It took many days of written tests, practicing general martial arts, but by the end of the week, Hadwyn had learned some new basic techniques, like hitbox.

  Hitbox was Hadwyn’s favorite. Basically, hitbox was an area flow that allowed you to apply an effect or just raw damage, even if you missed the attack, depending on how far you missed it. And the last week, he had learned more than he had his entire life at the guild:

  “Your body has a chain of command.” Peter had said, his legs propped up on a stool while he sat on a wooden chain. Teresa had grabbed the talc and rubbed it across the black board:

  (Soul)

  Body

  Essence

  Heat dispelled (Aura) ←-→ (Chakra): Energy flow/ Mana converter.

  Ground ←-→ Neutral

  Neutral:

  Field (Not to be confused with Aura)

  Flow (Control and distribution center)

  Emitters (Connected directly to Flow.)

  Lesson one:

  Direct current and Alternating current.

  “By now, you’ve probably got the hang of the things I’ve taught you, and you’re probably comfortable with those flows. The thing with that is, however, you have been using DC this entire time.” He had paused to think for a moment, “Now, DC is good and all, it’s quick, simple, and doesn’t require your constant attention or maintenance. But the downside is you don’t get any feedback.”

  Hadwyn raised his hand.

  “Yes Hadwyn?”

  Hadwyn couldn’t help but smile. He had spent more time than ever the following week reading everything he could find about flow. He had learned about spells as well. Yes, spells that he swore he would never attempt again. But he had given it a second chance and had been able to cast a few.

  He knew of one in particular; Hit counter.

  “Hit counter, sir.” Hadwyn said. “A spell that easily works alongside any attack, no matter what it's based on.”

  “That’s good, Hadwyn, but spells are not sourced from you, remember?”

  There was silence.

  He sighed. “Please allow me to explain again. When you cast a spell, true, it will take energy from you, but it will cut the connection. To process it… You know what? Teresa, erase the board please… No! Actually just flip it over.”

  She flipped the board over and Peter got up. “Allow me.” He motioned for Teresa to give him the stick. She gave it to him and sat down, looking curious as to what Peter would teach next.

  “Let’s talk about spells for a moment.” He paused, “I assume no one at your previous teachings ever bothered to explain how a spell actually works.”

  No one responded.

  He chuckled. “Personally, I think the public education system is a load of bullshit. Do this, do that, don’t ask questions. That’s it, I'm gonna fail you!”

  “Will you be failing us?” Sophia asked.

  “I would, If I were a guild professor. But the difference between me and guild funded pricks is that I actually give a damn about you. I did everything to get this job.” He grunted, “The answer is no, Sophia. Failing is not an option. You are here because you are the most talented and fit for the job.”

  He looked back at the board and scribbled on it. “Let's get back to business, shall we?”

  He drew up and down waves:

  /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

  “This is what magic is stored as a spell. This is one of the fabrics of our world.”

  He drew another line, then a stick figure.

  “Code.” He said, matter-of-factly. “A lazy boy… A genius boy, but lazy nonetheless…”

  “Who?” Teresa asked.

  “Oh, just some rambling.”

  He drew a line again. Now there were three.

  “A long time ago… There was a story of a boy who wanted to master the arts of flow. But he could not. This was before the age of the summoning, so life was quite difficult for the average person. Unruly gods, deities, yada yada yada. But this boy was special because he…”

  Peter drew another line, which might have confused the others, but not Teresa. In all her time working with Peter, she had begun to see his habits. Specifically, one where he would draw nonsensical lines on a sheet or board. He would then erase or get rid of the lines he made.

  Teresa had remembered asking him about the lines. He had responded with a very vague answer; He used to draw grids at his previous job. He looked uncomfortable when she asked about it, so she never asked again.

  Sure enough, he erased the lines with a brush.

  “The boy wanted to see the magic and control it with his hands, he wanted to… manipulate… program if you will.

  So one day… he decided to try something new… he created a new language. Kxynotic!”

  “People used commands in commonspeak, even those who speak other languages used commonspeak, or some translation of it. Kxynotic was a language he created by using his head instead of his normal power, he did this first by separating the energy from his body and storing it in ambient waves. When some words are uttered, energy from the body will influence ambient waves, causing the result to be disconnected from the user.”

  “Instead of converting energy, the chakra would instead transfer it to waves.”

  “Will we learn spells?” Balut asked.

  “Nope, you will be programming your own.”

  There was a stir.

