Loushee appeared out of nowhere. One second, Banca was rushing towards Reianna, the next, she was tumbling across the arena. Without thinking, Reianna rushed Loushee.

  Even in peak condition, Reianna knew full well that she was no match for the fifth-year mage. Fatigued as she was, Reianna was surprised she didn’t lose consciousness when Loushee backhanded her.

  Banca, who’d been so hesitant to attack Reianna after Reianna lost Animal Yani Human, wasted no time charging Loushee with a fallen dagger. Loushee made it look like the easiest thing in the world as she stripped the weapon from Banca, stabbed her, then flung her into the arena wall.

  Blackness swallowed Reianna as a dome slammed down around her and Loushee. “Banca!” Reianna cried.

  “Worry about yourself!” Loushee punched Reianna in the stomach hard enough to make Reianna vomit. With Reianna hunched over, Loushee punched up, catching Reianna under her chin. Reianna flew up and landed on her back, knocking the air out of her.

  She braced herself for Loushee to come crushing down on her—stomping her with her foot or stabbing her with one of the daggers, but no follow-through attack came.

  Struggling to her feet, Reianna swayed as she looked for Loushee. The mage squatted down with her hands covering her head. Between her arms, Reianna could see Loushee’s pained expression. “Yani-loving outwaller. Just how much are you going to interfere?!”

  Relief rushed through Reianna. Gerenet-Shr was working for her. He was trying to get to her and save her. “Loushee, just let me go.”

  “No-aaagh!” Loushee lunged at Reianna, swinging wildly with one arm.

  Reianna dodged her with ease. Loushee’s face was scrunched up in pain.

  “Pain is a matter of mind,” Loushee said through gritted teeth. She stood up straighter, but her face was still contorted. Breathing heavily, Loushee glared at Reianna, who backed away from the other girl.

  The area Loushee had trapped them in was a small section of the arena, a circle maybe 50 meters in diameter. The ground beneath them was light, as if the sun was still shining down on it, but the sky above them and the world beyond the circle were pitch-black.

  Backing up to the edge of the circle, Reianna reached out to the blackness, but her hand hit a solid wall. She ran her fingers up, and the wall curved up. Her initial thought of being stuck in a dome was correct.

  “There is no escaping if I don’t want you to.” Loushee wiped drool off her mouth, then her hand fell to her side. Loushee’s arms dangled, as if all her strength was going to her legs to keep her standing.

  Reianna pulled up Loushee’s dialog box. There was no doubt in Reianna’s mind that Purple was here to kill her. Reianna also couldn’t assume that Gerenet-Shr could keep doing what he was doing to weaken Loushee. Now was her chance.

  Focusing on the purple dialog, she pushed it down to the broken box so she could delete it. Since there were thousands of boxes, it took almost half a second to drag it to the bottom. As the other colors flipped by, Reianna had to concentrate on holding on to the right one.

  “What are you doing?!” Loushee staggered forward.

  “Fixing you.”

  The instant before Reianna slammed the purple dialog box into the broken one, it slipped from her grasp, or rather, it was pushed out of her grasp, and a turquoise dialog merged into the broken dialog.

  A completely turquoise Loushee materialized next to the purple one. She screamed and fell to her knees. “No!” She crawled back to the main Loushee. “Let me back in!”

  The turquoise Loushee hugged the main Loushee. As soon as her arms touched the main Loushee, Turquoise faded from existence.

  The remaining Loushee cried out and reached for the one who vanished. Tears rolled from her eyes. She glared at Reianna, then her expression shifted, and her purple hair faded to its normal topaz.

  “No! Reianna! Please! Don’t do it that way! They’ll all hate you if you do that, and I need them! Do it—” Loushee’s face contorted. “Do it…the other…way.”

  Loushee fell to her hands and knees. Her hair turned purple, and her head shot up to look at Reianna. The pained expression was gone, and Loushee gave Reianna a feral grin. “He stopped. You’re dead.”

  From her position on her hands and knees, Loushee launched herself at Reianna. Never before had Reianna so feared for her life. Adrenaline rushed through her, and she threw herself to the side.

  Loushee flew past her. Reianna ran. Unfortunately, the dome was small. There was no place to run or hide. She needed the dome to be gone.

  Reianna pulled up its dialog box:

  “Oh no, you don’t!” Loushee yelled.

  As Reianna watched the dialog box, the “environment” changed to “jungle” and “focal point” switched to “Reianna”.

  The dome and the dialog vanished as Reianna crashed into some large flora.

  “You can’t get rid of what you can’t see, can you, Reianna?”

  Loushee was right. The foliage stopped Reianna from seeing the dome. However, those same plants gave her a place to hide from Loushee. Crouching down, Reianna snuck through the jungle.

