The stone underfoot was warm from the morning sun, but everything beyond that, was a different world. I stood at the edge of our training platform, the war tent rising behind me, and around me were outlines: flickers of mana, pulses of life, all glowing with their own rhythm.
"Alright," I called out, swinging my arm upward to catch everyone's attention. "We're running duos today."
I felt their mana shift, their focus sharpening.
"We all fight different. This is to learn how to work with and against that. Defensive and offensive pairings. Stealth. Aggression. Adaptation. Pick a corner. Pick a mode. Stealth or jump in loud."
A low hum vibrated through the floor, Lincoln had reinforced the arena again. Nothing would break too badly… not unless someone went full warlock.
"No holding back," I added. This isn't just to get more tactical, its to improve all our strengths, mentally, physically and magic
Rōko's mana flared beside me, steady and tight like a coiled spring. "We'll take our corner. War tent."
Across the field, I felt Salem's pulse lock with Fay's. "We're going tree-line," Salem said, already dragging Fay toward the pond beneath the canopy. "More shadow for me."
Raphos and Lirael didn't even hesitate — I could hear Raphos cracking his knuckles. "Grass field. Full exposure," he announced. "Let's see who's got guts."
A short pause, then Lirael added, "Try not to embarrass yourself."
A beat. "Don't worry, you'll do it for me," Raphos grinned.
We each took position. The wind carried tension across the platform like a drawn bowstring.
Then came the signal: Thirty seconds.
Rōko leaned over slightly. "Taking out Fay shouldn't be too hard. She's got insane ice magic, but her close-quarters combat is…" She shrugged. "Weak."
I nodded. "We've both beaten her before. But Salem's with her."
Rōko groaned. "Right. She's been training on everything like crazy…even her finalis eh? You got one scary bond."
My lips curled into a smirk. "Exactly."
Suddenly—BOOM.
A stomp. Raphos. His mana charged into motion in the center of the field — a surging comet of strength and noise.
"He's going for Fay and Salem," I muttered. "Now's our opening."
We bolted. My footsteps whispered across the ground. I felt Fay and Lirael's auras shift — they'd noticed, but too late.
"I'll take Lirael!" I called.
"On Fay!" Rōko shot back.
I surged forward, the wind sharp on my skin. Lirael's mana drew clearer as I neared, rigid, compact, held close to her body like a perfect, invulnerable wall.
I leapt—my boot striking the edge of her shield with a sharp clang, pushing off for a moment of air.
Then I heard it — Salem's mana flickering between shadows like breath itself, intercepting Raphos mid-charge. They'd collided. The two most overwhelming presences in our group. The chaos behind me bought time.
Time I didn't waste.
I summoned my bow, drawing it in a single motion, and launched an arrow straight up — through a shimmering portal above my head.
It reappeared over Lirael.
Not meant to hit. Just to trap.
If she attacks, she opens herself to me. If she watches and dodges the arrow, I get close. No perfect answers.
But Lirael was smarter than that.
I felt her mana collapse inward, pulsing tightly around her body as thorned vines erupted and wove a cocoon around her—fully sealed. My arrow thudded into the side, burned away in a puff of smoke.
"Damn," I hissed.
Across the field, Rōko had her chain wrapped around Fay's leg — I could feel the mana pulsing down the link. But then came the crackle of magic — the cold burn of ice.
"Rōko—?" I shouted.
"Frozen!" she yelled back through clenched teeth. "She froze the chain… and me."
Fay's mana was surging wild but burning fast — like panic compressed into form. But Rōko wasn't done. I felt her mana spike as she began breaking the ice through friction and earth summoning.
I turned back to Lirael's cocoon, stepping in. Time to force it open.
"Ignis Dentes."
The fire exploded from my foot as I slammed it into the vines — a pulse of heat licking across my leg.
It cracked.
Again.
"Ignis Dentes!"
The cocoon burst open in a shatter of smoke and vines. But Lirael wasn't inside. She was above—her outline arcing high, weight tucked behind her mana-heavy shield.
I reacted instantly, dragging mana into metal — shaping a temporary barrier on my arm.
Her spiked shield shattered my construct with the force of the fall, but I used the rebound to pivot. My boot slammed into her ribs, sending her rolling—and I reached down, freezing her leg to the floor with a whisper of frost.
She thrashed, snarling. "Tch—!"
"Sorry," I muttered. "Had to."
She stopped moving.
"Yielded," Lirael called out, voice tight with frustration.
Fay, off to the side, groaned. Her mana was low and flickering — Rōko had managed to finish her off.
"I'm so bad at this," she mumbled.
"You're not," I said, stepping closer. "You've gotten better. You held Rōko for a good minute — you never could before."
"Still lost," she muttered.
"You injured me pretty badly this time, your catching up miss royalty." Rōko added, walking up, dragging the chain behind her, half her pants leg still frozen stiff. "Also, I just fought Shinobu. My ego's already ruined."
Fay cracked a tiny smile.
But in the middle of the field, the real storm raged.
Salem.
Raphos had gone all out, his right arm transfigured into a thick snake-like appendage, black-scaled and heavy with muscle. It wrapped around Salem's body, pinning her in the air.
But she wasn't still.
Salem's mana shimmered — darting in and out of Raphos's own aura. She was using him — his body, his bulk, the shadows he cast — as gateways.
