5 panthers were circling him, one was fighting him. These were stronger and faster than the usual. The normal ones he could easily handle 2 and 3 at a stretch. With these he was tied 1 - 1 after two fights. The third he was going even when the beast made its move leaping at him from his right. He pirouetted on his left ducking under the leap coming up to grab the panther’s tail and letting momentum carry them round in two quick circles before releasing the panther. It flew, going straight out of the circle only to hit one at the edge, the one he had already beaten.

Then they both burst into clouds and merged. He held his breath, wondering if this would turn back into a larger panther. He exhaled as he jumped to avoid the panther coming at him from his left. The cloud could wait. He still had fights to finish.

The panther had gone low so he kicked down knocking its head into the floor, letting himself land on his hands and flipping to put some distance to avoid the turnaround swipe typical of these panthers. It also had him facing the panther for its counter attack. He was already moving in to strike first with a hard punch to the beast’s head. The panther was crouching back to jump and it hesitated as it recalculated its jump. That was enough to let him connect, driving the panther into the ground and allowing him get his other hand around the panther’s neck to put on a choke-hold. There was no air here, so choking itself was not the objective. He kept moving, using the hold to haul the panther up and slamming it down on its back, the hold providing leverage to control the panther’s body as the beast thrashed to get its feet under it. His aim was to buy time to see what became of the massive cloud. He did and he almost let the panther get away.

His mind churned as he tried to make sense of the python coiled up where the cloud had been. In this space he had strength to match the beasts up to the pythons. Where he fell short was in speed and agility. The wolves and panthers were predictable, he could anticipate and match them. The pythons moved faster and in impossible ways, fully utilizing their spineless and muscle packed body. He had lost nine bouts with the pythons till he got a lucky break. The python mistimed its evasion and smashed its head into his, causing it to get disoriented. He had been buzzed too, but had enough control to hold the python by its neck and have deliberate, repeated head to head engagements, till the python ran. Using his head in future fights met limited success, victory was a straight toss up between the python and him.

He let his hold on the panther loosen up. It crashed to the floor, turned onto its feet and lunged at him as it spun back to face him. He didn’t dodge, instead leaped slightly into the air and let the momentum of the strike throw him out of the circle, effectively losing the fight. He smiled as he walked back in, while the panther looked at him weirdly. Then he noticed what could only be described as a grin on the panther’s face. It looked at the circle, at the other panther he had lost to, which then walked in, towards the panther in the ring. The two panthers touched each other, turning translucent as they merged into each other and then exploded into a white cloud which turned into rain drops. As the raindrops fell a shape emerged from the ground up - another python. He groaned. This was way beyond unfair and pissed him off.

The python was not coiled. 24 feet of its body length lay as a wave, with another 6 feet rising off the ground with its head on top and reared back, staring at him. He started running towards the snake and it lashed straight at him. Instead of dodging he planted his feet on the ground and let the snake’s head hit on his chest. With the python’s weight and speed it hurt but he powered through it, caught the python in a bear hug around its neck, leveraging his hold to lift and wrap his legs around the python’s thick body, then swung around as it slammed its body on the floor. He took the hit on his hands as he had swung to the top and immediately bashed his head into the python’s head. The python started bucking and slamming its body to shake him off. He dug into the python’s flesh with his hands and feet, then bashed its head with his own repeatedly, all the while swinging around to avoid being smashed into the ground. The pythons had strength and phenomenal speed, but their “flesh” was softer. All creatures had some weaknesses, you only have to find them.

His was a desperate move, and he knew it wouldn’t last. On one of the swing arounds, his grip loosened more than it should have and he got tossed off the python’s body. He flipped in the air and landed on his feet and hands, immediately getting up facing the python. The python shook its head violently, as if to shake off the concussion and then instead of turning to him looked at the two remaining panthers. Both of them bounded towards the python, each step they took a stab in his heart. He could guess what was about to happen and wished it wouldn’t.

One of the panther’s leapt into the air and the python opened its mouth wide, swallowing it whole. It then coiled in on itself, tightening the coils before bursting out in a flash of light, revealing a mammoth standing in its place. The mammoth coiled its trunk and trumpeted loudly. It then looked at him with malicious glee in its eyes. The look was made more menacing with both of its 8 foot curled tusks. The mammoth moved towards him. It didn’t appear to move fast, but had reached him in a split second. Without even thinking about he just stepped back and out of the ring.

