Empires of War

2 - The Exam

Elmaina

"Take a deep breath Elmaina, you got this" I whispered barely audible to even myself "There is nothing to be afraid of, the training will not be in vain, I won't disappoint father again." I drew my blade and pointed the tip towards the sky. The spearman lowered his spear, so it was diagonally pointing at my head, his gaze was ice cold.

"Begin" the Judge said. The spearman lunged forward, exploding with strength and speed, but I was even faster. I bent backwards letting the spear pass a hand's width above my head. With the lack of resistance, the spearman stumbled forward. I dodged a step to the side and then jumped back, my blade directly in front of my body, pointed straight to the sky above us.

"Not bad." The spearman said mockingly "I should have expected this much at least from our imperial Princess." Now people were shouting angrily at the spearman. "How dare you talk to the Princess like that." "Filthy commoner" some Aristocrats, huddle together away from the commoners, shouted.

I just closed my eyes, concentrating, just for the time it took me to take a deep breath and shut out the noise of the crowd. With my eyes open and a steely gleam in them, I attacked the spearman. I began circling the spearman slowly, like a predator circling their pray, looking for gaps in his defense and found one.

I lunged at the spearman aiming for the back of his right shoulder. He did notice the attack but a little too late, he tried to take a step to the side, but the blade had already dug into his shoulder.

A low cry erupted from him, still standing with his spear in his left hand and his right arm dangling at his side, he stood panting. Barth still tried to look at Elmaina mockingly, but failed miserably, he looked at her like a frog at the bottom of a well being lifted, just to look at a lion.

Czar

Once it dawned on the spearman, he couldn't defeat this monster standing before him. A monster who look like the imperial crown-princess. He shouted, "I yield, I yield." The crowd began laughing at him, very loudly indeed. "Silence the teacher said and waved his hand, suddenly everybody except I and one young man had a hard time breathing.

I knew what the teacher and judge would say even before he silenced the crowed. There was no bigger disgrace for a warrior to yield in a battle and he had done at an entrance exam at the most formidable military academy in the kingdom, probably among the top 10 in all the kingdoms.

"Barth Tomson you are a disgrace to your ancestors. How dare you yield in this exam? Take your things and scram home to your mother, filthy piece of trash." Suddenly Barth shoulder didn't seem to hurt that much as he hurried down from the arena. "You filthy bitch, it is all your fault, I'll defiantly kill you. Even if it's the last thing I'll do." He shouted, sending her the most hateful look he could muster.

"How dare he threaten the Princess. He even lost fair and square." Someone shouted. Others began shouting "If I was his parents, I would be ashamed to have him as my son."

Barth ran faster than ever before, he ran and didn't look a single person in the eye. The people just stared at him, some angrily at his nerve to threaten the Princess and others just disgusted with him being from the same kingdom as them.

Elmaina didn't give him the satisfaction of looking at him hatefully, she didn't even look at him, she just bowed to the teacher and moved onwards to the area designated for the applicants who made it through.