It was monster class today. They were doing live training with fake monsters today. The students had been broken into small groups. The groups were put into a large room that could simulate different environments. They were standing in a hot dry desert and the air was almost burning their throats as they breathed. They were attempting to find and trap a common magical beast that could be found in the desert. They had learned about it in an earlier class, it was called the Sand Crab. The name perfectly described it. Except it missed the part that they were incredibly fast, and their pincers could cut through steel. Originally it was a simple crab. But it absorbed the light essence. Now their shells were made of a very useful material that even when ground to dust could emit powerful light. It was a highly sought-after material and a common contract found in the world. They had set out traps like the book had instructed and were now lying-in wait. “This is taking forever.” Sable huffed.

“Shut up.” One of the other group members said, her name was Sarah. She was very rude.

Suddenly there was a loud sound and a screech as one of the traps had obviously activated. The students jumped up. They had been lying under tarps that looked like sand. Near them were the metal traps that had been set up to capture a crab. The traps were surrounding the students. They were laid out in a wide circle 10 traps roughly 50 yards away from them. One of the traps had caught the monster. They needed to run over quickly and disable the monster without damaging its expensive shell. The monsters being used were a combination of some really advanced science with magic. The rooms were able to use a simple droid as a base and then create a wide variety of monsters out of the base fully simulating them within the confines of the room. The rooms were incredibly advanced, and Jack had no idea how they could pay for such obviously expensive equipment.

They ran towards the captured crab. It looked a lot like a normal sea crab, but it was extremely wide and flat. The crab was beginning to break free from the trap. The trap was a simple device that was laying just under the sand and had a small bowl of water. The crabs were very sensitive to water and were able to sense it from extremely far. They would scuttle over to drink the water and the trap would shoot out soft spikes from underneath. The spikes were designed to be soft enough to not damage the shell while sticking into any vulnerable spots. Underneath the crab, the spikes were able to stick into a couple of its vulnerable joints. So once the trap was activated the trapper had a few moments to run over and properly disable the crab without damaging its shell. Unfortunately, it looked like the trap had barely grabbed onto the crab and it was quickly escaping. The crab was breaking off the few spikes that had grabbed it and were attempting to escape. Their group was made up of five people and was quickly running toward the crab. The group’s names were Sable, Sarah, Jared, Norea, and Jack. Sable had the earth element, Sarah had the water element, Jared also had the earth element, and Norea had the Ice element.

They had been instructed not to use their elements to harm the monster so when they ran up to it, Sable just jumped on it. He latched onto the wide crab and yelled. “I got it!”

“You definitely don’t,” Sarah said, as the crab started to scuttle away. Sable’s legs were hanging off the back and were leaving two large ruts in the ground as it dragged him along. The group chased the crab. Luckily it was reasonably slow, and they were able to keep up. Any time they tried to block it, the crab would just turn and run. It had two huge claws that were pretty dangerous, but it didn’t seem to use them much. It would just swing them around like clubs mostly.

The rest of the group slowly caught up to the crab that was scuttling away. Sable was doing his best to slow it down by dragging his feet in the sand. Sarah was yelling at him, while Jared and Norea were trying their best to surround it. The crab stopped and started spinning. It eyed everyone. It didn’t seem to have any idea that Sable was on its head, and every time it turn Sable was flung around like a ragdoll. “We need to take out the legs!” Jack yelled to the group.

The crab instantly turned to him when he yelled. Its eyes were large black balls. It stared at him for a moment. Then it did something that surprised everyone. It started to dig. It was fast. It started using its legs to move the sand around it away and it quickly began to sink into the ground. “Oh shit. Go go go.” Sarah yelled. The group charged at the crab and grabbed onto it. Each student grabbed a piece of the shell and started lifting it. The crab was incredibly strong and was fighting back. It turned into a stalemate. The students could pull him out, and the crab couldn’t dig any deeper.

“We all need to pull at once!” Jack yelled as they struggled. “One, Two, Three!” On three they all heaved and the crab popped out. It landed on its back and the students quickly incapacitated it.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Once they were finally done the teacher came in to talk to them about how they did. The teacher was a substitute. Ms. Griffith had gone underground to search for the monster. Only Jack knew where she had gone and wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. The substitute was a very nice lady named Ms. Hargrave. She took the students through what they did right and wrong. They had made plenty of mistakes, but in the end, they had successfully trapped the crab, so they all passed.

