“Okay, visualize the point at the center of your body.” “Hm... Got it.” “Now picture that point being a container full of Aura using the sensations and image you get when utilizing your Powers.” “Sparkly... Warm... And tingly.” “Now picture that container swelling, the pressure of the Aura increasing and the sensations growing more intense” “So tingly... Like pins and needles.” “Now once the force within the container becomes uncomfortable or painful, picture all of the Aura bursting out at once and flowing throughout your body!” Yohan yelled as his body enveloped in a flame-like vapor of light while a slight invisible pressure began emitting from his body. “Hold it Yohan!” Twenty seconds later, Yohan started breathing harder. “Hold it!” Forty seconds later he started sweating profusely and looking like he was struggling. “Hold... It!” After precisely one minute, Yohan heavily exhaled and doubled over as the glow around him dispersed. “Great! With that technique, you should be able to increase your maximum number of pellets per day, at least for a brief moment. Your base number of pellets should increase as you raise the mass of your Aura.” “Thanks... Just... Givemeaminute...”

Nick and Yohan were currently in their room training their Auras. After slaying the iron rook, Nick had finally developed the ability to intensify his Aura and had successfully taught Yohan how to use it for himself. First, he had learned how to trigger it in a meditative position, then while standing up, then while running in a straight line, then while moving around erratically. This time he had learned how to sustain his intensified Aura for over a minute. Ideally, one should sustain their intensified Aura for a few moments at a time, but it never hurts to accumulate a large amount of Aura for one powerful or specialized attack.

The total profit of HCs from their prize was indeed one thousand two hundred as Citro had said, but the number of HCs they had earned from the remains of the monsters they slew was nine thousand six hundred. Once divided between themselves, the total number of HCs had come to six thousand two hundred for Nick and five thousand eight hundred seventy-five for Yohan. He insisted on letting Nick take all the HCs, feeling he barely did anything, but Nick wouldn’t hear any of it.

After accumulating so many HCs at one time, they decided to take it easy for a while and focus on refining their PK. In their free time, they explored Helgram and had so far discovered sections with their own microclimates that were essentially small beaches, jungles, mountain ranges, and a weird one that had a building made up of terraces with their own localized gravitational pulls built in all manner of angles, all over the span of five months.

Nick sat down on his bed. “So, what do you want to do today, explore some more?” “Nah.” “Go back into the underground? I’m always up for expanding my arsenal. Plus, you could use the practical experience.” “Nodefinatelynot.” “Take on another contract? We could always just take a bunch of simple low-risk jobs.” “Hm... Maybe.”

Suddenly, a heavy knocking came from their door, startling them both. “Uh... I got it.” Yohan walked over to the door and opened it. He yelped as he fell on his back and scurried to the other side of the room before cowering.

Nick looked at the doorway and saw Alzolami standing at the threshold, startling him. Her eyes glowed with a soft light. “May I come in?” “Depends, do you mean us harm?” “Not unless I have to, or if you peeve me off.” “Fair enough. You may enter.”

Alzolami entered their room while Yohan stared at Nick, muttering incoherently under his breath. “So... What brings the daughter of the headmaster to our very humble abode?” Alzolami paused for a bit as the light from her eyes flashed before saying, “To keep it simple, I’m thinking about teaming up with you two lumps.” Nick’s eyes widened in astonishment as Yohan heavily gasped in his corner.

Nick tried to keep a poker face as he said, “What... Brought on this decision?” “I said I was thinking about teaming up! What you two did in months takes most students years. I’ve been here more than half my life and I’ve never seen anyone rise as fast as you guys. Plus my Dad is always pestering me about how ′mortals are always stronger together, being stubborn never got anything done, pride was considered a sin for a good reason′ so now here I am.” Nick was silent for a moment, mostly due to the fact that Alzolami had perfectly mimicked Mr. Ender’s imposing voice.

“So... What’s stopping you from going through with it?” “Well, there’s the fact that you should have lost that Master game. The biggest reason why I wanted to team up is that the Master game competition is coming up in a few weeks and I need to know if you two lumps will boost my chances at winning despite your track record.” “My Dad always said that one of the best ways to check if a PK Master is worth teaming up with is by checking out how much they can intensify their Aura” “Is that what you two were doing before I came in? I felt that. You might frighten an F rank monster with that level of force.” “That was Yohan. He just learned it, but he shows a lot of promise. Want to see mine?” “Go ahead.” sarcastically stated Alzolami before backing up to the center of the room.

