“Finally testing day…” I said, staring out at the training field in front of me.

The field was mostly flat land with some grassy hills and rough rocky cliffs. There were some trees here and there but it was clear this testing ground was over utilized.

“Doesn’t help that they decided to do it on the same day as the ranking tournament so we’ve got quite the audience as well,” Alden observed.

Surrounding the outskirts of the area was a translucent orange barrier that extended upwards for a few meters. The barrier was designed to defend against most damage but had occasionally failed a few times before, or so we’d been told. In either case, we had a massive audience for our test as apparently someone really wanted to make a spectacle out of us. We were told our test results would count towards our ranking score in the tournament so we wouldn’t have to perform twice.

“Well, at least it’s just the three of us. There’ll be no one to get in our way?” Nicole offered.

“I suppose that’s true,” Alden agreed.

“I wonder when they’re going to start?” I wondered, looking around awkwardly at the gawkers.

“They’re all probably waiting for us to make fools of ourselves. Probably think we got preferential treatment to have passed through the training this quickly…” I whined.

“I doubt it. I know you mostly avoided everyone but I hung out a lot with Zypher and met quite a few of them. They’re actually really supportive and understand the difficulty of the training regiment we had to go through. If anything I’d like to think they’re anticipating how high our scores might be,” Alden said, offering a different perspective.

“Hmm, that’s a fair point. I didn’t really try to socialize with them. That was unfair of me to judge them,” I said, sincerely.

“Well, well, well. Was that self reflection? How terribly mature of you. I suppose you grew in more ways than one,” Nicole said with a smirk.

“Hey! I’ll have you kno-” I started but was cut off by a loud explosion that came from the middle of the training field.

“Welcome all! Today we celebrate a momentous occasion!” A deep and commanding voice boomed.

“We have three wonderful Cadets that have shown they have the grit, knowledge and compassion to become a part of the GDF! All of you have been here at some point, regardless of the path you took, all of you had to be here on this same exact field to face similar challenges as these three will today. So let us hear your voices roar for the bravery and valor we will see this day! Let these Cadets know what it means to be a part of the GDF!” The voice boomed some more.

And roar they did. The cheers were deafening and excitedly chilling. I could make out some words here and there thanks to my soul sense. They weren’t just cheering and making noise. I could hear legitimate words of praise and encouragement from them which made me feel worse about the comment I had made previously.

“Excellent!” The voice boomed some more, cutting through the cheering and causing it to fall silent.

“Truly your voices have reached these Cadets! Now I will unveil their first trial! Battle the horde!” And with zero explanation hundreds small to medium sized quanum monsters manifested around us.

I didn’t waste time asking for permission, and with affirming nods from both Nicole and Alden, I went full bore. In a show of solidarity they both sat down on the ground as I floated a few meters upwards. I still had a few seconds before the manifestations completed forming but I figured I wouldn’t let my fellow comrade’s efforts to hype us up go to waste. I could feel the adrenaline and excitement raging through my veins in a twisted mix of boiling and chills. I decided to start off with my favourite attack—why not start off with a bang?

“Cadeyrn?”

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“Yes master?”

“Let's do this,” I said, raising my arm above my head, palm facing upwards and began my incantation.

“Aodh, god of the underworld, lend me your crimson flames. Bathe this world in your colours and wash away all those that covet your throne. Sword of Damocles!”

Slowly a flaming red spark formed in the air above my head before quickly growing in intensity. The air roared as the moisture in the air burned away from the heat of the fifteen meter tall sword that just sprung into existence above the field. At first I thought I’d end with just this but I had a sudden spark of imagination.

“Cian, what are you doing?” Alden asked, his voice suddenly concerned, but I wasn’t really listening. “For God's sake—we should put up a stronger barrier,” Alden said, staring at Nicole as he quickly realized how poorly this could end.

“Uhh, what is he doing?” She asked as she stared upwards as I put another hand in the air above my head.

“Doing something stupid, but of course he hasn’t shown it to you yet,” Alden said, shaking his head in disapproval. “Nero!”

“Yes master,” Nero acknowledged, forming Alden’s armor and swords.

“Meigetsu,” Nicole called, and followed suit.

“You take the lead on this one, it's your specialty after all,” Alden said, giving her a nod of approval.

Wordlessly, Nicole channeled her quanum and aura into seven strange sphere’s of liquid. Alden quickly created seven clones, each one taking a sphere and running towards the edge of the barrier surrounding the field. Alden could see the looks of confusion on the faces of the spectators as his clones completely ignored the hundreds of monsters manifesting around them. Upon reaching the edge of the barrier Alden’s clones crushed the sphere’s which exploded in waves of aura and quanum that splashed up over the orange barrier.

“That should do the trick, now for the last piece,” Alden said from the middle of the field as he thrust his sword into the ground, his clones doing the same.

Alden’s thrust sent waves of water surging through the ground, ripping it up as they struck the clone’s swords that were stuck in the ground. Those waves created more waves that flowed around the edge of the barrier until all the waves had connected. With a second thrust of his sword the waves surged upwards reaching around ten meters in height.

“I think he’s almost done whatever it is that he’s doing?!” Nicole yelled to Alden.

She was right of course. In my sudden moment of inspiration I had come up with an idea that I may end up regretting. I began channeling my aura into the sword, and it began to turn from a blazing red to sickly purple. I could feel what I now considered a corruption seeping into the sword but I had no intentions of allowing it to turn out like that flower incident.

“Yeah, I think so. Ok hold tight,” Alden said, and just as Nicole ducked, Alden swung his sword creating an incredibly strong gale of wind.

The wind quickly spread outwards to the edge of the field, stunning the monster's charge and freezing all the water surrounding the barrier to ice. Just as Alden had finished his barrier I had finally got the hang of transfering my aura. Slowly the sickly purple flames transitioned into sharp purple static which continued to build until purple lightning wrapped around the sword.

“What a show this is!” The voice boomed energetically. “These are truly cream of the crop Cadets. I would however recommend readying your personal barrier immediately, despite their best effort I believe we’re going to witness another shattering!” As the voice trailed off and a subtle silence filled the air it was quickly followed by the chanting of numerous defensive barriers.

“That was a good call, I yelled,” a mischievous grin on my face.

“Ok, time to fly,” Alden said as he and Nicole rocketed into the sky.

With one swift motion, I swung my arms downwards commanding the sword to fall, and fall it did. The sword reignited in red flames as it fell, purple lightning arcing around it as it plummeted from the sky into the ground. Flames and lightning spread outwards burning indiscriminately, turning everything to ash. The attack had finally spread to the barrier. While Alden and Nicole’s effort were valiant it simply wasn’t enough. The flames and lightning smashed through their barrier as well as the orange GDF barrier as if they were nothing more than sugar glass.

“Well that doesn’t look good,” Alden said as he scratched his chin in contemplation.

“I’m sure their barriers can handle it. The GDF one is usually weak on purpose,” Nicole said, not entirely convinced at her own words.

“Are you sure?” Alden said, looking down as the sword pulsed, sending out a second wave of flames and lightning.

“Really…?” Nicole said, in disbelief.

“Well, that’s out of my hands,” Nicole said, shrugging.

“It’s fine, I’ve got it,” Alden smirked before crashing down onto the ground just as the first wave began washing over the spectating GDF officers.

“COCYTUS!” Alden’s voice boomed as he swung his swords wide sending out a surging wave of water and ice to create another barrier to cut off the attack.