Kaiden and Echo woke up early, around 4:30 am, to the sound of an irritating bell. They quickly got into a set of sportswear - tracksuits and sneakers. They then joined the swarm of 1st years in front of their dormitory building. There were sighs of fatigue mixed with annoyance from the students, or rather, quasi-cadets. Some were even dozing off on the ground, but the two brothers knew this was the beginning of the test, and they were right. A pair of bright green eyes scanned the cadets like a predator, while a pair of dark hands recorded something on a tablet. After scanning them for five minutes, enough time to scan all of them (not including the females, who were going through something similar), the eyes vanished.
After standing there for five minutes, a tall man appeared in front of them. His sudden appearance caught even the most prepared off guard. He was around seven feet tall, with a lean but muscular build, and released a bloodthirsty and imposing aura that made almost all the cadets shiver in fear. Some even had visions of their death, which made them wet themselves in fright. But as fast as that aura appeared, it vanished, giving them space to breathe. That was when they saw the man's full appearance. He had dark skin, slightly long spiky white-blonde hair, and predator-like bright green eyes. He wore a black tank top that exposed his bulging but chiseled muscular arms and baggy sweatpants with heavy boots, which made him look strange. But what was stranger was the cordial and easy-going smile planted on his face, like he hadn't just frightened a bunch of kids to death.
"Welcome to Valor Institute of Leadership once again, and to those who arrived after the orientation. I'm Captain Liam, and I will be your physical fitness and drills instructor," the man said with a strangely calm but booming voice. "This morning, we will start with physical fitness, and since you are all just normal humans without an ounce of elemental energy in you, you will be running some kilometers. I haven't really checked it, but your starting point will be here, and the endpoint will be the Willow House. Simple, right?" Captain Liam said with a clearly satisfied expression, like he had done something deserving of applause. The Willow House was about 15 kilometers from the Lumina Tower, and the residential area for students was as big as a medium-sized town, with dormitories spread out across the place. They weren't close together, but not too far either.
The cadets were tired and annoyed, but they knew this was just the beginning. Captain Liam continued, "You will be doing this until you awaken, and we will move on to the next level. Good luck." The cadets looked at each other in disbelief, but Captain Liam didn't seem to care. He was a Captain, leading a hundred to five hundred soldiers, a high rank for the cadets, who weren't even privates or interns yet. They were at level zero, not close to the starting point.
Captain Liam then said, "First to the finish line gets 50 VP (valor points), the currency used in the institute." The cadets didn't feel anything off, as they were told that anything could earn them a good amount of the currency used in the institute. This was a good source of motivation, and the cadets began their run when they heard it. A second later, 50 cadets were sprawled on the floor, their legs tangled together. Some had their faces in others' butts, others had their shoelaces tied together, and others were directly eating dust. This was the cause of their messy formation and greed at the sound of the price reward. Captain Liam burst out laughing without an ounce of sympathy for the cadets, who had turned red in embarrassment and anger. They were even ashamed to raise their heads as they got up quickly to follow the messy crowd, who were already two kilometers ahead.
Captain Liam disappeared after they reached the five-kilometer mark. "Let's see how the Arkonius kids and the other nobles will fare. This will be interesting," he thought, watching the live footage of the cadets running with all their strength amidst their messy formation. Two cadets led the crowd - a tall, dark-skinned teen with long green braided hair that reached his waist, wearing a grey tracksuit, and Kaiden, wearing a blue tracksuit with grey hair. Echo was right behind, almost catching up to them, which made Captain Liam raise his eyebrows in surprise. He wasn't expecting a 15-year-old kid to have this much strength. The others were left to eat their dust, which clearly dissatisfied them, especially the proud and arrogant noble kids. But the leading trio didn't care. They were in a competition of their own, which was not known to everyone.
The other kid was from the Oak Family, the overlords of the Region of Wellington. They were old rivals of the Arkonius Family but in a good way. They didn't hate each other. As a matter of fact, they were related as they had the same ancestor. They were like two brothers trying to please their father and it had continued like this through generations and Kaiden and the other kid weren't exempt from it. This wasn't new to them as they had had countless competitions between each other since they were kids and they no plans of stopping.
As for the other nobles, they were clearly invisible to them; not worth their time.
"Yo Kaiden! How about we spice with up a little?" the green haired kid said.
"What are the stakes Greg?!" Kaiden asked as they run alongside each other without an ounce of fatigue on their faces.
" Can I join?" Echo chimed in as he close the distance and came to run beside them.
" Of course. The winner gets a 20% share of the first monthly allowance of the loser. How's that?" Greg said with a charming smile. He was handsome in his own right with his bright yellow eyes.
"Echo are sure of this? If this giant oak tree wins, he gets a total of 40% from us." Kaiden said making Greg scrunch up his face in annoyance.
"He won't win!"
"Mm. We are in. How about we heat it up." Kaiden said while coming to an abrupt halt. The others halted in their tracks and stood side by side with Echo in the middle. Cap. Liam raised his eyebrows in interest while the dust eating cadets had faces of glee, thinking that the fore runners were exhausted.
The trio oblivious to the consequences of the actions, bent down akin to runners in the olympics. Echo counted to three and they shot off with insane speed towards the end point. Some cadets were almost close to them when they were made to eat dust again. The increase in speed caused some of the spectating seniors to show surprised expressions.
The questions in their minds were: " Are they really 1st years?" It was shocking for them as the speed they running at was almost close to the basic speed of an awakened human. With just a little push, they would be running almost halfway to the speed of sound which was the basics for an awakened. Of course there will be some criteria to meet but it was possible and here, the supposed mere mortals and 1st years were running close to that. The most shocking part was the kid in between the two who was running at their speed without an issue.
They could tell that, that wasn't the top speed of the older boys but that was still shocking to them.
...
On top the Lumina Tower, Captain Liam and a dark haired lady with purple eyes stared in amusement at the fore runners of the boys. She was supposed to be herding the girls but the boys were too interesting that she forgot about her children so early.
"So, what do you think Lola?" Cap. Liam asked with hidden pride in his voice.
"No comments. You win this round big bro but not always." Lola said with a hint of annoyance and defeat. Cap. Liam just chuckled and wrote something on his tablet.