Day three of the expedition was winding down, the same way it had before for the members of Arden’s team. They were again sitting around the campfire roasting celestial venison. If there was one noticeable difference it was that four polaroids had been added to the kindling. Both of Sya’s pictures along with Kepler's as well.

  They were the only two in the party that had hunted their respective Celestials, and an immense burden had been lifted from their shoulders after doing so. Mainly Kepler’s though. With her set of Celestials out of the way, she felt that she would finally be able to live again. She would be as good as guaranteed to be a warrior, which meant money, something that was a bit of a necessity for a recent runaway.

  Her fights were nowhere near as flashy as some of the other participants. The inferno ant, as advertised, was just a big fire ant with fire breath. When the fight began, Kepler was pinned down, using her antler weapon to keep its mandibles from stuffing her into its mouth. In a panic, she threw one of her vials into its open mouth. It must have been flammable, because when it prepared its fire breath, it burst into flame from the inside, killing it.

  The malefic moth might as well have been renamed to the mischievous moth with how annoying it was. Not in combat, but rather how it tried to avoid combat altogether. It made it a challenge to actually get into a fight with it as it just maintained its distance high above the group of Starborn, presumably creating some of its poisonous compounds. It wasn’t hard to see, but it was hard to hit. Vera had given her the Rascal’s Pocket Rocket and some rocks, which allowed her to even the odds. A minute later, the malefic moth fell to the ground with holes in its wings, and Kepler rushed over and beat the moth to death with her bone staff.

  When she got the notification for killing it, she wasn’t sure what she was happier about: killing the celestial, or securing its materials including the poisons that had been mixing between its wings.

  Sya had only recently come down from the adrenaline high of fighting both of her Celestials at the same time, and now she stared into space grinning like an idiot, occasionally giggling to herself. It was clear that she was really happy with her performance. She along with Kepler had grabbed their meat and walked around the camp, talking with each other.

  “I guess its only us that has to kill our Celestials,” Vera said, bringing her gaze back to the meat that was being cooked.

  “I guess so,” Arden replied. “Three days in, and only eight or nine people haven't killed their Celestials yet.”

  “What do you think of them?”

  “Honestly?” he said looking around, then started speaking again in a hushed tone. “I haven’t really seen anyone that amazing. Half of those who haven’t killed anything are those who failed at killing them. You, me, Kralis, and the other guy haven't found our targets yet.”

  “You and Sya weren’t exceptional to begin with,” she pointed out.

  “That’s valid,” he nodded. “Still though, I haven't seen anyone that I actually want to have on the team. Aside from Kepler anyway.”

  “Any reason in particular?”

  “Not really. I know we shouldn’t try aiming for a gem when there are all these uncut rocks, but damn. I wanted to see some more sleeper hits.”

  “I think Kepler might be our only one,” Vera agreed. “She has something that I didn’t see in the majority of the other participants.”

  “The drive to improve.”

  “Yeah. For the big name guys, they are trying to be better. People like Volis or Kralis, but there are also a lot of them who are content with where they are, despite the fact that should they succeed here, they will have to keep growing to make a living.”

  “It’s possible that they aren't showing it because this is the test. I know I didn’t do much training when I was in my trial.”

  “Yeah, but you were busy trying to survive. Doomsday has a habit of making people do things they never thought themselves capable of.”

  Arden gave a self-deprecating chuckle.

  “Ain’t that the truth. I didn’t think I’d be a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom in my trial.”

  “You’re not that any more. You embody self-improvement now. If you feel weak, you get stronger. You evolve.”

  Footsteps alerted the pair and they looked towards the man who was approaching them. It was Volis. Immediately, the pair stopped talking about Arden’s trial, not wanting anyone to know about what fully happened.

  “Am I interrupting something?” Volis asked.

  “No,” Vera said. “We were just discussing the assessment so far. Your main team members have done a great job so far.”

  “No kidding,” Arden said. “Get Liva to tell me how she holds her breath for so long. I can barely hold my breath for a minute, and she showed off doing it for ten while fighting that big water strider.”

  “You get into a lot of underwater fights?” Volis asked.

  “No. But Vera wants me to hold my breath longer.”

  “No no,” Vera said. “Arden wants to be able to hold his breath longer. So he can be under for longer.”

  “I get the feeling that you aren’t talking about being underwater, nor fighting.”

  “You’re right,” Arden shamelessly.

