The Mark Of Rebirth

"Sparring?" Kaelith questioned. "Why would we be doing that?"

Getting up from the stool, I walked towards the two of them. "This job can get dangerous, so being able to fight is practically a requirement. Due to that, I thought that it’d be convenient to use your initiation assessments to gauge your combat readiness—“

I glanced over at Farthington, who had been in the know of this, and added,

”Of course, since we’re the only ones here, I’ll be assessing the both of you in a two-on-one spar."

Kaelith frowned, seeming to be concerned with my proposition, “Me and Farthington against you? Wouldn't that be a bit too much? With both of us over here on one team, I don’t know if you could get much information from this…”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

“Hm? Did’ya say something, Farthington?”

Farthington, in turn, heaved a deep sigh.

“It’s nothing. Just—I admire your confidence.”

Kaelith’s face was filled with question marks. Figures, since he has no idea what had happened between me and Farthington prior to our meeting with him.

‘Not very high expectations for these guys…’

“If you are done preparing yourselves, follow me. I’ll take you to the training grounds here at the base.”

I started walking out of the employee lounge and the two of them quickly followed suit, although Farthington seemed to be a bit reluctant as he seemed to be muttering something again.

The three of us walked over to the Training department of the base, which housed quite the inventory of facilities, from traditional arts, such as the one for swordsmanship training, to more state-of-the-art facilities like the shooting range.

Out of the different areas, I took them all the way down to the end, which housed the mock battle environment, which would be most suitable for their “assessment”. The space was vast, filled with various training setups: small pieces of cover, makeshift plywood buildings, and obstacles scattered about. The rubbery ground cushioned our steps, and the bright ceiling lights bathed the area in harsh, artificial daylight.

Before entering the grounds, I handed Kaelith and Farthington each a wooden training sword and took one for myself.

"You can use these swords and any of your pathway abilities to your advantage—just don't do anything that could inflict major harm on yourself or me. And don’t worry about breaking these things; they’re made of condensed wood, so it can take quite the beating… What are you two standing around for? You should formulate a plan or something.”

"Hmph, that’s probably a good idea. Over here, Kaelith."

Farthington beckoned Kaelith to the north end of the stage. Together, the two of them started discussing things in hushed tones. After a few moments, Kaelith raised his hands with a thumbs-up to indicate to me that they were done.

"Alright. Set yourselves up on your end and find the red button that says ‘ready’. I’ll start at the other side. The assessment will be 5 minutes, so don’t expect me to hold back. Best of luck~"

Standing at the north corner, Kaelith's knuckles whitened around the grip of his wooden sword. The anticipation hung thick in the air, tension tightening his muscles. Beside him, Farthington stretched his shoulders, his eyes glinting with a competitive fire.

“I’ve got to redeem myself.”

BZZZZT!

The buzzer blared, marking the beginning of the spar.

Farthington exploded from the starting line, a blur of movement. He sprinted forward, weaving through the scattered plywood structures, his eyes locked on the opposite end of the arena.

Kaelith, matching Farthington's burst of speed, took a breath and followed, his pace more measured but no less determined. His heart pounded as he pushed forward, threading through the course similarly, but at a more brisk pace.

Ahead, Farthington made his way out of the forest of structures and entered a large clearing in the middle of the sparring environment. With fewer barriers obstructing vision, Tokei was also seen entering the center.

Her quick strides suddenly came to a halt. Tokei looked around, and with a slight nod, closed her eyes and seemed to mutter something, quickly opening them once more thereafter. Her pupils, which were already an unusual purple, glowed in a deeper hue.

‘Darn, what’s up with that scary glare? It’s just like the other time!’

Her demeanor was familiarly cold, with a faceless expression that met with Farthington. Though, instead of rushing at him as Farthington had imagined, Tokei kept her weapon arm lowered. Farthington wasted no time—catching any gap in her technique could turn the spar over to their side.

