The morning of the combat spar, Janus sat in the dining hall staring blankly into his bowl of greyish porridge. He was not eating. His spoon was suspended in mid-air, and his eyes were glazed over, fixed on a point somewhere beyond the stone walls of the academy.

  Lyza nudged him with her elbow, her voice low and filled with concern. “Janus? You are barely breathing. Are you that afraid of Gridus?”

  Janus blinked, the world of the academy rushing back to replace the memories of a dwarven tavern. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud. The idea that he was worried about a schoolyard spar felt ridiculous compared to the tactical maneuvers and engineering blueprints currently swirling in his mind.

  “Afraid?” Janus finally said, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “No. The problem is definitely not that.”

  “Then what is it? You look like you are a thousand miles away.”

  Janus leaned in closer, his voice a whisper. “I was thinking about Illina. The girl from the memories. I was thinking that, eventually, I might want to go find her. I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like I owe her something. Or maybe I just want to see if she is real.”

  Lyza stared at him, her expression a mix of confusion and pity. “You are going to fight for your life in an hour, and you are daydreaming about a dwarven girl you have never actually met? You are a weird guy, Janus Vane.”

  A few tables away, Rin was watching them. He did not look amused. He leaned over to Gridus, who was aggressively tearing into a piece of bread.

  “Look at him, Gridus,” Rin muttered.

  Gridus glanced over and scoffed. “What? He looks like he is catatonic. I will probably knock him out with the first swing.”

  “No,” Rin countered, his voice sharp. “He is not catatonic. He is unfazed. Look at his hands. They are not shaking. He is talking to that girl like they are on a picnic. Be extra careful today. A man that confident usually has a reason to be.”

  Gridus almost spat his food. He only felt he needed to be careful with Rick Throne. Rick was the golden boy, a constant thorn in his side. Rick had everything Gridus wanted. Even the girl Gridus liked wanted Rick instead of him. He had tried, more than once, to settle the grudge in a fight, but Rick was always relaxed and smiling. As if fighting Gridus was just a game. And Rick always won.

  When the Codex finally told Gridus he was a Potential Rank A, he thought he would finally soar. Then, Rick received a Potential Rank S. Gridus loathed anything that reminded him of Rick, which was why he always hated and bullied Janus. He told people he would not bend for an inferior warrior, but the truth was simpler: he could not stand seeing Rick’s friend being happy.

  “Remember, class,” Master Drax announced, standing before the gathered cadets. “The Fortnight Spars are a tradition of our academy. We do it not to eliminate a rival, but to improve ourselves. We end up knowing more about our colleagues. We build friendship. I do not want cadets sent to the hospital or the grave; the Dwarves are doing that enough. Remember, we are all on the same side. Having said that, we also need to practice our lethality. So do not hold back too much.”

  Janus paid extra attention. This was his first time hearing the official rules.

  “You can use anything here you would use on the battlefield, but I ask for restraint. Once, a cadet brought a bazooka. That is excessive. I hope you know how to assess. Now, let us begin.”

  Lyza fought before Janus. He cheered as she moved like a blur. She focused on speed, avoiding being caught while striking at vital points to end the fight quickly. Then, it was finally the turn of Janus. He entered the arena and waited for Gridus. With a movement of his hand, a golden rod with glowing inscriptions constructed itself in his palm.

  Janus breathed deeply. he thought.

  Gridus appeared on the other side, already wearing his heavy battle gauntlets.

  “FIGHT!”

  Gridus charged, expecting Janus to run. Instead, Janus moved forward. , Gridus thought.

  Janus jumped to strike at the head of Gridus. , the big man thought. . He stepped to the side to evade the rod and threw a punch. But his gauntlet did not connect.

  BOM

  Gridus stepped back, clutching his nose. It was bleeding. Janus looked relaxed.

  “Hey, a question,” Janus said. “You said I would not make you sweat. If I defeat you and you still do not sweat, will I lose our wager?”

  “Little Indigo Cap is trying to be funny, but that is all you are: a fun guy,” Gridus growled. “I was trying to go easy on you by not using my Mana. But for each drop of my blood, I think I will remove a liter from you.”

  “I do not think I have that much blood in my body,” Janus replied.

  Gridus smashed his gauntlets together, releasing a visible kinetic shockwave. Janus felt the air vibrate. He realized he had underestimated the raw power of the bully.

  Gridus punched the air in the direction of the head of Janus. Even though he was far away, the wave of kinetic energy slammed into Janus. His head snapped back, and he was propelled across the sand. Before he could stabilize, Gridus was upon him. Disoriented, Janus tried to block a follow-up punch with his staff.

  It was a mistake. The rod flew back and struck him in the face with enough force to snap his head back. His footing gave way instantly. The staff clattered to the floor as his grip failed him. A sharp flash of memory hit him as the rod struck home. It was the same staggering impact he had felt against the Mana-Leech. The realization that he was making the same rookie mistake filled him with a cold, self-loathing fury. He was supposed to be evolving, but his body was still falling into the same lethal traps.

