I woke up to an alarm, and I could hear someone shuffling around outside my room. A knock. "Hey, can you turn that thing off? It's annoying." I was still drowsy and the comment threw me off. "Yeah yeah one second." I turn off the alarm, and picked up my glasses off the nightstand. I move towards my dresser, I'm not quite sure why as I didn't bring any clothes with me but I did anyway. To my surprise there were clothes laid out for me, a blue uniform, jeans and a plain black t-shirt, along with a pair of shorts and a tank top. Checking the sizes I noticed they should fit. I thought it was kind of odd, but I grabbed the uniform anyway and headed into the bathroom. I took a quick shower, still half asleep. Looking in the mirror after putting on my clothes, I notice I look ridiculous. I thought to myself again, 'Why am I even here? I'm nothing special. I'm just some 6'3, blonde headed, blue eyed nerd with nothing going for him.' Regardless I ended up walking out of the bathroom to the living room, there I see Dakota already dressed. It seemed like he also had a similar wardrobe, but he was instead wearing the jeans and black t-shirt. I can see him more clearly now that it wasn't pitch black around me and I wasn't exhausted. My previous thoughts were right on how he was around 6'2, had olive skin, and long black, curly hair tied back into a ponytail. What I hadn't fully noticed was how big he was. I could tell he had muscle but I didn't realize he was ALL muscle. Hell the shirt he was wearing barely fit him due to all of it. Other than that I could see his eyes were a bright greenish color. He reached out his hand and smiled at me, like he was pleased to see me. I reluctantly shook it. "Nice to meet you, Caleb Coin." I looked at him and chuckled a bit, "Got one of those right, it's Caleb König." He seemed to be embarrassed a bit by this and laughed a bit. I continued, "I guess we better get used to each other Dakota Alonso." He seemed surprised I remembered but didn't say anything. I glanced around looking for a clock and see one near the kitchen. It was 6:55. Dakota looked at me for a moment with a slight smile,"Well aren't we cutting it close." I returned it with a slight smile, "A bit yea." We head out the door and start our descent in the elevator. It stopped at the third floor, the one where all the girls were staying. In my mind this seemed odd to have both boys and girls in the same building without any real security I could see, but hey the government does weird things. The doors opened and the girls entered. Kaya and Ashe were the first two to get on, with the short girl named Alex and her roommate behind her next. I could see them all more closely now. Again, I could see I was right about what I had thought the previous night. Kaya and Ashe were around the same height, with Ashe being the slightly taller one. They were complete opposites, Ashe with lightly tanned skin, medium length brown hair, an eyepatch over her right eye. I noticed new things as well, she had a scar along the right side of her face near her lips and I could see her eyes, a beautiful blue color. I wondered where the eyepatch and scar came from but she intimidated me a bit so I didn't ask, both from the militaresque way she held herself and her pretty face. On the other hand Kaya had olive skin, long black hair, and grey eyes. She seemed quiet, but confident. Alex was a shorter girl, probably around 5'0. She had a very slight tan, it wasn't enough to cover the freckles on her face, and had a kind of side-swept pixie cut like haircut with blonde hair and what appeared to be green eyes. Her roommate didn't stand out to me as much, she was your basic skinny white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. The six of us stood quietly before arriving at the first floor. The second the doors opened you could hear voices everywhere. People complaining that they were hungry and when breakfast was starting. Some girls near the door looked at their phones sadly, as if looking at a dead loved ones photo. I heard a loud ringing noise. I usually wasn't one to cover their ears during these kinds of things, but the noise made it feel like my eardrums were about to burst. Whenever the ringing ended everyone started to look around, including me. As it ended, we noticed Ms. Marquess was standing in the entrance to the building. She yelled at us to come over to her, which we all did. "All right, first on your agendas are to follow me to our school's auditorium, there you will be told about the school and a short rundown of what a Hunter is and what they do. From there you will be dispersed to go eat, and head to your assessment test. That will be explained when you arrive at a Coliseum." Damn, they were really creative about that name huh? After she finished talking, Ms. Marquess started to walk away, we followed her as we didn't feel like getting yelled at.
