Ryu Ken was a two-star who had the privilege of thrashing upcoming three-stars. As occupations went, this was quite desirable. Admittedly, the majority of the candidates who came to the Starfox Guild looking to be tested would have obliterated him without a handicap, but in the context of the test, he had the advantage. Then you had those fools who thought they were ready because they’d been using an Ascension technique for a while when they had no idea what it really meant to have a mana body. That was the most fun, because he was allowed to bash those idiots half to death.

Today’s candidate wasn’t like that. He was some kind of prodigy, or he was supposed to be one. The guild examiner had given Ryu Ken a card with the candidate's information so he could prepare for the challenge, but that was usually a formality. Aspiring three-stars weren’t allowed to use their Ascendancy techniques during the examination, so it didn’t matter what their color affinity was. They were allowed to rely on elemental techniques, however, and that was where things could get interesting.

Sunwa Jin had two cores. It was a one in a million deviation, maybe even rarer than that, because both cores functioned perfectly well. They were both gold aspected, but they didn’t share an element. One had a Flesh affinity and one had a Metal affinity. The examiner had been practically giddy when he handed Ryu the card. What was there to get so excited about? So it was rare, he still wasn’t anybody special.

This guy had come from a nowhere backwater, gotten himself in trouble, and now happened to be the favorite pet of a well off Azai clan woman. If he had actually managed to develop a mana body at his age, and maybe having two cores had helped with that somehow, then he was guaranteed to pass eventually. After Ryu beat him, he could go to another guild office in another city and challenge a different proctor. Some proctors really did just test candidates to make certain they had undergone the sublime transformation, but there was nothing in the rules that said Ryu couldn’t try his hardest to win, and he had covered half his body with Starfox tattoos, memorializing the names of all the fighters he had beaten.

That way, when they did receive their third star, however long it took, it was officially on record that they had been defeated by him, a mere two-star. It went a long way to making up for the fact that he had reached his peak decades ago. When those he defeated went on to become great, people saw their names on his skin and knew that he was great as well. In Poppy city, Ryu Ken never had to pay for drinks. If this kid was special, all the better. The men down at the Purple Monkey, others who would never have a third star themselves, would fall over each other to hear about how the prodigy with two cores had been knocked off his pedestal.

The arena was on the roof of the Guild house, a square of stone tiles with four slender pillars at the corners. No one was allowed in the arena during a test except for the candidate and the proctor, but stands had been erected on neighboring rooftops so the duels could be observed. A candidate's sponsors would nearly always be in attendance, and this one was no exception.

A woman wearing an Azai clan tabard was there, the symbol made him think of teardrops chasing each other in a circle. She was young, dark eyed, and too stern to be pretty. The purple bond beast in her lap and the stars on her arm suggested she was Sunwa Jin’s master and owner. Another servant was standing at her side, an even younger girl with wavy brown hair and an equally dour expression. Oddly, two more sacred beasts were with them, these ones unbonded. A six winged raven perched on the back of a massive jumping spider, both equipped with steel claws.

The examiner was with them. He always attended the duels, but he was obviously eager to see if the prodigy lived up to the potential of his deviation. There were other observers, some Ryu had seen before, but only one that stood out.

It was a man completely covered in black cloth. Normally, hiding the left arm was considered taboo, the act of a fugitive concealing their marks. Doing so outside a Starfox guildhouse was tantamount to insulting the institution, only the Zaibatsu were an exception. They had their own traditions, and their sleeves were decorated with totemic images that left no question as to the extent of their advancement. Being that they were one of the eight great sects, they could get away with bending the rules.

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WIthout seeing a face, it was hard to be sure if the Zaibatsu artist was truly interested in the candidate, or if he was there for some other reason; a meeting, a message, a relaxing afternoon. Whatever it was, Ryu Ken planned on showing him what it meant to be a proctor of the Starfox guild.

The candidate appeared on the opposite side of the arena, having climbed a rickety wooden stair from the ground floor to arrive there. The journey was intended to remind him of his uncertain foundations, the possibility that today would not be the day he earned his third star, mana body or no mana body. Sunwa Jin hadn’t gotten the message.

He was tall, and his perfect complexion alone was enough to suggest he had undergone the sublime transformation without a hitch. Not all mana bodies were equal, but this one was molded to fit the ideal of a warrior. He had broad shoulders, muscular without being muscle bound, and he somehow managed to look like a master even wearing initiates robes. His face was odd. Or it wasn’t his face exactly, handsome enough, and unblemished, but the expression of absolute peace that graced it. He looked like a young example of one of the many sages who were credited with originating the elemental meditations.

When their eyes met, Ryu Ken felt a flutter in his stomach. Normally, the buildup to a duel was marked by an increasing tension, a winding spring ready to be released all at once into violence. He loved having this chance to prove himself, but he also dreaded it, because his personal feelings were so tied into the outcome of the duels, even though he was expected to lose. He didn’t want to.

Sunwa Jin smiled at him, and in spite of himself, Ryu responded in kind.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“I am.” The young man could not have been more calm. It was a little ridiculous, as if he was the one who would decide his own fate that day.

“Then we begin.” Ryu Ken called upon the energy stored in his core and crimson power flooded his meridians. He had developed his Ascendancy technique farther than anyone he had ever heard of, and it was why he could consistently outperform fresh mana bodies in single combat. His ruby aura did not just encase his hands and feet, it erupted from his entire frame, shrouding him in a bonfire of spirit energy.

The sight alone was enough to give some candidates pause. They came here thinking they would have a quick victory over some token two-star, and instead they met Ryu Ken. He tore off his shirt, revealing the dozens of names that had been scrawled down his right side, ready to add one more.

Sunwa continued to smile.

Ryu launched himself forward, as much meteor as man. No weapons were allowed in the arena, which meant that the candidate’s metal affinity would probably be wasted. Ryu used air himself, and once the dance began, he didn’t intend to touch the ground until it was finished. Flesh cultivator techniques often modified their bodies in dramatic ways, the enhancements made all the more potent by their sublime transformation, but Sunwa showed no sign of activating a technique.

Ryu hit him at full force, propelled by the strength of his Ascendancy and a howling rush of wind, his fist extended like a lance.

Hitting the candidate felt like hitting a brick wall, except that he could have torn through a brick wall like it was paper, or a steel wall, for that matter.

His fist popped. It hadn't broken, but one of his knuckles had dislocated. The pain was a small thing, and he bounced away into the air, landing thirty feet above the arena to balance on the sharp pinnacle of one of the boundary pillars. He flexed his hand, forcing his joints back into place.

Sunwa Jin had taken the blow directly to his chest and he hadn’t even flinched. The young man waved up at him, practically cheerful.

“Will that do?” He called. “Have I passed?”

What was this? A trick, a joke? Mana bodies continued to develop after the initial transformation, growing denser and more powerful with time and cultivation. A fresh three-star was as strong as a lower ranked artist using an Ascendancy technique, but Ryu Ken was one of the best in Poppy city. By all rights, that attack should have knocked his opponent out of the ring, forcing him to forfeit the match. It would have served the upstart right for not even bothering to dodge. Some newly transformed artists were like that, they thought they couldn’t be touched by someone like him and they paid for their arrogance in the coin of shame.

Maybe this one was a prodigy.

No matter, Ryu Ken had just begun to fight.