Nate and Lindy continued on with their normal routine. Wake up, train, go to class, lunch, more class, train a little more, dinner, and free time. Dee was not acclimating to the training schedule, however. She was often late if she even showed up at all. Nate’s frustration was growing as Jarris had instilled in him a sense of duty to do everything he could to build his team up and not be the weak link that held them back. Nate couldn’t understand why someone would go through all the trouble to get to the Academy of Contractor Certification just to not try. One thing that Dee did very well was eat though, every time they saw her she had a snack of some kind that she had pilfered from the cafeteria. Lindy, on the other hand, was really trying and doing well. She was getting stronger, faster, and was significantly more accurate at throwing her healing goo than when they first started.

  Their first match was coming up, and Nate was becoming the de facto leader of the team as he came up with the training regimen, formations, and coached Lindy and Dee during practice. He was getting nervous as their first match was coming up and his first solo match was fast approaching as well and he did not feel like Lindy let alone Dee was ready to get in the arena. In the training room, the team was running a drill where padded bars were jutting out from a wall, sweeping and swiping, extending and retracting, while the team tried to dodge them to hit a red buzzer like ringing a bell at the top of a climbing wall.

  Lindy grunted as she got hit in the head from one of the bars sweeping across while Nate and Dee both dodged it.

  "Head on a swivel, Lindy." Nate said encouragingly.

  Lindy nodded her aching head as she rubbed a little healing salve where she got hit.

  "Okay, I’m going to turn the buttons on. Dee, you focus right, I’ll focus left."

  "Sure thing, Dad." Dee said sarcastically.

  Stationary red circles appeared on the wall for the team to begin targeting. Nate leapt into action to hit the targets on the left side. He ran forward, jumping and dodging the bars in mid-air as they attempted to simultaneously sweep his legs and knock his head from his shoulders. He got to the first target after a tuck and roll, dodging a bar that shot straight forward from the wall. He gave it a solid punch and looked for the next target.

  The next target was in the air above him, so he warped to a bar that was sweeping towards it and let himself fall on top of the bar so he could grab and swing with it. He jumped off the bar as it approached the red circle and while flying through the air he kicked off of it making himself spin and lose sight of the wall. Nate warped to the ground where a rod with a cushioned end shot out and hit him square in the ribs. Nate warped out of the fray and next to Lindy, who saw the hit and started rubbing his side.

  Dee called over from the right side of the wall. "You should really get a ranged attack ability, Nate. Makes this way easier."

  She was summoning rocks from her palm, then throwing them with speed like that of a Sunday league baseball player. She pinged each target with a rock, and after hitting each of them, they would all reset. While Dee was flinging her rocks, Nate walked over to the panel that initiated the training and called down a rickety but operational rubber ball turret from the ceiling.

  With a loud thunk, the turret launched a rubber ball at Dee’s back, causing her to stumble forward. Dee launched a menacing glare at Nate, who was hunched over laughing.

  "Dee!" was all that Lindy managed to screech when a padded rod swept Dee’s legs from under her, causing her to flop flat on her back onto the training room floor.

  Nate and Lindy froze, not sure how Dee was going to react. She stood herself up and put her hands on her hips with a huge angry frown covering her face. A smile started to crack through as she struggled to contain the laughter from within. Nate and Lindy busted up in loud belly laughs as Lindy threw some goo over to Dee.

  "Yeah, yeah, alright, I’ll do it the right way." Dee said as she summoned a thin layer of rocks on one of her arms and stepped within reach of the training wall.

  Team Arcane’s second weekend had finally arrived. There were no classes and no orchestrated physical training requirements other than meeting fitness goals for the day. Nate and Lindy didn’t have a problem meeting their daily requirements; Dee, on the other hand, did, as usual. More importantly this weekend also brought the first batch of solo and team matches. There was a rotating randomized schedule that could be adjusted if one person or team wanted to challenge one another. Nate and team finished training for the morning and were going to run some drills in the training room before they found that it was impossibly full.

  “Well, at least we got our conditioning in for the day.” Nate said.

  “Yea, whoopee." Dee replied.

  “Let’s see if the schedule changed at all.” Nate said as he pulled up his link and expanded it to the size of a computer monitor. Nate clicked through the menu to get to the arena portal. When he did, there were two new notifications waiting for him to click. The first was a message from the administration.

  Dear Nathan Foster,

  Please be informed that you received a challenge from a student for your solo match today that was rejected by the faculty on the grounds of: unsanctioned duel. You and student Biff Ripton will be able to challenge each other starting in week five.

  “Huh, looks like Biff challenged me but they won’t let us fight because of our little scuffle.”

  “Of course that blockhead would challenge you to your first fight." Lindy muttered grumpily. “You would have wiped the floor with him though. What’s the other notification?”

  Nate tapped the other notification, which read:

  Dear Team Arcane,

  Please be informed that you received a challenge from a team for your team match today that was rejected by the faculty on the grounds of: unsanctioned duel. You and Team Riptown will be able to challenge each other starting in week five.