  “Come on out, little Reirei!”

  Reianna needed to find the edge so she could get rid of the dome.

  “Don’t go trying to sneak to the edge! I set you as the focal point. The projection will keep you centered. There is no edge for you.”

  Sweat ran down Reianna’s brow, both from the sweltering heat of the jungle and from fear. Nothing about the “optical dome” made sense. How was the oppressive heat and humidity optical? How could there be no edge when Reianna had just touched it?

  Picking a line, Reianna walked it, making sure to stay hidden in the foliage—something else that wasn’t “optical”. She walked fifty, a hundred, two hundred meters, but she didn’t come to an edge.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Reianna tried inspecting the trees and bushes around her, but none of them registered. The only thing that registered was the ground, but it wasn’t labeled as a jungle floor or the dirt, but as the arena floor. That only fueled her desire to find the edge so she could get rid of the dome.

  “Found you!”

  Loushee burst from the bushes to Reianna’s left. She managed to deflect Loushee’s dagger from stabbing her heart, but the blade lodged into Reianna’s shoulder. The force of the strike pushed Reianna into a tree, and the silver-haired girl fell to the ground.

  “Time to finish this.” Loushee stood over Reianna with a different dagger.

  Reianna kicked the other girl.

  “Oh, still have some spunk left in you, I see.” Loushee walked around to Reianna’s side, then knelt with one knee on Reianna’s chest, pinning her. Loushee grabbed the dagger still embedded in Reianna’s shoulder and wiggled it.

  Reianna screamed. She had to do something. The Loushee she liked had asked her to merge, not delete. Grabbing random colors from Loushee’s dialogs, Reianna merged them into the purple one, but there were thousands of purples. Whenever Reianna combined a color with purple, instead of the new color staying on top, a new purple would pop to the top.

  “Stop doing that!” Loushee put the tip of her dagger to Reianna’s throat, but it didn’t cut. The blade was a training blade that one of Reianna’s classmates had dropped. Its edge was dull, and its point rounded. Force was needed to drive it into something.

  Shoving color after color into the purples, Reianna focused on eliminating the Loushee who wanted her dead, but there were too many.

  “Stop!” Loushee grabbed the dagger with both hands and raised it over her head.

  Reianna panicked, and the dialog that was in her control slipped. It popped to the top, but was instantly replaced with a purple. She grabbed the dialog box again and shoved the purple in it.

  But there were too many boxes left. Reianna couldn’t do it. Loushee was going to kill her. Refusing to give up, Reianna continued to cram dialog boxes together.

  Loushee’s hands came down, and the dagger slipped from them. She fell off Reianna and curled into a ball. Loushee grabbed the sides of her head and wailed. “It hurts!”

  Using a tree to help pull herself up with her good arm, Reianna continued to shove colors into purple.

  “No!” Loushee crawled to get away from Reianna.

  Reianna didn’t know what was happening to Loushee, but she didn’t really care. Whatever it was, she had a chance to save the mage, to put her back together. Loushee scrambled to her feet and dashed off into the flora.

  Giving chase, Reianna followed her. Each step over the uneven terrain sent pain shooting out from her wound. Reianna covered it with her good hand to keep the bleeding controlled.

  Whatever was happening to Loushee slowed her down to a pace Reianna could match—even with her wound. More and more dialogs vanished, but still hundreds were left.

  Loushee grabbed a rock off the ground and chucked it behind her at Reianna. It slowed Reianna down, but not more than how much it had slowed Loushee down to pick it up.

  “Stop, Reianna!”

  “You stop! This would be easier if I weren’t doing it while running!”

  Loushee stopped; she spun and jumped at Reianna. The two crashed into each other, and Loushee wound up on top.

  “I don’t have to stab you, I can just strangle you!” The fifth-year mage wrapped her hands around Reianna’s neck.

  Reianna battered at Loushee with her good hand and somehow managed to keep merging boxes. Her vision started to blur. Dropping the boxes, Reianna pulled out a dagger from her storage and swiped at Loushee

  The mage was much too close to be hurt by the dull dagger that was more like a club than a knife, but the attack had Reianna’s desired effect: Loushee let go and backed off.

  Rolling over, Reianna coughed and gasped for air. Loushee jumped on Reianna’s back. Dulling the pain in her shoulder, Reianna pushed and rolled again, throwing Loushee off once more. This time, Reianna sprang to her feet.

  Despite numbing the pain in her arm, Reianna couldn’t use it. It dangled uselessly at her side. “Loushee!” Her voice was harsh and raspy. “Help me!”

