Valerie had never felt so vulnerable and helpless in her life. There were many times that she had felt that way, being in a wheelchair with muscles that were eating themselves away would do that to a girl.

When she had first been given her diagnosis, she had felt helpless. When her disease ate away at her legs so much that she couldn’t bear her own weight, and was reduced to a life in a chair, she had been helpless.

Whenever she was home alone, with nothing to protect herself should anyone try to break in and hurt her, such as when she thought that she had a stalker, she felt vulnerable.

These were just a few of the plentiful times. Yet in each of those, there was always something she could do or some way that she could persevere against the helpless hand she had been dealt and stand strong despite it all.

Even if she had a disease, it wouldn’t stop her living her life. Even if she was bound to a chair, she would still enjoy things to the fullest and not let it bring her down. Every single time there was another way to look at it, some way to hold strong.

But here... she truly was helpless. Shackled and locked away, being led around by someone she couldn’t have stopped from killing her if she wanted, because unless she was looking directly at them she didn’t even realise they existed in the first place, but that solution only worked some of the time.

She couldn’t even get a proper sense of whether they were a man or a woman, just that they were wearing the same suit as the man, but even that detail was somewhat hazy.

Yet even if she could sense them, what difference would it make? Withered legs, shackled arms, strangled magic. All of her power, anything she could do, was completely and utterly restrained by these people.

They could walk up to her with a butter knife, and she wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop them using it to kill her. Vulnerable. Helpless. Pathetic... 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Her only solice was the fact that they had not killed her yet, as easy as it would be, but she could not imagine why.

The strange man and his stealthy assistant led Valerie down a long, metallic corridor that opened up to the outside world, at the very top of a barren mountain. Before her was a courtyard built of stone that had archways above the paths beginnings and stone walls with lanterns built into them at evenly spaced points. A styling that Valerie assumed to be eastern, at least from what she had seen in movies and such.

Did that mean they had left the country? Or was it just a choice of whoever built it? That was hard to say for Valerie at the moment. But if it was just a choice of the builder, it was a choice they had made long ago.

Just from the wear and tear on the stone, it looked like this courtyard had existed in its current state for, at the very least, one hundred years. Although that was mostly Valerie’s uneducated opinion, it very well could be much much older but it was certainly not young.

The courtyard was split into two sections, each section the size of a football field, with stairs that were leading upwards to another section of the courtyard that she could not see.

Dozens of individuals filled either section of the courtyard, as they were separated by the activity they were currently participating in.

On one side, the courtyard had been further divided into small square platforms, which each had people fighting atop them. They were grappling, throwing, punching and kicking as they sparred.

Yet it was clear at a glance from the sound of their fist impacts, and how easily they were throwing each other around, that they were operating at levels that were a step above normal human limits and which were bordering on the realm of supernatural.

Those who were not using fists in these fights did so with weapons, real weapons, as steel clashed against steel. Swords, Spears, Axes and Daggers. All the most common weapons, and a few less common, were on display as they battled without fear of injuring each other.

In the other section of the courtyard, it had been set up for long range practice. With metallic training dummies standing at various distances from the practitioners, while they threw daggers, shot arrows... and cast spells.

Valerie’s eyes widened slightly at the sight of one man chanting to himself with his hands outstretched, before a bullet of stone formed in front of him and launched across the range.

The stone bullet smacked the training dummy right in the chest, causing a holographic number to appear above its head. The numbers whirred as they rapidly counted upwards, until they landed on 55.

A number that seemed to garner a lot of attention from those training around him, as they started to surround the stone bullet user and lavish him with praise that he eagerly basked in with a self assured smile on his face.

"Surprised?" The man who had interrogated her asked, as he allowed her to bask in the amazing sights before her.

"I suppose you might be. I’m sure that you were under the impression that you were the only one, or at least the first. Unfortunately, that is far from the case."

He gestured to his companion, and the three of them moved down the stairs. Valerie’s stealthy, possible assassin took surprising care when it came to those stairs, as she pushed her down in a way that she hardly felt a single bump and felt no different than going down an actual ramp.

When they got closer, Valerie found herself focusing on the ranged users, as even more displayed their magical prowess in an effort to compete with their stone using friend.

More hands were raised, and more chants were spoken, and soon enough bolts and bullets of fire, lightning, water and earth were being fired down the range. Some of them fell short, and a few of them collapsed before they could even fire.

But at least half reached the training dummies, with most of them actually hitting the target in some way.

Holographic numbers rattled like slot machines, and scores were displayed for all to see. 37, 42, 19, 24, 25, 6.

A whole host of numbers, each garnering varied reactions of joy or disappointment, with the latter belonging to those who got lower numbers. But none of them were able to reach 50, never mind surpass the score of 55.

Valerie’s interrogator smirked at her curious expression, as she was currently leaning forwards in her chair and watching with rapt attention.

"Finally, I can ask my next question. What do you think of our ranks?"

Valerie did not answer right away. Instead she slumped in her chair, with a deep set frown on her face as she looked over the magic wielding individuals once again. There was only a single word that ran through her head after watching them all.

Sloppy.