After practicing his weapon forms, Rex led everyone to a group of small individual rooms where each had a bed, nightstand with a clock, armor rack, and weapon rack. There was a lone window that overlooked the street below, allowing natural light in through its tinted glass. This would be where they all would stay for the next two-plus weeks. There was a communal bathroom with showers down the hall and a cafeteria that sold food two floors lower, though, after all the beast meat he had eaten in the last few hours, Axel was not hungry.

The group split up to take showers and unwind after their workout. Sky had a room elsewhere in the building due to her tradecraft training and left to work on some project or other. Axel was unsure how she still had any energy after all they went through. After a hot shower, Axel bid good night to Lyra and Aria as they went into their rooms, and Axel sat in his.

Axel updated his journal so that the Goddess would know all that happened that day and meditated for a couple of hours as he was unsure about going to sleep. This was the first time in a while that he was sleeping alone, and the possibility of nightmares was robbing him of more sleep than the nightmares themselves likely would. Axel finally laid down to sleep, knowing he would not be able to do the training if he stayed awake much longer.

As he slept, the dreams came: images of Cade’s lifeless body staring at Axel in accusation, the top half of Cade’s body crawling to Axel and grabbing at his ankles, trying to drag him down. The dream moved to Cade covered in shadowy wisps, holding Lyra by the throat and saying something to Axel that he could not hear. The last part was a vivid scene of Cade cutting Aria down while Axel was frozen in place, unable to move, only for a deep rage to break the paralysis and Axel threw a punch to stop Cade.

Axel woke to a loud CRACK noise and pain in his hand. He looked around his room in a panic, covered in sweat, adrenaline pumping, and everything in a clear hyper-focused state. The only thing he saw was the faint outline of his nightstand thrown into a wall from the moonlight filtering in from the window. The clock had a crack in its face, and the time it showed was 5 a.m., with the second hand still moving along its merry way, leaving a tick tick tick filling the void in the sound that only had Axel’s ragged breathing.

Axel noticed that his hand was healing at its normal rate and turned his regeneration back on. Large bloody splinters popped out of his hand moments later. Heading to the bathroom to wash the sweat and blood off, Axel found a frightened-looking Aria and Lyra with weapons in hand coming to his door. A wash of embarrassment overtook Axel at this moment from waking his friends this early.

“Axel, are you okay?” Lyra and Aria said almost at the same time.

“I’m fine. Just hit the nightstand in my sleep. Need to clean up is all,” Axel replied, trying to play it off.

Lyra gave him a dubious look but kept quiet while Aria narrowed her eyes and said, “Clean up, then come to my room.”

With that settled, Axel took another shower, found some cleaning supplies and bedding, then cleaned up the mess in his room. Axel also found that there was a basket in the hall for dirty bedding and a large trash can to throw away the nightstand. After that was all done, the cracked clock showed it was about 6:15, and he gently knocked on Aria’s door.

The door flew open instantly, and Aria pulled Axel into the room, then shut the door. Aria then led Axel to her bed and had him sit before turning to sit on his lap, looking him in the eye.

“Are you really okay?” Aria asked with a worried look on her face.

“Just more nightmares is all. I will be fine,” Axel assured her. “I am likely reacting to the stress from the bounty hunters. Give me time, and I should be fine.”

Aria tilted her head when she heard this and just shook her head. Axel believed this was over when Aria headbutted him in the nose, stunning them both for a moment. Axel’s regeneration and blessing stopped the nosebleed before more than a trickle left his nose.

“Owww, why did you do that?” Axel complained, pinching his nose out of reflex.

“Aria wanted to snap you out of whatever you were going through,” Aria replied while rubbing her head. “You were pale, your eyes were dilated like when you attacked the bandit during the caravan, and your voice lacked any real emotion.”

Confused, Axel saw that his core had been trickling out, even accounting for healing from his regeneration, and a fading indicator of Berserker was leaving a status bar under his core power level. Axel also noticed that the crisp hyper-focus was leaving his vision and tense muscles unclenched that he was unaware were very tight.

“Thanks, I think, but next time please use your words and not your forehead if you think something is wrong,” Axel complained.

“But Axel would likely not have gotten it through his thick skull that something was wrong without Aria transferring it through percussion insertion,” Aria proudly said.

“I don’t get you some days, Aria,” Axel shook his head. “There are days like this, and then there are days where you seem to be different.”

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“Aria has a multifaceted personality, and Axel should not worry about the small things.” Aria smiled and got off Axel’s lap, getting her cleaning supplies and heading out of the room with only a slight look back. “Aria thinks you should get to the training room as soon as possible, or Rex will make it so much worse.”

Axel changed into a training outfit and made a note to see about this place’s laundry. He needed to do a better cleaning on his armor after all the sweating he did in it. Axel then headed to the training room to find Sky and Lyra there warming up. Axel followed suit, turning his regeneration back off and working through his weapon exercises. Aria arrived in a hurry, hair still damp, only moments before Rex walked through the door.

