Author's Preface
Later that day after Aaron told Eve about Blue joining her team. Eve rushed to her team’s private meeting room. “Good news, everyone,” she said. “Aaron found our sixth member.” Chris let out a breath, leaning back in his chair. “Finally. Who is it?”
“Blue.” Eve replied.
That got Darrien’s attention. Up until now, he hadn’t cared about any of the candidates. None of them were worth remembering. But this name? “…Seriously?” he asked. Eve nodded. “Yeah. He’ll be joining us starting tomorrow.”
Samantha sat slouched in her chair, one leg draped lazily over the armrest. A small flame flickered above her fingertips, twisting and folding in on itself as she idly played with it. “…As long as he’s not dumb enough to stand in front of my spells,” she said, not even looking up, “I don’t care.”
Cynthia perked up immediately. “Well, I’m excited,” she said with a smile. “He seemed really nice. And word around the guild is he’s super strong. That means I won’t have to step into a combat role anymore.”
Chris didn’t smile. He was watching Eve. “…You sure about this?” Eve frowned slightly. “Of course I’m sure.” Chris didn’t look convinced. “Even after what happened?” Darrien’s gaze shifted between them, picking up on the change instantly. “…Wait. What happened?” he asked.
Eve let out a small, quick laugh. “Nothing,” she said. “He’ll fit in perfectly.” She didn’t give them time to push. “Be here tomorrow at eight,” she continued. “We’ll start with a tryout like we do with everyone else. Make sure everyone is satisfied with his abilities." Samantha flicked her fingers, snuffing out the flame without a second thought. Cynthia nodded eagerly. Darrien leaned back, still curious, but quiet. Chris said nothing.
The next morning Blue pushed open the door to the training room. He expected a greeting. A nod. Maybe even a quick rundown of how things worked. Instead, heat exploded past his face. A fireball tore through the space where his head had just been. Blue moved on instinct, his body twisting as the attack barely missed him, scorching the air behind him.
“…Good. That’s enough for me.” A bored voice echoed across the room. Blue turned. Samantha sat lazily against the wall, a faint glow still dancing around her fingertips. Darrien let out a low laugh. Cynthia was already rushing toward him. “Oh my god... Samantha, are you crazy?! What if that hit him?!”
Samantha didn’t even move. “It didn’t.”
Darrien let out a low laugh from where he stood. “If it did, then this would’ve been a short tryout.”
Chris leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, a faint smirk on his face. “Then that’s all he’s worth.”
Blue stood there for a moment, taking it all in. A slow, nervous smile crept across his face. These people are worse than Jinhu and Ilho. He exhaled. "What the hell did I just get myself into?"
Chris remained where he was, arms crossed, watching Blue more than anything else. Blue exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders once as he let the moment settle. “…Right,” he muttered under his breath. He glanced around the room again, taking all of them in properly this time. The spacing. The positions. Where each of them stood without thinking about it. This wasn’t random.
Before he could say anything.
“Alright.” Eve’s voice cut cleanly through the room. Everyone stilled. She stepped forward, her attention fully on Blue now. “You’re going to attack us.” Blue didn’t respond, but his attention sharpened.
“We’re going to operate exactly how we do inside a gate. No adjustments. No holding back.” She paused, letting that settle. “The best way for you to understand our formation… is to experience it.” Her eyes held his. “So far, no one has been able to break our formation.” A brief silence. “That’s why no one’s made the team.”
Blue’s gaze didn’t waver. “You have one hour,” Eve continued. “Do whatever you need to do. Don’t hold back. During that time, if you can find a weakness… or after, explain where one exists. Or show us how you would actually fit into this unit” She took a small step back, rejoining her team. “Then, and only then, you can become our sixth member.”
Blue stepped forward, settling into his stance as he tried to get a feel for the room. Chris stood directly in front of him, shield grounded, barely moving, yet somehow occupying more space than anyone else. “…Come on,” Chris said, calm and almost bored. “You wanted this.”
Blue didn’t mean to focus on him, but he did. His attention locked onto Chris without him realizing it, like something was pulling him in, drawing him forward whether he wanted it or not. He pushed ahead, committed to the approach, thinking he could force his way past and then his footing gave out. Vines snapped up around his legs, tightening instantly and locking him in place. Blue reacted on instinct, shifted his weight, tried to break free before the hold fully set, but he was already a step too late.
A presence slipped in behind him. He didn’t hear it. Didn’t feel it until it was already there. A dagger pressed lightly against the back of his neck. "…Dead,” Darrien said. Blue exhaled, annoyed more than anything as the vines released him and he stepped back into position. They reset.
