Tobin POV

  Theodore's team were around the clearing where the Beast King had died, and Tobin couldn't stop staring at Theodore like he'd grown a second head. The bastard was just standing there, brushing dust off his clothes like he hadn't just soloed a Beast King. A Rank 2 soloing a Beast King. Tobin's brain kept rejecting the information. It was like… like trying to force the wrong puzzle piece into place.

  "So," Bran said carefully, "you want to explain how you just did that?"

  Theodore smiled that infuriating little smile. "Did what?"

  "Don't play dumb. You killed a Beast King. By yourself. As a Rank 2." Wren said.

  "It was already injured."

  "That's not—" Tobin started, then stopped because what was even the point? Theodore clearly wasn't going to give them a straight answer. The guy had secrets wrapped in mysteries wrapped in whatever the hell that invisible force was he kept using. Tobin had felt it when Theodore pushed past them earlier, and it wasn't any element he recognized. Not wind, not pure mana manipulation, just... force.

  Tessia was quiet, but Tobin caught her looking at Theodore with this calculating expression, like she was trying to solve a particularly complex puzzle. She'd seen what they'd all seen, but unlike the rest of them, she wasn't vocal about her disbelief. Maybe because she was Instance One and had seen plenty of impossible things already.

  "Look, we got the points, right? That's what matters." Theodore said, and his tone was so casual it made Tobin want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him.

  "That's not what matters!" Tobin exploded. "What matters is our point-carrier not throwing himself at enemies like he's invincible! You could've gotten eliminated!"

  "But I didn't."

  "That's not the point!"

  "Actually," Theodore said thoughtfully, "I am the point. Carrier. Point-carrier. So technically—"

  "I will strangle you," Tobin said, and he meant it. "I will literally strangle you if you make another joke right now."

  Theodore's grin widened. "You could try."

  The worst part was, Tobin wasn't even sure he could anymore.

  If Theodore could shatter barriers and kill Beast Kings, what else could he do? The thought made Tobin's head hurt.

  "That aside, we need a plan," Tessia said. "Other teams will have seen the light from the Beast King's death. They'll know someone claimed it, so they'll come sniffing for a team."

  "Right," Tobin said, grateful for the subject change even though his mind kept circling back to Theodore "We should move and find somewhere defensible or—"

  "We should hunt," Theodore said.

  Everyone turned to look at him. Tobin was getting really tired of Theodore dropping these casual bombshells.

  "Hunt?" Bran asked.

  "For points. Other teams, regular beasts, whatever. Hiding didn't work—we got found twice in an hour. Might as well be aggressive."

  Tobin wanted to argue, but Theodore had already proven his instincts were good, even if his methods were insane. The guy had sensed the Beast King from hundreds of meters away, and he'd supposedly known another team was fighting it, and had successfully stolen the kill.

  So, maybe, it wasn't that bad of an idea if they decided to listen.

  I mean, what could go wrong? Tobin sighed internally.

  "What do you think?" Tobin asked, and he couldn't believe he was actually asking Theodore for tactical advice, but here they were.

  Theodore shrugged. "I think we're already marked as threats after that light show. Every team in the area knows we killed a Beast King. They'll either avoid us or come after us hard. Better to be the hunters than the hunted."

  It made sense. Tobin hated that it made sense.

  "Fine, we hunt. But you stay in the middle of the formation. No more jumping off cliffs or charging Beast Kings alone."

  "Sure," Theodore said easily, and Tobin didn't believe him for a second.

  They moved through the forest in formation, and Tobin kept glancing back at Theodore. He couldn't help it. The guy was supposed to be their weakest link, the dead weight they had to protect, but he'd shattered every assumption they'd had about him. Now Tobin didn't know what to think.

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  They found their first group of beasts within minutes. It was a pack of shadowclaw wolves, Rank 3 creatures that usually required careful coordination to take down. Tobin was already forming a strategy when Theodore stepped forward.

  "I've got this," he said.

  "Theodore, no—"

  The wolves charged, and Theodore raised his hands. That invisible force slammed down on all six wolves simultaneously, crushing them into the ground with such violence that Tobin heard bones crack. They dissolved into particles before they could even whimper.

  "See?" Theodore said cheerfully. "Easy."

  Tobin's mouth was hanging open. He closed it, opened it again, then gave up on words entirely.

  Bran wasn't handling it any better. The big man kept looking between Theodore and where the wolves had been like he was trying to process what he'd seen. "That's... you just... how?"

  "Training," Theodore said, like that explained anything.

  "What kind of training teaches you to do that?" Wren demanded.