“Good, you are all here,” Rex began. “We will get started then.”

Rex led everyone to where the obstacle course was, but it seemed to have changed overnight. Rex then said they needed to do four sets around the course, but they only had ten minutes for each lap. Axel knew at that moment that they were in trouble as it would take about three laps looking at the course. Rex then handed everyone but Sky an armband. Sky received a band for her manipulator, and the group was told that it was not finished until everyone made it past the finish line four times in the under-ten-minute lap.

The lap began, and Axel felt his entire body weigh down massively, and his movements slowed greatly. Axel saw that the others didn’t slow, but Lyra seemed to be off-balance, Aria as if she was walking on ice, and Sky was running backward when she seemed to want to move forward. Axel began to try and help the others until Rex told him that was not the point of this training and he should focus on completing it under his own power.

Glaring at Rex, Axel did not agree with the rules but decided to trust Rex this time and worked his way through the course. It took well over an hour before everyone completed this exercise and were then fed cores and meat. After being fed, they were led to a gravity training room and worked through muscle training for another two hours.

At that point, they were given a break to eat and get anything they needed to do done. Axel checked and found a note from Jareth telling him that he would change the plan back for now, but if Axel needed anything, to send him a message. Axel then went to eat something that was not cooked meat and returned to the combat simulator for the next training.

Combat went well, with this time being a human group again until Axel overcommitted to a swing and missed a target that was keeping distance, causing a chain reaction in the rest of the group to fail. After getting a rundown from Rex on the issues he saw, the group was led through a round of sparring so Rex could help them work through these issues.

The group was fed meat and cores again and led through the same obstacle course, this time with the light constructs guarding different spots on the course that each of them needed to be or bypass to move on. This took almost two hours to complete with the armbands as they did not know that on the second completed lap, the stun bolts also began to fly, and when they failed, the count started at one again. It was at this point that each of the groups began to help in ways they hoped Rex didn’t see so they could get through it.

Rex gave everyone a short break to deal with another issue while Lyra went over everyone with her healing to help optimize their growth. When Rex returned after thirty minutes, he led them again to the simulation chamber and forced them to fight wave after wave of enemies. Every time one was beaten, another showed up until they failed. Then he did a quick review and threw them right back in to fight more. Axel fought more in the next three hours than he ever had before. The group only received small breaks to go over what went wrong and returned to fighting.

When the eight-hour training day ended, Sky skittered, with a lot less energy than yesterday, to her blacksmithing training. Rex looked at the tired and sweating remaining trio and led them to get cleaned, changed, and fed. When this was done, Rex then led them to a classroom and began going over basic combinations of powers, how the most successful Flame Seekers used them, and strange esoteric power combinations.

This lesson lasted for a full three hours, followed by basic weapons practice to end the day. Axel did find out that if he left his laundry in a hamper in his room, it would be picked up and done each day. Axel then did the needed maintenance to his armor and meditated. As Axel finished, he saw the clock; it was just after midnight, so he made a quick journal entry and lay in his bed, dreading sleep as he turned off the light gem in the room.

As Axel tried to get comfortable, his door opened, and Aria entered the room, pushing Axel to his side and holding him on the small bed until they both fell asleep, Aria hugging Axel from behind. While the dreams were not present, Axel could not remember much besides that they were bad. Feeling much better than the day before, Axel prepared for more training.

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The rest of the week continued in this vein, with everyone lasting longer in the simulator fights, the obstacle course changing every day, and new challenges added to it. The worst in Axel’s mind was the sparring with Rex, as it left everyone bruised and battered while they then had to go back to the simulator, gravity room, or obstacle course while trying to take in the lessons Rex imparted.

Rex explained the afternoons, covering common powers, strange special powers, and even Crimson Entities up to Lesser Crimson Entities and how they begin to blend their abilities. When Rex was satisfied with the group’s progress, it was almost the day of the time frame that was originally suggested. They were then scheduled to take a trial.

“I am glad you all stuck through my training and hope that you have decided what ability you will be hunting for,” Rex began. “If you are unsure, I have suggestions for you, but looking at your faces, you have made your choice.”

“The only thing I can recommend now is to see if you can access the same power type, as this is the only way to see if you have the ability to hold several of the same in a tier,” Rex recommended to everyone while leading them to a preparation room much like the one Axel and Lyra used for their trial.

Waiting in the room was a young Vortan male who held a spear in his hand and wore leather armor. He stood about seven feet tall with a series of bones circling the side of his head. Rex led the way into the room and introduced the young man. “This is Salmar. He has completed his third cycle, and I know he is trustworthy to be your fifth.”

“Greetings,” Salmar bowed to everyone. “I thank you for helping me complete my cycle.”

Axel then introduced the others and led everyone to the elevator as they were all geared up. As the elevator door closed and began to lower, Axel could feel the tension in everyone but Salmar. They were going into a situation where none of them had any experience.