When Raymund first realized what turning in the Darkstar coin would earn for that foolhardy dog, he first remembered the ominous silhouette of Head Drill Sergeant Ghosthound and he couldn’t prevent himself from shivering. Both the Ghosthound’s impressive visage and the very real difficulty and effects of his newest training formation were fresh in Raymund’s mind; he couldn’t imagine trying to stand against him. Even for only five minutes.

He wondered how long Vizzeret would be able to last. He hoped the result would be embarrassingly short.

Then Raymund's jealousy began to fade and he held quite a bit of genuine anticipation toward Vizzeret’s struggle to survive, even with Overseer help.

But that thought made Raymund pause as the trio began to head to the Southern training grounds. Exactly how powerful is the Head Drill Sergeant that he can overpower a group of any five of his Overseers within five minutes…?

The three of them walked quickly forward, Raymund still wincing internally at the dull ache that ran throughout his body after experiencing the Nether array. With the deeply frowning Charlotte behind him, as she seemed to be reflecting on her own distaste for her Overseer Advisor, the group traveled in silence. It was almost comfortable.

A lot of Raymund’s sense of intimidation had been beaten out of him, by virtue of simply being next to all of the so-called ‘elites’ in the training camp, but there was something about Charlotte’s fierce expression that made him unwilling to offend her. Even now, she left him slightly on edge.

Gradually, they joined a larger group heading South, a series of exhausted and morose figures coming from the bamboo forest or from the individual training chambers. As they passed the central area, someone turned in a Tree Coin and an invigorating wave of energy crashed against Raymund’s body. The group released a collective sigh of relief. With the lingering damage from the Nether still present, Raymund savored the warm sensation of comfort that he felt from that mental energy before it began to gradually fade.

As more people gathered, the bubble of Charlotte’s stormy mood was slowly suppressed by the weight of numbers. The excitement of witnessing their Head Drill Sergeant fight was infectious amongst the recruits, hopping from individual to individual until they were all exhibiting symptoms. They had seen his images, felt the capability of his subordinates, and experienced his brutal training programs. Now it was time to see such a capable individual in action.

And at Vizzeret’s expense, Raymund thought smugly.

The flow of recruits soon arrived at the huge trench dug in the center of the Southern area, which they hadn’t yet had the occasion to use. Wargames would start after the skirmish, but for now, it was just a low, muddy area that they walked around to get to their own training pits. Currently, Assistant Overseers directed them around the edge of the massive ditch, spacing themselves out as they wished to witness the challenge. The three of them quickly walked along the edge until they had about thirty meters of the side to themselves.

As they settled to watch, the action was already beginning below. Overseer Helen stood with her arms crossed as she weighed the massive grey dog in front of her like she was calculating how much edible meat hung off his oversized bones. Her clear voice echoed through the surroundings. “...as I informed you previously, the rules are simple. This is both a training exercise and the chance to earn a personalized lesson from the Ghosthound himself. You will select five Overseers to help you fight the Ghosthound. Should you survive five minutes, you will receive your special lesson.

“But frankly,” Overseer Helen smirked. “At your current power, both in terms of physical Skills and image, you are nothing but dead weight. It will therefore be the thankless task of the Overseers to protect you from the Ghosthound while you struggle to survive. A thankless task. So, have you selected the five Overseers that will assist you?”

While Vizzeret worked his jaw below and considered his choices, Raymund put his hands on his hips up above and spoke quietly. “I wonder how powerful exactly the Ghosthound is.”

“I wonder that as well,” said a new voice. Raymund twisted around and discovered that a rather scrawny reptilian that he didn’t recognize had somehow snuck up on their group. But from the reptilian’s uniform and the subtle touches of image that radiated outward from the man, it was clear that he was an Overseer. Then the reptilian turned and beamed at Charlotte. “Miss Charlotte! Took me a bit to find you! Didn’t I say that I would be waiting on the Western side of the gorge? This is the Eastern side!”

Charlotte bowed mechanically, her furred face inscrutable. “Advisor Salazar, I apologize. It must have slipped my mind. I just wished to watch the challenge with my friends.”

Raymund tried not to look as shocked as he felt.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, comradery is an important element for everyone,” Advisor Salazar flapped his hand and settled near the other three, clearly joining them for the duration of their stay. “Ahem, but as I was saying, even we wonder how powerful the Ghosthound is these days. Ahem ahem, let me give you just a bit of c-context. There we were, standing on the battlements of the Ghosthound’s thorny castle as the Nether King invaded-”

“Shouldn’t we pay attention to the challenge happening below?” Charlotte interrupted warily.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“O-oh. I s-suppose that’s true.” Advisor Salazar seemed to wilt like a flower, visibly disappointed that he didn’t get to tell his story. Meanwhile, Raymund was somewhat alarmed as he observed his own image in relation to this Overseer. There was something about the lizardman’s aura, especially while he was talking, which put him perfectly in harmony with the surroundings. And weirdly, Raymund felt some of the exhaustion in his physical body beginning to heal while he was standing nearby to the Advisor.

That sort of healing was something Raymund had rarely witnessed in his existence. He spared a single glance for Charlotte. You might complain, but none of these Advisors are weak.