  “Ah, looks like the faculty wants us to cool off a bit before we fight with muscle man again.”

  “Well, does it say who we are actually fighting today then?” Dee asked.

  “Yea, one sec.” Nate clicked back to the fight card page. “Looks like we are fighting Team Stomp.”

  “Weak name.” Dee quipped while flicking through her link absentmindedly.

  Nate pulled up Team Stomp’s fight card on his link. “Looks like they are three Taurens, so close quarters are going to be tough. I’ll need to hop around too so I don’t get—”

  “Don’t finish that sentence, Nathan.” Dee interrupted.

  “Stomped.” Nate said, giggling.

  Lindy giggled too. “Who’s your solo, Nate?” Lindy said with a hopeful cherry disposition.

  Nate pulled up the fight card and the bio for his solo bout. “Looks like a Quallen female named Harper Glen.”

  “Oh, that’ll be easy. Quallens are quick but are weak strength-wise. We should find a study room and come up with some plans.” Lindy said.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Later, in a study room, Nate stepped back from a white board with a mess of Xs, Os, and a swirl of lines that looked like a plate of spaghetti. “Alright, does that make sense?” Nate said, looking at his scribbles on the whiteboard in front of him.

  “Uh, Nate?” Lindy asked sheepishly. “This is kind of confusing. Could we run through it again?”

  “Of course! Let’s make sure we get it right!” Nate said excitedly. He turned back to the whiteboard and saw the incomprehensible mess he made. “Oh." He said deflating. “Let’s maybe make this a little simpler.”

  Nate marked Xs and Os on the whiteboard again, but now only laying out a few potential scenarios. “It really boils down to this: I’m going to bounce around, distracting and making quick hits the best I can while trying to get them closer to you two so it’s easier for Dee to land some shots. You two will stay behind Lindy’s barrier so you are protected from range. Dee, while they are distracted, throw the biggest rocks you can, as fast as you can, trying to knock them out.”

  Dee and Lindy nodded.

  “Much better.” Dee said.

  “Alright, let’s go see if we can watch a few fights before we are up.”

  The team found some seats in the arena and sat down together. Off a ways down the row, Nate noticed Biff sitting with his team and a posse of girls fawning over him.

  “I wish I could have fought him today.”

  “Same. He’s going to get a big head if he wins.” Dee replied.

  “You mean a bigger head.” Lindy added.

  The team laughed at Lindy's joke, but Nate's thoughts drifted. He felt like they had come a ways over the past week but still felt there was a missing piece that would make their team finally click into place. Nate hadn’t noticed that a whole fight had started and finished while he was looking over at Biff.

  Looking down at the field, an announcer—a green skinned Quallen student—rose up from the center of the arena and started motioning with his hands. Looking closer, Nate could tell that the man was speaking, but he couldn’t hear anything. The jumbotron came to life with a camera shot that was desperately trying to center in on the announcer. Then the audio cut in with a loud screech, catching what the Quallen was saying mid-sentence. It was clear that this was a student-run production by the amateur work that was going into it thus far.

  “Now let me introduce our next teams!” the announcer shouted as the red and blue teams appeared on the field on opposite ends of the arena. “On the blue side, Team Sidewinder! On the red side, Team Flapjack!”

  There were weak boos and cheers for each team from the less than quarter full arena. The announcer was covering the rules when the stage started retracting into the floor. The announcer was caught off guard by this and started shouting at someone when his audio cut off.

  A countdown started on the jumbotron, and when it hit zero, a loud air horn sounded off. The teams in the center looked confused but started enacting their strategies as soon as they locked eyes. The fight was over almost as fast as it had started. The blue healer tripped over herself mid-charge and struggled to get back up quickly. The red team took this advantage and quickly took down the blue frontliners who had no buffs or healing. They were also clearly not skilled fighters at all, which led to their quick downfall to Team Flapjack. Once the Team Sidewinder healer recovered from her fall and saw her two teammates were out cold, she raised a hand in surrender.

  Another air horn sounded off, signaling the end of the fight. The same shoddy production of the announcer coming up from the ground started again. The audio this time came on before he was ready, catching his snide, rude remarks to the production crew below the stage.

  “Nate, we should probably get to the locker room. Don’t you think?” Lindy said.

  Nate looked at the jumbotron and saw that their fight was coming up on the schedule but there were still a few more in front of them. “Yea, with how fast that last one went, we might be up sooner than we thought.”

  The team got up and moved to exit the arena. Biff noticed them leave and started shouting and screaming after them, but they ignored him and moved on. Biff settled back down into his small gathering of sycophants after he realized they weren’t going to respond.

  As expected, the next few fights went fast which meant Team Arcane was on deck for their first fight. Nate, Dee, and Lindy walked into the room with six old looking hospital beds. Team Stomp walked in behind them and laid down in the beds as if they had done this before. They towered over Team Arcane standing at an average of seven feet tall between the three of them and looked like minotaurs from ancient Greek mythology. They had the torsos and arms of a human, but their hands were disproportionately larger than their arms. Their legs looked like the hind legs of a cow, cloven feet and all. They had the head of a bull with long horns that were perfectly angled and shaped for goring. These three looked the warrior part, now Nate would see if they could walk the walk.

