Clo ran as fast as he could. He knew everyone in the top 100, by both appearance and ability. Aida was dangerous and well-trained. It hadn’t taken more than a simple search online to find records of her achievements. She really should’ve been placed in another academy. The reason why she wasn’t was the one thing he hadn’t been able to find. It wasn’t important right now anyways. The only thing that mattered here was knowledge of her ability. Refracted Strike. He knew it by name and knew what it did. She essentially got to attack twice. As it upgraded it offered her even more attacks with even greater variety. If she had managed to upgrade it even once, then he would lose. However, if her public status was up to date, then he had a chance.

The grass tickled his feet as he ran across the open plain. Aida was running toward him too. And with that, the first part of his plan worked. Behind Aida, Clo could make out Sabrina stabbing the man next to her in the neck. He was glad that it was Sabrina here. She was efficient, and more importantly, she cared little for people she didn’t know. Shifting his focus back to Aida, Clo held his hand out to his side. His sword formed in it, the hilt landing firmly in his palm.

Aida didn’t draw her blade yet, but that was to be expected. Clo had seen some of Aida’s past fights. And he saw the similarities. She fought like he did; in that, she ended fights quickly. Her strikes were almost always killing blows. While her style was different than his, it was obvious that it had similar foundations. However, her strikes took advantage of her unique gifts, utilizing misdirection and distraction. This would be no different. Clo knew that this fight would end in an instant, and he bet that Aida thought the same. Her hand rested on her sword’s hilt, clearly ready to draw the blade.

Clo got a good look at her as he closed the distance. Her hair stuck to her head, matted as if glued to her scalp. Her clothes were coated in something, and he wondered if it was an item. A protective coating? He really hoped not, as that limited where he could attack. He couldn’t risk it and had to aim for the vulnerable parts that he could see like her neck or arms. He was a little impressed by her muscle definition. With how her clothes stuck to her body, he could easily make out the thickness of her arms and legs. Even without seeing that, he knew she was fit since she was a little faster than him, although he was a bit taller.

It only took them a few seconds to close the distance. The fog on the ground seemed to retreat as if it was running from him. No words were spoken as Aida struck out. She bent down in a lunge, her blade slid out of its scabbard in a horizontal swing. She was flexible and her body nearly pressed into the grass and sagged toward the ground. The loose parts of her clothes did graze the taller stalks. It was a low strike aimed below his knees. Clo didn’t hesitate. His training had prepared him for a variety of attacks, and his body responded more than his mind did. He jumped; the blade passing beneath him. He could feel the air from the strike as the blade nearly grazed his feet. His hand was held out to the side, his blade aimed at her neck. All he had to do was bring the blade around.

He was about to swing himself, but then he saw another strike. What looked like an afterimage of Aida split from her real body and made a separate swing against him. This one was a downward strike aimed directly at his head. Clo moved automatically, his instincts guiding his motions. A shield of leaves appeared beneath his right foot, and he kicked off of it. He glanced at her real body and saw her eyes widen at the sudden movement. Her copy didn’t or couldn’t react to the mid-air motion. Clo managed to dodge her downward swing narrowly. Twisting his body, he swung with his sword while dodging, bringing his blade down and around in a short semi-circle.

Clo’s sword sheered through her hair and neck as if it weren’t there. A thin arc of blood followed the swing staining the ground for a moment before her body burst into fog. He landed amid the fog; the mist swirled around his feet as if it was attracted to the death. The fight had barely lasted a second, and he had won mostly because she hadn’t been expecting the second jump. Juniper was proving its worth already. Losing it after the trial would be a big loss. A familiar like Juniper provided far more utility than he expected. Frankly, it felt as good as a gift, maybe even better. Clo glanced up to the only remaining person and saw Sabrina approaching her slowly.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Abigail P.O.V

Abigail could feel sweat running down her back. Her knuckles were white as she squeezed the dagger in her hand. Her shield floated in the air a few inches in front of her. Sparks danced off its surface, and she raised it warningly. Sabrina was approaching her, and Abigail couldn’t help but focus on the knife in her hand. She had just used that to kill Leopold, and she was walking so casually. The coldness was not something she could match, although she did have the decency to look slightly apologetic.

