The pop on the Big D energy drink was a welcome sound to his weary ears. Pepper lifted the can up and welcomed the cold and sweet flavor of the energy drink. The wild and crisp taste of lemon greeted him and after a few sips, he felt the weariness fade away from behind his eyes.

  Zeklor had chosen a wild citrus flavor but also looked to be fighting off the exhausted state he also found himself within. Pepper couldn’t help but think how Bobbi had been pumping away non-stop with such energy. It was as if their escort was naturally flowing with it and had been excitedly walking them through the entire area all day without stopping.

  The entire event was nothing short of information overload and Pepper felt like they were being fed it through a fire hydrant. They had been shown everything from the janitors closet to the marketing team and social media center. Pepper wasn’t sure if the guided tour was specifically setup to overwhelm them, but if it had been, it worked.

  Bobbi had just finished going over stacks of paperwork. He had read over the term legally binding contract so many times that he was ready to bet he was going to have nightmares regarding it. Banking information, next of kin notifications, health requirements to include quarterly doctor visits, information regarding what current sponsors he had and was obligated to… even his clothing sizes. That last part didn’t make much sense to him. That was until Bobbi returned a moment later with a duffle bag filled to the brim with name brand apparel that the SEC Regional League had agreements with.

  Pepper and Zeklor both sat there in the small conference room Bobbi had left them in when a small murmur outside the room caught Pepper’s attention. The room had a frosted glass wall which separated it from the main hallway. Three shadowed silhouettes appeared, two of them slightly larger and the third significantly smaller. Pepper felt he could identify the one muffled voice as belonging to Bobbi, and the stature of the third shadow also seemed to match her stance.

  After a short conversation in the hallway, the three approached the conference room door and in walked Bobbi with two gentleman. “Okay guys. I have two gentleman here who would like to meet you. They’ve asked for a moment of your time and we just so happen to be at a good stopping point in the schedule.” She turned and lifted her hand towards the two standing behind her. “I’d like to introduce you to Guild Commander Jerrod Brooks and Guild Chief Oscar Garcia. They are both from the guild, Valiant.” She turned and looked at the two men standing behind her, who returned a grateful nod of thanks. Bobbi smiled back to him and Zeklor and started to slowly step off. “I’ll come check on you all in a few minutes.”

  Pepper had heard of Valiant before. He had even watched some of their gladiators rise in the ranks. The highest he could recall was a gladiator who made it to the Promina League and was on the verge of making it into the Immortals. But, he lost in the match he needed to win and remained competing in the Promina. Andrew, Steffon, George? Come on, what was that guys name… He struggled to recall, as it had been a few season since he remembered seeing Valiant making a big impact within the league.

  “Gentleman, it’s nice to meet you.” Pepper looked back to see Commander Brooks standing before them at the head of the table. The man had a dirty blonde high-and-tight military styled haircut. A clean-shaven face with the demeanor of a military professional. The short and firm tone within his voice left Pepper feeling that everything he did was mission oriented. No wiggle room, no ifs, ands, or buts, just yes or no.

  The Commander stepped forward and placed his ball cap on the table. Pepper couldn’t help but take in the fact that both men were wearing a military styled uniform. Except, their uniforms were a dark grey in color as compared to the usual camouflage. There was a sparkle which radiated off the Commanders collar and Pepper could see the distinct points to the five-pointed star resting on either side.

  “Mr. Walker, Mr. Atwater. I’m sure you have guessed by us standing here, but Guild Chief Garcia and I were watching you both during the SEC invitational. Your skills within the arena were impressive to say the least. We wanted to take a few moments to come and introduce ourselves as well as ask you both a few questions. If that’s alright?” The commander glanced between them both and Pepper and Zeklor both shrugged and nodded for the two men to join them at the table.

  The Commander and Chief took up positions across from them. It was then that Pepper noticed Chief Garcia’s uniform didn’t have the five-pointed star on the collar. Instead, it had a matt-black coated chevron with three stripes arched upwards at an angle, the top point being at the central apex and finally, five stripes angled downward. At the center of the void was a small emblem, but the tiny details were not able to be seen at the distance between them.

  “Mr. Atwater, if you don’t mind.” Chief Garcia started. Pepper focused in on the mans slick backed black hair. He had a goatee on his face but also maintained a well-manicured, clean-shaven appearance. “I as well as a few of our other Sergeants have watched a few of your previous matches leading up to the tournament. Also, we’ve watched your performance here at the SEC invitational. As you may suspect, we couldn’t help but notice the change to your fighting style and technique. More specifically, your third and fourth match. Would you, be willing to share, what exactly it was that caused you to change?”

  Pepper could see Zeklor glanced over to him, but he didn’t return the gaze and just watched the two men seated across from them. Zeklor finally turned his attention back to the men and replied. “Well, match two was rough for me. I was struggling and felt like my opponent knew more about me than I knew about myself. Pepper here was my bay neighbor and I knew he wasn’t in my cohort, so I asked him for help. We spent a few hours going over my past performances and he was able to point out areas I needed to improve on.”

  There wasn’t any delay in the follow-up question as Chief Garcia continued. “And… the Arcaic Light rune. What was your inspiration behind this?”

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  “That was also Pepper’s idea. I had never heard of the rune before and as you can see… his advice gave me an advantage. One that I was happy to exploit.”

  “I see…” The Chief said with a slight tone of piqued curiosity. “You’re build and crafting of your golem. Did you do all the rest yourself?”

  “I did.” Zeklor replied.

  “Good, that is good.” The chief paused and slowly turned to his counterpart. Commander Brooks slightly nodded but didn’t say anything. The chief cleared his throat and then continued. “I thank you for your honest feedback, Mr. Atwater. It is greatly appreciated and says a lot about your character.”

