Traversing the maze, Aisho walked between corridor after corridor for around thirty minutes—she’d only walked past a few other candidates that she chose to keep her distance from.

  Eventually, she got sick of finding nothing, so she activated her Yogen and ran through the halls. “Alright, center of the maze,” she said to herself. “Center of the maze… Just gotta—”

  She turned a sharp corner and collided with someone.

  The two tumbled backward.

  Aisho grumbled. “OW—hey! Watch where you’re—!”

  “You ran into me, you overcaffeinated raccoon!” snapped Yuta, pushing herself up. Her eyes narrowed as she dusted off her sleeves.

  Aisho blinked up at her, then broke into a huge grin. “Yuta?!”

  Yuta folded her arms, unimpressed. “Just travelling this maze hoping to find the center.”

  “That’s fair,” Aisho admitted while rubbing her forehead. “Still, what are the odds we’d run into each other like this?”

  “Or maybe it’s because someone’s running through the maze… like a headless chicken.”

  Yuta stood up. “You know that using your Yogen drains your Dragon Vein energy, and in a challenge like this, you don’t want to run into the wrong person while having no Dragon Vein energy.”

  “Good point…” Aisho grinned and stood up as well. “We should stick together.”

  Yuta blinked. “What?”

  “We worked together in that pirate raid. C’mon! You’re ice, and I’m speed! That’s, like, a perfect combo.”

  Yuta gave an exaggerated sigh, already turning away. “This is going to be exhausting.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes!”

  They moved in cautious tandem—Yuta continued to observe the layout of their surroundings with calculated precision while Aisho kept chattering, half to herself, half to fill the silence.

  “How do you think they built this whole thing?” Aisho said, tapping the stone wall. “I know the Lancer Organization is pretty strong, but I doubt they built this overnight.”

  Dust trickled down from the ceiling.

  “I doubt it, too,” Yuta responded.

  Aisho held out her right hand, then curled it into a fist in front of herself. “I told you about the Retsin Pulse technique my Seishinryu spoke about. I’m not quite sure, but I might have pulled it off in my battle against…uh…what’s his name? In the tournament.”

  “Kaelin,” Yuta said. “That Dragon Vein user who uses glass. Yeah, I saw what you did. Pretty impressive.”

  “It was impressive n'all’ all, but I don’t know how I did it.”

  Aisho continued. “I’ve been nervous ever since this whole challenge started, mostly about the killing part. I knew this was an aspect, but the way Wilder said it. It seemed like he kinda encouraged it. Isn’t the Lancer Organization supposed to be good people?”

  “Now that you mention it, you make a good point,” Yuta said, stepping towards the wall. “But, y’know Lancer aren’t like superheroes, just strong people with a dangerous job.”

  Yuta placed her palm on the wall, feeling the grooves. “You notice these veins? On the wall.”

  Aisho walked towards her, holding her hand out, feeling the cold stone surface of the wall.

  She could see very faint light blue veins glowing downwards. “Yeah. What about them?”

  “You think these veins point towards the heart of the maze?” Yuta traced her fingers along the groove of one. “If my theory is correct, then we need to go downward.”

  “Great. So we go down. Just one problem… how exactly?”

  “First, we should just move until we find a staircase or something,” Yuta said.

  “So, we’re just hoping we see a staircase?”

  “Yes, exactly that,” Yuta said, already jogging forward.

  ***

  The duo continued to travel the corridors before stopping upon a peculiar one. This corridor dipped sharply, leading to what looked like a slanted tunnel sloping into darkness.

  “I guess we found our ‘staircase,’” Aisho muttered.

  “You go first. If you fall to your death, I’ll know it’s a trap.” Yuta teased

  “Hey!”

  “I’m just kidding, we can go together if you’re scared.”

  They took a deep breath, then jumped onto the incline and slid.

  The gravity was weird—they slid faster than they should have, pulled by an unseen force. The walls around them pulsed as they passed, the veins glowing with increasing intensity.

  They soon slid into a chamber—an enormous circular room filled with mist. The air grew frigid, each breath puffing in front of them like smoke.

  The floor shimmered like glass—it was ice. Pale blue veins pulsed across the walls like arteries.

  “This feels… different,” Yuta muttered reverently. “This zone... It’s ice-aligned. Like me.”

  She stepped forward and exhaled.

  “Whoa,” Aisho whispered. “It’s like this place knows you.”

