Chapter 3 - The Trial by Fire

  My body froze. I had never been in an actual fight before. Before doing anything, I tried to calm my nerves down.

  Deep breaths, Kat, deep, slow breaths. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. My dad trained me for this; I should be able to handle this. Before thinking everything through, a green-eyed spectral lunged straight at me with a green blade coming from his hand and full intent to kill. I couldn’t see well, but I could tell he was aiming for my head. Instinct took over, and I side-stepped and landed a swift kick behind his knee, making his legs buckle instantly. I landed a kick straight to his face, and he dropped to the ground. I placed my fingers on his neck to check if he was still alive and that I didn’t kick the life out of him. Thankfully, there was still a pulse, but he would be asleep for quite a while.

  I looked up to check my surroundings, and all the other ambushers were already fighting with the other new trainees. There were about three to five trainees taking on each ambusher, and the yellow-eyed trainee from before was standing there. At first, I thought she didn’t know how to fight, until she suddenly got attacked by a nearby ambusher. She knocked him out with one punch. Looks like she isn’t just a scrawny little girl. What really caught my attention was a person with green eyes. The gifts of the green-eyed Spectrals fall under the category of being able to create tangible objects temporarily. Some are on their body and others are held in their hands. Even though he didn’t seem like much at first glance, parrying all the attacks though he hadn't even attacked his opponent once. There had been multiple opportunities though. It was like he wanted the fight to drag on to test his own skills.

  There was a sudden huge bang and a bright white light that blinded me. My ears were ringing and everything was all fuzzy. Was that a flash-bang?!

  When everything came to, I saw an orange-eyed girl with her hands together like she just finished a clapping motion. Orange Spectral’s gifts have the category of tangible elements. When I looked around, all the ambushers were laying on the ground, already knocked out. I couldn’t quite tell who did all that, but they must’ve been not affected by the light.

  The lights turned back on, it was blinding to the eye. There on the stage, stood the instructor. He had a huge smile on his face. I looked around once again, looking at the scene laid before me.

  When I had just arrived in the building, there were about a hundred spectrals in the room. Now, there were only twenty of us left standing; the rest were incapacitated.

  The yellow-eyed girl from before began to shout, “Mr. Lee! What was that about?! Was that an actual ambush? And why didn’t you help us!? You’re the only official officer in this room. Look how many people got severely injured!”

  “My my, such a worry. That was all planned; it wasn’t just any ambush. It was the entrance exam,” the instructor said.

  Silence filled the room.

  All that just for a single entrance exam to the corps? Was that all really necessary?!

  The instructor continued, “Don’t be frightened, we did it so we could assess how to form everyone into their groups and which people needed extra training from the others. Looks like about twenty are still standing out of the one hundred four candidates this year. It's pretty impressive compared to last year, considering you all were fighting some of our officers. Now please wait just a few minutes. Let us remove the people from this building and into the medical wing to receive treatment.”

  About ninety more officers barged into the room, each carried a person and left. Everyone else just stood there, shocked. I can’t blame them, this was one of the most brutal entrance exams I have seen. But was all this necessary? Or does the corp have a different motive?

  The instructor started speaking again, “After viewing each of your contributions to the ambush, I will now tell you your group members and what room you are in. Please listen closely for your name being called, once you hear it you may leave for your room and meet your new team members for life! Alright, first group one, it will consist of Agnes Marjie, Clementine Zenon, Roland Erebos, and Hadly Turner. Please go to room one. Group 2 will have Serrena Li, Mithra Wallis, Richard Dena, and Erwin Schaefer. Please go to room 2. Group 3 has Phoebe Laudine, Katelina Veris, Riven Lem, and Kane Calder. Please go to room 3.”

  I headed to the hallway leading up to the rooms. I couldn’t quite hear who was in Group 4 or 5 though. I also couldn't figure out which group the flasher orange-eyed girl was in. I headed down the hallway until I saw a door with a huge number three written on it. I opened the door and headed inside. I was the last person to arrive.

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  In the middle of the room stood the yellow-eyed girl from before; her blond hair was in pigtails and she was wearing a yellow sweater with a blue skirt. To my right was a person with pale green eyes. He had a scar on his face and fairly long white hair for a boy. He was leaning against the wall and had a stern look on his face. To my left was another boy, he had short and messy black hair with crimson red eyes. Red-eyed Spectral’s gifts are related to physical matter. He had this menacing look on his face like he was ready to kill someone. He wore a black jacket with his arms crossed. He did not seem like a person I should mess with.

