Talia glanced over her shoulder, seeing the vast expanse of sapphire-colored water beneath her.

All her dreams would be shattered the moment she touched the water.

She stared at Fiora, slowly sliding toward the railing with an open mouth.

She heard Takai shout something, but her mind was completely overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed with rage.

The appearance of the barrel had been highly suspicious.

However, seeing the rope snake away from her had been the confirmation that there had indeed been foul play involved in the test.

In this slowed second of time, she glanced at Professor Iakopo, who just stared at her with a muted smile.

And then, something happened.

Her entire body seemed to ripple with rage – burning red anger that coalesced around her wrists.

Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the shouts from above.

Then, out of nowhere, she felt a surge of power coming from her wrists.

In that moment of desperation, her fear of failing outweighed her terror of the strange energy within her.

And so, Talia reached for it.

She reached deep inside herself, reaching for the energy she'd felt stirring beneath her bracelets, hiding in her wrist marks.

It responded instantly as if it had been waiting for her call.

Power shot through her body, starting at her wrists and spreading like wildfire through her veins.

It was overwhelming, almost painful in its intensity.

Her senses sharpened to an impossible degree.

The world came into crisp focus – she could see individual droplets of water in the air and count the planks on the ship's hull. The salt in the air became a tangible taste on her tongue. She could hear the creaking of the ship's timbers and the whisper of the wind through the rigging.

Her muscles tensed and coiled with newfound strength.

It felt as if all her Attributes had suddenly multiplied tenfold.

An idea flashed through Talia's mind, born of desperation and only possible because of this new, raw power.

Without hesitation, she brought her hand to her mouth and bit down hard. The pain was sharp, immediate, but also distant – overwhelmed by the rush of energy coursing through her. Blood welled from the wound, and she directed it with her Hemomancy.

The blood shot out in two streams, coalescing into small, solid platforms floating in the air beneath her.

Twisting her body in mid-air, Talia managed to plant her feet on the blood platforms.

They held firm, defying gravity.

Using the mysterious energy coursing through her, she pushed off with all her might.

The force surprised her – she rocketed upwards, the wind whipping at her face.

As she neared the ship, Talia reached out. Her fingers grasped the railing.

The rough wood felt amazing against her skin.

With strength she didn't know she possessed, she pulled herself up and over in a fluid somersault, landing on the deck in a crouch.

The movement felt natural and instinctive, as if her body had always known how to perform such feats.

The moment her feet touched the planks, the surge of power left her body as quickly as it had come.

Talia gasped, suddenly feeling drained.

Her muscles ached, protesting the sudden exertion.

She glanced at her wrists, catching a glimpse of the marks writhing beneath her bracelets before settling back into stillness.

The sight sent a shiver down her spine.

As the galleon turned upright, this time once and for all, Talia pushed herself to her feet, her legs shaky.

The marks on her wrists seemed to pulsate, but she was distracted by Fiora grabbing her.

“How did you do that?”

“I—I don’t know,” Talia stuttered.

“What you did was—”

Before the blonde could finish her thought, Professor Iakopo’s voice interrupted them.

“Congratulations to all those who managed to stay on board,” he yawned, taking out a bottle of rhum from his jacket, even though there clearly hadn’t been one there just moments ago.

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A collective sigh went through the remaining students, only to left them choking on it when the man spoke next.

“Now we can start the second part of the test,” the Professor smiled.

“What?!” Fiora shouted.

“This wasn’t it?!” Another recruit chimed in, stunned.

“None of you has been Initiated yet, you useless flotsams!” Shaker, the Professor’s assistant, barked.

“Shaker is right,” Iakopo nodded. “Now, a few monsters are about to climb up those railings, so you might want to get away.”

As if on command, four tentacled forms slithered over the ship's railing.

“Remember,” Professor Iakopo called out, taking a swig from his bottle, “teamwork makes the dream work! You need to kill all four! Oh, and if more than half of you lot are out, you all fail. The clock's a-ticking!”

The monsters’ bulbous bodies glistened with a slick sheen.

These Abyssal Creatures were about the size of a rowboat.

They sported thick, muscular tentacles, adorned with rows of suction cups which they used to disgustingly glide through the deck toward the students by anchoring themselves to the wood and dragging their bulbous heads along.

Also, where their appendages touched, the planks sizzled and smoked, leaving behind circular marks.

[Abyssal Squid - Lv. 7]

[Abyssal Squid - Lv. 6]

[Abyssal Squid - Lv. 8]

[Abyssal Squid - Lv. 7]

Talia looked at the monsters and finally smiled confidently.

As long as we don’t lose our calm, this should be easy. We have three Initiated people. This is just to test how stupid we are.

Abyssal Squids regenerate fast, but they’re not a big threat.

Talia knew that from her studies.

This is clearly just a test of our teamwork skills - the Professor even said as much.

All we have to do is not panic and communicate clearly so that we can surround the monsters.

“Guys—” Talia tried to speak, but her voice was immediately swallowed by panicked shouts.

Chaos erupted on deck as the recruits scrambled away from the encroaching monsters.

