“Are you clear on the rules?”

  “Yes.”

  “You may begin when ready.”

  Finnic Coldwater hopped from foot to foot, bouncing his shoulders and shaking out his arms. The borrowed, worn leather pads only restricted his movements a little, but they smelled like every candidate who had worn them in the last five years. Better smelly than bloody though.

  Finn steadied his stance, and took a deep breath. The air seemed to still, and he began to chant.

  “Light as Air, Swift as Wind, Elusive as Mist. Lend my feet wings so I may soar, Sky Step.”

  Misty steam coalesced around his moccasins by the end of the chant, and he felt like he’d just set down a sack of rocks. A grin stole across his face, and he exploded forwards. Two steps took him to the peak of the mountain and he leapt off with a Jubilant: “Yahoooooo!”

  The mist around his feet left twin trails in his wake as he picked up speed, plunging headfirst past cliffs studded with caves. The wind whistled past, doing its best to slow him down. A quick twitch changed his hand positioning and he twisted in the air, narrowly dodging the crystal-studded club swung by a four-armed primate who screamed through a red, fang-filled muzzle at the intruder. It seemed to wear plates of spiked, matte black armor, but the natural exoskeletons didn’t stop it from clambering down the vertical face with ease, though it couldn’t match Finn’s speed. Another hand twitch stabilized him but more of the beasts took up the alarm and the entire community roused itself, swarming out of their cliffside caves each with at least one club or spear.

  Finn twisted in the air again, dodging between two spears to plant both his feet in the chest of one of the beasts. The meteoric kick sent the ape hurtling towards the ground with a caved in chest while Finn lost a good deal of his momentum. The next two attacks didn’t have enough oomph behind them to pulverize their target's exoskeletal armor, but they did still knock the apes free from the cliffside.

  Stolen story; please report.

  His last kick bled off the rest of his momentum and put him in position to grab some kind of scraggly bush and swing into one of the caves. The breakneck pace continued as he sprinted down the connected tunnel, running along the wall when it turned instead of slowing enough to make the turn on the floor. He soon burst into a massive open cavern crisscrossed with stone bridges. The larger, more heavily armored females held their young instead of weapons, but they were more dangerous for it.

  Every massive leathery hand that wasn’t occupied with a child smashed the ground and clutched at the air where Finn just passed. He danced and spun and slid, always just out of reach until he got far enough to drop from his walkway to a deeper one.

  Always, he moved towards the glowing crystal forest at the bottom of the cavern. By the time he got there, the whole hive was boiling over and the hollow mountain echoed with uncountable screams of rage.

  Without slowing, Finn kicked a rock into one of the crystalline branches on the outskirts of the forest. The fragile tree limb snapped off easily, and Finn caught it before it could shatter on the ground. He swung his prize over one shoulder and into the purpose-made sheath on his back. The walls of the hive were black with the forms of monsters, all climbing down to tear apart the insect who had the temerity to damage their sacred grove.

  Finn counted down in his head to the end of his ability, only stumbling a little when his weight returned to him.

  “Resolute as Granite, Hard as Diamond, Mutable as Clay. Lend my arms strength so I may build. Sculpting Fist.”

  Finn’s hands and forearms turned a dull grey as he ran the final yards to the wall, which he punched. Cracks radiated out from the impact point and the mountain shook. Finn casually sidestepped a falling ape, catching it’s four handed smash attack and shattering its stone club. The fragments of rock and crystal blasted back through the monster, ripping it into bloody shreds.

  One more punch blasted a hole through twenty five feet of solid stone just as the apes started to fall like very angry, very loud, very well armed rain. Finn dashed forwards, displaying nowhere near the inhuman alacrity he had before, but his natural abilities were almost the equal of the apes, at least where speed was concerned.

  His short lived sculpting fist augmentation faded and he intoned a third chant.

  “Gentle as Rain, Soft as Sunshine, Untamed as Nature. Lend my spirit potency, so I may heal. Rampant Growth.”

  Finn unfastened his bandolier of burlap sacks and flung it behind himself, scattering the fist sized bundles of seeds. They bounced and rolled to a stop, and Finn skidded to a halt just past them, stretching his open hands out towards the approaching horde. They glowed green and so did each of the bundles. A moment later, spear shoots erupted from each bundle, The long tough plants quickly grew into an impassable barricade. The fastest of the beasts were quickly trapped and impaled while the bulk of the horde was left screaming on the far side. A half-dozen bruises faded from Finn’s skin at the same time, though the spell left him feeling magically drained.

  He forced himself to activate his sky step chant one last time, and took off into the dense jungle before the ant apes could find another way out. A quick detour through the river, and he was ready to enter his village as a man for the first time.