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  - DJ Demophon Kerner on K-RAD LA, April 14th, System Year 453

  Arlo’s Class Weapon appeared to be a pair of matched pistols. He left one holstered and raised the other in a two-handed grip. Like the cheap pistol I’d had back in Sunland, Arlo’s weapons were revolvers. After hitting his sixth bulls-eye – on the second target now – he paused, the cylinder popping out to the side, and he dumped the empty cartridges on the ground.

  He reached into a pouch and pulled out some kind of device that had six bullets sticking up out of it. I watched jealously as he easily lined up the device with the holes in the cylinder, and in a moment he had six fresh bullets ready to go. He took his time with the fifty yard target, but it looked like he hit all three shots either inside or right on the edge of the bulls-eye. I was impressed, especially since he only had regular iron sights to go by.

  For the dummy, he reloaded the three empty slots in his cylinder individually, then stepped to the line. He waited for Wolf’s instruction before nodding. Then, curiously, he held the gun up in front of him and used his left hand to set the cylinder spinning in a blur. He brought the muzzle down onto the target, the cylinder still whirling around, and squeezed the trigger.

  bambambambambambam

  The shots were so fast they were almost one continuous sound. I was immediately jealous of the Skill, though a moment later I noticed that his accuracy had suffered significantly. He’d fired the first shot at the dummy’s lower belly, and I realized the recoil of the rapid fire had driven each shot higher. They formed a ragged line up the dummy’s chest, with the final shot lodged in the neck area.

  The impressive Skill drew scattered applause from those watching, and Arlo turned with a flourish, bowing to the crowd like a Bard as he holstered his pistols. This guy is a little strange, but it’s nice to finally meet someone else who uses a gun. Or guns, anyway.

  After Arlo’s demonstration, I spent a few minutes mentally debating whether I thought his Class was as good as mine. It seemed clear that my slugs were far more powerful than his shots, but I couldn’t conjure those on my own. I was distracted from my thoughts by a loud noise.

  whomp! whomp! whomp!

  It was the cyborg, holding a shield and scepter and unleashing some kind of Spell at the first target. Identify.

  Name: Jayce

  Class: Sound Mage

  Tier: 0

  Sound Mage? I’ve never heard of that – until now ahaha! Ugh, that was terrible, you should be ashamed of yourself, Az!

  Bad jokes aside, I was fascinated. The Spell caused a distortion in the air, but unlike Elin’s Pain Bolt, which had a twisted, warped look to it, this one looked more like a shimmering trail punching out from Jayce’s scepter into the target. It was hard to tell where the Spell was landing, as the entire target shuddered under the impact but no marks appeared. Still, the instructors seemed satisfied. Jayce took several moments to fire at the dummy, just as Clarice had, and the result was equally impressive.

  WHOMP!

  The resulting blast was easily as loud as my shotgun, if not louder, and this time there was no question about where it hit, as the Spell punched a fist-sized dent several inches deep in the center of the dummy’s chest. The instructors signaled that she was done, and as she turned and walked back to the group I got my first good look at – her? Him? I was confused.

  The left side of Jayce’s face looked like normal flesh, and it was masculine in appearance – short purple hair and a strong jawline. In a line directly down the center of their face, the flesh turned to metal, and the shape of the white metal half of their head was distinctly more feminine. Their metallic half had a smoother jaw and more delicate ear, though it had no hair.

  Jayce was wearing dark purple robes that matched the color of their hair, with a dark leather breastplate over them. The breastplate also had a flatter, masculine shape on the left side and a noticeable curvature on the right. The short sleeves revealed one flesh-and-blood arm, with the other made of shining white metal with a complicated construction visible underneath at each joint. It reminded me a bit of the borghounds Mason had slaughtered in the Tier 2 zone, only it seemed to have normal-shaped fingers instead of claws.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Fuck, that is soo weird. And they must have been born that way, I can’t imagine it’s the result of corruption. They would have needed to have like half their body cut off and somehow survive! No, they must be an actual cyborg. I never thought I’d see one, figured that they were just a Bard’s tale. Of course, I thought the Black Razor was just a Bard’s tale too, and look how that turned out.

  There was only one student left after Jayce, a Wind Mage recruit shooting off Spells that seemed quite weak, based on the damage they did to the targets, but that popped up seemingly out of nowhere. It took me a few moments to realize the Spell was spike-shaped, and then I put the pieces together.

  That must be a Wind Spike, and if he can cast that from anywhere there’s wind, like Zaire can cast Earth Spike off any type of earth… Shit. That means he should be able to make a spike almost anywhere! They might be weak, but if you can’t see them coming… he might even be able to have it spike you from behind, or from right in front of your eye!

  I shivered. I was still happy with my Class, but it was apparent that other Classes had powerful abilities as well. I knew Zaire was deadly, but I had to put Pistoleer, Sound Mage, and maybe even Wind Mage up there with him – with us. The Archer students hadn’t impressed me much, but Hassan had shown me the power of a higher-Tier Archer. If I had to pick, the weakest of the group today seemed to be the Arbalists, just because it took them so long to reload. I certainly wouldn’t want to be hit by one of their bolts though, especially with whatever Skill the girl had used on the dummy.

