Chapter 13

The day for the commencement of the graduation ceremony had arrived. A week of harsh preparations, training both physically and mentally, finally passed. Now was the time to show the fruits of their training. The cadets in their groups learnt their teammates abilities and formulated strategies based on them. All except...

"I can't believe he didn't train with us for a single second! Oh my God! We are so fucked! So so fucked!" Fred wailed as he paced around.

"Come on. It's not going to be that bad. At least she trained a bit with you!" Su tried to comfort him.

"You are not any better! You only met me for sparring matches and even missed some training days while saying you were busy! We have no strategy! No backup plans! Nothing! We are so dead!" He sat on a bench and sighed. Su chuckled as she rubbed her hair.

"Will you shut your yapping! I can hear you all the way from the dorms." Kris hissed as he walked up to the two of them.

"Hey Kris" Su greeted with a smile.

"Sup" He responded.

"How did your training go?"

"Swell I must say" He clenched his fist with a smile.

"Swell? Swell!? Your going off on your own might cost us much you know!" Fred challenged.

"Keep it down. You want to risk telling the other groups that we don't have a strategy?" Kris furrowed his eyebrows at Fred. He gulped as the thought dawned on him.

"Besides, not having a particular strategy is a strategy on its own. It gives room for flexibility." Kris added.

"Having one gives room for coordination which is necessary for team work. But, let's see how it goes, okay" Su responded as she dragged both their hands and headed towards the medical block.

ELIZABETH WAS SITTING in her office as she sipped some tea. She wore a white double breasted suit and had a white knee length coat unbuttoned resting on her shoulder. She was in her thoughts when there was a knock on the door. The guards ushered in a familiar figure.

"Colonel Louis. So glad you could join us for this event." She spoke with a calm yet angry tone as she rested her back on her chair.

"Ouu... ominous. Here I thought you'd be glad to see me." Louis smiled as he could see the death stare she was giving him. He was in a black turtle neck on a white suit trouser with a long unbuttoned black coat on it.

"Commander Jayson wouldn't be joining us?"

"He has 'THAT' to do. So I'll be representing him."

"Perfect." Elizabeth replied as she walked closer to Louis.

"Before you return to France, you'll explain to me why you let James go after Captain Edward without my approval. Everything went to shit and somebody is to blame. Isn't that right... Colonel Louis." Her eyes glowed as she stared at him. He looked at her and smiled.

"For now, we have a graduation ceremony to attend." She walked out of the office. Louis sighed as he followed.

The participating cadets all had to do a mandatory test to check if their cores were stable. They were injected with some nano-bots which basically monitored their heart rates, durability, etc. (in gaming terms, their health bar). After that, they were given a black box and a pocket case which contained two capsules. They moved in straight lines before breaking into their various groups and walked in formation. There were six groups with three cadets per group. It was a parade with soldiers marching, bands, floats etc. The cadets walked to the front of the A block training hall.  A podium rose from the ground and Elizabeth walked onto it. All the cadets stood at attention and saluted. Everywhere went dead silent.

"My dearest cadets, are you ready?"

"Sir yes sir!"

"Then, I officially announce the start of the Graduation Ceremony!" She waved her right hand and everyone roared! The bands played with more ferocity and the hype of the moment beamed. The cadets assembled in the A block training room. There stood a man with a ballot box.

"Greetings to you our dear cadets. I'd like to point out a few things before we get this on the way. First of all the graduation ceremony is an individual examination of your abilities. It is based on two different segments. The first is called the Threshold of Failure which comprises the first two stages. The second being the Amalgamation of the Strong. Of course that's the final stage. Those who can't cross the threshold of failure would be forced to retake the graduation ceremony next year with added responsibilities. You have a maximum time of thirty six hours to complete the first two stages. As you have been told, only after you succeed in one are you given details of the next. To follow that proceeding, I'll be revealing the task of the first stage." The man narrated as he pulled out an envelope.

"Tchh... It's always with the cheesy name" Kris hissed silently which made Fred and Su giggle a little.

"Shush," Francis, who was in the group beside them, called out. Kris rolled his eyes while Francis grinned at him.