  “You…” Volis said, then sighed. “You’re weird.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  “You haven't stepped out to fight anything yet,” Vera said. “What are your targets?”

  Volis plopped down in one of the open seats. As he did, he realized how good the meat that Arden was cooking smelled.

  “Did you marinate that?” He asked.

  “No, it's just naturally good like that,” Arden replied, throwing another portion over the fire.

  “One of my monsters is called a flashspeed bug, and the other is a trapdoor crawler.”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “So a fast bug, and a big spider,” Vera said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Haven't we seen a few of those already?” Arden asked.

  “We have,” Volis nodded. “I'm just not hunting them until probably the last day.”

  “Why?”

  “I want the rest of my team to finish ahead of me. As the leader, I need to look after them first and foremost.”

  “Is that smart? What if you fail because you waited too long to begin hunting?”

  “Then I'm not a good enough leader,” he said. “I know I'm a good fighter. Granted, I didn't have a particularly good showing the day we met, but trust me when I say it.”

  “We believe you,” Vera said. “You fought with us against a supergiant. That alone makes for a good warrior.”

  Volis nodded.

  “Fighting comes naturally to me. I'm a guild baby. I've been learning to fight since I was able to stand, preparing to become a Starborn. It's leadership that I'm worried about,” he said, turning to Arden. “How do you do it?”

  “Excuse me?” He responded, confused. “I'm not the leader. She is.”

  “She is? I thought that your party was centered around you. You were the one that made the best plays on the bull.”

  “I was set on fire. Several times.”

  Vera spoke up.

  “He's not the leader,” she confirmed. “He just has a somewhat loose relationship with his sanity. He needs someone to reign him in. Honestly, we don't really have a defined leader, but I am probably the one most like one.”

  “Okay, so how do you do it then?” Volis asked again, pointing an accusatory finger at her. “And don't be vague. Cryptic advice is worse than no advice.”

  “First of all, don't overthink. All a leader really has to do is lead. Set the goals, right your team's wrongs. Stuff like that. There is no one right way to lead. I know that what I've been doing has been working pretty well.”

  “I have no complaints,” Arden said, taking the finished meat out of the fire and giving each of his companions one.

  “Is that it?” Volis asked, unconvinced.

  “You're the prince of a guild aren't you?” Vera asked. “Why don't you ask your family for guidance? I'm sure you trust their word more than us. They should tell you the same thing.”

  “They do. I'm just looking for an eighth opinion. I'm not great at letting go. I'm a bit of a control freak.”

  “You have to let people make their own mistakes,” she advised. “As the leader of a warrior party, you need to let your party grow. If they make a mistake, scold them, and make them improve. They won't grow if all they do is win. One loss is worth more than a thousand victories.”

  “You said something like that to us as well,” Arden said.

  “Because it's true. Winning doesn't show you what you lack. It's losing that does that,” Vera said before turning back to Volis. “Regardless, you're doing just fine. Just try to make sure most of your team passes. Don't force yourself to be last. True teamwork is organic.”

  A mocking laugh came from a short distance away. The party of three looked at the laughing Kralis with disdain. Well, Vera and Volis did. Arden's expression barely changed.

  “The leader of that freak is giving teamwork advice?" Kralis said, pointing at Arden.

  “Hey Kralis,” Arden responded. “Sorry about that the other day. I was pretty childish and just wanted to annoy you.”

  “I don't want your apology.”

  Arden threw another portion of meat over the fire.

  “What about streamer stag meat?”

  Kralis looked between the annoying man and the meat roasting over the fire. He didn't want to eat with him. But…

  “...Starborn don't need to eat,” he said, trying his best to drown out his rumbling stomach.

  “Correction: we don't need to eat much. So you might as well enjoy what you do eat.”

  Kralis still looked uncertain. With a glib smile, Arden pulled out another cut of meat and threw it over the fire as well. Kralis relented and sat down in between Vera and Volis. Arden marked it as his win.

  “...I guess one or two wouldn't hurt.”

  The group sat around in an awkward silence for a few minutes. Only the sound of the sizzling meat and the conversation of other participants in the assessment nearby could be heard. Arden personally was loving it.

  Volis was the one to break the silence first, speaking to Kralis.

  “...How is the Striven guild doing?”

  Kralis looked at him like he was crazy.

  “What?”

  “How's your guild?” Volis asked again.

