Chapter 87: Combat
With the first test out of the way, now came the "some people might actually die" portion of the day.
Commander Korvo stood in the center of the arena, looking like he’d just remembered the funniest joke about student mortality. Behind him, cages covered in heavy cloth lined the platform. Something inside one of them screeched. Another rattled its bars hard enough to make the metal groan.
"Listen up, you soft-bellied children!" Korvo’s voice boomed even without magical amplification. The man had some lungs on him. "The combat test has been modified this semester. You won’t be fighting each other."
A wave of relief passed through the crowd.
"You’ll be fighting these."
He yanked the cloth off the nearest cage.
The relief evaporated.
Inside was something that looked like a wolf had hate-fucked a scorpion and their offspring had anger management issues. It had too many teeth, a tail that dripped something green, and eyes that promised violence in several creative ways.
[Oh good. The Shadowfang Ravager. Level 15. Poisonous, fast, and absolutely will eat your face if given half a chance.]
Aegis held back a grin.
[That means it’s still the same monsters from the game.]
"Each of you will select your opponent," Korvo continued, pulling more cloths off more cages. "Fight until submission, unconsciousness, or intervention by the judges. Healers are standing by." He grinned. "For those who survive."
The cages revealed their contents one by one.
A bird made of knife-like feathers. Something that might have been a bear if bears were made of rocks. A snake long enough to use as a jump rope if you were suicidal and had very specific exercise preferences.
Aegis’s HUD lit up like a Christmas tree, labels appearing over each monster.
Razorwing Shrike - Level 12
Stone Crusher - Level 18
Throttle Serpent - Level 14
Shadow Ravager - Level 15
Spark Hound - Level 10
Bone Shambler - Level 13
And there, in the last cage, something that made Aegis’s heart skip.
Mist Walker - Level 8
[Hello, beautiful.]
To everyone else, the Mist Walker probably looked terrifying. It was about the size of a large dog, with grey fur and murderous red eyes. It moved slowly, pressing against the bars like it was waiting for someone to rend.
But Aegis knew better. The Mist Walker had one ability that made it perfect for someone with her specific build.
"Choose your opponents!" Korvo barked. "Volunteers first, then I start assigning!"
Students rushed forward. Predictably, most went for the monsters that looked impressive, but not too deadly. Varyn immediately claimed the Stone Crusher. Some noble girl with more confidence than sense picked the Shadow Ravager.
Talia didn’t even hesitate. She pointed at the Razorwing Shrike. The thing screamed at her. She brushed some dirt off her shoulder. It was a whole moment.
"I’ll take the Mist Walker," Aegis said.
Korvo raised a brow.
"The Mist Walker? You sure about that, Starcaller?"
"Positive."
"... Your funeral."
[It won’t even be close, actually.]
The first few fights were exactly as brutal as expected.
Varyn versus the Stone Crusher looked like someone had decided to recreate a natural disaster using only one person and one very angry rock monster. He won, barely, by freezing its joints and shattering them with repeated strikes. The monster went down. So did Varyn, coughing up something that might have been blood or lung or both.
The healers dragged him off unceremoniously.
The noble girl with the Shadow Ravager lasted exactly forty-three seconds before the thing’s tail caught her in the stomach. The poison dropped her instantly. She was still breathing when they carried her away, which was nice.
Talia’s fight was art.
The Razorwing Shrike came at her like a blender with wings. She met it with ice and fire and pure concentrated fury. Every attack was countered. Every counter became an attack. They danced around each other, predator and predator, neither giving ground.
Then Talia did something insane.
She let it stab her.
One wing-blade went straight through her shoulder. Blood splattered the platform. The crowd gasped.
But Talia was already moving, ice spreading from the wound, up the wing, into the creature’s body. It froze from the inside out, becoming a statue mid-scream.
She yanked the wing out of her shoulder and shattered the frozen bird with a kick.
The crowd went absolutely feral.
"NEXT!" Korvo shouted over the noise. "Starcaller! You’re up!"
Aegis walked onto the platform. The Mist Walker’s cage opened with a soft click. The creature padded out, sniffing the air.
"This should be quick," she heard a noble mutter.
The Mist Walker looked at her with sad, grey eyes. Then it opened its mouth.