Nick stood straight up and closed his eyes. He visualized his center containing an indistinct feral creature struggling to get loose. As the creature grew larger it started becoming more agitated. Once Nick could almost feel the creature scratching around his insides, he imagined it bursting out, becoming a group of similar creatures, and swarming throughout his body as his Aura intensely radiated six feet from himself followed by a wind-like pressure filling the room.

Alzolami’s eyes dimmed and Yohan froze with his mouth wide open as their clothes and hair fluttered in the force of Nick’s Aura. After one minute, Nick let go of the image and the glow and pressure of his Aura faded. “Hm... Okay, you pass.” “That’s good. But it’s only fair that you show us your intensified Aura after you got to witness ours.”

Alzolami’s eyes glowed intensely for a few seconds before she adjusted her posture. Suddenly, the entire room filled with vaporous light emitted from Alzolami’s body as a gale-force pressure blew in Nick and Yohan’s faces. The window flew open and the luminorbs popped. After ten seconds the pressure and light faded and she spat, “Satisfied?”

***

Alzolami collectively called her Power Black Shadow Girl. Because of her demiman lineage, she possessed the ability to stretch and shift her body into nearly any shape or form she wanted. However, anything she changes into remains soft as her flesh and capable of sustaining injuries, so she tends to use PK to weaponize her natural abilities. She called the first part of her ability Red Shadow Girl, which enables her body mass to replicate any force that caused her pain in the last twenty-four hours. The second part she called Orange Shadow Girl, which enabled her to transform her body or parts of her body to mimic the properties of any non-living solid object she destroyed, disassembled or damaged beyond repair for up to one hour of continuous use, but she couldn’t exert any more force than her body or Aura was normally capable of. The third she called Yellow Shadow Girl, which enabled her to become the person that caused the greatest emotional response within twenty-four hours to the person she was nearest to. She could mimic the Powers and most prominent or recent memories of that person, but the mass of her Aura remained the same and while transformed she could not access her normal abilities and Powers except to transform back while all borrowed memories disappear. She wanted to add at least four more applications to her primary Power, but her father advised her not to do so until she had more life experience. When asked about the Power she used to meld into shadows, she said it was a property of her Ego, the pseudo material that composes each Demiman's body.

At the moment, they were waiting in line in front of the dispatch office, the place students go to get access to portals to go on jobs or turn in treasures for HCs, nearest to their room. It was in the middle of a T-intersection of halls, built with a window leading to an office area where a receptionist was waiting to talk to students and enter data into a cornucopia-like FullHorn’s (the modern universe’s computer) keyboard-like Aura construct to the side. The hall itself was very tall with a ribbed ceiling and wide enough to comfortably accommodate groups of students walking back and forth. The walls had paint in a shade of beige and lined with seats between windows that showed a view of a jungle canopy to the left and grassy badlands to the right.

As he reached the front of the line, the synthman receptionist whose mechanical hands were typing at breakneck speed at the Full-Horn turned their head to Nick so their glowing telescopic eyes were gazing at him. “Hello. Would you like to check your place on the HC rankings, turn in some treasure for HCs, go on a mission, or register for the Master game competition?” The voice coming from a speaker in their mouth area was masculine with a slightly sophisticated accent. “I’d like to register, please.” “Are you doing it yourself or do you have a team?” “Yes, I have a team.” “May I have their names or aliases?” “Nicholas Xed, Yohan O’Mann, and Alzolami Ender.” The receptionist entered their names into the FullHorn and a machine to the side dropped three large round yellow coins, which the receptionist handed to Nick. “These are your team’s medals; you get one per member. During the month-long period of the preliminaries, you’ll wager these in place of HCs. The team who issued the challenge has the right to choose the game, place, and time, but the challenged team has the right to choose the ante and which members will represent the team. All registered teams must issue or accept the first challenge of a day. If a team loses all of their medals, they can no longer compete. Registered teams cannot take on contracts during the preliminaries or leave Helgram without forfeiting. The ten teams with the most medals at the end of the preliminaries move on to the finals, where teams compete in games with rules chosen by lottery in bracket elimination rounds. The winning team’s members each receive HCs equal to the number of registered competitors and spectators for the finals, which can range in the hundreds of thousands to millions. Of course, all non-lethal use of PK and weaponry is permitted in any game without rules that forbid their use. Students can’t trade medals under any circumstances and any medals given or taken outside of Master games are invalid. Any questions?” “No, I think you covered anything I could ask about.” “Okay, good luck. To dream is to live, to live us to dream and all that.” The receptionist turned back to the FullHorn and continued to type.

