The next two and a half weeks were comprised of drilling proper fighting styles into each of the trainees. A lot of sand pounding, blocking and striking dummies, and rigorous form teaching. Though, while everyone else was given free time after training, Seth and Kaz were forced through a remedial course. This mostly devolved into near endless sparring with Aegis, demanding more out of them than technical wins or bow outs. Kaz was in his element, able to keep up even when she went all out. Sword moving almost too fast to see at times, as if this was just standard training for him. Seth could hold his as well, but he had to pull power to get anywhere when she decided to push things. So at least he was getting used to restraining that whisper.

In between lessons Para continued with his ‘motivation’ tests, mostly focusing on lesser events that could have impacted the trainee’s lives. Though most of it devolved into more personal admissions than anything like the first lesson. Zeleny apparently just couldn’t fit in at home, Marco’s dad was a little too heavy on the push for him to be famous, Razor just got lucky and or something. Seth was kinda busy getting a few more ribs broken to attend most of those lessons.

Going into week two, less emphasis was placed on drilling. Instead the trainees were put through more substantial course work, which tied in to increasingly demanding hardlight crafted scenarios. Learning proper procedures for bank robberies, alien invasions, even the rare few villain attacks. They even had to fight a few of the old Terror Matrix big shots. Getting used as target practice by the sadistic sniper Tango Delta was hell, thankfully the hardlight rounds weren’t lethal. ‘Still hurt though.’ Being subjected to Ms. Maleficence’s Malevolent Mind Maze was abhorrent. ‘I no longer care for her legacy, her taste in design is abominable and deserves to burn in hell.’ Their hardest test was just fighting Gold Breaker in general. ‘Breaking an economy of greed apparently required being unacceptably strong. Thank fuck he actually had principles in the end.’ They ended up fighting a fairly wide selection and… mostly succeeded. Para even subbed in to put them through an even more hostile obstacle course. Complete with pressure plates, moving platforms, and snipers, because every obstacle course needed snipers. ‘No… no they don’t.’ By the end of week three the trainees were looking prepared to fight the world. Most had concocted their own unique fighting styles, some relying on their powers a little too much but Aegis was lenient.

David, admittedly the weakest physically, used his water powers to add propulsion to his attacks and surprise his foes with splashy but straight forward punches and kicks. A little like Ohm but with less of a smug edge. Maya and Marco teamed up to learn advanced martial arts. Maya focusing on slow stable and hard hitting forms and Marco on swift and lighter ones. She also kept up on the strength training, though that just seemed necessary given her heavy power set. Jacob took up some rudimentary boxing as a backup for his main holdout, a one-handed fire axe. He would use his axe as a focus for his powers or add ice to his punches when needed. Razor maintained his knife fighting prowess, so learned to throw his knives instead as an augment to this. ‘Razor knives are pretty easy throwables apparently.’ Kaz maintained his sword skills, but apparently his father presented him a smaller, matching, blade. Seth couldn’t remember the proper name for it, but it was meant to add more concise attacks to Kaz’s arsenal, or increase his defense.

Zeleny was tutored by Aegis on how to use her flight as an augment to her fighting style. Hovering kicks, sweeping punches, she could set up a strike from any angle if given space. Tabby took up kick boxing, though her style included a lot of swiping strikes and deep kicks. She did learn to grapple effectively though, hopefully using less teeth. Alex honed in on her copying to mimic her opponent’s style better, but seemed to spend much of her time in the stands. Seth couldn't see much, but he was sure she was writing stuff down and watching everyone closely. Kabar learned proper whip techniques, but added in knife fighting as an augment. He and Razor sparred a little, but Kabar didn’t seem too enthused. Cleo took up mixed boxing, mostly so she could still use those leather gloves. Ohm preferred to practice at his high speed and frantic style and took constructive criticism poorly, only altering his move sets when it was necessary. Probably still wanted to hide some things.

Lastly of course was Seth. He maintained his unpredictable and grapple heavy fighting style, but kept pace with everyone else in terms of speed and precision. Sparring with Aegis very much required that, but he still had to hold back. His training mostly boiled down to learning proper control based on who or what he was fighting, and who was watching. Thankfully the whisper stayed rather even whenever he tried using it. Kinda like it was restraining itself as well. With little else to learn physically, the trainees were set to have their new prowess fully tested.

