Hey! If you're reading this, that means I've gotten around to editing this chapter. If you're re-reading right now, you may have noticed some wording has changed here and there. I'm going through and re-editing some of my older chapters (Maybe all the way through Part 1) to be up to my current standard. And If this is your first read, welcome! You're reading a better version of my story.

Do note that if you're purely counting Caspian/Lazula's stories, this chapter is filler. It focuses on some of their teammates going through the entrance exam. Also, as a general note, I feel like my series just keeps getting better as it goes on (at least after a certain point in Part 1). So if you're on the fence right now, I humbly request you stick with it.

The first thing Rowan saw past the dissolving walls of his Holosphere was sand. Waves lapped upon the water's edge lazily, masking the beach in serenity. He had been front of the line in his ship, allowing him a few seconds to watch the other spheres descending to the testing grounds. His gaze flicked from the spheres to scan the surroundings. To his right, a craggy mountain scraped the sky. To his left, the gutted remains of a high rise peeked above the treeline. He took a single step toward the city.

His eyes narrowed, and his hand came to rest on the hilt of the sword strapped behind his hip.

He backed away slowly from the ground in front of him, which began to shift and swell like something inside was hatching. A mound a few feet across rose, moving toward him a couple inches at a time. Then, it paused, before bursting forth with sudden animation. Rowan shielded his eyes from an explosion of sand. A serpentine creature's sharp steel head reared back. Its body was thick as the trunk of a tree, and impossible to guess how long. A serrated edge ran down the grotesque worm's back with similar, smaller spines down both of its sides.

Rowan grinned and spun the hunk of steel he called a weapon from his back. "Yuck!"

His moment of disgusted amusement was interrupted by the monster's head bearing down on him like a drill. He swung upward with his weapon, Sanguine Storm, knocking its head back and to the side with a great clash of steel. Rowan's satisfied look was short-lived. It righted itself with a twisting of its body and again became a drill of teeth and spines. Half a second before impact, Rowan dove to the side and the worm instead tore back into the sand.

He held his sword out, eyes flicking back and forth across the beach for any sign of his enemy. With a start, his head dropped to his feet. The ground between them cracked and ruptured, flinging him to the air in a cloud of dust. He lost his sword for a second but found its handle in free fall— right next to the worm's three jaws separating to reveal spiraling rows of teeth. Rowan regained his grip and twisted his body to shove his weapon down the machine's throat. Upon landing, Sanguine Storm pierced through false flesh and into the sand. His enemy went limp.

Rowan checked his wrist and frowned. "Huh? That's all?" He complained, pulling his weapon and prodding the worm with his foot. "You're an awful lot of trouble for twelve points."

Rowan's eyes widened, and his head swiveled over his shoulder. Two more worms drove toward him. He spun with the swing of his weapon, knocking both heads back with the sharp side of his greatsword and returning them to the sand. The ground rumbled beneath his feet. But this time, he cracked a grin. He shoved the tip of Sanguine Storm into the dirt, and hopped onto its handle as the machine again exploded from beneath. His weapon impaled its throat, and he flipped through the air to cleave through the second just as it emerged from the sand.

Rowan's weapon was halfway in its sheath before he paused. Another Sandworm approached. He planted his feet and held Sanguine Storm at his hip. The blade separated, widened, and folded back with a handle springing from its blunt edge. The weapon locked into its dust cannon form, beginning to hum with the energy that lit the barrel red and sparked around it.

Just before firing, another Sandworm appeared behind him.

A vicious blast of concentrated dust fired into the core of the machine in front of Rowan, coursing throughout its length and penetrating through to a boulder dozens of feet down the beach. Rowan leapt with the kick of his gun, transforming it back into a greatsword and shearing through the animatronic behind him.

He panted and checked the Holoband on his shaking arm. "Rowan Brown," it displayed. "Aura: 86%."

"Eighty-six? Not bad..." He commented. He turned to the trees. "Now that's over, if I can just find myself a teammate, I think I'll be okay."

Rowan's eyes narrowed, shifting back to the odd noise arising in the sand. First, a deep crumbling. Then, what sounded like something heavy being dragged across the beach. Dust rose up from the ground, blocking Rowan's view of the sea. Their source, two silver fins each the height and length of a sedan.

