Jane POV

  Jane had never needed to try.

  That was just how life worked when you were born into nobility with talent flowing through your veins like it belonged there. Training sessions weren't struggles, they were performances where she demonstrated what came to her quite naturally. Her family's wealth meant the best tutors, the finest equipment, the rarest resources, but honestly? She probably hadn't needed any of it.

  Ever since she could remember, she'd been talented. She never had to try hard to do anything. Whatever she asked, her family provided. Whatever she wanted, she got it. Even strength… she didn't have to try hard to get it. It all came naturally to her. You could call her naturally talented and that's why she wanted to participate in this tournament.

  She'd entered this tournament because it was the one thing money couldn't buy. Her family couldn't purchase her a victory here. She'd have to earn it herself, and that novelty had been... exciting. The first event proved her right to be excited. She'd cut through everything in her path without thought or strategy

  It was just pure, natural talent doing what it did best.

  She expected everything to be easy. And it was. The first event was very easy for her. She literally just attacked whatever came in front of her and it worked.

  And that reaffirmed her mindset more than anything, so she expected the same to happen in the second event. So when her team found this cave with two groups already fighting, Jane knew exactly what to do. The same thing she always did. Attack. Win. Move on.

  The point-carrier sat in the corner like an idiot while his team fought. Rank 2. She did what she thought best: she attacked.

  Her sword came down in that perfect arc she'd practiced a thousand times but never really needed to perfect because it had always been good enough.

  The blade stopped.

  What?

  It didn't stop against armor, nor against another weapon. It stopped against nothing. Air, or some kind of invisible force that shouldn't exist, especially not from some nobody who shouldn't even be strong enough to do something like that.

  He was just Rank 2.

  Then pain exploded through her stomach.

  The world blurred. Stone scraped against her back, her ribs cracked, and she was skidding across the cave floor like she weighed nothing.

  This was wrong.

  She was Rank 4. He was Rank 2. Those numbers meant something. They had to mean something. The whole structure of everything she understood depended on those numbers meaning something.

  Her mind refused to process it. This had to be a fluke. Her family had plenty of defensive artifacts; maybe his family had given him something similar. That made sense. That she could understand.

  So she charged again.

  The invisible force caught her mid-leap this time. The wall rushed toward her face, and then her lungs were empty, her head spinning, the taste of copper in her mouth.

  …How was this happening?

  She was shocked. This couldn't be happening, could it? She couldn't believe it, but it was happening right before her eyes, but she couldn't believe it.

  How is this possible? How was some Rank 2 nobody able to best her? She was Rank 4 for crying out loud!

  No, she could not believe this. This had to be a fluke, it had to be. It just was not possible that she, the talented one, would lose in a single strike.

  Through the haze, she saw her teammates struggling. They'd lost the advantage of surprise while she'd been... while she'd been getting thrown around like a training dummy. The carrier's team had recovered, counterattacked against the team they'd been fighting, won, and now they were forcing her teammates to fall back as well.

  She was embarrassed to admit it, but the ambush had failed.

  She struggled to her feet, fury burning through the confusion. She was Jane of House Brennan! She didn't lose. She especially didn't lose to nobodies who shouldn't even be able to touch her!

  Despite her thoughts, however, something white filled her vision. Hot hot hot! Was that fire? She couldn't tell, not through her blurry vision! No, it was not fire. She knew fire. This was worse. Hotter, meaner, angrier, it burned through her thoughts before she could even categorize it.

  It pierced right through her head.

  The scream that tore from her throat was nothing like the controlled sounds a noble lady should make. This was the kind of pain she'd never experienced because she'd never had to experience it. Training had never hurt like this because she'd never had to train much, everything came to her naturally. Fighting had never hurt like this. Nothing had ever—

  The Instance disappeared.

  She was standing outside, whole, unharmed, but shaking. Other eliminated contestants stood nearby, including the team that had just been defeated before her. Some looking shell-shocked, others angry, most just confused.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Jane's hands wouldn't stop trembling.

  She'd lost.

  Not through bad luck or through being outnumbered. Not through any excuse she could take back to her family.

  She'd lost because she'd been weak.

  Because she'd believed talent was enough, she'd attacked without thinking, planning, or even considering that maybe someone ranked lower could be stronger.

  The trembling wouldn't stop.

  For the first time in her life, Jane wondered if talent meant anything at all.

  ***

  Tobin POV

  When the first team had burst through Tessia's ice wall, Tobin thought that they would lose. But surprisingly enough, they were holding on their own.

  His team was competent. Tessia was Instance One. Bran could crush skulls with his bare hands. Wren moved like smoke. They were holding their own, even winning.

  Then the second team arrived and every bit of confidence evaporated. He thought that they were done for.

  Theodore would just be eliminated, followed by all of them because he was the point-carrier. But surprisingly, Theodore beat that woman, that twin swordswoman, in a few attacks, which was fairly surprising. And thankfully, that provided enough diversion for them to defeat the first team and then engage the second team. And now he was much more confident in escaping this without getting eliminated.

  He had to admit that he had never expected Theodore to attack like he did, much less defeat the Rank 4. It was surprising. It was unbelievable. It was inconceivable to him. He had grown up so accustomed to the hierarchy of power.