Screams of terror mingled with the wet slapping sounds of tentacles hitting the planks.

Talia felt flabbergasted.

Before she could even move, she saw a recruit, paralyzed by fear, get snatched by an Abyssal Squid and get slammed against a wooden wall, immediately knocking the poor guy out.

“One down,” Professor Iakopo said calmly from his stool.

“You—” Talia wanted to curse at the man, but she saw another guy get snatched and cursed. “Damn it! [Recall]!”

Before the Abyssal Squid could take another student, Talia activated both [Eyes of the Abyss] and [Crimson Wisdom], using her control over Blood Magic to swing her glaive and send a scythe that cut the tentacle off the monster, liberating the trembling recruit.

Talia saw Fiora throw an orb infused with Sun Water at a squid, but the damage done to the Abyssal Creature was soon offset by the freakish regeneration potential of the monster.

They regenerate too fast, Talia realized, looking at the monster in front of her already regrowing the tentacle she had cut.

She knew that Abyssal Squids could indeed regenerate extremely fast.

However, it was one thing to know it but a whole different matter to witness it with her own eyes.

And suddenly, it all made even more sense.

“The monsters regenerate too fast!” Talia shouted in Fiora’s direction. “The Professor is testing us! If we don’t pool our strength, we won’t be able to kill them before all the other recruits are eliminated or our Mana runs out!”

Fiora looked at Talia from the corner of her eye and nodded fiercely.

“What now?!” The blonde asked.

“Gather the damn recruits!” Talia shouted curtly, kicking the one recruit who had been getting up against the wooden wall of the galleon. “Everyone go over there to the wall!”

She turned, looking for Takai.

She found him still hugging the door, looking away from the fight, shivering.

Damn it, Talia thought.

He was clearly scared out of his wit.

But then something happened.

The one guy with two daggers moved with supernatural speed, cutting off two tentacles and then kicking two recruits toward the one Talia had already sent to the wall.

“Go over there!” The boy said to the other confused recruit.

He’s Initiated, Talia thought and then limited herself to nodding at him.

The difference between someone who was Initiated and someone who was not, especially when confronting Abyssal Creatures like these, was enormous.

An Uninitiated person would never be able to deliver enough damage at once to kill the big monsters.

Never.

Which meant the burden here was left on the four Initiated people present—or maybe three, considering Takai was still shaking and looking away.

Talia, Fiora, and the dagger-wielding boy jumped in the middle of the fray, all very much aware that gathering the other recruits was their first step toward a chance at survival.

Talia used her glaive to fend off more tentacles as she corralled the panicked recruits towards the wall with the door leading below deck.

“Move it!” she shouted, her voice cutting through the din. “Get to the door – now!”

Fiora, in the meanwhile, used her Sunwater abilities to carefully pepper the monsters with a barrage of attacks every time they were about to attack a student, momentarily disorienting the Abyssal Squids and buying precious seconds for the others to move.

In between her attacks, she even managed to herd a few recruits herself.

“Unless you want to become squid food, follow the girl with the glaive!” she yelled.

The dagger-wielding boy proved to be a force to be reckoned with, his blades flashing as he severed tentacles left and right.

He used his exceptional speed to dash to the farthest corners of the deck, snatching up stragglers and depositing them near the gathering point.

Slowly but surely, their strategy began to pay off.

With each passing moment, more recruits found themselves pressed against the relative safety of the door and the surrounding wall, protected by the three Initiated recruits.

The chaotic scattering of the terrified individuals gradually transformed into a more organized defense.

As the last few stragglers were brought into the fold, Talia, Fiora, and their new ally formed a protective semicircle in front of the gathered recruits.

“What now?” The guy shouted, holding his daggers tightly as the Abyssal Squids slowly encroached on them.

Talia saw Shaker liberate one student from the squid that had remained behind, kicking the monster in their direction and gritting her teeth.

“Abyssal Squids are very hard to kill!” Talia shouted.

Given their current level, they would first exhaust their Mana before the Abyssal Creatures’ vitality would run out.

“We have to pierce them between their eyes, or we won’t be able to kill them!” Talia said.

That’s where a squid’s brain was.

“Easier said than done,” Fiora grunted, aiming another orb at a monster’s face.

However, the orb failed to hit its target since the squid, with extremely fast reflexes, used a tentacle to shield itself.

Talia knew that she, with the glaive, a weapon with longer range than the boy’s dagger, was the prime candidate for killing the Abyssal Squids.

Fiora, with her casting, could attack from further away, but she didn’t pack enough punch to break through the monsters defenses.

However, Talia also knew that neither Fiora nor the dagger guy – she suspected – had great defensive capabilities.

This meant that if she stepped out to take care of a monster, the rest might get overwhelmed.

She really wished Takai would step up.

She knew for a fact that his abilities would be perfect for this situation.

“Takai! Damn it, we need help!” Talia shouted.

She glanced at her friend and saw him trembling, his back against the wall.

There was only fear in his eyes.

Talia turned her eyes back to the monsters.

If Takai didn’t step up to help them, soon, they would all run out of Mana.