Yellow Jacket

The air over the Endless Plains boiled with tension. Eight instructors stood scattered across the golden grass, unarmed, unarmored, and utterly still. The sky itself seemed to hold its breath. Then Imujin moved, and the world detonated.

He tore a slab of earth the size of a house out of the ground with one hand and hurled it across the plains like it was weightless. The shockwave shredded the grass to ash, kicked clouds into spiraling vortices, and made the Skybox tremble as though an artillery strike had gone off beneath it. Deck didn't dodge. He sprinted straight at it, boots hammering the air, and ran up the face of the flying boulder, legs pumping like pistons, flipping over the top just as it passed beneath him. Lisa was waiting on the other side. She caught the whole thing on one palm and smashed it to gravel with a single overhead strike. The shock of impact kicked up a ring of compressed air that flattened everything within half a kilometer, sending Deck spinning forward through a hurricane of shattered stone.

The cadets screamed. The sound ripped out of them like they'd all forgotten how to breathe. Wind ripped their hair sideways. The glass hummed like it might crack from the pressure waves.

"Holy shit," Fenn breathed. "This is what a High Imperator can do?"

"This is just the warm-up," Velrock said flatly. He hadn't blinked once.

"Warm-up," Jurpat echoed, staring down like someone watching the birth of a star.

Lambert just shrugged. "Don't worry. It gets better."

Down below, the instructors blurred together. Deck scattered the broken chunks Lisa had made, whipping them wide to skirt around her as if they shared an invisible orbit, then volleyed them toward Josaphine and Isol like meteor rounds. The shards glowed from sheer friction as they ripped grooves through the air. Josaphine dropped flat into a slide, skimming under the first, while Isol used the second as a foothold and vaulted clear over it. He caught the air like it was solid, twisted, and drove down at Jim.

Jim grinned wide, caught the surprise blow on his forearm, and used the force to spin a full circle, grabbing Isol mid-air and hammer-throwing him toward Alorna. The throw left a wake of torn grass and compressed air. Isol hit the ground hard enough to crater it, skidded twenty meters, and still came up roaring.

Alorna met him with her fist.

The impact sounded like the sky breaking. The shockwave hit the Skybox a full second later, rattling the cadets' bones. Isol pinwheeled off the ground hard enough to gouge a trench and still landed on his feet, teeth bared, blood running from one ear, fire in his eyes. The cadets could see his arms shaking, not from pain but from the raw violence of the recoil.

Gwen spat.

The shard she'd picked up earlier punched through the side of a flying stone and split it like an eggshell, ricocheting into Jim's shoulder with a crack. He roared and laughed and came harder, grabbing a chunk of shattered pillar, biting a piece off with his teeth, and flinging the rest at Alorna. She swatted it out of the air without looking, the chunk disintegrating into powder against her palm.

Lisa surged forward in silence, each step detonating the earth under her heels. She shoulder-checked a stone outcropping the size of a house and shattered it like it was brittle glass. Deck darted over her shoulder and vaulted off the cloud of fragments, spinning through them as they burst around him, and launched a heel strike that kicked the largest shard into a screaming arc toward Josaphine. Josaphine twisted aside with inhuman precision and let it carve a trench beside her.

Imujin's shadow rolled over them.

He didn't run. He walked, and every step tore the ground apart. The plains dipped under his feet as if rejecting his weight. When Alorna launched a stone pillar at him the size of a tower, he caught it one-handed, spun, and threw it back at her fast enough that the air turned white around it. The wind peeled skin from the ground where it passed. Alorna blocked it on her forearms and slid back thirty meters, heels furrowing the ground.

Deck screamed past on its surface like a streak of lightning, kicking shards of broken rock down at anyone in reach. Alorna caught one, crushed it to dust, and used the burst of force like a cannon blast to launch herself forward, punching through the fractured pillar with a boom that left the cadets clutching their ears. The ground crumpled like tin under her feet.

"Holy fuck," Sylen breathed. "They're..."

"Still warming up," Wirk said. "This isn't them trying. This is them stretching."

The cadets pressed closer to the glass without realizing it, eyes wide and white in the glow of flying stone and shattered light. The plains below had already been stripped bare for miles. The soil had been blown away; the bedrock cracked into slabs. Dust cycloned into the air like storm fronts, and the eight monsters below hadn't even begun trying to win yet.

The warm-up had ended without a word, without signal or pause. It simply shifted. One moment the instructors were moving like weather systems brushing against each other, the next they were colliding like planets.