  Gridus followed through with a heavy punch to the stomach. As Janus was falling, the punch did not hit with full force, but the kinetic wave rippled through his entire body. Janus felt his organs stretching and almost ripping themselves apart.

  His vision blurred, but as he saw Gridus preparing to pummel him again, his body was yanked from the ground as if pulled by a ghost. The gauntlet of Gridus hit the floor, shattering the concrete where Janus had been a second before.

  “So your whole plan was just floating around? Pathetic,” Gridus spat.

  “It was part of it. There is also this,” Janus said, extending his right hand toward the face of Gridus.

  Gridus raised a blocking guard. “I know you have magitech that shoots lasers. It will not hit—”

  Gridus stopped talking and fell face-first as the rod hit him from behind. Janus had used his levitation to loop the weapon around. Before Gridus could recover, Janus dropped from the air, driving both feet into the back of the neck of the larger boy. Gridus hit the ground, curled into a defensive ball as the flying rod began a relentless assault of its own.

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  “ENOUGH!”

  Janus was slammed to the ground by a massive surge of gravity. When he tried to use his levitation to resist, the pressure only increased, so he stopped struggling.

  “Gridus, I said it is enough. Leave the arena,” Master Drax commanded and Janus saw that Gridus was standing, resisting the altered gravity magic on him. He looked terrifying.

  “No, I—” Gridus was interrupted by another wave of gravity that crushed him into the breaking floor.

  “I hope you both saw that relying on what you think you know is not always enough,” Master Drax said, releasing the pressure. “Janus, your file said you knew no magic. Mastering levitation in such a short time requires extraordinary dedication, which I have never seen before. Gridus, seeing you fight seriously without almost killing someone makes me really happy. But next time you don't send someone to the infirmary, I hope it is because you showed restraint, not because they ran away. I want to see continuous improvement from you both.”

  Gridus did not stay to talk. He walked out in silence. Janus floated to the student seats and sat down, breathing deeply and trying not to spit blood. His internal organs were a mess.

  Janus thought.

  “Hey, that was really good,” a sweet voice said. Janus looked up and it was Thimba approaching him. She was wearing the usual tactical suit of Centurions, but a cap hid most of her hair.. She sit next to him and offers him a bottle of water. She is usually very pale, but whenever Janus sees her talking, her face turns a deep shade of red.

  “Thanks, but I’m gonna confess something to you… my guts hurt like hell,” Janus tried to laugh but ends up coughing instead. When he looks at his hand, there’s a little blood in it from his cough.

  Thimba’s eyes widens. She stammers a little but says.

  “I know a healing technique… not really healing, but it soothes organs and lessens internal damage. Do you want me to…”

  Her voice became so quiet that Janus could barely hear, Janus understood what she was trying to ask but couldn’t due to her being too shy.

  “Only if it won’t burden you. You still have a spar to fight.”

  “Eh, these spars are whatever,” she said nonchalantly. She moves to his back, and touches his back with both her hands.

  “Ah, is my suit in the way?” Janus noticed that she was trying to say but was probably a little shy about it. He opens the torso of his suit and removes the top part. She touches his back and a soothing energy enters him.

  He feels that her energy is so rich, so delightful. “” He feels as a starved cast away finally eating a banquet. Then he notices how he describe her energy in his head. Delicious? Better than Silas? Shit, he was consuming her Mana. He forces himself and manages to stop the suction power. He noticed that by sucking her energy, he had healed most of the damage and now her energy was just massaging his organs, lessening the strain.

  When she stops, she breathes deeply. She sits next to him and he sees that her forehead is a little sweaty and her face is even more red than it usually is.

  “I’m sorry if helping me tired you, I can try to transfer energy back to—”

  Thimba interrupts him.

  “No, don’t worry. I’m used to doing this. Well, normally it… doesn’t happen this way. But, I liked it… I… If you want we can do it again…”

  Thimba stands and moves away almost running. Janus thought it hurt when he sucked Silas’s energy, but she liked it? Does she like to feel pain? The way she almost ran away from him makes him feel bad, though. He needs to test it on Lyza and ask her for feedback.

  Janus watched the other bouts with passing interest until the match everyone had been waiting for was finally announced. A surge of students crowded the stands just to catch a glimpse of her. Thimba was fighting a tall, black-haired student named Forry. Her adversary carried twin swords and a small buckler strapped to each arm. While he warmed up, Janus noticed that Forry was as fast as Lyza, likely due to a high-tier movement skill. He wondered if Thimba would finally have trouble with a target she couldn't catch.