  Loushee sank to her knees and grabbed her head. Reianna pulled the dialog boxes up. She didn’t care about what color she grabbed; she just shoved them together. Box after box after box.

  The dialog boxes filled her vision. She’d gotten rid of so many, but she still couldn’t see an end. Then there it was, few enough boxes that she could count, with only one purple left.

  Reianna went flying through the air. Her chin hurt from where Loushee rammed into her.

  “No! I’m not going! You’re going!” Loushee screamed. She jumped on Reianna and punched the smaller girl’s face.

  Reianna grabbed the final purple dialog and shoved it into the blue dialog. The attacks stopped, and Loushee fell forward. The hands that had just been beating Reianna wrapped around her and hugged her.

  Burying her face in Reianna’s shoulder, Loushee cried hard, heavy tears. “I’m sorry!” she sobbed. “Thank you. I’m sorry. Thank you.” Over and over, Loushee repeated it.

  Now that the threat was past, Reianna took her time and combined the remaining Loushees. Once Reianna combined the last two, Loushee’s dialog box turned into Reianna’s default lilac color.

  Reianna closed her eyes and went limp. She was tired. Making the dookgar had been straining. Fighting for her life while doing it over a thousand times left Reianna physically and emotionally dead.

  She felt her body jostle as Loushee picked her up. The heat and humidity vanished.

  “Loushee!” Gerenet-Shr roared.

  “I’m sorry, Gerenet-Shr. Here.”

  More jostling. Reianna pressed up against Gerenet-Shr’s chest. They’d hugged, but this was the first time that he’d carried her. She felt safe. Secure. All of her worries vanished.

  “Gerenet-Shr.” Reianna’s voice was still raw. It hurt.

  “Shh, Reia. I’m taking you to Tyze now.”

  “I’m so tired.”

  “You did great. I’m so proud of you.”

  Warmth spread through Reianna. She rolled her head over more and nestled into him. “Where’s Loushee?”

  “Gone.”

  “Gone?”

  “Shh. We can talk later.”

  Reianna nodded. She was still in his arms when she fell asleep.

  She woke up in a bed she was all too familiar with.

  “Rei!” Fawna scooted forward on her chair. “Nurse Tyze! She’s awake.”

  The bald nurse came over to Reianna. “How are you feeling, Gray?”

  “Gray?”

  “Well, you’re a silver, but it’s getting old seeing you in here.”

  Reianna shrugged. She looked at her shoulder and shrugged again. “Feeling good, actually, thank you.”

  He pointed at her shoulder. “You can’t see it now, but I’m sorry, I can’t do anything about the scar where she stabbed you. No matter what I use.”

  Reaching up with her opposite hand, Reianna rubbed her shoulder where Loushee stabbed her. She could feel the bump of the wound.

  “Anyway, rest a bit more and head back whenever you feel like it.” He slapped and squeezed her leg from over the covers. He yawned. “I think it’s time for me to get some rest as well. Miss Fawna, could you have Master Basque wake me up when he gets here?”

  “Sure,” the blonde answered.

  The nurse walked off, leaving the two roommates alone. Fawna sniffled. “Why does all this stuff happen to you?”

  “I don’t know,” Reianna shook her head.

  Fawna stood and hugged Reianna. “I’ll go get Gerenet-Shr. He’s still dealing with the aftermath.”

  “Okay.”

  Fawna left, and Reianna sank back into the bed.

  “I’m glad you’re alright.”

  Reianna shot up and looked at the bed next to her. Banca sat in it, wearing a patient's gown. “Banca!”

  “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I didn’t think you’d be waking up so soon. But it is you, so…”

  “So what?”

  “I mean, you’re amazing.”

  Reianna shook her head. “I’m not.”

  “Are you kidding me? You beat Loushee! Her being a mage aside, she’s a generational talent! And here I thought I could possibly catch up with you. How did you do it? How do you do it? You’re just so incred—”

  Reianna’s stomach churned. She felt…guilty. “Banca, I’m a mage.”

  The lilac girl fell silent. Her expression was unreadable.

  “I…I can hide it in my interface. That’s how I was able to get by at the trial.”

  Banca slid off the bed. Still in her patient's gown, Banca left the nurse’s office.

  Lying back, Reianna stared up at the ceiling. A weight in her chest lifted. Confessing to Banca was probably stupid, but they were going to be in the same class for the next four years. They would be training together, fighting together. All of Class E knew. While they could keep it from the other classes, within Class E, there was too much of a chance that that fact would slip out to Banca.

  That lie destroyed Banca's life. That lie killed her parents. Reianna hated Banca, but that didn't stop the guilt; that's why she told her. Now that Banca knew the truth, what would she do?