Once they were done class, they were required to don their ceremonial attire and go to the main coliseum in the city. Opening ceremonies were incredible. The tournament was one of two held throughout the year. The tournament was a squad tournament. Jack had gotten his squad together a little late, but he was happy with his group. He had Sable, Chad, Salem, and Ariel. Ariel and Salem were new additions, but they were both excellent fighters and Jack was hopeful for their chances. The tournament was for all the first years and at the opening ceremonies, they were all made to stand in the main coliseum and sing the national anthem. Jack had to learn it from Gant, and he really hated it. The actual tournament was being held at numerous smaller arenas around the city and academy but for some reason, they had to opening ceremonies in the main coliseum. It was impressive standing in the dueling pit. Looking up at the stands it’s insane to imagine all those people watching you. That’s when jack got a few goosebumps. He wanted those people to watch him.

The squad was quiet as the entire ceremonies, but once they started to leave Chad had to start talking. “that was incredible! I hope I can have a duel in the main coliseum someday!”

“I think that’s the point Chad,” Salem said calmly

“What do you mean?”

“They had the ceremonies in the main coliseum so every first year could experience a little of what it could be like if you were to do well. It’s supposed to inspire and encourage us.”

“Well, it worked.” Everyone smiled at Chad’s honesty.

Salem was all business. “Ok, so out first bout is scheduled in 2 hours in the east high tower arena. We should probably head there now.” Everyone agreed and they headed towards the arena. Most of them were pretty calm. Everyone except Sable. He had thrown up once before opening ceremonies and he looked like he was about to again. He stumbled behind the group; his face was white and he held his hands on his stomach. Jack looked at him worriedly and said.

“You gonna be ok?”

“no.” was all Sable said.

“oh, that’s good,” Jack said sarcastically. “Then we can find a more dependable teammate.”

Sable grumbled something under his breath. But it seemed to perk him up a little and he stood up taller and started walking faster. Jack laughed.

The arena their first bout was going to be in was one of the further ones and took almost 45 minutes to reach it. Once they got there, they were shown where to enter and prepare. Their match was the second one to go. They found their room and shuffled in. It was slightly cramped. It smelled like sweat and everyone started to look nervous. You could tell everyone was thinking about what would happen if they failed and were forced to go directly to the military. No one wanted that. Everyone was going to try their hardest. The tournament was a single knockout event meaning they couldn’t lose even once. Everyone was quiet. Chad was examining each of his weapons. Ariel was sitting crossed-legged and meditating. Salem was doing some weird yoga. Sable was attempting to distract himself by manipulating a small piece of dirt around the room, but you could tell he was distracted.

They could hear the crowd roar when the first event was underway. The crowd was surprisingly loud considering they were deep inside the building.

“How many people do you think will be watching us?” Sable asked nervously

“Well, this arena is one of the smaller ones, so probably only a thousand or two,” Salem replied.

“Oh. Only a thousand or two. Perfect. No big deal.” Sable replied. He had tried to sound confident but it came out very insecure. Jack looked over at Ariel. She had opened her eyes and was staring at Jack.

“Uh, what’s up?” he asked confused.

“How did you get that scar on your leg?” Ariel calmly asked.

“Uh, w…what?” Jack asked flustered.

“The scar on your upper thigh. How did you get it?” They had changed into their dueling attire and she had seen Jack in his underwear. Nobody had said anything. Mostly cause Salem was the one who looked much worse. Compared to him Jack barely had a scratch. But apparently, it had grabbed her interest.

“Uh. It’s kind of a secret.” He didn’t know what else to say. How could he explain that he absorbed an element naturally? Would they think I was a freak? Now everyone was looking at him. “lets talk about this another time.” He hoped that would hold them over for now. Jack had to think. What should he tell them?

Ariel didn’t seem happy, but she nodded and went back to meditating. Sable eyed him for a moment longer than the rest. He was the only one who knew Jack didn’t have any family. Sable had never dug any deeper and Jack was very thankful for that. He barely remembers his parents before they died and the orphanage had been most of his life before it burnt down. He had been on the streets for two years. Those two years felt so long that he had started to forget even the orphanage. He tried to think back to the name of the lady who ran it. He couldn’t even remember her face anymore. She had been a nice lady and Jack started to feel guilty for forgetting her. Suddenly a large roar from the crowd brought him back to the moment.

Ariel stood up and in a surprisingly calm but commanding voice said. “Weapon check.”