  "The kind where your teacher is a complete psychopath who thinks breaking every bone in your body is a teaching method."

  They all stared at him, trying to figure out if he was joking. Theodore's smile suggested he wasn't.

  Tessia had been watching Theodore more than the rest of them, and Tobin wondered what she was thinking. She was Instance One, had probably seen plenty of talented people, but even she looked unsettled by Theodore's casual display of power. Not frightened, just... puzzled.

  Regardless, they kept moving and hunting. While they were all hunting beasts, as beasts came in groups, everyone's eyes were still on Theodore from time to time. It was fair to say that every encounter went the same way. He would step forward, something impossible would happen, and the beasts would die. A group of ironhide boars? Theodore formed some kind of white-hot lance that punched through their supposedly impenetrable skin like paper. Eagles? Theodore pulled them out of the sky with that invisible force and crushed them. A lone ape that should've required at least two of their team members to bring down? Theodore killed it with a single strike to the head, some kind of compressed ball of energy that made Tobin's skin crawl just looking at it.

  "This is insane," Wren muttered. "He's supposed to be Rank 2."

  "Rankings don't mean shit apparently," Bran said.

  Tobin understood the feeling. They'd all grown up with the ranking system, and understood that it meant something concrete about a person's power. Rank 4 beat Rank 3, Rank 3 beat Rank 2, that was how the world worked. Theodore was breaking that fundamental truth with every casual display of power.

  "Maybe he's not actually Rank 2," Tobin suggested desperately. "Maybe he's hiding his real Rank somehow."

  "You can't hide your Rank, the measurements in the tournament are rigorous, they don't lie," Tessia said. It was the first thing she'd said in a while.

  "Then how do you explain this?" Tobin gestured at Theodore, who was currently examining something on a tree.

  "I don't," Tessia said simply.

  "We should be getting close to the edge of this zone," Theodore said suddenly. "Might find other teams soon."

  "How do you know that?" Tobin asked, though he was getting tired of asking that question.

  "Can feel the mana density changing. This Instance has artificial boundaries between different biomes. We're approaching one."

  Of course he could feel that. Why not? Tobin kept stealing glances at Theodore as they walked. The guy didn't look special. Blonde hair, average height, decent build but nothing extraordinary. He looked exactly like what everyone said he was—a wastrel prince who'd rather party than train. Except he wasn't. It seemed as though the rumors were true and that he'd turned over a new leaf, and now, he was something else entirely. Whatever he was now didn't fit into any category Tobin understood.

  What kind of training produced this? Who was this teacher Theodore mentioned? And why was Theodore hiding this level of power? Because he was definitely hiding it. Bran had started walking closer to Theodore, not protectively but curiously, like proximity might help him understand what he was seeing. "That thing you do," he said, "the invisible force thing. What is it?"

  "Just something I learned," Theodore said vaguely.

  "That's not an answer."

  "It's the only one you're getting."

  Wren laughed. "We're supposed to be protecting you. You're our point-carrier. But you're the strongest one here, aren't you?"

  "I wouldn't say that."

  "Then what would you say?"

  "I'd say we're doing pretty well for points."

  Every question got deflected, every attempt to understand got shut down with vague answers or subject changes. Theodore was a walking contradiction, and it was driving Tobin insane.

  They kept hunting and soon crossed three thousand points. Tessia had started studying Theodore's techniques with intense focus, and Tobin could practically see her trying to decode what he was doing. She was Instance One, a genius among geniuses, but even she looked stumped.

  "There. Another team." Theodore said suddenly, pointing through the trees.

  Tobin looked where he was pointing and saw nothing. "I don't—"

  "About two hundred meters. They're fighting another team. We should approach it carefully. I can feel the mana signatures. Two distinct groups, lots of spell-casting."

  Tobin exchanged looks with the others. They'd stopped questioning Theodore's sensory abilities, but it was still unnerving how he could perceive things none of them could.

  "What's the plan?" Bran asked, and Tobin noticed he was asking Theodore, not him. When had Theodore become their tactical leader? When had they started deferring to the supposed weakest member of their team?

  Theodore tilted his head like he was listening to something. "One team's winning. The other's about to break. If we time it right, we can catch both when they're exhausted."

  "That's cold," Wren said, but he was grinning.

  "It's smart," Theodore corrected.

  They moved through the trees quietly, and sure enough, Tobin started hearing the sounds of combat. Spells exploding, people shouting, and the distinctive crackle of mana being thrown around violently. Theodore had been right. As they got closer, Tobin could make out the two teams through the foliage. One was clearly winning, pressing their advantage while the other team fell back in disorder. It would be over soon, and then they'd strike.

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