Knock! Knock! Knock!

Three rapping knocks announced the arrival of Mr. Bel’s guests. One of his lackeys quickly opened the door and a gaggle of odd looking humanoids entered the room.

At the head of the group the tall one smiled as his eyeless gaze fell on Mr. Bel. “Brat.” he said, in a rattling voice that resonated deep into the chests of all the occupants of the room.

Mr. Bel stood from his perch, smiling from large ear to large ear, and greedily hugged the invader. He took turns hugging and greeting each of the strange looking humanoids. Every single one felt wrong to look at. All of the lackeys in the room felt a crawling panic run it’s way up their backs. Something didn’t feel right but they stood no chance, they had nowhere to go.

“Welcome semya. How was the trip?” asked Mr. Bel.

The tall leader simply shook his head and grimaced. “Hungry.” The simple answer gave every single occupant of the room, except for Mr. Bel and the new group, chills. Every single lackey felt their stomach jump into their throats. They all attempted to turn and leave the room but found that they were frozen where they stood.

“You must be. Please, help yourselves.” said Mr. Bel as he opened his arms like the world's most hospitable host. He looked at all the lackeys with a genuine smile on his face, the first they’d ever seen from him.

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Taha skittered from shadow to shadow, hungrily watching the candidates as they disembarked. The most recent ship to arrive had some impressive candidates and Taha eagerly watched a few that he would love to get his hands on.

“If only I didn’t have this stupid tapu on me!” he thought. The little man scratched the side of his head until it started to bleed due to his long, ragged nails.

As he continued to observe, a buxom Drylander caught his eye. He eagerly jumped into her shadow and began to climb up and down her body. The creepy little thing took in the unsuspecting woman’s scent, breathing it deep as his long tongue lashed out and collected some of her sweat from her shoulder. She wiped at her shoulder thinking a bug had momentarily landed on her, completely unaware of the little creep who was busily skittering around her body.

He continued his disgusting revelry until he was satisfied, violating the woman without her even being aware he had been there. He loved that rush he got from violating. Nothing could beat it.

Before long he had lost interest and was on the hunt for another target. He busily jumped from target to target, the intoxication growing. As he did so he began to lose track of where he was and didn’t realize that he had approached the candidate training area. Taha was riding the shadow of a candidate who was on her way to go training but he was too busy being a pervert.

Suddenly, a name sent a shiver down his spine. The woman who’s shadow he was riding had said “Hey Manawa!” His blood froze at the name and any pleasure he had felt instantly vanished.

The little man didn’t waste any time as he jumped out of the woman’s shadow and began his mad dash away from the training facility. Without paying attention he jumped. Marking post. 1st floor wall. 2nd floor wall. Roof. Next roof. More roofs.

Taha quickly came to a halt once he felt he was far enough away to feel safe. He now found himself in one of the candidate districts where they were provided housing. As he sat in the shadow on a roof he tried to control his breathing. His chest beat furiously even though he didn’t have a heart anymore. While running he had clenched his fists so hard that his long nails had penetrated through his spindly hands. Instead of blood leaking from his wounds shadows slowly billowed out.

“That bitch!” he yelled wordlessly. While in the shadows he was able to hear and see everything around him . The only ones on island who could pinpoint where he was were the other Tu’i and some of the Kāinga. And the one he feared the most was extremely adept at finding him when he was in the shadows.

As he sat on the roof he heard muffled screams coming from within the house. This immediately piqued the sadistic little man’s curiosity so he decided to go investigate.

Silently he slipped into the house. The house was split into 4 apartments but only one of them was currently inhabited. He could smell the pleasing aroma of fresh blood emanating from the apartment so he immediately slid under the door.

As he slid under one of the inhabitants turned and looked straight at him. The thing looking at him was an intruder. It had large, bloodshot eyes and its mouth was filled with rows upon rows of serrated teeth. It smiled menacingly at him as it turned and dove into the shadow he was in. In a low, rumbling voice belying it’s small stature the intruder said “Hello there.”

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Wha had seen that little shit Taha jump out of Mai’s shadow. She didn’t have time to chase him down but she would definitely drag him out of his little hole later. Wha had been busy training the two candidates for the past bunch of weeks and their development was beginning to impress her.

When they had first met she hadn’t thought much of the two, she just had a gut feeling about them. She always trusted her gut and so far it had proven her right.

Wha had even gone as far as bringing the notoriously hermetic ‘Ekolu out to help develop the girl, Mai. She had also tried to get Fiti to help, since she was the second strongest Le’o user out of the Tu’i, but the woman had refused. She considered asking Nima but she knew it was futile, their leader was much too neutral and they probably wouldn’t learn anything from him.

“Hey instructors!” Sone exclaimed as he entered the sparring grounds, a couple minutes later than Mai. The boy was a bright spot amongst the sour faced candidates. Wha always felt that all of them were a little too uptight. Having been a Tu’i for so long had made the tournaments, even an Advent Tournament, seem boring to her.

“Hurry up boy, my time is precious!” Wha replied with a genuine smile on her face. She couldn’t help but be happy around the two kids. Beside her ‘Ekolu just watched with his usual impassive facade. Due to how recognizable he was in his usual fighting form ‘Ekolu had decided on a form that wouldn’t stand out as much. Or at least whatever his idea of “not standing out” was, which wasn’t a very good idea. Wha had tried to convince him that his exterior form stood out too much but her arguments fell flat due to how she appeared.