They lined up on Monday as usual, Aegis and Para were waiting. But for some reason Aegis looked concerned, and not facetiously.

“Today we start individual combat tests. Not to discount any solo achievements you’ve had in sessions prior, but we need to see if you understand just what it’s like to fight alone. No back up, no advantages, nothing but you and your abilities. Powers are accepted, you’ll need to start learning to use them in conjunction with your fighting styles anyway. But really, these tests are going to require them. To say they will challenge you is…”

Aegis looked down, this was way more than a normal challenge. Para stepped up, even more hardassed than before.

“Is a disservice. You all know what I expect of you, failure. This challenge will weed out those who are truly not ready to be heroes. You will each be given a time slot for your test. These tests are personalized to a degree, but once you’re through keep your mouth shut about what your test involved. Those waiting or finished are free to use their time as they see fit. I expect you to train. For now head back to your rooms, your terminals will have the schedule by now.”

The trainees mirrored the concern on Aegis’ face and filed back out again, but Para stopped Seth before he could leave the line.

“Grab your suit, you’re up first.”

Seth lit up, but nodded and quickly headed off. He was finally going to get to use his suit and the giddiness was getting the better of him. Finally he could stop holding back too such a strenuous degree. But in the back of his mind there were still doubts. What the hell was he walking into that they would actually allow him to wear his suit? He guessed at it, but there is no way anything that arena could make would really stand a chance. ‘Shit… don’t get overconfident. Expect the unexpected, so doubly expect the worst.’ Seth stepped into his room, still unable to keep his giddiness truly at bay. His suit still stood against the bare wall, unused and wanting. He pulled the release latch to open it up, had to make sure it was still fully workable. The quiet of his room afforded him the Garkah’s insight on this test as he scoured the suit for any degradation. Speaker seeming to keep a hold of those buried doubts.

“If even the trainers are reluctant, then this challenge is more than just that. It is personal, something of deep concern that even they are afraid of facing. I… please… be prepared for the worst.”

Threat seemed stifled, he wanted to say what he thought but couldn’t. His unease came through loud and clear though.

“Whatever happens… don’t lose yourself. This is likely to get ugly fast, and might require more power than you’ve ever used before. Be ready to resist, don’t let it consume you.”

Seth cleared the last check on his suit and closed it up. A blank stare meeting him as he looked into his suit’s eyes. Those doubts staring back as the realities sank in and took hold of that giddiness. He snapped back to this world as a chime from his terminal alerted him to his timeslot. He took a breath, let those doubts wash away. ‘I’m ready for this. I am ready for this, for whatever they throw at me.’ He reached around and hoisted the collar handle about onto his shoulder. Walking back out to the arena…. Back to…

The arena was empty, the control booth was occupied, and the hardlight array was warmed up and ready. Seth put his suit down and opened it, stepping in as the array flared up around him. The view screen came up white but dimmed as the suit afforded him some protection. As the landscape came into being, Seth could see pillars in the distance. No, a tree line. It was far, thin, and black. The leading trees toppled or just gone, burned away almost to ash. The rest of this world formed around him, but found itself slowed by reflexive perception for some reason. He was in the middle of a road, or what was left of one. Asphalt cracking under foot, but caked and crowded with rubble and ash. He was in a town, leveled to the ground if not beyond that, with only a few buildings even looking vaguely like actual buildings. A warzone, craters and rubble spread out before him. The smell of cordite and… wait. ‘Hardlight can’t mimic smells. Can it?’

Just as it was perceived it faded, a memory of a smell, not a real one, subconscious. This place was familiar to him, but… he couldn’t place it. He focused on what he had sensed, what he could keep a hold of.. ‘Cordite, dust in the air, garlic, and… blood.’ Seth couldn’t fully place what this all was, why was it memorized. His perception folded as he lost focus to his hesitation. The hardlight landscape completing behind him. But it felt… off. The horizon at his peripherals was different, higher. His heart was already racing up to speed without him even knowing why. ‘But why does my body remember this place when…’

Then Seth felt it, the Garkah stirring, they knew why. But it was more than that, they knew this place, Seth knew this place. ‘They wouldn’t…’ All the hairs on his body rose as he slowly turned his head to meet the rest of this rematerialized landscape. ‘They wouldn’t!’ Every muscle tensed out wack by subconscious reflex as it all came into view. More piles of rubble waning into devastated moonscape. ‘They Fucking Wouldn’t!!!’ His eyes becoming terror incarnate as they ran up that false horizon, a black to silver gradient towering over him like a scrutinizing behemoth. He was in ‘that’ town… Berta… Beyond The Wall!!

