"Oi Mr Wizard King, you're ruining my fun."
"Is that so?" Julius smiled not removing his hand from Grim's shoulder.
"Yeah."
"Ah, but Grim, if you make trouble here I'm afraid that I'll have to disqualify you before you get a chance to even take part in the exam."
*BOOM!!*
Hearing Julius's words, a shocking amount of bloodlust burst out of his body and was directed solely at the wizard king.
"Are you trying to blackmail me?" He asked in a deep voice.
"I wonder." Julius smiled nonchalantly as if he didn't feel the bloodlust directed at him.
'To think he'd be able to control his bloodlust to the point that only those he directs it at can feel it... HOW FASCINATING!!'
Seeing that the wizard king had no intentions of backing off, Grim was forced to rein in his bloodlust and de-materialize his beast swords.
"Tch." Brushing his hand off his shoulder, Grim walked away without saying a word.
'That fucking prick!! Just you wait, I'll END YOU!'
Still annoyed at having his fun ruined, Grim re-joined Mimosa and the recently arrived Asta and Yuno.
"Yo Grim!!" Asta waved when he saw him.
"Humph! Why'd you come so early!? We wanted to come together with you." Noelle scolded while showing a soft expression.
"Nice to see you again Grim." Klaus greeted like a normal person.
Even that quiet kid Yuno gave him a polite nod.
While everyone was greeting him, Mimosa who had also arrived earlier than her squad mates and was aware of the previous events involving Grim and the purple orca quietly walked up to his side and looked up at him with some worry in her eyes. "What did the wizard king say?"
Not wanting to think about that fun ruining bastard anymore than need be, he brushed her off with a simple "Have fun."
"Oh?" She looked doubtful but then smiled. "That's nice of him."
Just as Grim was beginning to calm down, the voice of a certain lion brought his anger back up to the brink.
"Yuno! Asta! Grim!! Hehe, I hope you didn't forget about me!"
Walking up to them with a confident expression was the heir to the Crimson Lions, Leopold Vermillion.
'Oh great, if it isn't my self proclaimed rival. At least Asta (in his black form) and that Yuno guy can fly.'
"I hope you guys are ready, cause I'm gonna be the one to take first place in this exam!"
Rolling his eyes, Grim blocked him out and started looking around the area.
'Hmm... Finral dyed his hair, Luck also seems like he's gotten a bit stronger... Too bad that his progress is slower than Asta. I really wanted two good sparring partners. Oh, Magna's here as well, not like it makes any difference though.'
Turning away from the black bull group, he started analyzing the knights from other squads.
'Punched, stabbed, stomped, kicked, kneed, burned, slashed-'
Looking at the participants, a couple of their faces looked familiar as he was pretty sure the majority of them were there when he went base hopping.
'Oh! Didn't expect these two to be here.'
Looking over at the Silver Eagle camp, the sight of Solid and Nebra appeared in his eyes causing his lips to turn upwards.
"Ahem! If I could have everybody's attention."
Hearing the voice, everyone looked in the same direction.
"Wizard king!" They all saluted besides Grim.
Smiling at everyone's enthusiasm and ignoring Grim's blatant glare, Julius began his announcement.
"I see that everyone has gathered, well then, without any further ado, lets begin explaining the rules behind the royal knight selection exam."
Moving to the side slightly, the Clover king appeared behind him but seemed to lack his usual energy... But spoke in a voice so quiet that one could confuse him for a shy child.
'The fuck happened to him?'
[A/n: YOU!!]
---
'So we work as a team to destroy the enemy crystal huh.'
After listening to the explanation on how this exam would work, Grim couldn't help but feel slightly underwhelmed at the prospects of working with other people.
'What a shitty exam! How does this help demonstrate our abilities against the Eye of the Midnight Sun! We should be choosing the top combat mages and mixing them in with a small number of healing and defence mages!'
And as if to answer his thoughts Julius seemed to look directly at him and say. "Cooperation and pure power won't be enough to beat our enemy, we thought this type of exam would be the best measure of your strategic abilities."
'What bullshit.'
"I hope we're on a team together." Mimosa said giving him a reassuring smile.
Before he was able to answer, the results of the teams were published on screen.
"Where am I! Where am I?" Asta repeated while searching for his name.
Turning to face the board, Grim was surprised to see who he was matched up with.
From the two names that had appeared, he only knew one of them.
Selena from the Blue Roses. The one directly responsible for him achieving [Breath of Water].
'Well ain't that something.' He smirked.
"Grim?" Mimosa said concerned after seeing him smile at that random girl's name.
While she definitely wouldn't recognize him, Grim found it amusing that he would be working with someone he had used to power himself up.
The last person on his team was some guy by the name of David Swallow-
'Hah Gaayyyyy!'
While not much was known about the guy, considering he was from the Golden Dawn he couldn't be that weak right?
"I'm with MIMOSA!" Asta suddenly yelled after seeing Mimosa's name under his.
"I'm with Yuno..." Noelle muttered while taking a quick glance at the spirit chosen wind mage.
Before any of them could react to their teams, a voice from the sky interrupted them.
"Huh?"
Thanks to his transparent world ability, Grim sensed movement in the sky before everyone else and looked up.
"Sorry I'm late!"
'What the?'
Dropping down from the sky with his hands in his pockets, a crimson haired man wearing a black mask, a purple orca magic knight robe and what looked like a weird fetish outfit landed on the stage hard and threw his arms around the wizard king's shoulder.
"Sorry for being late oh mighty wizard king, please forgive me."
"Who the hell-
Asta started but was interrupted by the man.
"Xerx Lugner, nice ta meetcha." He greeted.
'Xerx Lugner? Wasn't that the guy I beat when I invaded the purple orca base?'
Not understanding what was going on, Grim looked at this Xerx Lugner and then at Asta's full team. Slowly putting the pieces together, he couldn't help but grin.
'Looks like this won't be a completely boring exam after all.'