An Zhe was being carried at a speed that defied his world.
The world was not a blur of green and brown, it was a smear of darkness, stretched into tunnels by speed and shadow. It was deep night in the Forbidden Forest, and the wind flattened his skin, forced his eyes into slitted squints, and stole his breath. His mind couldn't map the geography; he wasn't being carried so much as launched through the dark like a low-flying projectile.
Tears streamed from his eyes as flashes of nightmare landscapes ripped past.
A clearing flickered by four-armed primates perched on the canopy, silhouetted against the broken moon. They screeched like grinding metal as they juggled severed, glowing skulls, phosphorescent slime tracing arcs in the darkness.
Another heartbeat, something serpentine coiled around an ancient oak, scales shimmering with bioluminescent pulses that throbbed like breath.
Ray moved through it all like a phantom. He didn't dodge trees; he flowed around them, his boots barely brushing the moss.
Then, silence.
Ray stopped instantly. No deceleration. No warning. Just velocity collapsing into stillness.
They were in a clearing. Dust and dead leaves spiraled in the wake of Ray's arrival. He released An Zhe without ceremony.
An Zhe slammed into the ground, knees buckling. Air punched out of his lungs. The world spun. He clutched wet grass and dry heaved as his equilibrium clawed its way back.
When he finally looked up, Ray stood a few feet away, a lone beam of moonlight illuminating him. He brushed a speck of dirt from his sleeve like it was an inconvenience. No sweat. No ragged breathing. He looked like someone waiting for a taxi, not someone who had just crossed half the Forbidden Forest in ten minutes.
"You were pretty good back there," Ray said. Light. Casual. Too casual. "Quick reflexes. Most people freeze when they see a Rank D."
"I didn't do it for you," An Zhe muttered. His legs still trembled. His ankle throbbed where the vine had bruised bone.
"Oh?" Ray tilted his head.
"I was hanging upside down," An Zhe said flatly. "The vine had snagged my leg. I cut it because I didn't want to be digested."
Ray laughed. "Honest. Refreshing. But don't flatter yourself."
An Zhe frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You think your little blood blade cut through Iron bark because you were scared?" Ray grinned, too white, too bright. "You only cut it because I poisoned it five minutes before you wandered in."
An Zhe froze. He remembered the softness when his blade sliced. He'd assumed adrenaline helped.
"You… poisoned it?"
"Neurotoxin. Plant based. Dissolves cell walls like sugar in hot tea." Ray shrugged. "I was waiting for the core to drop when you stumbled in, got snagged like a rabbit, and started flailing."
A cold pulse crawled up An Zhe's spine. Ray hadn't been prey. He'd been baiting the predator.
"Who are you?" An Zhe whispered.
Ray didn't answer. He just stepped closer, moonlight catching the fine stitching of his jacket.
Digul City was the corpse of civilization, three camps clinging to life, ruled by whoever could kill fastest. If you weren't strong, you starved or served. If you were weak, you were bait. An Zhe knew the stench of the Dead Zone, the grime that never left skin, the hollow eyes of scavengers.
Ray didn't smell like the Dead Zone. He smelled like freedom.
"But your power is weak," Ray said, circling him. "Unstable. Starved."
An Zhe's hand drifted to the blood-forged dagger at his waist.
His power had awakened when he was five, stabbed, discarded, bleeding out in the wastes. His blood had obeyed him then. It had hardened, sealed the wound. Since then, he'd shaped it, needles, blades, but his blood was nutrient-poor, frail. He could barely scratch armored beasts. Without kills, there were no Hemocores. Without Hemocores, there was no strength.
"What's your rank?" Ray asked.
An Zhe swallowed.
"…F."
Ray stared.
"Seriously?" He glanced around the clearing like the trees might confirm it. "F-rank? In this year? I thought the Dead Zone ate all the Fs a decade ago."
"How did you survive?" Ray pressed. "Do you hide under rocks? Play dead? Fake illness? Actually, don't answer. I regret saving you already. Aiden is going to beat me black and blue for dragging home dead weight."
"Aiden?" An Zhe echoed.
"My boss. He hates useless things." Ray paced, muttering. "He sent me out for recruits, 'diamonds in the rough.' You're not a diamond. You're a pebble. A smooth, surprisingly lucky pebble."
An Zhe turned away. "You can leave. I'll manage."
It was a lie. He had no idea where he was. The trees twisted into monstrous silhouettes; the night whispered like teeth.
Ray caught his collar.
"You're already here. Might as well take the test."
"Test? What test? Where?"
"The Entrance Test. Obviously."
Before An Zhe could process that, his stomach lurched, Ray had hoisted him up again.
"Oh, not ag-"
"Hold on tight, Pebble!" Ray grinned, and the ground detonated beneath his feet.
Then they were gone.