Seth’s focus shattered like lightning as he snapped his head around, weight a nonfactor as his head shot about. ‘This isn’t real…’ He saw the rubble around him for what it truly created, crevasses, holes, dugouts, doorways. ‘This isn’t real!’ Like the man who found him in Brighton, manic and frightened, he scanned every dark place he could, breathes shortened and heart threatening to tear out of his chest. ‘This isn’t real!!’ But it all came to a torturous halt, his back straight like an iron beam and what little perceptive advantage left ground to a grim halt. As he felt them, the eyes in the dark. An intact door way down the road, a crevasse across the street, every dark corner stared at him as one. “They’re not real…” Claws pulled scaled bodies out of the dark. “They are not real!” Teeth glistened in the setting sun at his back, and eyes locked toward him… burning red eyes. “YOU’RE NOT REAL!!!”

*RRRRRAAAAAGGGGHHHHH*

A roar that shook the air apart, asphalt and rubble shattered to dust, a missile of scales and claws and teeth, and eyes devoid of that forcible desperation. Replaced only with utter hatred. But Seth couldn’t move, couldn’t react, his body wouldn’t let him. His fear, his past, those eyes, those screams, everything snuffed out whatever fire he had come in with. And only allowed him the strength to cower behind a barely hardened guard. As a clawed fist came tearing into him. Metal buckled, gel pressed and receded, tendons strained as his arms were pushed aside, and gravity stopped being a factor. As all the weight holding him back was sent screaming back into the wall. Towering strained metal clanged and cratered, and the air in his lungs was thoroughly removed.

Crunching back down to the venta blankened earth, he had the slightest moment to understand just what the hell hit him. This is way too strong, even Goldbeaker wasn't this bad. He felt about between sucking breaths, judging the damage and keeping his lungs from collapsing. The gel layer was smooshed thin, the ferroceramic was obliterated, and the suit was cracked… ‘THE SUIT WAS CRACKED!!!’ He felt the alarms in his head blare, the Garkah working frantically to restore the hull, but it required time he didn’t have a hope in hell of having. He was fighting FUCKING LACEROIDS!!

That first one crashed in again, talons tearing that dust stained moonscape and fracturing sanity apart with every beating step. Seth forced his way back up, threw another guard up in blind terror. It just swiped through it like branches on a tree, claws raking across his chest, digging ruts into the metal, sparks illuminating this shadowed corner of his own personal hell. And it kept tearing till Seth could regain his breath and guard. A shower of friction sparks and both hands shot up and grabbed the claw coming down for another, catching serrated digits in sheer desperation. Seth reeled in his resolve and the abomination in and kicked this nightmare made real away.

‘You have to fight!’ He gave the Garkah the second they needed to rebuild, but he still couldn’t psych out of the terror soaked into his bones. ‘YOU HAVE TO FIGHT!!!’ The laceroid didn’t share this physical consternation, only grew angrier for getting kicked away. It roared and charged again. Seth pulled power, poured it into the suit, hardened it as much as possible, clanging together a heavy guard to meet the assault. Only for it was the wrong guard. A claw slammed his side with an unblocked sweep, more plates buckled and cracked as all that weight was nullified completely. And whatever resolve he found left behind, as this false hell flew by. The landscape blurred like he was an utterly despised ragdoll. He skipped over rubble piles, smashed through walls, rolled across like the constrains of this place didn’t matter anymore. Until he found that end and impacted solid air. Protective layers of hardlight buckled and flared their demise as bounced off and fell to darkness crawling down over this… ‘What the fucking hell kind of simulation even is this!?!’

