The dome grew darker with every passing second, shadows stretching until they swallowed the arena whole. For a heartbeat, silence pressed down on us. Then, a growl. low, guttural, and much too close.
I tensed. Sakura clung tighter to my arm.
"Hira-kun… tell me that was your stomach."
"…If my stomach sounded like that, I'd already be dead."
A ripple of uneasy laughter went through the class, but it died the moment Miss Clarissa's voice echoed across the chamber.
"Welcome to your final assessment. The survival test."
The floor shifted beneath our feet again, grinding open in jagged circles. From those pits, cages rose, their bars glowing faint blue with sealing charms. And inside… monsters.
Spirit beasts.
A wolf the size of a horse, fur bristling with shadow-fire. A giant centipede, its armored body curling around itself in an endless coil. Even a crow with too many wings, feathers dripping ink like blood.
The aura radiating off them prickled against my skin. These weren't illusions. They were real though bound by charms, for now.
"You'll be released into the forest sector of the training grounds," Miss Clarissa continued, stepping forward. Even in her plain white blouse and black skirt, she carried herself with calm authority, arms folded behind her back. "Each squad will face different threats. Your goal is not to slay everything. It is to endure. To work together. To survive until the bell rings in 6 hours."
"S-six hours?!" Sakura yelped. "That's like… forever!"
"Six hours," Mikio corrected, writing it sharply in the air with flaming letters.
Clarissa nodded at him. "Correct. For six hours, you must hold your ground, avoid being eliminated, and protect one another. Anyone who collapses or is 'killed' will be automatically teleported out. If your entire squad is removed, you fail."
The cages rattled, the beasts inside slamming against their glowing bars. The sound echoed in my chest like thunder.
Clarissa's eyes swept across us. "You are exorcist candidates. Demons and rogue spirits will not care about your comfort. They will not wait for you to be ready. This test will decide if you belong here."
I swallowed hard. For once, Sakura was silent.
Then Clarissa raised her hand. "Squads. Prepare yourselves."
The floor trembled again, and the arena split into three massive stone platforms. Each floated apart, carried away by shifting currents of light, until we were separated from the other squads. Our platform descended into a forest shrouded in violet mist, where moonlight never quite touched the ground.
When the shaking stopped, Sakura peeked out from behind me. "This feels like the start of a horror movie…"
"…And you're the first character who dies," I muttered.
"Rude! Hira-kun would save me."
I didn't answer, because the seal on the first cage cracked.
The wolf spirit burst free, howling so loud the air itself vibrated. Its eyes blazed red, and shadows clung to its fur like living flame. It landed on the ground with a quake, and the test had begun.
"Spread out!" I shouted automatically.
Sakura blinked at me. "Eh? Since when do you give orders?"
The wolf lunged, and instinct took over. I shoved her out of the way and rolled aside just as claws raked the dirt where we'd stood.
Mikio raised both hands, clapping them together.BOOM. The sound amplified like thunder, slamming into the wolf's ears. It staggered, shaking its head.
"Nice!" Sakura cried. She gathered her aura, foxfire sparking at her fingertips. An illusion flickered into life.Three copies of herself darting around the wolf, taunting it from every angle.
"Over here, puppy!" "No, here!" "Bet you can't catch me!"
The wolf snarled, snapping at the illusions, its strikes passing through empty air.
That was our opening.
I surged forward, aura flaring to my blade-hand. A black slash of condensed energy cut across the wolf's shoulder, driving it back with a yelp. For a moment, I felt control. Balance.
Then Sakura's voice rang out: "Hira-kun, behind you!"
I spun, just in time to see the centipede spirit dragging itself out of the mist, its body splitting the earth.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
Far across the arena, I caught glimpses of the others through the shifting mist.
Fuji's squad—Cloud Nine—were already in chaos. Fuji's metallic wings gleamed as he slashed down spirit bats, but Mikasa's aura-gun shots went wide, blasting apart trees instead. Talia tried to burn the swarm, but her fire kept sputtering out halfway, like damp matches.
"Coordination!" Fuji roared, as if yelling would fix it.
The twins' squad—New Moon—were faring better. Yuki and Suki moved as one, blades of spirit energy flashing in synchronized arcs. Even Jackson, blood dripping from his palms, managed to whip crimson lashes that tangled the legs of a lumbering bear-spirit, letting the twins finish it. Their teamwork was… honestly scary.
"Show-offs," I muttered.
But then I didn't have time to watch, because the wolf recovered, and the centipede's mandibles snapped toward me in the same breath.
"Strategy time!" Sakura declared, even as she stumbled backward.
"We don't have time!" I snapped, dodging the wolf's claws.
Mikio blasted another clap, staggering it again, but sweat already beaded his forehead. Sound attacks took a toll on him. He couldn't keep doing this forever.
The centipede reared, mandibles glowing with sickly green venom. It spat a glob that hissed as it ate through the ground.
"Poison? Seriously?!" Sakura shrieked. She summoned foxfire blasts, pelting the centipede's face. It recoiled but didn't stop.
We couldn't outlast this. Not at this pace.
I gritted my teeth. Think.
The wolf was fast, but reckless. The centipede was tough, but slow. Together, they covered each other's weaknesses. Splitting our focus would get us all eliminated.
So we needed to turn them against each other.
"Keep the wolf busy!" I shouted to Sakura.
She blinked. "Eh? Alone?!"
"You're the one who called yourself invincible earlier."
"…Oh no, he remembered!"
But she ran anyway, illusions dancing wildly to distract the beast.
Mikio glanced at me, questioning.
"Amplify its anger," I said.
His eyes widened, then he nodded, slamming his hands together again.This time not to stun, but to enrage. The sound echoed like a howl, vibrating with fury. The wolf went berserk, thrashing, snapping at anything in sight including the centipede.
The insect hissed and lunged at the wolf, venom spraying. The two monsters clashed, tearing into each other with earth-shaking force.
Sakura froze mid-step, eyes wide. "…Wait. We can do that?!"
I exhaled, blade-hand glowing as I steadied myself. "We just did."
The battle was far from over. The test had only begun but for the first time that night, I felt something strange.
Not fear. Not irritation.
But… a spark.
Like maybe, just maybe, Squad Zero had a chance.