go, and I get a rush of adrenaline as I hear him explain what the trial will be.
It’s a combat simulation.
Immediately, the knot of fear in my stomach unclenches a little. Now this, this I fucking know how to do. I can kick anyone’s ass—except maybe Dmitri’s, and I even sometimes get the better of him. This is my jam.
“None of your opponents are real, although they will look and even feel like it,” Hardwick reminds us. “They are all illusions, run by our gifted illusionists from Houdini University. Please be sure to thank the staff for their hard work in creating these spells for us to use. And now, without further ado…”
All of the contestants are spaced far apart, each in the middle of our own circle. It’s like the battle royale: you lose when you’re pinned or if you step outside the circle. I’m pretty sure the illusions can’t go outside the circle either or they’ll disappear. That keeps them from slipping into another contestant’s field by accident.
“Begin!” Hardwick shouts.
Immediately, three men appear around me—big guys who look like boxers. Okay, yeah. I can do this.
I was pretty scrappy before I came to this school, and I’ve now had several months of intense physical conditioning and combat training. So I’m no fucking slouch at this kind of stuff, and honestly, I like it. I’m a physical person, and I may or may not have some anger issues to work out.
At first, the illusions just come at me one at a time, which I can definitely handle. But then they start coming at me all at once, making me spin and duck and dance around the ring to avoid getting boxed in. Hardwick wasn’t kidding about these illusions seeming real—I get clocked in the head by one of the three bruisers, and it fucking hurts.
Okay, time to pull out the big guns.
I throw both hands out in front of me, unleashing a sonic boom at all three of them. It’s still been giving me some trouble, but at this point, I don’t care if I can’t quite control it. It’s not like these guys are real anyway, so no biggie if I accidentally pulverize them.
But to my horror, they barely react at all.
The magic felt strong when it flew from my hands, but aside from a quick stumble backward, the three huge men aren’t even affected by it.
Shit. It’s probably because they’re illusions. They’re not governed by the same physical laws the rest of us are, so my sonic booms don’t affect them the same way. That’s gonna make this trickier.
Falling back on my combat training, I focus on isolating them as much as I can, trying to to lure them away from each other so I can force at least one of them outside the circle.
And then… a new creature shimmers into existence above me.
Fuck.
It’s hard for me to see what my fellow contestants are doing since I’m a little preoccupied with not getting my ass lit on fire by the goddamn miniature dragon I’m battling, but when I do get glimpses—
Wait a second.
Is it just me, or are my opponents a lot harder than the ones they’re up against?
The illusion dragon comes at me again—it’s much smaller than a real dragon, but it’s still fucking deadly—and I have to dodge out of the way, pulling myself up short so I don’t slip out of the ring. As I dart under another blast of flame and duck a swinging fist, I glance over at the other circles. Yup. Sure enough, nobody’s dealing with anything as strong or dangerous as I am. All of the contestants have opponents on the ground and in the air, but the ones in the air don’t seem to be doing much but circling threateningly. The dragon over my head, on the other hand, is going after me like I stole his lunch money. And I swear my blows have almost no impact on the illusions I’m up against, as if they’ve been magically enhanced.
I grit my teeth. I’m not going down without a fight, and if those mages are sabotaging me like I think they are, I’m sure as fuck not going to go out without giving it literally everything I’ve got.
I land another blow and dodge quickly, but a blast of fire catches me on the shoulder, drawing a yelp of pain. One of the big bruisers charges for me just as the dragon pounces. I duck out of his way, and