Seth scrambled on the ground, hacking in his suit. A crumpled plate jabbing his side, lung blood splattered the inside of the helmet. The barrier behind cried in deresolution, flashbulbs of dying hardlight constructs illuminated him as the false sun hid behind The Wall. He looked up, the view screen still working but he could see the laceroid coming again with the rest of the swarm in toe. The Garkah fixed the damage, pulled the rib out of his sternum, but the pain kept it in place regardless. An echo repeated over and over, plucked and pulled at like a grasping thought. Pushing himself back up, he could feel something clear through the pain. The abyss tugging at the back of his mind. It was yearning for that pain. Its whisper growing louder, almost becoming a low voice, an indecipherable utterance. He couldn’t fight it, he needed it. He needed to fight. He grasped at it, pulled and channeled it up into himself, but it was too late. The laceroid was crashing toward him through everything like a derailed bullet train. He yanked, poured, hardened again, using everything he could grab from the abyss, and prepped to meet the abomination's with everything he had.

Seth slammed his right hard across his left, desperate to guard against the claw coming in and recoil it away. It did not recoil. Claws hooked, cleaved plate and skin, and flung his arm out of the way. Blood trails following like contrails. But the pain just flared higher than the dread of futility, forced him to pull his left forward. Another claw already swiping up. Another hooked plate and metal rent. More blood followed suit as his last defense was shot out of the way. He could only watch as that dread defeated the deep sting of his cut open arms. As the laceroid reared back faster than he could fight the recoil and leveled another claw. Pointed straight at his head.

Seth lurched backward, desperate, pleading as that harpoon of a claw shot forward. Metal alloy shaved away, spalled to sparks as it found no purchase and ricocheted off. But this ravenous monstrosity didn't care for missing. It lurched, whipped, and slashed that metal open like a can. Slicing right through Seth’s left eye.

“AAAAaAAAAAAaahhhh!!!”

Burning red and black and bifurcated distortion swallowed half his vision, as the artificial light of this false hell filled the helmet. A gash ripped through layer after layer, down to the bone bleeding down his face. An armored hand shadowed away the pale light, tried to cover and close and stop this pain. But it could only bang against the holed helmet as Seth lost his balance. And the rest of this world along with it.

His back hit reconstituted hardlight air, the other hand fighting its own rend hard to guard for his life. ‘I... have to fight…’ The world refocusing through what view screen was left, those red hateful eyes filling it with no regard to what was possible. ‘I need to fight…’ The laceroid was rising back up, the crimson pin pricks of the hoard behind shining too bright. burning too deep in. ‘I need power!’ The abyss was churned, pain drawing it up, its call growing ever louder, audible.

“*hesshhk*”

A claw like dismissing lightning slashed his guard, more metal and flesh torn away, but its stinging agony held tight. ‘I need more!’ Seth relinquished his staunching hand into the guard and the abyss answered.

“*hesh-ka-ri*”

Another rake to throw it away but the guard did not move, metal and flesh splattered and shattered… but regenerated and reformed as soon as it was cleaved.

“More!”

The false wall at his back sparked, constructs died in radial sparks as the abyss began uttering a single word.

“*ika-ge*”

That hateful glare, brightened over its reality, roared and hammered at this stubborn refusal. Clawed away with abandon and wanton slaughter. Every blow full of sparking metal spall countered derezing hardlight and full of fresh splattering blood. But each was undone before the next could dig deeper.

“MORE!!”

The world, the pain, the memories trying to highlight this hell. The gel leaking onto his skin, the crack of his bones with every strike, the heat and cold of his blood dripping down. The world was fading, disappearing, falling away and filling with darkness. Even as Seth’s gashed through eye opened, and that same burning red raked through its layer after layer to close it shut.

“MOOOORREEE!!!”

And the abyss had answered. With the only word it could, the only word it knew, and the only thing it could ever give in return for all the pain it so vehemently absorbed.

“*Rage*”

And so the world shut tight with that helmet.

The laceroid whipped its claw to swipe again, trying to hook around this stubborn guard. But it was stopped. A plated hand caught it by the elbow. The grappling claws on the gauntlet spiked out as its own blood was splattered to the air, recoiling it from the unexpected pain. It tried to swipe from the other side, but the other hand met it and dug its own claws in. The laceroid howled, desperately trying to pull away so it could attack again, but that once refuted weight refused to budge. Even as the laceroid’s scales tore with its fight. The metal feet below, grinding ruts into the ground, shifted up and split into clanging fours. Talon armed toes stabbing down, locking, dooming.

