I watched with rapt attention as both Scorn and Voi-Sreva got ready. They both had a confident gait as they walked to opposite corners of the square, only for me to realize that she didn't have a weapon, but got ready with her fists. Her knuckles pointed to the ground, her knees bent slightly as they looked in Scorn's direction, and she got on her toes while leaning forward. All-in-all, it was a very awkward looking position to me and it didn't look all the comfortable. But maybe this was common? I wasn't worried as much though, because Scorn decided to use his hands as well.

His posture was very different though. It was like a night and day difference between the two of them; if Voi-Sreva was like a raging fire, then Scorn was... he seemed to be little more than a spark. It was obvious he didn't have much hand-to-hand fighting practice, but I commended him for giving it a shot... even if this ended really quickly. It seemed Voi-Sreva tried to convince him to use his weapon rather than hand-to-hand, but he was having none of it.

Eventually she gave up and they got ready, seemingly waiting for.. something.

"Oh- shit, is that my.. Okay." I panicked for a moment realizing they were probably waiting for me. "Uh, I don't know what you said before but... Krovi!" And I slashed my hand down, and they were off to the races! Easily the faster of the two was Voi-Sreva. Not even half of a second passed before they suddenly appeared in front of Scorn who, in his defence, managed to block her first attack: a kick towards his head. But she had more in store apparently. Considering we had mostly the same outfit before I left the top part in the room, I didn't pay attention too much, but since it was kind of there now, I noticed she wasn't wearing shoes. That was apparently on purpose, as her toes gripped Scorn's shirt sleeve and she yanked her foot down.

"WHOA-" Scorn yelled before almost colliding with the floor, only to grab her ankle and swing his body diagonally, putting all his weight into pulling her down to the ground where she had her foot in the air. They did a half-spin as they fell, much faster than I thought it would be, until Scorn and Voi-Sreva were on their sides. Without losing his recently gained initiative, Scorn clambered on top of them, and was about to throw a punch, only for... I'll call her "Company" for simplicity. Company's legs wrapped up and around his shoulders, making him unable to move forward or even throw a punch.

Wow... I thought, He kinda... got fucked, huh? But betraying my thoughts, Scorn didn't move forward anymore, and instead flung himself backwards. This clearly surprised Company as well, as she let out a squeal while Scorn threw a punch again towards her face. Without being able to react much, Company's eyes went wide as his fist stopped in front of her face.

Silence reigned for several seconds before an uproar of cheering split through the room and even I was taken aback before I started clapping as well. The next thing I knew and they both collapsed opposite of each other and groaned. It was impressive for a short fight like that. It felt like much longer than it was but... that hardly went on for more than a minute, didn't it? The two of them would lie there, catching their breath before they slowly managed to get to their feet. I'm amazed they both managed to get out of that fight with hardly any injuries, considering it was a hand-to-hand fight and all.

But once they returned, Scorn looked... he didn't really have much of an expression on his face. if I had to pin an emotion to his face, it would probably be ambivalent. I gave him a nod and smile with a "Good job", and even if he didn't understand my words exactly, he still got the message.

However there isn't any rest for the wicked, and as soon as Company got to Cast and Greza she turned around and sat down, thankfully acting like an adult and not pouting. At least she wasn't... why did I think she would act like she was in some stupid book? We're all adults here. Cast turned his head and noticed me looking over before nodding once and stepping towards the square. I looked over myself, making sure that I wasn't injured anywhere, before I walked opposite them again.

After looking at how everyone else was fighting, I got kind of nervous. Was my stance wrong? Should I change how I fight? How should I move my body - can I move my body well? So many thoughts were going through my head, but Cast just sighed. Snapping me out of my thoughts, I tried to use a different pose than last time.

Taking a deep breath, I stretched one leg forward, and moved my hands in front of me, coiling my fingers together. My shields' tips pointed towards Cast like a rhino's horns, tilted up slightly, as I stared past them into their eyes. I exhaled. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe out. Breathe out.

Something welled up inside of me as my vision focused on Cast, and a tingling sensation in the back of my head kept smacking my senses repeatedly. Then it moved to my back, and I felt... warm.

My body was warm - my head was warm - my eyes were warm - my shields were warm. I felt like I could feel every particle of my shield. Breathe in... Breathe out...

While I was taking my sweet time, Cast got into position by... simply standing still. Their hands were at their sides, and they were simply standing still.

Scorn soon gave the signal to start once more, but this time I didn't rush forward. Rather; instead of sprinting forward like a lunatic, I slowly moved forward. Of course, that was only until Cast raised a hand and, with both hands, started making strange symbols in the middle of the air. It wasn't like they were imaginary either - he was writing in the air, chanting something. It was either another language meant for magic, or simply words I didn't understand, but whatever it was, the bright white script in the air soon burst into particles and moved towards his hands - more specifically a ring on either hand.