  Ah, but first, of course you have to personalize your flow. It is far easier to control a flow than a spell. Plus, spellcrafting is dangerous, and you could cause a number of inconceivable disasters, trust me when I say there’s a reason why they don’t teach you spellcrafting in your schools. As for flow, however…” He smiled, “There’s no excuse for that, just shitty teaching.”

  Hadwyn felt intimidated. But he didn’t protest. He wanted to learn, as did everyone else.

  And so they did.

  “First, come up with a word to announce your flow technique.” Peter said, walking between them.

  Hadwyn scribbled down on the piece of paper. He created a diagram of how the spell would work. Then he outlined the letters.

  Perimeter. He thought.

  No, Area.

  Fill the gaps with Aura, it will conduct… energy.

  “Hey Peter, Aura can conduct energy right?”

  “Right!” Peter said, “You might be getting ahead of yourself, but if you know what you're doing, then I think you’ll pull it off.”

  Hadwyn clasped his hands together, he concentrated on the memory of the words and how they interacted with the ambience.

  He put together the frequency and the way it passed through particles.

  Peter motioned towards the door. “Go to the testing gym to test your abilities.”

  Everyone lined up again.

  Hadwyn turned to Marco. “What’d you create?”

  Marco shrugged. “You’ll see soon, trust me.”

  Hadwyn didn’t like that answer. He turned to Teresa.

  “What’d you make?”

  “Muscle enhancement.” She said, smiling. “I actually created it earlier, but I made a few tweaks to it.”

  “Oh, you got a cool name for it? Mine is called Stopper.” Lars said.

  “Stopper is lame name.” Baluk cut in. “I named mine blade Nav.”

  “Duller.” Said Akoto.

  “Purification.” Ruby said.

  “Proofreader.” Lars said, triumphantly.

  “Foil.” Sophia added, quietly, even if no one heard her.

  Hadwyn felt bad now that he had named his something boring.

  “What’s yours called, Hadwyn?” Akoto asked.

  “Hitbox.” He replied, disappointedly.

  “What does it do?” Marco asked.

  Hadwyn rolled his eyes. “You’ll see.”

  Marco frowned. “Ok buddy, let's see what you got.”

  “Attention!” Peter shouted. Split into two teams. Teresa will be leader of team one, and Ruby will be leader of team two.”

  “Akoto, Balut, Marco, team one! Chop chop!”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Marco was the first to run to Teresa. Balut and Akoto glared at each other, and hesitantly walked forward.

  Teresa looked disappointed. “Keep your little drama out of this team, got it?”

  “Alright.”

  “Yes, maam.”

  “Everyone else, go to Ruby.”

  Lars hefted a spear. “I have a good feeling about this.”

  Sophia looked worried. “I heard Teresa’s really good with her baton.”

  Lars shrugged. “Ruby, we’ll be ok, right?”

  “Depends on how well you respond.”

  Hadwyn sighed. “What is sparring going to be about?”

  “Fighting.” She replied.

  Hadwyn put up his hands. He was damn sure that he wasn’t the only one who noticed that the team placement was not balanced. Sure, they were split evenly, but a much older student like Teresa, with a blademaster apprentice, the self proclaimed valedictorian, and a stocky figure of Balut. Ruby was actually the second highest scoring student, according to the written test, but Lars, Hadwyn, and Sophia, while certainly not being low scorers, were still obviously outmatched to Teresa’s squad.

  Hadwyn had been hoping to be assigned to Teresa’s team. That bummed him out for the morning.

  Peter led them out to the forest.

  Peter swiveled his head. “Obviously, since this is a sparring session, don’t be a bunch of idiots and try to actually kill each other. Before anyone asks, no, when I told you you were going to learn to kill each other, I meant Aldarians in general. And you are to prioritize takedown methods that you learned back in the martial art of combat training. I’ve seen skilled anivors have sparring sessions of their own, and I’ve got to say, "It's a lot more interesting to watch a pair trade punches, than to watch two gaudy guildies power scale and not even touch each other.”

  “That doesn’t mean not use your flow or spell or weapon attacks, but use them to incapacitate your enemy, like I had displayed with the dummy a few days ago.”

  Hadywn nodded, recalling the lesson in which Peter had taken a dummy with a wooden internal neck, and had snapped it by only using the techniques he had previously taught them.

  “Then,” He continued, “Go in and pin them down or disable them completely.” If you impress me, I’ll give you bonus points.”

  Peter began to send the teams away.

  “Alright, Ruby’s team will be starting here. Teresa, take your team to the other side of the forest.”

  He turned back to Ruby and Hadwyn. He pulled out a silver whistle. “When I blow this whistle, the test begins.

