"See you at the cave, tomorrow Luna!" A young man yelled to their friend, still hard at work training.
Luna Ember was by most standards a beauty with her beige skin, long flowing silver hair and piercing green eyes, known to most as the heir to the Ember family fortune. The Ember family while few in number were considered one of the 7 great families.
While on the surface the blessing of the embers family was one of fire, but outside of the strong few ever saw them at full strength.
Luna could often be seen swinging her sword away many nights in the guild hall training rooms. They were specially made rooms that allow divers to go all out, and provided much needed difficulty without causing any harm to people trying to hone their skills.
This room was a holo-deck, producing light partial beast that looked and acted like haze beast. Sensors around the room keeping track of the beast damage , till it was deemed dead then it would burst into a shower of light similar to how the real beasts react.
The blade in Lunas hand moved ceaselessly as a horde of haze beast continued to attack her. Her body a blur as she dodged and attacked, a dance of only death.
*level 2 complete*
*level 3 monsters now spawning*
A robotic voice stated as the monsters attacking Luna began to change shape, getting bigger and faster.
Lunas sword never ceasing in its attacks. With every swing a beast fell at level 2, but the jump to level 3 was significant. Now taking 3 to even 5 hits to take down, and she was keeping up for a bit. Then it began to fall apart when she took a hit from a beast that caught her off guard leading to her taking a fatal bite to her neck. Pain leached into her body as she was slammed to the ground.
~buuzzzzz~buuzzzz~
A loud buzzer screamed out as all the beast froze then de-pixelated
*level 3 failed*
*grade s*
*level 2*
The badge on her chest piece began to blink changing from a C2 into an S2.
*congratulation on your promotion: Luna Ember*
Most people would love to be 20 like Luna which is young for her talent, as well as a specialist class 2 diver but This seemed to disappoint and angry with her performance. After catching her breath she stood up from the floor, and headed towards the exit.
"How did it go, you get D3 yet?" A bright fair skinned young girl with black hair and blue eyes and similar armor to Luna said while leaning against the wall next to the door, as Luna stormed out!
"No, one got behind me...i depend to much on you during dives Rose, or I'd have been able to progress further" Luna replied
"Boooooooo! Let me guess, no blessings though huh?" Rose snapped back!
Lunas cheeks getting redder as she walked down the hall, because she was found out. She believed that a person shouldn't just rely on their blessing in all situations, because there will come a time when a persons can't escape a situation because the blessing they use isn't good enough and they never trained any of their martial skills.
"No, but i get further than most people who do use theirs! But i think I'm gonna take a run outside to clear my mind then head home to shower" the women removing their chest pieces to store in lockers near the training rooms. "Don't forget we have a dive tomorrow with Logan, he just just reminded me when he was leaving. Ugh!"
"Yep but right now i have an appointment with a nice hot bath! See you then" Rose said as she grab her bag and headed towards the exit.
Luna finished changing her shoes and grabbed a Jacket to stave off the cold of the night. With a quick stretch to loosen up she was off.
When ever things were moving to fast in her life running always brought her peace. No one trying to impress her, no one trying to force her father into giving her hand in marriage, no one trying to force a bound to control her blessing. Just her and the earth under her feet, the people around her didn't matter especially not at this hour when the sun was asleep and sounds of the world ever strange as the haze beast could be heard when the sounds of humanity disappear.
As Luna ran past the park she couldn't help but notice a man around her age preforming some kind of martial arts routine that looked more like a dance, a deadly but beautiful dance.
Without even realizing it Luna began running along the parks path, her eyes glued to the obsidian haired man dancing in the middle of the night. Pain written all across his face, sweat dripping off his lean muscled body.
'What is he doing, I've never seen anyone move like that!' Luna's thought, her mind now filled with with curiosity of this man. Before she knew it the man had stopped moving, stopped dancing. She wanted to run up to him and ask where he had learned to move like that, if he could teach her, to see if he was apart of any family or faction. These thoughts filling her mind, unknow to her she had stopped running and was just staring.
This all changed when he began screaming, an odd scene made more so when he ripped his shirt off. She could see some unfamiliar design forming oddly on his back, but she knew what this was... he had formed his contract and was receiving his blessing. What was odd was the location, most blessings would place a mark on their chest right below the collarbone, while some also placed a crown on the more compatible people; like Luna herself.
The mans scream began to morph grow and echo into the night, sounding like the howl of some oversized beast mixed with something else; something even more dangerous.
The howl only lasted a few seconds, then the man vomited and collapsed unconscious. Before she knew it Luna was rushing to his aid, because people don't usually take their trials alone for this exact reason.
When she finally reached him she saw his gods brand on his back slowly fading away. She saw what looked like a animal helmet with wings half black half a deep purple formed into a circle reminiscent of the old yin yang symbols, all encased inside a Diamond pattern of words/symbols/images of an unknown nature.
A few feet away she saw his tome, and then scattered all around even further away were the rest of his belongs. But all of that wasn't important as she dropped down next to him to check to see if he lived. Relief filling her heart as she could feel a heartbeat and rhythmic breathing of a sleeping person.
"Who are you?!" Luna whispered to no one in particular.