[Motion Trance advances to 2!]

Alex came to a staggering halt outside her dorms, her breath coming in deep gulps. She’d been right about the sudden lack of endurance, and now she was paying the price for sacrificing her Skill for the cause of advancement.

She’d been tempted to run inside the gym that morning, but it just hadn’t given her enough distance. As fun as doing dozens upon dozens of laps might have been, Alex had chosen to do her running outside. It gave her the chance to enjoy the morning air and to familiarize herself with the campus. After all, the magic from the portal was potent enough to stretch past the simple area directly around the portal.

At the same time, there was just something… appealing about practicing right next to the portal. Magic suffused the air here, and she could imagine her Skills drinking it in as she worked. She’d never practiced right next to a portal, and she had to admit that the experience was much more tempting than anything she’d felt before.

Alex shook her head and slowed to a walk. She told herself that she’d get the chance to work close to the portal later that day. Her legs complained a little, but they quickly started to feel better. Motion Trance made any kind of movement feel better than slowing down or stopping, and a brisk walk would help it restore her stamina a bit faster. None of the others had made an appearance yet, and she didn’t want them to catch her gasping for breath if she could avoid it. Especially if Rabbit or someone from her team showed up.

She shook her head at the thought. Perhaps she wasn’t above a little pettiness herself, but she felt like she had something to prove to the woman and the rest of the higher ranks. Maybe it would keep them at bay if they realized they had made a mistake in dismissing her. Either way, she had no intention of showing weakness if she could avoid it.

The thought drove her to speed up her walk. As soon as her breath had returned, she sped up into a run again, forcing the air in and out of her lungs as she sprinted around the shaded paths. One way or the other, she’d be ready for whatever this new company had planned.

By the time the others gathered outside the dorm, Alex had already gotten Motion Trance up to level five, and even her boosted endurance was starting to complain about the pace she was setting. Sam bit his lip and was struggling not to laugh as she came to a stop near the rest of the team. When he spoke, his words seemed a little strangled. “So. You reset a bunch of your Skills, huh?”

Alex glared at him. “Why do you… ask? Planning another… revenge list?”

Sam snorted. “No, not yet anyway. Though I imagine you could use a good batch of duels?”

She nodded, and he grinned. “Well, so could I. You aren’t the only one resetting things, after all.”

Joanna nodded. “I will need some practice as well. Clara?”

Clara grimaced. “I’m just about at baseline for everything. Not a very comfortable feeling, let me tell you.”

Alex nodded. “I get it.” She looked over to the dueling cages. “Shall we get started, then? Better now than when the rest of the Surveyors come in.”

They had just started to head for the cages and the practice weapons inside them when an alarm went off. Alex froze, her eyes going straight to the entrance, but she didn’t hear anything. It didn’t seem like some kind of security alarm, though the noise continued to warble throughout the entire base.

When she opened her mouth, though, Joanna answered the question she’d been about to ask. “It’s the alert for the response teams. They’ll probably be headed for the tiltrotors already.” The others gave her a questioning look, and the Adept sighed. “I read the training manual. And I listened to some of the attached files. Why is that so surprising?”

Sam grinned. “I guess it isn’t that much of a shock, Professor.” Joanna made a face at him, and he shrugged. “I don’t think they want us to respond to it quite yet, so we’re probably good to start practicing. Anyone ready to get their butt kicked?”

Alex grinned. “Oh, we’ll see about that.” She looked at Clara. “You good to face off against Joanna at first? We can switch up every half hour or so.”

Clara nodded. “Sure. Let me know if those ribs still hurt, and I’ll try to help out a bit more.” Alex nodded. She didn’t think it would be a problem—Abbott had given her a permission slip to use a health potion from the infirmary, which seemed like it had fixed things up nicely—but even if it was, it might help Clara continue to develop her own Skills.

Either way, it seemed like she was going to have a busy day.

They practiced for about half an hour, at least until the bell for breakfast rang. Without keys to the training cages, they’d mostly just found the practice weapons and fought long enough to gain a handful of levels. At that point, Clara called for a rest and hassled them into the cafeteria.

The room was already half full of other Surveyors of various ranks. Clara paused at the doorway, her eyes flicking across the various people dressed in Royal Purple uniforms. She glanced at Alex. “Mostly D and C ranks. Some of the support personnel are D’s and E’s, but everyone sitting down is probably a bit stronger than we are.”

