"Are you sure you're feeling okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, it's like the fifth time you've asked."
"But..."
Kein and Anisa were on their way to their class while talking.
It had been 2 weeks since the incident. Kein had been asleep for a whole week and when he woke up Anisa hugged him in tears showing how worried she was.
Although he woke up, his body was in a terrible state and any minimal effort he made made made his muscles scream in pain, so he had to be bedridden for another week while he received occasional visits from Beatriz and Leticia.
"Believe me I'm fine now, a little stiff from not moving for so long but I assure you there is no problem now."
"Sigh~ it's ok, but don't overexert yourself ok?
"Yeah, don't worry."
Kein felt warm in his heart for Anisa's concern, in his life he had never had friends until now, he lived with his grandfather in a place far away from the capital so he didn't know people his age, you could say Anisa was the first friend he made
"Kein!, Anisa!"
As they were walking someone called out to them and when they turned around they saw Leticia walking towards them together with Beatriz
"Leticia, Beatriz, good to see you."
"It's also good to see you, how is your body?"
"It is fully recovered thank you for asking"
The group talked happily until Beatriz commented on an important topic.
"Did you hear the announcement the teachers made?"
"No, what announcement?"
Kein asked confused because it was the first time he had heard of this announcement.
"It makes sense that you didn't hear it because you were in the hospital, but the professors announced that a test would be held to choose students to be part of a special class or elite class"
"Special class?"
Kein was surprised by the sudden news, his curiosity was triggered wanting to know more about it, Beatriz seemed to realize this and continued speaking
"According to what I've heard, the academy decided to create this special class to prepare the best students in case a war against the demons breaks out."
"I see..."
'Demons huh?'
After personally fighting one Kein understood how terrifying they were.
"...I will definitely enter that class."
He said with a determined expression
Beatrice smiled already expecting that answer
"Well we would have to hurry, all the students have to gather in the classroom and-"
Pat- Pat-
Beatriz suddenly felt someone tapping her shoulder.
"Hmm? Who-?"
But her words were cut off again
He was tall, very tall. Beatrice who was tall for a woman had to tilt her neck so she could see the face of the person behind her. His black hair was extremely long, covering most of his face only leaving one of his amethyst colored eyes in view and a bit of his extremely pale skin
"Ah..."
Letting out a wet scream Beatrice was completely paralyzed.
'Who is it!?'
'I didn't feel him approaching at all!'
'A ghost!?'
'It's scary!'
"Excuse me..."
Her thoughts stopped as the "ghost" spoke to her in a low, leisurely voice
"You guys know where the meeting hall is?"
"Ah, W-what?"
Beatriz regaining her composure but still nervous heard the creepy boy's question.
"You don't know where it is? We went there at the entrance ceremony."
"Well...I'm bad with directions."
He said nervously while looking embarrassed.
'Yeah, it's definitely not a ghost.'
Thinking to herself Beatriz took a deep breath calming her racing heart from the scare and spoke more calmly.
"We're about to go there, if you want you can come with us"
"Really?"
"Yeah, no problem right guys-?"
Beatriz turned to look at her friends only to observe how Anisa and Leticia were hiding behind Kein as they trembled.
"Sorry...did I scare you?"
Anisa and Leticia seemed to regain their composure and quickly straightened up
"N-no, I was just surprised!"
"Yeah, sorry about that!"
The two apologized for their rude action, but the boy didn't seem to mind.
"No, it's okay...it happens to me often."
"Ugh!"
But this seemed to only seem to make the girls feel worse
"Um, well, what's your name buddy?"
Kein wanting to change the heavy atmosphere asked the boy his name.
"My name is Akiyama Fujita, nice to meet you."
Akiyama introduced himself while bowing slightly.
"Akiyama, are you from the lands of the East?"
Anisa asked curious
"Yes, I come from a small town called Namazu."
While everyone was getting to know each other, Beatriz spoke again
"Guys we should go now or we'll be late"
"Ah, you're right, are you coming with us Akiyama?"
