The serpent blasted water out of its mouth facing the finish line direction as the red head boy tried dodging it.
He was so close to being hit and as he turned back he saw the massive damage it caused.
"I'm in big trouble" the boy said as he looked back at the beast in fear.
"It's way more powerful than I thought. The best thing for me to do now will be to run to the finish line instead of fighting it" the red hair boy thought as he began flying to the finish line.
The serpent went into the water and swimmed way faster than the boy could fly.
It then emerged from the water and used its tail to hit the boy.
Someone from the background shouted, "Wow, it's beating Asahu!"
Asahu crashed into the water and sank.
"What just happened, why is this sea serpent so powerful, how is it able to catch up to me while I'm using Phoenix wing" Asahu thought.
As he was drowning in the water and his thoughts, the serpent went close to him and threw him out of the water with its tail.
Asahu came out of the water still lost in his thoughts and opened his eyes as a gigantic magical seal appeared in front of him as he stretched his hands and shouted, "Flaming Phoenix spear!"
A large Phoenix made out of flames came out of the magic seal in the shape of a spear and hit the sea serpent.
The creature screamed in pains as it hit the water.
"Flaming Phoenix wings" Asahu screamed as wings made out of flames came out of his back as he began flying as fast as he could to the other side.
Everyone was having a hard time fighting the sea serpent but unfortunately for Asahu, he's fighting the strongest one there which was also the one that swallowed Natsu and caused the massive destruction to the land.
"I guess it's time to get serious" Kazuko thought as she saw Asahu flying towards the finish line and started going towards the clouds.
She then began to fly towards the finish line as fast as she could. She began catching up to Asahu and suddenly the sea serpent emerged from the water with a seal in its mouth and screamed.
They both flew away and crashed into the water.
The water split into three as one moved forward and the other two sideways, away from the sea serpent.
Everyone felt like it was the end for them as Kazuko got really angry and started flying towards the sea serpent as she summoned a very big seal on the water while shouting "Destructive tornado!"
Immediately a tornado began to form as it became massive, and since it was on the lake it started creating a whirlpool.
Everyone saw this as an opportunity and tried to use this to cross but they later figured out that even if they use either water or air, they'll eventually get trapped inside the tornado or whirlpool.
Kazuko flew past her spell and went to the dry land, which means she got to the finish line.
"I'm the first one to arrive here! I'm really amazing" she said to herself as she was walking towards the instructor.
"Deactivate your spell if not you'll kill the remaining contestants" the instructor said.
"Fine" Kazuko replied as she snapped her fingers, which deactivated it.
The whirlpool was still there because it was stirred up although it began to collapse.
The contestants who could fly, flew away to the finish line as others tried to move across the water while avoiding the whirlpool.
The instructor then looked at his stop watch after a while and said "Time's up! let's start moving" as some of the contestants arrived including Yami.
The others in the water were disqualified.
Asahu went towards the destroyed part of the land caused by the monster for some reason.
As he went there, he saw that it was a massive hole which was very deep. He also saw someone lying on the ground and immediately said "Hey, I'm seeing something over here"
Yami was looking for Natsu in the crowd but couldn't find him.
As everyone came closer to see what was inside, they all saw someone lying down and resting.
"Who's that? No, what's that?" people said as they started murmuring.
Yami tried to get to the front to see what was inside, as he looked down and noticed that there was a person inside so he shouted "Hey Natsu, is that you down there"
A voice came out saying, "What took you so long, I thought you'd win me for sure"
The instructor came closer and saw Natsu as he asked "How long have you been here?"
Natsu replied, "Since the monster blasted it's beam from it's mouth"
People began to murmur,
"Wait how did he get here,
What does he mean by when the monster shot it's beam?" people ask as they were wondering how he got there.
The instructor then said "I see, the monster that swallowed you was the same monster that shot the beam. So indirectly it spat you out of its mouth"
Natsu then smiled as he started standing up and said, "Correct!"
A voice came out, "Then how did you survive that" as people began to murmur again.
"Well it's none of your business", Natsu said as he started climbing out of the hole.
The instructor didn't want to waste any more time so he said, "Let's move on".
Yami went close to him and asked if he was okay.
Natsu assured him that he was fine and nothing was wrong with him.
"Bro, you know that you're really powerful right" Yami said.
Natsu smiled and scratched his head while saying "I'm still an F rank you know"
As they continued moving forward they arrived at a mountain and the instructor said, "Your goal is to reach the top of the mountain by any means possible except from breaking or destroying the mountain.
Alright, I'll give you 30 minutes to reach the top so start moving cause your time has began"
The instructor then disappeared and went to the top of the mountain as he then said, "Oh and one more thing once you get here after your time has elapsed your disqualified, so begin".
Everyone started climbing the mountain to get to the top as Kazuko looked at Natsu and said "You're not going to win me this time", as wind began surrounding her making her to fly.
