Exams

Waking up at five am, I put on jeans, sneakers, and a baggy pink t-shirt. I went to the blacksmith store and went in. "I was expecting you…" Waving at him, I grabbed my armor and left out of the door with a jingle. No time to fit it on me. I need to go to sleep.

Walking through the busy streets of food and markets as a pleasant smell wafted through the air from the extremely fancy restaurants that probably cost an entire fortune to eat at. Going at a light jog, I finally reached the entrance to the very blinding sight of a white and gold castle that was, in reality, just a place for people to get tested to enter the academy.

Going all the way through all the security and things, I arrived at my dark dorm room and slept more.

….

After sleeping, it was going to be a very busy day with the battle royal taking place first in a wild arena infested with beasts that were power rank and above only. But are limited to virtue rank.

Anything above that would be unfair and students would be at risk of dying. I put on Under-armor clothes, then put on the armor with blood-red edges. Putting them on my shins, forearms, and chest, I left outside of my dorm room with both of my swords, just in case.

Running through the hallway, chatters and students were going down the hallway. I kept walking down the hallway and down the stairs and into the school. Looking around, I went outside of the school and went through the shops and the colorful places. To get to the arena. The business was really heavy because the merchants knew that there would be plenty of people crossing through this way.

It smelled very good, but I needed to get to the arena and register. It was a bright, early morning sunny day. Since it was so early, there were going to be warmups to make sure that we can fight to our full ability during the entire wild battle royal.

The arena wasn't even where the battle royal would take place. It would take place in a forest where there were plenty of beasts and other things to maneuver around other than just people. Walking through the grand doors of the arena, I put on my most serious look and walked up to the counter, and showed my ID.

A pretty brown-haired lady with glasses which are very rare and blue eyes, another rare trait, greeted me. "Hello! Registering for the battle royal?" I nodded. She pushed three papers to me and I read them all. They essentially said the same thing, but covered specifics so that no loopholes would become found and exploited.

So the school couldn't get sued if one of us died, even though there will be multiple teachers watching all of us and on standby. They all said, If you get killed or severely injured, it's not our problem.

I signed them all quickly and went to the next place, a booth, so all of our equipment could be checked for anything above virtue ranked to make sure it wasn't a pay-to-win scenario. This time there was a long line of two hundred people that were all waiting anxiously for their turn so they could enter the arena and finally be debriefed on how to win the battle royal.

And how to pass the test and why there was such a unique setting this year. I could see the curiousness on the test in everybody's eyes, the jittery excitement of so many schools coming together.

Why was it schoolwide this time, anyway? Were they trying to compete? I'm confused.

From my knowledge, there are five schools coming today. Each one is almost on par with our Relix academy.

Kolet academy Hyliem academy Forthrot academy Lockot academy Tolor academy. I once wondered why all of these big academies have such weird and foreign names. It's because each one of them was founded so long ago that the language has changed so much that the names sound odd.

We were all separated by our schools. Our school uses black and white variations of uniforms Kolet red and white Hyliem blue and white Forthrot navy green and white Lockot uses aqua and white Tolor uses a purple and white.

Every school has its specialty in what they do. Kolet academy produced the greatest strategists Hyliem created, the greatest Hacht uses Forthrot created, the best Knights Lockot academy created the best long-range users Tolor academy created the greatest leaders.

All the academies play a very important role in making the kingdom have a great next generation, but apparently, our kingdom has gotten soft and now has a weaker generation that's not used to war and tough training.

Looking over to the line right next to ours was the Hyliem. They were going crazy in the line.

Of course, Relix was in a perfect line, and we were quiet. Kind of boring. Eventually, they shifted their attention to our line, which wasn't a good idea. "Hey! I heard all of you hid during the Lokust attack! Is it true all of you were too $#$%! To face them?!" they said, laughing their arses off.

"Is it true that your #@!$%^$ traitor of a headmaster got killed BY A STUDENT! Goes to show that your academy ISN'T the greatest!" My ears perked up at that statement."hahaha!!" They all started laughing. Finally, a brave student stood up to them.

"I bet you ugly %$#@#$ couldn't kill a single person if they killed the little dogs that you call parents." They got a lot angrier than the students in our line, so they all started to attack the student. "Oh, you wanna go?" He said, putting his foot up and stepping directly on one of their chests, knocking them down completely.

They engaged in a bare-knuckle brawl and the student came out victorious after wiping his nose and spitting out blood on one of the students. The student fell on the floor. They completely messed up the line. The students in line caught him. "Careful, he's a hero."

This is why you can't leave so many students completely unattended. The line was hundreds of students long, but luckily it was going by pretty fast, but the fight caused a disturbance in the line's flow and slowed down a bit. Walking around the mess, I stood in line just as quietly as before.

I continued walking. I could see the end of the long line finally. I was falling asleep just standing in this line. "Sapphire, sword-fighting and hand-to-hand combat, right?" The lady at the front desk said. I nodded. She gave me an ID that I immediately used to enter the prepping room for the battle royal.

Their people were changing into their armor and chatting. I already had my armor on, so I did not need it. I looked around. I found Leona. She turned around and saw me, too. Finally, a familiar face to recognize. We walked toward each other. She had her armor on, too.

It had a bright silver finish and runes that looked like lightning-struck veins in the armor. It was slight armor king of like mine, but full.

I

I'll probably order more armor after this. After all, this was a rushed job. I still wonder how he might have fashioned armor that perfectly fit without measuring. "Nervous?" I asked her. She nodded.

There was something I did forget my mask. But I wasn't going to wear that to a "friendly." Tournament. I-m w-o-r-r-i-e-d t-h-e-s-e s-t-u-d-en-t-s w-i-l-l t-e-a-m u-p. "No need to worry. It's not like they can defeat us if they do," I said calmly. She nodded. I wasn't so sure she believed me. A big door opened. It was very, very bright. I shielded my eyes.

I heard a crowd of people roaring. Everybody had the same reaction. Everyone walked out, the screams and roars became much louder than eventually the entire crowd was screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs to show their encouragement and support for their siblings' friends or child's respective school and their child.

There might have been at least two hundred thousand people there. It was insanely loud. Walking through the stadium, I looked up and there were GIGANTIC tv screens above the crowd so they could see the entire battle royal. Most of the schools were waving and basking in the glory and fame while our school was just droning on in silence as we walked through the open dry space in the enormous coliseum-style stadium.

At the end of the other side of the stadium was an exit that was all forest. You could see the gigantic trees poking at the top of the already insanely big arena that would host the activities that would take place over three weeks.

Which would be the end of the month. Finally exiting the big bright arena, there was suddenly dark and contrasted shadows cast over everything. The green trees had plenty of leaves to cast shadows and make rustling sounds.

This makes me wish I cut my hair because I know there will be a lot and I mean a lot of things getting stuck in my hair and messing with me. No alliances or anything. Everybody is your enemy. That's how solo battle royal works.

The five entrances every school went through led to entirely new places, which made it even more difficult. The new headmaster stood in front of the entire school. Yelling."No attacking each other for the first five hours! This forest is five hundred miles long! You cannot escape it until the test ends!

Everybody that doesn't pass out or get defeated within two days passes! But the contest will continue until there is one winner, which stands at the pinnacle of all the schools! Who will be named the most powerful junior in this country!

I know for a fact that not every one of you single one of you won't make it! But I expect 80% of us to win! And I expect a number Like that! Remember!"

Our school motto is, here it comes. "WE WIN TO CONQUER! WE WIN TO DOMINATE! WE WIN FOR OUR PRIDE!"