Page 47 of Dark Embers

Tobias

Arya followed me to the Simulation Room, and I stopped at the computer panel on the wall outside the door.

“So… how does it work?” Arya asked. “How do you set different levels or whatever?”

I tapped the screen to wake it from sleeping, and the different options and settings appeared. “The simulation is a complex and intelligent program. Each one is designed specifically for each shifter, to push them to overcome whatever their greatest weakness is in battle.”

“Greatest weakness?” She frowned. “But I thought Cora had set mine to a vampire sim.”

I nodded, understanding her confusion. “The simulation you were stuck in was one of the practice ones. There’s an extensive series of practice simulations against various types of enemies, but the levels you test in are general and adapt to the person testing. There’s a sort of hierarchy of levels you need to pass that assists you in getting ready for the one you’ll be tested on. Kind of like video games. Except each level starts the same, then adapts to whatever maneuvers you’re favoring to forceyouto adapt.”

“So you have to go throughallof them?” she asked, her eyes widening.

“It’s not required, but it is suggested,” I said.

“Okay. Are you attempting to beat it today?”

“Caesar has to be present for an official testing, so, no. I’ll show you one of the levels.”

“Which one?”

“Intermediate Level Ten.”

She nodded like she wasn’t sure if that was impressive or not. “How does that compare to the one I was in?”

I bit my lip before answering, “Beginner Level One.”

She nodded again, and I ended the conversation by getting her settled in the observation room, then left to face the white blankness of the Simulation Room.

Stripping out of everything but my smart shorts, I entered the room and closed the door. I braced myself for the imminent shift as the room disappeared, icy air chilling me as arctic cliffs revealed themselves around me.

As many times as I’d been in this room, it always felt as if I were being transported somewhere else in the world, not within the walls of the school’s high-tech simulation chamber. Snow blanketed everything as far as the eye could see, and ice dripped down from the cliffs and rocks as I blew out a visible breath before bending my knees in a crouch. I closed my eyes to begin the shift.

I had the rare ability to explode-shift—transforming in the blink of an eye—but I drew it out instead.

Maybe it’ll help her in her own shifting if I show her in slow motion.

I figured I had about thirty seconds before the first simulation enemy appeared. I started with my feet, shifting the skin to mygo-to dark gray scales and claws, then willed the scales up my legs. They flipped outward before settling like the shuffling of cards. I took the longest to fling out my wingspan, pushing the air around me as they grew to their full length.

But when I heard the cry of the dragons in the distance—their high-pitched shrieks penetrating the air, vibrating the ice crystals until they sounded like glass wind chimes—I quickly rushed through the rest of my shift. I changed my dark hair into scales, then pushed out a long snout and grew out my tail.

I couldn’t see Arya’s reaction, so I could only imagine the awe on her face as I pumped my wings and took flight to meet the enemy dragons.

They were all slightly larger than me, and their bright red and green colors helped them stick out against the pale sky with ease. I’d learned early on that their agility was no match for my own. I weaved in and out of their formation, flying above and then below each of them to force their open-jawed flame-throwing onto each other.

Bank right. Fly up. Half turn.

A sim dragon screamed.

Hairpin turn. Veer left. Tuck wings in and plummet.

Emerald green flashed past me, plunging to the icy cliffs below.

I had the beginning memorized, it had taken me so long to beat it. Now I anticipated when the sim dragons went from predictable, robotic entities—like the zombie sims in Brett’s games—to the more life-like and reasoning ones, when the computer began anticipating my moves. Normally, I could strike down at least a half dozen before the computer caught on.

In my peripheral, I caught another flash of green to my right—one I hadn’t anticipated—and made my own calculations to bring it down. I bent into a nosedive but immediately switched directions again to come up from below the beast and trap its left leg in my powerful jaws.

Instead, I got a mouthful of tail. The tails were thinner so there wasn’t as much to bite down on, but I was able to sink in with two teeth, causing the dragon to let out a screech. Then I proceeded to swing it around like a catapult, releasing it with precise force and trajectory.

---