Of course, before Jonathan could accept a duel he would have to fight his way into the virtual world. At least destroying virtual enemies provided a useful outlet for his frustration.

His progress was fairly smooth once he got past the individual mech battle. It helped that the tests didn't introduce any more novel enemy units. While he had to take on combinations of multiple foes, they all had the same strengths and weaknesses that he had learned while fighting them one on one. For a student who rushed through the tests it might not have been much of an advantage, but Jonathan had spent so much time fighting the tentacle monsters, fox beasts, and generic mechs that he could have taken them on in his sleep.

He managed a perfect clear of the last of the combat tests after one week of classes. That left him with one week to clear the remaining five tests, which would test movement and combat together. Considering that it had taken him three weeks to clear the first ten tests, he was on pace for failure.

Fortunately, his diligence in passing every test with a perfect score really started to pay off. While fighting in a simulated urban environment was different from fighting on a featureless plain, Jonathan was hardly fazed by the prospect of navigating the terrain. He'd worked so hard to master his movement skills that he barely had to think to adjust his weight as he ran across a building, or gave himself a boost with the flight pack to clear a jump. Even in the middle of a fight, he was able to move wherever he needed to move. It was just a matter of taking the time to learn where he needed to move.

The first four tests took him six days to clear. Jonathan had cleared the fourth at the end of his allotted training time. That meant that he would take the final test for the first time on the final day. Whatever score he ended up with by the end of the day would be the score he would take with him as he entered the virtual world. If he failed to pass entirely, of course, he would take a big hit to his merit points. He'd be kicked out of first place without Chad even needing to do anything.

Jonathan's stomach was churning with nervous excitement as he loaded the final test. He'd heard stories from Philip about what to expect, but there was no way to craft a perfect strategy ahead of time. The final test was an all out war, pitting you against a broad array of opponents in a simulated city. While the level of opposition would be similar every time the test was taken, the precise location and composition of the enemy forces would vary.

On an abstract level, Jonathan could appreciate the commitment to realism. As the city faded into being around him, though, he found himself wishing he would at least know whether he was going to be under fire the instant the test began.

As it happened, the street that appeared around him was surprisingly peaceful. Besides the empty street around him, Jonathan could also see a timer in the corner of his vision, counting down a half hour. He'd be graded on how many enemy forces he eliminated as well as the state of his own mech when time expired. It wasn't impossible to pass even if your mech was destroyed before time ran out, but of course that would hardly merit a perfect score.

Jonathan was standing in the downtown core of the virtual city. He was surrounded by buildings that towered above even his mech. In a real city like this, with the sun overhead, he would be surrounded by people. The simulation didn't include any panicked civilians. It wasn't entirely a concession to the test takers—any city at risk of becoming a battleground would evacuate its citizens to emergency shelters as quickly as possible—but he appreciated the small mercy nonetheless.

After getting his bearings, Jonathan didn't waste any time before gaining altitude. A massive leap sent him soaring into the air, and a generous boost from his flight pack saw him to the top of a fifteen story building. He would have to be careful of his energy use over the long run, but at the beginning of the test speed trumped fuel efficiency.

A series of running leaps took him toward the top of the tallest building in the area, a skyscraper some fifty stories tall. Jonathan wasn't the only one who had spotted it as the perfect vantage point. A plasma bolt greeted him in midair as he approached. The impact against his shield took off a chunk of energy and sapped his momentum.

Jonathan pushed more energy into his flight pack and drew his beam saber. The second shot missed him, and he was on the roof before the enemy mech could fire a third shot. He hit the ground running.

In the confined space of the roof the enemy couldn't hope to maintain the distance between them and grind Jonathan down. Instead, the sniper dropped his rifle and readied his own beam saber. Jonathan led with a powerful slash. The enemy blocked, but Jonathan lowered his shoulder and pushed forward. The enemy mech was knocked back, off balance.

Jonathan batted its beam saber aside and thrust forward, still charging. The enemy's shield provided a moment of resistance but collapsed before the mech could regain its balance. His saber thrust through the cockpit, earning Jonathan his first kill.

Jonathan let the enemy mech collapse to the ground and sheathed his beam saber. He frowned. Even though it had been a one-sided fight, he had already used up almost one third of his spiritual energy. He'd get a little bit back over time, but he still needed to pace himself if he was going to last for half an hour.

All of that exertion had at least secured him a commanding view of the city. With his mech's optical enhancement suite he could see enemy forces on the street level as clearly as if he were standing right next to them. The other skyscrapers obscured part of the city, but he could still see well enough to pick out a good starting point, as well as a few spots to avoid.

If he had more time he would have been tempted to pick the largest concentration of enemy forces and charge in just to see what would happen, but with the final deadline looming he couldn't afford to waste any of his tries at the exam. He decided instead to play it safe and picked out a stretch of road that featured several spiritual foxes intermingled with several tentacle monsters.

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In reality, of course, spiritual beasts detested void beasts, and the void beasts treated the rest of the universe as food. They would never cooperate like this. Unfortunately, this was a test of Jonathan's combat ability, not his knowledge of interstellar geo-politics. His enemies wouldn't set upon each other and give him the chance to pick up the scraps.

It was an artificial environment, for sure. Of course, some of the changes went in his favor. For example, rather than setting up any kind of intelligent patrol routes and large scale coordination, the enemy forces were largely content to linger in place, like video game mobs waiting for a player to stumble into range.

