The ground rushed toward me as I fell. My landing shook the nearby streetlights and startled late rising birds from their arboreal perches. As I rose from my crouched position, I retracted my aura from the undamaged sidewalk. Students paused in their walk to school to see who had been so reckless with our dress uniforms on graduation day.

  When they saw my face, the familiar adoration wasn’t there. Even after a few months, many stared like I was a strange curiosity. Others looked away quickly with disturbed looks. Most offered awkward acknowledgements before hurrying to the school.

  I, who had once struggled to attend classes in time due to their well wishes and praise, was now someone they would rather not think about. It galled me. My wrath threatened to pour out with each step. It was only with iron will that I didn’t add companions to the crater in the street.

  Our cheap municipality had still not fixed the damage from the last time a giant attacked the school. At least the rime had melted. Though, that did render the blacktop cracked and full of potholes, leaving the street impassable to buses, which didn’t matter, since all of them were still haunted and roved the streets at night looking for pedestrians.

  I sighed. Those lingering problems would have to be handled by next year’s seniors. I could not steal all their glory forever, no matter how much they all had turned on me.

  No one blocked my way or pulled me aside to reminisce about a tale we had shared as I entered the school. In these halls, I felt naked without my armor. For the level of threat common here, I didn’t need my steel, and Captain Lightbringer had banished every shadow for the celebration, but no matter the assurances, my guard could only lower so much. Coming without so much as a knife was as carefree as I could be.

  Inside, I navigated around the lines of the students and excited groups to the area behind the stage. For how the crowd behaved, you would think I carried a silencing item. All chatter died in my presence and picked up again once I was far enough away. Despite knowing me for years, they misjudged my ears and whispered where I could hear them. The words were daggers that all my skill failed to parry, yet I remained stoic and didn’t give them the satisfaction.

  My suspicion rose when only the principal met me behind the stage. I pretended there was no issue and pulled out my speech to go over the well memorized words once again.

  “Given…” The principal coughed. “...certain revelations, I’m sure you agree that it would be less of a hassle for everyone involved if the salutatorian gave both speeches. Understand that none of the staff hold… it… against you, but this is a public event that many outside people will be attending. We can’t possibly control all of them, so for the good of the school—”

  I stopped listening to the empty platitudes and crumpled the paper in my hand. Each word of this speech had my heart and soul poured into it. After spending several hours mastering public speaking, I thought I could sway the whole school in one grand gesture and scrub away the ugliness that had infested them.

  All my life, I had overcome every problem and hardship by applying a little bit of effort. No matter what the world threw at me, I knew I could handle it. That was my goddamn superpower. It was my thing. Yet lately, I had been reaching the limits of how far that could take me. No matter how many demons I slayed, elementals I captured, or spirits I banished, it wouldn’t change how these small minded fools were repulsed by me.

  “Fine.” I cut him off. “You can take the speech. I don’t care as long as I’m still valedictorian.”

  The oafish bore of a man smiled in relief. “Of course. The school would never take that from you. Thank you for all you’ve done. You went above and beyond what could be expected from a student and most of us owe you our lives.” He bowed. “It shames me to ask this final sacrifice from you.”

  “It is a shame.” I turned on my heel and walked to the exit with perfect poise and balance.

  “Mari, wait! Please, you can still attend commencement.”

  I pulled off my tie and started unbuttoning my jacket. “My mother didn’t bring my brother. She doesn’t want to see me. No one in that hall wants me there. Do not ask me to suffer their scorn in silence.”

  The principal grimaced. “Many of the students owe you their lives. People are just shocked and trying to wrap their minds around the concept. They don’t hate you. This training school is near the border and that leads to people being more provincial. It’s difficult to navigate, and I sympathize, but this is a special time in a young person’s life. Don’t throw it away.”

  I tossed the tie and my speech into the nearest trashcan. “I didn’t particularly care for the person I was here. This place has taken enough from me, and I won’t give it one more moment.” The door pushed open as I reached for it. Shit, my aura is leaking. I settled my breathing and drew back my intent into the possibilities of my shade before grabbing the handle and exiting into the hallways like a normal person.