  “Better than your guild,” Kralis replied curtly, folding his arms.

  “I wouldn't be so confident,” Volis smiled.

  “Why are you asking me this?” Kralis scowled. “Our guilds are rivals. What is it you hope to achieve with fake kindness?”

  “Just because we're rivals doesn't mean we have to be antagonistic towards each other. Just look at them.”

  Volis gestured to the couple sitting across from them. In the few seconds that he and Kralis were talking, Arden and Vera had moved their seats closer to each other. Kralis raised an eyebrow.

  “Are they rivals?”

  “Kind of,” Arden answered. “She's definitely my goal, given that she has a lot more experience than me. I want to stand by her side. I want to be her rival, but I'm not good enough yet. The one I'm actually competing with is my sister.”

  “If Sya is your competition and equal, then I look forward to seeing what you can do," Volis said. "I didn't expect her to be able to go against two Celestials at the same time earlier.”

  “It was eye-opening,” Kralis nodded, surprising everyone with words that were undoubtedly praise.

  “I didn't expect it either,” Arden said.

  “Same,” Vera chimed in. “Those were high-end protostars as well.”

  “What are your Celestials?” Volis asked.

  Kralis was now interested as well. Apparently, he wanted to see what had a chance of kicking Arden's teeth in. Venison or no, he still didn't like him.

  “Hemorrhage hornet and dark matter beetle.”

  Neither Kralis nor Volis responded. They just looked at him with expectant expressions as if they were waiting for him to continue.

  “Well?” Kralis said, displeased. “We're waiting.”

  Arden wrinkled his brow and spoke hesitantly.

  “For…what?”

  “For the other Celestial!” Kralis yelled.

  “Wait, what? I just said it. It's a dark matter beetle.”

  “Seriously, Arden,” Volis said. “If you don't want to tell us, just say so.”

  Arden looked at them like they were crazy. He had literally just said what he needed to hunt, twice, back to back. His head started to ache. He glanced over at Vera, who like him seemed to be suffering from a headache, as she was rubbing her temple with a wince.

  ‘What's going on?’

  There was a sharp pain behind his eyes that felt like a red hot iron to his brain. For a moment he wanted to yell, but as soon as it occurred, it was over.

  Sweat was pouring off of him as he glanced at Vera, who was in a similar state. Their shaky eyes met each other, worry, confusion, and pain, evident in both.

  “Are you guys alright?” Volis asked.

  “I…I don't know.” Arden said.

  “Guess that Celestial you fought earlier wasn't as easy as you thought. I guess it's good you only have the hemorrhage hornet left."

  There was a short pause as Arden digested the words. Somehow, he had gone from having two targets to only one.

  ‘Well, it's because I killed the dune splicer earlier. It's only natural that I only have one now since I killed one of the targets.’

  The dune splicer was not as hard to kill as he first thought it would be. It was a strange hybrid of centipede and earthworm, and relied on its burrowing speed to tunnel through the ground at high speeds, even being able to leap from wall to wall and ground to ceiling with its momentum. Fortunately, its speed was its greatest weakness, as Arden sidestepped it and raked his claws along its fragile body. The attack when combined with its speed was enough to almost rip it in half.

  He heard his heartbeat in his ears. Something was telling him that something was wrong. Some unknown survival instinct was trying to make him realize it.

  His stomach growled. He felt voracious. It was a familiar gnawing hunger that made him feel like a void, ready to consume everything.

  And the spell broke.

  Arden fell off of his stool in shock. He hadn't killed any Celestial today. He only watched the others kill some. His own correct memories re-entered his head, and he ran a hand through his hair.

  “Shit…”

  Volis looked worried while Kralis just looked confused. Again, both of those emotions were directed at him.

  “...We'll get out of your hair,” Volis said, rising from his seat. “You look like you need some rest. Good luck with your last Celestial.”

  Volis stepped away from the fire and Kralis left shortly thereafter, once his two cuts of meat were ready. When they left, Arden and Vera looked at each other.

  “You remember what I have to kill, right?” Arden asked, praying that her memory was spared.

  She nodded slowly.

  “A hemorrhage hornet. And… a dark matter beetle.”

  “...What just happened?” he asked.

  Just then, they each received a notification from their Status’. It was a familiar one, one that they hoped would never see again. They felt confused and unnerved before, but now they entered a state of what could only be described as subdued panic.

  Paradox in progress.