The Cross Heart Adventurers, a group of adventurers out of the many in the world were facing a crisis. The dreamboat creaked from the heavy wave, the shouts of the crew reaching the heavens.
Not long had they passed the Alba border had they been attacked by a ferociously giant whale. The ship swayed violently as the whale rocked the ocean, the crew hanging on for dear life.
"How did this happen?" Aline shouted, eyes wet with tears as she hung on to the mast. "I just wanted to admire abs, how can I die like this?"
"Shut up you stupid cook," Shinzo snapped from the side of the ship. "If you have time to complain then cut up that creature."
The two shouted insults at each other, Octavius rolling past them with a pretzel in his mouth. "Looks like we're going to die as soon as we leave our home country… might as well do it with something in my mouth."
Shinzo and Aline glared at him from their spots. "Shut up!"
Luna's chair slid past the mast to the edge, her eyes on a map and jotter. "It seems I didn't do enough research on this country. Apparently, they have a whale lurking at the border and we're not allowed to kill it because it's endangered."
"You're such a shitty navigator!" Aline and Shinzo yelled.
Paolo laughed, rolling with Octavius. "You guys are hilarious."
Aline sighed. "I can't believe I followed idiots."
"I have an idea to get past that thing," Octavius commented. "We just have to fly."
"Huh!"
.....
A ship about the same size of the dreamboat sailed a few miles away from the border, the figurehead a giant H and their flag also bearing the same letter. A boy with a mass of curly blonde under a fedora stared at the clear sky, the sun sparkling on the handsome face that lay beneath the large cap.
"What a good looking day, like me?"
His smile soon disappeared once something shadowed his self-acclaimed good looks, his eyes casting upwards. His other four crew mates behind him also followed the action, their eyes begging to fly out of their sockets.
A ship with a cross and arrow figurehead flew above them, splashing in the water in front of them. They yelped, their ship thrusting backwards at the disgruntled waves.
Once the ship calmed down, the blonde adjusted his fedora. "W-what the hell was that?" he leaned in, trying to make out the flag in the distance. "Ifeanyi, get me binoculars."
A dark skinned boy with a blonde buzz cut ran towards the boy, handing him the required object. He peeped through the binoculars, the Cross Heart Adventurer symbol coming into view.
"It's them," he whispered.
"Captain, is something wrong?"
The blonde burst into laughter, the sound ringing through the ship. "Finally, that stupid upstart that has been stealing my spotlight comes before me. I will show him who the real king is during the exam." He clenched his fists. "Just you wait Paolo G. Rigards for the entry of a star."
.....
Not even thirty minutes in and the crew had experienced the worst heat wave of their lives. At first they could all but survive on more than their normal dose of water, but half a day in and they had lost their ability to move. The heat slapped their practically dead bodies on the wooden floor boards.
"I think I might just die," Luna groaned, tugging at her bra top to let air crawl in to no avail. "I want to get naked so bad."
"Aren't you always naked," Aline mumbled, her suit jacket flung to the side and her shirt and pant suit had been loosened.
"I see a bright light," Octavius said, his head delirious from the heat. He smiled goofily, eyes glazed as he stared at the burning sun. "An angel is waving at me."
Paolo shook the boy's body, tears stinging at the tips of his eyes. "It's not your time Octavius, you can't move to the other side so easily."
Octavius could barely hear the nonsense his captain spouted, laughing like a mad man as the hot sun bathed him.
"How long to Musk Island?" Shinzo asked, gulping down a bottle of water as he came out of the workrooms.
"Did you train in this heat?" Luna asked, voice dripping with disbelief.
Shinzo scoffed. "A little heat can't bring me down. How can I become the greatest martial artist if I can't handle any situation?"
"Just ignore him," Aline said, waving her hands. "I saw him packing like a whole bunch of water into the training room."
Shinzo blushed, heat flaring in all areas of his face. "I-It wasn't because I was hot or anything."
The two girls hummed, not believing a word.
"Anyways, we should be at Musk Island pretty soon," Luna said. "Who wants to scope out the island?"
