YACHA POV.
Time slowed, minutes became hours ,and hours became days, nevertheless we arrived to an island, covered with tall pine trees. The mix of fog and plants sent chills down our spines, calmly disembarking the ship-lined waiting for the orders to be said by Orcham Takkmeoro.
"- participants… Welcome to the Carnage Festival. The exam deciding your future. The rules are strict, and the results are a deciding factor in your future assignments.
-The groups you have formed are your backbone.
-Scores are given based on survival rate, and the amount of beasts you hunted.
- survive the forest for the next eight hours.
- A group must bring at least one trophy from the beast you haunt, however the beast type is a deciding factor in your final score.
-The trophy must be left fang from the beast.
-Do not depend on your luck, on the contrary, luck is against you participants.
He rised his hand, waving it forward and giving a signal.
The test has begun.
We marched through the dark forest, separating ourselves from the rest, our class divided themselves into three teams, we were the smallest team of only four, the remaining groups had thirty members, but my worries were not the monsters or this aura surrounding us, my worries were mastrata, a skinny tall snake in a human form, malignant action is his way to win. he hated us, I thought perhaps he may try something, pulling up dirty plans he had in his sleeves.
A mutant wolf jumped from behind, attacking us, in a blink of a moment spirea quick slash took his head off, but it was just the beginning, other mutant wolves surrendered us. Ursang shouted: "HOLD YOUR FORMATION".
We used our best attacks and maneuvers, cutting through their meat and bones, at last, we killed every single one of them.
"Time to take trophies, guys," Elin said, looking a bit exhausted, blood covered her shields and a part of her face.
I, however suspected something unusual usual for a pack, something was missing. I felt the death glare directed at us, I shouted as loud as I could.
"LOOK OUT"
We dodged a powerful slash launched at us. With thick fur, double the size of a normal mutant wolf. The leader stood yet that was not the only difference. An eye in the center of his forehead, the mark of his leadership over the pack we slaughtered. The eye wasn't a showoff, it was a submission eye,The tiny waves of aura sent from the eye submit fear to those who are weaker than the mutant wolves leader.
He sent Four slashes, cracking the ground beneath us, a special skill the king wolf has-throwable slashes of wind magic-. We smiled, taking this challenge, a laugh mixed with a courageous challenging tone.
Speira said, "A one-on-one challenge, Yacha?" Full of herself? No, it's confidence.
"Fury pet, can understand human speech, Speira?" Eline said, Giggling.
Contrary to me, I did not find this amusing.The Wolves leader accepted the challenge. I shaped a fire ball in my left injected with thunder magic in case he defended himself from the fire magic, the other element would do the trick, my other hand carried my spear. I jumped as high as my feet could send me up, aiming for a surprise attack, i used the fireball as a decoy, launching it at him. He dodged, simultaneously, he jumped at me with his right arm stretched, aiming for my chest. I blocked it with my spear.
"NOW!!!" I shouted.
Eline hand in hand with Ursang, they jumped, managing to peirce the Wolf leader to his chest. Two stabs directed at his heart, while Speira executed the final blow, separating his head from his body.
We used Wolf pride against him. Teamwork attack. There is no honor in death, specifically in this test. Spiera removed the trophy, she said in a thankful tone: "I did not expect he would fall for such a trick. I guess it is true, pride can be your worst enemy."
"goes both ways for all of us," Ursang replied, looking at me, mad at my reckless jump. I putted my thumb up, and said: " it worked". He sighed, shaking his head.
The moonlight was suddenly beautiful that night, I said to myself, distracted from the others, who talked proudly about the results.
Four hours passed. We managed to kill more monsters, judging by the number of trophies we got, we decided this is enough.
A faint sound of walking came from everywhere surrounded us. Mastrata walked slowly, with an evil laugh, two daggers in his hand, a long sword strapped to his back. the bastard, I knew he was up to something.
"Apologies for interrupting the lovers," he said, walking toward Ursang, yet keeping a distance in between, Usrang calmly stood there, holding his ground.
"If it is not Mastrata the bastard, who else can it be?"
"Always with the attitude Ursang, always thinking you are better than the rest."
"Your words, not ours. no one putted them in your mouth," I said.
His smile faded as he stared at me. The hate in his eyes towards me is clear.
"The short whip is ruining the fun, you better believe me, I can crush you here, and now, whatever happens here, will stay here, bitch."
"Speak through actions. Words mean nothing," I replied.