This time, Blue took a second longer before moving. He rolled his shoulders once, letting his breathing settle, trying to stay aware of everything instead of letting himself get dragged into Chris again. It didn’t matter. The moment he stepped in, that same pressure hit him. His focus narrowed without permission, his body naturally angling toward Chris like he was the only thing in the room that mattered. Blue tried to shift his angle, forcing himself to move off-line instead of straight through, but his timing was just a fraction too slow. The vines caught him again. They came up faster this time, wrapping tighter, and locked him in place before he could fully react. He didn’t even bother turning. He already knew. Darrien was there. The dagger pressed into his side this time, right beneath his ribs, stopping just short. “…Dead.” Blue winced slightly and let out a breath. “What the hell, man…”
They reset again. Blue shook his head, a small laugh slipping out, more disbelief than humor. “Alright… alright.” He stepped forward again, but this time he forced himself not to engage Chris directly. He shifted left, committing to getting around him instead of through him, faster, trying to break the pattern. For a split second, it worked. He made it past. Then the temperature dropped. Ice formed instantly around his feet, freezing him in place before he could take another step. Blue looked down, jaw tightening as he tried to break free.
“…You’ve gotta be kidding me.” He didn’t get the chance. Darrien was already there again, this time lower, more precise, the dagger coming in at his abdomen and stopping just before contact. “…Dead.”
Blue exhaled sharply, stepping back as everything released again. He rolled his shoulders once more, this time slower, forcing himself to reset properly. His eyes moved across the room, not settling on Chris this time, or Samantha, or even Eve. They landed on Darrien. He’s the problem. Because every time the fight started, he disappeared, and every time Blue made a mistake, he was already there to punish it. Blue let out a slow breath, his thoughts shifting as he tried to piece it together.
In Murim, things had always followed a certain logic. The flow of combat, the rhythm, the way people moved and reacted, it all came from the same foundation. This didn’t. This was layered. Built on different systems working together at the same time, each one covering the others in a way that left no clean opening.
Blue ran a hand through his hair, letting out a quiet breath. “I’m not fighting them…” His gaze sharpened slightly as he looked around the room again. “I’m walking into them.”
For the next thirty minutes, Blue struggled. Every exchange ended the same way, cut off, redirected, punished. No matter how he approached it, no matter how he adjusted, the result didn’t change. Chris pulled him in. Eve closed the gaps. Samantha forced movement. Cynthia erased anything he managed to create. And Darrien… Darrien finished it. Again and again. But Blue didn’t stop. He adapted. Not outwardly, not yet, but in the way he watched, in the way he started paying attention to things he had ignored at the start. Spacing. Timing. Who moved first… and who reacted.
He stopped trying to break them. He started trying to understand them. His breathing steadied. His movements slowed, not from exhaustion, but from restraint. Blue glanced toward the wall. The clock. Five minutes left. He exhaled slowly "…This is it."
Blue stepped forward again, his breathing steady now, his mind finally settling after the earlier exchanges. He had spent too long reacting, too long trying to force his way through something he didn’t understand. That wasn’t going to work here. He moved the same way he had been for most of the match, direct, controlled, giving them the exact look they had already adjusted to over and over again. Chris shifted. Eve moved. Samantha’s attention stayed loose, almost bored. And Darrien… Darrien disappeared.
Blue committed just enough to sell it. The angle. The timing. The intent. It was the same approach he had used again and again, the same pressure that had been shut down every time. Darrien took the bait. He slipped in clean, fast, exactly where he had been the entire fight, right into Blue’s blind spot, ready to punish the overextension like he had done for nearly an hour. Blue turned. He caught him. Pinned him. His fist slammed into the ground beside Darrien’s head, the impact cracking through the floor just enough to make the point clear.
Darrien froze. For the first time his expression shifted. Blue looked down at him, calm. “…Dead,” he said. A brief pause. Then, quietly "… Okay,” Darrien muttered.
Blue stepped back. Okay… that’s one. He didn’t hesitate. Chris was next. Blue stepped in again, this time with intent, not uncertainty. Chris met him the same way he had all match, an immovable shield ready, his presence dragging at Blue’s focus like it had from the beginning.That pull hit again, heavy and constant, trying to force him into a direct clash and lock his attention in place the same way it had every time before. And then it clicked.
Ten seconds. That was all it lasted. Chris’s taunt the pull, the pressure, it wasn’t constant. It locked him in for a window… and then it faded. Blue moved anyway. He slammed into Chris, forcing contact instead of avoiding it, letting the impact carry him through the edge of that pressure instead of getting caught inside it. Chris grunted slightly at the contact, more acknowledgment than strain. Blue shifted right and immediately felt the mistake.
Eve’s vines surged into that exact space, snapping upward to cut him off before he could slip through. Eve’s eyes narrowed slightly. Blue adjusted mid-step, pulling back from the angle before the trap could fully close. For the first time since the fight began, he let it flow. The divine energy surged through him, threading into his movement, merging with the rhythm of his qi. Flowing Steel changed instantly. His footwork became more deliberate, more concise, every step placed with intent instead of reaction, every shift faster, tighter, controlled in a way it hadn’t been before. Samantha straightened slightly. The vines came again. Blue moved. For a split second, he wasn’t there. Then he reappeared to Chris’s left, just outside the reach of where the vines had been closing in.
