Jack reached for the belt around his waist and tapped the buckle a few times. There was a soft click and the buckle came loose and Jack pulled at it. A handle appeared as the buckle transformed. Jack kept pulling and a soft sound of metal scraping against metal was heard. A thin flexible blade appeared out of the strap of the belt which was acting like a sheath.

 

The hidden blade bent and twisted as more and more of it was drawn out. The blade was more akin to whip now than a sword. The flexible sword whip when it was finally fully drawn out was around two meters. It coiled around the forest floor like a silver snake lying in ambush. There was a sleek deadliness to it that was hard to describe. A coiled viper ready to strike.

 

Raising the whip up high, Jack brought it down in a loud crack.

 

“Shit!”

 

Jack stopped examining his weapon and saw Tanner glaring at the junk he had collected from Flame-boy.

 

“What happened?”

 

“It’s just all trash. He has nothing useful,” said Tanner waving at the random pile of stuff in front of him.

 

“No one comes carrying nothing. Look at his clothes, lots of pockets. He probably has them hidden away.” suggested Jack. “You better hope he doesn't stuff his underwear.”

 

Soja let out a snort of laughter, looking up from his glowing pair of gloves. “Looting is a sacred rite, isn't it? You better go get it then!”

 

Jack snickered and whipped his sword tauntingly in Tanner’s direction a few times, adding oil to the fire.

“Get, get!”

 

Tanner scowled at the two of them and went to work. He took out a knife and started cutting Flame-boy’s leather jacket.

 

“Holy shit he is actually going to do it!” exclaimed Soja.

 

“Careful you don't cut off anything important,” Jack added.

 

Shaking his head he went back to checking his signature weapon and cracked the sword whip a couple more times till he was satisfied. Seeing that his whip was in order he returned it back to its sheath. Channeling his mana through the sword whip, he controlled the flexible blade to move under his command. There was a sharp sound of metal scraping as the sword slithered back into the hidden pocket in his belt. The belt buckle snapped into place with a soft click maintaining its perfect, innocent disguise.

 

Jack let out a long breath seeing all his gear in place. That was another thing taken off his list and with that done, he could now fully focus on the exam. He would have usually done his prep earlier but they were under constant scrutiny by the other contestants. Showing them his cards this early on in the competition would have been unwise.

 

His gear in place, Jack’s thoughts turned to the exam. They needed a plan.

 

“Jack! A little help.” Jack looked up to see Soja struggling to sync with his gloves.

 

“Show me.” He strode over to Soja and took his hands in his.

 

The gloves had wrapped tightly around Soja’s hands. Glowing lines of thread illuminated as they connected to his mana channels. The added artificial channels were meant to boost the casting speed of the user. Thousands and thousands of threads interwoven with each other imitating the mana channels in the body forming a temporary boost to the casting of the user. They shone in a dim, blue glow as the thread lines were activated. It was a mesmerizing view but there were some areas where the glow wasn’t as intense. They failed to connect in those sections.

Jack brought his screwdrivers out and began fiddling with the gloves.

 

“I still am not able to fully connect to it,” said Soja frustrated.

 

“Uh-huh,” Jack grunted noncommittally. His head was still focused on the problem of the test that they were taking. They can't keep getting into fights like this. They would burn out before they even reach the finish line.

 

His hands moved in a practiced rhythm as he mulled over the problem. He was very familiar with Soja’s setup as it fell to him to do the tuning of the gang’s equipment since he was the only refiner in the group. The gloves weren’t that complicated for his level and he could scrape by with his rudimentary knowledge of items. What he mostly did was to focus on the hardware and the software aspect of the device. The spell circuit of the gloves were still beyond him. Right now he was attempting to connect Soja’s mana channels seamlessly with the gloves.

 

“Let’s see here.”

Jack tapped the base of the gloves and a connecting cable popped out of it. Seeing the cable was ready, Jack fished out his phone. All he needed to do now was to connect both devices and run a diagnostic program. Reeling the cable out he plugged the gloves to the phone’s connecting port. A window popped open and lines and lines of text became visible on the screen. The phone was doing a quick diagnostic on the device. Jack’s silver eyes darted through the texts as the program parsed the data. With his quick eyes, Jack already spotted a few problem areas that the gloves had trouble with.

 

“This happens every time. I don't even know what I'm doing wrong,” said Soja sullenly. “I should be able to tune into it by now.”

 

“This shouldn’t be happening,” agreed Jack. “I’ll do a temporary patch for now.”

 

Soja had been using the device for months now, but he still hadn't been able to fully connect with the device for some reason. This could be a potential problem in the future, but Jack didn't have time to dwell on it when they were right in the thick of the exam. He couldn’t divide his attention.