The laceroid struggled, more flesh… more false life torn up and strained as it snapping at the helmet. But it was caught, its fate long sealed. The spine of the suit jutted out, plates converged and chunking downward into layering spikes. Continuing all the way down, extra plates clanking and expanding into a tail that skimmed the ground until it locked in opposition like a counterweight. The laceroid stared into the soulless eyes of the helmet… vain programmed attempts to intimidate. It was met by a mirror image, an armored form mimicking itself. The helmet drooped as a set of forward swept horns sprang up from its top edges, electricity arcing between them. Then it looked up, straight at the abomination that had caused Seth such unimaginable fear only a moment ago. The right eye opening with a bright blue glow like the electric plasma arcing above it, and the left burning open with a blood red burn of the wound driven through it. And no fear left in either.

A single motion, the arms shifted in, pushing the laceroid further away. And then whipping its arms out with complete abandon. Hardlight bone, meat, and sinew snapped and tore as the monster arms were taken in howling photorealistic pain. It recoiled, but no blood sprayed its life away, but it wouldn’t have mattered much. Claws released those dissolving to false dust arms, tossed them away like trash trying to pretend to be real. The legs dropped down, pulled tight, and kicked off under this pretender’s legs. Claws scooping up its tail, pulling it as he continued passed, whiplashing it’s howling away by the spine. A metal talon turned fulcrum as this abomination was sent screaming down, to the doom it was promised in shattering fashion. Its body split, splattered apart, bones shattering and tearing out every which way. What was left seemed to crackle and sputter as its false atoms lost consistency and returned to the pixelated dust it dared to be made of. Glorified after effects clearing away to a black stain, a false grave, and the fate of the rest of the horde feeling the glare of those paired burning eyes. They had stayed back, probably programmed more for intimidation factor rather than swarm tactics. But that didn’t matter… They all needed to die!

They snarled, made strange calls, a few large ones pushing through to the front. One in the middle was bigger than the one that had just been obliterated. They stared down with that hateful red, the faux sun thoroughly occluded by the horizon, sending this technicolor wasteland into artificially brightened night. The brightest star being the red menace that shined opposite the rest. The hulking laceroid reared back, pulled air into its false lungs to roar in all its programmed fury, at its horde, at its set opponent, at this empty hollow world. It never got the chance.

The rubbled ground burst, those plate mailed talons firing away with no restraint. A metal claw skewered the abomination through the chest, twisted to the left, and swiped through its side, splattering dissolving viscera over that oh so intimidating horde. The laceroid sputtered out what was left of its roar as a gurgling squeak, as the right pulled over high and swiped hard through its shoulder. The claw caught and flung the dying approximation to a spiraling disintegration.

‘They will all die!!’

No hesitation was left, no apprehension, no mercy. Seth stormed straight into the swarm, cleaving lesser abominations in half as he rampaged through them. Charging through the rubbled fake Berta, smashing through everything that once bore his fear. That once stained him like so much dust. He swung about as he returned to the road, talons scraping him to a dead stop as they tore through the approximate asphalt. The swarm followed, closed in from all angles. They clawed over one another, pushed and slashed with total abandon. With only half as much fury as they rightfully should. And all to their deserving doom.

Seth was shot forward, claw stabbing high through a lunging laceroid’s head. Pulling it hard, counterweighting passed it, stretching out a leg. Talons stabbing through the next in line as he came about. His body twisted further, snapping momentum into his midair spin as another three closed in. That talon slashing a ribbonous roundhouse kick through them, trailing their blood turning black and derezing. Long dead counterweight tossed aside, he landed and dropped and rocketed off before that talon could even stain.

Another swipe raking apart these weak approximations, direction changed suddenly in front of this disregarded horde. He ran parallel with the front rows, hacking and slashing through any in his way, carving a circle around his entrance in this hell. And refusing its hold on him any longer.

