Argo huffed. Layla could tell he was only a little offended by her words. That was fine with her. The information was good, and she appreciated it, but didn’t the man just say that she had to leave shortly? Honestly, it was hard to think being so close to him. His presence and ridiculous attractiveness were messing with her attention span. 

Usually, even if she didn’t find the information appealing, she would still soak it in like a sponge and file it away in her steel trap. She had a freakishly good memory. It was both a curse and a blessing. Jogen could watch flicks over and over and still get enjoyment out of them. Layla, on the other hand, could not. She hadn’t forgotten or missed the small details because her brain wouldn’t let her. This was one of the reasons why she was able to master all the things she learned in the slice. But that didn’t mean she was super intelligent. It was just an advantage on recalling information. You needed context and experience to disseminate what to do with that knowledge else it was just random facts.

“Well, fine, stay ignorant. I can see that you’re going through a brutish phase. I had a few of those in the early days. Smash, smash, smash.” Argo chopped down with his fist emphasizing his words. 

“All that I cared about was throwing houses and kicking down mountains, like an idiot,” Argo said. His expression was disgusted, but Layla spied a slight tick upward at the corner of his mouth. 

“Oh yeah. Now that Argo, is why I’m here. Kicking down mountains! Sigh me up for that lecture and you will have my undivided attention.” Layla said with conviction. 

Argo chuckled at her words but didn’t dissuade her enthusiasm.

 “Why I am I not surprised. It is always the same in the beginning. Just keep in mind young Breezewalker. The most powerful thing in existence is right between your ears. Heed my words here child. Your fists will eventually reach a hard limit without understandings of the nature of reality, you will get stuck. Take the time to educate yourself when life is slow. It will help you survive when things begin to rush out of control.”

Layla knew that, of course. She honestly had never been this aggressive before. Her new body and her time in training had altered her perception of the world. She was young, so life experience was bound to do that to her at some point. Layla had never been strong before. Clever, absolutely. Her mind was nimble like the wind and her mouth sharp as a razor. She had never had the physical prowess to back up her wit and mouth, though. But now, she did. It was difficult not to approach a situation with a little more confidence when she shot off at the mouth. 

She would need to be careful of that fact. Layla did not want to become a bully. She just didn’t care enough about other people to be that way. Her aim would be to be a decent person first, and if that didn’t work, well, a little violence wasn’t so bad, right? Almost all heroes dealt some violence at some point. 

Argo cleared his throat, and Layla realized that she was staring at the man again. “What, did you say something?” She asked, looking away, trying to cover up her daydreaming slash creepy stalker stare moment. 

Argo rolled his eyes before continuing, “I said the soul stage is the last stage and final shell. It’s also the first stage where things start to get less straight forward. In this stage you will face the first bottle neck. You could blow straight through it, or you could fail causing a backlash to your soul. This can be mild, or it can be catastrophic. If you lose the structural integrity of your soul, then it could crumple in on itself or break apart entirely. This stage is dangerous and without tempering your soul, you might not be able to survive the breakthrough.” 

“That doesn’t sound healthy?” Layla quipped. 

“It is not. There are many hidden dangers along one’s path, young Breezewalker. Forging one’s path is to master all that stands before you. To impose your will on reality. Master yourself then master your surroundings. There will always be obstacles in your way. You can either fall prey to them or grind them into the paving stones the line your way to the top. To climb. It is intoxicating and addictive. It is a feverish pursuit of madness mixed with wild understanding of oblivion and eternity.” Argo had a crazed expression on his face as he finished. 

He stood up abruptly and began walking away from her. Without looking back, he held out his open hand, and his staff flew off the ground and snapped to his open palm. It was very cool, and Layla absolutely wanted to learn how to do it.

Argo slammed down his staff twice as he walked away from her. The building and all its surroundings’ structures disappeared. Layla and Argo stood on a circular floor in an ocean of stars. She could help but gasp at the view.

The constellations with unnatural golden lines connecting them looked down in judgment on the stage. Layla could feel their presence like a tangible touch on her back. A raging bull glared down on her as it was in mid buck, its rear legs high in the air. A queen seated on an invisible throne gazed down impassively, she looked ready to pounce on her at the first sign of weakness. 