  Once the Wind Mage was finished, the instructors dismissed us for lunch, telling us to be back in 45 minutes for more testing. I ended up at a table with Zaire, Alex, Alyssa, and Arlo, who simply sat down with us as if he belonged. Fuck, we all have ‘A’ names except for Zaire. Well, I have both an ‘A’ and a ‘Z’, so we’re all As or Zs. Weird.

  Arlo was pleasant enough – at least to Zaire and me. He seemed completely uninterested in the twins, once he’d confirmed they weren’t on the advanced track. So, he was a bit of a jerk, but at least he was discriminating on the basis of skill and not race – as far as I could tell anyways.

  Following a bland but substantial lunch, we returned to the shooting range. As the other students arrived, I realized that, aside from Arlo, the rest of the trainees had come out of the bar. I assumed that meant they’d eaten at the restaurant upstairs.

  Shit, are they all so rich that they can just eat there for every meal? And why didn’t Arlo join them? He didn’t even complain about the food.

  We moved on to more advanced shooting drills after lunch. They moved us to an adjacent section of the range, where instead of the narrow lanes we’d had before – each of which was maybe fifteen feet wide – there were what looked like three huge lanes, each at least seventy-five feet across. We only used one of them, and over it the instructors created mobile illusionary targets like Hassan had.

  They kept the targets low to the ground, moving back and forth at gradually increasing speeds as the students tried to take them out. Many struggled to keep up, including Zaire, though he did notably better once again than the other Earth Mage.

  Arlo, myself, and to my surprise Jayce all performed significantly better than average. The Lightning Mages also did quite well. No matter what happened, the instructors didn’t react positively or negatively, just calling us up one by one and observing. The process took considerably longer than the first round of tests, and when the Wind Mage finally finished his turn it was early evening.

  We were dismissed and told we were free for the rest of the night, but that we should get breakfast starting at 0700 and meet in the square at 0800. I walked quickly to catch up with Wolf, who had turned and headed towards the bar as soon as the other instructor had given us our orders.

  “Hey Wolf, can I do some more shooting tonight? My mana is full!”

  He looked at me with a sly grin.

  “Azure, I like the enthusiasm, but not when it interferes with my drinking time. Once classes start, we’ll get you qualified to use the range yourself – there are a few basic magical targets that can move around as long as you pump in some mana. Trust me, you’ll have all the training time you could possibly want starting soon.”

  I definitely did not pout at him, so he was clearly chuckling over nothing as he walked off. Zaire and I went looking for the rest of our team, following the sound of clashing weapons into one of the large training halls. Inside, it was a bit cooler out of the sun, but it smelled like sweat. Racks of training weapons lined the walls, and the spacious interior of the tall building was separated by more of the low stone walls into a grid of smaller squares, each about twenty feet on a side.

  A student was in each of the six squares, facing off against an instructor. The rest of the large group of melee fighters watched from a few rows of elevated stone benches against one wall, occasionally cheering – or jeering – at the fights. I spotted G’hala in one of the squares, matched up against the Brawler Leon. We located H’ruk sitting with Raylan on one side of the benches and went to join them, watching G’hala.

  Between her height advantage and the reach of her spear, it should have been a one-sided match. Actually, it was, but not in her favor, though as I watched it became obvious that Leon was testing her. The muscular orc launched flurry after flurry of quick stabs, longer thrusts, and vicious slashes, yet every time the Brawler seemed to slip just past her weapon.

  Maybe once every two or three combinations, she would land a single glancing hit on his barrier. I was sure that he could have even dodged those if he wanted. I doubted he could match Mason’s speed, but aside from the Black Razor and maybe Captain Rivers, I’d never seen anyone move so smoothly. At least not until I tore my eyes away from my teammate and looked around, realizing that every instructor there was in the same league.

  I saw Blur facing off against one of the trainees – Tara, actually – and it was immediately obvious how she’d gotten her callsign. The Blade Dancer had a long, slender sword in one hand – maybe a saber? – but she barely used it. Tara, who was obviously skilled, was futilely chasing her around the square with a warhammer.

  It was not going well. She couldn’t come close to touching the Tier 3, who unlike Leon didn’t seem to acknowledge even the smoothest combination of attacks by letting her opponent land a hit. It was obvious that Tara was slowing down from exhaustion, yet her attacks always missed by precisely the same margin.

  Fuck, that would be annoying! She’s practically taunting her by slowing down just enough to keep Tara the same distance away. I would be pissed off if someone did that to me, even an instructor.

  Finally, someone bellowed out “TIME!” and everyone came to a halt. Tara collapsed to one knee, while even G’hala looked winded, though she stayed on her feet. Apparently, orcs could sweat like people, though G’hala was barely glistening while some of the other students looked drenched. The tired students started making their way towards the benches. I suddenly realized one of the instructors was standing directly in front of us, hands on his hips.