Natasha's gaze swept the forest, hunting for any sign of the mutated beasts she needed.
Her suit hummed softly against her skin, its sensors turned all the way up, feeding faint outlines of heat and movement straight into her awareness.
It didn't take long to find something.
A reptilian creature slid out of the underbrush, its flat yellow eyes already fixed on her.
Dull green scales rippled along its back as it crept forward, tongue tasting the air.
She veered right and broke into a sprint, her sync-boosted legs carrying her over the roots in a wide arc, far faster than any ordinary human could run.
As she closed the distance, she tapped the compartment at her hip, and an energy rifle assembled itself in her grip.
She brought it up in one fluid motion and settled the stock against her shoulder with the ease of a hundred hours of practice.
The beast's eyes locked on hers, and for a heartbeat the two of them simply stared.
Then it lunged, jaws gaping wide, a dozen needle teeth flashing.
Natasha moved before the thought finished forming.
She slid aside, and the jaws snapped shut on empty air, close enough that she felt the wind of it against her cheek.
Her rifle answered with a soft whoomp, a concentrated blast of blue-white energy lancing across the gap.
The creature tried to twist away. It was quick, but Natasha's aim was quicker.
The bolt struck its flank with a flash, and the force of it flipped the beast off its feet and slammed it into the dirt.
She didn't give it time to recover. She stepped in and drove a kick into its skull, the suit's fibers drawing on the core in her chest to amplify the blow.
The head caved in with a wet crunch.
Blood sprayed across the leaves.
The reptile twitched once and went still, and Natasha stood over it, her chest rising and falling in short, quick breaths.
It was closer than she'd have liked. But at the end of the day, her training and reflexes had paid off.
She took a moment to sweep the area one more time, checking every shadow between the trunks.
Nothing else stirred. Satisfied, she turned her attention back to her suit, tapped through the readouts, and set her jaw.
She couldn't afford to stop. If she wanted to pass, she'd have to take down as many of these things as she could.
The ranking list glowed on her wrist. She'd climbed to fourth place.
'Good.'
She drew a deep breath, shouldered her rifle, and set off again. Bring it on.
********
On another screen in the great hall, a girl with striking white hair stood alone in a clearing.
Elizabeth watched, unhurried, as five mutated beasts pushed out of the underbrush in front of her.
Each one was roughly three times her size. Their bodies were a knotted mass of scaly flesh and razor claws, and their eyes burned with a dull, mindless hunger.
They roared in unison, a chorus so deafening that the ground trembled under her boots and loose leaves rained from the branches.
She didn't flinch. She only raised her hands.
The prototype suit clung to her like a second skin, its fibers shimmering faintly in the dappled light, and it hummed as it amplified her movements.
The air around her turned sharply cold.
Her palms swept forward, and the ground erupted.
A wave of ice surged out of the earth like a tidal wave frozen in mid-crash, crystal spikes racing across the clearing in a glittering rush.
The beasts, caught flat-footed, stumbled backward as the frost climbed their legs and clamped around their bodies.
Elizabeth was already moving.
Her sync-boosted speed carried her forward in a streak of white, weaving between the beasts' clumsy, ice-bound swipes.
They couldn't touch her. She slid under one swinging claw, vaulted off the shoulder of another, and when she landed, a barrage of ice shards burst from her fingertips, each one striking home with deadly accuracy.
The beasts staggered. Frost spread across their wounds, slowing them, sapping their strength, until one by one their massive bodies gave way and crashed to the ground.
Elizabeth stood among the fallen, her chest rising slightly as she caught her breath.
In the viewing hall, the crowd erupted into applause.
Cheers rolled across the seats, and the students leaned forward in their chairs to watch her replay.
Five mutated beasts, each one dangerous in its own right, and she had taken them all.
She raised her arm and checked the rankings.
She had slid back to the top spot, narrowly edging out the boy who had briefly overtaken her. Tho it wasn't much of a lead, but it was enough. For now.
'Now all I have to do is keep it.' She said inwardly.
With a quiet confidence, she turned and walked away, her suit humming softly as she faded into the shadows of the trees.
A young man with blond hair stood in the green gloom, scanning the forest.
His sleek nano-tech suit clung to him, its fibers fitted so closely they seemed to belong to his body, a faint sheen running across them in the light.
In each hand, he held a mechanical katana, formed from his suit's compartments with a tap, the razor-edged blades humming with a restrained, high-pitched energy.
His suit's sensors fed him every detail of his surroundings, and one of them flickered.
A beast was emerging from the underbrush ahead, a mass of scaly flesh and claws.
He charged.
He drove forward on legs boosted by a fifteen percent synchronization rate, shooting ahead like a thrown spear.
The beast lunged, jaws wide, but he slipped aside with barely a ripple of effort and answered with a slash across its flank.
The katana bit deep, but the hide was thicker than he'd expected, and the blade stuck for an instant before he tore it free.
The creature swiped at him with a massive paw. He leapt backward, landing hard on the dirt, and the suit's fibers absorbed the impact.
He rolled to his feet, both swords up.
The beast charged again.
He dodged. He wove. Each strike of its claws found nothing but air, and each time he slid past, the katanas flickered in and out, a slash here, a slice there, aimed at soft joints and exposed muscle.
The creature began to stumble. Its movements grew sluggish, its roars turned ragged, and Lenny's relentless onslaught never slowed.
At last, after what felt like an eternity, the beast's legs gave out. It crashed to the ground, and its huge body went still.
Lenny stood over it, breathing hard.
He flicked a glance at the display on his wrist, scrolling through the rankings, and his eyes narrowed.
________________________________________
Name: Lenny Patterson
Rank: 2/600
Points: 1500
________________________________________
Second. He had dropped to second.
His mind started racing, running through angles and tactics. He had proven himself, taken down a formidable opponent, but it still wasn't enough.
Keep pushing.
And he fully intended to.