Below, Vizzeret shocked exactly no one when the first Overseer he requested was Overseer Helen. She sighed in defeat but said nothing. After that, he cleared his throat and said Overseer Heiffal. As he did so, there was a rumbling chuckle from behind Raymund. “Heiffal is capable as a leader, but his fighting style is too blunt to be useful in a challenge like this. Especially against the Ghosthound. He is not one you fight directly.”

This voice Raymund recognized, so he was already bowing as he turned around. “Advisor Zauna. Who should I select if I obtain a Darkstar Coin?”

“Me,” She replied simply. Then she folded her arms in a position that meant the conversation was over. While Benjamin and Charlotte sparred glanced for the stony exterior of Advisor Zauna, Raymund looked back below at the challenge. After the two obvious picks, Vizzeret listed off the names of three other Overseers that he didn’t recognize. They steadily trooped out to surround Vizzeret.

Helen grinned up at the sky, but her words were clearly meant for Vizzeret. “Are you ready? You should activate your image as much as you can. Because once things start, there is no turning back. The Ghosthound will come with the intent to kill you.”

Taking her advice seriously, Vizzeret shook his head and unleashed his image. He pawed the ground as he did so, revealing his nerves. A horde of gleaming golden-furred dogs manifested around him, surrounding him protectively. These spectral dogs raised their noses and sniffed the air, looking for danger.

“Unfortunately for that fool…” Zauna said quietly. “In an effort to make the challenge fairer, the Ghosthound will come without using his images. So any Perception Skill looking to catch the whiff of an image will be useless.”

Right after Vizzeret manifested his image, the five Overseers glanced at each other and then spread out to surround the grey dog at a distance of about eight meters. Each of them flared their own images to life, even the weakest of which dwarfed the dogs’ display, sending a thrill of pleasure through Raymund. That is until Helen unleashed the full extent of her image and the entire, several hundred-meter trench became a churning sea of crimson blood.

Even standing just at the edge of that sea applied so much pressure to Raymund’s body that he could barely move. Overseer Helen’s image was awe-inspiring. The crimson flows that lapped up against his feet felt so thick and real that a part of Raymund doubted this was an image. If he were to compare this effect to what he could accomplish with his nine-tailed fox…

This is why they say my image won’t cut it. Because my ethereal, eternal nine-tailed fox will never have the punch of this concrete existence…

From the side, Benjamin spoke toward Zauna. “Is the Ghosthound… truly this overwhelmingly strong? He does not even need his image to fight against us?”

“Just watch,” Advisor Zauna glanced over at Benjamin with her flinty eyes. “The common sense of the Nexus says that the Path to power lays directly through images. Randidly Ghosthound… does not believe that is the case. Or rather, he believes that the entire self is worth cultivating as you hone your edge. Now, watch closely or you will miss him as he arrives.”

At his Advisor’s words, Raymund rolled his shoulders and narrowed his gaze. While the tides of blood churned below, Raymund turned his face upward and looked for the brutal forthcoming blitzkrieg from the Ghosthound. Low clouds lay overhead, seeming to hint at the impending descent of a threat.

The wind traced its slow progress through the dusty Southern area, rubbing up against Raymund’s fur. Below, the golden hounds of Vizzeret flicked their ears back and forth. The five Overseers stared straight upward, seeming to sense something the rest of them did not.

...and nothing, in particular, seemed to happen.

Eventually, Advisor Salazar giggled. “You t-tease them too much, Zauna. You know the Ghosthound is going to make a show of it.”

As the lizardman Advisor spoke, the Ghosthound did indeed reveal himself purposefully. He came down slowly, floating through the air toward the exhibition area. The space around him bent and warped, making the descent extremely smooth. His person seemed to grip his surroundings so tightly that he could bend and twist them as he wished.

As one, all of the recruits looked at their Head Drill Sergeant and slowly began to frown. Because the form that floated downward to challenge the five Overseers and Vizzeret was not the complex and strangely harmonious horror that they had witnessed when he spoke for them. No, this form was entirely humanoid. His hair was black. Both his eyes were visibly, luminously emerald, although it did seem to Raymund that the left eye was slightly darker.

“Is that really the Ghosthound…?” Charlotte whispered.

“Just him when he’s about to show off,” Zauna huffed, but her eyes held a deep respect for the figure who alighted on the edge of the deep ditch. The Ghosthound was also much more casually dressed than he had been in his display before them earlier, wearing only a beaten pair of leather shorts and an angular grey chest armor. In his right hand was a long spear with flaring leaves along its shaft.

Watching the small movements spear, Raymund couldn’t help but blink. Randidly’s hands were still, but the weapon was undulating slowly; the spear was alive.

But the longer that Raymund watched the Head Drill Sergeant, the more he realized that there was one other particular detail about the man that floored him. After experiencing the training array for the past few hours, there was no way he would miss the unmistakable tang of Nether that covered the Ghosthound’s shoulders like a mantle. And in a quantity that left him petrified.

“How can he contain so much Nether within his body…?” Benjamin whispered.

Salazar pounded one of his hands softly against his chest, as though to clear some phlegm, before speaking. “Hum. The G-ghosthound is currently a near p-perfect replica of how much energy a Nether Gatekeeper has. That is the foe he wants to raise you to beat. In the grand s-s-scheme of the N-nether army, they are pretty common.”