Alex looked back, running her gaze across the room. Their arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed. People were already nudging their companions and gesturing towards her and her friends. Others were studying her as if they expected her to do something notable in the cafeteria. What were they expecting her to do, challenge a C rank to a duel?

Her eyes fell on Naylor—no, Rabbit—who was already sitting at a table with the rest of her C rank squad. For a moment, their eyes met. Unspoken animosity traveled between them, and Alex felt her fingers twitch.

Then Rabbit turned away, and Alex let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She looked at the others, who were still studying the rest of the room with slightly intimidated expressions. “Come on, let’s get some food.”

Breakfast was apparently an assortment of omelets, pancakes, and a handful of cereals. Alex grabbed a handful of pancakes, flooded them with syrup, and took a bit of orange juice to go with. She didn’t trust the look of the eggs enough to risk them. Sam apparently felt differently, stacking a good amount of them on his own plate, while Clara filled a bowl with something brightly colored and sugary. Joanna, of course, seemed to turn her nose up at the more conventional options, digging up a bowl full of oatmeal from somewhere.

They settled in to eat, attempting to ignore the blatant stares of the people around them. After a few quiet minutes of tucking the food away, Sam glanced at one obvious gawker and rolled his eyes. “You’d think they never saw a notorious, possibly subversive Surveyor before.”

Clara snorted in amusement, ducking her head to avoid spitting out a mouthful of milk and cereal. She managed to swallow and coughed a little. “Maybe they are just interested in the new team. I’d bet they don’t usually get four Surveyors to join all from one place. They are probably more used to seeing people come in one at a time.”

Joanna was turning her head carefully from side to side as she ate, as if taking note of who was watching them. “Whatever they’re used to, I have a feeling that the rumor mill has already been at work here. Has anyone been able to find anything out?”

Alex shook her head. “The only thing I was able to get to know was how the infirmary works.”

The Adept gave her an exasperated look, and Alex shrugged. “What? He ordered me to get patched up.”

Clara leaned forward, her expression curious. “What did they give you? You do seem pretty much healed now.”

Alex nodded to her as she cut up another piece of pancake. They were a bit dry for her tastes, even smothered in syrup, but she wasn’t going to ignore calories, especially not with her legs aching beneath her. “They didn’t spend much time with me. Just told me to wait for a while and then gave me a bit of health potion.” She chewed her food for a moment and swallowed. “Docked my pay for the treatment, though, so I’d recommend you avoid it if you can.”

Joanna gave a quiet huff. “Well, if it’s you saying it…”

She gave the Adept a half-hearted glare. “What about you guys? Have you found anything out?”

Sam opened his mouth, but Clara spoke first. “I went for a walk around campus. It looked like a lot of the dorms here are empty. It’s like they built the place, expecting it to hold a lot more than it did.”

“That makes sense.” They looked at Joanna, who sighed at her oatmeal. “This campus was one of the first official corporate Survey locations. They used to train Surveyors here to send out all over the world. The company bought it a lot later.”

Sam grinned. “Sounds like someone’s been doing a bit of internet research.”

She grunted and scooped up another spoonful of mush. “I was curious. So sue me.” He chuckled, and Joanna shook her head. “Well, what have you dug up, ‘Sneak’?”

“You know, I’m not sure I like that nickname. It implies some inaccurate things about my high moral character.” They all stopped eating long enough to give him a collective raised eyebrow, and Sam sighed. He raised his hands. “All right, all right. I get it.”

They turned back to their food as he continued. “It sounds like the company is not doing as well as it should have been. The execs were expecting a lot bigger reward, and the ones in charge here are starting to feel the pressure to up the profits.”

Alex blinked. “Where did you hear that?”

Sam smiled. “Oh, from the deepest, darkest corners of the world. The things I heard would make you shudder if you—” He cut off as she speared a piece of pancake and started to pull back on the fork like it was a makeshift catapult. Apparently, the threat of a syrup-soaked projectile was enough to make him drop the act. “Okay, okay. I lurked on some finance blogs and happened to eavesdrop on a few people.”

Clara nearly snorted her cereal again, and Joanna rolled her eyes. “There, was that so hard?”