Yami looked at Natsu but this time he wasn't asking any questions, this time he was the one proposing the competition.
"Natsu, why don't we know who's the fastest climber in the both of us" Yami said as he then continued speaking, "The first person to reach there will ask the other person anything and the person will have to say the truth"
"Okay, but I'll only agree if it's only one question" Natsu said.
"Wait but why?" Yami asked trying to know why he said that.
"It's because I'm sure I won't win" Natsu said as he smiled awkwardly.
"But why would you even say that" Yami asked.
"Nothing really, let's just begin the race already" Natsu replied.
"Sure, are you ready, three, two, one, go!" Yami said as they began to run to the mountain to start climbing.
Natsu started climbing it although he was very slow, he was climbing like a normal hiker but Yami on the other hand was climbing like a wild animal climbing a mountain.
Yami was jumping from one side of the rock to another and the worst part was that his powers supported him to do so.
Natsu looked at how everyone was climbing and tried to climb like Yami and some of them.
At first he almost fell down but later on started figuring out some loopholes which he used in his advantage to start climbing and going upwards faster.
He wasn't as fast as Yami and the rest of them but he was happy that he learned something.
As he was climbing he also tried other skills like trying to run on the mountain which almost killed him due to the way he fell and few other skills, they all at first almost killed him, before he later got a hang of all of them except from the running on the wall since he didn't have enough speed backing him up.
Some contestants were wondering if he was showing off or just crazy because he would be doing nonsense and later on start climbing like he's used to it.
Natsu later got serious and started doing Yami's style of climbing since it's the most efficient in this time.
As he was climbing he was also calculating the time.
"It's remaining ten minutes and I'm not sure I'm halfway way to the mountain, I think I'm going to get disqualified if I continue like this" Natsu thought as he was climbing.
Well his not the only one who was surprised by this, Kazuko was taking the lead as she was flying up trying to reach the mountain top with all her might.
"It's remaining ten minutes but I still feel like I have a long way to go before getting to the top" Kazuko said as she continued flying at top speed.
The thirty minutes time elapsed and no one had reached the top.
Kazuko, Asahu, Yami and other players felt frustrated as the instructor shouted "All of you go back home, you've all been disqualified and anyone who still wishes to come to the top will have a penalty when they come to write the next exam".
Hmmm....
"What should I do next" Natsu thought as he continued climbing.
"I'll reach the top at least, yeah this will improve my climbing skills and if I get used to it, it will make me an excellent climber"
As we all know Natsu used to live in a forest full of trees and beasts but there were also some mountains around although it was far from where he stayed. Natsu sometimes climbed mountains just to get what his grandma asked for.
Natsu continued climbing while Yami stopped in his tracks as he and the others started thinking of what they should do next.
Yami looked down and saw Natsu still climbing upwards, he didn't really think that he was going to the top until Natsu passed him and continued going upwards.
"I thought he was coming to meet me, but why is he climbing up. Wait is he planning on reaching the top but what about the penalty" Yami thought to himself as he started chasing after Natsu.
Kazuko on the other hand wanted to ask the instructor why he did something like this and started flying upwards to reach the instructor.
Few contestants saw Kazuko and decided to follow her.
Yami caught up with Natsu and asked "Why are you still moving upwards, what about the penalty"
Natsu looked at him and replied saying "Keep that question for later for when you win me but for now, concentrate on the competition"
Yami didn't utter a word as both tried to reach the top.
It took Kazuko and a few others two hours and thirty two minutes and seconds as most of them moved almost at the same speed including Asahu. It took Yami two hours and forty eight minutes while Natsu and two other contestants arrived at the top at two hours and fifty nine minutes although Natsu was the last person to arrive.
Anyone who came up to the mountain was showed a hand sign to shut up by the instructor, nobody spoke as they saw how serious he was.
Natsu reached the top and saw the man's face as he then thought to himself "This man is angry with us, I've never seen him this serious before".
He saw that other constants where gathered in a particular place but didn't say word, he then went there and stayed close to Yami trying to figure out what happened.
The instructor continued looking at his time, as Natsu went close to Yami, the instructor stood up and turned towards them with a more excited face saying "You all passed"
"What!!!" Everyone screamed as they didn't understand what was going on.
The instructor then explained, "The normal time for this exam was three hours, that is to consider those who are very slow but the reason I said thirty minutes was to see how many of you will still want to finish it even though the penalty I put will still hold. What I mean is this, as you all are, if anyone of you fails in the next and final party of the stage one exams he or she will be faced a penalty of paying ten million gold coins to rewrite the exams again. But again I did say you should get to the top no matter the cost" the instructor said as he began to laugh.
Everyone was surprised as they all looked at each other, Natsu on the other hand felt a lot of pressure on him not to lose because if he did, he'll forever be in debt.