The room was packed. Bright lights lit up a stage dwarfed by the number of people and chairs surrounding it. Students, teachers, and Mythics were all here to see the new teams being formed. Unfortunately, there wasn't any food. I took my seat.

The scene shifted, but I was still in the room. What was off? I then realised I recognised some of the people around me as well-known Mythics, though way younger. The people in the crowd were not who they were a second ago. The boy next to me leaned over and said, "Ed, it doesn't matter that we were the last out. You don't know your Legacy. Of course, you're not going to finish first. Don't worry about it."

He had ruby eyes and black hair; he looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place him. From the way he spoke and my feeling of friendliness towards him, it was clear he was Edward's friend, probably who he was paired with in the dungeon. His clothes were smoking as though he had been on fire, but he looked unharmed himself. You could see his dark skin showing through patches of his clothes where the fabric had burnt away.

The scene shifted back to the present. The shift wasn't gradual like before; it was like a light switch had been hit accidentally, causing the scene to revert to how it was. "What was that?" I asked out loud.

"What?" Matt replied, turning to me.

"Nothing,"

"Sorry, that might happen from time to time. It was a mental slip; ignore it."

"Ok, then," I thought, ignoring it.

When everyone was seated, the lights dimmed slightly, and the small murmur of voices died down. Washington appeared on stage. "You are all gathered here today to witness the next generation of Mythics acquire the ties they will use in their future to protect those who need it most. The skills they gain during their training at Telum will define the warriors and protectors they will become, just as it has done for the working Mythics that are here today."

The crowd waited patiently for him to get on with announcing the new teams, as that was what they were here for; he gave the same speech every year with little variation, according to Edward. Once you heard it once, you've heard them all. The teams certainly were what everyone was interested in, and everyone wanted to see who they were paired with.

"Now, from what I know, you have been waiting for the teams for which you will be spending most of your time at Telum." The people in the crowd sat up. "The current names are not permanent and can be changed later. Without any more dithering, the teams are John Douglas, Max Ukraine, Matilda Catt and Christopher Killjoy: you will form Team DUCK with John Douglas as leader…"

Washington went on announcing each team and their leader, with each team member's picture appearing onto the screen behind him, with a short summary of their power set, weapon, and training accomplishments. A combined team image and summary of the team's strength then replaced the individual summaries. The people who hadn't unlocked their Legacy had an evaluation of how strong their aura was, but for those who had their powers, there was a rundown of what was known about it. One guy could control water and condense it from the air to form a titanium-strength weapon.

"… Emily Cake, Cassie Rockheart, Lilly Oak, and Star Cranberry: you will form Team CROC with Cassie Rockheart as leader. And finally, but obviously, not least, Thomas Walker, Mathew Hunter, Alexander Eye, and Oliver King will form Team HEWK, with Thomas Walker as leader. You will now spend the rest of your time here at Telum in these teams and will share accommodations and training to help you as a group and learn how to work with other Mythics using strategies. Each student will be given a style classification based on multiple factors, which will help them train in the style of combat most suited for them. The styles are Scout, Warrior, Mage, and Support, though you will learn about this in more depth at a later date. This is the beginning of the rest of your lives: you will learn mastery over your chosen future, be it one of protection or one of healing. You will either rise or fall. The choice is yours."

Washington finished his speech.

"Wait, why am I the leader?" I said out loud. I would have chosen Matthew or maybe one of the other two. Also, how did they design the teams?"

"Well, you weren't meant to finish that fast. The dungeon is structured in a way that you choose a path that leads you to another student. You fight a Shade, defeat it, run into another bigger shade problem with another pair finding and helping you. That's how they try and naturally integrate the teams which they designed before," Edward explained. "You, on the other hand, ran past the second hurdle leaving the other pair to sort it out for you, most of the time even speedsters have issues getting round packs in such close quarters. Luckily, they were able to sort out those beowolves. For why you're the leader, you did mostly take charge of the situation."

"Oh," I realised, "They were the other pair."

***

After the speech all the new teams met to be assigned rooms and so we met up with Oliver and Alex.

"So…" I started to get to the question on my mind, "What do you guys think of the choice of leader?"

"Better you than me," Oliver stated, "Plus, Alex does not have the attention span for it."

"Hey!" Alex complained, "But completely fair; you could have at least pretended that I was the leading type, though."

"I can't lie easily, Alex."

"Fair."

"What about Matthew, though?" I prompted.

"My legacy requires too much concentration, plus you handled yourself well in the dungeon, so I don't disagree with the decision." Mathew reassured, "The name though…"

"It is spelt like the sound of someone throwing up," Alex stated bluntly, "Plus Hawks don't really fit with our group, none of us can fly or have anything to do with vision."

"Agreed."

Everyone followed Miss Fortune to where we would be staying for the next couple of years.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

I opened the door with the key we were given. The room was massive. It had four beds, a fridge, a bathroom, and a window looking over a forest. We all had individual wardrobes for our stuff and mine even had holders for my gauntlets and my leg. Oliver's was tailored for his bow and quiver, and Matt's had hooks to hold his staff. Alex's didn't have any special adaptations, as far as I could tell, but it was still cool nonetheless.

On each bed, there was a folded black cloak with different-coloured accents and a small icon in the same colour under the shoulder: silver with a winged boot on mine, gold with a staff on Matthew's, red with a sword on Oliver's, and green with a bottle on Alex's. These were probably the styles that Washington had spoken of.

"I wouldn't have considered myself a warrior, the only warrior trait I have is that I'm alright at hand-to-hand combat, but I typically just fight with my bow, so I thought I'd get support or scout," Oliver said, as he put on his cloak.