Gwen spat a stone while leaping high into the air, body arcing like a launched spear. The projectile slammed into the flat plain below Alorna and Imujin, carving a five-mile crater in the surface and blasting molten shards in all directions. The shockwave folded the surrounding grass flat for miles and sent a boiling wall of wind smashing against the Skybox. Cadets flinched back as hair whipped sideways and the glass trembled under their palms. Imujin caught Alorna's fist midair, grinning like a god who had just been given permission to play, and shoved her back hard enough to blast furrows into the bedrock. The ground split for miles behind her, the plains rippling like water.

"Velrock," Wick muttered, leaning forward, "is she actually trying to help him?"

Velrock exhaled slowly through his nose. "Yes. She shouldn't."

Down below, Imujin's voice cut through the wind like iron splitting stone. "Please don't do that, Gwen."

She blinked at him, teeth bared. "Why not?"

"We are here to have fun," Imujin said, batting Alorna's return strike aside hard enough to create a canyon. "If you want, I can take you out first and you won't have to do this. You don't need to help me. I am going to win."

He hurled Alorna across the flat plain like she weighed nothing. The impact threw up a geyser of shattered stone as she skidded through the distance, carving deep furrows that glowed red at the edges. "Give them a show."

Gwen snarled and spat again, using her midair recoil to fling herself sideways as the shot curved wide. The stone flash-baked the air and slammed down to create another yawning crater. Jim tore the shot out of the air mid-flight and used it to block Isol's attempted leap strike, then flung it aside like paper. His smile was split and bloody, wild and mad.

"Hierarchy," Lambert muttered. "They need to understand what they're watching."

"Physically," Velrock said, not looking away, "Imujin is the strongest. That is not debated. Alorna is second. If Lisa were their level, if she had their stats, she would be the strongest physically."

"Lisa's the strongest?" Jurpat asked.

Velrock nodded once. "In raw strength, yes. Stronger body than either of them. She is just not as high a level. If she were, she could lift more than both of them. But that does not mean she could beat them. She could outlift them, maybe if she got a hold of them even throw them across the world, but she would be kicked in the face to death before she ever got the chance. Her strength is incredible, but she's unrefined. Technique matters here, and they have it. She doesn't. She's trained in the Fist of the Legion, but Imujin… Imujin is something else. He's a grand master of it. He lives and breathes the art. He has created more techniques than anyone still alive, maybe more than anyone ever. She has mastered it. He defined it."

Jurpat blinked. "Then why does it matter how strong she is?"

"It doesn't," Velrock said. "It's just an observation. Strength is only impressive if you can use it."

Below, Lisa caught a flying slab of stone the size of a house, spun with it, and hurled it past Alorna so fast it blurred white. Deck sprinted up the spinning face of it, kicking shards from the rim like gunfire. Sparks rained down in a golden arc.

"what about Deck?" Ramis pressed.

"The fastest," Wick said. "By far. No one moves like he does. He doesn't dodge attacks, he rearranges them."

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Deck blurred across the battlefield as if pulled on invisible rails, cutting through collapsing shock waves, ricocheting off chunks of shattered rock, his feet leaving burning trails where they struck the plain.

"And Jim?" He asked next.

Lambert snorted. "The most dangerous if he could stop being so hopelessly in love. The man can turn anything into a weapon. But if Alorna is in the room, he forgets how to be objective. She can do no wrong in his eyes, and it ruins him."

Below, Alorna hammered Jim into the dirt hard enough to flatten the ground. He came up smiling, eyes glazed, nose broken. She didn't even glance at him. He staggered after her like she was sunlight.

"Isol and Josaphine?" Jurpat asked.

Velrock's mouth tightened. "Josaphine is methodical. Isol is… different. His skills were never meant for combat, and yet he makes them lethal. There's no such thing as a non-combat skill. He's more historian than soldier, and yet he will still find a way to kill you if you underestimate him. You think you've mapped him until he files you to death with bureaucracy. I've seen it."

A few cadets laughed nervously.

"And Gwen?" Fenn said.

"She hates melee," Lambert said. "That is why she is spitting rocks. She would rather use a lance. If she had one, she might be the third strongest here. Not stronger than Imujin or Alorna. But close. She would absolutely be above the rest."

"Josaphine's scarier though," Wick murmured. "If we were talking about terror."

"True," Velrock admitted. "If they were using everything, she might be the scariest one here. She breaks wars."

"Theramoor?" Elian asked.

