When he broke the door seal, it was like stepping into another world. He walked out into a hallway that was technically the side wall of the building. Since the building was rectangular, Rixon hadn't realized how wide it was, but this really showed him. From the hallway, he could see all two hundred floors, the hallways lining the edge of the building with the center filled by a huge, glowing blue core.

  He could barely move, his mind tricking him into thinking he was about to step off a cliff. Below, robots and droids worked in unison on the core, carrying material from floor to floor.

  "Don't tell me this scared you, 'little dude.' Those are just the droids of the boss's family. She has over two hundred people stationed here, and the rest are robots." Beelo kept walking down the hallway.

  "Hey, Beelo, listen. We haven't talked much, but stop with the 'little dude' name. We can be cool after you chill out with that." Rixon pulled himself together and followed.

  "Oh yeah, we will see, little dude, but let's get to this elevator before you tell me what I can and can't do." Beelo chuckled.

  They walked to the corner of the building and took the elevator down from floor 165 to floor 10.

  Rixon smelled it before the door opened.

  Death.

  When they stepped off, he saw dead bodies of other armored species lying on the metal floor.

  "Nah, what is this, Beelo? Is this her way of killing me?" Rixon tensed, ready to fight.

  Beelo laughed. "Oh no, she really wants to train you, but this is our training"

  "Live or die. There is nothing else."

  He went to pick up one of the dead bodies of his own kind. "You live or you die. These that you see on the ground are poor souls who came here to be a part of the same squad as you. That class was about fifteen strong, and none of them survived. What you see are the last ones to hang on by a thread, but they could never grasp the concept of not dying."

  "Man, what is this?" Rixon covered his mouth against the stench.

  "Now you're asking the best question, little dude. Follow me. The droids will be disposing of these bodies as we go to where you will be staged." Beelo dropped the body and walked past them around the corner.

  "Wait a minute, this may not be how I want to go out..."

  As Rixon turned the corner, he saw Beelo opening a door to a room of four individuals working out and training hard. They didn't seem too much older than Rixon, but they gave off an intimidating, cool energy. Seeing the moment, he entered character as well.

  "Yo, gather up. We got a new guy, and who killed them out there for trying to enter the room? It really shook the new guy." Beelo stepped through the doorway.

  The room itself was not big. It had five stations, with one in the middle on the back wall being free.

  As they walked up, their characteristics became clearer.

  A masculine Cerlitza with pale skin and three gold eyes. He had no shirt, just pants with multiple pockets of heavy-duty material and a necklace. Tattoos covered his back.

  A feminine Vernesa, which Rixon had only ever seen once. They had a tail that extended from the bottom of their spine. She wore a simple shirt and pants with boots and glasses. To Rixon, her face was beautiful as it coupled with tan skin, hooded eyelids, and curly hair tied up in a puff ball.

  A masculine Fernecta who seemed to be around his age, with a similar skin tone to the Vernesa woman. Rixon knew he was a Fernecta because of the fur coming out of his shirt on his back.

  And lastly, a quiet and sneaky masculine Quixler. His skin was brown, closer to Rixon's own. Rixon knew he was Quixler because of his digitigrade legs.

  "Beelo, that would be me. They tried to challenge us, and I told them if one of them could beat me, I thought you would give them a chance to get in the room. And I told them that the battle would be decided with life or death, and they took me up on the offer. So I made quick work of them before the new guy showed up." The Cerlitza male walked up.

  "Ah, Masinon, I thought that was your work when I picked one of them up. They had a hole punched through their chest and their throat cut. But anyway, little dude, introduce yourself already." Beelo shook his head.

  "Okay, well, to start, my name is not little dude but Rixon. We will see if it was nice to meet y'all at the end of this journey." Rixon gave a quick, serious nod.

  "Beelo, she really went and picked one. He actually looks like he wants to back up what he is saying." The masculine Fernecta said.

  "Yeah, I said the same thing. He is a snappy fella, but hey, let's see how long his teeth can stay in his mouth. Now let me introduce you lovely people. The Cerlitza, as you heard, was Masinon. The Fernecta's name is Lo. The Quixler's name is Relisis. And the Vernesa woman's name is Kiala. Now I will leave him with you guys as he starts his first challenge tomorrow, and he will need all the rest possible. While he will be doing that, you will do group training again as you four need to clean it up, or you will all die stupidly." Beelo addressed the group, then exited.

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  "Hey, I hope you survive, but can you take that open space over there against the back wall? They will bring you food soon. Just try to focus on tomorrow because we will not see you as much or maybe a while." Kiala had something of an older sister type of energy.

  "Thanks, will do. I'll try to get acclimated to the group after my stages are over, I guess. Just try not to kill me if I walk up to the door, all right." Rixon went to his cot in the back of the room.

  It didn't take him long to go to sleep.

  He was woken up being thrown into freezing cold water.

  He immediately got above water and saw two masked individuals. He could stand in the water. The room was dark, with lights only on the pool walls.