Outside the arena he appeared as a tall, lanky, fairly attractive man with long hair that hung down to his waist. Wha had had to spend some time showing him how to dress like a normal member because he had insisted on leaving the Domain in a malo, which wasn’t the norm for most members. He also refused to cover up the various tatau he had, citing it shameful to try to cover up his markings. Wha got him to agree to wear a long sleeved shirt at the least and to refrain from disrobing at any point. It was not easy working with the large man-child.

“I like it.” ‘Ekolu said quietly as a fleeting smile graced his stoic face. Wha heard her companions remark and chose to ignore it.

Once the siblings were done getting ready they presented themselves before their instructor. “All right kids, today I’ll take the girl. Alika will take the boy. Usual warm-ups and some basics. Then I have some fun stuff for you two after.”

In the two weeks since the siblings had arrived they had made some great strides. Wha was a very strict instructor and she refused to allow them to get complacent. Today she planned to have the two spar against some of the other candidates. She knew that the siblings weren’t aware of just how much they had grown because she had made them agree to not spar with any other candidates until she gave the go ahead.

Soon the four of them were in the swing of things. Wha had Mai working on alternating her tatau activation. It was the most basic of body enhancements but because it was so basic many advanced practitioners didn’t develop it properly once they collected more etchings.

“Keep it up! You have 5 more minutes!” Wha yelled as she keenly kept track of what the girl did. She had been tasked with running full speed while alternating tatau to keep her moving at top speed. If the girl dropped any of her activations she was forced to restart. So far she was doing good with keeping up her speed while properly activating the tatau.

On the other side ‘Ekolu had Sone working on his endurance. Due to Sone being the Le’o user out of the duo it was logical that he would be targeted first. The easiest way to spot the incanter in any group composition was by looking at their hands and throat. The hand and throat tatau of incanters differed greatly from those bestowed on any other warriors. They were designed with protection, mending, and incanting in mind and reflected that. This didn’t mean that they were the weakest, just that they were to be considered a priority.

‘Ekolu had Sone doing wall-squats while using his hands to continually erase the fatigue in his legs. “20 minutes left boy.” ‘Ekolu quietly informed the boy. The key for the boy was to regulate his healing output. Too much and he would tire himself out, too little and it wouldn’t be beneficial while also depleting his already limited stamina. All tatau drew from the users stamina and their ability to withstand the pressure of activating it. Activating a tatau physically put a toll on the user and to many it felt as if they were putting on a weighted item. This toll doesn’t magically disappear when the user deactivates the tatau, it remains in the form of feeling physically drained. For Sone, it felt as if his hands weighed an extra 30 pounds as he tried to control the delicate balance.

Once the siblings were done with their warm-ups and basics Wha then called over a few candidates who were waiting.

“Come on boys. It’s your turn.” A group of 4 natives stepped into the sparring area, geared up with their preferred sparring weapons. 2 were using short staffs, 1 was using two wooden war fans, while the last was using their fists. All had arrived on the same ship as the siblings and had gotten some minimal instruction from Wha. She hadn’t found them very interesting so she had stuck them with one of the other instructors.

“Go crazy!” She exclaimed as she and ‘Ekolu stepped out of the ring.

___________________________________

Mai felt a little fear seep into her veins as Manawa called the other candidates over. She had finally grown comfortable sparring against the monstrous woman and now she had to get used to a whole new set of people.

On her side Sone groaned. “She always makes sure it’s unfair.” he said as quietly as possible. He definitely didn’t want the instructor hearing. With how frightening she was he was pretty sure she could hear anything.

The siblings had expected the 4 candidates to charge right away when Manawa had told them to go but they all stood still, wary. Knowing all too well how the instructor hated inactivity, the two took initiative. They wordlessly chose their targets, Mai going for the weakest of the 4 while Sone aimed to draw as much attention as possible. Alika had drilled into her how to identify the weakest link in any group and how to identify what their weaknesses were. With incredible speed she crashed into the candidate with the wooden war fans and pushed him away from his team before they could react. She had activated her shoulder tatau and had been alternating her leg tatau, resulting in an explosive tackle that stunned the man.

Simultaneously Sone hit one of the short staff wielding candidates with a looping overhand left while also activating his throat tatau. With the force of the punch the candidate stumbled into his closest teammate. With their attention split between the two pronged attack the groups reactions were slightly delayed.

The other teammate with the short staff, who had been next to the war fan wielding one, turned and swung his staff at Mai. Before he could connect his attention was pulled to Sone when he yelled out a command using his Le’o. “Come!”

All 4 were immediately mesmerised and focused on Sone. Mai quickly took out the one she had tackled with a high, mana infused kick to the neck before targeting the next closest opponent. The quickest of the opponents was the bare handed one who had been able to free himself from Sone’s command. He quickly activated his arm tatau and charged at Sone, who was backing away to pull the team away from Mai. The man tackled him and tried to take him down but a quick elbow to the back of the neck made him lose his footing. Sone took control and flipped the man onto his back before raining down blows with both hands.

Mai took out the short staff wielding one that Sone had first punched with a heavy overhand right punch that landed flush on the man's jaw from behind. As he crumpled to the floor she had to quickly duck as the last remaining candidate swung his short staff at her head. She rolled forward in an effort to take away the reach advantage of his staff. As she did so the man brought the staff down and harshly smacked her back as he shuffled back, aware that she was trying to decrease his advantage.

Mai grit her teeth and continued to advance, taking a defensive stance as the man continued to back away while raining hits on her. He didn’t notice that she was herding him towards Sone, who had taken out his opponent and was turning back to them. Before the man could react Sone had him in a chokehold from behind. He quickly gave in as his vision became dotted with black spots.

“Good work you two! Now it’s our turn!” yelled Manawa as Mai and Sone collected themselves. The siblings groaned at her announcement as they prepared themselves for another round of getting beaten up.