Velrock finally turned his head. "Strategically the most dangerous. If she was commanding a squad, I would bet on her. But she is alone here, and physically, she is the weakest of them all."

"Then who's next?" Tormen questioned.

"Between me and Wirk, probably Wirk," Lambert said dryly. "But only if we were allowed to use what we're best at. I deal in bio-weapons. If they weren't all immune, I could level this entire place."

Wirk's voice drifted from behind them. "If they weren't immune to most bio-weapons, Lambert could probably do more harm than the rest of them combined. But they are. So, yeah."

"Velrock," Lessa asked quietly. "Where would you be?"

Velrock was silent a long time. Below, Deck blurred through a collapsing shockwave, ricocheting off chunks of shattered stone and kicking them like cannon balls toward Josaphine. Lisa smashed the shots out of the air for her, sparks cascading like molten rain. The two of them circled each other instinctively, never colliding, never needing words.

"I do not participate in these anymore," Velrock said at last. "I will fight if I must. But if there is no need to seek violence, it is not my path. I am a killer only when I must be."

The cadets were silent after that. The plains roared. Alorna crushed Jim's ribs. Gwen punched another crater into the earth. Deck cut a swath of fire across the plain with the shock of his heels. Lisa punched through the horizon, and the air peeled away from her like fleeing prey.

And Imujin laughed, towering over all of it, walking through the storm like it was mist.

Gwen hit the ground like a thunderclap, teeth bared, spitting a shard of stone with enough velocity to blur white through the air. It slammed into the plain and carved a crater half a mile wide, the shockwave rippling out in visible rings. Before it finished expanding, she was already airborne again, spinning in midair with a furious whip of her legs that cracked the air like breaking glass. Every leap launched her like artillery. Every impact folded the plain inward. She hated this kind of fighting, hated the mess and the brute chaos of it, but hating it didn't make her any less terrifying. She was a storm of precision wrapped in muscle and rage, and every time her feet kissed the earth it broke open like paper.

Theramoor stood perfectly still while the world shredded around her. Her eyes were half-lidded, her breathing steady, like she was in a classroom instead of a battlefield. Then she moved, a single sidestep, and three of Gwen's ricocheting shards went past her by inches. She didn't dodge them. She had already known where they would be. Her strikes were sparse and surgical, one knifing blow of her hand that slammed into the plain and sent molten cracks racing out like veins. When Gwen's shockwave passed, Theramoor was already gone from its path, slipping through the aftermath like a ghost. She lacked their raw might, but the precision was unnerving. Every motion implied she had seen the fight's end long before it began, like she was simply correcting the world to fit the conclusion she had already accepted.

Isol darted past her in a blur, coat flaring like smoke, Josephine pacing at his side in perfect rhythm. He tore a jagged slab of stone from the plain one-handed and spun, hurling it with such speed it wailed as it cut the air. Josephine intercepted the counterstrike meant for him with a forearm block that cracked the ground beneath her boots, then batted another shockwave aside with the heel of her hand. He didn't stop, he was already grabbing another fragment, launching it like a discus, using every piece of the battlefield as ammunition. She was the shield and he was the spear, her guard snapping into place around him as he ripped the world apart with relentless throws.

A dozen spinning chunks screamed across the battlefield, ricocheting from impact to impact in a deadly lattice. Josephine blurred between them, deflecting the rebounds, redirecting any blow that came too close, keeping him alive inside the storm he had created. Isol vaulted off her braced shoulders without hesitation, using her like a springboard to gain height, then whipped another boulder down with a heel-kick that shattered it into a cone of molten shards. Josephine raised both arms and caught the resulting shockwave on her forearms, the impact gouging trenches under her feet, holding the backlash off him as he landed.

Gwen spun through their chaos, teeth bared, spitting one of her own stones through the debris hard enough to vaporize three of the falling chunks. The air screamed. The shockwave threw Isol sideways and Josephine snatched him out of the air by the collar, twisting as she landed so her boots cracked the ground and absorbed the impact like anchors. They didn't pause. They hit the ground running, weaving through Gwen's barrage in a spiral dance of death.

Theramoor slipped back into their orbit, her motions so minimal she seemed to be standing still even as she redirected flying debris with precise taps of her hands. A spinning chunk of fused bedrock screamed toward her skull, and she tilted her head one inch so it passed close enough to shear strands of her hair. She struck once, twice, palms folding inward as she shattered two oncoming shockwaves that had been meant for Gwen. She didn't speak. She didn't even look at the others. She was simply present, dissecting the chaos like she was editing a textbook.

