Halios scowled down at the floundering tryout struggling to recover after being caught off guard by [Icemaw Kraken]. She spun about in the water, cursing loudly, her voice warbling oddly in the [Environmental Field].

“She’ll do more harm than good to us in the Dominion,” Halios snapped, looking away from the irritating sight. He faced his fellow Hands. “I’m telling you, we don’t need a full mercenary core. Six is fine.”

“Halios,” Second Hand Brust rumbled. “The law is the law. We will not break it.”

He scowled deeper. The man looked ridiculous in that armor. Didn’t he have a sense of style, of fashion? He even had his equipment tailored to look like that.

“Brust is correct, Halios,” First Hand Iviva murmured. She was focused intently on controlling her summon. “We must follow the law. Guildmaster Varros will have our heads if we don’t.”

Halios grumbled but dropped the topic. Brust was a fool, but Iviva at least had a good outfit. He returned his attention to the woman trying out for the position, whose name he’d already forgotten.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the woman managed to kill the kraken with an [Aqualance]. The Attack pierced through the summon and dispersed it.

She swam up to where Halios and the other Hands were waiting and smiled uncertainly.

“Was that all right?” she asked, a little out of breath. “It was a bit tricker than I thought it’d be.”

Halios was about to tell exactly how not all right it was when Brust shot him a preemptive glare.

“Your cardbearer skills are satisfactory,” First Hand Iviva said, as Halios glared back at Brust. “But I fear your ability to fight underwater is not. Thank you for your time.”

The woman looked as if she was about to protest or plead her case, but one look at Iviva’s ocean eyes and she closed her mouth. Grumbling slightly, she turned and swam down to the entrance of the arena.

“I guess that’s it,” Halios said. He yawned. Finally, they were done. “She was the last one, right?”

“It appears we have one more,” Brust said, pointing down at the entrance.

A young man was swimming upwards to them. A short man, maybe a few years younger than Halios, with an eclectic—and clashing—assortment of equipment. Absolutely abhorrent to Halios’ eyes.

Wait. Halios moved forward, a sinking feeling in his stomach.

This guy looked kind of familiar.

—🃁—

“Hey, Hal,” Tristan called out as he swam up to meet the judges. Moving underwater with the various [Aqua Affinity] gear the dejected-looking woman handed to him after her tryout was rather simple for him; the basic movements of accelerating, decelerating, and turning were intuitive after clearing so many underwater Terrors in the game.

Breathing underwater, however, was not. He could feel the water go down his throat with every breath, but the sensation of the water disappeared before it reached his stomach and was replaced with the sensation of being oxygenated. Also, the conical shell helmet which gave him the Perk to breathe made him feel a little silly as he came to eye-level with them.

Still, he shot an evil grin at the stunned looking young man.

“Halios, you know this one?” said the woman in the middle, turning to Halios with a raised eyebrow.

“We’ve met,” Halios said through gritted teeth. He glared at Tristan. “Don’t call me ‘Hal.’ Understand?”

“Oh, I understand,” Tristan said, not relaxing his grin one bit. He shot back his own glare with a message: I’m gonna keep calling you Hal.

Halios literally growled, but the older man in armor cleared his throat.

“Shall we proceed with the try out?” the man said, pointedly looking at Halios.

Halios waved his hand in disgust.

Good, get in trouble, you line-cutter, Tristan thought with a warm glow of smugness inside him. He turned to the woman in the middle—who was clearly their leader judging by the way she carried herself—and got serious.

“I’m First Hand Iviva,” she said with a slightly amused look in her blue eyes. “The man in armor is Second Hand Brust. And I see you’ve already met Third Hand Halios.”

“I’m Tristan Ford,” he said. “Nice to meet you two. Hal, good to see you again.”

Halios immediately opened his mouth to retort but fell silent with a glare from Iviva. The woman huffed and turned back to Tristan with a slight frown.

“Tristan Ford? The same Tristan Ford that was involved in the Serenity Takeover?” she asked.

“The one and only.” Tristan pretended not to see Halios’ incredulous expression.

“Interesting,” Iviva said, looking him up and down. Beside her, Brust grunted in amazement, while Halios scoffed.

“Well, as you can see,” she continued, gesturing around at the water with her arm, “we have been conducting these tryouts in an [Environmental Field] that mimics the raid conditions. This new Dominion is a few hundred feet beneath the ocean, so it can be a challenge to people unfamiliar with [Aqua Affinity].” She eyed him floating placidly in place. “But you seem to be fine.”

Unlawfully taken from NovelBin, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Yeah, I’ve used these before,” Tristan said. “So, you want me to take out that kraken monster?”

Iviva nodded. “We’ll begin when you’re ready.”

Tristan swam down beneath the judges and summoned his deck. He looked up at Halios and thought, Watch this.

He gave a thumbs-up indicating he was good to go, and Iviva cast a card from her deck a moment later. The kraken appeared away from him, a large beast with eight tentacles each twice as long as his body. Two large, lucid eyes rolled and stared at him.

The Summon’s name read:

[Expert] — Icemaw Kraken Summon

Without warning, the kraken burst forward, each of its tentacles slapping together and propelling the monster.