  Both individuals jumped in and started punching him. He tried to fight back, but he would miss, water flying up in his face and blinding him. Then a knee to his stomach, a punch to his face.

  He felt like quitting... but he gritted his teeth, blocked, and waited for the moment he could telegraph a movement.

  That time came.

  He got punched, then heard and felt the water on his left move. He kicked his left foot out and tripped them, then jumped on their back with his knees. He went animalistic as the other tried to gouge his eyes. He grabbed their arms, trapped them under his armpits, and lifted until he heard the pop of elbows. He let go, and the one under him stopped moving, floating to the top.

  Then the one with broken arms charged, headbutting Rixon. He fell in the water, and they stepped on his throat, stomping on his chest. He put his hands on the bottom of the pool and pushed up until they slipped off.

  He rose out of the water like a man possessed, saw the headbutt coming, dodged it, put both hands around their neck, and strangled them underwater, knocking their head against the pool floor until they went still.

  He let go and rose, chest heaving. "Ti-Uda!"

  The lights snapped on overhead. He blinked, blinded for a second. When his vision cleared, he saw the two masked bodies floating in the pink-tinged water. A door hissed open in front of the pool.

  Beelo walked out.

  "Look at that Delisurian warrior showing his pride. Now get up and get dressed. You may have not went to bed in your trousers, but we needed to see how you could fight without all your armor." Beelo threw a towel on the edge of the pool and walked back through the door.

  Rixon walked out and realized it was a concealed room in the hallway. He walked back inside, and everyone was smirking as if they were proud, but Rixon just wanted to get dressed and laid down to decompress.

  The next day came, and Rixon was taken to a field where he had to fight six combat droids with weapons while he started with none. He survived but was badly injured in his right shoulder.

  He thought it was like yesterday where he would get rest before the next thing.

  And that was his downfall.

  A big droid came in and knocked him out. He woke up outside of the rectangular building, an air mask on his face due to the planet's gas. He wore just a shirt and pants.

  His mask read that he had ten hours until it ran out of oxygen.

  As he marched toward the building, he came across a tribe classified as uncivilized. A hunting party found him. They shot at him with metal bullets from guns that used a powder non-reactive to the gas.

  They wanted his head on a pike for food.

  He didn't try to kill them all. He fought to break free. When they cornered him against a rock face, he used the distraction of a grazing beast to turn the tables. He took a gun from a fallen hunter and shot his way out, dropping three who stood between him and open ground. He ran, leaving the rest of the tribe behind, now vengeful and on his trail.

  During the fight, he found a dead mobster sent here with an air mask that had about two extra hours of air. He grabbed it and ran.

  When he got to high ground, he did the math. It would take five hours to reach the building at his current pace. He had four hours on his mask and two on the spare. The problem was where to change them. Breathing even a little of the air could be fatal.

  He went down the hill and ran into a huge animal with talons. It was passive unless provoked.

  Rixon accepted that who he had to become could not stop for a peaceful animal.

  He shot at it, and it swiped him across his chest. He fell, three huge slashes opening across his chest. He was lucky it wasn't deeper, or the gas would infect his wounds. He put on another shirt he'd taken, tying a knot in the back to compress the cuts and slow the bleeding.

  He jogged back up. The beast rested over a group of snow-covered trees.

  He shot the tree, making snow fall and blinding the animal, then hit it with two shots and ran. When he got into a new position, the animal had lost him. He ran under it and shot into its belly. As it yelped, he jumped into the wound he'd created and fired more shots where it couldn't reach him. He shot until the wound was deep.

  The gun ran hot, and he was covered in blood.

  His tired arms pulled himself inside the beast. He used the cavity to change the mask, the thick skin keeping the gas out and blocking the wind.

  The beast was still yelping in pain, something buried in its skin. Not enough to kill it, but enough to cause constant hurt.

  Rixon, after putting on the mask, jumped out and ran to the building, dodging legs that could crush him.

  As he made it, Beelo stood there with the biggest grin, his head tilted, looking Rixon in the eyes. Beelo wore a winter coat and held a hot beverage. Rixon stood with blood-covered clothes, scars bleeding through his shirt.

  "Little dude, you got fight like no one's business. We may make something out of you." Beelo said as the wall behind him retracted open, showing an elevator.

  "Oh yeah? Well, let me fight you so this shit can end." Rixon walked past Beelo and collapsed on the elevator floor.

  Beelo stepped in behind him, looking down at Rixon's battered form for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then the doors closed.

  When they reached the floor, droids picked Rixon up on a stretcher and took him down the left hallway.

  Beelo went right, to the second door. He walked in on the Boss's hologram waiting for him.

  "Ohhh, I knew he would be good, but this just might work if we can get him to work with those others. Mhmm mhmm. I'll be there in three months. Have them ready for me, Beelo. I’m excited and I already have five missions."

  "Yes, ma'am." Beelo answered as the hologram faded. He stood there for a second, thinking of the kid bleeding on the elevator, then turned to leave.