Nick left the line and walked over to Yohan and Alzolami, who were sitting on some seats facing the canopy. Alzolami was sitting nonchalantly while Yohan was on the furthest end away from her, not cowering but sitting stiffly while glancing at her every couple of seconds. When he reached them, Alzolami raised her eyes to him and said, “Did you get the medals? “Yep.” After being handed his medal, Yohan said, “So these are our lifelines, and we’re supposed to gamble with them. If my uncle knew what I was doing, he would almost have a heart attack if the cost of treatment weren’t so high.” Alzolami stood up. “Who’s complaining? Now, we’ve got to either find some meat to challenge or let some meat challenge us so we can snare them.”

“Look who’s calling the predator the prey!” Rang out a familiar voice. Nick turned around and, to his frustration, spotted the Denja brothers with Rob, as usual, in front of Bob and Job. “What do you three want?” Rob’s eyes narrowed. “Revenge of course. Or more accurately, twofold revenge.” That statement only served to push Nick from frustration to mild anger. “I take it you guys have some medals?” They drew their hands from their pockets to reveal one medal in each of their right hands. “I believe so. Is there something you would like to declare?” “Yes, as a matter of fact. We challenge you three to a Master game!”

On cue, the floor between them suddenly materialized a trap door from which Mr. Nikeman emerged. “Nicholas Xed! You, representing your team, have issued a challenge to the Denja brothers’ team for a preliminary round Master Game! What are the terms and rules? You may discuss it with your team if you wish!" Nick turned to Alzolami and Yohan. “Do you guys have any input?” Alzolami, eyes shining with annoyance, punched Nick in the arm. “You can’t just issue a challenge at the drop of a hat, especially after we just got our medals!" The glow in her eyes faded. “Well, since we’re already in the thick of it, we might as well talk tactics. I know this dimension better than most, and the little lump here is clearly the brains of your operation. So, we’ll talk things over and you can chime in if you really feel like it.”

Alzolami and Yohan, with a cautious look on his face, deliberated for several minutes with Nick offering some input several times. When they finished, Nick turned to Mr. Nikeman and the Denja brothers and made his declaration. “The game will take place in the large circular hedge maze area. All members of the teams will attempt to reach the center first. Every member will wear two loosely affixed flags on their arms. Any team member that has both flags removed is out of the game. Any attempt to traverse the maze without using the paths will penalize the offender for one of their flags. The first team with a member that reaches the center of the maze or the last team with any active members will win. The game will begin in thirty minutes.” Mr. Nikeman turned to the Denja brothers. “Rob, Bob, and Job Denja! Since the game requires the entire team, you can only choose how many medals your team shall wager, do you need time to discuss it?" Rob sneered and said, “Why wait? We’re betting all three!” Mr. Nikeman turned back to Nick. “Nicholas Xed! Does your team accept the opposing team’s ante?" Nick turned back to his other team members and they both nodded in affirmation, he noticed that Yohan looked a lot more confident than normal after his deliberation with Alzolami. Nick turned back to give their answer. “We accept your wager.” “Then the contract is made! Both parties will now make their way to different entrances to the specified area or my Challenge Doors will warp all of you there. I shall issue you your flags upon arrival. Note that any attempt at a head start will result in my Challenge Doors warping you back to your starting point! Happy Hunting!" Mr. Nikeman dropped back into parts unknown through another Challenge Door.

“Better figure out how well-done you want to be, meat!” Rob and his brothers shared a cruel laugh before walking off.

Alzolami stood up. “Now that those three multi-colored lumps are out of earshot, let’s talk tactics on our way there.”