The man continued, " The first task. We have seven dungeons, prisons if you will, underneath this A block training center. Each dungeon contains a demon. The task is only passed if you can successfully retrieve its core and place it in the black box. You would be picking numbers from these ballot boxes which would signify the dungeon you will battle in. You noticed that you were given two capsules each. They are healing capsules that can return you to maximum physical fitness. Use them wisely. We have done everything we want to make sure you come out of this alive.  Without wasting much time, I'll ask the six group leaders to come forward and pick a number from the ballot box." The man narrated.

"Group leaders?" Kris whispered to Su and Fred.

"Yeah, Su got that covered." Fred replied as Su stepped forward.

"Hmmmm... I somehow don't like this."

"It was the obvious choice. Top of the set, got us together and frankly I feel more comfortable with her handling that position of responsibility."

"Wuss..."

"You know you weren't particularly around for any discussion concerning this right..."

Kris sighed as he did not utter a word after.

The six group leaders dipped their hands into the ballot boxes and picked a number. This was to determine their group as well as the dungeon they'd enter. After the process, we had the group leaders with their group numbers as follows. Salim of group 1, Raul of group 2,  Sarah of group 3, Amr of group 4, Francis of group 6 and lastly Su of group 7. The ground they stood on began to lower for about 20km before stopping. They were at the center of seven large gates. The fifth gate gradually closed up.

"Alright then, Begin!" The man ordered and every group ran into their respective gates.

BACK AT THE BASE, Elizabeth and Louis were seated in her office as a big screen lowered to seal the door. It came on and was divided into six channels.

"The interesting prospects for this year are Salim, Su, Amr and Kris." She muttered as she passed a folder to Louis.

"Salim Dan Ali? The Nigerian kid right?" Louis asked.

"Yeah. Deities stormed the country after the demons destroyed most of their shrines two years ago, defeated all the demons and sealed up the portals that appeared there. They said they had lost faith in the humans to protect what they had left behind. Hence total take over of the country." Elizabeth narrated.

"Ah yes. But I heard that the Babalo...Bobalaw... uggh, the traditional priests were able to calm the deities into forgiving them or so."

"Less of forgiving more of giving them time to prove themselves as strong enough to guard their sacred grounds. Nigerians were to produce champions to fight that of the deities. Hence why the Dan Ali's used all their wealth and resources to get a slot for Salim in our training program."

"What's that? Some ragnarok type shit?" Louis chuckled.

"The deities were quite serious though. I heard the god of thunder and lightning sent a projection of himself to France to meet Commander Jayson." He added

"Really?"

"Apparently to warn him not to interfere directly. Nigeria is theirs and if we sent any foreigner as aid, They'd take over the entire Earth."

"Considering how easy they cleared even white source demons that attacked the country, It's safe to say the best we can do is help train the prospective Nigerian candidates. A global conflict with them might spell doom for us." Elizabeth sighed.

"Moving on. Su Ming, daughter of Lu Ming. Quite a tragedy what happened to them."

"Lu was a good friend and a strong fighter. But he had to be de-extracted due to the imbalance that occured with his core. To think after the successful surgery, a blood moon would claim his life in France."

"It was a failure on our path to not have prevented the demons from heading deeper into civilian protection domes. By the time I got there, Lu was already dead, he managed to take the demon with him though." Louis clenched his fist. There was a brief silence before Louis moved to the next file in the folder.

"Amr Mohammad. Interesting fellow. He has potential to be the next Egyptian genius fighter. Just like Oumar."

"Amr is strong but too reliant on his source energy. With that type of attitude, I really don't see him going far. Personally I don't see him as anything special but his stats are good enough, so I am waiting to see his progress."

"Harsh much? Finally...Ohh, Kris. The real mystery." Louis lifted his eyes to meet Elizabeth's death stare before looking back at Kris' file.

"You could pretend to hide the want to off my head" Louis rolled his eyes.

"No"

"Sheesh...Huh? It only says Kris here."

