The Pit's emergency lights flared crimson, illuminating walls crusted with organic growths that pulsed like diseased hearts. The air reeked of antiseptic and rotting meat.
Kaz stood among twenty-nine other first-years on a platform slick with condensation. Below them, something *scraped* against metal—three distinct rhythms, out of sync, like broken clocks counting down.
**"First Trial parameters updated,"** the AI announced with glacial calm. **"Three Category-II kaiju pupae detected. Primary objective: Survival. Secondary objective: Extermination. Tertiary objective: Teamwork is... discouraged."**
A holographic display flickered to life, showing three pulsating chrysalises embedded in the far wall. Their translucent membranes revealed twitching, half-formed limbs and rows of needle teeth.
**"Pupal hatch in T-minus 10 minutes. Note: These are weakened specimens. Full-grown kaiju require artillery bombardment to neutralize."**
A girl with vibrating bone blades extending from her forearms laughed nervously. "They're just babies! We can—" , and just like that, the platform dropped without warning.
Kaz hit the ground in a roll, his enhanced reflexes the only thing preventing broken bones. Around him, students activated their modifications—a boy's skin hardened into carbon plates, another's spine elongated into a whip-like weapon while he remained still.
"Watch first. Move second." He said to himself over and over.
"Form teams!" shouted a broad-shouldered boy with tactical subdermal implants. "We'll—"
"Shut up."
The voice was flat, disinterested, yet it cut through the chaos like a scalpel.
Wayne Ozumaki stepped forward, hands in his pockets. He looked utterly ordinary—medium height, unremarkable features, no visible enhancements. Only his eyes gave him away: dark, depthless, and utterly empty.
"Teams are for losers who need friends," he said, examining his fingernails. "I'll handle this myself."
The tactical boy snorted. "You're not even enhanced, you—"
Wayne moved.
One second he was five meters away. The next, his ordinary-looking fist had caved in the boy's reinforced sternum. The tactical implants sparked as they failed.
"I don't need enhancements," Wayne said, watching the boy choke on his own blood. "I'm just better."
Kaz's pulse quickened. "He's lying. He has to be."
But the way Wayne moved... it was too precise, too calculated to be unaugmented.
The pupae's membranes pulsed faster.
*9 minutes.*
A student with hydraulic legs launched herself at the nearest chrysalis. "I'll crush it before—" and the pupa twitched.
A barbed tendril shot out, impaling her through the thigh. Her hydraulic fluids sprayed as the pupa absorbed the technology, its shell taking on a metallic sheen.
**"Warning: Adaptive evolution detected. Hatch accelerated. T-minus 4 minutes."**
Wayne yawned. "Boring." His empty eyes locked onto Kaz. "You. You're not screaming or pissing yourself. Why?"
Kaz kept his voice level. "I'm observant."
Wayne's lips curled into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Or hiding something. Let's find out."
---
When the pupae burst open, they did so with a sound like tearing flesh.
The creatures that emerged were nightmares of mismatched biology—part insect, part reptile, all teeth and claws and dripping acid.
Wayne didn't run. He watched, his head tilted like a child examining insects.
"Fascinating," he murmured as a student with plasma gauntlets was disemboweled. "They learn. They adapt." His dark eyes flicked to Kaz. "Like you."
Kaz ducked behind a shattered console. The pupae were evolving to counter every enhancement used against them.
They're getting stronger because we're fighting back.
He grabbed a reflective shard, angling it to watch Wayne.
The psychopath wasn't attacking. He was *herding*—using panicking students as bait, driving them toward specific pupae, observing which attacks triggered which adaptations.
"He's treating this like an experiment, reminds me of the director." Kaz noted something about Wayne.
**"Hatch completion: 97%. Tertiary objective updated: Survive."**
The largest pupa exploded outward.
The mature kaiju stood three meters tall, its body a grotesque patchwork of absorbed enhancements—metallic plating, plasma vents, vibrating bone blades. It screeched, a sound that shattered glass and eardrums alike.
Wayne finally looked interested.
---
Kaz moved silently through the carnage.
He tossed a coolant canister at the alpha kaiju's feet. The creature stepped in the spreading liquid, its claws freezing to the floor.
"Aim for the joints!" he shouted but no one listened. Students kept firing useless plasma bursts, which the kaiju absorbed greedily.
Except one.
A small girl—*Miko*, her patch read—darted forward with a broken pipe. On reaching striking range, She jammed it into the kaiju's frozen knee joint and it's reaction was a deafening roar.
Wayne appeared behind her, his ordinary hands closing around her throat. "Interesting. Two defects." His empty eyes found Kaz. "What's the connection, I wonder?"
Kaz seeing this didn't hesitate or think his next move through and He lunged forward, driving his shoulder into Wayne's ribs.
They crashed into a pool of corrosive fluids. Wayne's uniform dissolved, revealing his fully scaled torso—azure plates interlocking like living armor, pulsing faintly with bioluminescent veins.
Kaz's breath caught. *Not just scales. It's a symbiotic system.*
Wayne's grin was all teeth. "See something you like?"
Kaz didn't have all the Time in the world to be starstruck as the Alpha kaiju was already upon them again.
Its massive form blurred forward, a grotesque amalgamation of every enhancement it had absorbed during the battle. Metallic plating from the hydraulic-leg girl covered its torso, plasma vents from the gauntlet-wearer pulsed along its spine, and patches of Wayne's own azure scales dotted its hide like armor grafts. The creature had evolved beyond its original form, becoming something far more dangerous than the juvenile specimens they'd first encountered.
