The air hissed. I avoided the blade aiming for my neck by crouching to the ground, then I sprang up and swung my mace against my assailant. My attack was intercepted by the guard of the sword, but the attacker distanced itself from me, avoiding my follow up headbutt.

“You’re doing good~” said Marnie cheerfully.

Although she was complimenting me, I was slightly annoyed. After all, I knew she was still not taking our spar quite as seriously as I wanted. I decided to anger her.

“Come on, old hag, let’s fight for real” I provoked Marnie.

“What did you say?!”

She furiously rushed at me, letting go of the short sword she had been using and brandishing the great sword she had kept strapped on her back since a moment ago. Once she had reached me, she performed a vertical slash from above. I extended the hand holding the buckler to protect myself. I opened my eyes wide and, a single moment before the impact, I let go of the shield and threw my body backwards, just in time to see the sword cleanly cut the shield in half.

My field of view narrowed and concentrated on Marnie’s movements. Following up immediately with her attack, she started a horizontal slash. Before she could complete it, I launched my mace against her head, forcing her to stop and take a step to the side to avoid it. I didn’t let go of the opening and went in for a tackle. Unfortunately, she answered with a mounting knee which hit me directly on my chin.

My vision flickered, but I did not stop. I grabbed the leg and lifted Marnie, trying to slam her into the ground. Once again, I was hit by a flying knee, this time at the side of my head. With all my strength disappearing, I let go of her leg and collapsed on the ground on all fours.

“... Ok, let’s stop here” said Marnie.

From her tone, she seemed a little ashamed of herself for losing control this easily.

“Anyway, you, don’t talk like that!” she reprimanded me, while lightly slapping me on the back of my head.

“Yes, ma’am” I giggled.

While sending me a reproachful look, she helped me get up and used her hand to dust off my clothes.

“I know it’s not the first time I say it, but you are truly a monster. In less than a year you will be ready to become operative”

I welcomed Marnie’s words. It was true I had been improving at an incredibly quick pace.

Almost an entire year had passed since my arrival in the Gamma Perimeter. Except for the start, my life here had been quite pleasant. I had a simple but fulfilling routine, consisting of waking up, eating, getting beaten up by Marnie, eating, getting beaten up a little more, eating, washing up and finally getting some sleep. Once a month, the last Friday of each month, Faye and I met up and discussed our plans. Fortunately, everything had been proceeding swiftly. The development of all the necessary Forming techniques had been much quicker than I could have ever imagined and, according to Faye’s words, in a year's time we should have been ready to proceed with the first treatments.

Marnie handed me a water canteen, distracting me from my thoughts. I gulped down all the water then let the canteen fall to the ground. As usual, someone would later come to collect it and put the weapons back in their place.

We exited the underground and went outdoors. The wind helped dry my sweat. I felt refreshed. Although not much time had passed since the concussion Marnie had inflicted me, I had already recovered. At these times, I particularly appreciated being an archuman: I could play around as I wanted without caring much about the consequences.

Suddenly, I saw a man rushing towards us from the direction of my dorm. He stopped in front of us two

“John Doe?” he asked.

I answered with a nod.

“Urgent notice for you”

He handed us a letter, which Marnie took, and then sprinted away before we could ask any question. Looking at each other full of curiosity, Marnie opened the letter and read what was inside. Soon, her expression clouded. She closed her fists, crumpling the letter in her hands.

“Who is the bastard who talked” Marnie muttered under her breath.

“What’s going on?” I asked alarmed.

Marnie turned to me.

“The Sloan Household has requested your presence”

“The what?”

Confusion hit me.

“The Sloan Household. It’s the “noble family” which manages the Gamma Perimeter external interactions. They had promised to stop taking our talents, but it seems like they don’t think that applies to you. I was sure we had kept you well hidden…”

The situation seemed quite dire.

“So, now what?” I pressed her to continue speaking.

“Now, nothing. We cannot refuse their request. We can't keep you hidden here forever. I'm sorry”

Her expression was distorted. She was both furious and desperate.

Suddenly, a memory came to mind. I was with Faye and we were talking about various things, one of which was the Sloan Household. It was a group of archumans of relatively low importance, based in the Beta Perimeter and which since a long time ago had extended their influence to the Gamma one. Due to their numbers, the locals had not been able to repel them. They regulated the flow of supplies to and from the other areas. Even the guards stationed around the Gamma Perimeter were members of that Household. Officially they were there to protect it, in practice they were an occupation force.

They were quite despised around here, because for years they had been "recruiting'' talented archs from the Gamma Perimeter. No one had ever returned home. Or rather, no one had ever returned home alive. From the number of caskets, it seemed like the local archs were used as cannon fodder.

I gritted my teeth. Marnie looked at me concerned. I was seeing red. A group of nameless bastards wanted to treat me like a sacrifice. I couldn't accept something like this.

I turned to Marnie with the resolution I would certainly find a solution.

“Options? Even to buy just a little time”

Marnie fell deep in thought, trying to find something, before opening her mouth.

“... The inter-perimetral tournament is coming up in a couple of months. If we appointed you as a representative, they wouldn't be able to put their hands on you, at least until the end of it…”

“When will the representative be chosen?”

“Just after the final exams. But you are not ready! You improve fast, but it hasn't even been a year since you transitioned. We already know who will be the representative…”

“I'll be ready”

Marnie stopped talking. My confident tone had surprised her.

The inter-perimetral tournament, the annual confrontation between the young talents of each Perimeter. Although it was officially presented as an occasion to reinforce the connections between the various Perimeters, the truth was it was simple talent scouting. Groups and Households would observe the fighters and take for themselves the rising stars. If I distinguished myself, I could find a patron and free myself of this disturbance.

But this wasn't enough for me. I didn't simply want safety, I needed to vent this anger. I couldn't simply distinguish myself in the tournament, I had to dominate it. I thought my life would be a slow but steady march towards the top of the world, but I was wrong: it had to be a speedrun.

For some reason, I didn't simply feel anger. I also felt a fire burning inside of me. I had now a reason to struggle and fight, something shaking up my monotonous life. I was lacking entertainment and an actual short term purpose. This was the first true challenge in my new life, or rather, it was the first true chapter of my new life.

“Ok, I’ll buy you time somehow, until the departure of the representative” Marnie finally conceded.

With this newfound resolution, I rushed towards Faye's location. I had memorised her routine, so I knew where to find her.

I intercepted her while she was just exiting her classroom. She was surprised to see me and tried opening her mouth, but I didn't give her time to speak.

“Faye, change of plan. We do it now”