Clo watched as Abigail’s body burst into fog. He had seen the sight enough times to be used to it by now. He pushed through the fog and ran over to Sabrina. Her skin was covered in burn marks, and the edges of her hair had been burned away. The odd swirly glasses, which much have been an item from the dungeon, were undamaged. At least her eyes had been protected. He wasn’t sure if either of them could heal an injury there.

He debated looking in her pockets for her booster but decided it would be better if she just did it afterward. Instead, he drew out a potion bottle. It was a simple enough item to use. He uncorked it, dumping half of the contents over her burned skin. Her skin started to mend almost immediately, but he didn’t think it would be enough. Slowly, he lifted her head back and poured the solution down her throat. Her hair crackled as it met his hand, and a dozen tiny shocks danced across his arm. He sat there, holding her head like that for a few seconds before Sabrina began to stir.

“If you can move, use your booster. I doubt that potion will be enough.”

Clo spoke louder than he needed to. He wasn’t sure how aware Sabrina was of her surroundings and wanted to make his words clear. She gave a tiny nod before reaching into her back pocket. Well, she tried to. With the way she was laying on the ground, she couldn’t actually do it.

“I’ll do it.”

She gave another very faint nod. He cautiously turned her onto her side. Sabrina groaned loudly as he did so, but he ignored that and quickly reached into her pocket. The cylindrical metal tube that was the booster was easy to find, and he was quick to apply it too. He popped the cap and jammed the syringe into her neck while lowering her onto her back.

Sabrina gasped, then sucked in a quick breath and sighed. Clo couldn’t really see her eyes behind the glasses, but he got the feeling he was being looked at. She spoke softly.

“Thanks. And people who say they do that for fun are lying.”

Clo eyed her as she pushed herself up into a seated position. Her legs were stretched out in front of her, and she used her hands to hold up her body.

“Who would say that about electrocution?”

His voice held his skepticism. Sabrina blushed slightly as she responded.

“I was talking about porn, you do know what that is, right?”

The fact that she sounded half serious when she said that, made him frown.

“I know what it is, but that seems extreme. And why would anyone even think of that?”

As he watched the remaining burns on Sabrina’s skin vanish, he truly had no idea who would that even remotely enjoyable. Sabrina glared at him for some reason.

“Can we talk about literally anything else? It was just a dumb joke and not an invitation to any further discussion.”

Clo let the matter drop. He didn’t really care and had only asked the question out of a morbid fascination. There were other priorities anyways.

“Are you good to move? Maya is making her way toward us, but we should plan an ambush like before.”

Sabrina slowly stood. She nearly fell but Clo caught her arm and helped her stand. It took a few seconds for her to respond after that.

“Yeah, I can walk at least, but I doubt I’ll help much in a fight. Also, how did you send us the map and message earlier.”

Clo grinned and told her what exactly he got from killing that boss.

“I found this boss room, and after killing it got a few upgrades. This crystal thing gave me the party map and message upgrade. I bet some other people have gotten the same thing by now. Either way, that was basically it. I also got the potion I used on you, and this.”

He opened his inventory and pulled out an item from his vault. It was a small round fruit that kind of resembled a cherry. He held it out to her so that she could see the same blue box that he did.

Fruit of Evolution (Rare): A fruit of magical properties. Provides a minor boost to the improvement of physical attributes. Meant to be given to a familiar.

When used on a person, the effects are temporary. Duration: One Year

Sabrina let out a high-pitched whistle.

“People would kill you for something like that. Why haven’t you used it yet?”

Clo’s grin dipped a little at the question.

“People would kill me for less. Either way, I don’t plan on using it. I’m not sure if the effects would persist outside of the trial, but I’m going to try .”

“I don’t think that’s how that works.”

Clo shrugged slightly at her response.

“Maybe, maybe not, I figured it was worth the attempt though.”

Sabrina nodded her head at that.

“Yeah, I guess that’s fair. And is that guy on your head a familiar.”

“It is a plant elemental. Its name is Juniper, and it’s been pretty useful thus far.”

Clo explained a little more about what exactly Juniper could do.

“Why don’t you give Juniper the fruit, it is meant for familiars, so there might be some synergy you don’t know about.”

Clo’s head bobbed sideways for a moment.

“Yeah, I got that impression too, but I wasn’t sure how worthwhile that would be. After all, I doubt Juniper will be able to leave the trial with me.”

They talked a bit more about the trial and what they had experienced so far before setting off. Once Sabrina was good enough to run a little, they started heading toward Maya. Clo cleared the majority of the rooms out by himself, although Sabrina had helped a little by distracting some monsters. The help wasn’t exactly necessary. He had cleared plenty of rooms since the beginning of the trial, and even more getting to her. By now, he was pretty sure he had seen every variant of the room.

It took just under an hour to actually get near Maya. Sabrina had been growing increasingly anxious as they got closer, but Clo was fairly certain she was fine. If not the screen probably would’ve updated her condition by now. A quick glance told him that she was probably still alive. The fog wall in front of them corroborated that theory.