Hundreds of similar figures line with starlight did the same. They moved like living structures. It was breathtaking. It was beyond terrifying. The sky and stars did not move like that. How was this possible?

A pair of stars collided, and a massive, brilliant explosion cascaded out. Before the nebula could fully form, two nearby constellations attacked each other. Both vying for the contents of the collision.  A lizardman with massive wings ravaged a colossal boar. The boar flicked its head violently. Its tusks severed the lines of one of the lizardman’s leg. The lizard man rushed to gather the fading stars of its leg while the boar constellation sucked up the stardust greedily then shot away like a comet.

“What the absolute mother of… what did I just witness. Did parts of a galaxy just get destroyed? Was it even real?” Layla said aloud.

Argo answered her, “No, well, eh maybe. It’s difficult to tell from here. I’m sure they will be fine. But it is quite real.”

Layla looked at the man incredulously. How could the destruction of parts of a galaxy be fine? This was too much. She needed to phase it out of her mind. The implication was too vast, and her outlook on reality was too small. She felt like a grain of sand looking up at a mountain.

She focused her gaze on Argo and ignored the stars jumping around like a bunch of wild children at play. Nope, she was not going to think about it.

“As I said before, the first ten floors are combat floors. So, it only makes sense that I am the final challenge for this floor.” Argo said, taking up a loose combat stance.

Argo moved his staff to his back and made a welcoming gesture with his hand. “Come show me what you can do.”

Layla walked forward. She shook out her arms and legs. Taking up a neutral stance that gave away nothing about her level of combat ability. He might suspect, but she didn’t think he knew everything. It was her only edge.

“This is a little unfair, isn’t it? You are obviously way more powerful than I am.” She commented. Her tone was lite and carefree as if she didn’t care about the outcome.

“I am no stronger than you are. The function of this stage and avatar is to make us equal in physical ability. The challenge is about pure skill. If you can force me to recognize your talent, then you may progress to the next floor.”

“Seems simple enough,” she said. Closing her eyes, she entered the emotionless void state. All distractions fell away. There was only Layla, the cold stone floor, and her opponent.

There was no official signal that the match had begun, but the two moved at the exact same moment. An eerie silent struggle commenced as the two probed each other for weakness.

Argo’s moves were like a rushing mountain stream as he flowed in and out of her guard. His strikes are powerful as a bear yet playful like a newborn colt. There was a beauty to his movements. A joy to his every step or strike that he made. It made Layla want to cry and sing all at the same time. But of course, nothing like that would happen inside of the emptiness.

These feelings could not take root in her as they splashed against her armor and dispersed like the rain on waxed metal. She could not be shaken.

Layla moved like a machine. Argo’s strikes were met with cold efficiency. There was zero wasted effort in her movement. Her every action was absolute as the sunrise and cunning like a predator. A frigid beauty could be found in her movements as well. But they were most likely only appreciated by true killers and assassins. Her strikes possessed no passion or joyful playfulness. They were hard like winter ice and full of calculations with every ruthless strike.

As the exchanges continued, Argo’s face began to change. It started with boundless excitement, but as the spar continued, his expression turned dark. Layla raised her left leg to block a sidekick she couldn’t escape from. Accepting the kick, she immediately counters strike with an elbow to Argo’s thigh. A loud crack resounded around Layla, and she found herself on the stones with her ears ringing and her vision full of static. She pushed herself up off the ground partway before her arms gave out. Her face smacked the floor again. 

What had happened? She hadn’t seen a thing. The whole right side of her face felt like it had been hit by a train and the left top of her head had a huge knot growing on it. It was probably from the fall, she guessed.

What was I doing again? There was the star madness and… Oh, right, I was sparring with Argo. Where is Argo?

Layla’s reception finally tuned back in as her vision cleared and stopped showing her double. She got to her knees and found Argo looking down at her a meter away. His face was full of complex emotion. Layla wiped her mouth and was not surprised to see blood.

“I had hoped that it wasn’t going to be this bad, but it was only a small hope. I…” Argo paused. He looked to be trying to find his words.

 He eventually did and continued, “I am sorry Layla, for what has been done to you, but no matter how I feel about it. I cannot let you pass this floor.”

