The room created through Albert's power shifted and broke down as the walls disintegrated into a million pieces. Taking Riko's hand, Albert carefully stood, still bloodied from their battle. Jetore and Maddeline slowly walked through the rubble and saw the former rivals, "Mind explaining?" Maddeline asked, her eyes staring daggers at the situation. Albert didn't say anything, in fact he looked a bit embarrassed as he stared at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with her. "
This guy, Albert's kind off a loner so I asked if he wanted to hang out" Riko asked, as if he'd already forgotten the fight that just occurred. "How dense can ye get dumbass? This freak was talking shit moments ago and started a fight, those wounds on you should be proof enough. Did you loose the fight and give i-" Jetore was immediately interrupted mid sentence by Riko's sudden stare, he looked fierce, a face he hadn't made up until now, "Albert's comin' with us, if you've got a problem you'll have to bring it up with the engineer just like when your car's broken down" Riko said as he walked up to Jetore who's face already looked as if it were on the brink of combustion.
"You Idiot!! Don't try using adjectives to make yourself look tough! You go to a car mechanic when you have a trouble with your vehicle!" Jetore yelled looking comically pissed at Riko's threat. "Same thing!" Riko said as he waved off the correction. As the two of them bickered tediously, Maddeline eyed Albert and Riko's wounds before speaking; "Shut the hell up, both of you numbskulls, now, Riko, Albert, sit down on your asses and don't move." Maddeline said, her tone even scaring the seemingly fearless Jetore. "What do you plan to do….Madd-?"Albert stuttered, his arrogance clearly humbled. "Maddeline, and I plan to ensure you and Riko don't bleed to death before the first test even ends."Maddeline remarked as she slowly removed the bracelet on her right arm's wrist.
Riko was surprised to see that a passion mark was hiding under her bracelet, it looked like a plus sign, specifically that of a hospital or surgery. It slowly glowed a faint green as Maddeline placed each of her hands on Albert and Riko respectively. "Albert has cracked jaw, 3 broken ribs, and numerous bruises throughout his body, and…Riko has a few open wounds from cuts from sharp objects in parts of his body, and a damaged small intestine, and a smashed nose. It's a wonder these two are even conscious rightnow, what a bunch of freaky kids." Maddeline thought to herself as she assessed their condition in her mind. Her mark's brightness increased as Albert looked in confusion. Riko and Albert's wounds closed and healed in seconds, broken rib Alert had felt as if it were plated and attached together, his jaw healed as his bruises disappeared, and Riko's wounds closed as if they never existed. There was a moment of silence after the act before Maddeline spoke; "You should be at full energy now but you both lost quite a bit of blood, if ya feelin' light headed, then take these." Maddeline handed them both a bottle of special medical supplements as Jetore looked as of his mouth would drop to the floor.
"So that's your power huh? Pretty cool stuff Maddy" Riko commented as stretched his arm noticing it wasn't numb anymore. "That's right, I've always worked medically to treat people's injuries and alignments, I was gifted the Mark of the Doctor." Maddeline proclaimed with a proud smile that almost annoyed Jetore, although now they could rest easy knowing Maddeline's passion mark powers and how valuable they were, although Albert kept his guard up as if not fully trusting Maddeline's intentions.
*The lower parts of the labyrinth*
"Man, we're pretty far down now, yet it's still cooler than you'd think," Rennet said as he followed behind Felix with Mei on his left side, the three pacing through the tunnels and dodging traps.
Ignoring Rennet's obvious remark, Mei asked, "Felix, do you believe it was wise to let that Robu man go? He obviously wouldn't be a threat to us, but he still seemed strong enough to give the other fellow rookies a problem. He kept venting about revenge, so someone could get hurt or worse, killed, if we leave him be."
Felix didn't seem too concerned. His black fur coat, which he wore on his back like a cape, swung from the breeze as his pace grew faster, prompting Rennet and Mei to swiftly follow from behind. Felix stopped as his eyes widened for a moment. "That's the least of our worries right now. Look there, we got company," Felix said as Rennet and Mei noticed a large group of small beasts approaching.
"Rennet, go handle that Terricarous. Mei, you're with me; we're covering him and taking out the Swingser bird and Clawroo. Got it?" he commanded with the confident deep voice of a proud leader. Without a second's waste, Rennet's arrogant smile shifted to that of a serious soldier as he and Mei nodded and followed.
Rennet ran towards the Terricarous, a tree-like monster with giant limbs. "Careful of a forest fire," Rennet taunted as he jumped over a swing from the monster that destroyed a part of the ground. He leaped into the air above as his right arm seemed to catch fire, illuminating the chamber. On Rennet's neck was a passion mark that showed the symbol of flames, which promptly glowed a vibrant orangish hue as a blast of fire released from his palm as if conjuring a fire magic spell from an RPG video game. "Scorching Torch!" Rennet yelled, naming this technique. The fire consumed the Terricarous as it screamed and burnt to ashes in seconds.
Simultaneously, as Rennet burned the Terricarous away, Mei jumped into the air, launched at the Swingser bird—a terrifying monstrosity with an exoskeleton, its black-feathered wingspan reaching six metres. She brought out a black whip and, in a flash, whipped the monster on the neck so hard its neck snapped as it collapsed to the ground lifeless.