Reality hiccupped.
Where the creature had been standing, there was now mist. Not regular mist either. This was mist with an agenda. It moved against the wind, spreading across the platform in seconds, swallowing everything in grey.
[Here we go.]
The first attack came from behind. Claws made of condensed vapor raked across her back. She spun, slashing with Ruby, but hit nothing.
[Okay, come on, you know what this thing will do. Just don’t panic and you’ll be fine.]
Another attack from the left. Then the right. Then above somehow, even though that made no sense geometrically.
[Stop reacting. Start thinking.]
The Mist Walker’s whole thing was disorientation. It attacked from everywhere and nowhere, using the mist to hide its real body while projecting false ones. But it had to breathe. It had to move. It had to—
There.
A tiny disturbance in the mist pattern. Just a ripple where the fog moved wrong.
Aegis activated Aether Step, blinking not away but toward the disturbance. Sapphire came down in an arc that should have hit empty air.
Instead, it hit fur and flesh and something that yelped.
The mist contracted violently, pulling back toward a central point. The Mist Walker materialized, a deep gash along its flank, looking significantly less mysterious and significantly more pissed.
It opened its mouth again. This time, instead of mist, shadows poured out.
[Wait, what? What’s this ability? This isn’t in the game.]
The shadows formed into spears, dozens of them, all pointed at her. They launched simultaneously, a black rain of "fuck you in particular."
Aegis couldn’t dodge them all so she didn’t try. Instead, she did something stupid.
She charged straight through them.
Aether Step. After her blink, a few spears grazed her, but she was fine.
The Mist Walker’s eyes widened as she closed the distance. It tried to dissolve back into mist, but she was already there, already swinging.
Ruby and Sapphire moved in parallel arcs. The first cut caught its throat. The second opened its belly. The creature made a sound like steam escaping from a broken pipe and collapsed.
The shadows vanished. The mist cleared. Aegis stood over the twitching monster, bleeding from a couple wounds but still standing.
Silence.
Then Scarlett’s voice cut through the quiet: "THAT’S MY GIRL!"
The crowd erupted. Even some nobles were cheering, caught up in the spectacle.
Korvo was staring at her with an expression she couldn’t read.
"Winner: Starcaller. Healers, get in here before she bleeds out on my clean platform."
Aegis gave a small wave to the crowd, then immediately regretted it as the movement made every wound scream.
[Worth it though.]
The healers swarmed her, green light already flowing from their hands. The pain faded to a dull ache, then to nothing. The wounds closed, leaving only tears in her uniform and drying blood as evidence they’d existed.
"You’re either very smart or very lucky," one healer muttered.
"Why not both?"
"Because that’s not how the world works."
"It does today."
The combat test continued for another hour. More students, more monsters, more blood on the platform that had definitely stopped being clean several fights ago. Sophie wasn’t participating in combat, thank god. Neither was Lune. But the twins were.
They fought a two-headed snake together, which was technically against the rules, but Korvo allowed it because, in his words, "It’ll be funny."
It was pretty funny. Especially when they got tangled in the snake the same way they’d gotten tangled in each other’s tails yesterday. They won eventually, but their dignity didn’t survive the experience.
When the last fight ended and the last student was dragged to the healers, Dean Whitmore returned to the platform.
"One hour break before the Artistic Showcase. Those participating, please prepare accordingly."
Aegis found a bench and collapsed onto it. Everything hurt despite the healing. Her mana was still recovering from the morning. And she had one more test to go.
[At least the hard parts are over. How bad can the art test be?]
Sophie appeared, because apparently that was her superpower.
"You were amazing! The way you just walked through those shadow spears like they were nothing!"
"They weren’t nothing. They were very much something. Several somethings. All of them sharp."
"But you didn’t even slow down!"
"Stopping would’ve been worse."
"How?"
"More time to get stabbed."
Sophie’s logic circuits visibly struggled with that before she shrugged and accepted it.
"Vera says you’re insane."
"Vera’s right."
"She also says it’s hot."
"I don’t need to know that."
"She wants to know if you’re free tonight—"
"Sophie, I swear—"
"For a study session! God, your mind is filthy."
[One more test. Just one more test. Then I can sleep for a week.]