  Pepper couldn’t help but notice that the Chief wasn’t done sharing his thought. But Zeklor jumped in. “It does?”

  Chief Garcia smiled. “Of course. You took the initiative once you realized you needed to improve. You used humility in going to another person and asking for areas you could improve upon. Your ability to listen, learn, and apply that new knowledge shows the dedication to competing at the highest levels. That quality of service and excellence is exactly what we are looking for.”

  “And… what exactly are you looking for?” Pepper asked.

  Commander Brooks ignored Pepper’s question and asked his own. “Mr. Walker. If I were to ask your parents, or closest friends what your top three qualities are, what do you think they would say?”

  The question caught pepper off guard. He had not really thought much about that perspective. What would they say about me? He thought, but then internally struggled with the question of, Do I tell them what I think they want to hear? Or… do I just tell them what simply comes to mind. He looked up and realized he had blanked out for a few seconds and the longer he hesitated the more he worried he was wearing down their patience.

  “I suppose…” He paused and his mind flashed back to what his life had been like over the past year. “I am loyal.” Fresh oxygen filled his lunges as he took a deep breath. “Loyal to my friends, my girlfriend, to my dreams.”

  He paused and saw a slight scowl come over the commanders face. The look made him question his choice, but he knew he had to ignore it and move on. “Work ethic. I would say I do my best to work hard, become better in all aspects, and not stop until the job is done. And finally… driven. I’m driven in wanting to be my best and achieve being a Golem Master.”

  “That’s a long road ahead of you Mr. Walker.” Chief Garcia added and crossed his arms.

  “Good thing I am driven then, huh?”

  The Chief grinned at Pepper’s retort and looked back to the Commander. “Well, he’s confident at least.”

  The commander slowly nodded. “Your question, Mr. Walker. What are we looking for… Well, I wouldn’t say there is any need to keep looking any further, now that you’ve answered our questions. But perhaps you can answer another one of mine. What do you know of the Valiant Guild?”

  Pepper glanced back at Zeklor who just motioned with wide eyes that he hadn’t heard of them. He turned back and shrugged. “Just that you are a guild, one of many within the Golem League. You had a gladiator a few years back that almost made it into the Immortals League, but… I haven’t really heard much from you since. Seeing how you’re hear talking to us, however, I would say that there are probably a few other guilds who are interested in having a discussion with us.”

  Commander Brooks expression remained emotionless, but Pepper couldn’t help but notice the smirk barely form on Chief Garcia’s face. The commander finally nodded and began. “Well, your right, we are a guild within the Golem League, but… we are far, far, far more than what you realize. The reason why you have not seen Mr. Meng… the gladiator you mentioned a second ago. Is because he resigned from the Golem League and is now a Major in the military. He actually is the commander of the 114 Mechanized Fighter Squadron based right here in Atlanta. He is a Scudo 5 pilot and has one of the most impressive kill records on the books.”

  Commander Brooks shifted in his seat and then leaned on the table. “You see Mr. Walker, Valiant is technically a part of the Military Reserves. We, along with the VetCore guild are stationed right here in Atlanta and serve as the 2nd line of defense against the demonic threat. Our facilities are built right next to the VetCore facilities and across the launch strip is the 114 and 120th MFS.”

  The chief then cut the commander off. “MFS means Mechanized Fighter Squadron. In case you didn’t know.”

  An appreciative nod left the commander. “Thanks chief. So… what is Valiant. We are a way for you to pursue your path of being a Golem Master. In addition, we allow you to also serve your country as well as defend humanity. Unlike any other guild, you are paid by the American tax payer to also be ready. That means, you have a guaranteed paycheck weather you win or lose in the arena.”

  Zeklor perked up at the proposition. “That doesn’t sound to bad.”

  “It’s not. All your expenses are covered. You live in our dormitories, food is covered, your medically covered and have the same health benefits as the military. You get to save money as well as compete in the SEC Regional League.”

  “I’m assuming we could do a straight transfer from the guild to the military, just like that one Major did you mentioned?” Zeklor added.

  “Sure. All we have to do is get Colonel Kosiba over at the 819th Mechanized Fighter Group to sign off on the transfer, Commander Brooks does his part, he walk over and officially swear you in to active duty military service. Easy-peasy.”

  The whole thing sounded too good to be true. The moment Chief Garcia said easy-peasy, his mind flashed back to one of the last memories he had of Travis before he left for the military. The family all huddled around the small recruiter’s office. Whatever Travis said was followed up with a positive and optimistic answer, as if there was nothing to worry about and everything would be taken care of in the long run.

  Pepper couldn’t help but think there was more, far more that he should be asking. But in that moment, his head and heart were swirling around and he couldn’t figure out what he needed or should ask about. He could sense the positive attitude coming out of Zeklor seated next to him, and felt his friends outlook was slowly wearing his concerns down.

  For the last couple of hours they had been swarmed with paperwork. Everything in regards top what needed to be paid and covered. But this… this was actually a way to ignore all of those concerns and have everything taken care of.

  “You two are actually lucky.” Chief Garcia added.

  “Lucky? What do you mean?” Zeklor asked.

  The Chief tilted his head slightly. “Well, we get dozens of resumes every week it seems. Many want to be gladiators asking to join Valiant for the exact reasons the Commander just shared. We have to sort out who we think is a going to be a good addition to the guild, and has potential for really taking off. You two, however, just happened to come down to the SEC and we got to see you firsthand. And… here we are, having a conversation. It’s not every day young gladiators such as yourselves get this kind of opportunity.”

  Commander Brooks chuckled. “You know what Chief, I like that. You’re right, and that is probably the best way to put it. This… is an opportunity, and one I would recommend you very, very much consider.”