Carla was pretty miserable that night.
Since she turned thirteen her nightmares had gotten worse.
She never actually remembered how it started or what went on during the nightmare. All she recalled was that it would end with her falling into a pit of absolute darkness.
It continuously followed this pattern until last night. Unlike her previous nightmares, she had woken up with a scar - more like a symbol on her left wrist.
To avoid any suspicion Carla hid it by wearing long sleeved shirts.
She glanced at her wrist, when someone touched her shoulder. Carla looked up to see her class teacher Katie glaring furiously at her.
"Lately you've been absent minded during classes, and your grades have dropped poorly Carla.
By now the entire class focused their attention on her.
"I'm sorry" Carla apologized.
Before Katie could reply, the bells resounded. She shook her head slightly irritated as everyone except Carla exited the room excitedly.
"See you later Miss Katie"
Carla sighed, gently walking out of the classroom.
The whole school seemed to be in a frenzy because of the upcoming exams, specifically the year 13 entrance examination. As instructed earlier in the morning, Carla alongside other students converged in the hall for announcements.
Few minutes passed, and the principal Louis, a tall middle-aged man with a dominating aura finally walked in causing everyone to go completely silent.
"Good evening everyone. As you all know the year 13 entrance examination will be held at the royal grounds coverlover tomorrow at exactly 8:00am in the morning. All year 13 students are to arrive at the venue before 8:00am as lateness is equivalent to immediate disqualification."
Carla glanced towards Bria the top student in year 10, and like the others wished she was as skilled as Bria. Not only was Bria powerful, her family was also renowned for being one of the strongest in existence.
Carla shook her head to clear her mind. She focused her attention on Louis who later dismissed them.
The students dispersed, some hurrying to prepare for the entrance examination while others including Carla returned to their various dorms.
Carla slumped on her bed devastated. She wasn't scared of the exams tomorrow. As an average student it shouldn't be that hard right? But the problem was everyone except herself had unlocked their ability and therefore had an upper hand against her, if they were to be involved in close combat during the entrance examination.
"Why does luck always seem to be against me" Carla muttered.
Without thinking too much, she shut her eyes falling asleep.
The next morning; Carla thoroughly checked to ensure that she had packed everything required for the examination proceeding. Set, she grabbed her jacket and was about to put it on when she noticed the weird symbol on her wrist had disappeared.
Uncertain of whether it was a good thing or bad thing, Carla felt relieved that she would no longer need to wear the jacket on such a sunny day.
She stepped out locking her room door before heading towards the school gate. Since the other students were yet to wake up, the school yard was quiet and peaceful.
Being alone, Carla led a poor life, and therefore did not have enough silver to pay for teleportation. Unlike the others she had to wake up few hours earlier to get to the venue in time.
No matter how fast she walked, she still ended up being the last student to arrive and as usual no one paid any attention to her. Without hesitation she quickly joined the long line for registration.
An hour passed and it was finally Carla's turn. She bowed to the young lady sitting behind the table with admiration in her eyes.
Apparently it was the renowned young beauty, Tyra. No wonder there was such a big fuss amongst the candidates.
"State your name, age, academy and ability respectively." Tyra requested, abruptly filling the document as Carla replied.
"Name: Carla Thor
Age:13
Academy: Ajax Academy
Ability:...."
She paused then continued
"Ability: None"
For the first time Tyra raised her head, dazed by Carla's reply. She had heard of rear cases were individuals did not possess any ability, but never in her wildest imagination did she think she would encounter one. The big deal about it is that once an individual did not get an ability on the blessing day, they would never possess one during their entire life time.
With a pitiful look she handed Carla a black badge with the number 2090.
"Your in the blue grade which is the last batch on your right."
Clara took the badge and headed to the hall were everyone was gathered, joining her batch.
A beautiful young mage with bright red hair and an outstanding hourglass silhouette mounted the podium, welcoming the audience before reading out the rules to the contestants.
"Unlike the previous years a few changes have been made to the entrance examination. The first round is to test your strength in place of agility. It is therefore a very simple one."
Then she waved her hands in the air. Soon various universal strength testing machines appeared in front of each participants.
"As soon you hear the drums, all participants must hit the strength testing machines once, using only your fists. There should be no use of any material or potion that would boost one's power as it will be taken as cheating which would result in disqualification of the participant."
"Only those whose strength level is between fifty to hundred will be qualified to move on to the next round."
Carla's eyes brightened a little. Although she didn't possess any ability, her physical strength wasn't bad.
The mage signaled the crowd to remain silent, and in a matter of seconds the drums resounded.
Boom!
Bang!
Each candidate blew their strength testing machine with their entire power.
Shortly, numbers began materializing above each candidate.
75,65,35,30,80,55....
Carla quickly glanced above her head and heaved a sigh of ease when she saw the number 51. Candidates who got below 50 as indicated earlier by the mage were eliminated.
A huge board containing the list of qualified candidates for round one appeared at the middle of the hall.
Carla spotted her name at the bottom of the list. Though it was embarrassing she didn't feel bad instead she grinned satisfaction apparent on her face.
'At least I made it to the following round.'
"A total of 1568 candidates have made it to the final round." The mage notified.
"This round is called the purge. In this round each candidate will be teleported by the system into a dungeon for 60 minutes."
"Your goal is to stay alive, as you will encounter beasts, traps, and other dangers. Note that it is not compulsory to attack beasts since all you have to do is stay alive.