"Oh, come on. More?" Rowan kept one hand on the handle of Sanguine Storm, rolling to the side as both animatronics broke from the dirt. They were each at least the size of a minivan, two bulky arms pulling along their torso and six smaller ones carrying the weight of their spiked tail. The ground Rowan had just stood on became a crater of gashes from the monsters' front claws. Whitefins. As many Ursa as Vale once had, Vacuo had just as many Whitefins.

The one nearest pounced at the redhead with another claw strike. He braced himself and raised the broad side of his weapon, deflecting the blow into the dirt. He turned with the power behind the animatronic's attack, and brought his weapon across the monster's broad, flat, eyeless head. It rolled across the dirt with a pained shriek before shoveling itself underground. Rowan looked to the other. He sidestepped one clawed strike, then another. He cleaved the Whitefin's exposed side, but without warning it spun on one of its front feet, lashing at Rowan with its tail.

He barely had time to raise his weapon. He blocked the tail full of swords, but the force behind it sent him rolling across the ground. He spat out a wad of sand and leapt to his feet before the ground before him erupted with the first Whitefin's jaws. Rowan transformed his weapon, and stared down the oncoming animatronics before letting loose another blast of dust. It tore through the first Whitefin and left it crumpled to his side, but the remainder of the beam glanced off the armor of the second.

It heaved itself forward and into the air with its front arms. Rowan's strike crashed against the steel of the Whitefin's neck, and with two more reckless swings, it joined the first. Rowan lowered his blade and took a second to catch his breath.

The ground shook. Then again. Sand sprinkled down from the summit of a mound next to a disabled Whitefin. Then, a deep, guttural growl like that of an alligator. The noise was low, hardly audible, but ubiquitous. It made the sand and the water dance, and the branches above him rattle.

Rowan dared look behind himself.

What looked like a dinosaur stood behind him. Armor encased a flat spine at least thirty feet long, silver prongs spreading to armor each side like a set of ribs. Its head was as large as the Whitefins he had just killed, with jaws capable of swallowing him whole and a cluster of spikes jutting out from its forehead like a regal steel pompadour. Rowan, standing straight, could have easily passed under the monster's legs.

"Nope. I do not have the time for that!" Rowan decided, taking for the trees. He ran on shaky legs, due in equal parts to the sand, the shaking of the ground, and the horror of the fifteen foot tall Mud Baron at his heels.

Rowan screamed with a mixture of surprise and pain as he was hoisted from his feet with a chunk of dirt and flung into the air to flail hopelessly. He crashed into the trunk of a tree just barely past the edge of the beach, rolling in pain and gasping for breath. Sanguine Storm stuck out of the ground some distance away, deeper into the woods.

A groan escaped him as he lay on his stomach. He poked his wrist to bring up his status screen. Next to his picture, his aura flashed red, at six percent. "Oh... that's not good," he managed. He looked up. The Mud Baron wandered through the trees, head swaying side to side slowly to scan the underbrush. Rowan pushed himself upright and, avoiding stepping on a twig or alerting the birds nearby, worked his way to the other side of his tree. He picked up a stone, peeked out from his hiding spot, and flung it in the opposite direction of his weapon.

The distraction worked.

Rowan made a dash for Sanguine Storm, flinging up dirt as he ripped it from the ground. His weapon folded back on itself and crimson sparks arked around the barrel of his cannon. As the Mud Baron turned, the beam of dust exploded forth, rippling through the leaves and painting the forest red. The Baron wrenched backward as the beam crashed into it, staggering on its feet but staying upright. It shook its head out before lowering it, and charging him with a ground-shaking roar. He dove to the side just in time to evade the animatronic's head slamming into the ground. With a great thrust, it launched a massive scoop of dirt and stone above the treetops.

Rowan took refuge behind another tree. Smoke spiraled up from his weapon, and its ardent glow had faded. He transformed it back into its sword form, but flinched as the animatronic let loose another deafening roar. The tree shattered just a foot above his head, sending ragged chips and shards across the forest floor. Finding himself under his massive enemy's tail, his arms glowed like his weapon had just a few seconds before. He screamed as he tore his blade across the cable that ran from the back of the animatronic's knee to its ankle, sending the bipedal tank to its side.

The top of the shattered tree crashed down on its neck, and it ceased to move.

"I... I did it?" Rowan commented. He grinned. "I did it! Now, to find a—"

A jingle played from his Holoband.