 

The way he was ambushed by Flame-boy didn't sit well with him. If the boy hadn't been a complete idiot, he could have caused the group a lot more grief than what happened. They were lucky. And people that just relied on luck didn't have a good ending.

 

Jack waited for the code to finish running. He didn't want to start making any changes without getting the full picture first. While he waited for the results, he briefed the other two boys on the plan he had come up with.

“Tanner.”

 

“What?” The tall boy grunted as he cut through the tough leather jacket.

 

“How close are we to the summit?”

 

There was a bit of a pause as Tanner considered the question. “I suppose we are halfway up by now. So about half an hour at top speed and we will be at the top.”

He looked up through the canopy of trees they were standing in. “I was a bit turned around earlier but I can say for certain that the finishing line is right above the waterfall that we saw at the start of the exam.”

 

“Alright then. I think I get the picture. I got a plan.”

 

“Well let's hear it.” Soja chimed in.

 

“We are going to slow down our pace a little.”

 

“Slow down?” Tanner looked up from his loot pile with a frown on his face. “Why?”

 

“We need to conserve our strength.”

 

“But we are almost there!” exclaimed Tanner pointing up the hill. “It's right there! The end, the goal, the finish line. We reach it and we are done.”

 

“Just hear me out.” Jack raised his hands placatingly. “The plan is to avoid all the nobles and avoid fighting until they reach the base of the waterfall. We already have marked the big fish in the competition. I know exactly where they are. We stay clear of them and while they are busy fighting each other, we can sneak into the final zone with ease.”

 

“We are being too timid. Do we need to be this passive?” asked Tanner. “Even in this test we are in the top percentile of the candidates listing. We are fully capable of fighting our way through.”

 

Jack shook his head. “We are not messing with the nobles, Tanner. When we are fighting them we are also fighting against all the attendants and subordinates. They would just wear us down. I'm tracking everyone. We know where everyone is and they don't know where we are. This is the perfect plan.”

 

“Everyone except Redhead over here,” argued Tanner, jerking his thumb towards the comatose boy.

 

“An exception. He failed anyway.”

 

“That's because he was an idiot. He could have taken out Soja if he tailed us a bit longer.”

 

“Morbid.” Soja sighed. “Do you really have to bring this up?”

 

“No! We need to go through this now.” Tanner insisted. “Do you guys know the casualty rate in the exam? Fifteen percent. And there are always some dead. Matchstick isn’t going to be our last opponent.”

 

“Ben,” began Jack but Tanner cut him off.

 

“If there is one then there will be others. We shouldn’t count on our opponents making mistakes. The longer we are in the test the more likely we will run into trouble. We need to get… out...” Tanner paused in mid rant as he stared down at Flame-boy. “Well I'll be damned.”

 

“What?”

 

Tanner lifted up Flame-boy’s hands. He had finally cut through the tough leather jacket and the redhead’s arms were now visible for all to see. Through his torn up sleeves, Jack saw a dense set of tattoos on the boy’s arm. A monkey with a melted face was prominently displayed on the boy’s shoulder.

 

Jack’s eyes widened seeing the symbol. The deformed monkey was surrounded by radioactive hell fire. It’s hollow, accusing eyes were staring straight into the void.

 

“The Reavers.” Tanner spat in disgust. “We were careless.”

 

The Reavers could be said to be half a terrorist organization. The gang was made up of ex-Telaren separatists, who recruited the craziest and most radical Psyphers they could find. The group had sprung up in the last civil war and their recruitment and influence had been growing steadily over the years.

 

The way they recruited their younger members were particularly more brutal. Since the kids didn't have much powers to speak off they showed off their loyalty through torture and mutilation of members of rival gangs. The crazier the better. There were horror stories about recruits skinning their victim’s faces while alive.

 

Tanner stared at the branding on Flame-boy’s shoulder with a hollow look in his eyes. “Both of you could have died. That dagger he had on him....”

 

Jack reached for the hunting knife he had in his back pocket. He brought it out and slowly removed the blade from the sheath. The curved blade’s edge shone in brilliant purple in the dim illumination. There was a purple liquid that coated the knife every time it was brought out of its sheath.

 

“I wondered why he showed himself instead of ambushing us,” Soja spoke in a hushed whisper. He walked forwards and squatted beside Tanner. He stared at Flame-boy, seeing the redhead in a new light. “He wanted to get knocked out or at least pretend to. Then gut the first person that approaches.”

 

“That is an insane plan.” Jack bent down beside Soja, knife in hand. Its purple edge gleamed in a sinister light.

 

“Who says Reavers have to be sane,” Tanner spoke through gritted teeth. His hands blurred and Jack found his hands empty. Tanner raised the knife up high looking at Flame-boy.

 

“What are you doing!”

 

“Solving all our problems once and for all!” The blade descended in a flash.

