Team Halvek B, minus Landen, entered the amphitheater. They were clearly the last to arrive, finding every seat taken in the packed room. Roughly a hundred and twenty freshmen had gathered, each wearing their student jackets proudly displaying their essence crest. The students had naturally divided into their respective teams, eight colors occupying their own section of the stands.

Ember stopped at the top, her heart raced uncontrollably as she stared out at the crowd. A thought ran through her mind — her attackers were here.

“It's ok,” Veya said, gently resting her hand on her shoulder. “We’ve got your back.”

Ember glanced at her and managed a smile in return.

Not far from them at the back were the rest of their homeroom — Team Halvek A and C—already taken their seats. No Landen in sight. No Professor Halvek either. It seemed that none of the other professors were there.

Ember spotted Maledic first and made her way toward him.

“Hi Maledic,” she said. “Do you know where Landen is? Is he okay?”

Maledic blinked, looking slightly surprised to see her there before his gaze already drifted back toward the stage. "Yeah, he's fine. He's training in Halvek’s battle room."

“See?” Elle said brightly, appearing beside her. “Told'ya. Nothin’ to worry about.”

Ember smiled. “Yeah, you’re right.”

As she looked out at the crowd from behind, seeing all the different teams together, including hers, brought back the reality of why they were here.

The Freshman Tournament.

Every student sitting in those stands represented a potential opponent. All of them would spend the next year training, growing stronger, and preparing for the same goal: defeating the other teams.

But the first competition wasn't out there. It was right here in their own homeroom. Only five students from each team would ultimately be chosen to fight. The rest would be backups. To shine, they had to fight their way into the starting five.

Ember looked past Maledic to see the rest of Team A. They looked strong. Stronger than she remembered. As far as Ember knew, the three teams had been deliberately divided to keep them relatively balanced, with the highest-scoring students in each category distributed between them.

She mentally recalled the rankings. (See Author’s Comments)

Team C had Silas Vance, their assassin and captain. He had placed first in Agility, making him an obvious threat.

But for some reason, Ember was more concerned about Team A. Maybe it was because of Maledic. Or maybe it was because of the marksman standing beside him — Kyle Rook. He had placed first in Precision, but that wasn't what bothered Ember. It was his eyes.

Kyle was slightly shorter than the others—or perhaps his hunched posture made him seem smaller than he was. He had messy red hair left long on the sides, falling short of his sharp eyes except for a few longer strands that curved across his face. But his expression was always lifeless, as if he wasn’t here. Yet, even though he wasn't looking in her direction, it felt like he was staring directly at her as if ready to kill anything that moved.

Kyle had also placed fourth in Strength, an unusually high score for a marksman. That combination made him especially dangerous.

Then Ember's attention shifted to the girl standing beside Maledic — Penthea Voss, their tank. She had large, bushy hair and was built like an Amazonian with defined deltoids and powerful, "tree-trunk" legs.

During the Endurance exam, Penthea carried the one hundred-pound backpack through the obstacle course with ease, looking less like a student and more like a monster that had wandered onto the training grounds.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much else she knew about them. All three teams had been training separately and had kept most of their abilities private. But today, they would get to see how much the other teams had grown.

The crowd noise shifted forward as someone walked in from the side.

He was a short, elderly man with a long white beard braided with small metal rings, giving him a distinctly dwarven appearance. Two large energy rifles were strapped across his back, looking as though he'd come straight from a hunt.

“Quiet down, whelps,” he said, his voice deep and raspy. “Brannik's the name. Stuck with ye reassessment today. And before ye start whinin', we’ve only got two machines left standing. The other two fried last month—probably some clumsy ox in this very room."

He pulled the large energy rifle from his back and pointed it toward the crowd.

“Hear this. Break Aegis property, I'm the one fixin' it. And if I catch ye deliberately breakin’ somethin’…”

He rested a finger against the trigger.

“…yer be staring down this barrel. Understood?”

Silence fell over the room. Some were shocked to have a loaded gun being pointed at them. Others scoffed at the crazy old man talking nonsense.

Brannik slung the rifle back over his shoulder.

“Now. This fool assessment,” he grunted. “Yer Essence rises fast this early on. But yer wrist ID tags don’t know how to update. Damn engineers still can’t figure out how to make the thing work properly.”

He scratched his beard.

“So every month—or after somethin’ big, like the Freshman Outing—we drag all of ye back in here and update yer crest data.”

He waved a hand toward the machines.

“Enough talk. Let’s get on with it.”

Students began filing toward the stage, registering their ID tags one by one before stepping up to the Essence reader machine. Standing with their backs to the crowd, each student waited as the device evaluated their energy and updated the grade on their jackets in real time.

Ember's group hung back to watch, silently assessing the competition. Two stars shifted to three; others crept up to two and a half. A few remained unchanged.

Then finally someone Maledic recognized: a boy with medium-length, layered blue hair faded to white at the tips, swept back in a wild, windswept style.

River Ashlock.

The three stars stamped across his jacket glowed. A fourth star flared to life beside them, followed immediately by a fifth.

Five stars, the first five-star in the entire class.

“Who is that?” Veya asked.