“You are all absolutely ruining my aura of mystery and intrigue. No appreciation for art—”

Alex leaned in before he could really get going. “I’m sure you had quite the speech planned, Sam, but maybe you could save it for another time?” He smirked and went back to guzzling down the eggs. She went on in a low voice. “At the very least, I think Abbott wants us to go back through the portal in another couple of days. We should try to train as hard as we can before we do.”

“An unsurprising suggestion.” Joanna sounded amused, but she nodded along with the others. “About Abbott, you feel like he is reliable?”

Despite herself, Alex double checked to make sure the nearest tables weren’t in eavesdropping range. “I think so. He seemed genuine enough to me. I am worried about others, though.”

She didn’t quite stop herself from glancing in Rabbit’s direction, and Sam paused long enough to raise an eyebrow. “Really? Who would that be?”

Before she could find an answer, Clara broke in instead. “I’m actually wondering how much he’s advancing. Abbott, I mean.” When Alex looked at her, the Acolyte shrugged. “I know you didn’t complete a Quest, but you at least got most of them. It doesn’t seem like he would have gotten any of his.”

Alex blinked. She thought back over the mission through the portal and found herself agreeing with Clara’s assessment. As she swallowed her latest bite, she nodded. “That makes me more willing to trust him, actually. He’s sacrificing his own gains to keep us alive. Either that, or he has some other plan going that depends on him staying at C rank.”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t think so. My sources of information—” Joanna cleared her throat, and he gave her a weary look. “The people I eavesdropped on seemed like they liked him. They said he was one of the few decent instructors, with a record of making sure nobody dies on his watch. I don’t know if he would have that reputation if he was plotting for some reason.”

Joanna wore a thoughtful expression now. “That might make sense. When I was looking at things, his record suggested that he should have been around B rank by now.” Alex glanced at her, and Joanna shrugged. “I think he and Rabbit started out around the same time, but she’s advanced much quicker. The different perspectives might explain how much they dislike each other.”

She suspected there was more to it than that, but as Alex opened her mouth to say so, three loud chimes rolled through the cafeteria. Alex looked in the direction of the noise and saw a man in a suit stepping up. He was probably a Surveyor—he’d have to be this close to the portal—but she somehow doubted he was anything more than an E rank. His body seemed fit, but not overly well exercised or graceful, and his insincere smile spoke far more of boardrooms than someone accustomed to dangerous Surveys. Of course, his well-cut grey hair and wrinkled face provided more clues, but Alex forced herself to ignore those hints and focus as he tapped a microphone clipped to his collar.

When he spoke, his voice was amplified by speakers around the room; Alex blinked in surprise. She hadn’t noticed them before.

“Hello, Surveyors of Royal Purple Contracting! My name is Mitch Warner, and I am, as of this morning, the new CEO of the company.”

Warner paused as a rustle of murmurs rushed through the room. Alex glanced over at Sam, wondering if he knew the man. He grimaced and shook his head; it was hard to tell whether that meant he hadn’t heard anything, or if what he had heard was bad.

She looked back just as Warner continued in a smooth, practiced tone. “Your previous CEO, Sandra Aubert, has chosen to pursue a different career path. She’s going to still be around for the next few weeks, in order to help ease the transition, but from now on, the shareholders are depending on us to make sure that the company continues to provide the level of service and responsiveness that our clients are used to.”

Alex wondered for a moment if Aubert had been ousted, or had been given some kind of unpalatable choice that convinced her to resign. Either way, Greylight had obviously decided to take a bit more control of its subsidiary. She doubted it meant anything good for her or her friends.

Warner’s smile only made her surer of that fact. “In the coming weeks, we’re going to analyze our current efforts and see how we can expand and improve them for the sake of the company. I hope that I can count on your continued support as we make this transition. Together, we’ll make sure that Royal Purple Contracting ascends to ever greater heights. Thank you!”

As Warner stepped back, and the normal buzz of conversation returned to the room, Alex turned to look back at the others. The expressions on their faces said everything they needed to, and she sighed as she dug into the last of her pancakes. It was technically possible that it was all some sort of coincidence, and that Warner wasn’t going to cause some kind of trouble after the change. Of course, it was also technically possible that Rabbit was just mean because she had trust issues, and she hadn’t been involved in the assassination attempt on the Crimson Blade at all. Maybe everyone at Greylight was completely innocent, and it was all just a misunderstanding.

