'Look at that armor.'
'Did you see that ugly scar?'
'His mana is so cold. Is he even human?'
Davi Hawker was used to it.
People always judged what they didn't understand. His aura was cold and harsh, so naturally, that meant he must be a cold and harsh person. His face was ugly and scarred, so naturally that meant his soul was ugly and scarred. His armor was forged of ebony shadows and radiated fire so cold it froze all chances he had at forming connections, so naturally, his personality was just as rotten.
Even if none of these things were true, because people would believe, it would become the truth for them. A fact that would require hard work in order to change that view.
Humans were simple creatures. They saw him, and, in an instant, they decided who he was and what his motives were. Only after he saved them and did something they viewed as worthy of their praise would they finally look past the shell that they created around him and see who he truly was. A person's appearance is the way people would judge them, but a person's actions determine who they are.
Humans were mean. They were cruel, and they were just as filled with hate as they were with love. Davi Hawker knew all of that. It didn't make it hurt any less, though.
The physical pain he felt was nothing compared to the emotional pain. His ribs ached and cracked as Jack Larison's knee rammed into his gut, and Davi gasped and nearly threw up as he collapsed to the ground.
He weakly looked up, and for a moment, his eyes met Jack's. He had seen that look plenty of times—a look of pure hate.
Jack had no reason to like him. He hadn't done anything to save the man or defend him. As far as Jack knew, he was someone who was pathetic and ugly who went and got himself killed. People would always view him as the second coming of the Ebony Knight when they saw his armor, his face, and the feel of his mana. Until he earned their favor, they would have no reason to change how they saw him, and Jack was a person who had fought in Mordheim and seen the worst that the horrible nation had to offer.
He had no reason to feel remorse or sympathy for Davi Hawker, and yet Davi had assumed that the simple fact they had been on the same team, no matter how short that time had been, was enough to earn him favor.
His time with Olivia and the others had made him forget for a moment what people were like. Jack reminded him, though, and Davi once again recalled why he hated people.
Davi winced as Jack's boot flew toward his face, and the man went to cave his head in. Thankfully, the attack was stopped by Ken. The heir to the Yuan family barely had enough time to throw herself forward and kick out with her own leg. Her attack clashed with Jack's, but no matter how strong she might have been, Jack was a Knight. He was Battery. A legendary hero.
Ken's leg was shoved back, and Battery casually slapped her away, throwing her across the room and sending her into a crowd of people, which got everyone's attention on the fight that had broken out. Gasps echoed through the room as they watched an Arcane Knight lay the beat down on a random recruit. It was a shocking and brutal sight.
Davi lifted his arms and defended himself as Jack's foot rammed into him again. His arms ached and nearly broke just from the one kick, and Jack got ready to throw another one out. The people in the arena were startled by the sudden attack, and some freaked out and panicked, yelling loudly, which in turn got the attention of the guides and a few of the other Arcane Knights who were up in the stadium.
"What the hell are you doing, Jack!" One of the guides yelled.
"Are you insane? You can't just hit a recruit! Even if they did piss you off in the exam!" Another guide growled. "Trust me, the team I dealt with was utter shit as well, and I'd like to slap one of them around, but they're still just green! They don't know any better!"
Jack clenched his teeth and slammed another kick into Davi's side, hitting past his guard. "You don't understand! This guy is bad!"
"Calm down!" A guide tried to use a spell, causing stone hands to lift out of the ground, but Jack dodged past them and avoided the attack, reaching Davi, who attempted to block again, but Jack easily tore through his defense and began to lay the beat down again.
A few of the other guides jumped in and tried to stop Jack. One or two even tried to grab him, but Jack's mana flared up and rapidly expanded, throwing the other guides back. "Stay out of my way." Jack hissed out, and he rammed his fist past one of the guides and straight into Davi's face. Davi was launched off his feet and collapsed in the sand back first. The crowd separated and backed away, not wanting to get caught in the fight. Some of the guides finally gave up trying to hold Jack back and went to attack the man before he got someone killed, but Jack was faster than they could react. "Vil Imaginary Arena."
Davi gasped as the blue energy seeped out of Jack's hand, and the next thing he knew, he and Jack were trapped within a small box, forged entirely out of mana. The other guide's spells bounced harmlessly off the box or were absorbed by the barrier spell's power.
Imaginary Arena was just a simple spell, made to trap Jack and his opponent in a confined space so he could have them all to himself.
As soon as the box appeared, Jack was on Davi in an instant, and he grabbed the man by the hair and rammed his fist straight into his face. The other guides kept trying to break through the barrier, but Jack simply fed it more mana, powering it up even further.
