Levels 11 to 13 flew by without issue. Now, Jaid was on the Level 14 where Rezin had failed. It was obvious why when she saw what it was: a swarm of wasps. There were dozens of them, and he would have certainly been ill equipped to handle it. His hallucinations wouldn’t have provided much help here. While they could distract the wasps to an extent, they wouldn’t help with killing them. He probably tried to attack one and it alerted the rest, slowly stinging him to his virtual death.
Now, Jaid was also wondering how many bullets it took Roque to clear this—also not the best weapon against wasps. She could swing the broadside of her sword and take out a few of the time, but she’d rather take the easy way when dealing with pests like these.
Jaid once again made a few clones, all firing her railgun at the same time. She wanted to make damn sure she hit all of them at once. Watching the lightning arc from one wasp to another, frying all the little buggers in a second was oddly satisfying. She was even beginning to rethink her complaints about her sword being changed against her will.
Level 15 brought with it another jump in challenge too. The mugger was back but with a pistol this time, trigger happy to boot. Jaid was quite glad for the broadness of her sword as she hid behind it while he emptied the clip. Not wasting the opportunity, Jaid killed him quickly before he had a chance to reload.
“Ah, zjik,” Jaid spouted audibly as she dodged out of the way. Level 16 was a giant yak on a rampage. It had charged at her the moment it spawned, leaving little warning before she was trampled. By the time she managed to get her footing again, it was already angling itself up for another sprint.
Jaid didn’t prepare herself to dodge this time and stood her ground instead. Moments before she was going to get the headbutt of a lifetime, she stabbed her sword into the ground. The sharp edge was facing the yak with her full weight leaning into the hilt to keep it steady.
It was far too late for the charging bovine to change course as it stampeded straight into the blade. Jaid had never been happier that this was all virtual as fake gore splattered against her body. The yak had been split right down the middle, about halfway through. It had been an idiotic idea only a Fiend could have pulled off, but it worked surprisingly well.
Another surprise came on level 17 in the form of a friendly looking monk. The monk itself wasn’t the surprise, but more that Jaid was immediately reminded of another Fiend at the Central Peace—someone she’d be fine never meeting again. They really did look eerily familiar. Maybe they were part of the same order.
The monk suddenly dropped to the floor and attempted to sweep Jaid’s leg with their own. It would have worked if Jaid hadn’t been able to summon another clone to balance herself. She grabbed her sword and thrust it at him. This monk was pretty smart to not stay close and quickly skirted backwards out of Jaid’s reach.
With how dextrous he was, chasing him could prove difficult. Instead, Jaid summoned several clones in a straight-line ahead of her, all jabbing at the monk until she finally hit her mark. The simulation was certainly reaching the peak of how well a human could perform, and she imagined it would tick over to Lessers soon, but probably not until after Level 20.
Level 18 brought a pack of wolves and one single coyote for some reason. Maybe there was a hidden narrative at play where the wolves adopted it or something. Jaid didn’t know if this was meant to serve as mindgames or if whoever coded these challenges was just having fun. It didn’t matter much since they were still fairly easy to dispatch. One wolf had managed a chomp on her leg from behind, but it wasn’t anything serious.
The creativeness of whoever made the simulation showed in Level 19 more than any other. Jaid believed this level in particular served more as a puzzle than an actual challenge. For an experienced fighter, the answer was obvious, but anyone else would probably struggle. Two women with shotguns had appeared on either side of her. They were both taking direct aim and preparing to fire.
If Jaid were to try to attack one, she’d get shot by the other. If she tried to dodge, the odds of both missing were low. Her clones opened many avenues in this regard, but this could be easily passed by even a human. Had the monk meant to serve as a clue for this level? It was hard to guess.
When the women were just about to pull the trigger, Jaid collapsed right to the floor, laying as flat as she could. The two women didn’t have time to change their aim, and shot each other, killing both instantly. An easy answer to the problem that most probably wouldn’t think of.
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Or was it? The room ticked over to Level 20, and Jaid immediately knew she’d fallen into a trap. A Freer appeared, and since she was on the floor, there’s no way she could dodge in time. Before she could even think about moving or summoning a clone to defend herself, the beast had already launched its tongue.
