“Where’s Heath?” Michael asked, feet up on Eik’s kitchen table with Mis lounging lazily in his lap. She had an uncanny ability to ingratiate herself with literally anybody she met and recently had even managed to recruit an alien named Mikla into her army of loyal cat worshippers.

“He should be just around the corner;” Sonja said as she peeked out the kitchen window. “Ah, there he is!”

The cling clang of the tank’s heavy armor could be heard clearly a good thirty seconds before he even made it to the door. Pride radiated from him like the rays of the sun as he held a polished blade tenderly to his chest.

Its features were the epitome of simplicity but the expert craftsmanship allowed the design to stand out as luxurious while the slight, gentle curves of the broad edge made it appear deadly and dangerous.

If and when Ben Brooks became able to control Ak’ki, he’d be creating stunning pieces every day.

“Shall we then?” Mikla said and ripped a slit in space that swelled and expanded until a stable fracture hung humming in Eik’s house.

“You,” Eik said sternly with a finger at his cat. “watch the house while I’m away!”

They filed through, stepping out into the fracture hall on the other side. Another group was arriving on a platform directly adjacent to theirs.

It appeared to be a rather large delegation with more than twenty individuals gathered by the time the fracture throbbed and closed as if swallowing its own mass. They were a big people, a few of them almost twice as tall and broad as the average human from Earth.

They had tattoos and bore simple clothes made almost exclusively from leathers and pelts. Glittering jewellery drew the eye and created a strange contrast of apparent extreme wealth and crude primitivity.

To a human ignorant of this giant species’ deeds, they would be a novel and fascinating sight, but to Eik, the Gokhamorians ignited a primal urge in him to rip flesh from bones and fester and corrupt the deepest tissue of their bodies until they were no more.

Heath noticed his teammate’s reaction and followed his gaze, he too freezing when he saw who was arriving next to them. “Those fucking bastards,” he hissed under his breath.

The rest of them had stopped as well, tense as they observed the group of giants. “Ah, yeah…” Mikla mumbled as he came through after them. “The timing could have been better it seems.”

Noticing their stares, a couple of the Gohkamorians stopped and raised hands in greeting. Their facial features made it difficult to tell what manner of expression they were making. Then again, even if it had been obvious, there was no way to know if a species with such radically different appearances from humans would read expression in the same way. Was a smile a smile? Or was it a sign of aggression? Sadness? Nausea?

“Are those uglies mocking us?” Heath whispered.

Mikla stepped in front of them. “Probably not. Guys, you have to remember that not all Gohkamorians are a part of this ongoing assault on Earth.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the delegation of giants. “It’s a big home world and they control a number of planets.”

“They control other worlds?” Heath asked. “Just how powerful are they?”

“No, that’s actually fairly common, even for younger civilizations. Most worlds in the Unified Mass were never inhabited by intelligent species to begin with, so conquest is really only a matter of exploring them, claiming them, and then keeping them. It rarely involves anything more than clearing an area of monsters in order to establish a base of operations. Then you can expand from there.”

“Well, damn,” Eik said. “Should we think about doing that too?”

Mikla tilted his head from side to side as he thought. “It’s definitely a good idea. It’s a great way to gather resources, for example. I don’t think you’re quite ready yet, but once you have some stronger Awakened and a certain degree of mastery over fracture creation and manipulation it’s definitely a beneficial thing to consider.”

“Good to know,” Eik said. “Thank you.”

“But to get back to the matter at hand, don’t be too quick to make a move against this delegation.”

“Why not?” Heath asked with a frown.

“As I said, they’re not all directly involved with the government that decided to attack you. In the same way the four of you are not directly responsible for the actions of the Forest leadership, which you even oppose at times, you can’t expect every Gohkamorian citizen to be involved in this.”

The Earth team all looked dissatisfied with that reality but none of them could think of anything to say against it.

“Some of the Gohkamorians over there might know all about it, while others could just be some eager, talented youngsters looking to prove themselves at the Championships without even being aware of what’s going on on Earth. Don’t be too quick to start something — especially when you’re at headquarters.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

As the Gohkamorians started to head for the door, through which they would definitely have to duck deep, a woman emerged from the small corner office. She offered the Gohkamorian delegation a polite wave as she passed them on the way to Eik’s group.

“Ihasu!” Eik breathed, resisting the urge to glare at Mikla whose shit-eating grin widened to reach his ears the moment Ihasu approached. “What are you doing here?”

She looked at him with confusion. “Well, Eik, I work here.”

“Ah, right, yeah, I knew that,” he muttered.

“I’m Heath,” Heath said and stepped up to shake her hand. Sonja and Michael followed suit. “Who are you?” the tank asked.

“My name is Ihasu of the Ougi clan. I often help tend to the fracture halls. I’m hoping to specialize in fractures myself, once I become stronger.”

“She’s already showing great promise,” Mikla said. “Her grasp of the theory always impresses me.”

Ihasu blushed slightly at the praise. “Thank you. You teach me much.”

“I thought you already were a fracture specialist,” Eik remarked.

“No, I’m only at D-rank, so I’m not strong enough to handle that kind of power yet, let alone allow people to travel through a fracture opened and controlled by me. It would collapse instantly.”

“If you’re D-rank, then you and Eik are the same rank!” Heath exclaimed, elbowing Eik in the side.

“You evolved?” she said smiling brightly. “Congratulations!”