The four of them blurred around the battlefield like natural disasters, less refined, less unstoppable than the monsters still clashing in the distance, but still terrifying in their own right. Even as they burned themselves out, their power was undeniable. Each strike cratered the earth. Each breath warped the air. Cracks spider webbed for miles from their clashes. The air shook like it was trying to escape their presence. The plain itself sagged under the pressure.

They might be the weakest of the instructors.

But they were still instructors.

The plains were wreckage now, pitted with molten craters, lined with canyons that hadn't existed an hour ago. The warm-up was over. The real fight had begun.

Every strike now cracked the horizon. The air screamed as it tore itself apart under the weight of their force. Waves of molten rock shimmered from the impacts, sending heat haze rolling like ocean swells across the battlefield. The Skybox above rattled as the cadets stared down, silent and wide-eyed. What had once been a flat endless plain now looked like a scar on the world.

Theramoor was the first to fall. She danced between the chaos, predicting every strike seconds before it came, turning aside shockwaves and deflecting shrapnel with calm, surgical precision. Her movements were exact, her feet cutting shallow tracks as she pivoted through the storm of violence. For a moment, she almost seemed untouchable. But prediction could not hold back force forever. A single thrown slab from Imujin tore through her guard like it was paper. She tried to pivot aside, fast, but not fast enough. The impact erupted like a warhead, the ground rising around her like a broken wave. Dust and shards billowed high, blacking out the sun, and when it cleared, her half of the battlefield was nothing but molten glass. Her avatar flickered, collapsed, and dissolved into light.

No one even paused. The battle simply closed around the hole she left.

Jim screamed something wordless and beautiful, spinning a chunk of broken earth like a hammer as he lunged at Alorna. He fought like chaos given form, a grin split across his face as he tore a furrow half a mile long with the impact. Stone liquefied under his feet. His swing came in from above, a mountain-breaking blow that could have split a fortress. Alorna didn't slow. She stepped inside his arc, her fist spearing forward like a piston, and punched straight through his chest. The shockwave flattened the ground for miles and folded the sound out of the air. Jim was still smiling as he crumpled to glowing fragments, breaking apart into scattering light that swept away on the next wind.

Deck and Lisa slammed in at once. Deck blurred between Alorna and Imujin, ricocheting from shattered debris like a bullet skipping across water, trying to split them apart. Lisa hit like a meteor, fists pounding shockwaves that rolled across the battlefield like collapsing walls. Imujin grinned like it was a game, carving the plain apart with his bare hands as he met them both head-on. Alorna's eyes were sharp as blades, her every motion a weapon. The four of them collided with force that bent the horizon, each strike carving trenches, each impact shaking the sky. Chunks of stone miles wide rose and fell with every clash. The plain itself sagged under the weight of their blows.

Far off, Gwen tore through Josaphine in a blur of motion, spitting a stone straight through her chest mid-leap. The blast tore a crater around them, molten edges glowing like a forge. Josaphine tried to rise, laughing blood, her smile cracked wide, and Gwen slammed her boot down on her skull. The ground ruptured, and Josaphine vanished in a flash of dissolving light.

Gwen didn't see Isol coming. He struck like a falling tower, hurling a jagged slab the size of a house into her spine. The blow sent her tumbling through the air, her body breaking against the plain in three different places. She hit hard enough to leave a crater; limbs twisted at angles that weren't meant to exist. She rose halfway, teeth bared, and Isol was already there, palm striking her skull like a hammer. Her head snapped sideways, and her avatar shattered to static.

He turned without a word; eyes locked on the chaos in the center. Deck blurred past, slashing the ground apart with the force of his steps, tearing lines into the earth that steamed with heat. Isol caught him mid-sprint, dragging a loop of shattered earth into his path and hurling it like a whip. The impact broke Deck's rhythm, and in the same motion Isol seized the spear of stone he had used to kill Gwen and hurled it like a javelin. It speared through Deck's chest mid-stride, lifting him from the ground, the force of it dragging a sonic boom behind his body. Alorna struck from the opposite side a heartbeat later, her fist colliding with the exposed spine of the spear, and the combined force tore him apart as his avatar burst to light in a flare that washed the battlefield white.

Silence reigned for a fraction of a second. Just long enough for the air to remember what sound was.

That left only four.

Lisa. Isol. Alorna. Imujin.

The sky burned from the force they were throwing. The ground split and ran molten for miles. The battlefield itself seemed to flee from their presence, and still they came together like collapsing stars.