“You just jack hammered me into the floor so hard I forgot where I was. I’m well aware I didn’t defeat you,” Layla said. Her voice was dripping with a cathartic, flippant tone.

“No worries though. I won’t stop until I do.” A chilly sharpness filled her eyes as she looked at Argo. This man would not stand in her way.

The sympathy that had been growing on Argo’s face disappeared. An angered-filled determination that Layla couldn’t understand replaced it.

“We don’t have time for another lesson. They have just breached the first door in your room.” Argo said coldly.

Layla stiffened in shock. “How would you know something like that?”

Argo waved a hand, and a vision of Layla appeared. She was seated in the cross-legged position in her personal quarters. She looked like hammered shit. Dried blood was streaked down all the orifices of her head.

The scene moved to the hallway where seven figured in all black were entering her dorm room. They moved in slow motion. She assumed it had to do with the time dilation of this place.

The scene faded away like smoke with a flick of Argo’s hand.

“It is a safety feature built into the tower. After a series of very similar events that are about to go down in your dorm room happened. I decided to add it. Once you are inside the tower, I’m able to sense your surroundings to a certain degree and give climbers warning in the case of danger.”

“Only a certain degree, huh?” Layla said with some skepticism. Her voice was full snark, but on the inside, she was letting her panic run wild.

This was not a good situation to be in. How hurt was she on the outside world? Did Argo’s healing transfer over? She didn’t know.

“Tiny mantles, what if they are ascendant. I’m dead. Yep, I’m dead.” Layla muttered. She rubbed her eyes and pushed her loose hair back with her hands. She stood that way with her eyes closed and elbows in the air, thinking.

“Wait, no. That’s not possible. I need to calm down. They couldn’t be ascendants. The school is protected. Especially the dorms. Then who is it?”

She really didn’t need to ask that question. Not even a few hours ago, she had beaten Jano Cellini and his family goons single-handedly. In front of the whole cohort, no less. Of course, they would send people to deal with her. 

This is how things are done, even in the upper crust. These families are ascendant martial families. Violence would be met with violence.

Argo said nothing to her, but she spied him watching her as she spun her wheels, trying to figure out what to do.

She looked at him and demanded, “How hurt am I in the real world?”

“What if I told you this is the real world?” He moved his eyebrows up and down. Layla wanted to punch him. Why did all these teacher types need to mess with people’s minds?

He snorted but walked over to her and stretched out his hand. She dodged away. The last time he did this, he’d scared her for life. No matter how much she tried to move away from him, his hand was there. So, she stopped moving. She didn’t want to embarrass herself any further.

A wave of warmth suffused her body, and she felt like a million credits, maybe even better. She hadn’t realized how injured she had been. Just how hard had this bastard hit her. Even her mind sharpened. Layla hadn’t even noticed that something was wrong until it was fixed. It was probably a concussion.

Layla glared at the man before saying, “Thanks. Say, does that creeper vision you have tell you anything about those guys?”

Argo frowned at her, “Creeper vision? What are you talking about? I don’t have creeper vision?”

“Sure you don’t. Well, can you tell if I’m about to be slaughtered or not? What kind of power level are we working with here? I don’t have a frame of reference as I’ve never fought anyone with power.”

Argo looked off to the side in thought before looking back to her, “They are all early body stage. You can expect them to be significantly stronger and faster than a normal human.”

Layla figured as much. She cursed. “About how much stronger are they than, say, a four-armed red ape cat?” They were strong. Probably one of the strongest and fastest things she had faced in the slice. The four red muscular ape arms protruded out of the back of a large feline body. The hairless cat face really weirded her out every time she saw it.

“A what? A four-armed ape cat? Oh, you mean a red gooshi. Where in the heavens did you fight a gooshi? Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Speed and power are about the same I suppose.” Argo answered.

“Well, I guess I have about a twenty percent chance then. That not good but it’s better than nothing. I don’t have any weapons. Can you send me back?”

Argo nodded, be he hesitated, “Layla, we are going to need to talk about what happened earlier. I won’t let you move past this floor until you—,”

Layla cut him off, “I know, Argo. Don’t worry. I'll beat you next time for sure.” She gave him a wink, and Argo gave her a pained smile.