Eik laughed nervously. “Yeah, thank you.”

“Is that why you came to headquarters?”

Mikla nodded. “I’m taking them to the Crucible. E-rank this time.”

“E-rank?” she asked, eyes narrowed with a glance at Eik.

“They’ve only gone through some of the F-rank tests so far, and only Eik is D-rank.”

“And the practical?” she asked.

“They already did the E-rank practical a while ago. Passed with flying colors too. Are you off work now? Want to tag along and watch?”

“W- Watch us?” Eik managed to stammer. “Watch us do the tests?”

“Why not?” Mikla smirked. At this point, Heath had caught on as well and nodded his support vigorously.

“Sure, I’ll go!” she said. “Let me just go and get my things from the office. Give me a second!”

The second floor of the Crucible building, which was reserved for all E-rank tests and practicals, was considerably less crowded than the first floor for F-rank. Considering the fact that many people never made it past F-rank, it really wasn’t a great wonder that the traffic was slower up here.

First and second floor were designed almost identically, down to the lobby and café built into the wall. Even the tables were arranged similarly.

They picked up some food on the way to the testing grounds — Mikla’s treat — and stepped through.

Judging by the environment, the Crucible tests for both F-rank and E-rank were built on the same world. Would all the other ranks be here as well?

“Do we just run them in the same order as last time then?” Michael asked as they walked along a well-trodden path leading from the fracture to a central plaza equipped with benches and tables for participants and observers to take breaks between attempts.

“Yeah, I think that’s the best way to do it.”

“I’d like to do the healing test as well this time, if possible,” Michael said.

“Yeah, sure.”

“How about one for alchemy?” Eik chimed in, hopefully.

“No such thing, I’m afraid,” Mikla said. “But there are plenty of competitions to join if you’re interested in that. I know that the Alchemist Guild of Gimleh are hosting one, for example.”

“Really? Sign me up!”

“You’re going to have to do that yourself, Eik,” Mikla said, eliciting a laugh from Ihasu.

As they walked to the first arena, Eik’s teammates signaled for him to let Mikla and Ihasu walk ahead and came in to talk in hushed voices.

“What?” he asked.

“We’ve been meaning to talk to you… about that thing you did when you fought against Bart. Your skin glowed blue like the Profound Toxin.”

“Backflow? Yeah, that was…”

“It was totally crazy,” Michael finished for him. “You wrecked Bart, that’s for sure, but damn if that ability didn’t also wreck you.”

“Wait, did you say Backflow?” Heath asked. “Wasn’t that one of the evolutionary traits available when Profound Toxin evolved after the Great Raid? Did it evolve again already?”

Eik chewed on it for a moment before answering. “I’ve been thinking about that ever since as well, actually. It didn’t evolve again. The notification I got called it a ‘natural skill evolution’.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t have a clue,” Eik said. “I’ve never heard of it before either. But that short activation alone was enough to give me three levels in Profound Toxin. It's level 44 now. My Movement Boost is also level 20.”

“Seriously? Is it unique to Worldbreaker abilities or can I get one of those too?” Heath asked excitedly.

“Dude, I don’t know anything about it. We could ask Atla or Mikla but I’m not sure if I should even mention this to them. People are already suspicious about how Bart is dead when he was a C-ranker against us. Logically, he should have absolutely annihilated us in that fight.”

“What have you told people?” Sonja asked.

“Nothing, basically. I just kind of try to avoid the topic. Travis and them already know about the mind skulk and how it apparently behaved oddly by crawling out of its host on its own like that. I just said Bart was acting strangely because of it and that it gave me the opportunity to go for the killing blow.”

“Are they buying it?”

“I guess?” Eik said hesitantly. “They don’t know any better so they kind of have to believe me.”

“But you know something they don’t?” Sonja pushed.

He bit his lip, conflicted. “I don’t know. I could be wrong…”

“What?” Heath asked.

“Bart came to my new store a few days before and demanded my loyalty, my potions, my everything. You know how he was,” he said to nods. “Well, he pissed me off so when I kicked his dumb ass out of my store I sort of misted him a little bit with, uh… with some Profound Toxin. Not much, though, I swear!”

“And you think that might have affected the mind skulk’s behavior?” Sonja said, desperately resisting rolling her eyes.

“Probably, yeah. Profound Toxin does some weird stuff sometimes. I think that might have been why he suddenly came after us at my house like that. Sort of a fight or flight response from the parasite inside him, maybe?”

Michael nodded. “And he chose fight. It makes sense. He was always greedy and egotistical, but what happened back there was insanity.”

“So what does Backflow do specifically?”

“As far as I can tell,” Eik said. “It basically pumps Profound Toxin into my own body in a state where it can affect me. Since I also have Noxious Invigoration, which makes me stronger based on toxins present in my system, it sent me into some kind of super drive.”

“But because it’s so potent, your body also couldn’t handle it,” Michael finished.

“I essentially started to die, yeah,” Eik nodded.

“So if you increase your Resistance: Toxin skill?” Heath asked.

“I mean, I guess I would become able to tolerate it,” Eik guessed.

“And Backflow didn’t give any levels to Resistance: Toxin?” Sonja asked.

“Not that I can tell, no.”

They began to descend the steps to the arena, the architecture of the place identical to the F-rank area. “You’re not going to use Backflow for this then, are you?” Michael asked.

“No,” Eik said, grinning. “I don’t need it to destroy the damage test again.”