He charged toward her, his sword drawn back to his side, prepared to strike. The air around his blade shimmered with a frosty aura, cold mist coalescing and trailing behind it as it made a lateral arc towards Tokei’s midsection.

Whoosh~!

Just as the sword was about to make contact, Tokei’s grip tightened around her sword. Her arms inverted and swung outwards, intercepting his strike effectively. Her solid posture proved more powerful, as Farthington’s flashy but crude swing left him unbalanced, causing him to stumble backwards as his momentum changed direction.

Before she could capitalize on his falter, a crackling needle of condensed electricity zipped through the air. Tokei's eyes flicked to the side; her sword raised to block the incoming projectile.

Sss-!

The bolt struck the fuller of her sword, causing small chips of wood to peel off, charring its surface as an audible hiss could be heard.

Kaelith, having closed the distance, lunged at Tokei, using his shoulder to leverage the downward slice. His eyes widened in focus, and the force he put behind it made it zip through the air.

During this time, Farthington had also regained his footing, and started to draw mana back into his weapon. This time, a soft green glow was emitted carrying with it a peculiar sense of erraticness. His strike, propelled by it, hurled at speeds unmatched by his previous attack.

Tokei’s feet clambered as she narrowly twisted her body out of the trajectory of Farthington’s assailment, instead repositioning towards Kaelith.

PA!

Kaelith’s sword struck cleanly on Tokei’s shoulder, causing her to slightly slump down in response.

“Nice—what?”

To his surprise, however, Tokei didn’t bat an eye, completely ignoring what should’ve been a devastating blow. In one fluid motion, Tokei reached for Kaelith’s extended arm, yanking him forwards.

Focusing all of her power into her right leg, Tokei delivered an explosive push kick to Kaelith's torso. The impact rippled throughout his body, and he was sent hurtling backward, crashing through the flimsy walls of a nearby structure. The sound of splintering wood echoed through the arena.

Without missing a beat, Tokei redirected her focus to Farthington who had closed the distance between the two of them. Their swords clashed once more, the wooden blades shaking with each strike.

CRACK!

Kaelith crashed through the training room's wooden obstacles, tumbling and landing on his side. His breaths came in heavy, ragged gasps, but in spite of his exhaustion, he managed to avoid completely collapsing.

‘What have I gotten myself into here…’

Despite Tokei’s claims of not being a fighter, she demonstrated a strength that was more than on par with both him and Farthington.

Clenching his fist, Kaelith resisted the radiating pain from his abdomen, forcing himself to stand. Through the large gap in the wall he had broken through, he could see Tokei and Farthington locked in combat, their movements barely discernible to him.

With effort, Kaelith unclenched his hand, generating electrical currents. Electricity arced around the air from his fingertips, centralizing within the center of his palm forming a bolt.

Click—

Kaelith fully flattened his palm, and the bolt partitioned into thin segments that started to spin.

CLACK!

Farthington's complexion had started to grow paler as the exchange went on, with every use of his “aura” waning in intensity. Still, the frost inflicted over time had started to coat Tokei’s blade, making it slightly easier for him to redirect hits. Now on the defensive, he batted away Tokei's rapid jabs, desperately looking for any openings; unfortunately, they were too few and far between, with no time for him to act on it.

He could feel his arms becoming numb from the battle. On the other hand, the movements Tokei made in tandem to his continued to flow without a drop in consistency, which was quite astounding to him.

‘She’s got what’s like an endless reservoir of energy, and I’m reaching the point where most of my converted sethnine is no longer useful… I can only rely on my chances here.’

Farthington slowly retreated back while holding his guard. Threads of green aura began to emit once more, creating turbulence with the surrounding air. He forcefully swung downwards, sweeping at Tokei’s legs.

Tokei, anticipating his move, stepped backward. However, Farthington’s sword emitted a brighter green, and unnaturally changed its course of direction, jutting forward quickly in a stabbing motion—a feint.