“We will talk when you come back. Do your best to survive. It’s rather boring without any climbers.”

She laughed, “I’ll do my best.”

He tapped her head again, and Layla opened her eyes in her bedroom. She strained her ears, but she couldn’t hear a thing. They were obviously professionals. 

She scanned her room, looking for something to use as a weapon, but every damn thing was either molded into the wall attached to the desk. She regretted leaving the blade in the wall downstairs. It would have given her an edge.

She didn’t have anything and continuing to wait for them to burst through her door wasn’t going to do her any good. Layla would go out there and say hello. She didn’t think they would kill her. It would be too hard to cover it up. They might try to cripple her, though. She looked at her wrist unit and did a double-take. It was two hours away from the first morning bell.

The time inside the tower really was different. It had felt like at least a day or two had passed. It didn’t really matter, though. She stood and limbered up her body. Layla then walked to the door and pushed the control button on the side to open the door. It slid open.

Seven figures in snug clothing and black masks were halfway down her hallway. It wasn’t so large that two people could comfortably walk shoulder to shoulder. So, they were mainly in a single file line. They froze at the sight of her. They clearly hadn’t expected her to be awake.

“Well, well well. I didn’t think the Cellini family was so cowardly,” she said. Layla watched them closely. Her words were meant to probe more than insult.

They didn’t say a word, but one in the back tightened his fist.

She raised an eyebrow, “So it’s like that. Well, if we are going to do this then let’s get on with it. I still need to nap.”

They didn’t move towards her. Were they scared? She thought about how she had looked when Argo showed her sitting in meditation. She had seemed pretty ghastly with all the blood.

She laughed aloud, “Don’t be scared. It’s only a little blood. You best leave now while you can because I promise you, there is going to be a whole lot more in this HALLWAY!” She screamed her last words as she rushed them.

The hallway wasn’t short, but it wasn’t long either. A shared bathroom sink for the dorm was three-quarters up the hallway. If she didn’t hold them off from there, they would be able to easily double or triple up on her. That would spell the end of her for sure.

Slipping into the void again, she let her emotions wash away. The small fear and rising panic slipped away as her eyes filled with a ruthless, calculating light. They might overwhelm her at some point, but they would pay dearly for it.

The pro tip to taking on multiple combatants was to not take on multiple combatants. There were too many factors that depended on luck. She had done it more than once recently, but there were so many times where it could have gone another way. If her opponents had been just a little bit faster. If they had been a little more coordinated, she would have never been able to do what she had done. She was just a blue-haired freak girl. Who would have expected her to rush a group of trained foes and then start laying down the law like some goddess of war? No one had, and so she had taken advantage of the situation.

The stage down stairs had been another situation where she had taken control before they could truly organize against her. She had sowed fear through the vicious beating of their leader. Displaying a willingness to do extreme violence without restraint. Still, she had lost control of herself. Even though she might have won, it was mainly due to luck and their inexperience.

These guys were pros. She could see it. Maybe not the best, but they were well-practiced and use to working together as a team. They were stronger and faster than her. If one slipped around her, she would be in serious trouble. If the fight went to the ground. Layla wouldn’t be getting back up. She desperately needed to acquire a weapon.

Closing in on the first one, she drew back her fist like she was going to throw a running punch. The moment the first masked attacker made to block the move, she hopped, changing her footing, and snapped out a powerful font heel kick to the person's chest. He folded up from her kick and flew backward, causing chaos in the group. They tried to catch the guy while stopping their forward momentum, which turned into a train wreck. It was precisely what she had hoped for.

She didn’t let up on the falling man as she kicked him in the head again before pulling back just slightly out of striking distance. Layla needed this guy to be down while simultaneously staying in the group's way. Every person she could put down would give her more breathing room.

Layla snatched the arm of one of the squad's members and attempted to isolate him from the gaggle, but the moment she latched on, she experienced the difference in strength. The goon jerked their arm back towards himself, and Layla practically flew off her feet. She felt like she tried to stop a falling building. The move cost her a cheap shot to the ribs that stole her breath away.

She didn’t let it stop her even though her lungs spasmed violently. She paid the punch back with a shin kick to the side of the knee. There was no sweet popping, but it did cause the person's leg to fold and fall back onto the guy behind him.

