I woke up he next day to an alarm that made me think the arsonist'd gotten into my room and started burning my head off. Then I realized that it was my hangover. I got up and headed for the bathroom. Must've tripped as many times as I'd failed the 20th floor tests. When I got in, I immediately took a shower and woke up as the sensation of compressed shinsoo ran down my skin. I even drank some and it cleared my head a little. I still couldn't think properly but I didn't think I'd be falling over anytime soon. I stood there for a while, thinking about last night. I shouldn't have yelled at them like that, but their fault for picking at old wounds. Damn. Knew making friends was a bad idea; Losing them really hurt. I laughed. Since when did they become friends. I'd always knew that our 'friendship' was just one of convenience. When did I decide that I wanted to climb with them? Did I make a friendship based on games of cards and alcohol? That did sound like friendships: random, pointless, shallow and painful. I grinned. Not like I was the only regular who'd lost a family member. We were all pretty shallow, thinking that the loss of someone important to us meant anything.

As I got out of the shower, I got another alarm, only this time I was realized that there were words to the alarm, not just noise.

"Dear regular, this is another warning to please report to the reception area in 5 minutes or you will be disqualified."

Shit. Must've been given a warning when I first got up but it just didn't register. I quickly put on my clothes and ran down to the reception area. That was a mistake and I immediately fell down three steps out the door, just adding to my headache. Hoped there'd be time to recover before the test.

I got down there, and saw Cosmos and Nal-Kae together.

"Hey,"Nal-Kae said, holding up some bread. "we figured you'd oversleep after all you drank last night so we got you some breakfast."

I stopped. Was the bread poisoned or something? Or was I seeing things because of my hangover?

"We all do dumb things that we regret when we're drunk." Cosmos said. "Got you some special soda as well. Gives extra shinsoo resilience."

I couldn't accept it. Not after last night. Not after seeing what I might feel when I lost them again.

I shook my head. Then stood away from them. Luckily, I didn't have much time to brood.

Love came in and said "I hope you had a good rest. This will be the last test. Whoever passes this test will move on to the next floor."

As he spoke, I looked again at Cosmos and Nal-Kae. Nal-Kae was smiling again; he always did, except for when I yelled at him. He looked way too carefree for their own good. Of course, even the arsonist might've been excited at the prospects. I looked around but the arsonist looked as uncaring as ever. Cosmos seemed the same as well, interested but alert, almost like last night hadn't happened. It would've been so good if that'd been true, but the world didn't work like that. You couldn't undo things, you could only move on with whatever burdens you picked up along the way.

I heard Love say something again and I snapped out of it. It wasn't like me to space out like that. "Due to some unforeseen circumstances, you will be joined by more regulars from two of the nearby testing grounds."

I suddenly noticed that there were quite a few people here, and I didn't recognize more than half of them. One really did catch my eye. He had a reddish brown cloak and none of us could see his face. Damn, I really had spaced out. I didn't even size up the people who'd passed the last round. The curly haired lightbearer with that skirt was here. So was the arsonist and the huge fishermen who the arsonist had almost burnt in the waiting room yesterday. There was a red skinned spearbearer. He was huge, with muscles that was better suited for a fisherman. There was an olive skinned woman that I didn't notice. She had long green hair and had a hook. Probably another one of those Napoleon complex women. There were 6 more but before I could finish, Love led us into a large circular room, around 40 metres across.

"The test is simple. You will be put into pairs and fight another random pair. The people who wins will proceed to the next floor. The pairs have been randomly chosen."

He pulled out his lighthouse and read out the pairs. Nal-Kae got paired up with that lightbearer girl in the skirt. Turns out she was called Laesa. Pronounced leesa. Nice name. Cosmos some wave controller called Anusa. The huge fisherman (Hyrum) got paired up with some random spearbearer called Nuviel. She seemed alright, not too aggressive. They'd make a strong team.

Then, Love said "Kryst and Nathan." I turned around wondering who Nathan was, then barely controlled myself from running up to that freaking baseball freak and get him to change teams. Nathan was the arsonist's name.

Fuck.

I didn't listen to the rest of the groups, I was too busy raging inside. I finished just in time to see Love assign the 10th and last pair, then told us to get prepare ourselves. The first two pairs who'd be fighting was me and the arsonist against a scout and a spearbearer. It should've been easy: lightbearer and wave controller right? Not so easy if it was lightbearer and insane pyro-fucking-maniacal wave controller who'd never spoken a word other than "shut the hell up or I'll burn you".

We had to go out in 15 minutes and we had to get a couple of things sorted.

"Hey, Nathan" I said carefully "We have to talk if we're going to work together." I was ready to leap out of the way in case he felt like burning my face off again, but luckily he wasn't completely retarded.

"Agreed" He said without looking at me "How are your close-range combat skills?"

I relaxed now it seemed like I was allowed to talk in his high 'n mighty presence.

"I'm a lightbearer, so it's not like I can strengthen my body or anything like that. I have a weapon that I can swing around, but I'd rather run than fight." Maybe I wasn't putting up the most optimistic view, but it was best he knew me for the coward I was from the start and not realize who I was until we'd form attachments. Not that we would anyways.

Nathan nodded. "My combat skills are little better. We shall have to make sure the scout does not advance far or our attacks will be rendered useless. How are you at supporting wave controllers?"

"Never done it before." I admitted.

Nathan nodded. "I thought as much. Practice now."

He conjured up a baang and said "Imagine putting a pressure field on my baang."

I did and he nodded. "That will be sufficient. Try two."

Wow, he must've been from a notable family if he could already control two. We tried it, and it only took a couple of minutes for me to get the technique down.

"Now, try and change the direction my baang flies in. Imagine you are exerting a pressure field on my baang, but only on one side."

He released it slowly, and when I tried, it zoomed to the right and would've blown up a wall if he hadn't released it.

He looked at me. "Impressive. I will release mine at a higher speed. Try to make it go in a circle around us."

He did so and so did I. I didn't see what was so hard about this, it was just a pressure field but on a baang instead of a person. In the ten minutes we had I could make both his baangs whiz about as I wanted. We really made a good team.

"The scout and spearbearer will try to rush us, to nullify our advantageous pairing." Nathan said. "Use a pressure field to slow them while I attack them. If you can, try and use your lighthouse to skew the spear's accuracy. I will only use one baang at a time. Using two will take them by surprise if the need arises."

I nodded. This guy seemed pretty smart.

A/N: Ok, I think I'm going to put this story on indefinite hiatus. The reason being that there are others stories I want to write, but I would be very busy juggling four stories at once. Of course, I wouldn't mind doing so if there is anyone who doesn't want this. If I don't get a message or review saying this in the next few days, then this story will be discontinued.

Thanks