The Alpha's barbed tail whipped toward Kaz's head with terrifying speed. He barely ducked in time, feeling the rush of air as the spiked appendage shattered concrete behind him. Rolling to his feet, Kaz's eyes darted across the battlefield looking for anyone who could make a difference but they were all battered up and drained then there was Miko clutching her broken pipe with white-knuckled determination.
Wayne moved first not trying to hold back anymore.
His scaled fist connected with the Alpha's jaw in a spray of blue ichor, the impact sending shockwaves through the creature's skull. But the kaiju had adapted - its neck muscles bulged with reinforced tissue, absorbing the blow that had shattered lesser specimens. It retaliated with a backhand swipe that sent Wayne crashing through a support pillar.
"Plan?" Miko gasped, barely dodging a spray of acidic bile that melted the floor where she'd stood.
Kaz's mind raced. The Alpha was learning, evolving with every attack they launched. Their only advantage was time - the survival threshold had to be close.
The kaiju's plasma vents began glowing ominously.
"Down!" Kaz tackled Miko behind a collapsed console as superheated energy seared through the air above them. The remaining enhancer wasn't so lucky - his scream was cut short as the plasma blast vaporized his upper torso.
**"T-minus 30 seconds until survival threshold,"** the AI announced.
The Alpha turned its faceless head toward the sound, as if understanding the implications. Its movements became frantic, desperate.
Wayne emerged from the rubble, his scales cracked but his grin feral. "Now it's getting interesting." And the kaiju charged once more.
What followed was sixty seconds of pure desperation.
Miko distracted it with well-timed strikes to its sensory clusters. While Wayne traded brutal blows that cracked its armored plating. Kaz moved round the pit gathering more coolant grenade and hauled them at it in an attempt to freeze its limbs, redirecting its plasma blasts into support beams to collapse debris on it.
**"10 seconds."**
The Alpha was weakening, but so were they. Wayne's movements had slowed, his scales dulled as his enhancement was wearing off. Miko's hands shook around her pipe as she feared for the worse while Kaz's vision swam from exhaustion and blood loss.
**"5...4...3..."**
The kaiju gathered itself for one final attack, its remaining plasma vents glowing white-hot.
Then -
A blinding lance of energy tore through the ceiling, spearing the Alpha through its core with surgical precision. The beam didn't waver, didn't scorch anything beyond its target - just held steady until the kaiju's body collapsed into twitching, lifeless chunks.
Silence.
Then -
**"Survival threshold reached. Hostile neutralized. Survivors: seven."**
When the lights came up, five students remained.
And the AI's voice crackled over the speakers once more. **"Trial concluded. Survivors: seven."**
*Seven?* Kaz counted five.
Then he saw them—Ayan, a quiet boy who'd somehow gone unnoticed, and Renji perched on a dead kaiju's skull, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
The holographic screen flickered to life in the debriefing chamber, casting eerie blue light across the survivors' battered faces. The AI's voice, smooth and inhuman, echoed through the room.
**"First Trial rankings,"** it announced. **"Assessed by combat efficiency, adaptability, and survival metrics."**
A list materialized in the air:
**1. Wayne Ozumaki**
Kaz watched as Wayne smirked, rolling his shoulders. The scales along his arms gleamed under the projection's glow.
**"Prototype candidate exceeds all parameters,"** the AI continued. **"Physical reinforcement flawless. Adaptive combat mastery."**
**2. Kaz Ren**
Miko nudged him with her elbow. He ignored the sting of his wounds, watching his name hover beneath Wayne's.
**"Unmarked candidate outperformed eighty-seven percent of enhanced participants,"** the AI said. **"Environmental utilization exceptional. Tactical improvisation noted."**
**3. Miko [REDACTED]**
A hush fell. Miko stiffened as the AI paused.
**"Anomalous bio-readings detected,"** it said. **"Pain tolerance beyond baseline human thresholds."**
Kaz glanced at her but she didn't meet his eyes.
**4. Renji Matsumoto**
Renji materialized out of thin air, draping an arm around Kaz's shoulders. "One hundred percent evasion, baby," he crowed.
**"Unauthorized interference penalized,"** the AI deadpanned.
**5. Ayan Kuretsu**
The quiet boy in the corner didn't react as his name appeared.
**"Zero engagement,"** the AI said. **"Perception-filtering maneuvers detected."**
**6. Jin "Crusher" Takeda**
Jin grunted, cradling his mangled hydraulic arm.
**"Augmentation failure at seventy-eight percent capacity,"** the AI noted. **"Combat persistence through critical injury awarded partial marks."**
**7. Lina Voort**
The girl with the bandaged throat flinched.
**"Sonic augmentation overload,"** the AI said. **"Failed to adapt to test subject evolution."**
Silence.
Then—
**"Top three candidates flagged for special observation,"** the AI concluded. **"Trial Two parameters adjusting accordingly."**
The screen winked out.
Wayne finally looked up, his empty eyes locking onto Kaz. "This was fun. Let's play again soon."
As he walked away, Kaz noticed something terrifying—Wayne's shadow didn't move quite right. It twitched. Pulsed. Like something alive.
And it was either he was imagining it or it was smiling.
---