“The fog wall means that she’s still fighting.”

He spoke while walking toward the archway. In a moment of insanity, he saw Sabrina attempt to walk through the fog wall. He grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

“What’re you doing?”

Sabrina shook her hand free, turning on him.

“What? She’s fighting right now! We have to help!”

She shouted but had the sense to not just jump through.

“Just listen to me. She can handle herself for a few more seconds. If you run in there and die, then everything we just did was pointless. Just listen for a moment.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Clo told her about what she would need to do, and what he had sent Maya earlier. Once he finished, the two of them passed through the fog wall.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Maya P.O.V

Maya raised a hand blocking a dozen spines as the monster swiped its tail at her. Some of the spines broke against the ephemeral armor that formed around her arm. She had gotten a lot better at using her gift since training with the others, and these rooms had helped her too. These monsters were still annoying though, and one of the spines near the end of the tail jabbed her with her ribs. Although, it didn’t have much force behind it, and didn’t get through her tracksuit. It was another thing Clo had been right about. The protective jacket that was built into the school’s gym wear was surprisingly good, and it had saved her from a few cuts and scratches so far.

Her arm twisted and she gripped the monster’s tail. Spines broke beneath her hands as she squeezed. She twisted her body spinning the creature into another one. As they made contact, she released pushing them away to catch her breath.

“Fuck you!”

The weird monsters definitely didn’t understand her words, but she still felt better shouting. Clo fought silently like a ghost, but she couldn’t fight without noise. The monsters dizzily rose to their feet, twisting their heads about to look at her.

Maya hated these things. They were some kind of cross between a squirrel and a porcupine, with brown spines instead of fur. She didn’t like normal squirrels, seeing them as pests. However, these were a dozen times worse than that. Standing on their hind legs, each monster was almost four feet tall, and their tails were at least two feet longer than their bodies.

She raised her hand palm out and brought her fingers to her palm, gesturing at them to come at her. Even if they didn’t understand her words, they got the gesture. The creatures let out a high pitch screech and charged at her in blind fury. None of the monsters in this stupid maze seemed to do anything else, but she still liked to think that she got under their skin. She was distracting two monsters from her, while the rest of her team handled the remaining two.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Jeff, who was the highest ranked among them fighting against a single creature. His gift let him move dirt around. Well, not exactly dirt, but rocks. There were more specifics to it, that the man had droned on and on about, but she like probably everyone in the world didn’t care. He moved rocks. Her other teammates were actually twins and were named Zack and Cody. And they both had the same gift. They could summon any nonmagical item that they were familiar with. The items appeared like Clo’s sword did, though their skill had a much longer cooldown than his.

All in all, her teammates were fine, she just didn’t like them very much. Oh, how she wished for Sabrina or Clo. She would be happy with either. Sabrina because she was her closest friend, and Clo for other reasons. Her mind drifted to the many times she had seen Clo shirtless in the past week, and the two monsters she taunted umped at her.

Focusing on her hands, she made both hands glow with her shield while catching the creatures’ heads and diverting them away from her. In one fluid motion, she spun with the move and took a proper stance this time. She bent her knees a little and hopped on the balls of her feet. It wasn’t the most complex stance ever, but it was what she had learned. The squirrel creatures struggled to their feet, and she let out a slow sigh.

This was why she didn’t like the trial very much. These monsters were half-assed and had some kind of internal health system. Even if the trial was designed like a game, it didn’t need to include a hp system. It just made these fights boring when the monsters got ‘low’. These squirrel things were moving notably slower and taking a lot more time to get reorganized. And just like that, the fight went from a good challenge to kind of trivial. Letting the creatures recover, she looked toward her teammates and saw something that made her pause.

The fog door thing along one of the hedge walls rippled like water, and two people emerged from it. She recognized them immediately and smiled. Her eyes darted to the left, to the weird message that had popped up a few hours ago.

Message: This is Clo, I have picked up an item that lets me message people. We need to group up before getting to the end, so I will be coming to get you all. The closest one to me is Sabrina, so I will go to her first. After her, I’ll head toward you. When you see us enter your room turn on your current team if they’re still alive. Try to get into a position to either eliminate the strongest or any ranged combatant. I will take out whoever is closest.

He was here! The sight filled her vision for an instant, but she knew better than to stall. Turning toward the twins, she abandoned the squirrels in front of her and dashed at them. The twins had just finished their squirrel and were still adjusting to the new situation. She had to push them now.

“Wha-!”

A cutoff shout made her turn her head just in time to see Jeff get struck in the face by the squirrel he was fighting. Seeing that Clo was beside his body as it puffed into smoke, she could guess what happened. Trusting him to be fine with the squirrel, she moved her attention to the twins. They had been fighting with some swords that they had summoned. One of the twins, she didn’t really know or care which, raised a hand toward her.