He was not giving up. He just felt that the testing had gotten ridiculous and he was getting off the carousel. The mammoth kept coming. It had immense strength, a huge body but its speed while high was not at the level of the panthers or pythons. He was able to avoid the attacks easily. After chasing him for a few minutes and failing, the mammoth walked back into the circle, stood up on its back feet while letting his trunk hang and spread out its fore-legs. The remaining python coiled itself around the mammoth’s body and head. He watched with bated breath as he watched both of them turn into a massive dr.... ape.

The ape was around 100 meters tall, covered in thick fur looking like an enlarged gorilla. The ape dropped on to its fore-arms and looked down at him, glaring. He looked up at the ape with a huge grin on his face, going ear to ear. The ape swept him up on to its palm, bring him closer to itself to peer at him.

“If you think I am going to dance for you think again.”

The ape snorted. He saw the remaining panther approach the ape. As the panther touched the ape, the ape vanished immediately, dropping down to the floor. He fell on his back, grateful for not having a spine or bones, but it still hurt fiercely. He just lay back on the floor, eyes closed and groaning. He felt a massive weight on his chest, then four sharp points poking into his chest. He didn’t open his eyes, he didn’t care.

“Hello, kitty.”

The beast roared directly into its face. The roar was loud, louder than anything he had ever heard. The roar also appeared to carry immense force, putting far more pressure on his whole body then the paw resting on his chest.

“Go away kitty cat. I lost. I failed the test. Nothing to see here. Daddy needs his rest.”

The pressure vanished from his chest. “You didn’t fail.”

He shot up and sat straight. This was a male voice. Hanging in the air in front of him was a white sphere. A shiny white sphere. Unmarked, perfectly smooth, perfectly round and with a metallic sheen.

“What are you?”

“Really? Just because I don’t conform to cultural norms for biological specimen shapes you are going with what instead of who. I am speaking you know.”

“Big deal. 642 over there can gab with the best of them and it isn’t a biological specimen. And I don’t care for your name. What are you?”

“Touche! I am a guardian of sorts. We look after souls in transit. Usually that’s very simple and then someone fun like you comes along.”

“Are you like level 10 or above in the Soulscape?”

“I am and I am not, but you can say I am.”

“Did you secretly attend classes when I gave lessons in being annoying?”

“No. You definitely attended my lectures the last few times you transitioned.”

“How do I get your job?”

“Attend more lectures, graduate with honors and wait for me to retire. Its a tenured position after all. As for the other job, the usual. Ascend. Achieve nirvana. Find unity or infinity.”

“What do you want?”

The white ball sighed. “We were just starting to roll here.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“Oh well. Souls in transit should transit, not get caught up in petty squabbles.”

“There are rules against what we are doing here?”

“No. There are no rules. Souls in transit are free to choose their path. I am here to let you know you have that choice.”

“If I ask, you will take me away from this dome and let me continue on to my next reincarnation.”

“Yes.”

“And if I refuse I am stuck here.”

“No, anytime you want just ask. You’ll be taken out. But you are staying, aren’t you?”

He just smiled at the ball.

“Do you know she lied to you? True souls can be hurt.”

“I know. And I am sure there are other half-truths and lies also.”

“You knew? And you don’t care about the lies.”

“Sure. That is the only to make sense of the fact that someone is hurting souls. As for the lies, they tell me she’s thinking and rational. If I thought she was being completely honest, I would have left. That is just not natural, it reeks of fanaticism and zealotry.”

He heard the ball laugh.

“Ok, then I’ll leave. I’d like to give you a gift for being so entertaining. Just close your eyes and say Om. That will cause your AI assistant over there to not see or here what you are doing for an hour. You will be able to do this periodically and once the slot reopens you will know.”

“Thanks. Why did you say I didn’t fail the test?”

“Simple. That wasn’t a test.”, and with that the ball vanished. One moment it was there and next moment gone.

He heard 642 say, “If you’re done resting and ignoring us, will you resume practice. 3 wolves? We can sense a pack outside.”

He stared at 642 for a while then said slowly as he closed his eyes, “642, if I Isekai into your world, then pray that you are long gone. Otherwise I will find you and make you go through things no AI should go through... Om”

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Two white streaks were moving away from a dome in Soulscape. They had vague humanoid forms.

“You know we are not supposed to provide guidance to souls in transit. Why’d you still do it?”

“What did I do? I just played with him for a bit and then let him know he had a choice, like we were meant to do.”

“Technically you may not have taught the boy anything, but don’t think that you can fool me.” This white streak then stopped and turned to look at his friend, who seemed to have stopped midway in his rant and wase looking at the dome, at the boy.

“He figured it out.”

“Oh yeah! That is cool."

Far in the distance the boy in the dome stood staring at the sword in his hand.