Empires of War

1 - The Applicants

Czar

It is time my hands are sweaty, very sweaty indeed, I don't need to be worried, I know it, but I'm still nervous. I have seen many of the other applicants, most of them aren't a threat to me even if I was unarmed, some I wouldn't even need to be half focused to defeat. Two of the applicants I would need to break a sweat to defeat them and one of the applicants shouldn't even be here, she is too delicate to be in this place.

Yet she is the most interesting person here, she looks like she can handle a sword very well, maybe even be one of the 10 best swordsmen here. Yet I can see she hasn't killed someone or witnessed someone die, she doesn't know the horror of death. I can see it in her eyes, the most blood she has seen is probably from when she was pricked by a thorn.

I don't know much about the test but more than most. They will only accept 1000 applicants at most to the military academy of the Void legion. We are at least 5000 applicants here, so only a fifth will be accepted. The top 100 will be selected to the elite class, the top 10 will become personal students of the best teachers and finally the best will become the personal student of the general of the Void legion.

"Look" someone shouted, "it's the Vice-Dean of the academy." Five-thousand heads turned towards the podium where we could see a formidable warrior with several horrible scars. His muscles looked like they were carved from stone and his gaze weighed a thousand tons. A true warrior who has survived several wars, Frey, The Mountain.

"Thank you all for attending the selection exam for the Void legion's academy" his voice boomed. He didn't raise his voice, but everyone could hear him clear as day. "Most of you gathered here will not pass the exam, but we encourage you to try anyway. The exam consists of 3 phases, the first phase will be a duel against an opponent chosen at random, the second phase will consist of a run where the last 500 will fail, the third and last phase will be a chess tournament. We wish all applicants the most terrible luck and may they show us their strongest skills."

At that moment I was fuming with excitement, I didn't care about getting first, no I wanted to become the student of this formidable warrior who by a speech alone has earned my respect, me, Czar Caecusamor's respect. I began laughing uncontrollably. My eyes shown with a deadly, determined look, I was ready to fight, even against the heaven and the earth, against gods and demons alike, the Dean or his imperial Majesty himself. I. Didn't. Care I. Would. Fight.

"The first duel will be between Barth Tomson" one of the teachers shouted "and Elmaina Drasneia." Everybody gasped, "what's the crown princess doing here?" someone shouted. "Who would dare to harm her?" another shouted. "This isn't fair" came from several other applicants.

A scrawny looking man with a very rusty spear jumped onto the dueling ground. "Barth Tomson greets the master" he said very respectfully. The interesting girl with the sword jumped up from the opposite side "I Elmaina Drasneia greet the teacher and judge of this duel. May you judge fairly." Now nearly everybody stood with their jaw down at their knees. Not only was Elmaina Drasneia our Imperial crown-princess but also a very beautiful woman. "That sure as hell is Interesting. Very Interesting indeed," I thought to myself.