"You can stay dead, too," she said, and swung her blade in a quick arc.
Rauk barely managed to lift his weapon in time. The two blades clashed with a sharp, jarring ring. The force traveled up Rauk’s arms like a shockwave.
"Hold your sword, you fool!" Chef snapped as she struck again.
Rauk lost his grip. The sword flew from his hands.
Kaedros lunged while she was distracted, aiming a thrust for her side. He shouldn’t have bothered.
Chef turned leisurely, brought her knife down to parry, and in the same breath her free fist snapped forward.
It collided with Kaedros’s face.
He stumbled back, eyes stinging, blood trickling from his nose. He lifted his sword in defense, but Chef had already shifted, now clashing with Taria’s spear.
"How...?" Kaedros muttered, wiping blood from his upper lip. She was too fast. Ridiculously fast. Even leaping up for attacks didn’t slow her down.
Taria held her own, but only barely. Kaedros thought she might actually have a chance but Chef disabused him of that notion quickly.
They disengaged. Chef landed lightly on her feet, holding her knife casually at her side.
"You’re better than the other two," she said to Taria. "But not by much. See? You relied too much on mana."
Taria was panting, her hair clinging to her face, sweat glistening on her brow. She planted her feet and lifted her spear again. "Let’s go again."
Chef snorted. "If you insist."
Taria brought her spear up to block,but at the last moment, Chef stepped on the spearhead and launched herself forward.
Her left foot struck Taria squarely in the jaw.
Kaedros’s eyes widened.
"What was that?" he gasped, stunned.
But Rauk didn’t hesitate. He had recovered his sword and now brought it down in a powerful two-handed arc with all the strength in his body.
This will hit! Kaedros thought. It had to.
Chef barely looked concerned.
Just as the blade neared her, she flicked her knife upward.
Rauk screamed as the shock tore down his arms. He dropped the sword with a yelp and fell to the ground, legs tangled beneath him.
Kaedros grimaced. He’d trained with weapons back in Dragon City, but truth be told, he was terrible with them. No one had ever taught him.
As Chef laughed at Rauk, Kaedros slashed at her exposed side.
But his blade hit nothing but air.
Kaedros blinked. The first thing he saw was Chef’s brown robe. The second was her fist.
It smashed into the same spot on his face. Harder this time.
His knees gave out. He dropped to the floor, clutching his bleeding nose.
"You call yourselves candidates?" Chef’s voice rang out in disgust. "You should be ashamed—"
A grey spear suddenly whistled toward her face.
But she caught it. Barehanded.
Her palm clamped down just inches from the sharpened tip.
Without looking, she flicked her wrist and the spear flew.
It screamed past Taria’s cheek, so close it sliced a line across her skin.
She touched her face and drew back blood.
She hadn’t even seen the throw.
If Chef had wanted her dead, she would be.
Taria looked at her then, really looked at the small, robed woman with the oversized knife strapped to her back and a glass bottle swinging at her hip.
She barely came up to anyone’s waist.
But in that moment, Taria felt small.
Because Chef... wasn’t.
Chef met her eyes, and something ancient, something terrible flickered in her gaze.
Taria took a step back, breath caught in her throat.
What was this... pressure?
A suffocating aura surged from Chef, crashing into her like a wall. It felt like a massive hand pressing down on her chest, choking the breath from her lungs.
Then, just as suddenly, it vanished.
Taria gasped, sucking in air as if surfacing from deep underwater.
Across the training ground, Thalso smiled inside his armor.
"It looks like one of them just got a glimpse of true power."
Nyra purred beside him. "They’ll see more than a glimpse. And if it’s willed... they’ll get a taste."
Thalso folded his arms. "Their performance is poor."
"All the more reason to mold them," she said. "Shape them into what you need."
Taria’s heart was still thundering. Her instincts screamed one word. Danger. Over and over again.
But Chef didn’t seem to notice or she chose not to.
"...As I was saying," she continued smoothly, wiping dust from her robes, "you should be ashamed. It’s pathetic!"
Her snort snapped Taria out of the lingering fear.
