Olympia, Washington | Primal Academy
“WOOOOW!!” Everyone gathered around the placement board for the time trial that happened yesterday. The goal of the trial was to see which recruit could slay all the Musk Pigs in the shortest amount of time.
“Where am I”
“No way, I got 9th place, Top 10 baby!!”
“There’s no way, that dude beat me out by 2 seconds, I could’ve been in 15th”
All the recruits of the Primal Academy are trying to become Praise Templars. They spend a month in the preliminary classes and to develop their bodies and muscles. About 150 enroll each year but only 25 can make it into the regular guard classes where they become full time students.
“C’mon. Where am I?” Marc a young man who managed to get selected into the preliminary classes not because of skill though. He was selected because his uncle was a highly respected Praise Templar who helped him get selected.
“You found your name Marc?” Marc turned around behind him and shot a quick glance at Avey. A girl he has known since childhood and a close friend to him.
“Nope, your boy might be fucked”
“C’mon, the musk pigs were not that damn strong. I took about 5 of them out with 2 knives”
“You can also become invisible and let's not ignore the fact you can make those knives blow up.” Marc gets closer to the board to get a better look at the board, hoping he just missed his name.
“Marc, you are a whole weather mage. You're telling me you couldn't conjure up a lightning storm to blow the place up.” She follows behind to try to look for his name as well.
“When the hell have you ever seen me do that?”
“Never, sadly. Would be cool as fuck tho.”
After scanning the board about a hundred times, Marc ends up giving up. “Man fuck!!” he walks away from the board going to his dorm room, “Hey!” Avey follows him.
“It’s gonna be okay man.”
“Avey, that was the last test and my last shot at making into the regulars. I ended up dead last in almost all the other tests, they didn’t even bother putting my name on the damn board this time.”
As they were walking they ended up spotting a group of students all gathered around in the same spot. As Mark and Avey pass by them, a hand grabs Aveys arm.
“Avey, where are you going? What place did you get?”
Avey turns around and notices that it was Ray who stopped her. Ray was the top recruit in the preliminary class, he scored top 2 in all of the tests and considered to be the most well rounded recruit the academy has seen in years, a true prodigy. Avey gives Ray a confident smile and holds up five fingers.
“5th.”
“Woah nice, oh and what about you Marc.”
Marc turns to look at Ray and notices that Ray's face didn’t match the tone of his question. He looked as if he could care less about what Marc got, so Marc ended up turning back around to keep walking.
“Like you give a damn.”
“I mean I was just asking, I didn't see your name on there so I was guessing you just didn’t take it.”
“Maybe I did, Maybe I didn’t. Who fucking knows. ”
Avey looked back and forth as the two were bickering with each with a concerned look on her face. She steps away from Ray to follow Avey.
“We’ll talk later Ray, I gotta check something out right now.”
“Alright you know where to find me.”
They share a smile at each other as Avey tries to catch up to Marc, “Wait up.”
Marc keeps walking with a more defeated look than before. He knows that he failed but didn’t want to outright admit in front of everyone. They already see him as just another failed mage, letting them know he couldn’t even kill pigs fast enough would make a third rank rookie look stronger than him.
“Marc, you didn’t have to act like a jackass right there.”
“So you just gonna ignore how condescending that dickhead sounded.”
“Oh I noticed, but you didn’t have to have that attitude. You know he’s the academy's sweetheart, people will only think bad about you.”
“Oh well.” They stop in front of Marc's dorm room door, he reaches to open it but then his phone starts to buzz in his pocket. He pulls it out and reads “Unc” on his phone.
“Oh boy.”
“What?”
“My uncle is calling, hold up.” He puts the phone up to his ear and answers it, he turns to walk a few steps away from his dorm and Avey. Avey tries to hear what Marc is saying but the conversation ends quickly. Marc turns around and walks back to Avey.
“My uncle wants to meet me at the board office.”
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“Now?”
“Yea, probably about the test. I gotta head over there now.”
“OK, I gotta go meet my advisor too. Something about a new opportunity might have found me.”
“Good luck then.”
They both say their goodbyes and walk to their destinations.
Board Office Building
Marc walks through the doors of the board command building. He notices that there's a lot more government officials and officers than usual. He makes his way past the reception desk and heads to the elevators. As he waits for the elevator to come down, he overhears a conversation between two officers.
“Did you hear about what happened in New York?”
“You talking about that incident at the zoo, yeah shit was crazy.”
“Who knew something like that was possible. I feel bad for the victims.”
The Elevator chimes and Marc's attention goes back to the elevator door. He wanted to learn more about what the officers were talking about so he pulled out his phone to see what happened in New York. The elevator door opens, Marc with his attention still on his phone he begins to walk in but suddenly it feels like he ran into a wall.
“Oof, the hell”
Marc rubbing his head, looked up and saw a tall, muscular man in front of him. Not just any man though, It was Carson Flame. The 5th rank Praise Templar in the North America Division. Marc looked at him in awe, but Carson didn’t even look down or acknowledge him. He simply shoved him out the way and made his way out the building.
“Excuse men then. Jackass”
He walks into the elevator and selects the 8th floor and heads up. He makes his way up and walks out the elevator. He makes his way down the hallway and comes up to two large doors. He goes to open the door, but all of a sudden he feels enormous pressure weighing down on him. It stops him in his place.
“Ugh, he must be pissed.”