From his previous experience in the simulated environment, Jonathan had a sense for how close he would need to get in order to "draw aggro." He'd picked this particular group of monsters because he could maneuver to attack them without drawing the attention of any other enemies. All it took was a carefully measured series of leaps, boosted by modest use of the flight module, and Jonathan was crouched on top of a four story building, lining up a shot on his prey.

Naturally, the first order of business was to shoot one of the little foxes right in the face. While it howled in rage, Jonathan kept the crosshairs trained on its head and squeezed off a second shot. It struck home just as three streaks of flame lifted off from the ground and rocketed toward his location. Behind them, writhing tentacles were grasping onto streetlights as the void beasts began to pull themselves along toward his location.

It had been too much to hope that all of the monsters would stand around while he killed their allies one at a time. The good news was that the foxes were much faster than the writhing masses of tentacles. The various beasts also didn't show any kind of unit cohesion. Even the three foxes only worked together in the sense that they moved to attack him at about the same speed. They didn't make any effort to coordinate to cut off his escape route.

Jonathan leapt backwards, heading toward an empty area of the city. He didn't want to draw any more monsters into the fight. He landed just before the first fox was about to reach him. A hard shove with his left leg and a boost from his flight module let him slip to the side as the three foxes roared past.

He couldn't cut it quite as close when there were three of them, but the basic principle was still the same. Jonathan lined up a shot on the one that he had hit before and squeezed it off. He couldn't take the time to place it perfectly. He had to keep moving to make sure the void beasts didn't catch up with him. Still, he managed to score a solid hit.

The fight continued in that fashion. Jonathan's extensive practice in moving duels against simulated mechs came in handy as he was forced to run and gun for what felt like hours. Of course, the fight didn't actually take much time at all, but moments had a way of stretching out when one slip up could lead to a painful virtual death.

Soon enough, though, the third fox died with a defiant scream on its lips. Jonathan couldn't waste any time in celebration. He slung his beam rifle across his back and drew his beam saber before charging at the nearest tentacle monster.

The three void beasts had gotten separated from each other over their extended pursuit of him. One of the beasts was a little faster in straight lines, while another was more adroit in changing direction. The little randomized touches made the fights a little more realistic and prevented the test from devolving into pure rote memorization.

Jonathan's sudden change of direction meant that he was upon the first void beast in an instant. The tentacled beast welcomed his charge with a shrill battle cry that turned into a yelp of pain as Jonathan's first strike severed two of its limbs. Jonathan dodged to the side as several tentacles whipped through the spot where he had been.

The best way to fight the void beasts was in close. It was also the most dangerous way to fight them. If Jonathan were to let a group of tentacles get a solid hold on him, there wouldn't be anything he could do to avoid being crushed to death. He never let his mech's feet stop moving. His mech couldn't exactly dance around the monster's attacks, but he carried enough momentum that a glancing blow wasn't enough to slow him down.

As long as the monster couldn't land a solid hit, Jonathan would be fine.

Naturally, as soon as he thought that a tentacle caught him square in the chest. His shield blunted the blow, but it still connected with crunching force. Jonathan heard a metallic rattle as his mech was forced to stagger backwards. He grit his teeth and focused on staying upright and regaining his balance. It was close, but he managed to bring his beam saber around to lop off the tentacle the monster used to try to press its advantage.

Void beasts didn't experience despair, as far as Jonathan knew. Even more so for simulated opponents. Even so, the end of that one moment of hope proved a tipping point for the monster. It had lost too many limbs to pose a serious threat any longer. Jonathan planted himself in place and went to work, reducing the monster to a cooling corpse before the other two void beasts could catch up.

Once the first tentacle monster was down, Jonathan immediately leaped to the side, landing on top of a two story building. He would have liked to stand in place and slaughter his enemies as they came to him, but he knew from painful experience that fighting two void beasts at once was far more than twice as difficult as facing a single monster.

He kept moving, making sure that the void beasts stayed spread out in their pursuit. It wasn't too difficult, as neither beast had anything on its mind but closing to melee range with him as quickly as possible. Here, at least, the simulation was somewhat faithful to reality. While void beasts multiplied without end in the dark places of the galaxy, humanity had been able to keep them at bay in large part because they refused to work together. Hunger was their only driving force.

In the absence of anything else to eat, void beasts had even been known to turn on each other. Jonathan's instructor had mentioned that one of the leading theories as to why the Great Disaster had been confined to the inner core of the empire was due to the void beast's insatiable appetite. Once they had consumed the unimaginable wealth in the imperial core, the relative table scraps of the outskirts of the empire were less appealing. When the flesh of the beasts who had consumed the treasures was a more enticing prize than anything humanity had left to offer, the massive horde had turned on itself rather than spread to all corners of the galaxy.

Such lofty concerns were far beyond minor tentacle beasts and a rookie pilot like Jonathan, but the basic pattern held true. If they had joined hands and stuck together, they could have at least torn enough metal off of his mech to slow him down for the rest of the exam. Instead, Jonathan was able to chop up each individual void beast without suffering so much as a scratch to his mech.

His energy reserves were hovering around fifty percent, and the timer showed a little less than twenty minutes remaining in the test. Even beyond the consumption of spiritual energy, Jonathan felt like he had just run a marathon. The stress of combat was wearing on him, even if he wasn't using his hands and feet directly.

He only allowed himself a moment to catch his breath. He'd have plenty of time to rest once the exam was over.