  The principal continued to shout after me, but my casual steps ate more distance than most people could run. By the time he thought to open the same door, I was several hallways away and near the back exit. I resisted the urge to run through walls to escape as quickly as possible. No. That would be a crime, and I wasn’t going to give them a real reason to be upset with me.

  I made it to the back gymnasium—one door away from freedom—before several figures ran from under the bleachers and encircled me. “Well, if it isn’t the freak. Did you really think you could walk out of here with the title of top student? Me and the boys here have a little too much school pride to let you tarnish its reputation like that. Isn’t that right, boys?” Gabriel’s friends gave half-hearted nods. They didn’t really care and went along with whatever he wanted.

  Gabriel’s sneer still looked strange on a face that had only ever shown me warmth and laughter. The shapeshifter looked like my male twin except he had green eyes to my blue and wore his blonde hair shorter than mine. When I confronted him about the similarities, he admitted that people with his power tend to imprint on those that they are close to and look more like them.

  I pulled gloves from my pocket and slowly put them on each hand. Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Are you worried about chipping a nail? We’re going to do far worse to you than that.”

  “Yes, I am worried about chipping a nail. I polished them last night.” I glanced between the mooks. They used to be my friends too, but when Gabriel turned on me, they chose the boy with money and connections over me. With a thought, I stop caring about them, all we did together, all their dreams, and every joyous moment we shared. They had become my enemies and deserved nothing more than my cool regard. A traitorous corner of my heart wanted to give them an out. “If you don’t want to get hurt, leave now.”

  None of them left, and Gabriel laughed as he grew a meter in height, sprouting fur, fangs, and claws. “See, this is what real loyalty looks like. They aren’t as fickle as you.” His voice deepened with each word until the rumble shook the lights above.

  “I never betrayed our bond. You’re the one overreacting.” I cracked my neck, not to loosen up, but because the audible pop was considered intimidating. “It has been a disappointing development.”

  “So sanctimonious, even now…” Gabriel roared and charged. One minion charged a laser blast, another formed rock armor, two twins conjured spectral armaments, the quiet one drew a gun, and the last erupted into flame. This pitiful collection of Vanguards moved with ignorant confidence and a foolish lack of fear.

  It was my solemn duty as the top student to free them from their delusions.

  I sprawled and kicked the gunman’s right knee backwards. The breaking joint was louder than the errant gunshot. From the kick, I rolled to the side and pushed the blaster’s hip so that his laser melted his companion’s rock armor. I then grabbed his wrist, turned around, and stood with both resting on my shoulders. The explosive motion snapped both his forearms.

  A sidestep let me catch the falling gun and disassemble it as I vaulted over Gabriel. A roundhouse kick to the back of his head sent him stumbling into the pyro, igniting his fur as they tumbled to the ground. I landed my jump on the recovering rockman’s chest. My leg reared back and struck his forehead with enough force to total a car. The lug merely dented the floor with his skull before passing out. “I always thought you could have been a Guardian.”

  Gabriel screamed while his minion tried to put out the flames. “Oh shit, Gabe. Dammit. Run to the showers!” The remaining twins hesitated their charge, neither looking confident in their ethereal platemail and their two halberds.

  I sighed. “How many times have I told you two to manifest different weapons? Throwing nets and a spear would have been the optimal combination against me. Yes, polearms are excellent weapons, but—” I leapt next to them faster than either could respond. “—your opponent is unarmed and skilled enough to get within your range, where the long weapon is useless.”

  Both attempted haft strikes to prove me wrong. I grabbed one weapon and used it to parry the other while my elbow struck the helmet of the one I was close to. One. Two. Three strikes and the helm shattered like crystal. He flinched away, “Mari, I can’t take another concussion this soon. Please.”

  With the fight out of him, I ripped away his weapon and tripped his brother before patting his cheek. “Don’t worry, I already concussed someone. Repeating the same injury would be boring.” I slashed his halberd into his left knee, splitting the armor and spraying blood on the floor. “Healing magic does wonders for ACL injuries. The residual effects should also improve your CTE.”