  A referee walked up to Nate as he laid down on the bed and put a single cathode on his temple. “Close your eyes and your consciousness will transition momentarily.” The referee said.

  Nate closed his eyes and a couple moments later he appeared in his suit in the arena. Next to him were Lindy and Dee who seemed to have done this before as their faces didn't hold the same bewilderment as Nate's did. The team moved and positioned themselves in a V formation with Lindy in the back, Nate on the left wing, and Dee on the right.

  Looking at the menacing trio, Nate could tell now they were all male by the lack of udders. Then again, Nate didn’t know if Tauren women even had udders or at least he couldn't remember from his classroom lessons with Jarris.

  Nate looked over to Dee and Lindy to give commands for the fight. “Stick to the plan and we’ll be okay. Call out any threats or patterns as soon as you make them out.”

  The jumbotron finished its countdown and the air horn blew. The three Taurens broke into a dead run towards the team. Nate ran and positioned himself between them and his teammates. One Tauren redirected his path on a collision course with Nate, that’s when Nate noticed they didn’t have anyone staying in the backline. All three of them were charging full speed.

  Nate shouted back to the team, “I don't think they have a healer!”

  “NATE, WATCH OUT!” Lindy cried.

  Nate turned back to his opponents, realizing that the Taurens were moving a lot faster than he first realized. The Tauren that had changed direction toward him had put down his shoulder and was leaving a trail of fire behind him while his body began smoldering. Nate quickly warped behind the charging beast-man, causing him to stop and turn back towards him. Nate then warped a few times until he reached one of the other Taurens, putting his foot out for him to trip on. Nate then warped back to the center, throwing a regular punch into the back of his opponent’s leg. The Tauren grunted and slung an arc of fire in Nate’s direction, but he was already gone.

  Nate warped away from the Taurens and looked at his hand. That was the first time he threw a punch. He looked up again and saw the trio of intimidating man bull creatures threatening his friends. Any thought or hesitation to commit violence faded away. He locked in his determination, ready to get to work.

  Nate warped and then dashed towards the Tauren he hadn’t annoyed yet, who was now dangerously close to where the rest of his team was hunkered down. The Tauren jumped about 20 feet into the air as a gust of wind blew dust from the center of his launch point. As the Tauren started to come down from the arc of his jump, he picked up speed dramatically and crashed down where Lindy and Dee were supposed to be but they scurried away in time to dodge the attack. Dee formed a baseball sized rock in her hand and clocked the Tauren right in the temple. The big creature staggered and shook his head back and forth trying to shake off the damage when Nate warped in and struck the Tauren with a powered dropkick, sending him flying into the arena wall.

  The crowd roared in approval.

  “That one get away from you?” Dee said sarcastically.

  “Sorry! Focus!” Nate shouted back.

  Dee and Lindy got back behind the barrier while Nate hopped the wooden wall to face down the two remaining combatants. Dee started pelting the one on the right with smaller but faster flying rocks. Nate took this as a cue to attack the left, like they had practiced. The Tauren on the left started smoldering again, thick smoke coming from his skin and fur. He stood in a ready attack formation but didn’t charge. Nate and the Tauren just circled each other, waiting for the other to make a move.

  “NATE!” Lindy cried, causing Nate to lose focus and turn to see a very large, unnaturally sized fist coming down on top of him to squish him like a bug. Nate dodged out of the way in time for the hand to slam on the ground. The other Tauren took off, leaving a trail of fire behind him. Nate quickly rolled back onto his feet and saw that Dee was a deer caught in the headlights of a semi truck headed straight for her.

  Nate, knowing that Lindy’s barrier wasn’t going to hold from that attack, warped a couple of times and appeared between the charging beast-man and Dee. Nate didn’t know where the hit would land and couldn’t instinctively activate his shield in time so Nate took the hit and was launched back fifteen feet or more through the barrier and rolled along the ground unconscious. Soon after his body disappeared signaling he was out of the fight.

  Lindy screamed Dee’s name, but she was locked on Nate, trying to break her shock and get back into the fight. She looked at the smoldering Tauren who was now too close for comfort so she launched a rock at his face. The Tauren dodged it easily by hunching over and used the momentum to punch Dee square in the gut. Dee hunched over on the ground, out of breath. Looking up, she saw the Tauren coming down on her with another fist. Dee raised a stone-covered arm to block the first punch, and while it did hurt to punch a rock arm, it only annoyed her opponent rather than actually doing any substantial damage.

  The next few punches didn’t knock her out, but she wanted them to. Looking over, Lindy was now out cold, lying face down on the ground, body fading away. Dee held up a hand in surrender, and the air horn blew, calling for an end to the fight.