As the six of us bolted forward, understanding we would need to drop from the stage as Magneblade had, the voice spoke, "Try it now. Tell the suit to drop you from the stage and let everything go. No sensing, no balancing."

I tried. I told the suit what I wanted—to leap from the stage to the arena floor below—and went limp. What happened was probably a partial success. As I let my form go slack, I could feel the suit begin to twitch as though it was about to start contracting and moving. At the same time, my slackness made me feel as though I was falling to the ground, as though I would collapse. Involuntarily, I couldn't help myself, and I moved my legs, saving myself.

To my classmates and the crowd, I looked like I had stumbled, and indeed the movement caused me to lose a step on the others who dropped over the edge before me. The voice said, "That's the idea, Tiberius, but you've got to trust the suit. It will become part of you. Your fate is its fate. You need to believe that the suit understands that what's good for you is good for it."

I dropped from the stage. The fall was 30 feet, and it seemed an eternity. It took a lot of belief in the power of the suit that the fall wouldn't hurt. Almost despite myself, I flexed SHIELD as I hit the ground, and as it absorbed the impact, there were two nice outcomes. First, 1.6 faded, to be replaced with 1.7. Secondly, I bounced, almost like a ball, the kinetic energy of my fall channeled back to the ground, exploding dirt and dust and sending me back into the air. Very interesting, I thought to myself.

As I gained my feet on the ground, I looked in front of me. There was a warren of openings to the maze. Gideon, Katya, Lauren, and Zara all disappeared through doorways as I watched. Lance wasn't in evidence; he must have gone through even faster, before I could see him. I chose a doorway none of them had entered and raced down.

"There are 13 orbs," I said to myself, "and I need at least one." But as I had felt the day before, I knew one wasn't enough. I wanted the most, more than Lance or Gideon, enough to make the crowd understand I was worthy, that I was their hero. I snarled to myself. If I could get all 13, the Choosing would end today and I would be the Sword of Boston.

As I raced through the wooden corridor, I rounded a bend and barely skidded to a halt as a pair of massive jaws snapped shut an inch from my face. I jumped back, assessing the creature in front of me. The fiends we had hunted in the woods were often called Wolflings, though they were bigger than wolves. They were given the diminutive because of the existence of this creature—a Bearwolf.

The hulking bipedal monster snarled and strained at a chain from its neck to a bolt in the floor. Its massive frame towered over me, muscles rippling beneath coarse fur. The creature's eyes gleamed with a predatory intelligence, and its fangs were as long as my forearm. Its claws, sharp and deadly, scraped against the ground as it pulled against the chain, trying to reach me. Hanging from the collar of the creature was a glowing orb, the size of a large apple.

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The Bearwolf roared, the sound reverberating through the narrow corridor, sending a shiver down my spine. This was a different level of danger than anything I had faced before. The fiends in the woods were nothing compared to this beast. I could see the orb I needed hanging from a collar around its neck, glinting tantalizingly in the dim light.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself. This was what the suit was for. This was what I had trained for. I flexed my SHIELD again, feeling the power surge through me.

Even as I flexed SHIELD, I remembered what the suit had said about POWER, how it was like a muscle opposite SHIELD, not outside me but deeper within. I couldn't help but search for it, despite the beast snarling at me. I dug deep inside myself. To my shock, I became aware of something, like a fiber of my being that ran through my bones, like a chord. For a moment, I tried to make it move, to tense this tendril of somethingness, but I couldn't quite manage it. It was like trying to wag a vestigial tail that I just didn't have the neurons for.

I didn't have time for this. I needed the orb, but the Wolfbear was my pressing concern. It was like several Wolflings glued together. I had gained much skill in the suit, many attributes, but I sincerely doubted my ability to fell the thing. There was a simple psychological limitation, if nothing else. The creature towered above me, its claws razor-sharp and looking to be carved from stone. Its muscles twitched fast, faster than I could believe. There was simple instinct; this was a creature that hunted humans, that my nature led me to believe was to be fled from. My lizard brain did not understand the suit that housed me, the power I wielded. I needed to force myself forward.

I executed CUT, unsure of what to expect. The beast was smarter than its animal form might suggest. It dodged away, and I followed with a second CUT, just clipping it, singing the fur but not penetrating the hide. It must have been thicker than leather armor. Then it swung back, faster than I could dodge. I activated SHIELD, absorbing the blow. Again, SHIELD elevated, climbing to a 1.8. Exciting, soon I would have a level 2 SHIELD, but for the moment I was flying through the air, sent hurtling by the kinetic force of the powerful creature's blow.

I remembered the fall from the stage and pulsed SHIELD again as I hit the wall behind me, ricocheting back to the creature like a bouncy ball. This at least was something the creature couldn't have predicted. Defying the laws of physics, I had a heartbeat where the beast was simply startled, as I streaked through the air like a human bullet. I struck it bodily in the chest, this time too late with SHIELD to be able to use it as I had intended, but the impact punched the beast back. It reeled on its feet.

The impact jarred me too, but the suit protected me from real harm. I reached out and snatched the orb, my powerful suit muscles breaking the little steel links that held it in place. The beast reared about me, preparing to pin me down. I had a vague awareness of Magneblade standing somewhere in my peripheral vision, prepared to intervene if I was threatened with death. But that would mean ejection. I flexed CUT and swung up, putting everything I had into the movement. 1.9 faded, 2.0 replaced it, and I felt the energy of my blade surge, brighter than ever before, energy rippling from my shoulders, through my elbows, down my forearms, and through the blade like we were one thing. The force of the CUT crackled through fur and hide. The beast staggered back, not cloven in two, not dead, but wounded, enough to make it back off as I leapt from the range of its chain.

I looked into my hand, at the orb, and sighed with relief. If nothing else, I was going to survive this round. Priority one was achieved. I just needed to return this orb to my pot, and then I could press on with gathering more orbs and making my statement.