"Shit! What the fuck is he doing?" One guide threw a bolt of lightning at the blue wall, but his spell died out, not even cracking it. "What could that recruit have done to set him off like this?"
"It doesn't matter." Another guide shook his head. "We need to stop him before he does any more damage. This isn't a good look for anyone. Where the hell are the captains?"
"They're distracted by the test results." A third guide hissed. "I saw Father put up a barrier that blocks sight and sound so they could go over the different footage from the other exams!"
"Okay, then, where the hell is Pretty Face!"
"She left on a smoke break!"
"Haru, damn it! Someone go find a vice captain!"
Inside of the barrier, Jack's fingers grew tighter around Davi's hair, and he yanked his head forward, ramming the black-haired man's face into the side of the energy wall. "I had my eye on you since I first saw you," Jack growled. "Your mana tipped me off. I kept waiting for the reveal to be a Mutant, but it never came. Still, I doubt someone like you is human. You're a freak. Just like those bastards in the country you come from." He threw Davi across the barrier and sent the man slamming into the back of the wall.
Davi slumped down and groaned. "Stop." He finally said.
Jack's scowl grew. "Begging me to stop? Come on, I've barely hit you."
"I'm not begging." Davi shook his head, and his eyes met Jack's. The look in them caused the Arcane Knight to take a sudden step back. "If you don't stop, I'm going to hurt you. I've been defending myself, but I haven't thrown out an attack yet, have I? Let's just call it even and drop it."
"Did you know the country of Mordheim has its own version of Haru's mana?" Jack spat out. "See, Arcane Knights, when they reach a level of strength, they are deemed worthy enough to have Knight gear granted to them, giving them a piece of Haru's mana. Mordheim has its own version of that. They infuse their finest warriors with cursed energy equal to Haru's power. It isn't Haru's mana they use, though; instead, it's the one that brought her life to an end. You can guess who it is, right? I've felt the Ebony Knight's mana firsthand before; I've slaughtered countless bastards from that land who have the same feeling your mana does."
"I'm not a soldier from the Mordheim kingdom." Davi shook his head. "I barely know anything about that land as well. I can hardly be called a citizen of it. As far as I know, I've never had anything done to me. I don't know why my mana feels like his, but it's honestly really fucking annoying, considering I don't give two shits who that bastard was."
Jack shook his head and clicked his tongue. "As if I would ever believe a lie like that. Your being here is proof enough that you aren't a nobody. Mordheim requires an advanced mage able to bend space to let its people in and out. Within the country, there is only one such mage that currently exists. Thorn Heavenfall. I've never met him, but you have, right?"
"Nope."
"Lies. Thorn would be the only way you could get out of the nation." Jack yelled. "His service is only to the elite, though. That's why all you bastards from Mordheim have been watched since you got here by various Knights. A random citizen from the nation would never be able to flee the country, and only those within its inner circle can use Thorn to get out. You're a spy from that land."
"I'm not." Davi shook his head again. "I didn't meet whoever this Thorn guy was. I escaped by exiting through a dungeon. It existed within two places at once. I entered it in Mordheim, and when I stepped out of the dungeon, I was in this shitty kingdom. It happened when I was twelve."
"Dungeons can be connected to several locations at once; that fact is true, but it requires a powerful one. You expect me to believe you made it out of a dungeon like that when you were just a kid?" Jack scoffed and folded his arms. "If you're going to lie, at least give a believable story."
"It's more believable than yours." Davi frowned. "You think I'm some big-shot warrior? So what? I'm a spy?"
"If you are a spy, you'll be found out in the final test." Jack placed his hands on his hips and glared down at the other man. "You and the other bastards from that kingdom will be found out and dealt with as you deserve. That said, I don't believe you've gone through the same infusions the soldiers of Mordheim have."
"So then what the fuck are we fighting for!"
"It's the same as the great Lady. The Lance of Victory never needed the blessings of Haru." Jack grunted. "She herself is a direct descendant, as are the other branch family members; however, Lady Tori is special. She awakened mana close to Haru's all on her own. Just as how some humans are able to randomly gain the mana of an elf because an ancestor was one, Tori, too, was able to gain the mana of Haru naturally. You're the same as her, aren't you? You naturally have mana similar to the Ebony Knight. Not to mention the dragon that appeared. You've seen it before, haven't you? I saw the way you looked at it, and it looked at you. I can't accept it, no matter how hard I try." Jack's mana crackled out, and he lifted his arm up. "Something is telling me that if I don't deal with you, you'll turn out to be an issue."
"Wait—" Davi tried to stop the man, but Jack seemed dead set on finishing what he started.
