Alexa sat in a tree, attempting to conceal her movements, the bow in her hand was aimed at the spirit beast, that looked like a large albino lion. It only reminded her of how she had met Evia. Except now she was hunting spirit beasts in order to pass a trial that would get her into a magic/fighting school. And not hunting for food to feed her poor excuse for a family. And of course, Evia wasn't lost in a forest and nearly avoiding death. But, waiting safely outside.

The spirit beast made a sudden movement and Alexa sucked in a breath and let her arrow lose. Just as the tip pierced the beasts chest a wall of flames erupted in between them. Alexa squeezed her eyes shut as the sudden light blinded her. Above the roar of the fire, she could faintly hear voices.

" Damn it! She got the Allizar Lion, this is all your fault!"

Said a vaguely snobbish and female voice. Another voice came this time it was one she recognized.

" I don't have complete control yet... let's just move on before she gets another spirit beast"

Adriane's voice replied. His choice didn't make much sense, they could capture her or paralyze her or something to make certain that she would be out of the competition. But, she realized it was his way of throwing her a bone, letting her get away and continue the test. Not waiting to hear how the other girl replied, Alexa, climbed higher and used her arms strength to swing from branch to branch and away from the clearing.

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Evia sat on the seats in the stands. After the first round of contestants entered the test a group of staff had ushered them into a spot in the stands, far enough from the actual crowd but close enough to see the screen. Evia popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth and licked her lips. She had seen a human selling them and had teleported one of the bags into her lap. She hadn't tasted something so good in decades. Evia spits out a kernel, maybe even the tastiest food has a bad side. She looked at her friends, Alexa running through the woods and Adriane teaming up with a stumpy girl, even if it seemed more like she had bullied him into submission. Alexa had shot down a good number of spirit beasts and her skills as a huntress were good enough for admittance. Adriane clearly had an immense amount of magical talent but his lack of control wasn't going to go unnoticed and would work against him in the scores. But his noble blood and potential would hopefully be enough. The headmaster's voice rang out through the stadium. And two of the four screens switched to a 10 countdown.

" The first round will end in 10...9...8..."

The competitors looked up, hearing the voice and then looked around unsure of what exactly to do, knowing they should be doing something to maybe boost their scores but not sure what to do in less than 10 seconds. Evia chuckled and reached into the bag of popcorn only to find it was empty. Disgusted she through the bag over her shoulder.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

" 3...2....1!!!"

The screens went blank and steam came out of the bottom of the pods as the door's opened and out stepped the first round of competitors, most had looked sick and disoriented, one even pucked. They were taken out of the arena, some entered the stands were group 2 had been waiting, while others were taken to a group of healers on one side of the arena. Alexa tried to talk to her but the security pushed her back, Evia waved to her before entering the arena.

Their group was smaller than the first. Evia didn't pay any attention to the insignificant low lives that would possibly be her fellow students. After giving her name to an attendant, she was lead to a purple pod. She stepped in suspiciously, she didn't trust technology because it wasn't something she could control and was for now at least powerless against it. The door slid closed behind her, she felt panicked. It was dark, so very dark. It seemed as though the walls were closing in on her. And then she was back inside the prison. It's suffocating power clutching at her throat. The dark magic spoke from the depths of her mind. Telling her she was going to die if she didn't do something quick. Magic spiked from her fingertips and she had to get out, she couldn't let the terrible darkness get to her, she had to......

And the pod exploded.

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Head Master Blackstone, watched as the second round of the entrance examination progressed. His eyes kept drifting to the remains of the blown up pod and then to the healers were they had taken the girl. Before the explosion, he had felt a large gathering of magic coming from inside the arena, at first, he had thought it was an attack because the amount of power could have only been gathered by at least a dozen high mages. But it wasn't it had been one dark-haired girl.

" Sir, I have the identification paper "

He turned to see an attendant holding out a sheet of paper, which he took and looked over.

" Evia..." he muttered. There was no last name or title. Her elements were interesting within themselves, Fire and earth were an unusual pare, but wind was fairly common. Taming was also interesting and possibly a hint to her past. Lord Rardmarth on his peeped down at the paper in the headmaster's hand and made a little gasp.

" Head Master you can't expect that girl into the Academy!!!"

"And why wouldn't he?" The royal ambassador replied, from his right.

" She didn't even take the test! And her little display there shows clear signs of uncontrolled violent magic." The Lord said his voice rising.

" But her power is immense, and isn't that what this school is for? To train young minds to control their power." The ambassador questioned.

The Lord opened his mouth to argue but found he could not and simply slouched in his seat and mutter under his breath. The headmaster signed and turned his attention back to the second round of the trail. This time it was placed in a frozen wasteland. The contestants had some promise, but it really wasn't a very interesting bunch. Well, aside from a couple obvious exceptions.