*** Chapter 2: Kena ***

Kena was slowly making her way down the sixth path. She'd learnt a little about what was going on, having overheard a pair discussing how they would meet inside the tunnels. Almost all the tunnels seemed to have some monster or another inside them. Most of the other contestants had tried to pick a foe they knew how to fight. But Kena hadn't felt like using such a dull method. Instead, she left it to fate, picking at random. Kena would fight any monster. But if she couldn't kill it, she wouldn't complain. How could she expect to pass the tests deeper inside if she couldn't hold her own against the guild's pets?

As she raced into the room, Kena was steaming, literally. Ever since her magic had developed, she had noticed her body temperature would rise whenever she got excited. It was an odd sensation, but it wasn't unpleasant like most people assumed. She loved the feeling. It made her feel powerful. Like she could do anything.

Kena was just so excited to see what she would be fighting. Maybe it would be a greenback. Or a pack wolf. She had never fought one of those before. Kena wanted something different; how could she show her stuff against a mediocre opponent?

What she found was disappointing. The room was empty. She couldn't see, hear, or even smell any sign of another living creature. Across from her, the doorway to the next test stood mockingly. The room was a dud. Some might think it a good thing to pass without having to fight, but Kena disagreed. It was insulting. Fuming with anger, she rushed towards the next test, ready to take her anger out on whoever she found waiting for her.

She didn't see it coming in the slightest. One second it was clear open air in front of her, then a red brick wall materialised out of thin air. Unable to stop in time, she ran headfirst into it. With an indignant yelp, she fell onto her butt, hands clasped over her aching head.

With tears forming in her eyes, she looked at the offending wall. It was wide. Wider than five men even and as tall as two. It didn't block the pathway to the next test completely, but it was in her way.

I hope no one saw that, Kena thought, looking around furtively as she blinked away her tears. She was alone.

Climbing to her feet, she began walking toward the end of the wall. But soon, she noticed something was wrong. The end of the wall was still as far away as before.

Looking back, she noticed the other side was clear. Racing over, she was unsurprised to see the wall once again blocking her path. Looking back to where she was, she saw it was no longer blocked. "So the walls following me, constantly blocking my path... weird."

This wall was some sort of monster or spell. Getting past it had to be the first test. A brick wall was hardly the epic fight Kena had hoped for. But it was blocking her path, so she had to do something about it.

Looking up, she considered the height. It was too tall to jump over. At least for an ordinary human. The gods did not exactly bless Kena in the height department; in fact, she was shorter than most adult women. But I'm no normal person, Kena thought, cracking her knuckles. Kena was a fire mage; she could cause explosions from any part of her body with enough focus. Including her feet. After a few years of practice, she had learned to use this to jump. High. Higher than anyone else she had ever met could.

With an ease born of experience, Kena leapt into the air, fire bursting from her feet as she did, holding back just a little so she wouldn't go through the roof of the cave. She jumped perfectly, going just shy of the cave roof and far higher than the wall had been.

She smashed into the wall face-first.

"Agh! What the-?" Falling to the ground in a heap, she looked up miserably. The wall wasn't nearly tall enough to have stopped her. So how was it?

Experimentally, she jumped again. This time, not aiming to go past the wall, just going up. As she did, she kept a close eye on the wall, watching it as she soared through the air.

It was floating. Casually flying in the sky without a care in the world, as if gravity was just some big joke to it. Kena glared balefully at the wall.

So jumping over it isn't an option. Would digging under it work? Kena wasn't sure she wanted to waste time finding out. The Trials of the Valkyrie are, at their core, a race. It wasn't enough to beat the challenges. She also had to be faster than all the others in their section.

Maybe if I jump, and then use my explosions to fall extra fast, I could slip under it before it hits the ground. Shaking her head, she dismissed that idea. She wouldn’t risk being crushed just to pass a stupid test.

"Can you talk?" She asked hopefully. If she could talk to it, she could reason with it. Or threaten it. Whichever worked.

The wall didn't respond.

"If you can understand me, you're going to want to move," Kena threatened. Unsurprisingly, the wall stayed still. With a heavy frown, she tried something else. Breaking the wall. "Should've just done this right away."

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She held her hands out in front of her. Fire slipped off her fingers, slowly forming into a sphere roughly the size of her head between her hands. She thrust her hands forward.

"Fireball!" No one was around to hear her shout, except possibly the wall. But she enjoyed saying it. The moment the words left her mouth, the ball of fire shot forward, striking the wall. It exploded brilliantly. The sheer force of her attack shook the very cave she was in. Pebbles and dust dropped from the ceiling onto her head. She didn't care; she waited to see her attack's effect on the wall.