Chris’s eyes widened, just slightly. Blue swept his legs out from under him, the motion clean and precise, sending the armored knight crashing to the ground along with his shield. The impact echoed. Chris hit the ground hard. He tried to push himself up. Blue hopped onto the shield immediately, using his weight to pin him just long enough to stop the reset. He leaned slightly, just enough for Chris to hear him. "Thanks for the boost.”
Chris let out a short breath through his nose. “…Hmph.”
Then Blue launched. Blue drove off the shield and into the air, the force of it sending him upward in a clean arc. He cleared Eve completely, rising well above her reach before shifting his body mid-air and angling straight toward the backline. Cynthia’s eyes widened. “Wait!” A barrier snapped into place in front of her, solid and precise, formed without hesitation.
Blue didn’t slow. Mid-air, he drew his blade and released a wave of sword energy. It cut forward in a clean line, slicing through the barrier before it could fully stabilize, the structure split apart under the force of it. Cynthia ducked on instinct as the energy passed, her focus breaking for just a moment and that was all Blue needed. He was already there. He landed lightly just behind the collapsing barrier, tapping the top of her head as he passed. “...Dead”
Cynthia blinked. “…Oh.” Then he stepped through. Samantha was right there. For the first time since the fight started, her posture had changed. No more lounging. She was ready. Blue raised his sword, gray qi threaded with faint streaks of gold wrapping along the blade. Samantha’s eyes locked onto it. “…That’s new.”
“OKAY, WE GET IT!” Eve’s voice cut through the room, stopping everything.
Blue exhaled slowly, lowering his weapon as the tension broke. Across the room, Darrien pushed himself up, glancing over at Chris still pinned beneath his own shield. He let out a laugh, shaking his head. “…Well damn.”
As the members all took their seats, the room settled into a quiet stillness. Everyone looked exhausted. Everyone except Samantha. She leaned back like nothing had happened, though her eyes were a little more focused now, a little more interested than before. No one spoke at first. They all just looked at Blue, each of them with a different expression. It almost felt like another test. “Sooo…” Blue rubbed the back of his neck slightly. “Did I pass?”
Darrien laughed first. “You’re unpredictable,” he said. “I like that. It’s a yes for me.”
Cynthia spoke next. “It’s a yes for me too,” she said with a small smile. “I’m glad you’re on our side, Blue.”
Samantha tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable. “He’ll do. For now.”
“For now?” Darrien let out another laugh. “If not for Eve, your head would be rolling on the floor.” “Whatever.” Samantha stood, already done with the conversation. “I’m going to the locker room. We still doing lunch at the sushi spot?” She paused briefly, glancing back. “He can come too, I guess.” Then she walked out.
Cynthia covered her mouth, trying not to smile. “I think she likes him.” The team laughed. Eve spoke next. “It’s a yes for me.”
Everyone turned to Chris. Eve was the leader, and everyone’s voice mattered, but they all knew the same thing. If Chris said no. Blue didn’t make the team. Chris stood, planting his shield firmly against the ground. “I have one stipulation,” he said. Darrien sighed, dragging a hand down his face. “Of course you do…” Chris didn’t react. “I want you to promise something,” he said, his gaze fixed on Blue. “This team comes before anything else.” A brief pause. “We’ve all sacrificed to get here. I expect you to do the same.”
Blue didn’t answer immediately. He looked at Eve. Then back at Chris. “I promise,” he said. “This team comes first. You’re my comrades now.” His voice steadied. “Something I learned in Murim… if you fight side by side, that makes you family.”
Darrien fell back, laughing so hard he had to grab his stomach. “Oh my god, he’s a fucking manwha character.”
He kept laughing until Cynthia casually raised a hand, metal fragments flew towards Darrien and formed a small barrier over his mouth and nose. Darrien’s laughter cut off instantly as he started flailing. “Behave,” she said.
The room settled again. “Then it’s decided,” Eve said. She looked at Blue. “Welcome to the team.” She stood, stretching slightly. “Now go get cleaned up. I’ve been wanting to try that sushi place.”
Blue stood up and headed toward the locker room. As he walked, he glanced over at Darrien and Chris, the two of them already laughing and joking like the last hour hadn’t just happened. He slowed slightly, looking back. Eve and Cynthia were off to the side, talking quietly, both of them smiling. Even Samantha, already halfway to the door, had the faintest hint of a smile on her face.
Blue watched them for a moment. Something about it felt… familiar. For the first time since returning. Earth didn’t feel so distant. It wasn’t Murim. But it wasn’t empty either. Blue exhaled softly, a small, almost unnoticed smile formed as he turned and continued toward the locker room.