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Alex glanced back up and saw Warner walking over to speak quietly with Rabbit. Both of them glanced in her direction and then looked away. She tried not to sigh. Obviously, she’d managed to catch their attention, whether or not she’d wanted to. Now she just needed to survive the experience.

It started as soon as they got back to the training room. By the time they had finished up their food and made their way down to the portal, the room was already half-full of Surveyors. It seemed like almost every patch of space and piece of equipment was in use; every single one of them was working hard, as if their lives depended on their efforts. Given the dangers Alex had seen inside the portal a short distance from most of them, it probably did.

There was only one exception, however. One of the fighting cages was empty, with a small crowd of Surveyors around it. Alex watched as some members of the group turned to look in her direction and felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. She glanced at the others and saw that by their expressions they were feeling the same way.

Then she straightened her shoulders and walked over to the group, already bracing herself for the conversation ahead.

As she approached, one of the members of the group stepped forward and extended a hand. It was a woman with short red hair and a practice mace laid back over her shoulder. When Alex shook her hand, she could feel a surprising amount of strength there. “Hey. The name’s Felicia, but you can call me Trips. You’re Valkyrie?”

Alex nodded. She glanced at the rest before she answered. “Yeah. You can call me Alex if you want.”

“Eh, Valkyrie is fine for now.” Trips shrugged. “These your crew?”

The others nodded, and Trips smiled. “Good. Welcome to the company. More specifically, welcome to the gopher club.”

Clara spoke up, a surprising edge to her voice. “People keep using the word ‘gopher’ a lot. Is that what they call the Exploration teams?”

“Yep!” Trips seemed unbothered by the name, though some of the others behind her shifted on their feet. “We’re all D ranks, which makes us a lot more expendable than the C ranks that do the majority of the cleanup on our missions. Couple that with the fact that we go in first, and we have a lot of turnover, one way or another.”

The casual way she said the word turnover made Alex’s eyes narrow. “What is your loss rate, then?”

Trips looked at her a little more closely, her expression a bit curious. “I’d say close to one in four, usually. Most of them choose to transfer to other parts of Greylight Industries, but there are a few casualties here and there.”

The Surveyor looked back at the other D ranks before she continued. “To be honest, you guys are one of the lucky groups. Abbott’s a standup guy. He always takes care of us, and he works hard to make sure that everyone he fights with gets home. We all owe the guy, one way or another, and we want to make sure he is well taken care of, too.”

One of the other Surveyors, a guy with glasses and a staff, piped up at this point. “Yeah, he’s not any more popular with the big guys than we are.”

Trips quieted him with a gesture. “Specs isn’t wrong. Which is why we want to make sure that you measure up.”

Alex tilted her head slightly. “You do, do you?”

The Surveyor didn’t seem to miss the slight undercurrent of threat in Alex’s voice. Instead of being intimidated, however, she smiled. “Yeah. We do.” She shrugged. “You’ve got a reputation, but marketing isn’t much when you’re on the other side of the portal. We’ve asked around, and it seems like you really do have the skills, but we have to make sure.”

Sam spoke up before Alex could. “Seems like a bad time for that. We just went through the portal yesterday; half our Skills are reset.”

Trips nodded. “That’s no problem. Half of us did the same exact thing, right?” She looked back at Alex. “Should be something close to a fair fight.”

Alex nodded slowly. It didn’t seem like the same thing she had faced at Red Blade Securities; this wasn’t some kind of hazing, meant to beat down the new arrivals. Instead, it was almost like they were trying to help. They wanted to test her and her friends too, of course, but also let them know they expected her to be on top of her game.

She smiled. “So. That cage is ours?”

Trip blinked in surprise, but she recovered quickly. Her fingers tightened on her mace a little as she matched Alex’s smile. “Yeah. We’ve got it until lunch, or until your group gives up. Sound all right to you?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Alex glanced back at the others, who were already trying—unsuccessfully—to hide smiles. “Let’s get started.”

The sparring cage was a little unnerving now that she was inside it. It was larger than one of the sparring circles back at the Red Blades compound, and the wireframe dome stretched at least a couple of stories high. Something felt a little off about the flow of magic inside, as if the current flowing from the portal was inconsistent somehow. Alex glanced up as she entered and frowned. At the very top of the cage, there was a small cluster of equipment that seemed vaguely familiar.

