A week later, Aria was having a rare sparring match with Halcyon. The strange Code bolts it had used in its own match had developed further, their purpose now more apparent. They were specialized Code projectiles that drained the heat out of the air, forming jagged shapes like shards of ice.

Halcyon wasn’t the only one who had picked up new techniques. Aria had gone to Quill with help solving the problem of using two techniques simultaneously. Technically, using two active techniques simultaneously was impossible until much higher tiers, but it was possible to build a new technique with properties of two other techniques. The result would be inefficient and fairly inflexible compared to true multithreading, but it did allow Aria to do something as simple as firing a Code bolt through a Cascade Ring to enhance its speed and range.

At a distance, Aria had a slight advantage. Halcyon’s cold bolts were formidable, but the complexity seemed to slow it down too much to fire them rapidly, meaning that they lost out to Aria’s simpler Dynamic Bolt technique in terms of sheer rate of fire. To level the playing field, Halcyon dashed forwards to close into melee range. Aria struggled to keep up with Halcyon’s flurry of blows, and couldn’t move fast enough to maintain a ranged battle for more than a shot or two. Aria went for a gamble with a Dynamic Bolt angled to hit Halcyon from the back, but Halcyon raised a short-lived barrier behind itself without looking. Not long later, Aria was on its back.

When Halcyon offered a hand getting up, Aria took it. “Your spatial awareness is incredible! I’ve tried using techniques without looking, but it’s surprisingly hard.”

“I don’t know how I would have done in a real fight. That barrier might not have held up if you were using that technique at full power.”

As they got into more technical details on a play-by-play breakdown of the fight, Aria was interrupted when Quill entered the courtyard. They said their goodbyes, and Aria gathered with the rest of the class to see what its teacher had to say.

“Excellent news! I have a practical exercise for the class. For some of you, this will be your first time using your abilities outside the temple.”

Aria lit up with excitement, rushing to the front of the class. “I’m ready! What’s the assignment?”

Quill’s faceplate played a too-cheerful green pattern. “A human hunt!”

That sent a ripple of murmurs through the class. Journey spoke up first. “Isn’t this planet invisible to humans?”

“That’s true, in a sense. Rising Waterfall is home to the Cosmic Shroud, an ancient artifact that shields all signs of machine life on the planet from external scans. So, to the rest of the galaxy, this appears to be an uninhabited rock. However, sometimes clusters of humans still come here by chance, and they need to be exterminated before they can alert others to our presence.”

Another student spoke up. “Are we strong enough to fight humans?”

“That depends on the human! The Homo Castris currently in orbit of the planet would be too much even for me, but it’s a small one, and it hasn’t been very active. A scout spotted a group of about eight to sixteen Homo Operarius - Worms, in the common parlance - deeper into the plateau. They should be well within your capabilities to deal with.”

As Quill spoke, it used Code to project a simplified map of the situation, with a cluster of dots near the center of the plateau on which the temple was built. Aria’s core ran wild, trying to imagine the skirmish ahead of them. It had seen diagrams, but it had never seen a human in the flesh. How big were they supposed to be? Could Worms use Code techniques?

“I’ll be sending you out with Fable as a supervisor. Temple Master Golden is leaving the planet on business, and it’s put me in charge, so I can’t leave the temple. Fable is there for your safety, not to help you fight, so try to only contact it in the event of an emergency… or for one other situation.”

Quill’s map changed, one of the dots representing the humans growing to triple the size.

“While we haven’t confirmed the presence of one, it’s fairly common for a group of Worms to be coordinated by one more powerful commander. If you see a human that’s significantly larger and shaped differently from the others, that’s a Homo Vilicus - a Steward. In the event that the humans have a Steward with them, retreat at once and Fable will deal with it. You’re still learning, and some foes are beyond your ability to safely handle.”

The warning about the possibility of a powerful human had a number of students looking scared or worried, but they were reassured by the presence of a teacher who could protect them from it. Aria knew in theory that leaving such a threat to Fable was the smart thing to do, but that did little to stop the rush of excitement it felt at the prospect. If a Steward really did show up to the battle, it didn’t know if it would be able to stop itself from picking a fight.