The auditorium was a large building in a crescent moon shape. It had large tinted windows and a large entrance. It reminded me of one of those really expensive houses you see on TV. The inside of the building was true to the outside, stupidly large. Upon entering I noticed there was already students on the left side of the building, all of which gave off this superiority complex vibe. Ms. Marquess told us to sit to the right and wait for the inauguration to start. We weren't seated long before it started though. A man of average height and a lab coat walked up to the stage, then picked up the microphone. "Good morning everyone, I am Dr. Hark, a teacher here. I'm sorry this has to start this early, but it is the only way we can fit all of our activities in the schedule. As the second and third years are aware," He motions to the left side of the room, "A Hunter is someone who has to put their lives on the line for other people. From what I have noticed, it seems a lot of people compare being a Hunter to something similar to the military. I am here to tell you, it is completely different. There is no maybe being sent out. There won't always be a medic in your squad. The enemy will always have information on you. It is significantly harder than being in the military, as your training isn't necessarily for people. You are to fight things called Archaics." Once he finished his sentence, he fished out a small remote from his coat's pocket and clicked it. All of a sudden the room was cloaked in darkness, then a lone projector turned on and gave light. It showed an image of a long, skinny, alligator like creature. "This is considered the baseline a D-Class Archaic, Maice. It lives primarily in wooded areas, and acts somewhat similar to a snake." He clicked a button on the remote, again another image popped up. This time it looked something like a Griffon, but it was different. It had three bird heads, and a cats body. The markings around it showed something else, but I was to far to see the image fully. "This is an S-Class Archaic, an Osiimac. Osiimac's can live practically everywhere and are extremely territorial. They are carnivorous and extremely mobile. On top of that, each head has different effects depending on its location. For example, if they lived in a tropical climate, one head may be able to control fast winds or water." After hearing that some of my future classmates looked around, some scared, but most extremely confused. I could already see the question, 'How the hell can they control weather or elements' popping into their heads. Regardless he continued, "Now that you are aware of what you are getting into, it's time for you all to go to your assessment tests. For our year ones, I believe Ms. Marquess will split you into three groups for the tests. That is all, for you. Years two and three stay behind." A collective sigh came out from the left side of the room. Dr. Hark waited until Ms. Marquess got us together and out of the building before he continued. Ms. Marquess spoke, "All right, fun time yeah? Now we got to get you all to your Coliseums. I'll split you guys into random groups." She went through her list of students, dispersing them. It wasn't until the third, and last, group was my named called. She also happened to say some names I recognized, Dakota, Ashe, Kaya, Griffith, and Alex. I hadn't seen much of Griffith, but I felt like I would like him just from looking at him. He had that nice, shy guy appearance. The remaining students and the six of us were assigned to Coliseum C.
On our walk over, I tried to make small talk with Dakota, who seemed to be pretty social. I normally didn't like people all that much, especially sporty athletic ones, but Dakota seemed different. He was pretty cheerful considering he was just told the things we would have to fight in the future. We arrived relatively quickly, that or Dakota made it seem short. The Coliseum looked like an indoor version of the one you would see in Rome, the only difference between the two is that the one I was looking at had a giant dome around it and was still fully constructed. Our group went inside, and the first thing I saw were weapons. They lined the walls, of all shapes and sizes. Hell you could probably find a rocket launcher in there if you looked hard enough. A man walked up to greet us, and introduced himself as Mr. Tero. He was a shorter Asian man, with broad shoulders and a body full of muscle. "Today marks your first day in the Coliseum, better get used to it. What I'm going to have you all do first is to scan the walls and look for a weapon. Each of them are made from the same Archaic materials, so nobody should have an advantage unless they've used that type of weapon before. Once everyone gets the weapon they want meet in the middle of the field, I want to see something." With that we dispersed to look for our weapons.
For some people it didn't take long, as they just picked up a sword that seemed to fit in their hands and didn't weigh a ton. For others however, it took a while. It was hard to make a decision, I wanted something that looked nice but was also effective. This was apparently tough to do since all of the weapons that looked cool were either heavy or seemed clumsy, but eventually I found three that seemed to meet those requirements, a jian, scythe, and a glaive with a blade on both ends. By the time I had reduced it to those three weapons, Mr. Tero came up to me and placed his hand on my shoulder, making me jump. "Hey, everybody has already finished. Having some trouble?" I looked around and noticed he was right, I was the only person not standing in the field. I responded quietly, "A little, I can't decide." Mr. Tero picked up each of the weapons one at a time, looking at them, then at me. Eventually he handed me the glaive. When he did this I looked at him puzzled. "Trust me, you'll be fine." I got even more confused by this statement, what did he mean by fine? Mr. Tero just patted my back and started to walk towards the field, I hurriedly followed him with my newfound weapon. "All right now that we all have gotten ourselves situated, lets start shall we?" He pulled out a remote from his pocket and clicked it. A rumbling was heard, and a part of the floor opened up. A small cage appeared, with a Maice. It snarled at us, lunging at the cage it was in. The Maice looked to be about the size of a large dog, just with bigger teeth and looking a lot more reptilian. "All right, so as you can see I got this piece of shit behind me. This is what your assessment tests are." People spoke up in protest, someone even started yelling. "All right, calm down. If anybody gets anywhere near close to dying I will step in. Now ignore the little shithead for a minute and let me talk." We all went silent. "Thank you, now to explain some things. You will be scored for various actions, I will tell you what exactly whenever you're all done. Every single one of you will fight one of these, they aren't to hard to find and don't hurt people often, so they aren't much of a threat if you know how to handle a weapon. Hell guns do just fine against them, but since they are primarily pack animals they tend to get more aggressive when alone. Just keep in mind, if I do have to step in your average score will be lower." Mr. Tero stopped for a moment as if he was done, then continued. "Oh yeah, your scores will be based on a scoring system I'm sure you're used to if you play games. The lowest you can get is a D ranking, highest is SS. That's all I have to say so let's get to it."