He tries to move his arm to knock on the door but his body would not move no matter how hard he tried. The power of an angry templar is nothing to scoff at.
“God dammit. UNCLE CALM THE HELL DOWN SO I CAN OPEN THE DOOR!!”
The pressure began to lift off of his body, and his movement came back. Marc clutches his chest and takes a deep breath.
“Any longer and I'm sure I would’ve passed out. The hell is he so mad for?”
Marc opens one of the doors and makes his way inside the large room. He sees his uncle in front of the window behind his desk looking outside. His uncle turns around towards Marc.
“Sorry about that kid, let my emotions get the best of me.”
“It’s alright. What made you so pissed anyway?”
“Nothing you need to worry about, but take a seat. This conversation we’re about to have is something to worry about.”
“Oh no” Marc thought to himself. He had a feeling it was going to be about his placement in the academy, he was just hoping he would be wrong and was just going to have a nice chat. He sits down in the chain in front of the desk. His uncle sits down in his chair as well. The tension in the air started to rise for Marc, he could just tell bad news was coming his way.
“Kid, I'm not going hold you. You’re not going to pass the preliminary classes.”
Marc knew those words were coming out of his uncle's mouth but it still was hard to hear him say it. He hung his head low.
“I figured as much.”
“But there’s still an opportunity for you.”
Marc's head sprung his head up like he had popped out of a jack in a box.
“Really?”
“Yep, the guard military is opening their recruitment up early this year.”
Marc's face went from exciting curiosity to disappointment. He looked at his uncle as if he asked him to run around the streets naked.
“You fucking with me right.”
“Language.”
“The guard military? The dudes who sit on their ass all day? The dudes who run away when things get serious. The same people who don’t even get the best benefits in the whole military division?!”
“Hey now, if you make it up the ranks you can get the same benefits as a D-class templar.”
Marc's face never changed. He got up out of his chair and began to walk out in a huff.
“Marc, sit back down. Let me finish.”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Right before he reached the door handle, the same pressure he felt before walking in fell on him again.
“SIT. DOWN. NOW”
Marc’s body began to move on its own, he turned backed around and sat back down in the chair. This was the power of the 6th rank templar, Henry Vogard. He could control the gravity of any area he is in. He can control so well, he can make people move against their will just using his gravitational power.
The pressure begins to lift off of Marc’s body and he relaxes.
“Now look at me.”
Marc refused to look at his uncle. Disappointment could be seen all across his face.
“Kid, you may not have the physical skills to be a templar, but you excelled in the writing test and cognitive test. You were ranked top 2 in both, that something to hold your head up high and it can be an advantage.
Marc looked at his uncle when he heard “advantage”. It sparked his curiosity, maybe something cool can come from this he thought to himself.
“You can be a top manager in the analytic department.”
Or not.
“The analytic department? You’re kidding me.”
“Marc-”
“That’s not what I want to do and you know that. Why the hell would I join that?”
“Marc lis-”
“No I ain’t gonna fucking listen, you call me in here to tell me im a failure and then wanna present the this sorry ass opportunity as a gift to what, cheer me up? Bullshit.”
“MARK!!!”
The building began to shake. Marc silenced himself out of shock when he felt the building swaying side to side, but his gaze of anger never left his uncle.
“Marc, you need to give that dream up.” The building began to stabilize itself and the swaying stopped. Henry gets up and walks to the side of where Marc is sitting.
“I know how badly you want to be a templar, you haven’t stopped talking to me about it since you were 6. But dreams and reality are 2 different things, and the reality is you don’t have the necessary skills to be a templar.”
The words that were coming out of his uncle's mouth were cutting him deep. He knows he is telling him all this because he doesn’t want him to get hurt doing something he is not qualified to do, but he knows that his dream can not come true if he isn’t a templar.
“Besides, the analytic department in the guard plays a major role in the planning and success of the templar division. You have the mind to become a top manager in analytics with your decision and strategic planning. You were always better at those strategy games than me.”
“Uncle, my dream isn’t to be a top manager.”
Marc stands up and looks at his uncle with determination in his eyes.
“My dream is to be the Weather God of the Templars.”
Henry looked Marc in his eyes, he could tell that he meant every word and wasn’t going to just back down and take the second option, he was always like that.
“Sigh. Jeez man you're killing me. Well there’s still the issue of you getting kicked out of the academy.”
“Oh yea, that.” Mark sat back down in his chair. He hung his head low trying to think of a way to maybe stay a little longer. Just then a ring could be heard from Henry’s phone. He pulled out his phone, and Director Joe was calling.
“Marc, I gotta take this. What I want you to do is really think about the options you have right now. It may not be the path you want to go on but it can still lead you to the same destination you want to be at. Just think, ok?”
Marc looked up at his uncle, his face had softened from when he entered, he could tell he really wanted him to think about these things but would support his decision no matter what.
“Ok.”
Marc gets up and walks out the office. Henry answers his phone.
“Director.”
Outside commons
Outside of the building Marc begins to head back to his dorm.
“I need to find a way to somehow stay in the academy longer, or at least find a way to give me another try at a test. But how?”
He stops in his. “Oh yea.” He remembered he heard a story from another recruit that there was a story about how someone was able to get into the academy by killing and bringing back a huge beast. He thought maybe if he could kill a beast in the forest and bring it back to his uncle it could convince him to find a way to stay in the academy.
“Alright, last chance Mark. Can’t fucked this up.
He pulled out his phone and called an uber to come pick him.