As she moved back away to catch her breath, she caught a jab to her neck. It would have hit her chin if she had not moved away at the last moment. Either way, it felt like a bar of iron had just been blasted into her neck. She staggered against the wall, momentarily dazed from the pain. She pounded at her chest as she tried to scream her lungs back into inflating. It finally happened, and she got her bearings again.

She felt the punch coming, but it was too late to dodge it. She had taken too long to catch her breath. Her vision went white as her head cracked the plaster of the wall making a dent. Layla did her best to curl up into a ball, but these guys were pros. They didn’t even give her body a chance to hit the ground before one was standing over her. They had both hands on the wall as they kicked the shit out of her. And just like that, she knew she had lost. 

She tried to block them and had moderate success until two more got on either side of the other and started kicking her from three sides. She managed  to roll over towards the wall and protect her head while blows rain down on her like a waterfall. She blacked out a few times before they finally stopped their beating.

“Tie her up. The Matriarch wants to have a chat with her. We need to be out of the potentials nursery before the master’s start prowling around.”

“I don’t see what the big fuss is about. She doesn’t look that tough to me.” Said a nasally voiced youth.

She heard a loud thwack before another voice said, “Shut your trap, Niner. She took out Lim in two seconds flat, and she has even been in the Academy for a full day. If she had already started on her path, this might have been a close call. She isn’t normal. She knew exactly what she needed to do to take advantage of the situation. If she had a weapon. Well, we may have still taken her, but we would have paid a high price to do it.”

Several grunts of affirmation could be heard in the hallway. “She’s dangerous and most likely better trained than we are,” said another male.  

“It’s strange there is no one else in this dorm, don't you think?” Said a gruff female voice.

“Yeah, I don’t like it. Niner, tie her bindings tighter and bag the bent. Someone one pick up Lim and go on ahead of us. We need to be out in forty seconds.” Said a man. His voice confident and use to his commands being obeyed. 

Layla’s binding on her wrist went from mild discomfort to purely painful in a split second. A person lifted her head and hung something around her neck before letting her head smack the hard tile. She felt herself being hoisted up. The person dropped her down into a sack of some type going by the feel of the fabric on her battered face. Layla heard them tie it off, and she felt like she had been slung over someone's shoulder.

The group stayed silent from there on out. Layla bounced in her sack as the group ran. She never heard a sound. She could only tell they were running by the rhythm of the bounces. A cold feeling like standing under the showerhead before the water heated up washed over her, and then it was gone. Had she just passed through one of the barriers to the inner campus? That couldn’t be a good thing.

The pace slowed after a few moments. The group seemed less concerned about being caught now. Layla’s heart sank. She hoped that someone would notice this many people running around campus with a suspicious sack on their back, all dressed in black. But what did she know? This sort of thing might be typical. Hadn’t the guide said the inner campus was dangerous or something like that. She couldn’t remember. 

She was conscious, but it hurt to really think about anything. This had to be some type of record. Two concussions in one night.

The sack came to an abrupt halt as the person carrying her froze.

“Who the heck are—,” that was all the person got out before half cut off screams and fleshy thuds followed.

“Shit, it must be one of the Prime’s. Everyone scatter!” said the person carrying her.

The man-made it two steps before the crack of skin-on-skin rang out, and Layla hit the ground tumbling. She strained her ears, but everything had gone silent. The silence started to freak her out.

Who was this new person? Why did they help her? Or was it another group from the trial ready to snuff out the competition before it could even appear? She didn’t know. She strained at her bonds, trying to get loose, but it only made them tighter. She cursed the competency of the Cellini squad. She swore that she wouldn’t be found without a damn weapon ever again if she got out of this. Even if it was only a sharpened spoon.

Someone picked up her sack again. They said nothing, which didn’t bode well for her, she imagined. Her stomach lurched as whoever this was moved at speeds she was not used to moving at. All her organs were shifting to the side due to the momentum of the movement. The cold feeling came and went so fast that she wasn’t sure if she had just imagined it.

A moment later, the motion stopped. A door slid open, and the person threw her onto the ground. The door slid shut again, and Layla promptly vomited in her sack before passing out.