Trips caught her looking and glanced up as well. “See that? It’s called a nullifier array. It lessens the impact of magic used inside the cage. That means you can probably use whatever magic skills you’ve picked up freely. No pulling punches to avoid injuries, all right?”

Alex looked back at her, frowning a little. “Who said I have magic abilities?”

“A little bird told me something about wind and lightning is all.” Trips laughed at Alex’s expression. “You’re not going to have much success keeping secrets like that here, Valkyrie. Too much gossip.”

“The only one who’s seen me use it is Abbott.” Alex bounced the practice axe in her hand, watching Trips as she moved across the cage.

Trips shrugged. “He’s a good man, but he does have some flaws. He was bragging about you a little.” Then her expression grew serious. “Besides, hiding something like that would mean that you were holding back during training. We don’t do that here.”

Alex shifted as Trips fell into a fighting stance. She brought her shield up and readied her practice axe. Trips was obviously more of a direct fighter. She’d probably charge in the same way Wells always used to, and she’d have to—

A low tone echoed through the cage, and Alex felt a sudden weight dragging at her limbs. Her mind flashed back to the last moments when they had been fighting Liliana in front of the Anchor Point. It wasn’t nearly as powerful, and out of the corner of her eye, Alex could see the nullifier array spark and glow.

Trips didn’t give her a chance to adjust. She darted across the cage, her club already drawn back for a powerful attack. Alex felt her eyes widen as the Surveyor closed the distance, and braced herself for the kind of impact that would send her flying across the room.

The mace slammed into her a heartbeat later, and Alex grunted as she was forced back. A flicker of surprise ran through her as she realized the hit had not been nearly as bad as she’d expected. She felt the gravity weighing her down suddenly vanish, and Trips hauled back her mace for another hit.

This time, Alex dodged to the side as the mace came down, avoiding it entirely. There was a flash of surprise on Trips’ expression, but Alex just swung her axe in a flat arc that would have connected with the other Surveyor’s torso.

Trips caught the axe with her free hand, stopping it short of her stomach. Alex struggled to free it, but the other woman had more Strength than she did, apparently, and she felt another terrible weight blanket over her as Trips used her magic again. The mace came back up, and Alex’s eyes narrowed. She glanced up at the nullifier array.

Then she extended one finger from the hand that held her axe. It took a lot of effort to channel her power, especially with the magic feeling so disrupted around her and her Skill sitting at zero. Yet it didn’t take much to send a small bolt of electricity directly into Trips’ face.

Trips shrieked in surprise. She let go of Alex’s axe to scrabble at her face; Alex worried for a heartbeat that she’d taken it too far, but it didn’t seem like she’d blinded the woman. Even as she worried, Alex stepped in and slammed her shield into the Surveyor, knocking her backwards. Another lunging step brought her back into striking distance, and Alex brought down her weapon in a devastating overhand blow.

The other Surveyor just barely managed to roll to one side; Alex’s axe bounced off the floor of the cage. By the time she’d recovered, Trip had already gotten back to her feet, lashing out blindly with her mace. Alex took the hit on her shield and shoved it to one side. She ducked below a second swing and swatted the mace up and out of the way. Then she spun, letting her axe chop through the air and into Trips’ ribs.

With an agonized groan, Trips folded up around the hit. She staggered a little, and Alex slammed her shield into Trips’ shoulder, sending her back to the floor. This time, the mace went sliding away across the cage, and Alex caught her with a kick before she could rise. Trips lashed out again, blanketing Alex with another burst of gravity, but Alex forced her way through it to kneel by the fallen Surveyor and bring her axe back.

Then she paused, glaring down at Trips. “Yield?”

Trips grimaced up at her and then sighed. “Yeah. I do.”

Alex let her axe return to her side, and orange text flared across her vision.

[Battle Maneuvers advances to 2!]

[Combat Balance advances to 3!]

[Combined Arms—Axe/Shield advances to 2!]

[Holy—Storm advances to 1!]

She set her axe aside and extended a hand for Trips to take. “Sorry I hit you that hard. I wasn’t expecting you to have Arcane—Gravity.”

