CHAPTER 80: TRIAL OF CONVERGENCE! (1)

The magic hit Ren all at once, changing his body without any warning.

It felt like invisible hands were reshaping him from the inside out. His bones stretched and shrank in specific ways.

His muscles rebuilt themselves to make him faster and sneakier instead of just stronger. It wasn’t painful, but it was intense, like his whole body was being remade.

His eyesight got better first. Colors looked brighter, shadows had more detail, and he could see movement from the corner of his eye perfectly. It was like getting a completely new superpower.

Then his hearing improved. He could hear the water hitting the stone bridges and figure out exactly what kind of stone it was just from the sound.

He could even tell how warm the water was just by listening to it!

But the coolest change was how he could bend light around himself.

Ren watched his own hand become see-through, then solid again when he concentrated. He wasn’t invisible exactly, it was more like light curved around him so people’s eyes would just skip over where he was standing.

The changes finished with a boost to his agility. His body felt lighter and more responsive, like he was in lower gravity. When he took a step, he moved with perfect balance that would have been impossible before.

The other team members were changing too on the main platform.

Vera, the youngest of the three sisters, was getting bigger and more muscular as her Guardian powers kicked in.

Her already strong body expanded with thick muscle and tougher bones. Magical energy sparked around her like armor made of pure power.

Lyra looked the same physically, but her eyes now had a strange glow that showed she could see and understand things differently.

The Oracle change was more about her mind than her body, expanding what she could think about and perceive and how fast she could do it.

The oldest sister—Ren still didn’t know her name since they’d skipped introductions—looked the same but now moved with the speed and endurance of a Runner. Every movement she made looked perfectly smooth and efficient.

When everyone finished transforming, the team stood quietly for a few moments. They were all getting used to their new abilities and figuring out what they could do and what they couldn’t do.

Because yes, they had lost their connection to the loom! The only form of magic they could cast was the ones that came with their roles.

Every other thing was locked behind a barrier of some sort.

The oldest sister recovered first, which Ren had expected.

"Here are your positions," she announced clearly. "Vera, you’re in charge of setting up our base and keeping the perimeter secure. Other Guardians, support her. Runners, start collecting fragments in expanding circles."

She pointed toward the different islands and bridges spread across their section of the arena.

The water environment created natural chokepoints they could defend, but it also limited how they could move between important locations.

"Oracle stays in the center for maximum awareness. Everyone else, work in your assigned pairs." Her eyes swept across the team efficiently. "Any questions?"

Nobody spoke. The prospectives were clearly used to this kind of direct, authoritative leadership.

Even those with special roles that required independent thinking seemed comfortable receiving detailed instructions.

When she looked at Ren, there was a brief pause that might have meant something or might have just been normal timing.

"Disruptor works independently as the mission requires," she said matter-of-factly. "Coordinate through Oracle for intelligence sharing and strategy updates."

The instruction was both clear and vague, exactly what Ren had expected. He was being given maximum freedom to operate while being kept out of the main command decisions. The political calculation was obvious but professionally done.

"Understood," Ren replied neutrally. There was no point in challenging the setup this early. Better to prove his worth through results rather than arguing about the process.

The team spread out with impressive coordination. Years of working together had created an almost telepathic understanding of how to move and position themselves.

They flowed across the bridges and platforms like a single organism adapting to new terrain.

Ren waited until they were fully deployed before activating his stealth ability and beginning his own scouting mission.

The feeling of near-invisibility was amazing. Light bent around him in ways that created the optical illusion of empty space, while his enhanced senses gave him incredible awareness of his surroundings.

He could move completely silently across stone surfaces that should have echoed with every footstep.

The first thing he discovered was that their arena was much larger than it had looked from the central platform.

The water environment extended much further than they’d initially thought. Distant islands were barely visible through the haze, connected by bridge networks that created a complex three-dimensional maze of possible routes.

Some bridges were wide enough for large groups to cross safely. Others were narrow enough that a single defender could block them completely.

The variety suggested that different tactical approaches would work depending on team composition and strategy.

But the most interesting discovery was how the fragments appeared.

Ren positioned himself on a high observation point and watched as the first wave of fragments materialized across the arena. The glowing crystal objects appeared at regular intervals, but their placement wasn’t random at all.

There was definitely a pattern, but it was more complex than simple geometry or timing.

Fragments seemed to be responding to multiple factors; team positions, time elapsed, possibly even the specific magical signatures of different role types!

He carefully documented where they spawned, noting both the obvious placements and the subtle variations that other teams would likely miss. The information would be valuable regardless of whether his own team chose to use it.

Analyzing the enemy teams was equally revealing.

From his hidden vantage point, Ren could observe three different opposing teams without being detected. Each team showed distinct strategic philosophies and coordination levels.

The team in the northern section moved with military precision.

Their formations were textbook perfect, their communication was minimal but efficient, and their approach to fragment collection was methodical and thorough.

These were students who had studied tactical theory extensively and practiced implementation religiously.

The eastern team operated with chaotic energy that somehow achieved effective results.

They argued constantly about specific decisions while maintaining excellent overall coordination.

Their fragment collection was opportunistic rather than systematic, but they adapted quickly to changing circumstances and recovered from mistakes with impressive speed.

The southern team was clearly struggling with internal leadership disputes. Ren could see heated discussions breaking out regularly, with different members trying to assert authority over strategic decisions.

Their fragment collection was sporadic, and their defensive positioning was compromised by constant reorganization.

This intelligence would be invaluable for predicting enemy behavior and identifying opportunities for disruption or exploitation.

After all, the disrupters of the other teams were probably scouting out his own team as well.

But the most significant discovery came when Ren observed the arena’s hidden mechanics in action.