The two quickly change, donning their enchanted haptic suits that integrate with the gym’s elaborate illusion system. They’re sleek, form-fitting one-piece outfits which would be far too embarrassing to wear if they didn’t then put on a regular clothes (with light protective properties) over them.

  Emil’s outfit is lightly armoured with a blue leather jacket and a few hard pads meant more to prevent damage from falls than from monster claws. A rapier, a pair of daggers and a standard bullet wand (painted safety orange to indicate a training model which fires illusory bullets while keeping the recoil) are strapped to his side.

  Allia, in contrast, wears cargo pants and a dark turtleneck made from domesticated giant spider silk, which is both protective and warm – the latter is important as the body suits quickly suck away heat when not adequately covered. In addition, she has her own bullet wand and a short sword.

  They meet out in the gym along with four dozen other students just in time for Instructor Granger– a gruff former adventurer with a third of his hair gone from an alchemical burn and several more mundane scars crisscrossing his body – to make an entrance with his much slenderer and unassuming assistant in a white coat and glasses.

  As usual, the first ten minutes of intermediate monster defence are spent with the instructor using the illusion system to make a presentation on a pair of monsters: one squamatan, a bipedal reptilian, primitive tool user; and one dire chameleon, a medium dog sized (whatever that means) lizard with active camouflage and projectile tongue which the squamatans often keep as pets. He goes over movements, behaviour and vital anatomy. The assistant interrupts twice to point out something they find interesting about the creature’s physiology, but Granger stops them the second time, saying the information isn’t important since it won’t help killing them. The assistant seems to disagree but doesn’t voice it.

  The class moves onto application, and is split into twenty-four random pairs, which go to marked off sections, each with its own shield effect to stop stray spells. Allia is paired with a bearish boy named Greg, who always has a frantic energy to his speech and movements. He has an intense angular face and spikey silver hair. Not grey, but metallic silver with a reflective sheen.

  “Great, Allia!” Greg says rapidly – not nervous but with a focused intensity – as he sees who he’s partnered with. “Finally got a chance to get out of second place for the gauntlet score!”

  Allia tilts her head. “I don’t know. You’re near the top of the class individually, but I don’t think our manifestations have particularly good synergy. Since one of your main advantages is boosting casting speed, and my manifestation is already so quick. But then again, it’s been a while since we made that score, and we might think of something watching each other in our trial runs.”

  Allia’s tone is neutral, indicating that she’s thinking as she goes. However, Greg seems to take this as a rebuff of his ability, though he immediately puffs himself up to not let it show. “Don’t worry, with our individual ability, we won’t need synergy.”

  “Hm? Oh, I wasn’t…”

  “You should be worried,” Emil interrupts Allia as he comes over from his assigned adjacent spot, though his comment is aimed towards Greg. “I got a new insight today, so I’m liable to beat Allia’s and my old high score. Then Allia will be in second, and you’ll be in third.”

  Allia pouts and reacts before Greg can. “Don’t forget, Emil, I got a new insight today too; It’s just as likely that the new high score will be mine.”

  “Yeah,” Greg joins in. “Besides, it’s not like your team has good synergy either.”

  “Me, no synergy? With Sylvia?” Emil asks, shocked. “Surely you jest? I have the best synergy with her out of anyone in the class. Her manifestation uses conjuration principles, which I can easily augment. Not to mention she leaves physicalized objects that I can port around.” He gestures to the shy girl in glasses behind him with hair the colour of glinting slate bound in a neat tail, who blushes at his assessment.

  “Yeah,” Greg says, “but her power is so slow anyways that it doesn’t matter.”

  “Oh,” Emil grins, catlike, “that sounds like you want to make a bet. How about… a thousand absols each?”

  Allia scoffs. “You know I don’t have that kind of money.”

  Emil turns his catlike grin to her. “Oh, well, I’m sure we can come up with an equivalent wager. Hm…Oh, I know, how about you refuse the next time Alex asks to trade food?”

  Allia’s face scrunches in confusion. “How would that be worth a kila?”

  “Because it would be amusing. But if you don’t think so, then why not take the bet?”

  “Teh…I’m not…” Allia pauses suddenly, then sighs. “Fine. I’ll take the bet. It’s not like I’ll lose anyways.”

  “Fantastic. What about you, Greg? Willing to risk a bit of pocket change?” Emil asks.

  Before Greg can respond, the ready whistle blows, so he simply nods. The first exercise is done individually, so Allia and the rest of the first group go to their starting spots and chant their shield spells per the safety rules, creating invisible bubbles of force that adhere to their form. Greg and the second group wait their turn, but also cast the spell just in case.

  A moment after she enters the danger zone, an illusion of the squamatan biped from the presentation appears. The most prominent feature, besides the greenish-grey scaled skin, is its elongated skull that projects back behind its neck. The slender torso is hunched in a forward angle, but the weight of the head tilts it back, so the gaze naturally rests parallel to the ground. The species is often encountered with primitive stone weapons, but this one is limited to the long fangs and claws that protrude from its otherwise human-like hands, backed by powerful muscles.

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  Another whistle shrills, and the creature lunges for her. Allia could just cut it in half with a blade of light, but the point of these exercises is to apply what was learned in the lecture to cement it in their minds. Besides getting fewer points with brute force, it would be a waste of a learning opportunity. So that means precision is the way to go.

  The obvious target is the massive head; however, the skull is much thicker than a human’s to the point that the brain is actually a little smaller. The second most obvious target is the heart, but bony plates protect the direct approaches. So, she goes for indirect.