Trips grinned as she took Alex’s hand. “Yeah, not many do.” She pulled herself back to standing and dusted herself off a bit. “You aren’t bad, Valkyrie. I’m betting your Skills are no joke, either.”

“I do my best.” Alex glanced at the door to the cage where the others were waiting. “Do we go again, or…”

The other Surveyor gave her a slightly incredulous look. Then determination stamped itself on her face. “Well, I’m game if you are. You won’t get me that easily twice.”

Alex shrugged and picked up her practice axe again. Trips crossed to retrieve her mace and fell into her fighting stance. As they waited to clash, Alex started to wonder if things weren’t going to be that bad after all.

Three hours of sparring later, followed by another hour of obstacle training, Alex was forced to admit that the Surveyors in this new company were no joke. Their spars had eventually taken over a second cage as more and more of the other D ranks had volunteered to try their hand at testing the new arrivals.

By the end of it, her muscles were sore, and she was definitely missing the additional stamina from Motion Trance, but she had gained a lot of her Skills back, to the point where the other D ranks were already starting to go after her in pairs rather than alone. There were approving looks from Trips and the others as she finished the last of the exercises, and that alone seemed worth every ache and pain.

There was a quick break for lunch, and then they were shuffled off to a conference room, where a D rank clerk distributed multiple packets for each of them. Alex had initially expected another snooze fest, like the tactical seminars back at the Red Blade compound, but what she found was much, much different. Rather than reviewing corporate guidance and platitudes, Royal Purple seemed far more interested in telling their Surveyors exactly what kind of conditions they were going up against.

Each packet had a collection of reports about one of the portals that the company was in charge of securing during an emergency. They were filled with descriptions from previous Surveys, along with explanations of various incidents that had happened and been contained. Alex quickly went from being bored to paying close attention; it was the kind of data that her mother had always wanted to have when she went through a new portal. Knowing whether she’d be fighting in a cityscape or some suburb would make all the difference during an urgent mission.

They spent two hours going over every piece of information for three separate portals, with the clerk answering questions and quizzing them on what they had learned. It was almost as grueling mentally as the physical exercises had been. By the time the clerk turned them loose, they were more than ready for a break.

Which was when they realized what the ‘team exercises’ portion of their day meant.

Another clerk led them from their conference room to another section of the building, one that was right next to the portal area. This time, the room was one giant fighting cage, and Abbott was waiting in the middle of it.

The C rank Surveyor seemed as cheerful as ever as he waved to Alex, and she nodded in response. Scattered around the rest of the room were other teams of D ranks, many of whom were the same ones that had spent the morning beating on her and her friends. All of them were armed with practice weapons, and had expressions of anticipation that made her tense up.

Abbott didn’t seem to notice her concern as he looked around the arena and nodded. “All right. Looks like we’re all here. I hope you’ve all had a good rest from the rest of the day, because it’s time for some teamwork.” There were mutters and grins from the rest of the Surveyors, and he went on in a voice that sounded far too optimistic. “For those of you that haven’t been here as long, this portion of your training is going to be about fighting as a team, rather than an individual. As such, you’ll be fighting in the same teams you’ll be using in the field.”

He looked around and nodded. “It looks like you’re all mostly already grouped up correctly. There aren’t any requests for transfers, right?” Silence answered him, and he nodded. “Good. Now, this fight is going to be a free for all, as you know. Surveyors are eliminated when they are captured by another team, knocked out, or surrender. The winners are going to be the team that are all still standing at the end. Try to keep injuries to a minimum; nobody wants to pony up the penalties to the infirmary if we don’t have to.”

With another grin, he looked right at Alex. “Valkyrie, normally there’s a bit more terrain set up in here, but we’re going with a simpler battlefield for your team’s first day. Don’t think your objectives are going to be that simple, either. I have a habit of being creative.”

Then he looked around and raised his hand. “All right, ready… set…”

Alex and the others had just barely managed to collect a practice weapon before his hand came chopping down, and the battle began.

What followed was nearly an hour of constant, brutal chaos. There were eleven teams of Surveyors in the arena, and every single one of them was doing their level best to destroy their opponents. Alex and her friends lasted about twenty minutes before a trio of other teams surrounded them and battered them to the ground before turning on each other.