“I’m not sure,” Ember said.

Beside her, Maledic held his tongue, a slight twitch in his eye would give him away if they saw it. This was Landen’s next opponent, the one he needed to defeat to get information for Ember. But Maledic knew Landen would want to keep it quiet.

“Looks like we found our competition,” Elle said.

“Yeah—two three-stars, a four-star, and now a five-star,” Jareth added, counting off River's team in red stripes.

“That’s team Drex,” Ember said. “If I remember correctly, the larger boy is Torvin Hale—highest score on the Endurance Assessment across all homerooms.”

“And now they’ve got a five-star,” Veya said.

River glanced back at the crowd and found Maledic, Ember standing beside him. A grin spread across his face.

“Why is he looking at me?” Jareth asked, instinctively trying to make himself smaller.

Veya leaned in, squinting. “I think you’re right. He is looking at you.”

Maledic said nothing, knowing full well River was looking for Landen.

More students continued through the assessment before Team Varro, distinguished by their green trim, took the stage. Orio was nowhere in sight, but Cyndr Veyl, Gragic Formen, and Zirk Holloway each locked in at three stars.

When Mira Tesserak stepped forward, she scanned the audience until her eyes caught Ember's. Her face lit up, and she waved wildly. Ember smiled, offering a warm wave back.

Mira’s results would be the perfect benchmark to gauge how much experience points everyone had accumulated. Starting at two stars, her jacket flared bright as two additional stars materialized across her back. She raised a triumphant fist and jumped with a squeal of joy.

“Let’s go, Mira!” Elle yelled, congratulating her.

Mira answered with a curtsy and peace sign.

The line moved steadily. Ryker Tann moved up to three stars, while Ember’s friend, Kessa Dawnmere, hit two and a half.

Then came a boy with spiky, red hair—someone Ember knew all too well. Magnus Cindercrest. He had been the only student to register four stars during their very first reading. As the machine finished its scan, a fifth star ignited on his jacket.

“We have another five-star,” Veya said.

“A handsome one, too,” Elle added.

Ember said nothing, simply looking away. Given his talent, his score was no surprise.

“I’m surprised he only gained one star,” Jareth said.

“You have to remember how the scaling works,” Ember explained. “Each star represents a level within the Elementary Grade, maxing out at five. To reach the next class—the Intermediate Grade, represented by the sword—you can’t just get there by experience. You have to achieve a breakthrough, which is extremely difficult. Magnus has likely hit the temporary ceiling.”

“Ah, right,” Jareth said.

After more students had gone, it was finally Team Halvek’s turn. By then, most students had either left or drifted back to their seats to scout the competition.

As expected, Jareth, Veya, and Elle each jumped from two stars to four, exchanging enthusiastic high-fives as they stepped down.

Then Maledic stepped up to the platform.

His initial three stars began to shift, burning brighter as two more joined them. Five stars now glowed vividly across his back. A wave of murmurs rippled through the crowd, stunned by yet another five-star rank. But while the surrounding crowd stared in awe, Maledic simply looked down at his calloused hands in bitter disappointment.

All that work, and he still hadn't broken through.

Finally, only one person remained: Ember.

The entire crowd watched as she descended the stands, her black jacket draped over her shoulders. Underneath it, she still wore her red floral dress that accentuated her figure. Her striking hazel-red eyes and her thick red hair flowing down her back captivated everyone there.

“She’s a goddess,” someone whispered.

Despite her confident appearance, she approached the stage with a nervous edge, painfully aware of the target on her back.

As she stood before the audience, the Essence reader finished scanning her energy. Because her thick hair concealed her stars, the crowd scrambled forward, craning their necks for a better angle. Then, a sudden gust of wind caught her hair, sweeping it aside to reveal five burning stars.

She had leaped from three stars to five; the Freshman Outing clearly had an effect on their grade.

Taking in her own result, alongside Maledic's and her team's, reality set in — her team was strong. Anyone hunting her would see how formidable her side truly was.

She turned to face the crowd, clenched her fist, and felt her confidence snap back into place. Then, without realizing it, three blazing flames ignited across her back, and her hair flared to life with literal fire.

Let them come. If they wanted a fight, she'd give them one.

— — —

Meanwhile, back in Halvek’s Battle Room, Landen was sitting in a meditative position, sweat dripping from his face. Nearly an entire day had passed, yet he still hadn’t figured out how to access his dantian. His body swayed, pushed to the absolute brink by sheer physical and mental exhaustion and severe dehydration. He knew that if he allowed his consciousness to slip now, everything he had worked for would be over.

Team A

* Marksman: 1st in Precision

* Assassin: 3rd in Agility

* Tank: 2nd in Endurance

* Fighter: 1st in Strength

* Mage: 2nd in Energy Density

Team B

* Marksman: 2nd in Precision

* Assassin: 2nd in Agility

* Support: 1st in Intellect

* Fighter: 3rd in Strength

* Mage: 1st in Energy Density

Team C

* Marksman: 3rd in Precision

* Assassin: 1st in Agility

* Tank: 1st in Endurance

* Fighter: 2nd in Strength

* Mage: 3rd in Energy Density