they explain the situation.

“You call yourself contenders? You interrupted my class for this juvenile stuff. We are in the military here. You are unaware of a simple anti-magic field? It will negate anything unable to overcome the barrier. That’s either through sheer force or negating the barrier.”

Sam nods, this is stuff that is in the guidebooks and manuals. His heavy sword, harbinger has enough weight in it that it will do some real damage to something like this but these other people will not be able to do anything to it without mana.

“You cannot rely on your battle skills, your monster skills or your own mana reserves when you're out in the wilds. IF you cannot even rely on your own teammates then how will you survive?”

“I don’t know what they teach you in your camp but do you know what to do if you come across a dire-wolf? What if it’s an infected dire-wolf? What if you find a swarm creature? What if you find an alien creature?”

“Are you still going to break this pillar in half?”

The few of them shake their head, the fat man looks at the pillar.

His eyes glowing a red, he jumps onto his feet holding a large hammer.

Everyone else watches him as he starts jogging, he picks up speed and approaches the pillar.

He raises the large wooden hammer above his head, a faint shadow of a large ape appears above him but his next move stuns everyone. The large ape's hands throw him up in the air, Sam watches this closely as these moves betray the guys appearance.

The fat man tumbles high in the sky, everyone is waiting for something to happen.

“Is something on fire up there? Does he have a fire element thing?”

“No… he should have a wooden element ape… ”

Sam wonders how those things are happening, he looks to the instructor for an explanation.

“Once the monster hatches, if it’s humanoid it can do things like that. He must be a contender too.”

“I thought monsters couldn’t appear in the world like this?”

“They only can exist like this for a brief moment, they can only impact their owner. It’s only useful for things like that. The interference is minimal thus is permitted. ”

Sam ponders these words for a moment before nodding, “Thank you for your guidance, Sir.”

The instructor nods as they watch the air, the fat man has stopped spinning in the air but he’s almost out of visible range.

“Is he falling?” someone says.

“I think so.”

Sam squints into the sky, he cannot tell either.

The large ape appears in the air again, the hammer suddenly appears huge from the ground yet still looks on fire. He picks up a huge amount of speed as the huge weapon approaches the ground.

“Should we get back?”

The instructor smiles, he does not respond nor does he move. The group stands there watching the spectacle in the sky quickly approach them.

Sam watches intently yet crouches to prepare himself.

A heat approaches as the hammer is almost 400m large and red hot.

The hammer gets smaller and smaller as it approaches the metal chunk.

It returns to normal size yet it’s an incredibly deep red colour, it almost seems like it’s twisting something around it. The instructor nods upon seeing this while Sam looks on confused.

The hammer slams down on the metal chunk, the momentum, mass and everything else have combined into this one strike.

*BOOOOOM*

*boom*

A large cloud of dust is kicked up blocking vision for a moment, “What was that second boom?” someone asks.

Sam looks over in that direction, he can spot the fat man’s legs sticking out of some shrubs and broken branches.

“Might need medical?” Sam says as he points towards it.

Everyone looks in that direction, the dust clearing enough to allow them vision of it too. The instructor sighs and looks to Sam.

“Make the paperwork worth it.”

“How?”

“Surprise me” the instructor walks over to fish the fat man out of the bushes.

Sam picks up his sword and walks over to the metal chunk, he feels intimidated by how big it is yet he feels like it’s a challenge that isn’t insurmountable. It might not be possible now, but at some point soon it might be.

The fat man left no mark on the metal chunk so if he can beat that then he wins… maybe. They haven’t used each other's sword but Sam doesn’t have any interest in them.

This right now is purely a test of his strength, his strength before reaching Stage 1 and training for a few weeks.

Sam holds his sword out, he takes a practise swing.

‘The sword feels light…’

He takes another practise swing, practising his breathing before pulling it back once more.

He calms his mind as he pushes the thoughts of his family, his future and all the people he knows. The things he has gone through so far, he pushes it out of his mind yet he cannot control it. His body starts twitching as his breathing gets heavy.

His breathing turns into an almost guttural growl, yet after a moment it returns to normal.

‘Calm mind… Calm mind… the melody…’

He takes one final breath and,

“AHHH”

He slashes forward.

He puts all of the force he can muster in this force, his muscles scream at him as he pushes the sword forward.

The ridiculously heavy sword screams through the air.

Sam pushes it further, pushing his muscles to their limit before the sword makes contact with the metal.

The grip becomes shaky but he holds onto it tightly, his recent hand wounds bleeding again as he puts pressure on it and pushes through the barrier and onto the metal itself.

*BOOOUAOAUM

*CHHH*

Sam pulls the sword back, he didn’t get blown back like the fat man nor did he fail completely like the other three but did he do anything?

He looks at the metal, everyone except the fat man comes over.

“Did you do anything?”

“It made a sound like it but I couldn’t tell, it was weird.”

The instructor comes forward, he points at a spot on one of the random edges, “This here.”

They all look in closely at it, a thin little strip appears in the metal. It’s bubbling like it has blood that is healing itself.

“Congratulations, you can study the manual if you want” the instructor says.

“Sir, I thank you for the honour but, I wilL have to reject your generous offer for now. Could I perhaps ask you later after I think things over and learn more?”

“Sure, it’s a commitment anyways.”

The golden stripe people look at the fat man passed out on the ground, they look at Sam and his sword for a moment before talking amongst themselves for a moment before approaching Sam and the instructor.

“We would like to apologise for the intrusion to your class, we would like to offer your student to take part in an upcoming operation for contenders. That’s how we know… him,” they point to the fat man, “your strength qualifies.”

Sam looks at the instructor, “Am I permitted to attend something like that? I know this is the military?”

“You people need to study regulations more…” the instructor says while walking away.

“Sir, what about him?”

“I will send medical to collect him, you should return to where you are meant to be. You should look at the time.”

“Oh shi—

“Sir, sorry sir. We’ll be off. I will put your name forward.”

Sam nods his head and waves them off, overall they didn’t seem too bad. Arrogant but if you could prove your strength then they seem ok. It doesn’t stop them from being assholes though.

“Tonak, what skill did you use?”

“Move?… I used none.”

“I see…,” the instructor squints his eyes, “we might need to check your pre-lit status, your hands need checking so make sure they do that too. I’ll ensure medical gives you a thorough run down.”

“Sir, yes sir.”