The date of the first exam was here, many were taking it absolutely seriously, using every single hour before the exam to cram as much knowledge they could, others, like our trio, had decided to take a slightly more relaxed approach, using those hours to consolidate their knowledge.

This included what they were doing right now.

"What's the best way to deal with a Flora Slug attached to an infection?" Max confidently asked as he blocked Gareths downward slash with the staff of his Poleaxe.

"I-" Gareth had no chance to respond as Max slammed the staff against his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs and making him fall on his butt. He barely had the time to filled them with air again as a blow of the hammer came against his head... which stopped mere centimeters away from collision.

"I guess that's my win!" Max chuckled as Gareth touched his sore chest.

He pierced the ground with the bottom spike of the poleaxe and extended a hand towards Gareth, who took it half-heartedly and used it to get back up again.

"How did you swing that thing so fast? I thought I got you with that last attack..." Gareth replayed the fight on his mind, he had held the advantage up until the last moment as he baited Max with a feign, dodged his retaliatory attack and was about to finish the fight when Max blocked and hit him like a freight train.

"You got overconfident, is all..." Max put the poleaxe over his shoulder, which still hurt a bit.

"Yeah right... I really need a shield or something, I feel like my off-hand is absolutely useless when i'm fighting..." Gareth thought for a bit.

"Hmmm... Maybe you should ask Prof Bronn, he could help you find something." Vitria came over and spoke after finishing her spar with another student.

"Yeah, I don't think a shield would suit you though, maybe another sword...?" Max thought out loud.

"Nah, two swords sounds dumb, I should go talk him though..." Gareth walked towards Professor Bronn, who was helping another student with his stance.

"So... Want to spar?" Vitria asked Max as she got into her regular stance, holding the Spear with both hands, pointing forward and slightly towards the ground, like if she was spear-fishing.

"Sounds good!" Max got into his defensive stance, holding the poleaxe with both hands in separate sides of the staff, the axe head pointed downwards and the top spike pointed slightly towards the sky.

They stood there for a few seconds before jumping at eachother and starting the spar.

Vitria went for a stab aimed at his chest, Max smashed the Spear away with the hammer, flipped the poleaxe and attacked with the hammer again.

Vitria ducked to the side to dodge the attack and went for a stab to his side, which Max managed to sidestep.

They both disengaged and walked back a few steps, then Max spoke "What's the difference between male and female Thunderbirds?" He said with confidence.

"The females are larger!" Vitria ran towards Max and tried to stab him on the chest again, which he dodged by jumping to the side.

Vitria used her foot to redirect herself and go for another attack, But Max was ready and he smashed the Spear away, Vitria was about to do it again but Max used the same move on her, using the poleaxe top spike like a Spear he went for her head rather the body, stopping centimeters away from her forehead.

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"Elaborate!" Max said, the spar wasn't over yet.

"I- Uh..." Vitria knew she still had the chance to win, the rules were simple, if one didn't answer the question in 5 exchanges they would have lost, and even if the answer was wrong they could still continue fighting, but if they answered correctly they would get a second life in case they lost the fight, they were testing their knowledge after all.

"Female thunderbirds lack the colorful plumage males use to find mates, making them harder to spot in the sky!" Vitria responded as she regained her stance.

"Correct." Max walked back a few steps and went back to his defensive stance too, yet when they we're about to start the spar again Professor Bronn blew his whistle, signaling the end of the class.

Max and Vitria left their weapons on the Armory and walked over to the cafeteria, Gareth joined them on the way.

"What did Prof Bronn say? Are you getting a shield?" Max asked as they filled up their trays.

"Nope, he told me to try with a dagger for parrying, I'll check it out tomorrow." Gareth responded as he picked up some brownies.

"Uh, well, the exam is going to be in a bit, are you guys nervous?" Vitria asked as they sat down on a table in the cafeteria.

"Kinda, but we've studied a lot, I'm sure we'll do great." Gareth responded as he started eating.

"Yeah, it's the first exam, it can't be that hard right?" Max said, not realizing he had sealed his fate.

•••••

It had already been 1 and a half hours since the exam started, and it wasn't going great.

The vast majority of students had already finished their exams and had done the oral part, Max was not in that majority.

He was making the last corrections, or atleast that's what he told himself for the last 30 minutes.

When he was finally happy with how it turned out he went to leave it at Professor Pate's desk.

"Wait, sit down, we'll do the oral part right now." Professor Pate spoke.

Max gulped and sat down on the chair in front of the desk, just as he did Professor Pate pressed the button of a small device on her desk, which made a small air bubble around them to stop eavesdropping.

"Great, Now... is it true that Whirlwind Wolf packs have a family dynamic?" Professor Pate quickly asked.

"No, they have an Alpha which is the strongest of the pack, all the others follow it." Max confidently replied, that was an easy one...

What came after was a lightning round of questions with which Max barely managed to keep up.

"Now for the last question... what's the best way to deal with a Petra Leech that is latched to your body?" Professor Pate asked as she noted stuff down on her notebook.

"You use Coal Shrooms!" Max confidently replied.

"Elaborate..." Professor Pate said as she looked at him.

"Grind Coal Shroom and water to the consistency of a paste and place it around the mouth of the Leech, it should latch off as it tastes the paste and the paste will also counteract the poison of the Leech." Max responded.

Professor Pate smiled lightly, nodded and said "That would be all, go back to your desk please."

Max got up and walked away from Professor Pate's desk as the air bubble around it disappeared.

Yet rather than go to his desk he went to talk with Gareth and Vitria who who had already finished the exam.

"Hey guys..." Max awkwardly waved at them.

"Hey Max, how did you do?" Gareth asked.

"I think i did well, Professor Pate didn't say I failed any of the questions... how did you guys do with her lightning round of questions?" Max responded and then asked a question of his own.

"Lightning round? She only asked me like 6 or 8 questions and that was it, I got some time to think the answer too..." Vitria responded.

"Oh, same for me... maybe she just doesn't like you and went harder on you purposefully? That would make the most sense." Gareth said with a chuckle.

"Uh... she asked me like... 15 questions, i can't believe a Professor would do that though..." Max replied with uncertainty "But let's move on from that, how did you guys do?"

"Well, Professor Pate didn't say I was wrong in any of my answers, so I think I did pretty good." Vitria replied.

"Uh... Professor Pate also didn't say I was wrong with any of my answers..." Gareth said with an unsure tone.

"Oh no..." Max suddenly said.

"What?" Vitria and Gareth said at the same time.

"When she asked me if the LightningSong Hawk mated for life I said no, but they do! Yet she didn't say that my answer wasn't correct-" Max suddenly came to the realization he had been played like a fiddle.

"Ah shit..." Gareth said.

"We fucked up-" Vitria replied.

"Guess we'll have to wait until we get the scores to see how much we screwed up..." Max said in a somber tone.

"I mean- it can't be that bad right? We studied for the better part of two weeks for the exam... we could have gotten a couple questions wrong, but it can't be all that bad right...? Right?!" Vitria said with a shaky voice.

"Let's hope so, my dad said that if I didn't do well he would take away my phone..." Gareth said.

"Yeah... let's hope for the best..." Max said, unsure of his own words.

•••••

A few days later, the scores of the exam came in.

"71%..." Gareth said with audible relief in his voice.

"82%..." Vitria thought out loud.

Max was silent.