My lungs burned and my chest tightened as my feet drummed out a rapid rhythm on the hard earth. I was in a state of single-mindedness directed at my pace, the jolting vibration that carried from foot to head was all that I felt.

The race began more or less how I expected. Huī and Gunagala burst out of the gate with a rush of speed while I got off to a decent sprint behind him, never getting more than twenty paces behind the pair. Grendel quickly disappeared over the horizon behind us. The tremors of their heavy steps told me that they weren’t too far behind.

Huī led the way by a few paces over the kangaroo. He, like Yoshitsune, seemed to have a stat spread that was specialized for speed. He never left the runner’s stance; instead, remaining down onto all fours and bounding across the ground. Mana carried across the winds, showing an airstream augmented by an ability. Either it was a passive or the wolf had a great deal of mana as he never turned the ability off since the race started.

Gunagala wasn’t running so much as leaping large distances forward. She pressed her legs down like a spring of an off-road truck; fully coiling before shooting out and up with tremendous force. A large plume of dust would shoot out from the blast site and buffet my scales. She would constantly land near the wolf’s position, but would quickly fall several paces behind before leaping again.

“This new guy’s pissing me off,” Gunagala spat as she landed clumsily next to the wolf and nearly lost her balance.

I passed the kangaroo for the briefest moment while she prepared her next leap. The demon was paying more attention to me the longer it took to leave me behind.

“He’s not using a skill is he?” Huī asked with a trickle of respect. “You must have collected an impressive amount of bonus stats for your level.”

“Oh, so we have a special guy on our hands,” Gunagala said snidely before childishly blasting again, splashing me with more dirt.

I ignored the antics, writing them up as just another test in a myriad of tests that, according to Grendel, only matter a marginal amount. Besides, a competitive spirit had long since taken over my mind. Winning was all that I cared about.

“Don’t mind Gunagala,” Huī said, probably misinterpreting my focus as silent anger. “The alcoholic never learns that heavy drinking before bouncing around inevitably leads to-“

A retching sound could be heard next to me. A quick flick of my head revealed Gunagala vomiting her guts out on the ground. Her momentum shot her in an uncontrolled path forward and to the side, sending her into a pile on the ground that was rapidly shrinking behind us.

“Idiot,” Huī teased.

“It’s just you and me then,” I huffed through fatigued breaths, the exertion beginning to eat away at my energy. My only goal being the mountain that rapidly loomed ahead.

“I wouldn’t exactly say that,” Huī replied. “Just wait a minute.”

Grendel’s tremors slowly grew in intensity from behind. They grew so violent that it felt like the ground was shifting every time I took a step. My vision shook as the internal metronome inside of my mind began skipping beats.

I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Grendel ripping down through the valley with a tremendous plume of dust trailing behind him. His figure rapidly grew until it blazed by us.

The shockwave that followed behind nearly lifted me up in the air and pushed me far away. I dug my claws into the earth to act like spiked shoes. Clumps of dirt came up in my claws, but I barely managed to maintain my running form.

In front of me, the wolf demon disappeared for a moment. I could see his form enter the current as he used the wind to accelerate further and lengthen the lead over me. But, it wasn’t nearly enough to compete for the lead as Grendel kicked up a storm of dirt behind them and disappeared into the distance.

“What the fuck?” I asked anything within earshot.

“That is Grendel’s signature momentum,” Huī panted. “The longer he moves in a single direction, the faster he goes and the more damage is done to who or whatever rests on the other side.”

“We’re fucked then,” I groaned between gasping breaths.

“Not yet. It takes just as long to slow down as it does to speed up. If he overshoots the finish or hit something, we will still win. He used to pass the finish by miles and it didn’t make much sense to count the first person to pass the finish. I won’t say how many losses it took to change that rule.”

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I took Huī at his word and continued my sprint for a few more minutes. Huī’s back was exposed to me. I wondered if delivering an attack would be within the rules of the race. A spray of acid or a plume of tar might be enough to give me an insurmountable lead. But, I decided against it. The less these potential enemies knew about my abilities, the better.

Loud pounding sounds like a boulder falling down the hill could be heard ahead of us. Huī ran more eagerly upon hearing the sound and I tried to keep up the best I could.

“Ha! He’s not going to make it!”

An impact as loud as an atomic bomb shot a plume of rock and dirt high into the sky and send a shockwave through the valley. I was hit with a powerful gust of wind that caused me to momentarily run in place.