"Not much is known about him yet aside from him being a kid who was probably separated from his family during the blood moon twelve years ago. He has no memory of it. The only family-like person he knows is an old man called Mr. Darwin. He's the host of James as such a red source. So far he hasn't exhibited any of James abilities or personality traits thus we can say they are their own people and James is just a source of power to him."

"I heard James has manifested himself on Kris. Wouldn't that be an unfair advantage?"

"I doubt. So far it's been intentional. Plus James wouldn't try and involve himself with this. He'd rather let Kris handle it on his own."

"Yeah he is that type of person. I guess this will be fun to watch."

BACK AT THE dungeon, Group 1 ran for a few Kilometers before entering a large room. Lights around the room turned on and revealed a yellow source three headed wolf. It opened its eyes and the bloodlust could be felt in the entire room. The group was stunned and even took a few steps back as their breathing got heavy. They calmed themselves soon after.

"So this is a demon." Salim muttered to himself with a smile.

The chains on the demon were released. It took a deep breath in and out. It howled and from its chest, a yellow energy was released and it coursed round its body till it formed a body armor. Energy concentrated on its right hand and a club with spikes was formed. Salim released his energy. A sky blue cloak formed around him. His teammates released their energies and formed cloaks, the one to his left a green source while that to his right, a yellow source. The wolf spun its club around its right hand and dashed straight for Salim.

The two teammates jumped backwards while Salim took a stance called dambe. Dambe is a traditional Hausa martial arts stance whereby the weaker hand is lifted in the air and used as a shield  while the stronger hand is kept closer to the body and acts as a spear to deal devastating blows. The dominant leg is kept behind and leaned on (It could be used to also attack and even for defense sometimes) while the less dominant leg is used to lead your steppings. Salim formed an energy shield on his left hand and the wolf struck at it. The wolf began to push against Salim causing him to crouch more on his right leg. The other heads of the wolf formed energy blasts from their mouths but as they were about to blast it, Salim's shield flashed, blinding the wolf. Immediately after, his two teammates dropped from above squeezing their hands together and struck the other heads, like a sledgehammer into the wolf, from above causing them to bite down on their blasts which exploded in their mouths. Salim charged energy on his right hand and jabbed the demon's neck, its guts and its neck again before all three teammates placed their palms on the demon and blasted it away. It spun in the air and crashed into a wall. Blood and smoke fell from its mouths as it staggered to walk out of the wall. Each head spat out blood and teeth.

It growled as it charged its club before dashing at them. Once again, the  two teammates jumped backwards. As the demon reached Salim, It changed its direction and headed towards the green source. As he noticed it, he began firing energy blasts which it was tanking as it kept pushing forward. Salim closed in behind the demon and attempted to strike it. the left head of the demon turned to face him and shot out an energy blast. Salim struck the blast but it exploded pushing him some distance back as he landed on his feet and dragged a bit on the ground. The demon increased its speed blitzing the green source teammate. As it attempted to strike him, an energy beam from the yellow source teammate came from behind it. The right head of the demon turned to swallow the attack while the demon struck at the green source who lifted his hands to guard against it but had the bones on his right hand shattered on impact.

He was launched a few meters in the air before crash landing on those broken hands. He screamed out in pain. The demon rushed at the yellow source and as it closed in, Salim, with incredible speed punched the left head which smashed into the middle head and finally into the right head before its entire body was launched into a wall. Salim and the yellow source regrouped with their teammate.

"Where are your energy capsules?" The yellow source asked.

"Shirt... right pocket." He forcefully called out.

The yellow source reached for his packet and gave him an energy pill to take. His broken bones were healed and he breathed a sigh of relief. The demon walked out of the wall, this time infuriated. The side heads began to howl loudly. The sound began to affect Salim and his teammates as they held their heads in pain. Salim's eyes glowed as he jabbed his fingers into the ground creating a dome to shield his team. The sound was still affecting them till he twisted his hand rightwards making it completely soundproof. The demon gathered energy in its middle head and blasted a large beam at the dome. The dome was resisting it as the blast seemed to get heavier. Suddenly the dome was shattered by the demon's club which smashed Salim in the head sending him flying into the wall.