By the end of the fighting, a team led by a Surveyor called Vortex was victorious. Abbott led the applause for them, which the other Surveyors reluctantly joined. As Alex looked around, it didn’t seem like there were many hard feelings about the match.

The reason why became clear a moment later as Abbott directed them to reset and begin again.

By the end of the third round, Alex and her team had managed to last all the way to the forty-minute mark before they were outflanked and wiped out. In the open terrain, it was simply impossible to keep from being surrounded, and Alex was already starting to look forward to fighting in a less exposed environment. Trips and her team won that final round, with the woman making a deep bow as the others rolled their eyes and clapped.

Abbott stepped forward again as the applause died down. He nodded to them before he raised his voice. “You’ve all done well today. Next time, I expect to see even more improvement. Don’t forget that when you are out in the field, your teammates are always counting on you to back them up and keep them safe. Fight hard, train well, and you won’t let them down.”

There was a solemn moment of pause. Then he grinned again. “All right, dinner should be waiting for you in the cafeteria. Go refuel, visit the infirmary if you need to, and then grab a bit of time for yourselves before bed. We’ll see you back in training tomorrow.”

The Surveyors all started filing out of the door, with Abbott close on their heels. Alex watched him for a moment. It suddenly occurred to her that she didn’t know when he had taken the chance to train his own skills that day. He certainly hadn’t been in the gym with them, and he hadn’t left at all during their own team exercises. Was he not training at all?

He looked over before she could conceal her frown and sighed. “Something wrong, Valkyrie?”

“No, Abbott.” She shook her head, debating with herself over whether she should keep quiet.

“Somehow, you made my nickname sound like ‘sir’ without actually saying it.” Abbott grinned and leaned on the wall, letting the others go by. “Come on, then. Out with it.”

Alex looked at him for a moment longer, wondering how she could convince him to let her help without making it easy to refuse. Then she smiled as an idea occurred to her. “I was just wondering if you could help me.”

Abbott frowned and folded his arms across his chest. “Of course! What do you need?”

She chose her words carefully. “Well, I was thinking that I might need a bit more people to practice with.”

He stared at her for a moment. “You’re saying that the other D ranks aren’t challenging enough for you?”

“I mean, at first they were, but…” She looked away and shrugged. “Once I had started to bring my Skills back up, they were having to fight me two at a time.”

Abbott coughed slightly. When she looked back, he was trying to hide a smile behind his fist. “They were, were they? Is this a problem that you’ve had before?”

She nodded, and he shook his head with a grin. “Well then. I don’t think that’s a bad problem to have.”

Alex glanced in the direction the others were going down the hallway and lowered her voice. “I’m just worried it will make the others a little less willing to help me train, I guess. There were some problems with jealousy at my last company.”

“Among other things, I’m sure.” Abbott looked in the same direction and shook his head. “We generally don’t have that kind of competition here, though they were going after your team a little harder than they normally would…”

He trailed off and then stroked his chin for a moment. Then he looked back at her and nodded. “So you’re looking for someone a little tougher to fight, eh? You might be asking for a bit too much. After all, I’d be fighting at pretty much full strength, and you’re still recovering.”

His admission more or less confirmed what she’d suspected. Whatever he’d done to earn the other higher ranked Surveyors’ ire, he had been stuck at the same level and relative Skills for a while. It bothered her, more than she had expected it to, but she pushed those feelings aside and tried to act nonchalant. “Could you reset a few after the next Survey, then? That way, we’d at least start out near the same.”

Abbott nodded slowly, his hand still on his chin. “I guess that could work. It might be a little risky, but… I think I could help out. If you don’t mind fighting a C rank.”

She grinned. “I think I’ll do just fine.”

“It’s settled then.” A sly look crossed his expression. “As long as you’re not just practicing to get the chance to take me out. Are you?”

Alex rolled her eyes and gave him an annoyed look.

Abbott laughed and spread his arms. “Hey, you can’t blame a guy for worrying, can you?”

She grimaced, and he laughed again. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it.”

He patted her on the shoulder and then headed off to join the others. Alex watched him go for a moment, letting satisfaction cross her face. With any luck, he wouldn’t even catch on to what she was actually doing. After all, no matter how good of a guy he might be, any C rank might get a little offended to know that a D rank was trying to find ways for them to train.

Shaking her head, she followed the group. She didn’t want to miss dinner, after all.