The dungeon your about to enter is E-ranked. The badges given to each an everyone of you during registration would access your health and pull you out if there are any intricacies such as serious injuries."
"Those of you who do not make it to the end of the timer will be eliminated. Good luck!"
With those final words each batch of students were teleported into the dungeon.
On arrival some candidates encountered some F-rank beast which they handled easily.
More beasts of E-rank emerged, forcing the candidates to progress forward. All this while Carla kept close to her batch partners who were emitting powerful aura's.
'I should be able to make it to the end if I stick with them.' Carla thought, but what she didn't know was the beasts were drawn to the powerful candidates, paying little attention to the fragile.
By the time she realized, the group was already surrounded by six E-ranked beasts.
A blonde girl of average height quickly unsheathed her sword "We are a group of twelve, so it's best if we strike the beasts two-to-one."
Everyone nodded in understanding as her strategy would make the battle a fair and square one.
The beasts attacked and the battle began. Twenty minutes passed, and the candidates managed to extremely injure the beasts.
While others made use of their ability, Carla used her sword to attack alongside her partner who also made use of his ability.
Few moments later all six beasts lay dead on the floor. Each candidate grabbed their treasure and split it with their partner though it wasn't anything unique due to the low level of the beasts.
Carla glanced at her partner who stretched out his hand for a shake.
"I'm Atlas." He introduced.
"Carla" she replied briefly, returning the shake.
Atlas tossed the storage ring obtained from the beast to her.
"You keep it, I already have about a hundred of those."
Carla nodded in gratitude slipping it into her pocket.
The duo then caught up with the others resuming their journey further into the dungeon."
At the exam hall, outside the dungeon.
Warning! System has been breached.
The crowd panicked
"What does it mean?"
"what happens when the system has been breached?
Questions were thrown here and there.
The big screen in the middle of the hall glitches.
"What the?" the mages as well as the teachers watched in shock.
The screen now displayed the dungeon was a C-rank dungeon.
They all watched in trepidation as the number of candidates rapidly reduced.
"Somebody do something their dying!" One of the parents of a candidate yelled out of frustration.
Due to the system failure the badges could not haul the candidates out of the dungeon.
They were therefore left with only one chance..."Bring the portals we are going to haul them out manually." the mage in charge commanded.
Back in the dungeon.....
Chaos broke out, as more candidates lost their lives.
Carla alongside her members were engaged in a fierce battle of life and death with a rank-C cheater. They attacked simultaneously unaware of the beast's ranking. According to the plan, Atlas the strongest among them was about to deliver the final blow when the beast unleashed its true power. Unexpectedly, the beast swiftly slaughtered six of the team members leaving only half alive.
Panic stricken, Carla and her team slowly backed away from the beast, seriously shaking with fear.
There was no way to escape. If they tried running the beast would easily outrun them so instead they charged forward. This time the battle resumed more fiercely.
Ten minutes passed and the last survivors Atlas and Carla stood bleeding seriously. If not for the fact that Atlas was protecting himself as well as Carla, she would have probably been the first to die.
The beast who had perceived Carla's weakness attacked, swaying it's claws at her. Before Atlas could react it had already deeply cut her stomach.
Blood oozed out of the fresh wound quickly.
"Fuck!!" Carla groaned, dropping to her knees. 'Is this it? I'm I going to die?...damn you beast. 'She cursed inwardly.
Atlas jumped in front of CParla using his sword to block another attack from the beast. Without hesitation he stepped backward and slashed the sword at the beast's chest.
Roar
A huge cut was made causing the beast to shriek in pain. Atlas kept imposing more cuts until the beast unleashed its skill, burning flames.
He tried to avoid the attack by rolling to the side but it was too late, the flames hit his chest, burning his skin.
"rghh"
Atlas wound had greatly affected him, rendering him powerless for a few seconds. The beast used this opportunity to pin him down, ready to bite his head off when a silver sword cleanly sliced its head off.
The beast dropped down dead.
Carla clutched her stomach letting go of the sword as she staggered towards Atlas.
Half way through her legs wobbled, and if not for his swift reaction she would have fallen heavily on the ground.
They both sat on the ground badly injured, though Atlas seemed to be in better shape than Carla.
Shortly, the beast's body disappeared and in it's place two books appeared.
Each one flew towards Carla and Atlas respectively. They both glanced at each other, unaware of what was happening.
The books opened, illuminating some words in the air just like a hologram.
The entangled bloodline has been summoned.
Accept it or reject it
Caution: you are both in critical condition and hence may not survive for long.
Suggestion: accept bloodline
Atlas slowly turned to Carla
"I think it's best if we accept it, I mean the book is right we are both seriously injured...plus what damage could a book possibly cause us?"
Carla thought about it for a few seconds, and nodded in agreement.
"A_ac__accept entan_gl_ed blo__bloodline." She stuttered
"Accept entangled bloodline." Atlas also approved.
Entangled Bloodline accepted
They read afore the pain surged through their head.
Atlas gritted his teeth suppressing the urge to scream while Carla desperately struggled to breath, blood ceaselessly flowing out of her mouth.
Both lay on the ground in despair.
"Arghhh" Atlas screamed losing control. The pain increased forcing his veins to bulge.
Eyes crimson and devoid of sentiment, bones snapping and reassembling. Carla and Atlas unconsciously begged for death to take their lives.
Moments later as though their prayers had been answered ....They lay on the ground unmoving....no sign of life....d**d?