The next morning, the heavy wooden bar slid open with a grating scrape that dragged Nox from a light, restless sleep. Mela stood in the doorway, her expression unreadable.
"The Elder summons you. Both of you."
’Showtime,’ Nox thought. He pushed himself to his feet, his body feeling coiled and ready. The aches from his core integration were gone, replaced by an energy that felt like a predator waiting to be unleashed.
He helped Serian up, her face full of caution. They followed Mela back to Fena’s house, the other dark elves watching their slow procession with the same cold hostility as the day before. He felt their glares like they wanted to eat him over some rice but they didn’t bother him. They were just noise.
Fena was waiting for them, standing by the fire pit. Her gaze was like chips of ice.
"I will speak with the Sun Elf," she announced, her voice leaving no room for argument. "Alone."
As if on cue, five other elves stepped from the shadows of the house. He recognized the scarred, angry face of Jor, and the cold, emotionless one of the archer, Valeria. They moved to surround him, their hands on their weapons.
’So they want to separate us.’ He knew where this was going. It was a test, or an execution. Either way, it was going to be fun.
He turned to Serian, his voice low. "Be careful."
She met his gaze and nodded. "You as well."
"Take the human to the Proving Ground," Fena commanded without looking at him.
Jor’s lips curled into a cruel smile. "With pleasure, Elder."
They led him away. He didn’t resist, just walked with a steady, confident pace, Serian’s worried gaze on his back. He was surrounded, a prisoner being led to some unknown fate, but he felt a thrill coiling in his gut.
’Five of them,’ he thought, his eyes moving from one to the next. ’Let’s see what you’re made of.’ He focused his gaze on Jor, the one who seemed to be in charge of his little escort party.
[Jor - Ashen Elf Veteran]
[A seasoned warrior, proud and aggressive. Relies on overwhelming his opponents quickly. Weakness: His pride makes him susceptible to taunts, causing him to fight recklessly.]
’Level 55. Not bad.’ A smirk appeared on his face. ’Such a lame weakness, reminds me of that mutt.’
They walked past the last of the tree-houses, heading deeper into the forest. The path became less defined, the trees thicker. This wasn’t the way they had come.
"So, what’s a ’Proving Ground’?" He asked, his voice casual. "Is that just a fancy name for the place you murder your guests?"
Jor, walking beside him, let out a harsh laugh. "It is where we determine if something is a threat, or just meat." He glanced at Nox, his eyes filled with contempt. "I have already made my decision."
"Good to know," he said, his tone bored.
They arrived in a large, circular clearing. The ground was hard-packed earth, bare of any grass, and the trees surrounding it were scarred and broken from past battles. It was an arena, plain and simple.
The five elves fanned out, forming a wide circle around him. They drew their weapons. Jor’s curved knife gleamed. Valeria nocked an arrow, her movements silent and fluid. The other three drew swords, their stances low and ready.
"My mother ordered my sisters to bring you back alive," Jor snarled, stepping forward. "She gave no such orders to me."
Nox just stood in the center of the clearing, his hands hanging loose at his sides. He looked at each of them, his gaze lingering on Valeria for a fraction of a second.
"So it’s five against one," he said, his voice laced with a faint, amused tone. "Doesn’t seem like a very fair test." A slow, dangerous smile spread across his face, a look of pure, predatory excitement. "I almost feel sorry for you."
"Ohh?" Jor’s lips curled into an expression of pure contempt. "Look at it, brothers. A human. The race of vermin that crawls over the world like a disease, leaving nothing but ruin in its wake."
Another of the elves, a tall one, spat on the ground. "They are foul creatures. They reek of sweat and desperation."
"And they die so quickly," a third added, his voice a low sneer. "Their lives are a frantic, meaningless scramble for power and coin before they wither and turn to dust. Pathetic."
Nox’s expression didn’t change. He just watched them, boredom clear on his face.
’That makes sense, we are pretty trashy,’ he thought.
The taunts were meant to cut, to provoke him into a reckless rage. But the words just bounced off him. They were talking about humans, a species he had nothing but disgust for. He remembered the sneer on Mark’s face as his head was shoved into a toilet. He remembered Ms. Joy’s cruel laugh, not just her either, all those bastards in his class.
He remembered Ava’s voice, clear as a bell, calling him a pathetic loser. He knew all too well just how cruel humans could be.
’They’re right,’ he thought, a cold, empty feeling settling in his gut. ’But they’re not even close to being harsh enough.’
"Is that all you have?" He asked, his voice quiet but cutting through their insults. "You’re not going to mention their hypocrisy? The way they preach friendship and loyalty while sharpening the knife they’ll stick in your back?"
The taunts died in their throats. Jor’s sneer faltered, replaced by a look of sheer confusion.
Nox took a slow step forward, a humorless smirk twisting his lips. His eyes were cold, dead voids that held a hatred far deeper and more personal than their simple prejudice.
"You’re right about humans," he said, and the sincerity in his voice made a chill run down their spines. "Filthy, treacherous, backstabbing animals." He looked each of them in the eye. "They deserve to be wiped from the face of this world."
The silence in the clearing was deafening. They stared at him, their weapons half-lowered, their confident smirks gone. They had tried to insult him with their hatred for his race, but his own hatred was a far purer, more terrifying thing. They had brought a knife to a war, and they hadn’t even known it.
Valeria’s emotionless face twitched, her eyes widening just a fraction. Jor took an involuntary step back.
’Idiots,’ he thought, the smirk fading from his face. ’They thought they were insulting me. They were just describing my old life.’
He let out a quiet sigh. "This is a waste of time. I was expecting more. Let’s just get this over with."
He activated Void Step.
He vanished, dissolved into nothingness, then reappeared directly behind Jor in a whisper of displaced air.
Jor’s eyes went wide with shock. He felt a cold presence at his back, heard a voice that was too close and too calm.
"The first one... is you."