"Um"
Akiyama replied with a nod and the group left for the meeting hall
***
Once in the meeting room the group looked for free seats and sat down to wait for the announcement.
As the students were arriving the room was slowly filling up, when they were all in their seats a man with inky black hair tied in a ponytail and a kind expression walked up to the stage
"Good afternoon, dear students, I am the vice principal of Athena Academy, Ozul Ketenia."
His voice was soft and soothing, giving the students a warm and magnetic feeling
"As you all already know, demons are the enemies of humanity, although it would be more accurate to call them the enemies of all races, dwarves, elves, humans, mermaids, they attack and slaughter all equally."
As he spoke with a solemn tone the students paid extreme attention to his words.
"Two weeks ago the demons attacked the students during their practice excursion, what should have been an opportunity to improve and learn ended up becoming a critical situation in which they had to put their lives on the line. Fortunately no students died, but you don't know if that will happen again next time."
Ozul looked at the students sitting in front of him and they all had varied expressions, some were angry at the demons for almost killing them, others were a bit scared, still fearful from that traumatic experience and others had a determined expression, deciding to become stronger so that a similar situation will not happen again.
"Faced with this situation, the academy has decided to create a special training plan for the most talented first and second year students. But, in order to find these students it will be necessary to take a test."
Clap-
With a clap an intense darkness covered the students, they were surprised but before they could panic the darkness disappeared revealing that they were no longer inside the meeting room, but in the academy's training grounds.
"This is teleportation magic?"
"No, it's similar but it's not"
Anisa asked impressed but Beatrice denied it.
"Vice President Ozul possesses the darkness element, one of the characteristics of this element is that it allows the user to move through shadows, what he used now was an advanced version of that ability that allows him to transport others"
"Wow, that's amazing."
Anisa wanted to know more but decided to save her questions for later as she turned her attention to the vice president Ozul who began speaking
"The test to enter the special class will begin now, first I want you all to take the weapons you are most familiar with"
Clap-
Ozul clapped his hands and his shadow expanded behind him, from it came out several racks with all kinds of weapons, bows, swords, crossbows, katanas, halberds, naginatas, rapiers, staffs, wands. Basically all the weapons that students usually use.
The students walked towards the weapons and all took the ones they were most familiar with, after that they grouped up again looking at Ozul who continued with his smile and friendly expression
"Alright, as everyone took their weapons the test will now officially begin."
After saying those words the doors to the training room opened and a person walked in.
"Ha~ how annoying."
Throwing and catching an apple, a man dressed in a Hakama entered the room and stood in front of the students.
"The test is simple, you have to try to defeat him using all means possible, you can attack all at once, use magic, sword techniques, it doesn't matter, use everything you have to try to defeat him"
"What?"
The students looked confused at this test
This person was going to face him alone against around 100 students?
"I wish you luck."
After saying that, Ozul was swallowed by his shadow and disappeared.
"Hey, are you serious?"
"Who is this guy anyway?"
"I don't know, I've never seen him before."
"This has got to be a joke".
*Bite*
The mumbling students fell silent as they watched the Hakama man eat his apple without paying them the slightest bit of attention
"Hey, can we hurry this up?"
He said with reluctance and annoyance in his tone.
"I'm sleepy and I want to sleep."
The students, mostly nobles, were angered by the attitude of the unknown man. They were students of the prestigious Athena Academy, the best in the entire empire How dare he speak to them like that?
"If that's the way you want it then I'll send you to sleep!"
One of the students stepped forward and ran towards Takehiko while wielding his spear.
Fush-!
With a quick lunge he tried to finish him off with a hit, but Takehiko moved his body slightly just enough for the attack to miss him by a few centimeters.
"What?!"
The bewildered student at this tried to back away, but before he knew it Takehiko's palm was resting on his chest
"First"
Voom-!
Lightly pushing her palm forward Takehiko sent the student flying at an incredible speed sending him crashing into the other end of the arena.
The unconscious student's body was immediately swallowed by a shadow and disappeared.
The other students who saw this were dumbfounded at the strength of the extreme man.
"Hey, don't you guys plan to attack?"
*Bite*
"I don't have all day."