Shadow to shadow. Slipping through darkness like mist.
"You're even more agile than that damn Shinobu!" Raphos bellowed, frustration peaking.
Then—slash.
A flick of cold shadow. A line of pain across Raphos's calf. He dropped to one knee, breath ragged.
"I yield," he growled. "You're my total counter. No need to injure me more, it would just waste Lirael her energy."
Only three of us were left now — me, Rōko, and Salem.
She turned slowly. Her mana gleamed — calm, hungry, in perfect control. Her breathing was steady. Her blade was already clean.
"Guess it's us now," I said quietly.
Rōko twirled her chain once. "We're either gonna learn a lot, or get our asses kicked."
A pause. Then I smiled.
"Both."
The air was still.
Rōko's mana outline pulsed beside me — slower now, scattered along her leg, thin wisps showing the strain left from her clash with Fay. She tried to hide it, standing firm, chain looped around her shoulder, but I could feel the hitch in her breathing.
Across from us, Salem's outline surged like a low-burning star. Tired, yes — I could sense the jagged edges in her breathing — but nothing about her energy suggested she was finished. She held her stance, blade of shadow flickering gently at her side, like a heartbeat.
The crying from earlier felt like another world. This version of Salem? She was trained, sharpened, impossibly focused.
"Rōko," I said softly, tilting my head toward her. "Stay back. You're not gonna be able to react fast enough with that leg. If you can support, do. But if she comes for you—"
"I know," she said through a grin. "I'll yield. Try not to get murdered."
I stepped forward. "No promises."
And then I was off.
My boots struck the edge of the war tent in a single leap, pulling myself into the light — no shadows here. A disadvantage for Salem. My advantage.
I readied my bow, mana threading down the string, arrows forming in place — sharp outlines, tinged with elemental flares. I fired one, then three more — each shot redirected through shimmering rifts of spatial magic. One twisted sideways, then down. Another curved back around to strike from above.
Fire. Ice. Wind. Keep her guessing.
But Salem…she moved like something untethered. Even without her shadows, her outline blurred with raw speed, reacting to each redirected arrow like she'd seen them a second before they existed.
Down below, Rōko leaned her weight against a tree stump, watching, breath ragged.
"Fay," she muttered next to her, "those arrows are faster than lightning strikes. Look at the impact they are leaving on the ground even when it's strengthened with Lincoln's own damn mana"
"I know" Fay whispered back. "And Salem's moving like she already dodged them yesterday."
Another arrow blinked out from a portal near Salem's back. She twisted — barely — and let it hiss past her shoulder. close.
She jumped.
I felt her aura rise, cutting through the air. I was already forming metal across my arm — a thin plate shield — not to block fully, just to deflect. Her shadow blade clanged against it and shattered the construct, but I used the impact to pivot.
I rolled off the tent's edge, slipping through a waiting portal near the flap. I reached out with my hand…
But what I grabbed wasn't the steel bo staff I'd prepped.
It was lighter.
Fay gasped from behind the tree. "She took my spare short blade, please don't break it!"
Salem landed hard, striking low — I raised the short sword and caught her with the flat, just barely redirecting it.
"She's so clean," Rōko muttered beside Fay and Raphos, who was sitting now, leg wrapped. "They're pretty equal in sword work, but their footwork? That's where Salem wins every time."
"You think it's 'cause Annabel's blind?" Fay asked, worried but watching intently.
"I think," Rōko continued, "Annabel's hyperfocused. She can only track a few things at once. In a crowd, she's almost useless unless she's leading and focused on a handful of people. So right now, I bet she's locked onto Salem, and watching for a shadow dip at the same time."
They were right.
That was all I was doing. Salem's outline. Her blade. The threat of the shadows under her feet. That was everything.
She twisted in and kicked my knee, pain flaring up my leg — not enough to stop me, just enough to disrupt rhythm.
But that disruption? It was a feint.
She slipped—there—into shadow.
Expected.
I turned immediately, swinging my hand in a circle to open a portal between us.
Her mana shot out of it—unexpectedly fast—but she didn't land.
She fell.
Because I'd opened the portal too high.
"Salem?" I called, spinning toward the blur above me. "Oh no, that's—uh—should I catch you?"
Even in freefall, her voice came clear: "I'm fine!"
Thirty feet in the air, and right before impact, her body melted into smoke—shadow swallowing her whole. Her mana disappeared for half a second, then pulsed faintly from the ground.
She reformed standing, as if she'd never dropped.
"…I've never been that high up before," she said, panting.
She stepped forward, sweat dripping, but her blade was lowered.
"I yield for today," Salem said, eyes on me. "I think we've gotten everyone's baseline, right, Annie?"
I nodded, breathing hard. My mana flickered around my wrists and faded. "Yeah… baseline set."
Rōko chuckled from the tree line, chain slack now across her lap. "Well, damn. Now we just have to catch up to the devils and Lincoln."
Fay dropped to the grass, arms splayed. "But first… breakfast. And if I don't shower soon, I'll cry."
Salem walked past, reaching up and gently brushing her fingers along my arm. "You did good."
"We all did good," I corrected.
Behind us, the group gathered again, bruised, breathing heavy, but stronger than they were yesterday. I might not be able to see their appearances, but I could feel the difference in their mana.
Stronger.
Sharper.
And slowly getting ready.