It did nothing. The wall wasn't even singed-her fire had been useless. It was as if she had never cast a spell at all. With a deep grimace, Kena approached the wall. She touched where her attack had struck it. It was cold. The energy must've dissipated flawlessly; Kena couldn't even feel a trace of her residual mana.

How was that possible? The wall felt completely normal, but clearly, it was anything but. With a huff, she stepped back. This wasn't a test of her power. Brute force wouldn't work, no matter how much she tried. She had to figure it out. Boring.

Unable to think of anything quickly, she began digging. She probably wouldn't use the hole, but it at least gave her a feeling of progress. She hated doing nothing. Her hands ripping the mud from the ground, she was pleased to see the wall didn't instantly drop to match. Maybe it has to stay the same shape?

The moment the thought crossed her mind, Kena had a solution. Walking away from the wall, she found a rock. It was big and heavy, but she was strong.

Holding it under one arm, she jumped again. As she jumped, the wall followed. She threw the rock, aiming for the space underneath the floating wall. Then she fell. The wall fell. She hit the ground. Only part of the wall hit the ground.

Dusting her hands off, she eyed her handiwork. The wall was now suspended lopsided, one half held off the ground by the rock. As a result, there was a gap. But the space on her side was too small to crawl through.

Kena tried going to the other side of the rock. But the wall followed, falling over like a seesaw to make it harder to cross.

It wasn't an issue. Careful not to move so far as to let the wall fall off the rock, Kena retrieved another. Carefully, she slipped it under the higher side of the wall. Then she walked over to the other side and it dropped onto the rock. The result was a well-balanced gap between the two stones. It was less than a foot high, but that was fine for her purposes.

Dropping to the ground, she prepared herself for a second. Then quickly as she could, Kena scrambled under the makeshift bridge to the other side. Confident as she was in her plan, she couldn't help the intrusive thought that her makeshift bridge would fail. That the earth beneath the rocks would crumble, and it would crush her under the wall.

But the ground held firm, the wall staying aloft in the air. Safely on the other side, the fire witch slowly got to her feet.

Heh, bet no one else here could figure that out so fast.

***

Wanting to make up for her slow start, Kena rushed into the room for the next test. The room was enormous. They had drawn a chalk outline of a square on the ground, taking up the bulk of the room. Inside there are two quarter-circles on opposite corners. Boulders and other features marred the surface of the arena.

Standing in the centre was a white-haired woman, wearing an elegant robe. She looked peaceful as she stood there, seemingly disinterested in everything around her. Seeing no other suggestion of what she was supposed to do, Kena approached her.

"You taking the test, too?" Kena asked. If she was, she might attack her. No one ever said contestants couldn't fight if they came across each other during the exam. Kena needed to burn off some frustration.

"My name is Yuki. I'm this test's examiner." Her voice was dull, emotionless. "It will begin soon." Kena waited a moment for her to elaborate, but she just stood there, ignoring her.

"Well, what is the second test?" Kena finally snapped, tired of waiting.

"It hasn't started yet." She was being deliberately unhelpful. Kena had only just met her, but already she disliked her.

"Well, when will it start?" She looked as if she might respond, but then she didn't. Instead, she turned to look at the wall as if it would provide the answer. "Okay, maybe that question was too hard for you. How about you just tell me what the next test is?" Still nothing. Yuki didn't even deign to glance in her direction. "Wait, if you're an examiner, that means you're a guild member, right?"

"Not necessarily. We have several mercenaries to help us handle all the candidates spread throughout all the sites. But yes, I am," Yuki replied.

"Whatever, I don't care about that. Did you know Elestine?"

For the first time since Kena entered the room, Yuki looked at her. Her face betrayed no emotion. "I did, once… why?"

"He was my… teacher. He told me to join the guild, but he croaked before explaining why."

Yuki stared at Kena for a long moment. "I'm afraid I can't divulge information about a guild member to a non-member."

Kena was about to say something else when the wall collapsed into the ground, revealing a hidden passageway.

Kena didn't know what to make of what came through. It looked like a man, except made of metal. Not just its body, but its clothes and hair- which otherwise looked normal -were distinctively chrome. It even had a metal cape billowing behind it, ridiculously. It was big too. Way too big to be a human. Compared to this beast, Kena felt like a child.

It looked at her curiously for a moment; before slowly approaching. Was she going to fight it? Her first test had been no fun at all, but fighting a metal giant sounded fun. Maybe she would melt him.

She could already feel the fire building around her, her magic sparking to life instinctively. She didn't know what it was, but she really wanted to fight this thing.