Upon stepping outside, Oliver expected to find a sunny m, but instead, the enviro was exactly the same as when he arrived. Above him, some cars levitated between the buildings, illuminated by a few streetlights, but the sky remained dark, with only a few holograms he dome.

  'Selehe city of eternal night. It lives up to its he boy thought.

  Nico guided Oliver through the streets to access the lower level. For the first time, the boy saw the path to the hotel where they were staying; the previous night, he had been so tired he didn't remember how they had gotten there.

  Walking through alleys and narrow streets, they found one of the elevators that gave access to the lower levels. It was the sed time Oliver was on the lower level, but the first time, he was notig his surroundings. The neon lights around him were dimmer than in the upper part, yet several establishments were open. Many had tables and chairs outside, with people drinking and chatting. Even on the lower level, Selene remained a city of festivities.

  Leaving the busier streets, finding the Trial Tain was easy. Uhe other buildings, it was one of the oldest and busiest. However, just like the previous day, only Nico's Gau could operance.

  "When you reach the tenth floor, yau will be registered, and you won't need me to enter or exit here," Nico expined.

  Oliver was ba the tower's hall, with dozens of scattered tables watg the arena on the first floor. Even though they had arrived early, some fights were already taking peither stopped to watch; instead, they tinued walking to the end of the floor aered another elevator.

  Nico pressed the '0' button while expining, "Each floor above only be accessed by winning the previous level. The zeroth floor, however, is accessible to everyone."

  Oliver nodded, waiting for the rest of the expnation. But before Nico could tihe elevator quickly desded one more level, opening its doors and revealing the new floor. Uhe previous ohere was no embellishment; it looked like a hall entirely made of steel with some scattered arenas.

  "Newer fighters usually e to this floor to train and maybe spy on a future oppo," Nico expined.

  Nico walked to one of the ptforms while tinuing his expnation. "The material on this floor is extremely resistant, simuting a real arena. So it's safe to train even using Boons."

  "Oh! With one exceptiers 't use their armors here. Even with the floor's prote, depending on the fighter, it could cause serious problems," Niiled as he fihe expnation.

  The floor wasn't crowded; there were only two other pairs training in the more distant arenas. The pairs didn't notice the newers and tinued with their movements. Oliver kept walking until he reached the arena Nico had chosen but paused for a moment to observe the pair's training.

  When he looked at the fight closest to his arena, a new interface appeared.

  | Left Eye of Learning| Unknown bat Style - Learning| [0.00%]

  'I just o observe? But it doesn't tell me anything about the teique,' Oliver thought, scratg his neck.

  Nico waited a moment while the boy watched the other training sessions.

  "Fighting inside an arena is pletely different from fighting in a war," Nico began to expin.

  Oliver turned back to look at his eacher.

  "Unfortunately, I only know the fighting style taught by the army, so it'll have to do for you," Nico tinued. "What do you think is the main differeween humans and orks?"

  "Hmm... Strength?" Oliver replied thoughtfully.

  "Yes, but not just that. The strength es from the differences in their bodies," Nico responded.

  Nico stood side by side with Oliver and got into a bat stance, pg both hands in front of him in a guard.

  "If you were to attack a human, a punch at this height would be suffit," Nico extended one of his arms. "But if you're attag an Ork, the same height that aims for a human's face will at most hit an Ork's chest."

  Nico raised one of his arms, pointing to where an Ork's head would be. Oliver, oher hand, wouldn't even be able to reach if he tried to throunch.

  "Weight, height, size—everything in an Ork is different, which led the army to develop eiques. An evolution of what was Mixed Martial Arts, but for a new oppo," Nico expined.

  For the wo hours, Nico repeated various movements with Oliver. Each pund kick was re-evaluated, demonstrated, and critiqued. The movements were repeated slowly, without force but with precision, so the boy could uand every detail of what he was doing.

  | Ding! Ding! Ding!

  | Left Eye of Learning| h Army Style - Learning...| [1.50%]

  "That's it!" Nico could see that Oliver learned quickly, especially when the teacher's movements. But there was a limit to his teag method.

  "Incredibly, I think that's it. It's impressive how quickly you grasped the basics of this style. Now, let's move on to practice!" Nico said. "Yoing to run for three minutes around the floor; as soon as you finish, you'll return to this arena, and we'll have a round."

  Oliver was still out of breath from repeating the movements. Even though he had done eaent slowly, he felt that his new eye was ing his energy. Drops of sweat fell on his face as he tried to uand what Nico was expining.

  "Go! Go! Go!" Nico cpped his hands, pushing the boy to start running.

  Oliver was also impressed with his learning speed. The effects of the eye were different from what he imagined.

  'Not only I replicate, but I uand the movements,' Oliver thought. 'The only bad effect is this twitg.' The boy passed one of his hands over his eye, trying to calm down.

  Previously, he fought by trying to repeat what he had learned oreets; his kicks, punches, and stances were fragile, leaving him exposed to oppos and not using his full potential.

  'Would just this have been enough to ge the oute of the beating I took?' Oliver wondered, recalling how he fought against Kyle. His chest tighte the memory of the fight; a mix of shame and anger gave him more energy to run.

  With another p pleted, Oliver could no longer focus solely on running. He opened and closed his fists, trying to feel the movements he had made a short time ago while tinuing around the hall.

  The arenas remained mostly empty, but some people were starting to arrive. The boy didn't know what time it was, but it robably starting to get busier oher floors of the Tower.

  When he finally fihe three minutes, he walked back to his arena.

  'Damn! I didn't know I'd get this tired,' Oliver thought, gasping from the exercise.

  But before reag the ptform, a noise and otion caught his attentiohe entrao the floor, a group of about a dozen people was walking toward one of the tral arenas.

  All of them wore the same biform with a symbol of two metallic circles. The otion had drawention of others besides Oliver. The hts and training sessions happening in the arenas paused to observe the group.

  'Who are they?' Oliver wondered.

  As he approached Nico, the boy saw that even his trainer was analyzing the newers.

  "Pay attention to them," Nico pointed out. "Especially the girl with white hair and the skinny guy with bck hair." Niade sure to speak quietly.

  "Why?" Oliver asked.

  "They're the Twins of Selene; both are heirs of the House. To gain more experiend reputation, they started climbing the tower st week. It's quite possible you'll meet them in uping matches," Nico expined.

  Oliver focused on both of them. The twins wore clothing simir to the rest of the group. The girl was tall with long white hair tied back. The boy was very skinny, much more than normal; his eyes were sunken as if he hadn't slept for days.

  "And are they good?" Oliver asked.

  Niced as he replied, "Hard to say. Each of them had only three matches so far. But House Selene seems to be betting on them. Besides, they're heirs."

  Oliver nodded while trying to watch what they were training.

  "Alright, alright. Let's focus on our training, too," Nico called for Oliver's attention. "Let's see..."

  "Got it! I think I know. I'll fight you without using my left arm and leg. Yoal is to surprise me to the point where I'll have to use them," Nico expined with a smile on his face.

  "Are you sure?" Oliver asked. "I 't guarantee I won't hurt you."

  Niirked, waving one of his hands to be the boy to advaalk less and do more!"

  GCLopes