  “What’s the point of the forest?” Lars asked, changing the topic.

  “I think to make the terrain for the sparring more complex.” Hadwyn answered.

  “Wait, how does she even know where she’s going?”

  “She’s been in this forest like, a thousand times. She knows it like the back of her hand.” Ruby remarked.

  “How do you know that?” Lars asked.

  “I talked with her a few times, she said that when she trained here with Peter, she got to know the terrain pretty well.”

  “Ok, I guess I'm the only one who's going to say it. Why are we outmatched? Teresa knows the forest like the back of her hand, apparently, and she’s got an OP squad.” Hadwyn exclaimed.

  Ruby grimaced. “I’ll do my best to make sure we stick together. As long as we do, they can't pick us off.”

  “How?” Lars asked. “If she knows this forest as well as you claim, our chances of winning are slimmer than a serpent. They won't need to pick us off, all they need to do is just cross paths with us and we’re done.”

  Just then, the whistle blew.

  “I’ve got a feeling that we aren't supposed to win.” Ruby said, grimly.

  And Hadwyn came to find, unfortunately, she was right.

  It was brutal.

  Lars was the first to go down, not without a fight, of course. His flow technique, stopper proved to be more than just a generic label. Balut had charged him several times, trying to knock him out, but Lars managed to tire him out.

  This was not the same for Marco, who came in to back up Balut

  Marco proved to be incredibly fierce with his sword, as many of them all agreed by the end of the test. He brandished two identical standard issue lightweight swords that were used by the police sometimes, to use against more aggressive criminals. However, the blades were infamous for not being able to cut up the much thicker skin of other monsters all that well, or aldarian skin.

  It was for this reason alone that Lars opted to eat the attacks until he finally admitted defeat. And since he shielded himself with the handle of his spear, the sword's lightweight structure eventually warped beyond use. So Marco threw them down, and brought about his two more powerful counterparts. Lars surrendered at the sight of these blades.

  Marco was also incredibly fast too. Ruby had hung back to fire on the opposing team, but had ultimately failed to land any meaningful hits on her fast moving enemy.

  Soon, Hadwyn and Sophia were the only ones left. And it didn’t take long to find them.

  Sophia surrendered immediately, as did Hadwyn. And just like that, it was over.

  Ruby slammed her fist into a punching sack, while Lars ranted.

  “That fight wasn’t fair Ruby! Why isn’t he switching our teams?” Lars said angrily.

  Ruby threw a right hook into the bag, then stopped its momentum. “How the hell should I know?”

  “Ruby, you said something about thinking the fight wasn’t supposed to be fair. What about it?” Hadwyn asked.

  Back when I was a missionary, we had a church built in the wastelands. It was a sitting duck for orcs and demideities. Some demideities were even stronger than the Aldarians in that area. So they would come by and rob it from time to time.

  “So what happened?”

  “Well, one of the priests came to me and told me about the story of the Halonar. He told me that powerless mortals were able to fight gods, and win. They had a saying. “Punch up.””

  “He said that the Halonar would ask his fellow knights to fight him in groups of ten. He would lose thousands of times. But he eventually began to win. And he made his closest followers follow these rigorous sessions.”

  Peter came to their table. “You are correct.” He announced.

  He said this to the shock of Ruby’s squad.

  “Why?” Lars asked, squeezing his fists. “Why’d you go and put us in a losing match?”

  Peter shrugged. “I want you to consider the fact that if that had been a real fight, as in, a fight to the death, you would have been slaughtered.”

  Everyone at the table was silent.

  “So the test was… designed to be a complete overkill?” Ruby asked.

  “Over-win.” Peter corrected, lightly. “You didn't die today, which is why this test even exists. There’s a difference between fighting a monster that can barely understand what combat even is, and then there's trading punches and crossing swords with another being who's just as strong or stronger than you.

  “You’re training us to be murderers.” Lars said resentfully.

  Whatever moral argument you have here is irrelevant. Lars, you know as well as I do that there are many Aldarians, godkin, and demideities who have no problem slaughtering at their discretion. Why do you think I'm giving you this seemingly ridiculous test? No, there has to be something we’re missing! Peter wouldn’t just send us into an unfair fight! Maybe… maybe there's a hidden message?” Peter put his hands on the table.

  “Fights are one of two things.” He put up one finger. “One, an evenly matched fight. Usually- no, always artificially fabricated. And two,” He put up a second finger, “An uneven fight.” He sighed.