No one budged, Octavius still showed no signs of ending his struggle between life and death, Paolo cried for his fallen comrade, the girls just couldn't move and Shinzo's body had taken too much strain to do anything.
"Luna go, you are the navigator after all," Aline mumbled.
"You're the closest to the tower," Luna defended.
"Shinzo is standing, let him do it," Paolo said.
Aline pinched Shinzo's foot. "Yeah idiot, go and do it."
Shinzo sighed, dragging his weight to the observation tower.
"We should buy Alba clothing," Aline suggested. "I heard it has a cooling effect."
"Also pretty cute," Luna said.
"Land ahoy!"
The dying adventurers couldn't even stand up to celebrate their arrival, so they just let out strangled hurrahs in reply.
.....
The door to the Musk Island slammed, everyone turning to the outrageous entrance. The Cross Heart Adventurers stood at the door with their newly acquired Albanian attire. The boys wore long sleeve, ankle length collarless gowns with a few disparities.
The girls had slightly different ideas on how to dress in the heated wasteland. Luna had on a black bra top with sequins and swirly designs with matching trousers and a black headscarf wrapped around her face while Aline looked more modest in her red dress with a plunging neckline over a pair of red trousers and to top it off sat a nice red turban.
The crew were truly ready for an adventure in Alba, their bizarre entrance and dressing confusing the examinees. The place was packed full, Paolo searching for familiar faces in the jam-packed room.
He grinned once he spotted a certain blue haired boy, adjusting his blue Islamic cap he waved. "Luca!" Luca flinched, people eyeing as the Cross Heart Adventurers walked towards him. Paolo didn't seem to notice his dissatisfaction and spoke a little too loudly. "Lucky, we met at the same-"
Luca grabbed Paolo, covering his lips. "Can you be quiet?" he hissed. "You can't be so loud considering your position."
Paolo looked around, the examinees all giving disapproving looks. The hostility in the air could rival the size of the ocean, hot beady eyes on them.
"What's with all the looks?" Aline questioned, arms folded.
"Unlike the adventurer's exam, rank rising exams are more competitive and unforgiving to newbies like us that just joined the occupation," Luca said. "If you want to survive, shut up."
Unsavory comments started flying around, not out of reach for the adventurers.
"They're newbies, but they don't seem to know their place."
"They must be pretty confident to walk in here like it's a playground…I can't wait for them to be hit with the hardships of adventuring."
Luca sighed. "You sure know how to attract trouble."
"Paolo G. Rigards."
The crew turned to face the blonde from the border, his crew hanging behind them. He posed, hands brushing through his blonde strands. "Be graced by my magnificent presence."
Paolo stared at the blue eyed boy, head tilted sideways. "Who are you?"
The boy's lips almost fell from their position, his eyes wide with fury. "H-how can you not know who I am? You must have seen me in the newspaper."
"I don't remember everything I read in the news, sorry."
"I know him," Luca chimed in. "Alston Harris, the heir to the noble Harris family of Vinos."
The blonde smiled, happy to be known. "At least someone understands my worth." He then pointed at Luca and Paolo. "Paolo G. Rigards and Luca Diaz, I have identified the both of you as my sworn enemies. Just know that I won't lose my place in the spotlight to you."
Luca frowned. "Well I won't lose to you either. I heard of your exploits at your first exam and you caught my interest. Be honest, you would have passed if you didn't try to kill your examiner."
Alston scoffed. "That fool didn't appreciate my love for aesthetics. Anyways, I could say the same for you. I remember you also tried to kill your examiner."
Luca blushed, heat stroking his cheeks. "It was for a good reason. The exam was to fight him and I did. I didn't know my attack would be that powerful." He glared at William. "And someone actually killed his."
William held up his hands. "Hey, I saw you trying to kill him, so I assumed killing was allowed. Don't throw blame, we're all in this together, captain."
Luca rolled his eyes. "Anyways, my suspicions about you were confirmed at your second exam. I heard you froze the guild hall so bad that they had no choice but to pass you."
"It was a one on one and I needed to go about it with a bang," Alston said proudly.
Paolo turned to Luca, smiling brightly. "You're pretty smart."
"Unlike a certain fool that's just going with the flow, I actually do research on potential rivals. Like Hyder of the Sloth Adventurers."