A larger body finally stopped the circumnavigation, a claw stuck in its sternum weighing him down. Talons locked down, pulling his stuck hand in close. He slashed it the rest of the way out the laceroid’s side. Splattered it to the dust it seeks to mimic. The talons released and kicked hard off the ground, borrowing that whirling momentum, pulling up tight to use that eviscerated abomination as a backstop. They barely pressed into its twitching chest before obliterating what was left, sending Seth blasting away. Three laceroids were decimated by this armored cannonball, bone and flesh splattering to black before it lost its inertia. He flipped over and repeated the process, caving in another creature’s ribcage before kicking off. The field thinned and turned to that same venta gradient, all to the sound of splattering abominations. Seth’s talons scraped him to a stop as the swarm lost its advantage of mass, most of it littering this faux street in derezing corpses.

His perception was in overdrive, everything that had once been too fast to react to had been rendered immobile by comparison. Too strong rendered hollow. Too bright rendered empty and wanting. Metallic claws as the spread out monsters came for him. One came from his left, low and clawing the ground. The left dipped and slashed upward, straight through its head. It splattered and left its body to limply fall at his feet. Another lunged from behind him, maw agape and intent on grabbing and chomping into him. Seth pivoted and swung around, the right sweeping away the monster’s extended claws and sending it sprawling beneath him. The right leg lifted over it, slamming down on another offending visage. It shattered and added itself to the crowded and dissolving pile Seth was making around him.

“Die.”

Another ran for him as his back was turned. The left shot back and harpooned it across the face. He shifted, brought it to the ground, then the right stabbed through it back like meat. Claws snatched polyester bone as he yanked out its spine, tearing the tail off with it and throwing the whole thing away.

“Die!”

Three more surrounded him, two high on his front and right, one low at his back. The low one was closest, and already dead as Seth came about in place. His right harpooning it through the over extended jaw, and carrying it on. He span faster as that laden right slammed into the next one’s head, claws crushing and digging through, harpooning another. The same fate befell the last one, three skulls skewered and smashed together. And yanked apart as he ceased his spin, decapitating and loosing the bodies to the air they filled with pitiful excuses for emptied existence.

“DIE!!”

The rest of the horde coalesced around a large laceroid that charged into him through those lifeless bodies. Springing out and grabbing him by the shoulders trying to hold him in place before turning its jaw sideways and chomping down on his helmet. It tried to pull its head back upright, tried to wrench Seth’s metallic face off, but its teeth scraped hopelessly across the hardened surface. But his retaliation… was to simply ignore the monster’s hold.

Grapple completely outmatched and unable to stop the plate mail claws from pulling around and wrapping around its jaw. They stabbed into its roof and tongue, forced its maw apart like it never mattered in the first place. He pulled it off of him and a leg kicked its knee to splinters. The claws kept it sideways as it struggled back and down, vain grapple releasing to try and free itself. The rest of the horde poured over them, clawing over one another, slashed and chomped at Seth all they could as he became covered, but utterly unfazed. The cacophony of teeth and claws grinding and breaking over armor hardened to its max meant nothing, the struggles of the larger monstrosity only delayed the inevitable. The metal claws finally locking into both jaws, seizing its skull from both ends, as that burning red eye flared, and its falsified fate was sealed.

“YOU WILL ALL FUCKING DIE!!!!”

An all mighty popping chorus crescendoed, those claws tearing the whole damn thing in half, spine and rib cage coming apart and splattering to shrapnel. The force shaking this entire hardlight coated arena, caused the lucky among the swarm over him to get knocked back. The unlucky splattered over the road by the sheer force they got in the way of. The arms threw what was left aside as a leg pulled up, a still clamped laceroid attached to it. It flipped it up and stamped through it all the way to abdomen. The left reached over his back, stabbing down and tearing another that chewed on his shoulder. It was yanked over by the top of its jaw, leaving the bottom jaw to break backward over his shoulder as it was slammed down and stomped into the fizzling pile derezing viscera surrounding Seth. The few stragglers regained footing, those who weren’t power elbowed to giblets. They clawed back toward him. Unmoving, uncaring, he let them charge their last and die for what they have done.