“I’m sorry about this, but we were never really a team. No hard feelings, okay.”

That comment actually hurt for some reason. Abigail should’ve known that everyone was out for themselves in this competition, but she thought they were friends. But a friend wouldn’t do this. Abigail took more steps backward matching Sabrina’s pace so that she couldn’t close the distance. Sabrina swung a fist, punching the air in front of her with a hook. But there was no way that would hit. Abigail watched the motion, forgetting what Sabrina’s gift did.

Then something crashed into the side of her head, sending her stumbling to the left. It felt like someone had thrown a rock at her, and she struggled to understand what had happened. Everything about this situation was making it really hard to focus. When her addled mind finally managed to figure it out, she still couldn’t believe it. Sabrina’s range wasn’t supposed to be that far.

“You lied!”

Abigail shouted the word, raising a hand to her head. It hurt, but the area was dry. She released a small sigh of relief. Now wasn’t the time to panic. What would Sarah do here?

That question gave her some guidance and she started to take in the situation. The pain wasn’t really that bad, but it was distracting. Sabrina threw a jab straight in front of her. Abigail ducked to the side, seeing a ghostly hand appear and disappear at the same moment. It was translucent, almost invisible, but she could track it in the same way one might see air shake on a hot summer day. So, the blows weren’t instant, and they weren’t that strong either. That didn’t mean she wanted to get hit again, it just meant that she probably could if needed.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

She was quick now to return to her fighting stance. Which essentially just meant hiding behind her shield while watching Sabrina as carefully as she could. After a few more seconds, Sabrina threw another punch, this one aimed squarely at her stomach. Abigail sucked in a breath and pulled her waist as far back as she could. It was the most elegant or practical block, but it had been the first thing to come to mind. The punch still landed, hazy arm moving further than Abigail had estimated. However, it didn’t quite have the same force as that initially hit. It still managed to push her to the ground with how unbalanced her dodge had been.

Her but hit the grass and she slid a little bit. Sabrina didn’t take advantage of the moment to berate her with attacks. That was a good sign since it probably meant that her gift had a cooldown or cost of some kind. Using her hands to push off the ground, she hopped to her feet. Her body arced in the air, and she landed on her feet. She grabbed the shield, that hovered in the air in front of her, to stop herself from falling forward.

The shield held her weight easily, and she managed to get her balance quickly. However, that fall had cost her. Sabrina was close now, to the point where she might be able to close the distance. Abigail might outspeed her in a race, but she couldn’t turn away. As soon as she looked away, Sabrina could strike her with her gift. Or just trip her with it. No, Abigail needed to keep her eyes on her. As she focused another idea came to mind. Was she close enough? Abigail didn’t hesitate on the question and just decided to go for it.

“Negative!”

She shouted the word at the top of her lungs, hoping that the loudness would make it work. The shout alone caused Sabrina to jump back but still didn’t get out of range. Then the first spark jumped from her shield to Sabrina, causing the girl to yelp, her arm twitched suddenly as if it had touched something hot. For a single heartbeat, Abigail thought that was it. That proved idiotic, as dozens, hundreds, of sparks, jumped from her shield into Sabrina. They didn’t hit her, just in the arm, dancing across her body. Sabrina had no way of resisting something like that. The girl fell backwards shrieking as the rain of sparks continued.

Relief changed to horror, as Abigail saw the lights raining down on her body. Her body kept twisting and turning on the ground. The sight was something she doubted she would ever forget. This was her friend, right? Abigail closed her eyes from sight, but she could do nothing about the sounds. Sabrina wailed in agony. A twisted shriek that was sure to give her nightmares. Something stuck in Abigail’s throat, and it took all of her concentration to stop from vomiting. The scent of burnt hair and skin was too much for her, and she muttered a single word.