  Allia conjures a light construct in the form of a spear above the squamatan and slams it down, aiming for a gap in its bones at the top of the shoulder by the neck at a diagonal. With that approach, the spear is set to pierce three major organs and multiple arteries. However, the creature has super-human reflexes and slaps its long, sinuous tail against the ground to change its momentum and dodge partially out of the way – turning a fatal blow into merely a major wound.

  The blow does however give Allia time to assess its movements and adjust her aim for her second attack, going with two spears this time – the first to feint it into dodging into the second. It works as intended, and the squamatan is skewered lengthwise through the torso. She holds it in place for a few seconds while it spasms, then dissipates her construct inside of it. The illusion system isn’t detailed enough to show blood, but it does track hypothetical loss to determine damage, so a moment later the body disappears into particles of light.

  Allia doesn’t have time to recover as three more squamatans appear from thin air and charge, this time with weapons. Having their movements down, she only needs one spear each, which she conjures simultaneously above them and shoots them in an order that tricks them into dodging into each other’s way. Their efforts are to no avail, and she dispatches them in turn with only one shot each.

  Then a dozen more appear. Allia sighs at the escalation and decides her previous methods won’t do, and so just scythes them all down with a series of curved blade-like constructs a foot wide and nearly ten feet long – killing two or three with each one.

  Two things occur in the outburst: one, shadows appear where they shouldn’t, and a shimmery outline of a dog-sized creature is seen as its active camouflage struggles to keep up with the rapidly shifting bright rainbow lights. Second, the blade sent to the squamatan in back is stopped by a personal shield effect (or rather gives the illusion of being stopped), and the protected figure raises their hands in a chant.

  Allia frantically manifests more constructs to deal with the additional threats. First, she creates wide barriers on either side of her to block the dire chameleons. A moment later, the dog creatures shoot out their barbed tongues, but splatter on the impromptu barriers. Then she forms another spear over the lizard wizard and slams down against its shield. This time, with the force concentrated on a point, the shield fails and the caster falls. Finally, she almost lazily sends blades flying along the ground and eliminates four hiding chameleons. A moment later, the bodies all disappear and the message “trial complete” appears mid-air.

  “Nice job!” Greg congratulates her. “Though that was a near thing with the chameleons. Wouldn’t catch me off guard though.”

  “Don’t be so cocky,” Allia counters, “they’re sure to change it up.”

  “Hm. Doesn’t matter. I’ll beat it all the same.”

  Greg goes to the starting spot, and the whistle shrills a moment later. The instant the sound starts, his hands are a blur, pulling out a bullet wand and shooting three times, much more rapidly than the weapon should allow. Holes appear in vital areas from the invisible beads of force that the wand coalesces and then propels. One wound is over the heart, which should be protected by the bone plate, but Greg’s power increases penetration as well.

  The creature, before it even takes its first step, disappears in the particles of light. Greg takes the brief second for it to fully vanish to manually absolve the wand with a rapid chant. The next wave lasts no longer than the first – each being dispatched in the first instant of their appearance with precise vital shots.

  With Greg handling his enemies so quickly, Allia has time to watch Sylvia as she does her run. She’s still on the first opponent, but she’s clearly not trying to finish it quickly to give her manifestation time to build. Her hands are outstretched and from them are generated tiny silicate blades no more than an inch long which she propels in a whirlwind around her.

  The squamatan tries to charge her, but is rebuffed by the storm, earning it scores of swallow cuts. Since her manifestation creates the material, the longer she goes the more she has to work with. So, better to take her time. Besides the blades, she also generates smaller particles that float around and coalesce into stone pillars at seemingly random spots. Allia hasn’t seen this from her before, but it must be something worthwhile.

  Allia’s attention turns to her partner as his final wave appears. In a flurry, he shoots down each of the squamatan fighters in only a few seconds. The shielded one in the back gives him trouble, but he simply advances at a casual walk the speed of a normal person’s run, shooting all the while, and swings down his cleaver-like sword, which shatters the shield and cuts through the skull.

  Then the chameleons attack, four of them all at once, with one hanging down from an invisible ceiling. They seem like they’re about to hit, but Greg twists out of the way at the last second, then picks them off one by one.

  However, the bodies do not disappear, nor the stage clear with the last one. Frowning, Greg looks for more, but before he can find it, a series of loud clacks comes from Sylvia’s area, causing Allia to turn just in time to see several dozen bodies disappear into light, and a ‘stage clear’ sign appears for her with all the slowly forming stone pillars missing. About five seconds later, Greg’s last enemy (a much larger chameleon) attacks and once again seems to catch him off guard, only for Greg to blur out of the way at the last instant. The larger specimen takes several shots to finish, but the stage clears when it does.

  Greg turns to see Sylvia looking at him. Sylvia, seeing she has his attention, gives a “Hm. Slow,” then turns and walks away.

  Greg’s face is red with embarrassment that dips into anger as he approaches Allia, but she doesn’t let him vent. “Hm, that might be a problem. The physicality of her manifestation will give her an edge in the gauntlet. She’ll just build up her shard storm and those stone pillars while Emil quickly dispatches the early enemies, then detonate the pillars as needed later on. I think we’d still have the advantage if they’d let you use more deadly weapons, but I get not wanting you to rely on them. I think I might be able to do something similar to her by slowly building up my stationary light constructions, but probably less effectively. I’ll focus on restricting movement while you just eliminate everything for the early waves, then I’ll shift to offence when the big ones come out. Agreed?”

  Greg looks at her askance, but nods his head. “You really want to win this bet, don’t you?”

  Allia seems taken aback. “Of course. I can do a lot with the money once I get my enchanting certificate, and Alex does bring the best desserts.”

  “Huh, I guess that is more like you.”

  After that, they go through another ten-minute lecture on a pair of monster species, then another solo scenario featuring them. Once that is over, it’s finally time for the Gauntlet.