The teammates were in shock and soon after, the demon landed the club on the yellow source sending him into the ground. While doing that, the other heads shot beams at the green source who created a blast from his feet launching him into the air to dodge the beams. They shot three more at him in the air but he created a blast in front of  him to dodge the first one, landed and rolled to his right to dodge the second. Then created energy spheres in his hand to resist the third. The demon zoomed to his right side.

"It's quick" He shrieked before it whacked him with the club into a wall. Three large blue spheres came at the demon. It spun it's club to counter it but on contact, they exploded stunning it a bit. Salim zoomed as he struck the demon in the guts. All the heads coughed out blood. He punched the demon four times in the chest region with the fourth shattering its chest plate. The left head of the demon bit his right hand and threw him to the side while the demon's right head created a blast and shot at him. Salim dragged his left hand forward and formed a shield to tank the blast. As he landed, The demon's heads began to howl again causing serious headaches to Salim making him fall to his knees. The demon closed in and struck at Salim but he lifted his left hand to form the shield again. Despite the headaches from the continuous howling of the wolf, Salim's eyes glowed, he stood to his feet and retook the dambe stance. He used the shield to deflect the club sideways. His index and middle finger of his left hand glowed and he struck the neck of the middle head and its eyes rolled back dropping the club in the process. The remaining two heads shot energy blasts at Salim which he blocked with the shield. It was a bit of struggle as they kept increasing the size and intensity of the blast.

"Now!" Salim roared and his two teammates dashed with incredible speed and stabbed their hands through the necks of the other two heads stopping their energy blasts in the process. Blood splattered all over them as they dug their hands deeper. Salim with his right hand arched like a tigers claw, stabbed into the chest of the demon through the shattered chest plate point. The middle head awoken and roared in pains. Salim dragged his hand out, pulling out blood, thorn muscles and bones. The demon's voice sank until it made no more sound. The teammates removed their hands from the necks of the other two heads and the demons lifeless body fell to the ground. Salim and the others fell to their bums as they panted.

"Did you get it?" The green source asked. Salim opened his right hand and there was the demon's core. He brought out the black case from his pocket and kept it there.

"Group 1 have successfully completed their first task. Making them the second group to complete the first stage." A voice sounded around them.

"Second?" Salim questioned in his mind. The ground began to elevate, taking the team out of the dungeon.

BACK AT ELIZABETH'S office. Louis applauded the efforts of Salim's group.

"He covered for his inexperience with leadership. Although his group is too dependent on him, I like the fact that they communicate without necessarily talking to each other." Louis mentioned while clapping.

"They just had a taste of what a real battle entails. They were sloppy and their game plan relied on the silent orders of Salim. When he was taken down, the others lacked the initiative of what to do next which basically led to critical moments. Stoic strategies won't take you far in this line of work and this first stage will instill that into their bodies." Elizabeth commented.

"You could try to fake being impressed, you know." Louis sighed.

"Hmph"

"Speaking of which, The first group to finish was Group 4. They were extremely lucky. Although, I still wonder why a yellow source genome was put in the examination. Amr even let his teammate handle it. I was looking forward to seeing his skills"

"There'd be plenty of opportunities for that. Besides, because the genomes are easy to kill, extracting their cores proves difficult. If you kill the demon before you extract its core, the core breaks. As easy as they won, so also could they have failed."

A red alarm rang out and the screen segment of group 3 enlarged. Sahra's group had defeated the demon but a teammate was unconscious with blood all over the face, Sahra was impaled to a wall and the last member was holding a broken demon's core.

"Ah shit. Even though they defeated the demon, the goal was to retrieve the core. It's rather unfortunate that they failed with many casualties." Louis commented.

"That just shows what they amounted to. The medical corps has already been dispatched." Elizabeth hissed. Louis sighed again when he noticed that group 7 were yet to even hit the main dungeon room.

"Why is the seventh dungeon so far in?" he questioned.

"Have you forgotten so soon? It's where THAT demon is located."

"You don't mean..."

"Precisely."