"How about this. One against the other, me and you, Yacha? and Don't you dare interrupt the fight, as you did to that poor puppy." he demonstrated , directing his daggers at the others.
a person shouted: "We have your back, Mastrata, show them their place."
He jumped twice, leaned his body forward, one dagger pointed at me and the other behind his back he attacked. And I defended with my spear, deflecting his attack to the side while physically dodging to the other side . I rotated my body halfway, and sent a curved fire ball at him, but the bastard was flexible enough to dodge it. Usrang, trying to step into the fight, got blocked by an arrow. No words were spoken, a single arrow did the trick.
Our weapons kept on clashing. Exhaustion already took a toll on me.
A sneak attack was launched at me They were playing dirty, two arrows shot in at me, from two different locations. A curved karambit-style dagger slashed my back, I barely
managed to dodge the second attack targeting my kidneys, I recognized the assassin fight style, that must be Einner, a short-close combat expert, wearing a black hoodie covering the upper half of his face. His tricks can be a pain in the ass for any warrior. Before I grasped the situation, Speira aimed for Einner, taking him one-on-one, however, the sneak attacks never stopped a dagger sent in her direction, that she barely managed to see, cutting her face, close to her eye, the others decided to jump in helping Mastrata.
I lost focus, an arrow managed to hit my thigh, and the bastard snake came at me, He waved his long sowrd at me. My legs felt heavy, and my consciousness was fading. There was no way to dodge this. Ursang flamed up.I thought to myself "Is that fire magic I see? No, that is his aura leaking out".
The last thing I'm looking at is my friend's angry face. Mastrata got knocked down, by the sphere-shaped ball made from earth magic. Ursang, grasping an unpleasant aura, liberated impetuously, the other team couldn't grasp the situation. the girls persecuted Flexible moves both magical and physical, targeting the other team. Not comprehending what happened they were knocked out, in the heat of the moment, with one leg i jumped dismantling Mastrata, while Ursang mid-jump kicked his face, and sending blows at him, with no weapons, only fists were used.
The others couldn't do a single thing, they were shocked, they didn't move a muscle, somehow i managed to ignore the pain in my leg, bruises covered my body, but still i charged thunder magic in my right hand, and sent it through my spear, conductering a super fast shocking move, that temporarily paralyzed mestrata, even though he couldn't move, i attacked just to torture him.
Suddenly, tree branches glowed green were immersed in aura, sharp and spiky ones, aimed right between our eyes.
An outer being showed itself, you could not tell if it was a male or a female. Thin figure, slim pants, a rag around the upper part of its body. You could see they angry eyes with green aura floating around the them , long triangular ears, brownish skin. That's an elf. How come different race exist within this forest? Cockroaches and snakes swarmed the area, shifting into thin, subtle bodies. I know those dangerous creatures. The legend says fire gave birth to them, for what reasons they showed themselves?
A being far stronger than average human, favored by the nature of their magical abilities unique to Jinn's pure spiritual race, shape-shifting is their inherent skill only they can possess.
"So much entertainment for a race affected by pride, greed, and misfortune, a despicable show, but still pathetic to an eye to witness." The elf said while clapping.
Here the elf stood among us at any given chance, it could kill all of us simultaneously with no sweat shed. Part of me was confused: "was this a part of the exam or an invasion?"
"Should I report back, Saint Sara?" a jinn said while shape-shifting to a bat.
"- La la rheiu I will handle this." The elf said, expressing her refusal.
She proceeded to explain to us, their were judges and a part of a team gathered by the squadron commander to interfere in fights between ourselves, it was a simple procedure, still no one had in mind this may happen, a snap from her finger sent mestrata and his team away. No words were said, just glares.
"- head straight Yacha boy, you made it."
Vanishing through the darkness, Spiera broke the arrow, and putted a rag around the wound on my thigh, my back and other cuts still bleeding. We made sure all of us were okay, a small conversation followed by laughs. As we started to walk for few more minutes, we began to see lights and a platform with a table on the side, guarded heavily, to the left side, we saw multiple tents, serving different roles, then we noticed, Orcham and Hadliegh were there alongside the elf.
An official party introduced themselves, asking about our names, a woman wrote something on a piece of paper. The other two guys took the trophies from us, and putted them in a wooden box with our names. She raised her head from that paper, with a warm smile, she closed her eyes, gently speaking to us, we were filled with dirt, blood, and covered by wounds.
"Congratulations, young children, you passed."