On the floor above, in a hall far removed from the noise of the students, five beings sat at their ease, their gazes fixed on the screens in front of them.
The atmosphere was heavy. Heavier than it had any right to be.
Servants lined the walls, perfectly still, doing nothing beyond what was strictly necessary. They didn't dare to. Every person in that room could end them with a flick of a finger.
BAM!
The door swung open, and a brown-haired man marched in.
"Greetings, gentlemen and ladies," Adam said.
The figures acknowledged him with the barest nod, their eyes never leaving the screens.
Adam found an empty seat and settled into it without comment.
"Still…" One of them broke the silence. "This year's examinees are real monsters, aren't they?"
Another nodded. "Particularly the top five. Monsters, all of them."
A murmur of agreement passed around the room. On the screens, a white-haired girl, a blond boy, and a blue-haired girl were tearing through beast after beast as if they were swatting flies.
"Hmph." A man in the corner smirked and turned to the white-haired figure beside him.
"I'm surprised you didn't use a recommendation spot for her, Linus."
Linus narrowed his eyes at the blond figure. "Normalize minding your own business, Mikhail."
Mikhail only grinned. He was about to push the jab further when a female voice cut him off.
"Enough, Mikhail. You're a general. Act like one."
He turned. The woman who had spoken looked to be somewhere around forty, with green hair and green eyes that gave nothing away.
"Huh?" Mikhail's brow rose, and his tone soured. "And who are you to lecture me?"
"Behave, Mikhail." This time, it was Linus who spoke.
A muscle in Mikhail's brow twitched. He started to rise from his chair, but another voice rolled through the room before he got his feet under him.
"Enough of this petty banter. You're grown adults, for crying out loud. Generals, at that. Behave yourselves."
The three generals turned, their faces twisting in disbelief.
"Oi, Lancelot." Mikhail's voice dropped, no longer annoyed but angry. "Who the hell died and made you our boss?"
The man who had spoken, a golden-haired figure in the corner, only glanced at him. He said nothing.
That silence did more damage than any insult. Mikhail finally stood.
"You think you're such a hotshot, don't you?"
Lancelot didn't answer. His hand drifted to the back of his neck, and his implant clicked. Mikhail's followed a moment later.
BAM!
"Okay. Let's all take a breath here." Adam had stepped between them before the sound faded, one hand raised in a gesture of peace.
He turned to Mikhail first. "General Mikhail, I'm certain Major Lancelot didn't mean what he said." Then, to Lancelot: "Major, I know you were only trying to calm them down. But the words you used were insulting to the generals. Please apologize."
"Haaa. Fine." Lancelot grumbled the word like a man swallowing something bitter. He turned to the three generals and bowed his head the barest amount. "My words were rude, considering I was addressing generals. Please forgive me."
"Hmph." Mikhail dropped into his seat and turned his face away. "Forgiven. But next time, I won't let it slide."
"Haa." Lancelot sighed wearily.
Haa. Adam let out his own breath in a rush of relief.
If it had come to blows, Lancelot and Mikhail, or worse, Lancelot against all three generals, he would have been forced to intervene. And forget the academy. The whole of Eden would have been reduced to rubble.
In truth, a fight between any two people in this room would have flattened the city.
It was the hall reserved for the strongest soldiers in Terra. The Class 6s. The generals of the Terran military.
Nathan sprinted through the forest, senses on high alert, scanning every shadow for movement.
His suit hummed against his skin, and the synchronization rate that powered it let him cover ground at a speed that would have been impossible in his old life. Even so, he felt as though luck was playing some kind of game with him.
He had been moving through this forest for hours, and he had barely met any beast worth fighting. The few he'd stumbled across had been laughably easy, so low-level that they hadn't made a dent in his ranking. At least they'd given him practice, and helped him get a feel for how the daggers moved in his hands.
I need to step up my game.
He pushed himself faster. His suit's scanner picked out the faint energy signatures of beasts through the trees, but none of them were the opponents he was hunting for. The forest floor streaked past beneath his boots. His enhanced legs let him clear roots and boulders in a single leap, and he plowed through the underbrush as though it were made of paper.
But the suit wasn't going to carry him alone. He knew that. He had to stay sharp, adapt to whatever the forest threw at him.
And then, just when he'd started to wonder whether the day was going to be a total waste, the scanner flared with something big.
Nathan's heart rate spiked. The energy signature was dense, heavy, and well worth the risk. This could be it. The fight that carries me up the rankings and one step closer to passing.
He checked the list one more time.
________________________________________
Name: Nathaniel Hunt
Rank: 400/520
Points: 600
________________________________________
Damn it.
The number in the corner had changed. It had been six hundred examinees before. Now it was five hundred and twenty. The others had begun eliminating each other for points.
He glanced at the timer.
[2:20:55]
Shit. It looks like I might have to go after one of those Fantasian prisoners after all.
He didn't want to. Not on his own, not with zero real fighting expertise.
He could wing it against beasts, which acted on instinct and fear, but he couldn't wing it against an intelligent, experienced soldier who knew exactly how to kill.
But he was running out of options. Before another student found him and knocked him out for his points, he would make his move and take a prisoner of Fantasia.