The twelve finalists convened in the gym the afternoon after the pit confrontation. Recruits speculated about outcomes until Bryce Granger’s father, a five-star Silver Block colonel, arrived, greeting Bryce with professional detachment. Captain Cross Redden entered with Ford and Struck, acknowledged the colonel, and announced that there were six Elite slots for the twelve candidates.

Cross explained the final test: recruits would face off in pairs inside bare rooms containing two knives. The first to make the other tap would win the Elite slot; tapping out meant remaining in Silver Block but not joining Elite. Some recruits balked, but Cross framed the test as a measure of merit. Wren assessed potential matchups and hoped to avoid Kess, but when names were called, Wren was paired with Bryce and sent to Room 3.

Inside the empty, windowless room with a mirror and camera, Bryce asked Wren to let her have the win. Wren refused, citing her mission to join Elite. The door locked, and the fight began with Bryce surging forward, grabbing a knife and kicking the other away. A fast, surprisingly vicious exchange followed: Wren recovered the second knife, traded strikes and grapples, and both inflicted minor cuts as they struggled for control.

Wren pinned Bryce and urged her to tap, but Bryce, driven by her father’s presence, kept fighting. Bryce regained the upper hand, battered Wren’s face, forced Wren to drop her knife, and then cut Wren’s arm. Straddling Wren, Bryce demanded a tap, declaring she would leave as Elite or die. Wren, motivated by her goal to infiltrate Elite for revenge over Jim’s death and to dismantle Command from within, refused.

With an adrenaline surge, Wren reversed positions and, while trying to compel a submission, stabbed Bryce in the thigh. Wren repeatedly begged Bryce to tap, but Bryce persisted weakly. Wren realized the cut was deep; Bryce’s complexion drained as blood flowed rapidly from the wound. As Bryce’s swings faltered and her eyelids fluttered, Wren recognized she had severed the femoral artery.

Bryce lost consciousness and bled out quickly on the floor. The fight ended with Bryce dead, a spreading pool of blood in the featureless room. Wren, shaken and gasping, crawled away from Bryce’s body, left alone in the locked space with the camera and mirror observing.