The first few people struggled for a while, eventually Mr. Tero stopped the fight and killed the Maice without much of a struggle. He called out one of the few names I wanted to pay attention to, Kaya, as I was interested to see what she would do. She had two daggers when she walked up. Mr. Tero stopped her before she started, "Before we begin I'd like to point out her weapons. They're quite unique ones, called djanbīyya, daggers from the Middle East." He looked back at her and waved her on. "Let's see how she fights with these hmm?" Once she arrived before the cage, Mr. Tero looked for a ready signal, and when it was given he opened the cage. She seemed a little scared to begin with, but froze completely as it ran towards her. It kept closing in, and she was still standing completely still. Mr. Tero started to move towards Kaya, but all of a sudden she lunged. In a blink of an eye, the Maice's right side and back started to spew blood. Mr. Tero stopped instantly. Kaya continued to move, mounting the small Archaic, then slit its throat. The Maice fell to the floor and everyone was stunned, including Mr. Tero. Not only was she the first to kill one so far, but she did it faster than Mr. Tero had killed the others. After a moment, Mr. Tero collected his thoughts and called the next person, Dakota. Dakota was carrying a spatha, a roman sword. He walked up to the Maice confident, but just like Kaya when it was released he froze. I think Mr. Tero must have seen a bit of a pattern, so he started to move a bit slower towards Dakota. Dakota had the spatha unsheathed, but suddenly sheathed it. Everyone started to yell at Mr. Tero to move towards him, but he didn't even budge. As the Maice grew closer to Dakota I started to get up to run towards him, I didn't want a new roommate on the first day, nor did I want to see him die. That was when Dakota drew the sword, and swung twice. The first swing took off the Maice's opened jaw, the second cutting its head off. I stopped running towards him as this happened and breathed a sigh of relief, I was worried for nothing. About 20 more students went up, they were scared but didn't freeze like Kaya or Dakota did. Roughly 7 of them had actually killed the Maice they were fighting, the rest had to get Mr. Tero to come kill it at the last second. It seemed like everyone was getting more used to what was happening. It then came Ashe's turn. She walked up to the field, holding two flintlock looking pistols that had a revolver mag attached. I thought for long term this wouldn't help her much but again, she scared me. She, like Kaya and Dakota before her, froze. I think at this point I was beginning to notice a pattern, when someone froze, their instincts took over and went crazy. Of course the last part was pure guess work but it was the best I could do for the moment. It was like watching a replay of the other two, just with guns. Two shots rang off instantly, and as it jumped to get her, Ashe slid and shot its underbelly. Once she stood up, the Maice was already wobbling, one of the shots apparently hit its shoulder making it hard for it to move. She shot it in the head with two more bullets, overkill if you ask me. Tero didn't move this time. After Ashe there were three people left, me, Griffith, and Alex. Alex went first, she walked up with a gladius. At this point I felt like everyone started to do the 'freeze in place once the Maice is released and kill it in seconds' tactic. Alex did just that, she did an underhand swing, cutting its face, then dropping to a crouched position and slashed the Maice's feet. The Maice stood up, was instantly kicked, Sparta style, then had its throat cut. For such a small girl she took down the heavy creature relatively easy. Griffith went next, basically doing the same thing, except he had two khopesh, an Egyptian sickle-shaped sword. He did something similar to Kaya, he went for the Maice's back. He mounted the small creature, which wasn't all that hard since he was tall. As it struggled to snap and throw him off, he cut off its head in a swift V motion. Each of these fights had been timed, the fastest times belonged to those who had frozen, and Kaya and Griffith tied for the fastest times so far.