  “One slaughters the other.” He said, matter-of-factly. “This happens all the time. Yes, there are people on this very team who could be rearranged to even attempt a fair matchup, but that is not my goal. My goal is to teach you how to win an unfair fight.”

  He clasped his hands together. “Your goal should be to work together,” He knitted his fingers.

  “And to figure out a way to beat the odds.”

  “That you put against us.” Lars added.

  Peter nodded, smiling. “Ah, so you’re starting to get it now.” He said, sarcastically. “I’ll give you a bit of constructive criticism. This is the only help I will be providing you with.

  “We’ll take what we can get.” Hadwyn exclaimed.

  Peter sat down finally. “Good. Let me give you a breakdown of the fight.”

  “You and Ruby his in the brush while Lars fought Baluk.

  “When I beat Baluk.” Lars interrupted.

  Peter rolled his kaleidoscope eyes. “Beat him, but not Marco. Marco is the weapons expert of the entire group.

  “Who’s the weapons expert in our group?” Hadwyn asked.

  Peter blinked, as if it was stupidly obvious. “Well, not to be condescending, but everyone on your team should know everyone else's strengths, weaknesses, and tasks. And on the question of weapons experts, that person would be Ruby.”

  "Wait." Hadwyn objected. "How will you train them?"

  "Sorry?"

  "How will you train them in combat? If we're the only ones who are actually being tested, how will you train the others?"

  "They've already been tested on their strength." Peter said. "But you fighting them gives them practice. I've also told them, that as long as they keep beating you, or even bringing things to a draw, they will keep being allowed to train."

  "So if we beat them," Hadwyn said cautiously, "Their training will cease?"

  "Correct." Peter said. He seemed to have a look of mild regret on his face, one that probably would have been hard to read, but Hadwyn had spent enough time around Peter to recogize what emotion he was feeling.

  "I probably shouldn't have told you that, but since everything else I've told you seemed like stuff you were already aware of, consider that your... Tip."

  He got up from the table. I have some meetings to attend on Lodesday, which means I'll be there tomorrow, but not the following day." He left.

  So he's encouraging us to lose. I guess that makes sense. Would much rather fuck up in sparring than actual combat.

  "What's our game plan?" Lars asked with desperation in his voice.

  "How bout' start with not treating this like a game?" Ruby snapped.

  That made him shut up.

  "Why?"

  Pierson looked worried, and rightfully so, Peter was barely adapting to the everchanging schedule.

  Peter rubbed his cheeks. "Why anything, Pierson?" Which was his go to response when someone questioned his plans.

  "Why train them like this?" Pierson repeated. "Why mentally punish them like this?"

  "They're fully grown adults, Pierson, not schoolkids. Hell, some of them have been in war before."

  "Still," Pierson mumbled. "They don't even fully know how much of a disadvantage they are at."

  "That's the point." Peter said. "When's Beckett going to show up?"

  "Probably in about ten minutes." Pierson said quickly, which let Peter know that he was about to force the subject back to Peter's training. Sure enough, he continued, "Peter, do they even know that you are practically a spy for the opposing team?"

  Peter chuckled. "You'd better not say that too loud, they can probably hear you."

  The color left Piersons face.

  Peter looked at him stupidly. "I'm kidding."

  Pierson sighed. "What if they don't accept your training style?"

  "Well I know for sure Beckett won't give shit. He never does. Berkeley might be harder to deal with.

  Pierson grimaced. "How can you be so sure that Beckett won't care? He's held anti-aldarian views in the past."

  "In the past." Peter echoed. "Beckett and I aren't friends, but we're at least allies. Remember when I managed to convince Ivan to come over? I had a knife on me. Beckett trusted me. He trusted me because he knew that you can't do something without a plan.

  "They won't learn." Pierson insisted. "They'll hate everything they should be standing for."

  Peter cleared his throat. "Pierson, do you know how wolves learn?"

  "Nay."

  He grinned. "Wolves were always simple animals, but they seem to be getting smarter every day. The male wolf takes his children, one a certain amount of time has passed, and he throws them into the unforgiving wild. If they survive, then they grow to become the most vicious of hunters."

  Pierson was about to add something, but Peter continued;

  "But, I am not so stupid as to send my trainees into a deadly test. In that scenario, failure means death. In this test, they can fail as much as they want. Or until next month."

  Pierson shook his head. "I trust you Peter. But, I'm not sure if Berkeley will feel the same way."

  Right at that moment, the door came open, and Beckett entered the room.

  Peter was confused. "Where's Berkeley?"

  "He's dealing with an issue that just came up." He said grimly. "But I came to give you an urgent message: There is a spy somewhere in this building."