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Rosed from his sleep by the loud voice, Shawn squinted up at the sky. He narrowed his eyes. "No, not usually. What\'s all this about horse quality?"

"Apparently we\'re being ranked by not only how fast we finished, but also how suitable the horse was to our abilities," Ike said.

Shawn paused for a moment, confused, then nodded. "They did say that having a discerning eye for horseflesh was part of a king\'s skills, or whatever, right? So I suppose we were technically warned that there would be a horse-suitability part of the rankings."

"Huh." Ike gazed up at the list again.

There were two categories for each rider: speed and suitability. Ike ranked first in speed, but he ranked in the twenties in suitability. Wisp had rank eleven speed and barely rank fifty suitability, while Shawn ranked ahead of her, with rank thirty-two speed and rank seven suitability. Mag had low speed but relatively high suitability, with his combined score lower than anyone else\'s in the team.

Not far from the four of them, Rufus let out a gleeful harrumph. With 2 in speed and 1 in suitability, he\'d taken first place, ahead of Ike with a total score of 3. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head at Ike. "Even if you have speed, you lack the discerning eye of a king!"

"Who said I want to be king, anyways?" Ike replied. I\'m just here for the loot.

Shocked, Rufus blinked at him. Even Scar glanced over, confusion written across her face. "Why else would you participate in the Trials of Kings unless you wanted to become the next rightful king? After all, regardless of class, creed, sect or city, whoever is chosen by the Trials of Kings shall become the king of this region."

That\'s a funny way to say that you\'ll win a skill so powerful that no one in this region will be able to oppose you. On the other hand, I guess that shows how strong this skill is. Ike nodded. "Right, yeah. King, that\'s me."

Wisp snorted. She elbowed him and shook her head. "We all want to be king, right?"

"Yeah, sure," Shawn yawned from Ike\'s back.

Mag put his hands on his hips. "I\'m already king."

Rufus squinted at the four of them. "Are you taking this seriously?"

Ike frowned. He shook his head. "Of course I am. Didn\'t you see me putting my life on the line in that trial?"

"And you still took second," Rufus sneered.

"Second is pretty good," Ike said, shrugging.

Overhead, the screen flickered. At the top of it, words appeared. For seeing beyond the superficial and choosing the strongest horse: -100 pts.

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Ike\'s score flickered. It went from 21, to 1, to zero, into the negatives. His name vanished, then reappeared over Rufus\', in first place.

Rufus stared. His jaw dropped.

Ike patted his shoulder and gave him a cheeky grin. "Second is pretty good!"

Wisp opened her mouth to pile on, but before she could, that authoritative voice sounded down from the heavens. "From here, you must show cooperation, diplomacy, and the ability to work with others. To progress, you must form teams of no more than five members."

"Easy. Mag, get over here," Ike called, raising his voice.

Mag swooped down. He landed beside Ike and puffed his chest. "Aha! Now you see my dastardly plan. You were brought here… to be part of my team!"

"Neat," Ike said, deadpan. He nodded at Wisp, who gave a thumbs-up. "Shawn, I guess you\'re member four."

"You fine with carrying my dead weight?"

Ike snorted. "If there\'s one thing I\'m used to, it\'s carrying your weight. As long as we have enough members to kind of keep up, we should be fine."

Mag tilted his head. He stared at the three of them. "Are you not shocked and betrayed?"

"No?" Ike said.

"But…I fooled you."

Smiling, Ike patted Mag\'s head. "That\'s right. You fooled me."

Wisp turned away, barely suppressing a laugh.

Mag scowled, brushing his hand away. "Don\'t laugh at me."

"I\'m not laughing at you, I\'m laughing with you. Besides, you got your wish. We\'re here with you, part of your team. Do you have to have \'tricked\' us for that to be a good thing?"

Mag opened his mouth, then closed it. He furrowed his brows. "But…if I\'m not tricking you, you\'re tricking me, and I don\'t like that."

"What? That\'s not true at all. Have you never met anyone who wanted to work with you, from the bottom of their heart, with no…or at least few ulterior motives?" Ike asked, tilting his head back at Mag.

Mag shook his head. "Humans and beasts, everyone I\'ve ever met has tried to kill me. If I\'m not the one with the upper hand, that means I\'m being lured to the slaughter by someone else."

Ike crossed his arms. "Mag."

"Yeah?"

"If we wanted you dead, wouldn\'t you be dead already? We beat you. We didn\'t have to leave you alive. If all we wanted was to kill you, we would have taken our chance when we had it."

Ike could see the thoughts processing in Mag\'s head. The boy squinted deeply as he tried to process the foreign idea. His head tilted left, then right, then left again. At last, he looked up at Ike. "I guess…that\'s true."

"It is true. So stop worrying about having the upper hand. For right now, you\'re part of the team."

"When am I not part of the team?" Mag asked.

"The second you attack or betray us," Ike responded.

Mag nodded. His eyes lit up. Turning away, he punched the air. "Yes! I\'ve acquired a team!"

Wisp leaned toward Ike. "I don\'t think he totally understands the idea of a team."

Ike chuckled under his breath. He spread his hands. "That\'s fine. He\'ll figure it out eventually."

"And if he doesn\'t, doesn\'t matter. We\'ll carry them, all the same," Wisp replied.

Ike thumbed at Shawn. "Literally, for one of them."

As they spoke, the field thinned. One after another, the contestants were surrounded in a beam of light, then teleported away. Several of them directly disappeared in batches of five the second teams were announced, and Ike noticed that Rufus, Scar, and Vi were amongst them. People who pre-coordinated teams. People who planned for these trials, and knew enough about their contents to know what they needed before they entered. They\'re the ones I need to watch. The ones who might have manipulated Mag to come here.

He glanced around to check if anyone worthwhile was without a team. Quite a few people smiled at him as his gaze passed over them, but he dismissed all of them. They were low Rank, or had come low in the race. One or two had predatory glimmers in their eyes; people who would be happy to prey on the four of them.

Yeah, I don\'t think so. He didn\'t know much about the trials, and that was his greatest disadvantage. Someone who knew what to expect might be able to trick him or the others into making a mistake. Mag in particular would be vulnerable to that kind of trick, given how bird-brained he was. He would rather be down a teammate, rather than risk taking on a snake with ill intent in their heart.

A voice sounded in their heads. Have you chosen your team?

"Yes," they said, one after another.

Light flashed, and they vanished.