Tess watched in fascination as her grandfather worked. In all of the time she had known him, she had only ever seen him truly serious about a job a handful of times, and never when it wasn’t directly related to her or Ellie. In some ways, it was like she was looking at a different person entirely; the goofy and affable man she knew had taken the back stage, and instead a man who was hypercompetent and calculating had taken his place.
The same went for the other members of the Titans, with the exception of Ava. To Tess and Ellie, the three of them had always been kind, even doting on occasion, but right now they were all business. Tess had seen Ava serious plenty of times, she had made a point of showing Tess what doing their job at a high skill level was like, but Eyfura and Atum had never needed to be serious around her, so seeing them like that felt strange.
The four of them were like a well-oiled machine, digesting information and coming up with plans at a frightening rate. It wasn’t the kind of thing that would be explained by raw talent or book-learning, either; with every moment that passed, it became increasingly clear to Tess that their skills had been sharpened by countless years of experience and significant amounts of time dedicated to study, training, and overall honing their craft to perfection, learning from even the smallest of mistakes.
Had she not seen a glimpse of that world from Ava’s training, she probably wouldn’t have picked up on it as much as she did, but now that she knew what she was looking for, the signs were incredibly obvious. It was the little things, the way that they seemed to instantly know where the others where going when they brought up a point, the way they all thought about different topics without even deciding who would tackle what issue…those sorts of things.
There was a surprising amount of silence in their work process, too; it seemed they only spoke up when they wanted confirmation on an idea or needed a little more information on a topic or something similar. Otherwise, they just seemed to trust the others’ judgement on matters and focused on their own tasks.
By the time the ten minutes of prep were up, Tess wasn’t sure what their full plan was, but the Titans certainly did. When prompted, they began giving a series of instructions detailing how they would rally their forces, where said forces would be placed, how the City would be evacuated, and a couple of other miscellaneous tasks.
After they had finished, they took a short recess to allow for the examiners to decide how effective those plans would be, and for Kane to rework the simulation to account for them. And, after five or ten minutes, the Arena began to reshape itself, turning into the top of a wall. Gramps and his party had opted to spread defenders somewhat evenly, and they themselves were situated at the point they expected the strongest monsters to be.
This was, of course, because they evaluated themselves to be the strongest fighting force the City had to offer. That would probably seem arrogant to some, but Tess knew better; even without Descent, the Titans were a cut above the rest, and even if it seemed arrogant, placing them at the most dangerous point would end up minimizing the damage to the City and its inhabitants.
And, in the end, that was what was important. It would be one thing if they didn’t have the ability to back up their claim that they were the strongest, but if it was proven that they were, and that was half the reason this test was happening in the first place, then they would be vindicated.
There was a murmur of anticipation from the crowd as the first monster appeared, its stats helpfully displayed on the TVs that were broadcasting the event. And, as Tess had expected, it was a strong one; it was a level one hundred and fifteen wolf, with sky-high offensive stats and what seemed like decent defenses, and it was already barreling towards the wall.
Atum jumped off of the wall, raising a gauntleted arm and catching the wolf’s bite before grabbing its muzzle with a hand and forcing it shut. As he did, his HP popped up on the monitor, showing that he had taken about five hundred damage from the attack out of his total of over twenty thousand. That could only have been the work of a Skill, Title, or Class, since even if Atum had gained the maximum amount of HP every level, he would have to be over level two hundred to reach that amount of HP.
The monster thrashed about, but Atum was firm, holding it in place until Eyfura descended, neatly decapitating it with a single strike of her claws. Unsurprisingly, this instantly killed the monster, and the two frontliners instantly moved on to the next. While they worked, Gramps and Ava supported them with spells, buffing them, warding away or killing monsters, and generally shaping the battlefield so that it was as advantageous as possible for the defenders.
Not that the defenders who weren’t part of the Titans had much to do for the time being. The Titans had the battlefield locked down, absolutely dominating the fight and keeping anything from getting too close. Some of the defenders with ranged attacks took potshots at the monsters, but they weren’t making nearly as much of a difference as any individual member of the Titans.