Confused and on edge, I waited while also still slowly making my way closer I wanted to see magic - even if it meant I lost. We were practising after all, what harm was there in waiting and watching? Cast soon finished his preparations as I made my way halfway to him. He stretched both hands forward, and with the middle fingers and thumbs of either hand, snapped. Not even a moment later I found myself met face-to-face with what could only be described as a marionette. Albeit it was absolutely terrifying in every way possible.

The skin on the humanoid body was made up of off-putting blues and grays that flowed like streams of water. The face was moulded the vague shape of a cross between an angler fish and a dog. The eyes were naught but white dots, and perhaps worst of all, I could feel the thing smiling at me. It was like the black - the inky, sticky, black darkness that I could feel ogling me before I spoke to my mind. it didn't attack though, and despite me wanting to puke, I took a cursory glance around, only to be able to tell that everyone around me... was fine. They were confused, wondering "what did he cast" and "why did she stop moving?".

So that's what it was. A fake? I moved my body closer to it, the sensation of a sticky wall of honey tried to trap me in place in the front of my mind, but I pushed past it. Evidently that was the wrong choice to make, as Cast grinned and snapped once more, causing the Angler-Dog to lunge at my left arm. I will be the first and only one to admit that I squealed like a girl. Which is fine because I am one - but shut up. As its teeth chomped down into my shields, there was a tingly sensation, before I felt my muscles tighten and my body moved on instinct to throw my shield into the air.

I don't know why I did, but it was the right call apparently. The moment my shield passed the meter mark, there was a blinding blast of blue-purple lightning that struck it. I looked to my shield, currently falling down, then to Cast.

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"Dude... what the fuck..." He shrugged before lifting his hands up in the air before his rings glowed a bright orange and they threw them towards the floor. Naturally, I looked up first - nothing changed. Then I looked down and... "OH SH-" Falling backwards as a giant pillar of flames appeared above several runes, my left shield clattered to the ground and I ran around the pillar, only to find Cast making several more hand gestures and muttering what was likely more chants. Sprinting for my shield I gripped the imaginary string binding me to the shield and tried something new again. I lifted my hand up - my shield followed, flying in the air - I pulled it back, zipping behind me to the edge of the square - and finally I threw it forward, letting go of the string. This caused my shield to sail towards Cast, only for me to grip the string again and use it like a whip - causing it to push its tip into the floor between their feet.

Cast's cast, interrupted due to his surprise, blew up in his face. Literally. A miniature explosion of perfect-shower-hot water blasted his face and my shoulder. I continued running at him though until I managed to grab his hand and align my shield to his face. Looking really closely at Cast's face, I was finally able to make sure that they were, in fact, one hundred percent a boy. Albeit a very effeminate one that looked almost like a girl. I wasn't sure if it was only us - the people who FS brought to this world - who got Traits and the System, but if we weren't and Cast had it, I think he chose Cute... because he really is cute.

A small face, small eyebrows and cute eyes with a petite mouth opened in surprise. He was pretty slender too...

"-iera?" Was he eating enough? Was he getting enough food? I wasn't sure but I wanted to make s- "Kiera?"

Huh?

Suddenly aware of the fact I had my thumb pressed to Cast's chin, I stepped back. What in the ever-loving...

"Uhh..." Meanwhile, Cast sighed, yet again, before muttering to himself something about it 'happening again'. Was this common? And why wasn't I more flustered? Sure I was confused but... I figured I would be panic blushing right about now. "Yex däji?" "That normal?" I asked. Cast nodded and looked away while both Duty and Company broke down laughing. I heard some other people complain in the crowd, some chuckled, but overall, no one was pointing and laughing.

"I guess... I won then?" I scratched my head and relaxed as I realized the fight was really over, before I looked to Scorn, only to see him shake his head. I was confused for a moment, but then it clicked. "Ahh.... shit." I forgot the rule about only cast being able to use abilities. Groaning, I moved to go pick up my shield. Even if it was me who set some of the rules, I still broke one of them. As my shield floated around my wrist, I stared at it. "Well that's certainly one way to lose two fights in a day."

Scorn, Cast, Company, Duty and myself all gathered together at a wall as we finished cooling down. I managed to tell the group of people that I didn't know the language all that well, and that if I say things strangely that would be why. A couple of questions were thrown my way, but other than that it wasn't much of a hassle answering everything.

Now that everyone was kind of just talking, I learned a few things. Duty, the from the people who animals hated, was actually a father of two children, a boy and a girl, who he had to leave behind to come here. I asked him why and he simply said it was the best way about it. I wasn't so sure about that, but if he thought that was the case for his kids, it wasn't my place to judge. Different world and all that jazz.