And when she looked again, the terrifying aura was gone. Chef was once again just a small woman in oversized robes, her kitchen blade slung casually on her back.
"You fought for your food," Chef said. "And you failed. So no food for you today. Try again tomorrow."
"What?" Rauk groaned from the floor, rubbing his sore hands. "You said we didn’t have to defeat you to win!"
"I did. But I didn’t know you were so pathetic," Chef said bluntly. "You can’t even hold on to your weapons. How am I supposed to feed warriors who can’t earn their meals?"
"Then let us fight again!" Taria snapped. Her stomach twisted with hunger, and pride boiled in her chest.
"Or let us fight with mana this time," Kaedros added, brushing blood from under his nose.
"No," Thalso’s voice cut through them.
"You won’t be using mana again until you prove you can stand on your own two feet. No crutches. No shortcuts."
Kaedros clenched his jaw. "How are we supposed to survive without food? We won’t even have the strength to train."
"Not my concern," Thalso said. "Earn what you want."
Nothing more was said after that.
Silently, they picked themselves up off the dirt and dusted off their clothes. It helped little because they were filthy, sweaty, and sore.
Thalso offered to escort them to their rooms, and with no other choice, they followed.
When he told them to take their weapons with them, they paused in confusion.
"Why?" Kaedros asked.
"There must be a reason," Thalso replied simply.
So they carried their blades and followed.
They left Chef and Nyra behind, still near the fruit trees. On the way, they stopped briefly by the lake to drink but were quick about it. Without mana, facing a lake monster would be suicide.
They emerged from the garden and crossed the massive great hall, heading toward yet another doorway.
"How many doors are in this place?" Kaedros muttered.
"Too many to count," Thalso said as he opened the door to their quarters.
Inside, the room was modest, two beds, a large mirror standing tall at the center, reflecting nothing. To the left was the toilet. The door on the right led into another connected room. Taria’s.
"Why is it so dark in here?" Kaedros asked.
The only light came from several wall-mounted candles.
Thalso shrugged. "Maybe the Castle decided it’s night. Either way, this is your room. Wake up early. Training resumes at dawn. Make up dawn."
With that, he turned and left, shutting the door firmly behind him.
"Well," Rauk said, dropping his sword and flopping onto one of the beds. "Today didn’t go as planned."
"This raid didn’t go as planned, period," Taria said, leaning against her room’s doorframe. "We expected the Celestial Order. Even the bounty hunters. But... Vexa..."
Rauk slowly sat up, his eyes dim. "Yeah. I didn’t expect her betrayal either. Working for the Second Prince? That caught me off guard."
Taria gave a tired smile. "We planned for everything... right, Kael?"
Kaedros sat heavily on his bed, still feeling the weight of failure. His body ached, his stomach growled, and his face still stung from Chef’s punches. He glanced down at the cuff on his wrist.
"Yes," he said at last. "But Vexa still surprised me. And learning Rauk is a prince... That was unexpected."
Rauk rubbed the back of his neck. "That was my closely guarded secret."
He glanced between them. "Tell me though, why did you fight her? Vexa was letting you follow her into the capital. To serve the Second Prince."
Kaedros raised an eyebrow. "Didn’t you hear me? I said, ’I’ll make you into a King.’"
"I do want to change the kingdom," Rauk admitted. "If the Second Prince wants the throne... then yeah, I’ll step in. Try to stop him."
He looked down at his hand. Clenched it.
Then laughed bitterly.
"’Step in,’ I said. As if I actually have the power to do anything."
"You made the first step," Taria said plainly. "You organized this raid. And yeah, it failed but the intention was sound. You wanted strength."
Rauk gave a sheepish smile. "I promised to help you advance. But here we are."
"We knew what we were doing when we joined," Kaedros said. "And honestly, we were forced to anyway. That’s the past now. What matters is surviving here."
The others nodded. They spoke for a while longer, voices low and tired, before taking turns washing up in the small bathroom.
Their stomachs were still growling.
But eventually, they drifted into an uneasy sleep.