  The first person to greet me was the yellow-eyed girl from before, “Hi! Now that everyone has arrived, we should introduce ourselves! I will go first. My name is Phoebe and my gift is being able to replenish another person’s mana! Now who goes next?”

  Now I call that the one innocent person who has absolutely no idea what's going on and is way too optimistic. But she does seem like a nice person and her gift is pretty useful as a support role. The next to speak was someone with vivid green eyes, and I’m not entirely sure but I think he is the person from before but I couldn’t tell since it was too dark.

  “My name is Riven,” he said.

  “Anything else you want to add?” Phoebe asked.

  “I like ramen.”

  “Okay, so who’s gonna go next?”

  Since the red-eyed person didn’t seem like he was going to talk, I said, “My name is Kat, and I like takoyaki.”

  “Oooh, takoyaki sure is yummy! I like them too! Now finally, you with the red eyes, what's your name?” Phoebe asked.

  “My name is Kane, and I like mochi ice cream if you really want to know,” he said, annoyed

  “Now that everyone introduced themselves, let's get settled in our new dorm rooms. Just so you know, the girls will be sharing a dorm room with Group 4 and the boys will be sharing a dorm with the boys from Group 4.” Phoebe said.

  I grabbed my things and followed Phoebe to the girl’s dorm room. Inside were four beds and one bathroom for all of us to share. I picked the bed on the left side closest to the window and unpacked my stuff. I jumped on the bed and laid there. I was about to take a nap when I heard a huge bang.

  “Hey party people! What's going on?” someone shouted.

  I jolted up and looked at the door, the two ladies from group 4 barged into the room. There was a shorter girl with long, silky black hair. She had violet eyes and a small build. Towering over her was a girl with bright orange eyes with slightly shorter orange hair. She was clearly the type of person to party all night and probably the person who shouted.

  “And what might your names be?” I asked.

  “My name is Roxanne. And the person next to me is Kaede!” the girl with orange eyes blurted out.

  “That's such a beautiful name! What are your gifts?” Phoebe asked.

  “My gift is creating illusions of people,” Kaede whispered.

  “Thats such a cool gift!” Phoebe responded.

  “Mine is making flashbangs!” Roxanne said.

  “So you're the person who made that giant bang during the exam. Did you also take down all the ambushers?” Phoebe asked.

  “Nah, the one who took them down was another person in my team, his name is Axel. He has purple eyes but he can see the nerves of other people and take them down in one strike. But I don't know why he wasn’t affected by the flash bang; I have to ask about that later.”

  “Cool,” Phoebe said.

  “Guys, we should probably get some sleep, tomorrow we have a training activity and we should be well-rested for it,” I proposed.

  “Alright, let's go to sleep!” Roxanne shouted. “I call the shower first!”

  Thus began the race for who got to use the restroom first, and of course Roxanne used it first. I went second, and boy did that shower feel good. After I changed into my pajamas I plopped onto the bed ready to go to sleep. Maybe this place wasn’t all that bad. I wonder what Luka is up to right now; probably playing video games. I will text him tomorrow to see how he’s been without me. Before I knew it, I dozed off in my new bed.

  The next morning I woke up to the sounds of loud bangings, I looked up and saw Roxanne banging pots together.

  “Rise and shine everyone, time to get ready and go to training!” Roxanne shouted.

  “Stop the banging please, I can’t stand it,” Phoebe protested.

  “Only if you wake up!”

  The only choice we had was to wake up and get ready. The whole time I still felt asleep and couldn’t focus my mind on anything. I got dressed and went to the cafeteria. We were forced to sit with our groups to get to know each other more. Phoebe and I found Riven and Kane sitting at a nearby table. We walked over and plopped right down.

  “Do you know what we are going to be doing today?” I asked.

  “No I don’t, but you should hurry; you only have ten minutes until we have to be in the training room,” Riven said.

  As soon as I heard that, I started shoving the oatmeal down my throat. The food tasted pretty good, but I didn’t have the luxury to enjoy it today. After we finished, we rushed to the training room only to see Group 4 there as well. Roxanne and Kaede were there along with two other boys. One had gray-blond hair with purple eyes and average height. He must have been Axel. The other boy should be called Noah, he had messy ash-brown hair and was tall with red eyes. He reminds me of Luka.

  What surprised me the most was the person standing on the second floor bleachers. He was about six feet or taller with broad shoulders. He had messy raven black hair and was wearing a black hoodie with a purple tie tied to his wrist. He also had deep ocean teal eyes, and they were glaring directly at me. The moment I saw him, I knew it was Aiden, my older brother.