Strong

I walked around for some time, confused at where to go. The people spoke in a dialect that I barely understood so I was hesitant to ask them. Eventually, I arrived at the center of the city. There was a map and I spotted the army headquarters. I began making my way through the streets and the deeper I went, the worse the living conditions became. There were leaks of sewage and rats roaming the streets. It was just like back home. Finally, I arrived at the army headquarters. It was a massive stone building with 3 towers and a tall gate. Besides it however was the enlistment stand.

I walked over to the man and said, "I want to enlist in the army". The man glanced at me and pulled up his pen and board.

"Age?" he asked.

"Um, 23" I said. I was lying but I needed to be enlisted. he noted it down and asked,

"Name?"

"Lorte" I said. Once again I was lying, I had no idea what my birth name was.

"You from the south?" he asked. I nodded. "Come with me" he said. He opened the gate to the main building and we began walking through. The interiors looked grandiose, they were unlike anything I'd seen before. We walked through a long hallway and ended up through the back of the building. "We're gonna have to test you, complete this course in 3 minutes". It was an obstacle course where you had to climb and do other things. I nodded and walked to the beginning. "Start!" he yelled. I ran and ducked under the board. There was a hole right after which I narrowly dodged. Next there was a wall. I jumped up and climbed it swiftly then ran upto the next area. I had to swing on some ropes. I gripped onto the first and used the momentum to go onto the second. My hand felt burnt but I kept going to the end. I then had to slide down a ramp which had spikes I had to dodge. I slid but my shirt got caught up on one. I yanked it off and leaped onto the next platform. I had to jump on top of some pillars. This was the last one. I jumped it easily.

The man clapped and said, "Well done, now to the next test". I stared at him shocked but accepted it. We went back in the building into a room. It had several desks and chairs. "Sit on any chair" he said handing me a paper and pen. "If you get more than 50% you pass this test". My heart dropped. It was a knowledge test about the city. "Start" he said. I skimmed the questions knowing I didn't know the answers. I wrote random answers then handed it in. He looked at it and then looked back at me disappointed.

"Now for your last test, what weapon do you use?" he asked.

"A sword" I responded. It was my first true answer. By now I was decent at it as I'd been practising it for I think 5 or 6 years.

"Ok, Wait here" He said leaving the room. After about 5 minutes he came back with a man who towered over me. "You'll be sparring him" he said. I gulped but nodded. He took us out into another area which had ring. He threw us both a wooden sword. Whoever forfeits first loses. He looked strong