because they think the
Challenge will kill you anyway. Your best chance for survival is to
forfeit. You’re so young – if you cry for help, the Sentinels may
rescue you from the supernatural being they throw you against, to
show the people how merciful they are.”
She raised an eyebrow. Clearly, even after
seeing her in class every day for six months, this teacher didn’t
know a thing about her. “Cry for help?” she scoffed. “If there’s
anything this exercise has shown me, it’s that it pays to be a
winner. You said it yourself – if I weren’t ranked number one, I’d
… I’d be in so much more trouble. There’s no way I’m backing
out.”
She started to walk away,
but Williams pulled her back. “Listen!” he whispered, his voice so
soft that she could barely hear him, even when he was speaking
right by her ear. “You’re not supposed to know this yet, but the
creature you and the other champions will be hunting is a fangbeast . Do you know
how many Norms have survived an encounter with one? None. Believe me, I know
how skilled a combatant you are, but even you can’t defeat this
creature. So I beg you, if you want to live, swallow your
pride.”
He let go of her shoulder, gave her one last
stern look, and then walked away.
Aurelia remained where she
was, standing as if her feet had frozen to the ground. A fangbeast
… the one monster she truly feared. So they weren’t extinct, after
all. Williams was an expert in all things monster-related, and
if he didn’t see
a way for her to beat the creature, there likely wasn’t one. The
lore books taught that when the Lord of the Underworld had released
his monsters one hundred years earlier, the fangbeasts had been his
favorites. And for good reason – they were lethal . She’d heard stories about
entire squadrons of Defenders being mauled by a single fangbeast.
How was she, a lone fighter, supposed to handle a creature that
could split itself into infinite clones?
Maybe Vilk was right.
Maybe the Challenge was all a charade to show the people how scary the
supernatural could be.
But she shook her
head. It doesn’t matter. I have to finish,
or the Triumvirate will win. If she did as
Williams told her to and quit, the people would see a Norm fighter
running away from the competition. Instead of showing that Norms
were as good as Enchanters, she would be reinforcing the idea that
only the magical could fight the monsters and protect the cities.
The government would keep scaring people into absolute obedience …
and the world in which she lived would remain unjust. But if she
defeated the greatest enemy the government threw at her, she would
prove once and for all how capable Norms were. The future of her
kind was in her hands.
She wouldn’t let them down.
A fangbeast is nothing but
a pack of wolves, and I’ve taken on a pack of wolves before. She squared her shoulders and marched forward,
determined not to let the fear enter her mind again. Instead, she
repeated to herself the reasons she’d had for wanting to win so
badly: Beat the Enchanters, prove that
magic doesn’t make them superior to Norms.
And change the world.
This was it: The
final contest. And Williams had been right
– the champions were up against a fangbeast.
Aurelia had thought she’d be put in the
arena with the monster, on her own. Instead, though, the Challenge
officials had transported her and the other nine champions to
random areas of a city that had been destroyed during the war
against the Lord of the Underworld. A fangbeast – the first to
surface in fifty years – had been spotted there.
The thought of facing it made her heart
quake. She couldn’t keep her mind from wandering back to the tales
of horror she’d heard about past fangbeast encounters – like the
one about the monster who got past one city’s perimeter and
attacked a factory full of workers. By the time the Sentinels
arrived, there was nobody left to save. She may have been the
Challenge will kill you anyway. Your best chance for survival is to
forfeit. You’re so young – if you cry for help, the Sentinels may
rescue you from the supernatural being they throw you against, to
show the people how merciful they are.”
She raised an eyebrow. Clearly, even after
seeing her in class every day for six months, this teacher didn’t
know a thing about her. “Cry for help?” she scoffed. “If there’s
anything this exercise has shown me, it’s that it pays to be a
winner. You said it yourself – if I weren’t ranked number one, I’d
… I’d be in so much more trouble. There’s no way I’m backing
out.”
She started to walk away,
but Williams pulled her back. “Listen!” he whispered, his voice so
soft that she could barely hear him, even when he was speaking
right by her ear. “You’re not supposed to know this yet, but the
creature you and the other champions will be hunting is a fangbeast . Do you know
how many Norms have survived an encounter with one? None. Believe me, I know
how skilled a combatant you are, but even you can’t defeat this
creature. So I beg you, if you want to live, swallow your
pride.”
He let go of her shoulder, gave her one last
stern look, and then walked away.
Aurelia remained where she
was, standing as if her feet had frozen to the ground. A fangbeast
… the one monster she truly feared. So they weren’t extinct, after
all. Williams was an expert in all things monster-related, and
if he didn’t see
a way for her to beat the creature, there likely wasn’t one. The
lore books taught that when the Lord of the Underworld had released
his monsters one hundred years earlier, the fangbeasts had been his
favorites. And for good reason – they were lethal . She’d heard stories about
entire squadrons of Defenders being mauled by a single fangbeast.
How was she, a lone fighter, supposed to handle a creature that
could split itself into infinite clones?
Maybe Vilk was right.
Maybe the Challenge was all a charade to show the people how scary the
supernatural could be.
But she shook her
head. It doesn’t matter. I have to finish,
or the Triumvirate will win. If she did as
Williams told her to and quit, the people would see a Norm fighter
running away from the competition. Instead of showing that Norms
were as good as Enchanters, she would be reinforcing the idea that
only the magical could fight the monsters and protect the cities.
The government would keep scaring people into absolute obedience …
and the world in which she lived would remain unjust. But if she
defeated the greatest enemy the government threw at her, she would
prove once and for all how capable Norms were. The future of her
kind was in her hands.
She wouldn’t let them down.
A fangbeast is nothing but
a pack of wolves, and I’ve taken on a pack of wolves before. She squared her shoulders and marched forward,
determined not to let the fear enter her mind again. Instead, she
repeated to herself the reasons she’d had for wanting to win so
badly: Beat the Enchanters, prove that
magic doesn’t make them superior to Norms.
And change the world.
This was it: The
final contest. And Williams had been right
– the champions were up against a fangbeast.
Aurelia had thought she’d be put in the
arena with the monster, on her own. Instead, though, the Challenge
officials had transported her and the other nine champions to
random areas of a city that had been destroyed during the war
against the Lord of the Underworld. A fangbeast – the first to
surface in fifty years – had been spotted there.
The thought of facing it made her heart
quake. She couldn’t keep her mind from wandering back to the tales
of horror she’d heard about past fangbeast encounters – like the
one about the monster who got past one city’s perimeter and
attacked a factory full of workers. By the time the Sentinels
arrived, there was nobody left to save. She may have been the
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