The Trials

The Awakening // Chapter 3

Before the figure can strike me with their sword, a small ninja star slices through the one closest to me, and I was pushed back from the speed from it. A boy, must be a little younger than me, short, and with messy hair throws a few more and destroys the few running after me. I give him a half smile, thankful for his help, but embarrassed I couldn't do anything more. He slightly nods his head and runs off to destroy more of the figures I'd assume.

I can feel the blood pumping through my body, heart pounding. One by one, some of the students were beginning to bond with a weapon and element. Some fire, wind, some weird psychic powers I believe, from the floating pistols floating around a girl with black long hair. My eyes dart from object to object as I see a figure start to approach me with a long spear. I begun to run, with no idea what to do. Should I grab a weapon and see what happens? There are loads of different weapons around, how am I supposed to know which one to choose? How will I know if I even can do some crazy magic stuff? I'm still in disbelief, but I run towards the center of the stadium, with the mountain terrain. I dash around a few figures, and other students, most of the as confused as I am.

Up ahead, I see a familiar figure. Avalon, perched on a boulder, half squatting. I run fast towards him, with intentions of him to possibly help and see if we could work together in this. There were no rules about teaming, and he's the only one I'm comfortable with in this whole crazy scenario I'm living in.

"Avalon" I say as I stand next to him, and he looks down at me and I notice the quiver wrapped around his back, and a strong bow in his hand, and what seems the be rippling with electricity. I can feel the static radiating off of it.

"I did it" He says and he grabs an arrow from the quiver, knocks it, and aims ahead. I follow the arrow as it collides with a figure in the distance, and gets zapped and disappears into thin air. "Follow Cameo's advice" He tells me. "Trust yourself, your heart and brain" He gives me a reassuring nod, and prepares to shoot again.

I do what I do best, in my opinion. Analyze situations. I run, exhausted, but still run towards the top of the bleachers of the stadium and scan the area. There's got to be something I can attach with. I scan, looking and weighing my options. In the corner nearest to me, a girl around my age, with shorter light brown hair is being surrounded by a few figures. She's holding a broadsword, heavier than she can handle. Before I can even decide if this is wrong or not, my heart tells my brain to run. I sprint down the bleacher stairs and grab the nearest weapon in sight. A silver rapier is sitting alone on a display stand, it's material reflecting. I grab the rapier while running and cut through the figures and stand in front of the girl.

I hold the rapier at my side, as the figures stand a few steps away from me. Ready for my attack. I grip the rapier tight and feel a cold chill come through my body. What feels like frost, creeps up from the rapier, and crawls up my right arm, at a subzero temperature, but it doesn't bother me. With my frustration and strength, I swipe the rapier from right to left, through the torsos of the figures, as what seems to be snow and ice particles explode off of them. The disappear without a trace. With a golden flash, both my rapier and body glow for a brief second. I did it, I bonded with weapon.

"T-thank you" The girl behind me says.

"You're welcome" I reply with a smile. "You got this, trust yourself and most importantly, your instincts" I tell the girl. She looks me in the eye and gives me a smile as she drops the broadsword and runs away from whatever just happened. I scan the area again, and look more up this time. In what I presume is the Sky Box, where the announcers talk during sporting events, I see a bigger group of people. But towards the front of them, I can see it's Cameo. He's been watching me the entire time. I see him smile and nod, a signal of congratulations I presume. I did it, I believe. I bonded with a weapon and element. With Cameo's signal, this must mean I passed the first test. I run to meet up with Avalon again, teaming up for good this time.

We meet again in the center and I slashed through a figure slowly approaching him from behind.

"Look what we have here" Avalon chuckles as I stand with my back towards him, rapier strong in hand.

"What a shocker, am I right?" I kid back and hear him laugh at my pun.

"Making puns at times like this, you've got some guts" He tells me as I hear another arrow load into his bow.

"Lighthearted person I guess" I reply. "We both passed the first Trial, congrats to us"

"Indeed" Avalon replies, "Don't get too comfortable though, I don't trust everyone here" He tells me. I feel a sense of guilt in my gut. Was I celebrating too early? "Something just seems...off to me" He continued.

"Understandably so" I reply, as I slice through another figure. Before either of us could respond, I hear the same booming voice from earlier, presenting the first Trial. With the moment the voice started to talk, all of the figure dematerialized into thin air.

"If you are holding a bonded weapon in your hand, you have passed!" The voice tells us, and I feel immediately at ease. "However," the voice continues, "This is only the start".