“Stop…”

The word was barely more than a breath on her lips. To the point that no one but the wind had heard it. Yet her ability did react, and the lightning stopped. Abigail dared a glance, and then she did feel vomit rise into her mouth. The sour taste accompanied the acrid smell of burnt flesh. Abigail swallowed hard, calling out to Sabrina silently. She could bring herself to actually say anything and just made the motions of opening and closing her mouth.

Sabrina twitched on the ground; her skin turned red from the burns. Some of her clothes were charred. Why was she still here? Shouldn’t she have turned to Mist by now?? Abigail sucked in a breath as she realized what that meant. The taste and smell of vomit were sucked in with it, making her gag. She pushed through the disgust.

Sabrina was alive! And she needed help. Abigail reached into her pocket for the booster. It would heal her. She took a half step forward to use it but froze as she remembered. This was a test, a game. Healing her enemy wouldn’t do anything for her. She should finish her off, right? No! She immediately rejected that idea, horrified and disgusted for even thinking that way. This test didn’t even say they needed to hurt each other. It was just about finishing together. It was people like Clo who made it into this. Thinking about the man, caused her thoughts to drift from Sabrina. It was like an alarm going, and she spun to see how the fight turned out but was far too late. Clo was there only a few feet away. How didn’t she hear his footsteps? The agonized whimpers from Sabrina gave the answer. He had used Sabrina’s screams as a distraction. How could he do something like that? She barely had time to process that as he was upon her in an instant. His sword swung straight at her neck.

It was okay, she could just dodge it. Then another, intrusive thought bounced into her head. A simple question that stopped her. Did she want to dodge it? Return to this game death and betrayal? And for what, a good grade? Rather than try to lean out of the way, she closed her eyes, unable to shake the screams from her mind. Then she felt a sharp pain in her neck.

When she opened her eyes again, she was standing in the classroom again. Right next to a table that she thought would be empty. Instead, one of her teammates was sitting there already. An expression of barely restrained anger twisted his eyebrows drastically.

“What the hell was that!”

Jake spat the words at her like they were weapons, and Abigail couldn’t help but flinch. Her shoulders rose a little as her head dipped. This time, there was no Sarah or Aida to stand beside. Why did she need them? She did nothing wrong. She had reacted to Jake’s shout instinctively, and that infuriated her.

“I did nothing wrong!”

She shouted back more than matching Jake’s volume. She wasn’t some meek girl that needed protection. Abigail stood as tall as she could manage. Which was still nowhere near as tall as Jake.

“Why didn’t you kill that bitch that betrayed you?”

Jake’s anger wasn’t so easily swayed and shouted over her objection. Abigail reeled at the words, momentarily stunned by the bloodthirst behind them. She pushed through that feeling. She might not be the best at hurting people, but she could at least shout at them.

“It didn’t feel right! Plus, the test didn’t say we needed to!”

Jake’s face gradually turned pinker, but her focus drifted from him. Abigail noticed several students had turned to watch them. One student was even moving chairs out of the way as if he expected a fight. Abigail turned back to Jake, lowering her voice a little.

“Maybe we should talk about this later.”

Propriety. It was a simple idea that her parents, and Sarah, had chastised her about many times. Having a screaming match with a teammate here definitely wasn’t proper. Jake wasn’t having any of it though.

“I don’t give a shit about these idiots. But you! This was a competition! A game! What kind of coward can’t kill someone in a game? Because of you, our team might fail this stupid thing!”

Those words stung. Jake was not the first to say those exact words to her. Several cousins, aunts, and uncles had insulted her in much the same way. Each word cut into her reason and rationale until it snapped, and she threw a punch. A slap would’ve been more dramatic, but she, along with most of the school had been trained to fight, and so her hand had been a fist when she struck. It was an especially good punch for her, and it hit Jake straight in the jaw. And while he might be more powerful than her, he wasn’t using his gift, and their strength wasn’t that far apart. Her punch snapped his head back, and some blood started to leak from a split lip. Jake, the berserker, a fact she probably wouldn’t forget ever again, didn’t take the punch quietly. He hit back. Pain erupted from the side of her head for a millisecond before the world went black.