  His and his brother’s screaming indicated neither appreciated my concern. The remaining nameless mook backed away. “The hell is wrong with you? We were friends. We beat back the invasion and slew Yimigirr, the frost giant. I hate that it’s come to this, but you know we have to do what Gabriel wants. You could have ran. None of us could have caught you.”

  The halberd disappeared from my hand as the down brother focused his attention on staunching the bleeding. Hurt and deep wounds of the spirit threatened to break my combat focus. I laughed it off. “I do not back down. I do not flee with my tail between my legs. My enemies will break themselves against me and lament their folly. I am Exemplar.”

  “Y-you’re insane.”

  “Hmmm, and I’ve run out of limbs. Breaking your spine would be too extreme, so I’m afraid I’ll be snapping your ribs until you pass out from the pain.”

  I dodged one clumsy swing and dashed into range. A flurry of palm strikes riddled his breastplate with cracks before a final kick shattered it and sent him flying onto the bleachers instead of striking them with his back. I pounced on him, straddling his waist as I worked over his ribs with precise blows.

  “See, I could have easily paralyzed you there. This will merely hurt and should serve as lesson to not fuck with me.”

  After breaking barely half his ribs, the mook pissed himself and passed out. When I stood and walked down the bleachers. Gabriel had also untangled himself from the pyro, who had deactivated his powers and was trying to pull the still burning shapeshifter to the showers. Gabriel growled and backhanded his friend into a wall. Spittle foamed at the corner of my friend’s mouth.

  I pointed at his cheek. “You’re frenzied again. Do you really hate me this much? Are these really your primal, most true feelings?”

  Gabriel roared. All the lights and windows exploded, showering us both with sparks and shards of glass.

  I hung my head and let two tears fall. “I might’ve loved you. I don’t know. My mind doesn’t focus on things like that very well. I had this hope that once you found out that we could have tried… I didn’t… I really didn’t expect you to turn on me. I thought we would have been friends through anything...” No one was conscious enough to hear my sad confession or witness the first tears Exemplar shed on school grounds.

  The pattering of lupine feet signaled his charge. With my eyes closed, I caught his swiping arm and flipped him over my body. Not content to merely use his own strength against him, I added all my rage and pain into the throw. My aura flared, firming the ground around me and increasing the coefficient of friction so that I didn’t get sent sliding backwards as Gabriel’s body broke the sound barrier and crashed into the outer concrete wall.

  I stomped over to the dent with Gabriel’s snarling form and kicked him in the crotch. “Are.” I kicked him again. “These. So. Fucking. Important?” Each word was punctuated by another kick. Given my wroth, the first kick sent his bits rolling around in his guts. The rest were only grinding his pelvis into dust.

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  He wouldn’t remember the pain, but it was enough to send even his frenzied state unconscious. Fires still smoked along his chest and tried to outpace his regeneration. They would fail, but the damage should give me an hour reprieve.

  I screamed. My own high pitched warble couldn’t match Gabriel’s gravitas. No skill or purpose went behind the shout. Raw ugly emotions prompted the noise. The emittance was the kind of fragile human expression that I never indulged in. Heroes were myths made manifest. We didn’t have time for feelings or traumas. The hordes were knocking at the gates. We could decompress when we decompose.

  But this had tipped me over the edge. No matter how well she acted, Exemplar was still human. Thousands of lives had been in my hands, and I wept over a boy not liking me. Pathetic.

  It took a moment to regain my composure and finally leave through the backdoor. The sun hung high in the sky. Its rays shimmered along the transparent energy barrier between the monsters and the last human city. The shield curved until it went over the tall spires of Last Stand and into the ocean. There was no more retreat, no further ground to give. Roughly a quarter million people stood together against extinction. That’s what mattered. All the other petty bullshit could be ignored.

  My chest was tight despite the relief at it finally being over. Annoying. This was the start of the rest of my life. Sure, the Savior was giving every top hero my superpower, rendering my hard won skills irrelevant, but that same technology would grant me another ability when I went to university. Mastering it would be trivial, then I could climb the rankings again. A slip from 998th to 1013th was recoverable. My career—the one thing I had left—was fine.