Huī had no such issues; activating their skill they used earlier to accelerate through Grendel’s first wind. He danced through the air and landed well over fifty paces ahead of me. I cursed and opened my mouth, feeling the sting of acid gathering in my mouth. I swallowed the acid, feeling the burning sensation flush down my throat.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said under my breath as a reminder.

I finished my run in a distant third place. I spotted Huī near a steaming impact crater. A snarl of frustration could be seen under his raised, quivering lip.

The subject of his anger, Grendel, was in the center of the crater. Fragments of what once appeared to be a sizable boulder were scattered all over the place creating a bloody Zen garden. His body was severely damaged. Limbs bent in strange angles or broken off entirely. One of their eyes hung loosely out of one of the sockets.

Despite how brutal the scene was, Grendel appeared to be improving. His blood shimmered with mana and, slowly, his body appeared to be stitching itself back together even though he hadn't died.

“I win, Huī,” Grendel laughed.

“You trying to be cute for the new guy, Grendel? What, you think smashing into a rock in front of the mountain is a clever way to win? You’re still several feet from the base of the mountain.”

“Spare me the semantics,” Grendel complained. “I survived it, didn’t I?”

“According to who?”

Grendel’s eyes widened slightly as Huī punched him in the chest. The ground shook from the impact and the troll’s body flopped around. I could see ribs crunch and deform from the denting blows.

After only a few punches, Huī stepped away from Grendel’s limp body. His eyes were blank, his chest still, and regeneration halted.

Disciple killed disciple.

“Here’s a free lesson for you, new guy, if you are dealing with a potent regenerator, focus on their heart if you want to disrupt their recovery and ensure that they are dead. Nothing’s more embarrassing than being killed by a regenerator pretending to be dead.”

“Fascinating.”

I was in temporary awe of the savagery that I just witnessed and the lesson that I learned. These were the types of demons that I was hoping to meet in this rung. If anything, it made me much more interested to meet this master. If they were great enough, I would abandon Charles’ quest in a heartbeat and thank him for getting me the connection.

“Well, seeing that Grendel didn’t survive, looks like I won,” the wolf said with a smile. “No complaints, right?”

“What’s the master’s philosophy on killing your allies?”

“We have contracts that any gains from killing each other are nullified,” Huī explained. “Once you are a member, you can spar anyone you want to the death without needing to feel cowardice in your heart.”

“In that case, you win as long as I am second.”

“It’s all yours,” Huī assented with a grin.

Huī enjoyed himself a victory drink while I sat on one of the larger rock fragments as we waited for Grendel to revive and Gunagala to arrive. I wasn’t sure if it was an additional perk of Grendel’s regenerative ability, but the troll revived far faster than I expected.

“You’re a poor sport, Huī,” Grendel groaned as he rose from the grave.

“Next time, crash in a way that you can fight after and you won’t have anything to worry about,” Huī laughed in response. “Come on, have a drink. You too, new guy.”

Grendel grumbled and accepted a consolatory glass of wine from his killer. I gladly took the drink off of the winner and greedily drank. It barely touched my tongue as it passed down my gullet and heated up my stomach.

“You already drink like one of us,” Huī joked.

“I gave up, who won?” Gunagala asked.

The kangaroo bounced gently over to us. She had a much better complexion now that she had finally thrown up. She looked at the crater and the blood that coated the dirt, but seemed disinterested in questioning it.

“I did,” Huī asserted without protest from myself or Grendel. “Now give me your booze, loser.”

“Well, shit, last place,” Gunagala said with a sigh, summoning a few bottles of alcohol from her inventory and relinquishing it to the wolf.

Huī was a generous winner and shared his spoils with the rest of us. I had a few more sips before my drinking was interrupted by Gunagala. She wrapped a furry arm around my shoulder and pointed up at the nearby peak.

“Hey, new guy, here it is, our Fist Mountain,” Gunagala said with a great deal of pride, shaking off the defeat. “You can’t see it, but our school rests on the peak.”

“You don’t have a teleporter at the shack that would have brought you to the top of the mountain?”

“We do,” Huī said. “But, climbing the mountain is one of our training regiments as well as your next test.”

“Another race?”

“We’ll be observers only,” Grendel answered. “Unlike the last test, we’ll be paying very close attention to your actions.”

“I might have an unfair advantage at this test,” I joked as I unfurled my wings and flapped them. The gust of wind blew the nearby grass down.

Knowing grins crossed the faces of all of the disciples. The mirth that radiated off of the troll’s face felt akin to an older sibling that knew something the younger didn’t; eager to watch them stumble into it.

“You are welcome to try.”