Tristan spun so his head was facing down and flexed the Perk. He shot downwards like a rocket, moving through the water easily. The {Water Breathing} Perk made it feel as if he was breathing air, too.

The kraken shot by overhead as Tristan twisted around and cast Polter. Funguy would be useless in this underwater space. The shade summoned, and Tristan sent it up while he repositioned backwards.

He split his mind, manually controlling Polter while tracking the kraken’s movements. He pulled out [Midnight Javelin] and made sure the {Unimpeded Cast} Perk from his gloves was active.

Polter swooped up to the kraken and used [Ectoplasm]. The skill shot out but just floated away harmlessly, the green goo clearly not very effective underwater. Tristan figured as much, but he wanted to test it. He pointedly ignored Halios’ snort of derision as the kraken’s tentacles glowed blue before lashing out.

Eight slices of water cut towards Polter, but under Tristan’s command the shade dodged every one easily. One slice barreled towards him; he just effortlessly turned his body to the side.

Polter re-engaged. The shade got close and used [Chilling Breath], landing the skill. Dark energy in the form of a skull formed over the kraken’s head, and it suddenly burst into panicked, frenzied movements.

Tristan dispersed Polter, the monster’s job done, and lifted [Midnight Javelin] up. The kraken was darting around the field in jerky, rapid movements, completely taken over by the [Fear].

Tristan breathed out, little bubbles of air floating upwards.

He cast. The card cut through the water easily thanks to the Perk and turned into a wicked javelin that struck the kraken in the left eye right as it came to a halt, the [Fear] finished.

The beast was silent, but its tentacles thrashed madly. [Bleed] applied, tendrils of Dark energy encasing the monster and flashing, casting rippling shadows. Water energy gushed from its impaled eye.

Before it could recover, Tristan activated {Darklink} and cast another [Midnight Javelin] at its other eye with a flick of his wrist.

It slammed right in the middle of the eye, and the link formed. As the kraken thrashed more, and another stack of {Bleed} applied, Tristan pulled [Predator’s Mark] in his hand and re-activated {Darklink}.

In a blink, he was in front of the monster. He cast the mark onto the beast’s head, pulled [Shadow Step] with that same hand and threw it backwards without turning his head. Just before the dash reached its maximum distance, Tristan activated {Sanguination} and quick-cast [Nightmare Cleave] through the deck and disappeared.

He formed a little away from the kraken right as the cleave struck into the mark. The empowered Attack sliced deep into its bulb-like head, and then [Predator’s Mark] popped, rupturing the rest.

Tristan cast his second charge of [Shadow Step] up to where the judges were as the kraken dispersed.

He appeared in front of them in a flurry of shadow—and unable to stop himself, he gave a little bow. Lifting his head with a grin, he was pleased to see three stunned faces.

“I hope that was satisfactory,” Tristan said humbly.

Iviva shook her head in disbelief. “You’re an Adept?”

“That was quite impressive,” Brust said, nodding at Tristan with respect.

Halios’s expression of shock quickly morphed into cool disinterest. “That was fine, I guess.”

Tristan rolled his eyes as Iviva swam forward, coming to a stop in front of Tristan.

“You’re hired,” she said, summoning her [Binder]. She handed him an [Item Card]. “Show that to the front desk and they’ll handle the rest.”

“Cool.” Tristan turned and swam down without another word, feeling mightily pleased with himself the whole way.

—🃁—

After returning the borrowed equipment to the little girl, whose name Tristan learned was Alicie, he went back to the first barracks and presented the [Item Card] to the worker there.

She congratulated him and took down his information before handing him back a card. He converted it, revealing a bundle of paper tied together.

“What’s this?” he asked, flipping through idly.

“The mercenary contract for the raid,” the worker explained. “It outlines the details of the raid, as well as the boss loot distribution and other miscellaneous details. Very standard. Would you like to sign now?” She pulled a pen off her desk.

“Boss loot distribution?” Tristan echoed, looking up at her. “Wouldn’t that all be sorted by the System depending on participation?”

“Yes, but then the loot is collectively compiled and sorted according to your contract.” She used the pen in her hand to point at a paragraph on the second page. “As you can see, there will be three cores in this raid. The Attack core, which will be the main offensive force and comprised of Unyielding guild members; the Support core, which are the healers and tanks and also guild members; and lastly, the Mercenary core, which are auxiliary helpers outside of the Guild who will fulfill whatever role the first two cores require of them. As a Mercenary, you are entitled to a small percentage of the boss loot. Whatever you get from the previous phases of the Dominion is yours, however.”

Tristan thought, Well, I’ll just have to hide what I get.

“And in case you were thinking about not being truthful about the loot you obtained,” the worker added, making Tristan wince, “it is mandatory that you show your [Binder] before exiting the raid field. Failure to do so will be considered a breach of contract, and the Guild lawyers will take it from there.”

Tristan didn’t like this one bit. He’d planned on pretty much just using the Guild to enter the raid and taking over. He flipped through the contract, unsure of what to do.

He paused, an idea coming to him.

“When do I have to have this signed by?” Tristan asked.

“The raid will commence in three days’ time, so by the second night at the latest.”

He grinned. “Perfect. Let me go have a quick talk with my lawyer…”