Darius found himself alone in the forest. His heart was beating so fast and so hard that he felt as though it was about to burst from his chest. Each one of his senses was working on overdrive as he flinched at the slightest sound, and his eyes darted back and forth in search of any movement. With every second passing, the grip on his hammer was becoming more and more intense.
He could barely remember to breathe as he stood completely still, watching and waiting.
Meanwhile from private rooms within the facility, Lionel sat as far away from his father as he could, with the help of his two older siblings who elected to sit between the two. He didn't dare say a word as he felt the hostility emanating from him while they watched his twin, Lara, move stealthily through the arena on a large screen on the wall.
This was one of those rare moments when Lionel actually did feel awkward and uncomfortable. His father had been so enthusiastic to watch his two children fight in the arena earlier that morning only to be met with disappointment yet again from Lionel. He had hoped that this would be the one thing that Lionel would have no choice but to excel at only to be told he had somehow found a way to use a substitute! He had half a mind to force him into becoming a Spiritknight right now and sending him to the most Spirit-infested hell hole he could imagine.
The Emperor was no idiot. He could see through Lionel's spoiled prince act and knew that Lionel was a lot smarter and a lot more capable than he pretended to be. In fact, everyone in the family knew it, much to his father's severe disappointment.
"Well, Lara's doing quite well." Said the oldest brother, James, trying to break up the awkward tension in the room.
"Yes, she will win this round. I want to see Lionel's substitute. What was his name again?" The Emperor leaned forward to look at Lionel with a stern, harsh face. The Emperor was old, and to him choosing a successor was of the utmost importance. And all that had been going well...until Lionel came along.
"Darius Omen." Lionel squeaked out the words. The screen immediately changed to find a young man, dark-skinned with black hair standing in the same place. So gripped with fear he could barely move.
The Emperor scoffed at what he saw and Lionel couldn't help but shrink in his seat. His brothers move forward to try and hide him from their father's view, they had never seen their father this annoyed with them and weren't quite sure just what he was going to do.
The Emperor watched the unimpressive young man, who showed no talent or skill of any sort. He was looking at Darius with such anger and malice it was as if he was going to try and kill him through the screen.
"Lionel, why on earth did you pick this young man? What is wrong with you do you even intend to pass the test?" Even though he was hiding behind his older brothers they may as well have been transparent. Lionel looked down. The truth of the matter was that Lionel didn't expect Darius to pass the test for him. In fact, he was almost sure Darius would die, and he was counting on that. If Darius failed that would mean there wouldn't be a chance of him becoming Emperor then, and he wouldn't have to keep up the facade of an ignorant and incompetent fool in front of his father or anyone anymore.
"Please die, please die, please die." Lionel thought to himself. He wouldn't even dare mumble the words out loud.
Meanwhile, Darius was still standing in the same place the platform had left him. The challenge was to simply survive the day. Darius' mind was racing. His first thoughts were to try and find somewhere to hide until it was over, but he couldn't bring himself to move. It took all his energy to simply hold his hammer up.
It sounded like some kind of battlefield, with both humans and spirits colliding in an epic struggle to destroy each other. Then a bush rustled to Darius' left. Another one to his right. His mouth immediately turned dry as he scanned his surroundings intently. The trees immediately began to rustle, Darius tried to look into the canopy but saw nothing.
Then with a wild howl three spirits jumped at him from the front and both sides. They had flat, hideous faces and each had four arms with two hind legs. Darius didn't have the time to be surprised at how far he had jumped or his reaction time. He was to be busy running for his life as three spirits became six which became twelve. They looked like hairless, eyeless monkeys as they chased Darius through the jungle. For a human they found themselves struggling to keep up with his incredible speed. But no matter, they were driving him straight into their trap.
Darius ran through the dense greenery, various thorny bushes cutting his arms and legs as he struggled to run from the spirits that pursued him diligently. He could hear more of them singing from treetop to treetop. Howling as a means of communication with each other. Although spirits didn't have eyes, they could see far better than any human. They could sense the world around them.
Finally, they had Darius just where they wanted him. A large cliff with a drop of about two hundred meters or so. Darius saw this but it was too late. He only had one of two choices; turn and face the monkey spirits or be pushed off the cliff. Darius made his choice, as he reached the edge he stopped to turn around when one of the spirits sprung up, disappearing for a moment and then re-materializing on top of Darius. Staggering back he tripped and fell off the cliff face. The spirit clung to him as it savagely attempted to bite his throat with its incredibly large canines.
Both plunged into the lukewarm water of the river, being swept away by the current. The spirit was relentless, Darius used the shaft of his hammer to keep it away from his throat as it did everything it could to bite and claw at him. The creature had been struggling and using its weight to try and drown Darius when it suddenly stopped.
It clearly knew something he didn't. Darius looked back for a moment and before he knew it he was falling incredibly fast of a waterfall. The spirit fell just after him. There was now some distance between the two of them and, seizing his chance, he twisted his body to begin spinning in the air, gaining momentum and with all the strength he could muster outstretched his hammer and hit the spirit with all he had.
A loud sound like thunder swept through the entire forest, causing all of the spirits and contenders to stop dead in their tracks. a single thought in their minds.
What was that?
The spirit's body was thrown up by the energy of the blow. While Darius' fall only worsened. He fell into the water with a force that pulled him all the way to the bottom of the river bed, causing him to rather violently, hit his head on the hard rocks below.
The Emperor leaned forward. "Who...is this kid?" was all that came to mind for everyone who at that point was watching the screen intently. A much different thought went through Lionel's mind however as he kept repeating, "Please be dead, please be dead, please be dead..." again and again to himself.
The feat of killing just one of the primate-like spirits was nothing to be amazed by, in fact, Darius having gone through so much trouble to defeat just one only went to show just how mediocre he was. What had piqued the Emperor's interest in him was the way in which he did it. The amazing speed and agility he displayed while fleeing from the spirits was incredible. Most people would have been quite easily caught. The boy was even able to outrun their short-range teleportation, and even though Darius hadn't noticed this his lead had in fact been slowly increasing the distance between him and the primates, if it hadn't been for the cliff he would've easily outrun them all.
The next thing that surprised them all was the power with which he had dispatched the spirit as he fell from the waterfall. The shock-wave had been so powerful they could feel them from their room on the two-hundredth floor of the facility, through the formation used to create artificial jungle arena space. The brunt of the shock wave was only felt by stronger characters, such as the Emperor himself. Little did the Emperor know that there was an old man who was also viewing the exam with much interest from far far away...