On his left, a claw clotheslined a bite by the upper jaw, pushing it up, snapping the laceroids neck with its own inertia. On his right, the other swiped through another head. At his back the armored tail coiled and slapped one going for his legs, rolling it away. The left whipped down and deboned the laceroid still clutched in it before he turned toward the back one. It was the last one, and cared little as he tossed its kin's falsely denaturing spine away. It charged as soon as it got its footing. Claws splattered through dissolving and decimated bodies, eyes burning with that same programmed hate. The same all or nothing lunged, the same claws extended wide and maw yearning for purchase. Seth was solid, unmoving, and thoroughly done with this hell.

The right shot out at the last second, catching and whiplashing it by the neck. Once off its forced deceleration, it clawed at the armored hand, scraping the surface but only shearing and bleeding itself on that hardened metal. It grabbed at the claw in vain attempts to pull it off, but only snapped its fingers to useless nubs. It finally stopped struggling to stare straight into those mismatched eyes, just as Seth had been. Its eyes glowed red with nothing but programmed hate, no emotion, no desperation, no burgeoning soul. Just weak approximations with nothing beyond them… Nothing… ‘but programmed hate.’

Those paired eyes shut as feeling seemed to flood back to him, as everything started to come off of... whatever he had fallen into. Like the abyss spat him back out with nothing to show for it. They opened again to just their blue dimming burn, as that final laceroid went limp and its own eyes faded out. He felt the simulation around him abate, the laceroid in his hand lighten and fall away like an ashen statue. The dust flacking away but fizzing into nothing, as the black stain coating his suit stayed. The hardlight nightmare flared around him and leaked back into its emitters. His arm falling limp as the arena went to black again, his head staring straight up in a burned out stupor, left still eye smoking from its burn. It was over, but what else began because of it.

The main door to the arena burst open, Aegis running out into the slowly illuminating arena, concern and fear spread across her face. She stopped halfway, finally seeing Seth not bloody and beaten as she expected. She saw his suit still horned and clawed, still caked in dust as black as death, still in a form she’d seen too much before but not in this kind of medium. Slowly that stain fizzled away like the rest of the false blood and bone so eagerly disappeared. So clearly leaking through despite its ceased existence. He paid little attention, emotion burned and frayed beyond what she could know. A weight like nothing he'd felt before pressing down on him.pressing that stain through to the body beneath. He dropped his head and turned to the door. Each step elicited an overweight crackle as he exhaustedly swayed. His helmet’s eyes dimmed down blank, yet belying nothing beyond them. As he drew close to Aegis the horns on his helmet snapped down into their grooves. Armored spiked toes fused back into one piece, claws retracted along with the tail. Meaty metal clinks over haggard heavy steps. Aegis’ concern hardening as his plight demanded all from her. As he halted beside her and neither faced the other.

“Para… he… he set the simulation up before I had a chance to review it. This wasn’t supposed to be dangerous, there was supposed to be just one laceroid at 20% strength… The bastard set it to 70. But… what the hell was…”

Aegis turned to regard him, reaching out a comforting hand to his shoulder. She didn’t even touch him before yanking her hand back, heat from the suit, an intense amount of heat. Seth could only look down to Aegis holding her reddening scalded hand. He dropped his head further, shakily raising his right up. Folding his fingers in a preplanned motion, pulled a plate from above a simple metal button, squeezing it tight as the expectation became a reality. All at once a pressurized hiss escaped from across the suit, followed by a cloud of extinguisher foam from between loose plates. It vaporized and sizzled, but cooled it down as it was always supposed to. But it found no chill on his skin, no bones to rattle or nip at. Nerves fried and dead to even this closed in world. He dropped his hand back down and continued walking, still swaying with what little energy he had left to move. The only sense left feeling Aegis’ concern hollow out behind him, as she could do nothing to help ease this suffering.

Seth walked under the control booth, that same sense feeling a familiar yet intensified glare through the opaque plated glass. He couldn’t return it, he could do little more than walk back to his room, to some semblance of sanctuary. He stomped through the periphery like a battered but victorious colossus, only without the stature or a real victory.

He entered and the door slammed shut, the darkness of his room the only thing greeting him as he opened his suit. His emptied body fell to the floor, forcing him to crawl the last few feet up to his bed. What could be seen of him curling up on top of it, unmoving, sobbing in the dark. This day had gone on too long already.