  A low crackling echoed through the chamber, like bone grinding on stone. A shadow shifted on the wall, followed by a jagged piece of obsidian and bone tearing free.

  A cracked statue emerged, twice the size of a human. It had no face, only a long, vertical fissure running down the front of its skull-like head, from which a faint blue glow leaked. Its limbs were segmented like insect legs, made of old stone interlocked with fossil-like joints. The beast’s arms were bladed like a giant cleaver.

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  The statue-beast turned its head, and both girls felt it. A pulse of Dragon Vein pressure. They winced slightly.

  “You think it wants to kill us?” Aisho asked.

  “Everything in here wants to kill us, get used to it,” Yuta said. “This place sucks.”

  The statue-beast charged with unnatural speed, its movement jerky. It swung an obsidian blade-arm toward Aisho first, but she vanished with a burst of speed, sliding behind the beast and trying to counterattack

  Her kick strike bounced off the beast’s plated spine like she’d hit a mountain.

  The beast twitched, and a bone spike shot out from their shoulder. Aisho ducked just in time.

  Yuta dropped into a slide across the ice, palm pressed to the floor.

  Spikes of ice jutted upward toward the creature’s legs. One of its knees froze in place, locking the joint for just a second.

  “I’ve got one leg,” Yuta called. “Move!”

  Aisho’s body blurred as she accelerated. Her Yogen surged through her—she darted forward like a comet, delivering a low kick to the creature’s locked joint.

  The joint snapped.

  The beast roared. It slammed both cleavers down, releasing a pulse of Dragon Vein energy that sent Yuta and Aisho flying away.

  The creature’s body began to glow faintly, catching glints of both Aisho’s and Yuta’s Dragon Veins.

  “I don’t think he liked that one,” Yuta called. “Same plan, I’ll freeze you break.”

  “Got it!”

  Yuta crouched low, placing her hands onto the ground. Spikes of ice jutted out, freezing the beast in place once again.

  However, this time, the beast easily broke free from Yuta’s attempt to ensnare it.

  “Huh?” Yuta narrowed her eyes. “Wait… I think it’s adapting.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because my ice is doing less than it did a few seconds ago. It must be learning.”

  Aisho’s grin faded slightly. “Okay, that’s horrifying. New plan?”

  Yuta’s eyes flicked to study the monster’s body. On the left shoulder, one of the seams glowed more than the others.

  “There. Left shoulder. I think that’s the core. You just keep him busy while I’ll try to hold him in place.”

  Aisho smiled. “Already on it!”

  The girls separated.

  The statue-beast twisted, confused by the tactic. It charged Aisho again, who vanished in a blur and reappeared behind it, landing a strike to its back just to bait it.

  It swiveled, blade arms flashing.

  At the same time, Yuta knelt low, hands glowing with cold. She touched the ice and this time she froze both of its legs up to its waist.

  “NOW!” Yuta shouted.

  Aisho took this time to match her heartbeat with her Seishinryu, awakening her Seishinryu Line.

  She zipped forward, dragging lightning from her fingertips as she accelerated. Her Retsin Pulse lit her hands—sparks crackling across her knuckles. She zigzagged up behind the beast.

  “HEY, STONEFACE—THIS ONE’S FOR YOUR LEFT SHOULDER!”

  As she struck, a golden bolt of energy surged from her palm, amplified by the Retsin Pulse. A single, gold spiritual wing flashed from her back in the instant of impact.

  The energy pierced into the statue-beast’s core. Its entire frame froze mid-lurch, then it shattered.

  Chunks of stone and bone skidded across the floor as residual Dragon Vein energy from the beast evaporated.

  Aisho stumbled backward, gasping.

  “What. Was that?” Yuta muttered with a smirk.

  “I think it was the Retsin Pulse,” Aisho laughed breathlessly. “It felt the same, but, ugh it’s so draining.”

  “I thought you didn’t know how to use it.”

  “I don’t. It just kinda happens when I need it to. But I believe that I can only do it in my Seishinryu Line form right now since I probably don’t have enough Dragon Vein energy for the technique normally.”

  “I was going to compliment you, but since you can’t control it, and it can only be done in Seishinryu Line makes the technique sorta lame.”

  “Hey, its cool!”

  They both stood there for a second, breathing heavily. A hidden passage slid open at the far end of the room.

  Aisho looked down at her palm, where the lightning from the Retsin Pulse had briefly burned a faint golden star. She said, “We should go.”

  Together, they sprinted for the threshold, leading the duo outside into a circular arena; a hundred or so other candidates were scattered across the dusty floor.