Her eyes widened as a black pistol fell into this outstretched hand. Whichever twin he was, he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. As soon as she saw the gun, she started forming her armor over her face. The slightly purplish color of her gift shaded the world as a pair of sunglasses would. It let her see as the bullet struck the shield and popped against it. Shards of metal bounced off, and she felt one pierce her thigh. She stumbled mid-stride, but quickly recovered her balance. Her focus was sharpened by the pain, and she looked up waiting for the next shot.

It never came. As an invisible force swatted the gun out of his hand. Even without turning to look, she knew that Sabrina was there. Another two steps brought her in range of the twins. She hopped and kicked extending her right leg as purplish light formed around it. The other twin moved to intercept her kick, raising his sword to slice through her foot. His sword didn’t break, like she had grown used to seeing with Clo’s weapon, instead her kick pushed the blade back toward the man. The dull side of the blade slammed into the man’s head sending him stumbling backward in a daze. Before he could recover, she dropped to the ground and stepped forward with a quick jab. Her fist met his chin, and the purple armor around her hand made it tougher than steel.

Even with her armor-coated fist, she didn’t have the same killing power as Clo, but her fists were strong. The twin’s head snapped backward, and he fell on his butt. His eyes went round as blood fell from some obviously shattered teeth. He let out a pained gurgle, but she had to end this.

She jumped onto the man, pushing him onto his back. Her knees pinned his arms to the ground. She didn’t give him any mercy and began punching him into the ground. His nose broke with her first attack, and her second made his body go limp. It was gruesome, and she wished that she could kill with the same efficiency as Clo. A vain wish. Other than a few celebrities, she had never seen anyone kill quite as smoothly as Clo. Her gift demanded more violence than that, and it took three more punches before the boy’s body dispersed into a fog.

She got to her feet quickly, looking around for the other twin. He was pleased to him getting the shit beat out of him by Sabrina. The twin’s gifts were good and that gone had been dangerous. However, they relied on it way too much. The way the boy kept trying to scramble for his gun, only for Sabrina to knock the weapon further away was kind of funny. Sabrina kept punching him too, but her attacks didn’t do all that much damage. It was enough of a distraction for him to completely miss Clo approaching him.

One of the most terrifying things Clo did was move silently. It wasn’t even a gift, just something he did. She had sparred with him a lot and still found it disturbing. A person should be louder. Clo’s blade swung in a quick swipe that sheered through the boy’s neck, causing his body to burst into fog. The fog swirled around Clo as she followed through with his swing, wrapping him like a cloak. He must have dealt with the monsters too since she couldn’t spot any now. She may have focused a bit too much on killing that dude if she had missed that.

“Your arm! What the fuck!”

Maya shouted as she noticed for the first time that his arm was missing. Her mouth went dry trying to imagine what or who had managed to do that. Clo was by far the strongest person her age, and the idea that someone had managed to take an arm from him felt impossible. She told herself that that was an apt assessment and not one influenced by any of her other emotions. Even covered in dirt, scratches, and cuts, Clo still looked so damn good. Maya had never been jealous of anyone, not even her sister, but she couldn’t help but feel like this was unfair. She had gone through so much to finally be happy with her appearance, and Clo was just natural.

“Maya! I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Sabrina jumped at her, hugging her tightly, and turning her into a circle. Maya hugged back, happy to see her friend. A part of her wished that she was hugging Clo instead, and her cheeks reddened a little as she imagined his arms around her.

“Me too, but seriously what happened?”

Maya stopped spinning and looked toward Clo so that Sabrina would understand who she was talking about it. Sabrina sighed.

“Stop staring at him like a starving dog does a piece of meat. And he lost his arm to a mimic chest. The bird was a familiar he got after killing it.”

Sabrina’s words drew Maya’s attention to the green ball resting on top of Clo’s head. Now, how had she missed that? The cute little puffball did not match Clo’s image, but then again it didn’t make him look bad. She didn’t think anything could manage that. She smiled, whispering so that only Sabrina could hear.

“That’s rough. Also, I don’t think I can stop staring.”

Maya’s face was a little red as she tried to control her expression. For some reason, being around Clo hadn’t made it easier to be around him. Her heart rate fluttered a bit whenever she glanced at him, and there was nothing she could do. Sabrina noticed and her voice was barely a whisper.

“You want to talk about it?”

Yes! She almost shouted the word but kept it in her head for a moment.

“Not right now, after when we’re actually alone.”

She remembered that there were unironically people watching her at the moment. This trial was streamed, and a sponsor could be watching. Even if they weren’t, the teachers would be watching for sure. Sabrina nodded and the two of them walked over to Clo. He spoke as soon as they did.

“Are you both good? Let’s go get Cain, he’s not that far away. Although, we will probably run into another team on the way.”

Clo’s words didn’t sound particularly affectionate, but there was some concern in his eyes. Maya had been happy to learn that Clo wasn’t the heartless monster some people, like Abigail, painted him to be. At the very least, he seemed to care for his team, and she reveled in the fact that she was included in that group. The thought made her start to blush. She hid it, by giving in to the only desire that could compete. The one that wanted a good fight. She smiled and smacked her fists together, much to Sabrina’s chagrin.

“See, now you just got me excited.”