"Congratulations. You have passed Sentinel Academy's Final Entrance Examination," an automated voice announced. "Your test is now over. Please, make your way to the entrance of the arena. Do not attempt to interact further with any animatronics or participants."

Rowan looked down at his wrist quizzically.

"Huh."

Ichigo sat on a gutted electrical box, squinting eyes glued to the screen of his laptop and softly shining their magenta hue. He paid no mind to the screeching Grimm soaring by the roof where he sat, nor to the bullets and beams that met them. "...So if I ping all of the computers running these things..." he muttered to himself. His fingers clattered away at the keys like a hailstorm. With the press of a button a map of the area displayed, littered with blue dots. "...I should be able to find something worthwhile." He smirked and adjusted his glasses, zooming in on the largest. "Hoh-Hoh, but that one's too good to be true."

Laptop still in hand, Ichigo walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. Excitement flared in his eyes as they happened upon a colossal Deathstalker animatronic. Its body was nearly as wide as the two-lane street, and with each step forward its claws pushed abandoned cars aside with ease and scraped the buildings lining the road.

Ichigo set his laptop up on the side of the building, resuming his attack on its keys. Another map displayed, the dots this time a deep red. One single dot nearby. Under him. Another pair was a couple of blocks away. None approached the Deathstalker.

Apparently satisfied, Ichigo closed his computer and held it by its hinge. Countless segments folded around each other as the object in his hand transformed from laptop to a bullpup submachine gun. Ichigo squeezed a smaller trigger just under the first, and with a high-pitched ring, fired a single pink tracer round from just below his gun's barrel. It lodged behind the animatronic's head.

Ichigo switched his weapon back and opened his laptop. Endless lines of white text flashed past the screen. He sat still in a trance-like state, glow returning to his eyes. The light faded as he paused his scrolling on one specific line, highlighted it with a smirk, and pressed a single button with dramatic flair. Excited grin coming back to his face, he looked over the side of the roof. The Deathstalker's claws fell and its tail unfurled, slamming to the concrete. It was still.

A furious growl and heavy footfalls shook Ichigo from his moment of celebration. He whipped around to see a black wolf with a steel face and a spine of daggers tearing toward him with jaws agape. Ichigo met its leap with a panicked swing, his laptop becoming a hatchet and living up to its name; Hack n' Slash. It tumbled across the ground in front of him before righting itself and lunging again.

This time, Ichigo wasn't as fast. He cried out as the beast's razor-lined jaws clamped on his arm, whipping him across the ground like prey then flinging him toward a second Hellhound that scrambled up through a hole in the roof. The one nearest set upon him. Ichigo curled up, hatchet raised in a trembling attempt at defense.

A thunderous gunshot rang out, and the top of the Hellhound's head shattered into a hail of steel fragments. The other turned. A woman, lanky and tall, swung her guitar-shaped axe into the creature's side, as if teeing off a golf ball. She was dressed like she just finished one of her shows; green bomber over a crop top; shredded jean shorts, fishnets over a mural of tattoos, and glossy military boots. Black, like everything else. The wolf let out a mechanical whimper as it was launched off the side of the building, and the two heard a crash moments later.

"Had to chase those damn things up eight flights of stairs. You're lucky I decided it was worth it," she griped. Yellow eyes with a slit for each pupil locked with Ichigo's.

"Oh. 'sup, Ichi?"

"H-Hey Laurel," Ichigo weakly greeted. He looked over his arm, but his aura had staved off the attack.

Laurel ran a hand through her hair; shaved on one side, black at its roots but brightening to a neon green toward its tips. She extended a tattooed arm to help him to his feet. "So, how many points you got?" she asked.

"That one alone netted me sixty-five," Ichigo said, pointing off the side of the building. "That's all so far, though."

Laurel nodded. "Those two brought me just under a hundred, so we're not in bad shape." She pursed her lips. "Do we stay up here and hope I can snipe enough out of the sky, or try our luck on the ground?"

Ichigo didn't meet Laurel's gaze. He looked up, past her. To the sky. "Whatever we decide, I think we're about to net a whole lot more points."

She smirked. "Like the attitude, but we can't get ahead of ourselves here."

"I'm not," Ichigo replied. He pointed behind her.

A hundred feet above, a Nevermore with wingspan to match an airship opened its beak to free a hellish scream. Wind shook the rooftop as its wings flapped once, then tucked in. The Nevermore began to fall.