The Clawroo charged towards the unconcerned Felix as it attempted to take a bite, its large mouth big enough to fit Felix's entire adult body. For a moment, Felix's eyes resembled those of a feral big cat as he grew fangs and stared at the beast with raw animosity. "Get lost," he said. The Clawroo jolted back, its landing shaking the chamber as it ran past deeper into the labyrinth. Felix's fangs disappeared as his eyes returned to their usual orangish look.
Just then, a speaker became audible with Mr. Kran's voice coming through it as a door to some kind of lounge opened. "Congratulations on passing the first test. You've proven you're not complete savages and are indeed capable of fighting with other people. I must say that you were embarrassingly slow, however," Mr. Kran said through the speaker. The remark annoyed Rennet, who looked like he was going to cuss out Kran before Mei put her hands on his mouth, blocking him from running it.
"Cut the formalities, gramps. What now?" Felix said with a smile. Mr. Kran noticed his gold tooth and rather flamboyant attire and smiled. "So far, throughout the first test, 93 of the formerly 100 contestants have been eliminated. Seven remain if we discount you three, so take time to relax in this waiting room for now," Mr. Kran informed before the speaker cut off.
*Back in the mid levels of the labyrinth*
Albert walked recklessly through the chamber, something that irritated Jetore to his very core. "What's wrong with you? You brain-dead or something? There's bound to be hidden traps implanted to capture us here!" he yelled.
Albert seemed just as displeased as Jetore was as he answered, "You have my sympathy for being born so dense. You see, my passion mark ability lets me manipulate anything that's considered a form of architecture in my surroundings. I've already taken care of the traps you speak of."
Jetore spat, looking annoyed at the fact he'd been looking so stupid for the past five minutes. "Yeah, Jetore, cool your jets. Want some candy?" Riko asked, holding out a chocolate mint flavored candy from some gas station.
"Don't patronize me, you stupid goggle freak! And I'm still not done flaming you for trusting this silver-haired lunatic; he literally beat the shit out of you," Jetore said in an aggressive tone. He yelled so loud it was almost comical to Albert, who couldn't help but chuckle.
"Albert said he won't betray us, so I trust him. When an engineer makes an assessment on something, it's recommended to trust their intuition and follow directions," Riko said.
Before Jetore could berate him on how illogical that sentiment sounded, Maddeline cut the conversation altogether. "Wait, guys, this chamber's probably the proper test itself," she said as the group stopped in their tracks.
"Oh? And how would you possibly know that?" Albert asked, clearly suspicious of Maddeline.
Before Maddeline could answer, a strange amalgamation of a beast appeared, with four legs similar to that of spiders extending on each side, with demonic horns and feral black eyes. "I see, so this must be part of the teamwork that they mentioned in the beginning of this test," Albert commented.
"It's a Zeerox. Even with Riko's or Blowhead's explosive power, we can't penetrate its thick skin. Our best bet would be to paralyze the thing by hitting all four of its legs," Maddeline said as the monster screeched and roared, its razor teeth looking like those of an industrial grinder.
Riko and Albert took the charge. "Come here, ya fatty!" Riko taunted as he morphed his arm into a laser cannon before shooting a brilliant blast at one of the beast's legs. Albert followed with a technique of his own as the flooring below one of the beast's legs bent upwards, trapping the leg.
Maddeline smirked as she dodged a blow from the beast's leg, which destroyed the wall behind her. She grabbed a hold of the leg before slamming it down like a champion wrestler, despite her nimble and skinny body. The Zeerox jolted and screamed as it prepared to use its free leg to swat the team off.
Albert looked at Jetore with a lack of patience. "We're clearly running out of time; what are you doing?? Hurry and deal with its free leg before we're swatted off!" Albert yelled as he used his ability to twist the ground, buying the group some time.
Jetore looked irritated. "Shut up! I don't take orders from no one! And especially not from some extras," he yelled stubbornly.
Maddeline and Albert looked ready to ditch the mission in favor of strangling Jetore for his stubbornness, but then Riko looked unreasonably focused on Jetore, so much so that his eyes couldn't look anywhere else. "Jetore, why do you want to become a Marked Mercenary?" he asked, to everyone's surprise.
"Isn't it obvious, metal boy? I'll prove I'm the strongest marked one to ever exist!" Jetore replied, looking Riko dead in the eye.
"Right, I get it. But for that, you'll actually need to become a Marked Mercenary first, right? So how about you play nice, just for a sec? It'll give us the proof of teamwork we need to pass. You can go back to whatever you wanna do after that, 'kay?" Riko said, a strange amount of respect for Jetore's dreams in his eyes, so much that it seemed to touch even Jetore emotionally for a moment.
"Tck. Fine… you bastard," Jetore said as he smiled maniacally. He jumped and kicked away the Zeerox's final leg before it could do anything. Then his mark glowed; one by one, Jetore summoned a series of combustion and explosions on the leg as the Zeerox screamed. All of its legs were now unavailable, and it was effectively paralyzed.
Maddeline smiled at Riko and thought to herself, "So Riko's pep talk worked on even Blowhead, huh? What an interesting boy."
Suddenly, the door to another waiting room opened behind the Zeerox, which struggled away with harmed legs. A speaker from Mr. Kran spoke: "About time. Congratulations on passing this test; you may continue to the waiting room for the time being. Your group is the last to pass."