"You called."
The two captains jumped in their skin, two cold hands touching their shoulders. They leaned in back, the face of a boy about nineteen wearing a grey beanie on top of his black hair coming into view.
"Sorry to scare you," he said, smiling lazily. "But I couldn't help but answer to my name."
Luca frowned,
"I'm Hyder, the captain of the Sloth Adventurers. Since we're the only newbies, I wanted to acquaint myself with you."
Paolo grinned, stretching out his hand. "Well I'm…"
"No need, I'd be stupid not to know the first person in fifty-four years to pass the exams by only taking it once and on top of that, you're a member of the God Clan."
Paolo smiled. "Then it's nice to meet you, Hyder."
Before anything else could be said, a door in the room opened. Two people came out: one a woman in a long white long sleeved dress and the other, a man in a black coat over a black turtle neck.
The woman smiled. "Hello examinees, I am the head of the guild, Lamia. Beside me is your examiner, Venos. I will brief you on the exam before introducing a special guest."
Everyone listened attentively, ears ready to receive as much information as possible.
"This exam is the Cordarus exam or the rank two exam and will be divided into two. The first part will take place here while the second half is quest based. Venos here will explain the first phase…but for now I want to introduce some bystanders for the first phase."
The door they previously walked out of opened wide. A boy about eighteen in a black Kaftan and a pair of white trousers stepped in. Beside him, a girl younger than him, walked in wearing a black and white Kaftan, dragging on the ground.
A large goat with white fur walked behind them, head held high as he strutted past the adventurers.
"This is the royal family of Alba," Lamia introduced. "They have come here today to examine and also help with the exams this year."
Whispers started to form as people stared at the royal family of Alba, their regal presence consuming the room.
"The prince is just my type," Luna mumbled.
Aline nodded. "Mine too."
"The goat is pretty cute too," Paolo said.
Venos cleared his throat, causing the whispers to cease. "Now, I shall explain the first phase of the exam. The first phase will take place in an artificial forest provided by the guild. The exam is a capture the flag death match. This is how it works. Everyone gets a flag and a target to get the flag from. Your own flag is three points and you opponent's flag is six points. The goal is to gather nine points in the forest in the time span of three days. It isn't necessary you get your targets flag as long as you gather nine points."
Someone raised their hands. "How will you know the difference between our targets flag and some random person's flag."
"Simple, we numbered the flags. So you and your target have the same number on the flags. No one knows who their target is, so you'll have to do the work yourself."
"This just got complicated," Luca mumbled.
"We will now share the flags to the captains and of each crew."
Venos started sharing the flags to each adventurer in the room.
"What do you say we help each other," Hyder said. "I think it would be pretty nice since we're the only newbies in the room."
"I was thinking the same thing actually," Paolo said.
Luca frowned. "We're enemies, what if we are each other's target."
Alston nodded, flipping his hair. "Why would I want to share the spotlight with you fools?"
"Do you know how many adventurers the guild milks out every year?" Hyder suddenly asked.
"What does that-?"
"Highest twenty, the case being only five people pass per sea even though the exam is held in all forty eight countries." Luca's eyes widened and Hyder continued. "The adventuring world is harsh and unforgiving and the only way to survive is by forming alliances especially with people in the same league as you…the four of us are special and I believe fate brought us together. Let's not waste the little opportunity given to us…let's ally for just this exam and see how it goes."
Luca sighed. "Fine, what of you Alston?"
"I'll do it," he said. "But just know I won't lose to any of you."
Hyder smiled. "Same to you."
"Captain!" a girl with purple long hair and a white hairband called from somewhere in the room.
Hyder waved with a smile. "Duty calls."
"You seem quite iffy about this alliance," Paolo said to Luca and Alston as Hyder walked away.
Luca and Alston exchanged looks before Luca spoke up. "Last month, one of the centers for the adventurer's exam held a survival camp as the first phase…but that phase ended up being the last."
Paolo frowned. "What do you mean?"
Alston spoke up this time, looking Paolo dead in the eyes. "All hundred examinees were murdered by an adventurer named Hyder."