Jack took a stomping step forward until he was directly over Davi and got ready to unleash a powerful spell. "Row Imaginary Blast—"
His spell never launched, though, as suddenly a new source of mana filled the arena. It made Jack instantly pause, his eyes going wide. He wasn't the only one. Davi's scar suddenly rapidly burned and ached, and he grabbed at his face. Outside of the barrier, Ken and Cain both shivered, and Ruby once again let out a loud cry and collapsed to the ground. Only the five of them reacted to the new mana that appeared, because only the five of them had felt the dragon's mana.
This new one was different but similar. So similar it triggered the wave of fear that had been imprinted upon all of them. The mana was tight and suffocating, like a snake, and it began to wrap around each of them and squeeze. Jack stopped and glanced back, and that was the biggest mistake he could have made.
"Row Shadow Armor." Davi saw his chance, and he took it. There was no more point in hiding if the captains had seen, and Jack was making a big deal about it. All he could do was do what he did best. Fight.
Jack whipped back around toward Davi, but it was too late. The shadowy armor exploded around him right as he swung his fist out as hard as he could.
Meanwhile, outside of the barrier, Olivia suddenly reappeared in the center of the arena. Ash, Emma, Nori, and Sune also all appeared with her. It was for sure a simulation that she had gone through, because as soon as she was back in the arena, she noticed that Sune was fully healed.
Ash, Emma, and Nori also all had their mana fully restored. Not only that, but as Olivia looked down at herself, she was no longer in the witch outfit since she had technically not used the trait, since it was a simulation.
She quickly flicked her finger out and caused the status screen to appear, shifting it to her traits. She was almost not expecting the Polymorph trait to be there, but it was. Its countdown was no longer visible since the skill had never actually been used, and yet the trait was still one she had.
That was definitely shocking. Gaining a new trait was something that could be done, but depending on what the trait was, it would be complicated. Sprinting and stamina were ones almost everyone had. Some traits would be instantly unlocked when a mage was born, due to the type of magic they had, while others would be picked up through training or by spending a crazy amount of money and having a trait surgically inserted into you.
By training with a knife, she was able to get the knife training trait; however, she didn't have a fighting style, so unlike Davi, she only had one knife trait instead of the two sword traits he had.
She had no idea how she got the Determined trait, and she had even less of a clue how she got Polymorph. Her father had that trait, but if it had been an inherited one, it should have been one she always had. Not to mention, she gained it during a simulation.
Usually, it was impossible to gain a trait while in a simulation. This was because while in a simulation, the mind, body, and core would be aware of the fact that they weren't actually doing the actions. Because of this, a person couldn't fight a dragon over and over in order to be hit with its fire and gain fire resistance, since they would be aware of the fact that they weren't in real danger, so their core wouldn't evolve.
A simulation could be used to train specific skills, such as weapons or their styles. If she practiced knife-wielding while in a simulation and learned a few skills, then that could transfer into the real world and even out due to the muscle memory being remembered, but the trait itself would still need to be leveled up and raised through actual training.
The only exception to this rule was if a person didn't know they were in a simulation. An experiment was conducted when a doctor put someone in a simulated battlefield without their knowledge. Because the person didn't know it was fake and thought they were in danger, their body responded at its full force and was able to gain a resistance-based trait.
Sadly, this process wasn't able to be repeated very well, which was why it was seldom used. It was hard to trick a person into thinking a simulation was real. The force needed to awaken a trait would kill most people. When they died, they'd instantly realize they were in a simulation, and it would break the effect of the illusion. Those who did gain the trait would also likely discover they were in a simulation soon after, and putting a person who had been tricked into a simulation into a new simulation twice was next to impossible.
That's why Olivia was confused as to why she had a new trait. She didn't know about the simulation, so her body thought she had been in danger, which meant it could technically earn a trait, but how on earth had she gotten something like Polymorph? It was because of the trait Determined, but when and how did she get that?
She was just about to click on it and try to learn once and for all where it came from, but before she could, there was a loud 'boom' that echoed out.
Olivia and the others turned, and she just now noticed that the crowd of people had all been staring at something. A box of pure mana had been formed, but in an instant it exploded and shattered, sending mana out in an arching wave of force.
The next thing Olivia knew, a body was flying past her as Jack Larison rammed into the back wall and slumped down.
Olivia's eyes went wide, and she gasped. Several of the people in the crowd let out yells of shock at what they saw. Standing, covered head to toe in Ebony armor, was Davi. His fist was extended, and smoke was coming off of it. His helmet blazed blue flames out of the slits, and he slowly brought his arm down.
All eyes were locked onto him.
These tests had never been about doing the best. They were always about standing out. Well, he was definitely standing out now.
No more hiding. Davi Hawker finally had enough.