Tokei swung her sword upwards to block it, but the timing was off, causing it to graze across the same shoulder that was struck earlier. Using the opening created by this, she drove a punch into Farthington’s stomach, finally taking the wind out of him. Farthington buckled as he fell down to one knee, being supported solely by his sword, which had miraculously incurred only moderate damage until now.

Tzzzt~!

The buzzing noise alerted Tokei. As she looked up, a barrage of bright-blue needles flashed towards her. A few shot through her, making the affected areas spasm uncontrollably for a few moments.

Eventually, she was able to regain control over herself and started to dash away towards the closest barrier for cover. Another volley soon arrived, whizzing across the arena. Tokei swung her sword as she ran, deflecting some needles with the blade.

Using the momentum gained from her spring, Tokei executed a front roll as she dove towards the barrier. Her body twisted midair, dodging the electrically charged projectiles Kaelith had sent her way before she made it behind the cover.

BZZZZT!

The buzzer sounded a second time, signaling the end of their brief but fierce bout. Farthington and Kaelith both instantly flopped down to the floor, their attempts to rise thwarted by their own exhaustion.

Behind the barrier, Tokei’s face once again showed her usual expressiveness. Immediately, her expression soured as the pain started settling in.

After frantically giving Farthington and Kaelith each a bottle of water and telling them I had to ‘check and inform the boss about the results of the fight’, I slipped out of the mock battle room.

Dropping the wooden sword, I leaned my back against the building walls, hunched over, my one hand clutching my shoulder whilst the other clutching my knees as I tried to ease my breathing.

‘I definitely overextended. Just what was I thinking, trying to show off? If they had been any more experienced… Forget it, at least they were able to work together..’

“Hah… [Neuro], send me the analysis of my vitals and [Combat Trance: v2].”

[Affirmative. Compiling data…]

[Vital signs show acute injury to the Left Shoulder Muscle Group. Risk of Omohyoid Syndrome: Low.]

[Summary: “Pain Inhibitors”: Effective (during use). No adverse effect observed, however, it is not sustainable for longevity. Advised Minimum Convalescence (Cooldown) time: 5 days.]

‘Should I be concerned about this eerie word choice? I think a visit to the doctor’s about du-’

[Detecting a Technical abnormality located posterior of the palm. Running interference… Failure. Running Diagnostics…]

“Hm?”

I glanced down at the back of my hand, and quickly found out about what that so-called “abnormality” was. A bizarre… symbol had appeared there some time between the sparring match. It was dark, with multiple rings of circles, some lined with an unknown language intersecting perpendicularly to the rings. In the middle of it was a dot, much darker than the rest of the pattern.

I tried rubbing the spot to see what it felt like, only to see that the symbol was embedded into my skin, akin to what a tattoo would feel like.

[Processing… Integration initiating. Contact with phenomenon should be minimized.]

Oh.

Not long after I received that message from [Neuro], I started to feel a certain tingling that coursed throughout my body, originating from the hand. After 2 odd minutes, the feeling subsided, and I waited patiently for [Neuro] to tell me what it just did.

[Integration Successful. “[Developer’s Eye]” has been designated as Activation Command.]

‘Activation Command—does something happen when I look at this thing with it?’

Normally, when viewing my own body with [Developer’s Eye], I couldn’t ”see” any of my own data, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

As the world collapsed into strands of code, I looked down at the symbol. Surprisingly enough, it had maintained its appearance despite my ability being active; it looked out of place, floating in the air where my hand would have been.

The concentric rings and text started to spin clockwise, like a dial or a loading popup. From the center dot, a black and white Command Terminal-esque screen was projected to me.

[Connection Established]

[Mana Production Rate (MPR) of target entity has reached the Minimum Threshold]

[Bandwidth increased from 1 -> 2 Terabytes]

[Packet loss decreased from 70% -> 69%]

“Huh!?”