  When they took their places, Thimba settled into a basic, almost casual fighting stance. Forry crouched low to the floor and placed one hand on the sand like a sprinter. As the judge shouted the signal to fight, Forry used his limbs to propel his body forward in a violent burst of speed. Thimba simply pointed her hand in his direction with her fingers shaped like a gun.

  A massive explosion was all anyone could see. A shockwave rattled the arena and sent a cloud of dust billowing into the stands. When the smoke finally settled, Forry was lying unconscious several meters back. Janus and Lyza looked at each other then back at the limp body on the floor. The "nice girl" from school had just ended the match with a single flick of her wrist.

  On Fort Aegis, one of the hybrids turned to Dr. Simon. “Doctor, can you call High Commander Marek? I have a request for him, and I think you will want to hear it as well.”

  When High Commander Marek appeared, he looked tired and dishevelled. “Three hours in a meeting that could have been an email. Why do people like to do this? Argh.” Marek breathed slowly, calming himself. He organized his hair until he looked like new again. “So, Specialist Vane, what is it you require of me?”

  “I need a room on Fort Haven with the same properties as this one. Is it possible?”

  “It is not impossible, but it is difficult if I do not know why.”

  “I imagined you would say that. You wanted to know how I killed the dwarves of that squad. It was with this magic here,” the hybrid said. He created two shimmering apertures in the air. “I learned to create these when I was coming to this planet. When I was shot, I made them shoot themselves. Then I moved the aperture to swallow the fighters, and they fell from the sky.”

  “How high did you create the second aperture?” Marek asked, his eyes sharp.

  “It was three kilometers at the time. Today, I think I can send people even further away. I think I can create an aperture here and another at Fort Haven. That is why I asked.”

  “Okay, I will create a room there and we will leave one of the hybrids in this room so we can send and collect people. We can reduce the energy we spend transporting or teleporting by using you. How did you learn this?”

  “I do not know exactly why, but my Unmana reacted with the Sigils from the portal when I was coming here from Varkas. It consumed them and seared the knowledge onto my soul,” Janus said.

  “Impossible,” Marek interrupted. “A Sigil cannot be seared onto the soul.”

  “What? So you think I am lying?”

  “No, Specialist Vane. I know you are being the most truthful you have ever been. But you are mistaken. It was seared into your Core. That is why it is so easy for you to create. This is a magic that B-Rankers struggle to learn and have trouble utilizing even after learning. We usually use magitech for complex magic like this because it is extremely energy-intensive and difficult to maintain. But you can do it instantly because it is seared into your Core. The only problem is the smell of Abomination when you use it,” High Commander Marek concluded.

  “If you can learn how to mask it, your capabilities will soar. Anyway, I will see to it that you have your room as soon as possible. You will help us with the transportation of some material and personnel, all right. This will expedite my ability to get the room.

  “Of course. I most definitely can help you, High Commander.”

  “Ah, one last thing, how many hybrids can you control at the same time?”

  “For me to normally control them, seven. I can force an eighth and a ninth if I need more minds to do something, but it starts to cause a headache in my soul. I don’t know how to explain this better,” Janus concludes.

  “Good to know. So we keep one in that room and the rest here, since we have more room for you. We can also build other things to hide your hybrid better. Was that all?”

  “Yes, thank you, High Commander.”

  Later that afternoon, Janus was in the cafeteria with Lyza and a few other classmates. After his fight, he was being praised for his results and regarded as a success story of sheer effort. Many of his colleagues thought he would have won if the battle had not been stopped.

  “Honestly, I am not sure I would have won,” Janus said, wincing as he shifted in his seat. Lyza sat beside him, watching him with a hawk-like intensity. “I thought I could guarantee a victory by maintaining distance, but he had a long-range power I did not expect. He only hit me once and my organs feel like they are bursting. He is even more powerful than I expected and has had more training.”

  Vic, a gorgeous girl with vibrant pink hair, interrupted him. Janus knew of her; neon-haired people were rare, born with pink or purple hair. They were known for their staggering physical beauty, a sharp contrast to the blue or green-haired people who struggled with Mana manipulation due to their Core structures.

  “Just the fact you arrived less than two weeks ago and avoided being pummeled to unconsciousness is commendable,” Vic said. Everyone at the table nodded in agreement. “And you are well enough to be here eating with us. In his first spar, Gridus sent Luca to the infirmary with broken bones, and Luca is not even weak.”

  Another student Janus did not know yet added his opinion. “Gridus just keeps being threatening to everyone. We wanted to say thank you for bringing his ego down a notch.”

  After the group finished eating and began to disperse, Janus and Lyza walked toward their quarters. Lyza intercepted him before they reached the door, her arms crossed.

  “Hey, I want your training regimen,” she demanded. “I heard that levitation is a hard magic to master. In the first month, most people can only slowly move small things in the air. How did you get so strong in such a short time?”

  Janus smiled. He looked around to see if they were being overheard. After confirming they were alone, he leaned in and whispered.

  “I cheated.”