"Last, but not least, Caleb, using a glaive." I was the only person who had used something like this, most people picked swords, daggers, and the occasional bow. I walked nervously towards the Maice, unsure if I could even remotely pass the times that Griffith and Alex set before me. It seemed like a giant hurdle was placed in front of me, and only me, in a track race I was losing in. When I looked over to Mr. Tero to give the ok, he looked intrigued. When I rose my right hand and put it back on my glaive, I could feel my body tense up. I couldn't move as the Maice ran towards me. Is this what those 5 had experienced before me? All of a sudden, my pattern theory was proven. My body moved on its own, swinging the glaive from the left, raising it to the right , and finally bringing it down onto the Maice's skull. The force from the glaive brought the Maice's head to the ground. The one thing no one expected is what happened to the ground beneath the impact, beneath the Maice's head there was a small crater. I was probably even more astounded then every single person in that field. Tero coughed loudly to get our attention, "All right, well that was certainly exciting." Tero then glanced at his timer, "He destroyed the fastest time in case you were wondering. For time, Caleb in first with 7.23 seconds, second is a tie between Kaya and Griffith with 17.55 seconds, and third is Dakota with 21.03 seconds." I could feel myself starting to look down and blush under everyone's stares. I could hear someone running up to me, I looked up to see Dakota. "Dude! That was sick! You sure you've never held one of those things?" "I could say the same to you. It felt weird though, like I was a spectator in my own body." Dakota frowned, "I was hoping it was just me..." He trailed off his words and went silent. That silence was broken, however, by Tero. "All right, everyone gather round. I got your scores. We'll start from highest to lowest. The students who received the SS rank are as follows. Kaya, Caleb, Ashe, Griffith. Those who received S rank are Alex and Dakota." Those were the only names I heard, the only ones I needed to. Everyone who had piqued my interest had made the top. I had an odd feeling hearing my name at the top of the list, was it excitement? Joy? I couldn't tell. I tuned back into Tero's talk towards the end, "All right, now that that's done with. We shall now discuss Hunter names. These will be used in active combat, regardless if the thing you are fighting is an Archaic. It helps organize people, so pick one that's relatively simple, easy to pronounce, or suits you. We may not finish these today, but if you aren't sure I can help you come up with one, or you can come up with one and tell one of your teachers at a later date. The sooner the better. Follow me to the other side of the field." We followed Tero slowly, as most of us were deep in thought. I, for one, had zero idea what my 'Hunter name' would be. Whenever we apparently got to where he wanted us, Tero spoke again, "Once we're done you can all go back to you're rooms as you will be done for the day. All right, let's again start with highest to lowest, Kaya you're up first." He walked into a small entrance with Kaya following him.
They were in there for a few minutes before Mr. Tero called for the next person, which was me. The room was a simple small office, two chairs facing a desk with a telephone and a lamp. Tero was sitting behind the desk, as expected, and had a piece of paper out. I could see students names, all in the order he called them. Kaya Suma was first on the list, with HOUND written next to it. "Sit down please Caleb." As soon as I sat Tero asked, "What are you thinking? Guan Yu?" I looked at him and chuckled a bit. "What? It was seems fitting for the way you swing that glaive around." He smiled as he said this. "To be honest I'm not-" All of a sudden I saw white. Then a teenage boy with tanned, leather like skin and curly, dirty blonde hair. The image expanded out further, I saw buildings and trees in flames, people on the ground screaming, and multiple people reaching out to the boy. I could feel the flames, hear the screams, see the bodies. I felt multiple people grab me and pull me to the ground, I tried to scream but nothing came out. They started to drag me, I turned around to see a giant man, he was at very least 7 feet tall, he had a large beard, and arms as thick as a log. Next to him was a tall, elegant looking man, crying. I could hear him weeping, "My son! Heph please don't do this!" The big man didn't like being called this apparently, "First of all, I told you to get rid of that stupid nickname Thanatos! Second, do you really believe I enjoy doing this? He has saved my brightest son countless times, even given him new life! I love this boy as much as you! He's like a son to me!" I spoke, to my surprise, "Then why Hephaestus! Why are you doing this? Because Zeus and the others are scared? Why!" I could feel my anger rising, I felt so hot I could probably blow steam out of my ears. Hephaestus kept dragging me, I could feel something heavy grow around me, heavy chains. I heard a boy's voice behind me. I turned to look, it was the one I saw earlier, struggling against the people trying to drag him to the ground. "Ciel! Fight back! Don't leave us here! What will me and Everest do? What would Kaya think? We aren't like you, we can't fight them!" The boy was hit by one of the men holding him down, his head slumped. I heard Hephaestus speak again, "I'm sorry my children, I truly am. Especially you, Ciel." He looked down at me with tears in his eyes. You could see the agony in his face, even though it was partially covered by his large beard.