  “Phew,” Yuta sighed. “Fresh air at last.”

  A woman in a suit near them approached. She said, "Congratulations on passing stage one of the Lancer Trials. Thirty minutes are remaining in the challenge, so please wait.”

  Shortly after Aisho and Yuta’s arrival, from behind them came Tangerine spiraling out from the same exit they left through.

  Yuta exclaimed, “Tangerine?!”

  “Whoa, Yuta?” Aisho said. “You know this guy?”

  “N-No chance I’d know this guy. Aisho, I’m honestly offended you thought I knew him.”

  “Could you just let me explain!” Tangerine cried out, and later he cleared his throat. “Yuta and I were in the same room for stage zero. I saw you guys slide down some ramp, then I got interested. But I waited because I was contemplating what would be down there. So, soon after, I went after you guys, and I saw you guys had already defeated the boss, and the exit was open. How convenient is that?”

  “So you just freeloaded off of our work. You're a creep,” Yuta groaned.

  “A creep? I’m pretty sure a fire-type ability would suit you better than an ice one.”

  “Oh yeah? Well, at least don’t have some dumb orange afro sticking out like a sore thumb!”

  “Yeah? Well, at least I’m not wearing some ugly skirt to go and try to become a Lancer. I doubt you have flexibility in those.”

  “Well, I bet that sword your carrying is only for show. You probably don’t even know how to use it!”

  Tangerine flinched.

  “GAH! DON'T DISRESPECT CLEMENTINE!”

  “Clementine? Your sword is named Clementine? Fitting.”

  He cleared his throat once more.

  “Yes her name is Clementine and I definitely know how to use her. You talk big for someone built like a popsicle.”

  “Well…you…” Yuta hesitated and couldn't think of anything to say.

  “Don’t know what to say?” Tangerine remarked. “You must’ve gotten a brain freeze mid-sentence. HA! That was a good one.”

  “You better hope you don’t run into me this next stage,” Yuta declared.

  Aisho, stuck in the middle of this spoke, “Tangerine, how’d you know Yuta had an ice ability?”

  Tangerine’s heart dropped. “Well…uh…”

  “Look whose mumbling like a buffoon now?” Yuta smirked. “That means you saw us fighting the boss and chose not to help.”

  Tangerine looked away. “Well, I totally would’ve helped, but I had already fought a bunch of bad guys during the maze, so Clementine and I were low on Dragon Vein energy.”

  Yuta crossed her arms. “Uh-huh. And I’m the Queen of Kaizuron.”

  Tangerine jabbed a thumb at his chest. “Laugh all you want, but I’ll have you know—I’m actually an expert swordsman. Top of my class. People used to travel from across the world just to watch me train.”

  Aisho’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?”

  Yuta turned and stared at her like she’d just grown a second head. “Aisho. No.”

  “What? Your really an expert swordsman?” Aisho said. “You don’t just say people travel from other towns unless it’s true. That’s too specific to be a lie.”

  “It’s literally exactly the kind of thing you say when you’re lying,” Yuta replied.

  Tangerine pointed dramatically toward the sky. “When I was ten, I could slice falling snowflakes in half before they hit the ground.”

  Aisho gasped. “That’s so cool!”

  Tangerine blinked. “I know, right?”

  Yuta sighed. “Aisho, you’re just fueling his ego.”

  “Hey, don’t be jealous,” Tangerine said, patting Clementine’s hilt. “This beauty and I have been through thick and thin. We’ve fought bandits, rogue Lancers, a lion—”

  Aisho lit up. “You fought a lion?!”

  Yuta groaned. “Aisho—”

  “Yes,” Tangerine said proudly, “and I won. But I let him live, because I respect a worthy opponent.”

  Aisho tilted her head. “Was it, like… a giant lion?”

  Tangerine coughed. “…Well, it was a cub. But a ferocious cub.”

  Yuta stared at him. “You bullied a baby lion?”

  “They started it. I was battling in self-defense.”

  Aisho doubled over laughing, while Yuta just shook her head. “You’re unbelievable.”

  Tangerine smirked. “Don’t worry, Yuta. If you need help in the next stage, feel free to call out my name.”

  “Sure,” Yuta said. “And I’ll personally build a statue in your honor if you survive the next stage without tripping over your own ego.”

  Yuta grabbed Aisho’s hand. “Come on, we’re going.”

  “It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights.”

  — Psalm 18:32–33 (NIV)