  The hierarchy Tobin had lived with his entire life said this was impossible. Rank 4s beat Rank 3s. Rank 3s beat Rank 2s. That was how the world worked. His whole understanding of power structures, of who stood where and why, depended on those numbers meaning something absolute.

  Rank 2s were below Rank 3s, so how was it that Theodore was able to defeat someone of Rank 4? He knew that there were people that could hit higher than their rank. People that constantly hit higher than their rank.

  Those people existed. And he had certainly not expected this wastrel of a prince of all to be one of those people.

  Regardless, after the initial surprise, it wasn't that hard to defeat the team. The shock of it had frozen the second team long enough for Tobin and the others to capitalize.

  His opponent had been distracted, staring at Theodore, when Tobin's lightning bolt caught him in the chest. The man disappeared. Similar scenes played out across the cave. Tobin eliminated his opponent and when he was done, he noticed that the others were done as well.

  The fight was over in seconds.

  They'd won. They had the points to prove it.

  And Tobin had no idea how to process what had just happened.

  Theodore was already settling back into his meditation position like nothing had occurred. Like he hadn't just shattered everything Tobin thought he knew about power rankings.

  "What the hell was that?" Bran's voice broke through the silence. The mountain of a man was staring at Theodore with a complicated expression. "How did you—"

  "You're not Rank 2," Wren said matter-of-factly. "You can't be. That's not possible."

  Theodore didn't even open his eyes.

  "Guys, we need to leave. Now." Tobin cut them off before they could continue.

  "But—" Bran started.

  "Move." Tobin was already heading for the entrance. "Two teams found us in the first hour. More will come. We can talk about rankings and impossibilities when we're not sitting in the exact spot our beacon just advertised to everyone. So, guys, we need to leave. Now." Tobin said before anyone could question how Theodore had done what he'd done

  It was not necessary to know what or how he did what he did. They had won. They had the points. That was the entire point. So the next course of action was to leave now before anyone else got there.

  So Tobin did what he thought was the best course of action. He ordered everyone to move and started moving before they could question what was going on. They could talk to Theodore later. They could ask him how he did it later.

  Right now, the priority was to find one of the Beast Kings or find other teams and eliminate them because clearly the hiding part wasn't working well enough. Theodore's idea of hiding had been good. But it had been foiled because of the simple fact that they had been attacked by two teams just after the first beam of light.

  ***

  Theodore POV

  "I know where the Beast King nearest to us is," Theodore said. Everyone stopped, turning and looking at him.

  Theodore had been tracking the Beast King for over an hour now. The massive magical signature hadn't moved much, but he knew that another team had engaged it, and they were still fighting. If they could killsteal, that'd be funny. They needed to move fast if they wanted to claim it.

  "There's a Beast King about eight hundred meters northeast," Theodore said, breaking the silence as they moved through the forest. "We should go for it."

  "How do you even know that?" Tobin asked.

  "I can sense it."

  "From eight hundred meters?" Wren's voice carried obvious disbelief.

  Theodore shrugged. That apparently wasn't the answer they wanted because Bran rounded on him, finally letting out what they'd all been holding back since leaving the cave.

  "Forget the Beast King for a second. How the hell did you do that back there? You're Rank 2. She was Rank 4. That doesn't just happen."

  "You sent her flying," Wren added. "Twice. Without even moving."

  "And what was that white thing that killed her?" Tobin asked. "I could tell it was fire-related, but it wasn't fire. Was that you too?"

  Theodore smiled. It was kind of funny watching them struggle with their worldview crumbling. He knew the feeling. Waking up in this world had shattered his understanding of how things were supposed to work so many times he'd lost count.

  "I trained really hard," Theodore said.

  "That's not—" Bran said.

  "I have a very sadistic teacher." Theodore's smile widened. "You'd be amazed what you can learn when someone's willing to break every bone in your body repeatedly until you figure things out."

  They stared at him. Theodore could practically see them trying to decide if he was joking. He wasn't, but they didn't need to know that.

  Tessia was the first to speak. "The Beast King. We should go before other teams get it."

  Practical as always. Theodore appreciated that about her.

  "Fine," Tobin said, though he clearly wanted to keep interrogating Theodore. "But we need a plan. These things are called Kings for a reason."

  "I can help fight it," Theodore offered.

  "No." The response came from all four teammates simultaneously.

  "You're the point-carrier," Tobin said. "You stay back."

  "But I just—"

  "You beat one Rank 4 who wasn't expecting it," Bran interrupted. "That doesn't mean you can fight a Beast King. These things are different. They're not human opponents you can surprise with weird invisible attacks."

  "You're still Rank 2," Wren added, like that settled everything.

  Theodore found it amusing that they'd gone from dismissing him entirely to being protective of him, even if that protection was based on still underestimating him. They'd seen him beat a Rank 4 but couldn't quite let go of their assumptions about rankings.

  "Fine," Theodore said. He'd let them think what they wanted. When they inevitably struggled with the Beast King, he'd step in. They'd complain, but they'd also be alive to complain.

  "Good." Tobin seemed relieved. "We move fast, hit it hard. Tessia, you're our main damage, we'll remain behind so you can attack it however much you want; go all out. Bran tanks when you're exhausted or the beast engages us. Wren and I support. Theodore stays the hell back."

  Theodore nodded sagely.