The Grey Spirited

A Trial of Instinct (Not in order)

This is just a chapter I accidentally uploaded which was meant for later. But due to demand of some of my friends, I decided to keep it but set it on Privacy Mode.

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An orange graduate wearing a jester outfit was holding a staff and standing on a floating cloud seemed to in charge of this test. There are balloons floating around the room.

The graduate explains to everyone,

"As you see there are balloons set around the room. They are filled with many random bluffs such as dreams of your childhood. But don't take it easy as I have set some other surprises. Your challenge is to get me off this cloud. Simple."

This task proved difficult for the novices as he constantly dodges their attacks. and uses his staff to toss balloons at them. It is soon revealed that the surprises were in fact, knives and chainsaws. But something else is soon realized. The 'dreams' hidden in the balloons were in fact each person's dreams as well as their worst nightmares.

Miko's balloon burst into streams of pink ribbons. Shiro glanced over to see her face frozen in fear as endless tears were wept.

Shiro's balloon burst into a million shards of broken glass bottles. As soon as Kimiko wiped her tears, she glared at Shiro to see her trembling. She clasped her mouth as if she was trying to hold in her sickness. But it was already shown on her face. She was as pale as a sheet.

After seemingly hours of no success, the graduate proclaimed "This is getting boring. Let's make things more interesting."

He scanned through the crowd then pointed to Sky.

"You, will have the great opportunity to face me in a challenge!"

Sky nervously queried "What...challenge?"

"It's simple. We take turns bursting a balloon. If one of us gets four bluffs, they lose."

Sky thought this through carefully.

The graduate added "But still, an opportunity is an opportunity. It's up to you if you want to take it or not."

Storm yells "Oi! Sky, think this through! You still have to dodge the weapons. Let's face facts, you're a midget! You have no chance!"

However Sky had already made up his mind.

"I accept your challenge."

The graduate smiled and brought the balloons in front of them as they began the challenge. Sky closed his eyes as he gone into deep thinking.

"Which one? Think!"

But suddenly he froze. No one knew if he was nervous or stressed. He just...froze.

Then for a split second, Shiro saw Sky smirk.

He threw one of his daggers at a red balloon which burst into a millions of other knives spurring towards Sky. He held out his hand slowly in the flurry of knives.

Miko exclaimed "Is he trying to get his arm sliced off?"

Soon the great cascade of sharp knives surrounded Sky completely.

"SKY!!!" Storm yelled in absolute terror of his friend being shredded up violently.

As the knives disappeared, the audience gasped with astonishment. Sky, who was surprisingly unscathed from head to toe, held in his hand...his own knife.

Storm couldn't believe his eyes "But...how?"

The graduate smiled. "Not bad. My turn."

The test continued after several turns, each dodging the traps either flawlessly or very narrowly. After a while, the orange graduate snickered but was also somewhat relieved.

"Too bad. I had three bluffs but you on the other hand, had four. You lose."

Sky interrupted "Wait. The last one wasn't a bluff. Sure it was a teddy bear but it was loaded with gunpowder. If I didn't dodge it, it would have hurt me a great deal."

The graduate smiled "Not bad. I was hoping you didn't notice that."

Sky continued "But. You didn't notice this. You only gave us 9 balloons. There was meant to be 10."

The graduate turned completely pale.

Shiro thought "That's right."

The graduate flustered "S-So, that means-"

Sky finished "That's right! You still have one balloon left!"

A balloon sped towards the graduate in rapid speed but before it could burst, the graduate immediately tripped off his cloud and laid on the ground in great distress.

The balloon burst only to merely be a jack-in-a-box.

Sky smiled with great confidence "You...lose!"

A long silence occurred before the remaining apprentices cheered enthusiastically for Larry's success.

The orange graduate congratulated "Not bad. You pass."

He passed his badge to Sky and said "That was fun. I hope we meet each other again."

He walked off with a smile on his face.

Shiro thought "I see. The sheer fear of each balloon being a weapon has triggered him into finally giving up, even if it was a bluff. Some people didn't see but he was sweating at the end of each turn."

Storm rubbed Sky's head playfully saying "You idiot! You could have told me the plan to and we would have both won it."

Shiro glanced at Larry. It was odd. His over-powering confidence from a second ago had completely disappeared.

Sky weakly laughed "T-There was no real plan."

Storm replied "Don't lie you pipsqueak!"

Shiro came up to Sky "Sky, I have something to ask you of. How come there were only 9 balloons?"

"Oh yeah. I burst a balloon before he brought them to us."

Shiro exclaimed in disbelief "Without anyone hearing it?"

"Yeah."

Shiro gasped slightly.

Storm rubbed Sky's head even harder.

"See? There was a plan. You got to start using that head in class more often!"

Sky whimpered "S-Stop it."

Shiro smiled "I guess he really is just an interesting person."