 

Jack was moving before he even finished and caught his wrist before he could bring the knife down.

 

“Shit!” Soja yelled, grabbing Tanner from behind, stopping his arm from moving forward.

 

“Don’t try to stop me you two. Reavers need to die,” growled Tanner and his arm descended bit by bit towards Flame-boy’s chest.

 

Jack was gritting his teeth and using both his arms to stop Tanner.

‘Christ! The bastard was strong!” Sometimes he forgot how strong Tanner was behind his pretty boy facade.

“Get a grip, Tanner! You are not killing him.”

 

“Jack. Damn!” Veins were bulging under Tanner’s temples. “I have to pass this test! Mom’s condition is not getting any better and the bills are piling up. I need Eaton’s stipend. Without it…. I don't even want to think about it. Now, we are in the finals. We are this close. We are nearly there. I'm this close and I’m not about to let some Reaver street rat ruin my chances!”

 

“Tanner!”

 

“You would do it too!” yelled Tanner. “If it meant saving your sister.”

 

Jack's hands shook and nearly lost his grip on Tanner’s arm. Calming his wavering heart, he spoke through clenched teeth.

“Tanner, this isn’t a just war. You're going against your path.”

 

“Fuck the path! This is my mom here guys. I’ll do anything to win.”

 

“Damn it, Ben! What would your mother say if she could see you now?”

 

Tanner struggled, trying to free himself from Jack and Soja. There was an intense unwillingness in the boy’s eyes as he stopped exerting himself. The dagger in his hand dropped to the forest floor with a dull metallic cling.

 

Tanner stopped struggling and slumped over. Soja was still holding on to him, still reeling in shock at what had almost happened.

 

Jack was panting heavily as he watched the two in front of him. An intense sense of guilt washed over him as he realized he had used Tanner’s own mother against him. He had always been a little manipulative, but never against one of his own.

“Sorry.” He muttered under his breath. “I spoke too much.”

 

Tanner who had his head buried in between his knees groaned as he heard Jack’s apology.

A silence descended into the clearing and Soja glanced nervously between his two friends, afraid that someone is going to start yelling again. Jack stared off into open space completely drained. Time slowly ticked by as the kids waited. About a minute had passed by when Jack finally felt Tanner stir in front of him.

“Jack?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I’m not saying thanks.”

 

“Right.”

 

Another moment passed.

“You talked to your sister yet?”

 

There was a pause and Jack shook his head.

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

“They are trying to take my inheritance, Tanner. What do you think I'm going to do?” Jack’s eyes flashed dangerously. “I buried my parents at Lakshire, Ben. I'm not giving up on it. Never.”

 

“Power and Influence. I need both of them before I can face off against the main family.” Jack spoke with a hard edge to his tone. “You are right. Maybe I was being too timid.”

 

He picked up the dagger that was lying on the forest floor. “Perhaps I’ll need to use this too. But never needlessly or without just cause,” he said offering the hunting knife back to Tanner. “The path of the warrior applies to the two of us as well.

 

Tanner pushed the blade back to Jack. “You will need it more than me.”

 

“And Tanner. Don’t worry about your mom. You got us, right?” said Jack smiling.

 

Soja, who had been listening till now, spoke comfortingly. “She is going to be fine, Tan.”

 

“Yeah. You are not alone in this. You got me, Soja, Mrs. Bee. Nothing is going to happen to your mom.”

 

Tanner nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

 

“And besides it's not like we are going to fail. Our chances are quite good. We are the top of the candidate roster with only the nobles above us. We got this. I'm already tracking all the top players. We have to only worry about stragglers like Flame-boy over here. One against three, I like those odds even better.” grinned Jack.

“Tanner’s right. We have enough of an advantage to press on without slowing down. It’ll just mean that I would need to step up my game and keep tracking everyone in real time.”

 

“Jack.” began Tanner but he stopped him.

 

“I’ll be fine. I just need you two to keep up.” said Jack cheerfully. “Look alive guys, because this time tomorrow we will be in Eaton.”

 

“Woohoo!” Soja whooped and pumped up hearing the declaration.

 

Jack gave Tanner a reassuring squeeze, who nodded back gently.

 

“Eaton! Eaton! Eaton!” Soja cheered waving his arms about. Tanner laughed, his joy this time completely genuine.

 

The laughter of the boys echoed in the forest. Jack looked at his smiling friends with mixed feelings. Tanner’s last accusation was still echoing in his ear.

You would do it too if it meant saving your sister.

 

The path of the warrior wasn’t easy. The burning desire in the boys that drove them forward was a double edged sword. There was one thing that Jack was certain, he would do anything or pay any price to keep the smiling faces in front of him safe.

“I’ll get us through this exam. This, I promise.”

 

¹