All of a sudden I was back in the room. Mr. Tero was repeating my name, "...leb. Caleb. Caleb!" He raised his voice at me, finally bringing me back to reality. I asked myself 'What the hell just happened? What did I just watch and listen to? Why were there Greek gods involved? Why such an odd mix of Thanatos and Hephaestus? Son? Children? What was with the chains and the fighting?' I had to many questions that needed answers. Tero spoke again, "You stopped your sentence. I've been calling your name for a while now." He glanced at his watch, "Six minutes to be exact. Now have you decided on your name?" I thought for a moment. I hadn't a clue what to choose before I walked into the room, but that dream, or whatever it was, gave me an idea. At first I spoke quietly, "I think Ciel would be nice." "Can you repeat that I couldn't hear you." I spoke more loudly, more confidently, "Ciel, I'd like Ciel." "Ahh, that's an actual name, French for the sky or heavens right?" In all reality I had no idea. "Uh, yeah." "Well alright, it will be my pleasure to teach you Mr. Ciel. You'll have class here starting tomorrow at 0900." It threw me off hearing him say it in military time, but I nodded my head. He motioned to his left at another doorway. "Go threw there and head straight, you'll eventually see your dorms." I turned to leave, "Ah one more thing, Dakota Alonso is your roommate right?" "Yes he is, why?" "Just curious." I thought it was a bit odd, but I exited through the door to go to the dorms. I saw Kaya standing outside, she put her hand out, blushing a bit. "Sorry, I'm not really used to this. But we're classmates so I thought I should say hi." I felt my face flush red, but shook her hand. "It'll be fun working with you HOUND." Her face went fully red, "How did you-" I cut her off, "He had the paper with your name out." She went silent, eventually speaking quietly, "Not very private is he?" I laughed a bit at this, which got a look from her. "No not really..." I trailed my words for a moment, standing there. "Are you waiting on Ashe?" "Yeah, I figured we'd walk back together since she was high up and I wouldn't have to wait long. By the way, you took a while." "Yeah, I-" I thought of the dream thing again. That boy said Kaya didn't he? Could it have just been a coincidence? I finished my sentence, "Yeah, I was just having trouble thinking. This happened so suddenly so I hadn't really thought about it." I stopped for a moment, then decided to ask if she had a vision or something. "Hey... Um, this is a bit of a weird question, but did you have a vision or something when he asked about the name?" She looked surprised, "I-." Ashe walked in, interrupting her with her own question. "What are you still doing here?" She was looking directly at Kaya. "Well, I was waiting on you. I figured since we were close in score and we were roommates we'd walk back togeth-." "You should have just listened to Mr. Tero." Ashe began walking after she said this, I'm assuming to her room. On her way by me she looked at me, disgusted, as if I did something horrible. After this one interaction, I had already figured out how Ashe worked. She was one of those stern, confident in her own abilities type of girl. Kaya kind of nodded at me, like she was saying sorry, and left to follow after Ashe. I decided to do what Kaya had done, and wait for my roommate Dakota. Not even two minutes later Griffith showed up. He still looked shy, maybe even scared, and I could feel his reluctance to be there. This was the first time I was able to see him clearly. He was a bit shorter than me, somewhere around 5'11. He was skinny, had pale skin, short brown hair, and what looked to be blue eyes. Next came Alex, all she did was nod at me. She seemed so small, it was kind of cute. Then finally, Dakota came out of the room. "Thank GOD! I was getting tired standing here." Dakota shot his head up and stared at me, confused. "Why aren't you in our room?" "I figured since we weren't that far apart we could walk to our room together." "Ah, ok." Dakota seemed, how should I put it? Shaken up? I'm not sure, all I knew was that he was out of it. We walked silently back to our rooms, neither of us wanting to spark up a conversation. When we arrived Dakota instantly went to his room, again I found this odd. Of course, I've only known Dakota a day, but this was the complete opposite of what I had seen. It's like the two of us changed mindsets. I decided that there was no use in worrying about it, and headed to bed. I fell asleep in seconds. And with that, the first day of my new life was over.