The first lesson an assassin learns is control. Not killing. Not footwork. Not poisons.

Control.

Your body must not react before your mind has decided what mask to wear.

Words were easy. The body was the real challenge. Ronan controlled his words. He failed to control his body, his expressions, his mannerisms. That made him easy to predict, and it made it much easier to tell when he was lying.

Kade narrowed his eyes. The tip of his sword rose an inch, pointed more directly at Ronan's chest.

"Where is it?"

"Where is what? I told you, I haven't found anything."

Ronan's confusion was almost convincing.

Kade let his voice turn colder. "Do you truly think I can't tell you're lying?"

His group reacted to the shift, their formation tightening around Ronan. The threat was no longer implied.

"This is your last chance," Kade said. "Tell us where the point is, or we eliminate you here."

For a moment, Ronan said nothing. The air grew heavy, and his followers moved in slowly.

Then Ronan let out a long, slow sigh.

His expression shifted into one of reluctant regret, the mask of confusion cracking to reveal a grudging defeat.

"Fine. I captured one."

Satisfaction bloomed in Kade's chest. He didn't show it on his face.

"Bring us to it."

Ronan looked genuinely confused now. "Why?"

Kade almost scoffed.

Of course the failure thought the only rules were the ones the Headmaster announced. As if every important mechanic in life would be explained cleanly before it mattered. As if the exam was only testing strength, points, and survival.

There were always hidden rules.

He had tested it earlier with another contestant. Ownership of a captured point could be transferred if both parties consented. The discovery had cost him time, but it gave him an advantage no one else knew. He did not explain any of this to Ronan, obviously.

"Guide us there. I will not ask again."

"It might be inside the new barrier by now," Ronan said, a note of desperation in his voice.

Kade's voice was ice. "Then you had better hope it is not."

The group started moving, with Ronan at the center. Kade stayed watchful, sword ready, Relative Scanning still active, mapping every twitch and turn.

Ronan looked frightened.

Kade found a deep, satisfying quiet in that expression as they followed him toward the point.

Kade kept the formation tight. A diamond, with Ronan at its front point, not far enough ahead to be a flight risk. One student watched Ronan's hands. Another scanned the surrounding trees. The last stayed ready to cut off any sudden lateral movement. Kade walked behind and slightly to the side, his mind humming with the constant data stream from Relative Scanning.

He did not trust Ronan. But he was growing excited.

If this worked, he would have three eliminations and two captured points. With that score, survival until the end would all but guarantee a top twenty-five placement. He did not need to dominate. He just needed to build an early advantage and avoid unnecessary risks.

That made this point important. Every step closer felt like another stone laid in the foundation of his victory.

If Ronan escaped now, it would be wasted time. If the point was already lost to the contracting barrier, the opportunity would vanish.

Kade reminded himself to remain patient. Control. But the longer they walked, the more a familiar annoyance began to prickle at the back of his neck. They had still somehow not reached it.

He started to question if Ronan was stalling.

He watched Ronan's posture again. The Ashbourne still looked tense. Pressured. He did not carry himself with the easy confidence of someone leading a group into a trap. That was some small reassurance.

Then Kade noticed the terrain.

The fallen log, stripped of its bark on one side. The patch of disturbed dirt where they had finished their last target. The subtle marks left by their own earlier fight.

They had been here before.

Kade's irritation sharpened into a blade. Before he could voice the accusation, before he could demand an explanation for being led in a circle, Ronan stopped.

He turned around.

The fear that had been a satisfying mask on his face was gone. His eyes were calm, holding a faint, unsettling amusement. The corner of his mouth was turned up in a small, confident smirk.

"We're here," Ronan announced.

Kade scanned the clearing.

He saw nothing.

No marble slab. No glowing Academy marker. No obvious structure.

He considered the simple possibility that Ronan was lying, but another thought surfaced.

Not every capture point had to be obvious. Hidden rules already existed. Disguised nodes were not impossible.

"Where is it?" Kade asked, his voice flat.

Ronan pointed a lazy finger toward a gnarled oak tree nearby. For a second, the tree looked different.

More present, more deliberate. The shape of the bark, the twist of the roots, the way the trunk caught the faint light – it all felt intentional. It looked exactly like something the Academy might have disguised.

How did I miss this?

He took a step forward.

"Wait," Ronan said.

Kade froze, instantly alert. "What is it?"

Ronan had the gall to look sheepish.

He scratched the back of his head. "Sorry. Need to tie my shoes."

The statement was so absurd, so utterly out of place, that Kade's mind snagged on it for half a second.

Tying his shoes?

Here?

Now?

Then he saw Ronan's face as he bent down.

The sheepish act was a flimsy curtain.

Behind it was a devilish smile.

Kade's eyes darted down.

Ronan's boots had no laces.

Realisation hit him like a physical blow. He had been fooled.

Before Kade could shout an order, before he could lunge, his vision distorted.

The clearing felt all the more empty, and he realized his group was no where near him. The formation he thought was perfect was suddenly a scattered mess.

Then a massive explosion erupted behind him.