“For those of you who haven’t experienced a monster surge, don’t take this as any indicator of how the rest of it will go.” One of the commentators, the woman who commentated for the Challenger’s League, said. “Right now, only the fastest monsters will have made it to the walls. In a minute or two, the bulk of the horde will be upon them.
“Still, I have to admit, I haven’t seen such raw skill on display in a long time; for the layman it might be hard to tell, but they aren’t wasting a single point of their resources. There’s no excessive overkill, no unnecessary overlap in their targets, and despite everything they’re doing they seem to be running a net neutral in their resource expenditure. If we could have their resources displayed on screen…yes, there we go.”
Four windows, one for each of the Titans, popped up on the displays, containing their HP, Mana, and Stamina. “As you can see, they’re hovering just below max in everything. They’re making the most of their regenerative abilities, using just enough to swiftly dispatch their enemies. This is a lot harder to do than it looks, and it requires a deep knowledge of your own capabilities and enough experience to determine how much is needed for each opponent.”
The commentator, Elara, paused, and then a veritable army of monsters descended upon the Titans. “And now comes the real meat of it.” Elara said. “I’m curious to see how they handle this.”
Atum roared, and the wave of monsters instantly honed in on him, dozens flocking him and blocking the camera’s view of him. From the status bars shown on-screen, though, it was clear that his HP was declining at an alarming rate before suddenly stopping at exactly half of his maximum. A moment later the monsters that were on him were violently flung away from him, his visibly battered figure once again becoming visible.
It wasn’t battered for long, though; he sprang into action, delivering lightning-quick finishing blows to the monsters, each one healing his wounds until he was eventually back at full. As he worked, Eyfura and Ava picked off anything that wasn’t targeting Atum, backed up by the rest of the defenders. It was all going well, and it was clear that –
The fur on Tess’s ears and tail stood on end, and she reflexively shrank back into her seat as a charged feeling suddenly descended on the area. The camera’s focus instantly changed to Gramps, who was in the middle of chanting a spell, several absolutely enormous and dizzyingly complex magic circles shining brightly around him.
He pointed his staff forward and there was a brief pause, followed by an enormous flash of light, bright enough to make Tess look away for a moment to escape its sheer intensity. She couldn’t properly hear the sound, the Arena’s soundproofing preventing it from coming through anywhere but the speakers on the displays, but even that was overwhelmingly loud. When the dust settled, there were no more monsters. The glass separating the Arena from the rest of the world was cracked, and a hushed silence fell across the crowed.
Elara was the first to speak up. “W-what?” She stammered. “R-replay that on the displays, the cameras should have been able to see through that flash of light.”
A moment later, the figure of Gramps pointing his staff forward was once again visible on the displays. As he finished his spell, the displays went into slow motion, and what appeared to be bolts of black lightning erupted from the circles around him, homing in on the monsters and arcing through their ranks. The bolts melted through the monsters like nothing, eventually reaching up and hitting the flying monsters. That seemed to be where the cracks in the Arena’s glass had come from, impact from the bolts as they continued on their path upwards as they finished eviscerating the last of the monsters.
Gramps drank a potion, his prodigious Mana pool beginning to refill after being almost completely emptied, then nodded at Ava. “I’m bringing us to the next location.” He announced. “The rest of the defenders on this wall should be able to hold it from here.”
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A chime rang, and then Alberich spoke. “No need.” He said. “The Arena won’t be able to handle much more than that, and I think we examiners have seen all we need to. We’ll end the simulation there, and begin the next phase of your test. We will be bringing you to one of the university’s private rooms for a one-hour recess, after which we will lead you back to stadium three for testing.
“For those watching at home, there will be a short five-minute break as we change locations, then we will be streaming the examiner’s deliberation until the next phase of the test begins. For those of you here in person, this deliberation will occur in stadium three, and will be broadcast to the displays in this stadium as well. Feel free to make your way to stadium three at your leisure.”
An excited murmur began as people started to rise from their seats. Tess, already rising, added to this murmur by asking a simple question. “What did Gramps just do?”