The slimy pink appendage wrapped around her body and reeled her in. Several dots of pain thumped into Jaid’s body as she was impaled onto the antlers of the fake Freer, losing about half her health in one shot. This had certainly caught her by surprise, but she wasn’t really in a bad position. One summoned clone later, Jaid had sliced off its tongue to free herself, and then the monster’s head followed.
Now done with the test, the simulation stopped at Level 20 automatically. However, there was a prompt asking her if she wanted to continue. She honestly did. There had been a scoreboard with everyone’s records outside. Drim had been the only one at the highest level of 85 with all the other generals sitting in the 70s. An easy way for Jaid to prove herself by catching up or surpassing them.
Unfortunately, that would have to wait for another day. There were others who still needed to run the test so she couldn’t hog the room. Jaid did decide to stick around and watch the others, though. She justified it as gathering intel on them, but really she had nothing better to do.
The spy really had made good time, since the Fiend that had entered before her was still climbing. She made it to the monitors just in time to watch them fail on Level 19. They’d only seen one of the women, eagerly striking her down, and failed to entirely miss the one behind them that shot them in the back point-blank. It had been a one-hit kill, and surely a surprise when they realized they’d failed.
Tize had taken Kaizu’s place after her success and was doing well. Even though he was only just using human military tactics, it was clear he’d pass with no problems. Niloy showed up a few minutes later to replace the failed Fiend. Jaid watched in awe as she had the quickest clear yet.
Niloy entered the room then began spinning in a circle, spraying her water guns the entire time. Jaid imagined that she was melting anything that appeared right away with her Curse, eviscerating them without even seeing what they were. The numbers on the wall literally ticked up without stopping until Level 10 where Niloy actually had to find the damned Groundpecker. After which, she resumed her whirlpool of death and cleared all 20 levels in under two minutes.
Chorus was an interesting watch, and they certainly took the longest. They were filming each level, constantly trying to get the best shots of the fight. In almost every level, they’d change into a new combat outfit to keep things fresh, disposing of the enemy with whatever accompanying tool or weapon they had.
On one level, they were a construction worker, taking down the thugs with a nail gun. For Level 10, it seemed they also had the same thought as Jaid and changed into a golfer’s outfit. After they slapped the little bugger across the room, they even did some classic golf poses for the camera.
It seemed they got a bit too cocky or were taking too much pride in their work. On level 18, they immediately dispatched the coyote, but didn’t touch the wolves. Instead, they changed into an outfit made of wolf pelts and began posing with them. It turned into a full photoshoot, but the wolves never stopped attacking Chorus. They must have gotten lost in it, since they never seemed to notice their health dropping and eventually tick to zero.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to get actual wolves to film with?!” was Chorus’ justification to a clearly disappointed Nachi. Jaid could see that they’d pay for that answer later as she could already see the wheels turning in Nachi’s head of how to make them suffer. Another Lesser attempted afterwards, failing at the first appearance of a gun, leaving only Kaizu and Tize as the last Lessers still in the test.
Itsy was of course the final member who showed up groggy and annoyed. She’d probably hoped the others would take longer so she could get more sleep. Maybe it was that grogginess driving her, but she plowed through the test almost as fast as Niloy had. Anger was definitely a factor as Itsy literally ripped every single enemy apart with her bare hands. “Going back tuh bed,” she announced the moment she stepped out of the simulation room.
Nachi looked like she meant to stop Itsy, but after one glance at her angry, tired eyes, she decided against it. “Well, guess we’re done testing until Itsy wakes up again. It doesn’t really matter when we do it, but we can’t actually do it here. Bisomote is far too remote for the next test, so we’ll be going to Hedgehind.”
“Oh, I just had an idea, a wonderfully mean idea. Time for a bonus test. I’m totally not padding for time. Get to Hedgehind on your own. Don’t care how you do it, just be there. It’s a test of your resourcefulness. When Itsy wakes up, I’ll drive down there with her. If you’ve already made it by that point, you’ll have passed the bonus test.”
“Since I’m extra nice, there will be no penalty if you don’t make it, but there will be an advantage if you pass. You’ll get an extra chance in the next test before you fail. Worth it, right? It’s okay if you praise what a great leader I am or tell the higher-ups what a great job I’m doing. Run along then.”
[Rank 6 Results]
Passed: Niloy, Tize, Kaizu, Roque, Jaid, Itsy
Failed: Chorus, Rezin