Chapter 55 - The elite

Dong*

"That´s the last one! The first part of the journey is now completed! Please make 10 lines of 20 people each!".

The candidates that managed to reach the goal followed the instructions, their faces lacking air and constant bruises were the irrefutable proof of their huge effort.

Except for a small bunch of people.

"Easy! Way too easy!".

"Sister, you´re being noisy".

"Oh c´mon, let her be, it´s not like she´s wrong".

"Would you not add fuel to the fire?".

3 young women were talking to each other, their ears and cheetah tails showed their race, their faces and complexion were practically the same, making evident their kinship.

"Don´t get distracted, even if it seemed easy for you, dropping your guard is not something you should do. We´re talking about the clan who protects the crown, this tests must have a deeper meaning than what they´re showing. Right?".

"Hum".

"Ham".

A human male in his middle 20´s tried to lecture the triplets. His efforts didn´t have slyness and his voice came from a healthy and confident aspect. Tough he also was perfumed with alcohol.

The pair of bear men behind him nodded with a husky growl. None of them was a very talkative person, but somehow, neither their appearance of immovable warrior nor their attitude apparently uninterested were triggers of rage.

One of them approached the triplet of most mature fashion, her sisters took a place to his sides with piercing sights and hands ready to stab.

"Umm, can I help you with something?"

"..."

The man with impatient bear ears moved his hand to the leather sack hanging on his wide waist and pulled out a beautiful bouquet of shiny-colored flowers.

"... For you"

... *

Ha?! * Exclaimed the sisters and the surrounding people.

The girl of the present, with her mind jumping from the edge of impression she looked at the man´s face, what she saw was a tense and thick wall that wasn´t able to change its expression, however, the wall began to be painted in red a few seconds after.

Her own face was enveloped with the same color in response.

"Um... T-Thank you..."

With a nervous hand she received the gift, the man immediately gave her a brief vow and returned to his friend´s side. He welcomed him with a "UMU!" and a thumb´s up.

Both exchanged a strong handshake to mutually congratulate.

"Woah, that´s some manhood".

"I´d say impatience...".

"Hum! Hem!".

"Hom! Ham!".

"Is that supposed to be a conversation?".

"No idea".

Certainly, those men had a friendship that overwhelmed conventional words. Everyone had to think something similar to find the sense in their gestures.

"Tch... This is not the place to do shit like that, imbeciles..."

A bit afar from the scene was an elf woman frowning and disgusted. Her fancy uniform covering the curves of her body was a latent warning that remarked how bad would it be to mess with her.

"A broken arrow eh, guess being a mercenary stopped being an option".

"Shh! Shut it dumbass... She´s still an elf with a bow... And if she´s a broken arrow then she´s as dangerous as the cherry blossoms, fighting her is not convenient".

"True, let´s get out of here, in any case, I doubt a mercenary is going to be admitted".

"You really need to shut that mouth..."

The people chit-chatting moved their feet to somewhere where the elf couldn´t see them. After that, she decided to hide her face with the cloth on her neck and walk to the end of the line in silence.

No one dared to start a conversation in that line anymore.

"The quality is not bad, but we have some eccentrics that could be problematic".

"Isn´t that good? The demons will have more trouble when munching them".

"Hahaha, what a bad person you are".

"Heh, you can be sure that you won´t be the only one thinking that".

The samurai went to the front of all lines, the screen from before came back, now showing the number that the bracelets had in color blue and red.

"Your attention! All those with your bracelet number in blue, move to the right! The red ones to the left!"

Without losing a single second, the crowd divided. Along with some other samurais, Molly was waiting in the surroundings of the red numbers, a relieved sigh escaped by accident from her mouth after noticing that Lea was with the blue numbers.

The samurais speaking on the front turned to his partner for a brief moment, he was talking to the ninjas. Once he was done he nodded to the samurai, indicating it was sure to continue.

With eyes placed over the audience, he let out the sentence at the same time a stone table was created with magic before the candidates.

"All the red numbers leave your bracelet on the table, you´re all disqualified".

"What?!"

"This must be a mistake!"

"Stop fooling around! I arrived with the first ones!"

A great discord spread through the read numbers, a lot of the candidates broke the lines and began to approach the samurais.

"Oi! Explain yourself! What the fuck do you mean?!".

"It means what it means, all of you are disqualified because you weren´t able to pass our selection criteria".

The samurai was merciless with his words, you could only notice a deep serenity in his voice, and yet, the flame of conflict didn´t stumble in the slightest.

"Son of a bitch... That doesn´t answer shit!"

Fuuuu*

The hand of the candidate tried to get close to the samurai´s neck to grip it, however, a high-pitched whistle got in the way.

"Huh, What the-?"

The candidate looked at his arm, there was a prickling sensation emanating from the forearm, looking at it closely, he found a tiny cut letting blood in freedom.

"... Bastard... You dare to cut ME?!"

The candidate´s hand went to his weapon, the fight was about to start.

Thud*

Nevertheless, the sound of something falling halted the confrontation, and as if to not lose a macabre rhythm, drips of something liquid began to kiss the ground.

!!*

The public was shocked. The situation had taken an unpleasant path.

"Eh?... W-What is this? W-Where is the rest of my arm?"