“Obscenely high-level magic.” Amara replied, standing up as well and beginning to walk towards the aisle. “Him and Alberich are probably the only ones who can manage something on that scale. To be honest, I’m kind of surprised to see him pull it out here, he must really want to make an impression.”
“And that thing Atum did?” Ellie asked, getting up and following Amara, Tess and Maven close behind.
“He absorbs damage dealt to him then reflects it to anything within a certain radius.” Amara explained. “Whenever he hits half health, he becomes invincible for fifteen seconds, and all effects he has, positive and negative, are removed. This effect refreshes when he regains, or would regain if he’s at max HP, the equivalent of his entire HP pool without any outside aid, and he has a lot of ways to regain HP. Against swarms like this, he’s practically unkillable. Ava and Eyfura have similarly overwhelming abilities, as do most high-level people, but they weren’t necessary in this case. I imagine we’ll see them before this test is over, though.”
The four of them relocated to stadium three, chatting all the while. As promised, The examiners began to talk about their thoughts on the test, but it wasn’t anything Tess hadn’t expected. They seemed a little disappointed that the scenario had to be cut short, but ultimately reasoned that the fact that they had to cut it short at all was a good enough indicator of their power; no one else had actually managed to damage an Arena unintentionally, and it was clear that they had the situation well and truly under control before they stopped.
Soon enough, time for the second part of their test arrived, and the Titans were led out into the stadium proper. Once they were in, Elara began to speak, and a hush fell over the audience. “Welcome, everyone, to the final part of this exam!” She said brightly. “While there would normally be a written examination in this test, we have ultimately decided that it would be meaningless. The Titans have shaped most of the guild’s policy on how events are to be handled, and as such most grading would simply boil down to seeing if their advice is consistent.
“That being the case, we decided the previous test would be a good enough test of their decision-making capabilities, and instead want to provide people with something a bit more…concrete. As such, this test will be an endurance competition! We have gathered every rank nine and ten party who is taking the rank examination, and will be having them face off against the Titans back-to-back!
“For the sake of not completely overwhelming the rank nine parties, we will be starting with the parties the guild has estimated to be the strongest and working our way down, so by the time the are reached, the Titans will be low on resources and the fight will be somewhat fairer. We will, of course, be using a Gauntlet of Challenge for this, and fights will have as little downtime between them as possible.
“Likewise, stalling for time inside of a fight to allow for resources to regenerate is forbidden, and will be handled on a case-by-case basis. But, without further ado, let’s begin with the party the guild reckons to be the strongest in our list of combatants…the rank ten party, Stargazers!”
“Is this what you expected?” Ellie asked Amara.
“Yup. It makes sense; if you want to prove that the Titans are the strongest, what better way to do it than to have them fight literally everyone else in contention? I don’t think any of these parties are here because actually believe they’ll be able to beat the Titans in combat, but I’m sure this will be factored into their examinations. Plus, it’s not every day you get the opportunity to spar with a party on the level of the Titans, and a lot of experienced freelancers would jump at that opportunity.”
Six people in full battle attire walked out into the stadium, and the displays zoomed to show as they walked up to the Titans, their leader holding out a Gauntlet of Challenge. To Tess’s surprise, as Gramps went through the motions, Ava turned so that she was looking directly at Tess, and her voice rang out in Tess’s mind.
Watch me carefully during these exhibition bouts. She instructed. This will be an excellent demonstration of many of the principles I taught you applied at a high level, and I hope you can learn something from this.
She turned back to the other party, and the match began shortly thereafter. And, though the other party had a numbers advantage, it was clear from the onset that they wouldn’t be winning the fight. Just like when The Rumors had sparred with the Titans, the other party just wasn’t able to do anything; each time they tried, it was shut down. The spellcasters were completely countered by Gramps, Atum intercepted the physical fighters, Eyfura kept the enemy pinned down with constant attacks, and Ava filled in where there were any gaps.
In general, Tess was surprised by just how much of a problem Ava was for her opponents. While she may not have been as durable as Atum, as powerful as Eyfura, or as magically adept as Gramps, she was the glue that held their team together, her timely intervention allowing the others to operate almost exclusively in the areas they excelled in.
