Chapter 2:The Test

The Procyonian leader, Apollo, was supposed to be an extremely powerful man. He was a war veteran during the age of the Cabal, like my father and has a lot of experience in battle. Being a Sage, he is obviously a magician. There are very few magicians in Nevareth. Many blame the lack of force training from a young age. Some also say that the power of the force is dying out, but either way, the race of the magicians is slowly dying out...

There are a few magicians that I personally knew, one of them was my mother. She was not the strongest magician that i have seen, but she is definitely the most artistic. She could make the stars appear in a cloudy night sky and even make the a castle out of colors. I had loved them when i was younger, but after she became ill, her magical powers had waned into almost nothing...

On my first day in the Procyonian camp, i was put through a few tests. The first test was done orally. A high ranking officer asked questions to the newcomers to find out their capabilities... and loyalty. I did not know how I had done in the first test, but they had told me to proceed to the next test, which was the test of skill. There were two camps set up for this test; the Force camp and the Physical camp. Every rookie (like me) had to go through both camps, where they would be rated skill wise from a scale of 0 to 10.

I knew I would get 1 in the force camp. I had never seen my own force before. All the people who can use the force are able to see their force visualize when they concentrate. I had tried concentrating before this, but nothing came. My mother tried coaching me when i was much younger,

"Close your eyes Zero, and think of something you hate. It can be anything, but make sure you truly hate it."

I was a kid. What could i possibly hate besides the boys next door who always picked on me. My brother was capable of visualizing his force. Whenever he did so, an icy cold feeling can be felt near him. It was like as though it was winter, but there was no snow, at least not yet. Much later, my brother had become so good with his force, he could make snow appear around him even in the hottest places.

But that was as far as he could go. He was not able to create any other force beside his frost aura. This is where magicians get their name. Magicians are capable of using and combining multiple forces to form one new force.

I learnt a little bit about combining forces from Fenrir during his experimentation of forces. I had seen how wonderful (and disastrous) it can be to combine forces.

"Lets put it this way mate, there are 4 main forces and loads o' sub forces. The 3 main forces are Water, Earth, Wind and Fire. Combinin' these forces with each other will' result in a sub force like Electric or Ice. I got Ice by combinin' Water and Wind and Electric by combinin' Wind with Earth. It's weird how they form, but once ye' actually think bout' it, it makes sense. I mean if you reduce the temperature of water, it freezes so you get ice. Cause friction with earth and you get static electricity."

Back in the force camp, an instructor had called me forward,

"Next, Blitz, Zero. Step forward please. Can you visualize your force?"
"No sir."
"Do you know anything about the force?"
"I have seen it before sir, but I can't do it myself."

The bearded instructor started laughing suddenly,

"You people really are as stupid as you look! Hahaha.... Listen up kid, and listen well, everyone in this universe has a force. It determines how they look and behave. The problem is, there are some people who are incapable of visualizing their force because they lack confidence in themselves. YOU can't visualize your force because you are weak mentally. But i need to do a test on you anyway so close your eyes and think of something you hate, something that you despise and wish it never existed."

I did as I was told... What did I think of? My parents... my brother... everyone whom I loved had left me... why? Why did they leave me one by one... I had wondered whether these created hatreds would help me visualize my force. Then I opened my eyes to see whether I had produced an aura of my force yet.

"You idiot! Why did you open your eyes!!! Concentrate you fool! Concentrate!!!"

I tried a few times, but without any success. I was not true to myself. I did not hate anything in my life. I was sad about my parents, but I didn't hate them for leaving me and my brother. There was no one I could blame for their deaths. My brother had taken care of me for so long. He was always there beside me. For him to leave is not wrong. It was his way of telling me that I needed to grow up, and in every way I am.

In the end, the instructor gave me a score of 0 upon 10. I wasn't disappointed. I knew I would get that score. Then I walked to the next camp, the Physical Camp. This one was much bigger and some screams and shouts could be heard from it. I walked into the camp and saw a magnificent arena. it was built for the Procyonian rookies to be tested as a gladiator in the ring and for the senior soldiers and officers to watch as entertainment and also to evaluate the skill of the rookie contesting.

Fortunately the battles held aren't against the other rookies. They were against monsters. All kinds of monsters were let out to be slain by the rookies. If the rookie is unable to handle the monster, the guards will help rescue the rookie. Failure in this camp would mean that I would not be able to join Procyon. I had heard from Fenrir, who had also followed me in joining Procyon, that a minimum of 10 points. Fenrir is already safe though. His skills in the force camp had out shined all the other rookies. The instructor had happily given him 10 upon 10 for his performance.

I was called into the camp by a guard. Fenrir followed behind me. We were given a short briefing by the instructor on the rules of the arena.

"Only a few simple rules boys, don't show your backs to the monsters, don't taunt back at the audience and don't even think about cheating."

Some of the rookies were caught cheating. They would sneak into the monsters cage and injure it or give some drug to make it weaker and enable them to easily slay the monster. The punishment was to be immediately excluded from joining the Procyon army.

A short while had passed before my name was called out.

"You'll do fine mate, I know you better than ye' even know yer'self," said Fenrir before i stepped into the arena.

A guard near the gate had given me a choice of weapons. There were blades, staffs great swords, bows and even maces. I chose the blade and took two of them. The guard stared at me for a while and said, "proceed into the arena. I hope you know how to use those blades well kid. Most of the rookies who choose two blades end up failing miserably..."

Yep, real words of encouragement from an anonymous guy.

So i stepped into the arena. The crowd was huge. There were so many Procyonians gathered I was actually frozen for a few moments. Then out of nowhere a loud voice booms around the arena.

"Fellow Procyonians! Our next rookie is Zero Blitz! He will face the most terrible monster of Blizzard Ice, the Shades!!!"

Shades? That was all? I could take care of those easily.

"Let out the Shades! Let the fight begin!"

First there was 2 shades appearing on the other side of the arena... then 5.... then 10.... then 20! 20 shades!!! I tried to remain calm but not for long.

2 Shades had already reached my flanks and were already going to attack me. I leaped up while spinning, creating a blade helix slicing the 2 Shades in half. There were more coming. This was my chance to charge at them.

I stabbed on blade into the first Shade while dodging the slash of the another one. In my mind, I was counting down how many were left. 16....15....10....5....2....1...

The last Shade was remaining. I was tired and exhausted by this time. The Shade lunged right at my face with his soul sword. Everything turned slow at that moment... The i dodged and saw the Shade's blade fly right past my face, missing by inches. Then, with almost lighting quick speed, I obliterated the Shade into dust.

There was a load cheer from the audience. They had applauded my skill. I had felt so happy at that moment... happy that i was appreciated.

"Very well done Zero Blitz! Superb performance! As expected from the son of a legend... 10 over 10!", said the instructor after i had left the ring. He knew my father... then again, which war veteran didn't.....

"Nice work mate! Knew you would handle them easily!", said Fenrir.

He gave me a pat on the back before leaving for his turn into the arena. I was about to make my to the stands to watch Fenrir perform before a messenger had arrived bringing me a message.

"Zero Blitz, Lord Gairyu would like to meet you."

Meet me? Who was this 'Lord Gairyu'? Was I in trouble? I did not know, but I would just have to find out now wouldn't I?