"....."

The candidate was skeptical, moments ago he was about to fight until his pride was relieved, he thought he had that right giving the huge effort he put into this test.

Nevertheless, a huge issue was now on him, and that was the absence of limbs; his dominant arm was gone, and he can´t fight without it.

"M-My arm, W-Where? Where is it?"

The candidate panicked, his mind sunk into a bucket of cold water that appeased his violent urges with fear and confusion.

He slowly turned his head in all directions, he needed to find what belonged to him.

"O-Oi, Have you seen my arm? I-It was here. H-Help me find it, I´ll pay you well".

The remaining candidates left the man alone, it was evident that getting involved with him would only bring problems.

"Candidate 143, according to the contract you all signed by putting on the bracelets and accepting our selection criteria. I now inform you. Any violent confrontation against any clan member supervising the process will be answered with maximum measures".

The samurai lifted his hand to the air, waiting for something to land on it.

"Therefore, I recommend you to abandon all hostilities and go back to where you came, you´re now banned from doing the test in the future, and your stance in the kingdom of Lafonía is permanently revoked. I also warn you that a letter will be sent to your home kingdom telling what happened here".

Thud*

Something fell at last.

That piece of meat that everyone was looking for to satisfy their curiosity.

When the candidate saw it, his teary eyes lost the little calm they had.

An inexplicable pain began to rule over his incomplete arm.

"I wish you good luck". Was what the samurai said before he turned into red dust the piece of meat laying on his hand with the sharpness of his sword.

"Haa...Ahh... WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The blood vessels blow up, a stinking and gruesome blood fountain soaked the armor of several indifferent samurais.

The remaining candidates were only able to watch powerlessly and shocked the drastic action that the samurai had chosen as judgment for the man wailing on the ground.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you a little about us since it´s evident that you have a mistaken idea of what it is to be part of this clan".

As the man disappeared from the sight of everyone, and his screams were drowned by darkness, the samurai continued with his speech as if nothing bad had happened.

The coolness in his voice was as intimidating as the evaporating blood on his armor.

"Crown protectors, saviors, champions, legends... I´m sure many of you, of not everyone, has heard that we count with titles like that..."

Tough nobody answered; several candidates knew that a lot of them would agree to what he said. They were highly conscious of their hunger for glory.

A hunger that can be accomplished by being part of the clan.

"You´re not wrong, the people working for the cherry blossom clan will, without a doubt, create characters that historical, but that implies great risks and responsibilities.

Clap* Clap*

The screen above the samurai´s head changed the image, now it was three times its size and it exposed hundreds of different videos displaying each one of the candidates.

You could see the fights and the many ways in which the candidates tried to sabotage one another.

There was also the other side of the coin.

Those few that decided to help each other and join forces to arrive surely at the goal were a show worthy to admire, and the supervisors were aware of that.

"Number 35, your uncontrolled spell burned several candidates, if any of those would have been a civilian, your entire career would have disappeared along with that fire"

"I-I had to arrive in time! I couldn´t help it!"

"And you believe that´s an answer worthy of a clan member? Can you imagine one of us saying that to a family we just destroyed by our mistakes?"

"T-That´s..."

"Number 376, you not only turned into dust the ground under your feet with your skill, but 1/3 of the street and a couple of houses"

"!! There´s no fight without some collateral damage! This is not fair!"

"Certainly. Our job is to keep a safe and sound kingdom by repelling great threats, and the collateral damage it´s inevitable a lot of times, yes. However, that doesn´t give us the right to destroy everything around us. Where should people return to when their homes were turned into ruble?"

"You must be kidding..."

"Kidding? What happened looked like a joke to you?"

"...."

"Exactly. Now, everyone, please turn around"

Hundreds of heads turned to the way they came from, and what they saw was disastrous.

"Horrible, isn´t it? These streets used to seem like something the capital could brag about... Now they are ruined... And it´s all thanks to you"

A painful truth slapped their brains.

There wasn´t a person with a pair of functional eyeballs that dared to deny what the samurai was saying, for they all were conscious that one way or another, they had contributed to the destruction, even if that wasn´t their original intention.

"Burning homes, windows shattered everywhere, huge holes in walls and streets. Please, tell me, Would you like to live in a place like this?"

'No'. Was what all thought and no one was able to say out loud due to the knob stuck inside their throats and stomachs.

"If this happened in a simple race, I don´t want to imagine what will you do on the battlefield"

The final strike.

All excitement and enthusiasm showed before were now buried under heavy waves of guilt, frustration, and deception.

Tap* Tap* Tap*

One of the candidates walked upfront.

The samurai rested his hand on the mangle of his sword as a response.

....

Both stared at each other with a tense atmosphere embracing their surroundings.

By judging only the behavior of both, we could assume that another conflict wasn´t about to begin, nevertheless, the teeth that bit by bit was being exposed on the demarcated face of the candidate was slowly changing that supposition.

Badump* Badump*

A collective heartbeat was the chronometer of the moment.

There was a rain of cold sweat taking place on the zone, and the eyes moved aimlessly like the clenched fists charging their force.

"Is he doing it?"

"Is he striking?"

"Should I do it too?"

Slow and safe, a disaster was approaching under the veil of conflict.