"Interesting. A strong part of being a source soldier is luck and many a time, you end up finding yourself in very difficult matchups. I can't wait to see how this battle unfolds."

GROUP 7 FINALLY arrived at the main dungeon gate. Su opened the door and a wild green energy flowed. The lights turned on and they saw the demon meditating as its energy rose and swirled round it. The demon had a dragon head with two long whiskers, a very muscular, broad and scarred humanoid body with claws on its hands and scales all over its body (Basically a dragonewt). It opened its eyes to look at them, then it smiled. The chains on its body broke free and it stood at four meters tall. It cracked its neck. Below its chest, green energy spiraled, spread across its body forming an armor and out burst a calm flow of energy around it.

"Wow, talk about a whole package for us." Kris smiled as he could feel his heart beat with excitement. Su burst out her golden-rod energy, her eyes glowed yellow and she took a 'Pu Bu' stance ( Called drop or flat stance). Fred on the other hand was fear stricken. He took a few steps back as he fell to his bum. He could feel the energy emanating from the dragonewt, deep within his bones.

"Don't waver Fred. Believe in your training." Su said as she turned to look at him with a smile. Kris gave him a 'pathetic' glance before looking forward, releasing his energy and taking a boxing stance. Fred clenched his fist, stood back up shakingly, released his green energy and took a boxing stance.

"Are you my new executioners?" A voice sounded in their heads. They all widened their eyes.

"It can talk?" Fred questioned.

"I speak directly to your minds and your brains interpretes it to what you understand."

"Thanks for giving us the honor of conversation." Su responded

"It doesn't matter. I'll do away with you all as I did to the others." It said calmly before stomping its right foot onto the ground and the energy around the room dispersed leaving only its shear bloodlust.

"She'll take point, when you guys see a chance, you strike." Su spoke out. Suddenly Kris dashed at the demon and it dashed at him. They met in the center and clashed their right fists spreading out red and green energy across the room.

"You snooze, you lose Su!" Kris smirked.

"Tch..." Su hissed as she followed suit. She placed her hands on Kris's shoulder using it as a lever to lift herself, spun in the air as she gathered energy on her leg then struck at the demon's face but it blocked the kick with its left hand without flinching. Kris followed with an energy sphere on his left hand and blasted the demon. Su followed suit by creating two energy spheres with both hands and blasted the demon which created a smoke screen. Both She and Kris jumped back to create some distance. Out of the smoke screen, The demon launched at Su covering the distance almost instantaneously and struck with its claws. She furrowed her eyebrows and used her left hand to deflect its strike to the ground while she backed up a bit. Its hand sunk deep into the ground and as it tried to remove it, Kris was above it and he used his right heel to wack its head into the ground. The demon rose its head quickly with a smile and dragged it's hand out of the ground with a sphere which it shot at Kris. Kris, in mid air, replied with an energy sphere of his own and they struggled a bit as they pushed their blasts against each other. Su dashed three steps to meet the demon while gathering energy in her palms. At the third step, the energy spiked and she blasted the demon into the wall. Kris holding the two colliding spheres, pointed it towards the demon then called out to Fred. Fred, who had been lost in the action, snapped and charged a large energy sphere, basically one his full height. As Kris landed, He took a deep breath, gathered more energy into his own sphere and shot it forward which pushed the demon's sphere along into the wall the demon had crashed in.  Fred launched his at the demon also thereby creating a large explosion at the demon's location. Kris and Su regrouped with Fred.

"Impressive. I guess I'll have to take this seriously." The demon walked out of the smokescreen created by the blasts. The energy at its right side had dispersed exposing its armor which had a small scorch mark. It dusted the armor and smiled as the energy reformed covering the exposed area.

"A thick energy, with a thicker armor... then definitely with an even thicker skin." Kris laughed.

"A guard type? Are fucking kidding me." Fred muttered as sweat dripped from his forehead.

"She sure pulled the short end of the stick." Su smiled as a cold shiver ran down her spine.

The demon summoned a large broadsword and rested it across its shoulder. Its eyes glowed with an evil smirk.

"This is the end... For you all."