Of Ashes and Wind

Exams

Phoenix dressed in well-worn boots, dark trousers, light-armor that her father had made for her, and a pair of twin swords on each side. The brown leather for gloves were pulled taut. At her back waist was her good luck charm.

An old hunting knife.

"Alright, now that we're done with the written exams, we'll proceed shortly to the practical portion of the exam." The proctor exclaimed, they were at the face of a cliff looking down at the beach. Phoenix looked left and right, they were going five at a time for this one and none of her friends were in the particular group. "As you've noticed, how you cooperate with those around you is up to yourself. Just keep in mind that your individual performance is what counts the most – how you perform is your ultimate goal."

Phoenix took in the obstacle course while the proctor droned on.

"In the water is a magic stone for each of you, the intent is to make it down, retrieve one, and make it back up this cliff side."

She noticed a movement in the sand, subtle enough to miss if you weren't paying attention. There was at least one fight guaranteed through all of this.

The proctor shot off a loud noise from the edge of his wand, there were a few more instructors that were assisting too that were scattered along the cliffside. Phoenix wondered if her mother had willingly bowed out of proctoring the entrance exams for her daughter's sake.

Before Phoenix could get her start, the rocks at her feet encased themselves around her own and three other examinees. The perpetrator quickly scaled along the cliffside through the use of some earth magic to keep him steady while sliding down.

Phoenix sighed and focused on her feet, the training she put in with imbuing magic in her limbs kicked in and she was able to break out with relative ease.

One of the three was able to manipulate the earth in time and began climbing down the cliff, while the other two struggled slightly.

Phoenix looked down at the ground.

And then jumped off into a perfect dive. She heard the gasp from the other examinees and she locked eyes with the jerk that tried to delay the others at the start. Once she got close enough, she held her arms out wide and produced a strong enough wind that slowed her descent enough for Phoenix to simply land on the beach.

As soon as she landed did two pairs of tentacles try wrapping around her knees. The sand kraken was a well proliferated monster amongst the beaches of Brilux. Phoenix always wondered what happened to these monsters when they came around. She knew now that the Institution kept them around so that they could give something for the students to fight.

She wondered what would be waiting in the water for her too.

With both swords drawn, Phoenix made quick precise slices at the tentacles and began running across the beach.

The mouths of several sand krakens revealed itself – it made sense suddenly why the other proctors refused to stand on the beach.

This whole beach was a giant trap.

Phoenix concentrated on making sure her foot didn't fall into the razor-sharp mouth. Her blue eyes landed on the ocean water. While running across the beach and focusing on not losing her foot to one of these monsters, Phoenix felt the magic from the Ethereal Ocean. She used her twin swords as a medium to focus her magic, that much was apparent when Phoenix waved both of her swords in a motion that pulled the ocean up to the deepest part of the beach. With a great jump and a boost from a bit of wind magic, Phoenix missed the tide that swelled in and pulled a majority of the sand krakens out to the water.