Hand Of Magic

Chapter 2: Forging a White Blade

We arrived at the testing halls where I saw the first Unit had already been put in the Arena, styled like those of Old Rome , riddled with traps, mazes and holograms of monsters and enemies, including red and blue soldiers, you simply had to make it to the other side of the course alive, you were given your choice of weapons and a squadron of 5 Kingdom Infantry, equipped with standard assault equipment, including basic Combat armour which was simply a White Uniform and a bullet proof vest and helmet with a basic Combat Visor. I saw that the first Unit had already lost two soldiers and things did not look bright for them, I felt sorry for them, but then figured that without Sarah that would have probably been me. The Unit chose to sacrifice their remaining three soldiers to hold the enemy and draw their attention while they made a dash to the finish. Their Grey Training Armour disappearing from sight as they cloaked themselves and sprinted off, we watched as the hologram Kingdom Infantry were torn apart by some vicious beasts.

“They won’t make it” said Sarah, looking blankly at the course.

“Of course they will, nothing will pick them up while cloaked.” I replied.

“He did” said Sarah pointing out a beast that appeared to lack any eyes.

“A Sniffling?” I said a little louder than I’d hoped, quickly looking around to check that no-one had noticed I said again, but a little softer.

“A Sniffling? That hardly seems fair”

“Is combat ever fair?” replied Sarah.

We watched as the Sniffling, with its long body and short but powerful legs, creep along until it came near where it had smelt the Unit, it lifted its long snout and opened its huge mouth to show its giant jagged teeth. It leapt at the closest Grey, we heard the shriek before the cloak de-activated. Her team mates jumped at the Sniffling hologram, digging their weapons into it, but it was too late, the Grey lying on the grounds armour locked to signify her death, we watched her struggle with it in vein. Her Unit realising it was too late quickly started to reactivate their cloaks, but then the other Grey fell as his armour locked, the final Grey of the Unit took up a defensive position, we could seem the Red Sniper from where we were, but knew the Grey had no chance, that’s when we watched him draw a small dagger from his leg sheathe, the dagger was in case you were  locked in close combat and lost your weapon, but we watched as he proceeded to adjust his Combat Monocle, we watched as the Red Sniper pulled the trigger again, but the Grey stepped to the side and in one swift motion threw the dagger in the direction of the sniper, watching the hologram disappear when the knife went through its head we watched in amazement as the Grey made a sprint for the end of the course, ducking and diving he dodged the obstacles and enemies in his way, towards the end he dived and slid underneath a Blue Hover Tank, Dangerous considering the force of the Tank would have crushed him had he even slowed for a second, we watched as the Tank exploded, noticing the Clay Bomb that had been attached to the Greys pouches earlier was missing. He dived over the finish, narrowly dodging a sword swipe from a Red Beret. We saw the Gold Knight watch with some intensity.

The purpose of the Arena been to provide adequate examinations as well as training for different situations, the Arena was not set to a realistic difficulty level, as we were only second years, but it would still provide anyone not fully trained a challenge to be sure. The enemies were slightly slower and did not operate as effectively as they would in reality, but still posed enough of a threat to test a second year to his or her limits.  We watched as the Units stats came up on screen, showing how they died, and projecting how they might have avoided that, also providing tactical mistakes they had made and how they could improve, it didn’t matter to the rest of us though, as every exam was different and set to test each individual and Unit as a whole.