But that was neat - although he hardly ever shut up once he talked about his kids. Endearing as it was, it eventually got rather annoying when it became the very center of the conversation for what felt like an hour. I zoned out for a while, staring at the entrance to the large training hall. I had to wonder if there were more places like this deeper down, or if this was simply one of many outposts. I assumed it was the former, because from what I picked up, this countries army was massive, same with the country in general and even the planet, if time was anything to go by. OH - time, right. The day's aren't twenty-four hours like on Earth. If we went by Earth time, I think it was around thirty two hours for every "day", so the clock system was weirder than back home as well.

That was something that always messed me up as well. I had always had a good sleep schedule, sleeping for eight hours and being awake for the rest of the day.

"Ah - Kiera," Called out the only other girl of the group: Company.

"Hmm?" I turned to her, only to see her leaning forward, leg crossed over the other, as she rest her head on her propped-up hand. I'll admit, when a tall girl like her did that, she almost looked to by my height. "Ga avötmäa... aue säuy?" "What you want... know me from?" I asked, not sure if I asked the right question.

"Ubure rauy." "I love you." I coughed. Surprised, I looked to both and Cast and Duty, only for the both of them to look surprised as well. From what I understood during my teachings from D'rte, saying you love someone is borderline taboo. You only use it when you want to marry someone as a commoner. Now, maybe, Company's people didn't have that kind of unspoken rule.

But even barring that, we barely knew each other for more than two hours! What do you mean you love me?! Did I hear wrong? I doubt it, Cast and Duty heard it, so I looked to Scorn, and he simply stared at Company as if she was insane. I asked her if she was serious, and she nodded, only to go on a tangent about how compatible we were, and how once she saw me fight Cast, she knew we were perfect and she fell in love with me and my ability to adapt to the situation.

So it was love born of interest? There was a bunch of other information I didn't understand with my limited understanding of the planet and this language, but I got the gist of it.

"K-Kareva... ramäuy uxyaä? Milosia?" "A-Allow... me time? I ask?" I requested of her gently. I barely knew her for one, and for two I had D'rte, but I wasn't sure what it was we had between us quite yet. Maybe if I knew her better? I wasn't even sure how long I'd be in this city for, or if we'd see each other again before or after training.

She looked a bit disappointed, but Company nodded obediently. Actually, how accepting was the world of relationships between the same sex? I looked over to Duty, Cast, and Scorn to see if I could see any disdain on their face. There was... none... but I could sense that the atmosphere had become awkward. Seeing as everyone just sat in awkward silence, I sighed, before trying to steer the conversation somewhere else. I managed to change it to Company's family life before she got here. Apparently, she was the middle sister of a small family within a group of nomadic people.

Although they were nomadic, they didn’t claim as such, simply calling themselves wanderers where it mattered the most. She and her family had become a sort of wandering band of fighters. But when the knights, similar to how D’rte and the captain picked me up, came for them, they seemingly offered their children to them.

I still had no knowledge as to why this group had the ability to so often take the children from families as if it was a simple shop at the market. Was it an honour? I didn’t know. I really didn’t, but I wanted to. I was still thrust into an unknown world, with unknown people, who took me into what I understand to be a military. Was there some world-ending calamity of monsters at the gates of the last remnants of human territories? Or was it that... thing? I shuddered unknowingly before I sensed the conversation change once more.

The conversation changed again. It was a topic I couldn’t even begin to fathom: religion. Words and subjects and likely people and the names of gods and deities I didn’t understand came out many times over. Even if D’rte was a good teacher, over the course of a week he couldn’t teach an adult too much. I wasn’t young enough to absorb the information like a sponge. Some day I'd ask him to teach me more, but I completely zoned out when they all began talking to one another.

I didn't have to feel like a third wheel for long, though, because Scorn seemed to see something and tapped me with the back of his hand, getting our group's attention while he stood up. I was confused, so obviously I turned to see what he was looking and and... oh boy. Captain - the one who brought me here, was standing at the entrance to this training room, but it seemed that only very few people saw him.

"YMUDETE-" "KNIGHTS-" He yelled, forcing me to freeze up as the entire room seemed to dim - both sound and light seemingly disappearing at his words. Once everyone was looking at him, I saw Scorn - as well as many other people - grab his right shoulder, knock his feet together, and then lifted his right arm until his fist was at his other hand.

"Huh? Wai-" I began, only to be cut off by Duty, who also followed the... was this a salute?

"Dulyeji!" I hurriedly set down my shields and followed their example, staring at the captain.

After looking at everyone in the room in the eyes from behind his helmet, he spoke up. "Käe boprasva gävy Zeri Boveshäar, defe, aiewati li ymudeteoia." "You all to be summoned to Stone Hell tomorrow, to be... knights " As the captain finished speaking, I blinked.

Oh shit...