  In the afternoon light, I realized I had nowhere to go. I had planned to mend my relationships and party one last time with my friends before taking the train to Aspiration, the top hero university. That wasn’t happening nor did I have a home to return to. My mother and brother had already moved into the expensive inner district house I had bought for them with all my savings.

  With no friends, no family, and only the money I had in my pocket, I shrugged off this less-than-optimal last day of school and headed for the train station. I might as well enroll early.

  On the walk to the train station, my mind kept trying to dwell on now irrelevant people. With a discipline that had been forged over eight years of heroics, I pushed down the concerns and maintained my vigilance. I had crossed enough demon lords and elemental elders to be wary of assassination attempts.

  The station attendant didn’t recognize me. I showed him my pass. He looked between the picture and my face several times before waving me through. I didn’t stow any luggage before finding an empty cabin and sitting down. All of that had been sent ahead of me. I wanted nothing tying me to Ward 17 as soon as possible.

  After crossing my arms and closing my eyes, I entered a meditative state. Within the trance, I recovered my body and maintained enough awareness to react to sudden assaults. True sleep was a luxury of the foolish or a crutch for those with hilariously weak shades.

  Several stops went by before a knock interrupted my relaxation. “Hello? Oh good. This cabin isn’t full.” The black haired woman smiled and rolled her luggage in before shutting the door behind her. She wore a tailored Aspiration uniform of a summer variant with a black blazer and skirt that had the white trim of those in the Crafter track. Given her armpit length luxurious curls, perfectly manicured nails, impeccable makeup, and a physique that emphasized her curves while hiding well trained muscle, she oozed the kind of competence common in the upper families.

  If it wasn’t clear that she was a woman of means, the round drone flying out her purse dispelled any doubt. The contraption was no bigger than a grapefruit and seemed to possess no functionality beyond its glowing red eye and the two hemispheres rotating to climb the flow of gravity, but it probably cost more than a house in the outer districts.

  It flew closer to me and beeped as its scanner powered up. The woman grabbed the drone. “Zhencha, stop. That’s rude.” She sighed. “We’ve been over this.” The woman sat down. “Sorry about that. The new learning module infers a little too much.” She extended a hand. “I’m Riena Hartgrove by the way. What’s your name?”

  On reflex, my posture tightened, and I prepared to speak to those ruby eyes with words dripping with charisma, but I bit back the impulse. The myth of who I am was for the rabble. Riena was a peer and fellow hero. I could stand to be more authentic. I shook her hand and said, “I’m Mari.” By tradition, refugees didn’t have last names. So many of us were orphans or had lost their children that family was a far more fluid concept with people coming and dying based on the whims of the monsters. My family was the exception, but I no longer felt part of my family. The tradition suited who I was now.

  Riena’s smile became brittle as she released her hand. “Ah… That’s a lovely name. Thank goodness I found another girl I could sit with. Most of the cabins were occupied with lonely old men, which I don’t mind, but I needed to relax on this trip, and you know how you can’t really relax around strange men.”

  I furrowed my brow. “People like us can’t relax anywhere.”

  “Yes! Right?” She flopped down on her booth and draped an arm over her face. “The woes of being pretty women!”

  She laughed, and I laughed with her. I didn’t particularly see what was so funny—the varying understanding of consent and proper conduct between districts was a systemic issue significant enough to threaten the war effort—but laughing with others was an instinct I rarely suppressed. We needed all the mirth we could find.

  A standard pursuit raptor drone flew by our window. Modern models had four limbs with wings that unfolded from their arms. Jets propelled it from its back and taloned feet. The all silver body was a design choice I approved of. Previous iterations lacked the necessary focus on demonic combat and seemed purpose built for capturing the rare few criminals in Last Stand, a threat too low to be worth any investment. The addition of a razor-sharp beak and fore-talons sufficiently increased their melee capabilities to ‘passable’ from ‘irrelevant’.