"It's probably because you're the most warrior-like on our team," Alex explained, "Or because most of your trick arrows allow for you to get in close to fight like a warrior, though I did think you would be a support as well. They probably just want one of each in a team, and we overlap too much."

Our stuff had already been unpacked into the wardrobes (far more organised than I ever would have), and the fridge already had drinks in it, all of which were non-alcoholic. I don't think I can get drunk anyway, as I believe my Legacy kicks my metabolism into overdrive.

Speaking of metabolism:

"As my first order as your new leader, I declare that we are going to go to eat. After we find out where the food is. I'm starving," I announce to my team.

***

We arrived sometime later at the cafeteria after getting directions. Edward thought that I would have been able to find the cafeteria easily with his help, but, knowing myself, I probably still would have gone the wrong way, anyway. It was a buffet as, according to Edward, some Mythics had to consume a lot of calories to make up for the amount they burned with their Legacy, myself included.

We filled our plates with food and sat at a table. When we all had sat down, Alex asked, "So why do you have two eye colours?"

I shrugged and, in between bites, said, "It just happened after I unlocked my Legacy. It's probably just weird soul stuff."

"Fair. Also, I don't think honey is meant to go on pizza. Or on beef."

I became distracted as a girl who looked pissed off walked towards our table. She had dark skin, pink hair, and amber eyes. As soon as she spotted us, her eyes started glowing. At the same time, everything started floating like Edward. It was as if gravity was turned off, or more accurately as if I were falling with everything around me.

"How the hell did you complete the maze so fast?!" she shouted at me.

"Uh, who are you?"

"How. Did. You. Complete. The. Maze. So. Fast?"

"My Legacy is speed; didn't you read the thing?"

"But how did you kill the Shades?!"

"Let me handle this," Edward stated.

My perspective shifted from where I was floating to where Edward was, though my body didn't move. The only thing which changed were my eyes; the colours swapped. Time slowed down and Edward, now controlling my body, pulled himself out of the area affected and calmly walked behind the girl, with everyone around us almost paused. He returned time to normal and calmly said, "Speed is a lot more versatile than just running fast, but of course, running fast is useful."

The girl jumped, and everything fell back down as she lost concentration. I regained control over my body and used my own speed to sit back down in less than a second, though less gracefully than Edward. It was weird not to be in control of my body, even if it was just for a second. "I didn't know you could do that!" I thought.

"I guess you learn something new every day," Edward replied to me offhandedly.

From the back of the cafeteria, a boy with blond hair and friendly jade green eyes who was looking wildly for their friend to prevent them from doing what they clearly already were doing shouted, "Cassie! Don't get into a fight with someone because they finished faster than you! Or at least try not to punch anyone in your first week!"

"Don't worry, Star, I have it under control." The girl spoke through gritted teeth and glared like a pot being prevented from overboiling by a wooden spoon, not waiting for said wooden spoon to arrive. "No one is going to fly into the ceiling because I forgot to turn their gravity back on… yet."

It was clear that had Star not arrived, things would have gotten a lot worse, as Edwards' form of de-escalation was more like using oil to put out a fire.

Star stopped next to our table and took a breather. He had the look of a mum friend trying to prevent the inevitable. "Sorry about her, she's competitive. You should have seen her when I beat her high score by one point in Street Racer; the console didn't stand a chance. Anyway, I'm Star, and she's Cassie. We are a part of the team Legends. We changed the name because CROC is too much like the footwear. You're team HEu-WK, right?"

"Yeah, though we are planning to change that. HEu-WK looks too much like a throw-up sound," Alex answered, turning to Cassie. "If you still want to fight, we don't have any lessons or plans, so if you could meet us in about an hour and a half at the stadium, we could probably see who is better."

"Sounds like a plan," Cassie replied before Star could take them back to their team. Star sighed as their prevention of a fight had only delayed it.

We stared at Alex. Alex, in response, carried on eating like he hadn't just arranged for us to be demolished by a team who had actually fought together and who probably all knew their Legacies, knowing my luck.

"Alex, typically people try to avoid conflict as much as possible, not arrange a fight the first day of school," Oliver explained, seeing how he hadn't cottoned on to what he had done wrong.

"We can take them. Their main players are who we just spoke to: the gravitokinetic, Cassie and a pyrotechnic, Star. The other two Mythics in their team only unlocked their Legacy recently, but one can manipulate flora, and the other one can mimic certain aspects of different fauna. I believe we can counter the majority of their skill sets."

I looked at him blankly.

Matthew clarified in plainer English, "Star can create fire, Cassie can control gravity, Emily, who is over there, can gain the ability of different animals and Lilly, the person next to Star, can control plants."

"Why didn't he just say that then?" I asked Matthew.

"He thinks that he sounds cooler when using all the fancy terms for things, and that's how his dad talks," Oliver explained.

"It's called being precise."

"It's called unnecessary complexity."

"So, how did you guys become friends?" I queried, as they clearly knew each other before Telum and Alex were not going to see the fault in his arrangement for us.

"Our dads are friends, and he makes the designs for most of the weapons we make as well as the prototypes for them. We helped with the testing and became friends because of it. You?" Oliver answered, having just finished his food.

Matthew responded, shrugging. "I was roommates with him, that's about it. We just kind of became friends."

Alex asked, looking at my leg as I stood up from my seat. "Tom, before we go to the arena, please may I take a look at your prosthetic leg? You seem to be having trouble with it, given the number of times you've tripped. I believe I could sort out the glitches for you."

"Yeah, sure. Though, try not to break it; I'm rather attached to it," I said, smirking.