Furthermore, she was just hard to deal with in general; she made liberal use of damage-reflecting abilities like Return to Sender and evasive tricks like short-distance teleports to keep her opponents on their toes, and if she ever had a moment’s leeway, she would buff her allies, debuff her enemies, or land a nasty strike from an unexpected angle.
The turning point of the fight came only a minute or two in, when Ava’s figure suddenly disappeared, followed shortly by the other party’s healer dropping. And, with him gone, they were no longer able to keep up with the sheer damage Eyfura was outputting.
“And that’s one of Ava’s big abilities.” Amara commented. “For a hefty sum of Mana and Stamina, she can make everyone around her completely lose track of her. You have to focus really hard to pick her out again, and that’s kind of a big ask when you factor in how stealthy she is normally and the fact that you’re dealing with the rest of her party. The fight’s over.”
As if she had heard what Amara was saying, Eyfura’s figured blurred, her speed increasing to absurd levels as she began to systematically dismantle what remained of her opposition.
“And that would be one of Eyfura’s trump cards.” Amara said. “They’re using a lot of resources, but I’m guessing they determined that dragging it out would use more overall. These early fights are the scariest for them; they’re against people who are projected to be their strongest opponents, and resource management here is critical.
“The biggest question here is how long the time between each fight will be. Even just a difference of one minute will mean that they can probably go net neutral on Stamina and Mana once they start getting into the weaker rank ten parties, and at that point…well, if they’re really careful with ability usage they can even start regenerating more than they spend when you take in-fight time into account, and at that point the rest is just a formality.”
As Amara spoke, Eyfura took down the other mage in the party, Atum and Ava forcing their opponents to turn their focus elsewhere. And, with no mage to interact with Gramps’s spells, the fight quickly turned into a one-sided affair, and the Titans emerged victorious.
As it turned out, the time between fights was only fifteen or so seconds. Alberich would teleport the losers away before teleporting the new fighters in, then they would set up the fight and continue on. But, even with minimal time to regenerate their resources, the next few fights went much the same way as the first had. The Titans seemed to have an innate understanding of how best to counter their opponents, time and time again exploiting even the tiniest flaws before cracking their opponents’ formations wide open and mercilessly finishing them off.
After that, though, things began to slow; thanks to the displays, Tess could see the tax on the Titans’ resources starting to show, and they began to be more conservative with their abilities, making fights last longer. Still, they showed no signs of being cornered, plowing through party after party as their resources inched closer and closer to empty.
Then, after what seemed like almost an hour of straight fighting, things began to change. The fights began to slowly but surely grow faster, The Titan’s resources emptying slower and slower as they were able to dispatch their opponents quicker. By the time The Rumors showed up about thirty minutes after that, it had reached a point where they were nearly at equilibrium, and the resulting fight was just as one-sided as it had been when The Rumors sparred with the Titans while they were training the members of Maelstrom.
And, when a total of almost two hours had elapsed, no one else came. “That…marks the end of them.” Elara said dumbfoundedly. “the Titans win in a landslide victory. We will take a five-minute recess while the other examiners and I retire to a secluded place to deliberate without being interrupted. As promised, this deliberation will be streamed, and we will show it on the displays here in stadium three if you have attended in-person and wish to see it. Those of you who were involved in today’s test are officially dismissed.”
“Well, that was a fun few hours.” Ava said, sitting in a seat next to Amara like she had been there the whole time. “What’d you all think?”
Tess nearly jumped out of her skin at her unexpected appearance, but quickly rallied. “it was impressive.” She said. “Really impressive.”
“Well, that was kind of the point, so I’m glad to see it worked. Anyway, the rest of my party and I are going to get lunch, and we figured we’d invite you four while you’re here. What do you say?”
“I’m down.” Ellie said. “I don’t have any plans for the rest of the day.”
“Same.” Tess added.
“Me as well.” Maven agreed.
“Lunch sounds good.” Amara said. “Where are we eating?”
“A little diner near here, I’ll text you the address. Meet us there in…let’s say fifteen minutes?” And with that Ava was gone, back with the rest of her party down below.
“I suppose we should go reserve a table, then.” Maven said, standing up. “Shall we?”