  I eyed it from the corner of my eye. You never knew when a machine was possessed until it turned on you. Riena started talking about a formal party she went to where an old man tried to grab her ass only to be deflected by Zhencha. I only half paid attention as something about the raptor's flight pattern indicated a collision course. My id warned of fake dangers all the time, but when it was right, it—

  The raptor burst through the window, prompting me to grab the back of my seat and lift my legs to lock around its neck. A twist of my hips sent its head through our door. I kicked its back thruster shut before getting to my feet and dodging swipes from its four limbs. The blind-fighting capabilities had improved dramatically since I last saw one, but the attack patterns were still formulaic.

  I grabbed one arm and twisted it around its back. My feet deflected assaults from its leg talons as I snaked my legs around its back and through its legs. The left arm popped its wing, nearly cutting me if not for a well timed dodge. I grabbed the other wrist and held it against its chest—bending the wing—before extending my body to splay out the drone.

  As its feet fell out from under it, its head pulled back into the cabin and smacked into the floor. It snapped its beak, but couldn’t reach either I or Riena.

  Riena pulled a wicked gun from her purse. The obsidian device crackled with red energy from its ridges as she pointed it at the drone's head. The fury in her eyes made the gun welcoming in comparison. “You can tell him that I am never coming back.” Her tone was flat and filled with calm menace.

  She fired and blew the drone’s head off.

  “Sorry about that. Are you alright?” Riena offered me a hand up.

  I rolled to my feet. “Sorry about what? Never mind. Thanks for the assist. I need to deal with the others.” I hooked my gloved hand on the shattered window and flipped myself to the roof of the train. My aura held my feet steady as five more drones rushed for our cabin. All of them flew along the roof, out of sight of other passengers—odd behaviors for spirits—but I didn’t have time to question that now.

  The five encircled me and opened their beaks to fire lasers. Dodging lasers isn’t actually that hard. At a certain point, projectile speed is essentially ‘instant’. The trick to not getting hit is to not be where they are pointing.

  A tornado kick sent me into the air and careful positioning slid my body through the sweeping lasers. When I landed, I grabbed the closest one and threw it into a drone trying to crawl through our window. I punched another one and dodged two more lasers in two steps before striking the last two with a sweep of my leg.

  Five sets of red eyes focused on me as they reset their formation. None of my blows caused significant damage. Unfortunately, the train was far too large to cover in my aura. If I punched with enough force to drive my hand through their enchanted metal frames, then I risked collapsing or derailing the train. That left us at a stalemate.

  Just as I resigned myself to a running battle the rest of the trip, transparent blue barriers appeared between me and three of the drones. A mountain of a man with silver hair and a blue trimmed Aspiration uniform had also climbed onto the roof of the train and had his arms extended.

  A quick glance over the edge revealed that our cabin was sealed by a blue shield. The drones also noticed the barrier and flew after the man. I slid under one of his shields and uppercut the back thruster of a drone. It flopped to the roof and scrambled to catch itself as the rushing air threatened to knock it off the train. For all of drones’ strengths, they lack the shade and aura that let real heroes fudge the hard rules of reality.

  Its talons rent holes through the roof as it stopped. From those holes, rainbow serpents emerged and wrapped themselves around the drone. One of the holes expanded and an albino gorilla clambered to the roof while holding a fully concealed person in his other arm. Was that a summoner? No. The monsters may be downwind, but they didn’t smell right. It’s the kind of subtle error an inexperienced illusionist might make.

  The gorilla set down his master and tackled the drone. I left them to their fight and ducked a swipe from the remaining drone. A kick sent it tumbling through the air until it righted itself and thrust to the roof. Its talons hooked into the metal as it opened its beak and fired another laser.

  I backflipped over the beam and shouted, “Tunnel!” to my impromptu companions. By retracting my aura, I rode the wind until the first gap between cars and hung from the edge. An explosion signaled that one of the drones didn’t make it.

  To my right hung the Guardian. To my left hung another drone. It looked at me and shrugged like it was willing to have a brief truce until we were past the obstruction.

  But I wasn’t. A true hero must be ready for any battlefield. I lifted my legs and kicked both of its taloned hands while my right leg pressed it to the tunnel. Its laser bounced harmlessly off one of the Guardian’s shields instead of hitting my face. Unprepared for that, the drone lost its grip and was trapped between the sliding rock and the corner of the train.

  An explosion rewarded our maneuver and buried a wing blade next to my head. It oscillated with the force of the impact.

  The Guardian let out a dry chuckle. “That was a close one.”

  I shook my head. “I had every confidence in your abilities.” The train cleared the tunnel. I then grabbed the wing blade by the insertion rod and ripped it from the wall before vaulting back onto the roof. Behind us, the illusionist crawled from another gap along with a dark skinned woman in a red trimmed Aspiration uniform. She glowed with white static and purple flames.

  The two remaining drones assaulting the Guardian reappeared. I crouched and concentrated my aura into the blade. It was strong enough. It was sharp enough. By my will and through the force of my legend, this is so.

  I spun the blade around me and ended in a thrust through the drone’s eye. A wave of lethargy struck me as the drone’s head exploded. Bending reality that much wasn’t something any hero could do casually. My power steadied my breathing and helped my shade devour the exhaustion.

  Farther down the train, the illusionist had bound the drone long enough for the Vanguard to drive an inflamed fist through its chest. That left one remaining drone swiping at the Guardian’s barriers. He had retracted them to a dome around himself as the drone struck from every angle. After a few more seconds, I could assist, but my last weapon was destroyed.

  Before I could determine another solution, Riena climbed to the roof and shot the remaining drone. It exploded, necessitating a jerk of my head to avoid shrapnel. Wind whipped her hair about as a wicked grin consumed her face. She looked unsteady on her feet, but the sunlight reflected off her ruby eyes, giving them a fierce glow through the whirlwind of hair.

  The sound of thrusters drew my attention away from her as a flight of Valkyries swooped down and surveyed the carnage. Their mechanized armor supported the massive wings on their backs, leaving the rest of their protections more basic. Most of them carried lances and shields, but their commander wore two longswords at her hips. The sight of them was as breathtaking as always. When I was little, I wanted to be a Valkyrie, but then I surpassed them, and my dreams had to grow.

  Once the commander completed her observations, she motioned us to gather. Riena looked nervous as she inched toward the rest of us, when she stumbled, I dashed to her side and grabbed her arm. This close to me, her hair settled as the wind stopped affecting it. To my shock, I couldn’t sense an ounce of shade within Riena. An unpowered Crafter risked herself by joining the fray? That was the kind of mad valor I respected. Her choice of school indicated that others respected it as well. What ability would she get at initiation?

  I didn’t have time to ponder it as the Valkyrie addressed the five of us. “It’s pretty clear what happened here. A pack of raptors assaulted the train and were fended off by a group of students. Well done, but you could have saved some action for my girls.”

  Her troops chuckled behind her.

  The commander summoned a holographic tablet from her armguard. “Let me verify who you are, and then you can be on your way.” A standard law enforcement identifier used a combination of facial recognition and shade resonance readings to match citizens to their IDs. “Oh, which one of you is Exemplar?”

  “I am.” I acknowledged.

  “Really? Because it says here the you are a—”

  “The paperwork is processing.”

  “Ah… Still, being a named hero at your age is quite impressive and…” She poked at her tablet. “Well damn, your ranking is higher than mine. I’ll have to step it up.” She closed her tablet. “You kids clear off and let us determine who sent these drones.”

  Riena hung her head. “I’m sorry. My father sent these drones. He didn’t want me to be a hero, but you’ll never be able to prove it.”

  That only made the commander smile. “That sounds like a challenge! Tangling with the Hartgrove family has to be worth a few ranks. Watch yourself, Exemplar, I’m coming for your spot.”

  You and everyone else.

  Before the Valkyries could shoo us off, Aspiration came into view. The university was an inward facing fortress at the center of Last Stand. Five curved buildings jutted from the ground like a claw. Walkways and shuttles interwove between the mainly glass and chrome facades, giving it a modern and bright look. To the ignorant, this was a bright and happy place where the world’s best heroes perfected their craft before throwing themselves into the tide of monsters.

  In truth, Aspiration was a cyst, an unnatural growth over the worst dungeons and portals threatening humanity. This was the frontline, a place where one had to be a hero as they learned.

  My pulse quickened as I bore witness to the next place of my forging.