Finn walked through the academy building’s main entrance. According to the paper Madam Isabella had given him, the first-year archery teacher’s office was on the first floor. There were two crossed arrows embedded into the wooden door with the number 13 written in large letters above them.
‘My lucky day...’ Finn opened the door and walked inside. Bright light blinded his vision, and he found himself on a round patch of sand.
He was on an island no larger than a football field with no vegetation to speak of, just sand and a flock of seagulls feeding on fish in the surrounding water. Further ahead, there was a group of 11 green haired teens standing around a huge mound of bows and quivers along with a woman who was waving him over.
‘Damn it,’ Finn gathered his thoughts as he approached them. ‘I can already tell where this is going.’
The woman, Olivia Qinrel, was six feet tall, slim, had a large bow on her back, sported long, flowing, green hair, and her chest was huge. Her ears were sharp and her skin was tanned. Finn could see a lot of it since the woman was wearing nothing but trousers, shoes, and a crop top so trimmed it was basically a bikini. However, most importantly, one of her eyes was green while the other one was covered by a black eyepatch.
Finn knew the story behind this eyepatch. More than 100 years ago, when Olivia was no older than 10, she was playing with her friends at the edge of a village in the south-east. They were munching on dried fish while running after each other, when suddenly, a bunch of seagulls dropped out of the sky and tried to steal their food.
Young Olivia wanted to eat her fish before the blasted birds could get it, but then a large, black, evil seagull dropped in, poked her left eye out, grabbed her fish and flew away.
‘I thought the rumors were nonsense.’
Finn reached the group and bowed politely. “My name is Andrew Finn, and I wish to take the third exam.”
“Sure,” Olivia smirked. “We were actually waiting for one last person to arrive. Grab a bow and stand in line. The rules are simple: you have 10 minutes to shoot down 100 seagulls, and I will be counting. Ready?”
The teens looked confused as if it was their first time hearing about this. Finn, on the other hand, had already guessed what the test would be about, so he ran straight for the quivers. He strapped one to his back and threw a bunch of them into a pile a bit further away from the main one. He then picked a sturdy bow and took his position.
“Ready.”
“Wait, teacher...”
As one of the elves opened his mouth, Olivia grabbed the large bow on her back, took three steps, turned and with a cheeky grin shot an arrow into the large mound of quivers and bows. As soon as her arrow left the string, it disintegrated leaving only a gust of wind which entered the pile of quivers and blew it to smithereens.
Bows, arrows, and quivers flew in every possible direction. The teens dodged the best they could, but one was hit in the stomach while an arrow hit another in the arm.
“If you cannot shoot, you’re disqualified! Why are you kids so slow? The exam has already begun.”
The teens scrambled towards any bow they could find while Finn started shooting the seagulls. From the corner of his eyes, he observed their movements.
‘There are 700 seagulls at most, so what will you do?’
The answer came rather quickly. One of the first teens to find a bow ran towards Finn with a malicious grin. “Hey half breed, you should share.”
“Nope.” When the boy got close, Finn did a spinning back kick straight into his liver. At the same time, he let loose an arrow and then armed another.
The elf heaved while rolling on the ground, and when he finally came to his senses, he armed an arrow and aimed it at Finn.
“Friendly fire is forbidden!” shouted Olivia.
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“But...”
“Protecting your weapons is not. Currently, Andrew Finn is in the lead with 26 kills, followed by Joran with 14 and Legolas with 9. Quit whining and prove your metal.”
The mood on the beach suddenly changed. The elven teens stared daggers at Finn and several could be seen giving each other nods.
‘38, 39, 40.’ Finn continued while keeping an eye on the situation. He soon ran out of arrows, so he ran around the beach, gathering and shooting at the same time.
‘48, 49, 5... What?’ One his arrows did not reach its target. Finn locked another and shot it at a different seagull, but it dropped out of the sky once more. The culprit was another arrow shot by another bow in the hands of one of the elven teens.
“Watch where you’re shooting.”
“You half-breeds can’t even see properly, huh?”
Arrows were bending and turning in midair, shooting through seagulls while avoiding each other. Finn ran towards an empty side of the beach, and then shot an arrow which was again taken out of the sky.
‘Is this how you want to play?’ Finn clenched his fists.
“Attacking the other participants is forbidden,” Olivia reminded everyone. “Only five minutes are left. Joran is in the lead with 55 kills, followed by Finn with 49 and Legolas with 43.”
The woman was looking straight at Finn. The number of seagulls was going down rapidly. The boy shot a few more arrows but all of them were dropped out of the sky.
‘Damnit!’
“Joran is in the lead with 65, followed by Legolas with 53 and Finn with 49.” Olivia gave Finn a wink. “You may want to shoot faster.”
Annoyed, the boy grabbed several arrows, pierced them into the ground and then shot them in rapid fire in every possible direction. Four were shot out of the sky while the fifth reached its target.
“Good job,” Olivia clapped. “Without an elf’s senses, the only way you can compete is by increasing your speed.”
“I have to be five times faster than them!?”
“Yes, if you want to compete.”
Olivia gave him a wink. The others heard their conversation and either snickered or laughed out loud.
“Teacher, why are you helping this half-breed?” asked Legolas. The boy wore fancy green armor made out of an unknown material, hand crafted by the looks of it.
“Because I’m a teacher,” Olivia frowned. “The better question is why are you all struggling against this half-breed? Are you trying to embarrass your ancestors?”
The elves’ cheeks turned red, and they returned to shooting. They did not even need to aim properly as their arrows followed the seagulls like they had a mind of their own.
Finn, on the other hand, needed between 4-6 shots to get a kill, and he was rapidly falling behind.
“Legolas has 100 kills; you may stop shooting. Joran has 100 kills. Nienna has 100 kills.”
The number of elves who finished the exam was growing quickly while the number of seagulls was dwindling. Finn increased his pace, forcing his body to the limit and even straining his tendons.
He aimed for a seagull and shot half a dozen arrows. However, before one of them could hit, another person’s arrow killed the bird instead.
“Hey!”
“What?” Legolas shrugged. “Nobody said I should stop.”
“Lia 100 kills. The rest of you have just 2 minutes left!”
The number of seagulls had dropped significantly, and Legolas was being an ass. Fortunately, the other winners seemed to mind their own business, and the remaining competitors became too scared of losing to waste time on sabotage.
With one minute remaining, Finn’s kill rate increased from one in five to five out of six. Also, because he did not rely on tricks like bending arrows, he could take one shot and focus immediately on the next. His range covered the entire beach and his senses were as sharp as can be.
‘81, 82, 83,…'
There were only a few more arrows left on the beach.
‘91, 92, 93,…'
“30 seconds remaining! There is always next year.”
‘97, 98, 99... shit.’
There were no more arrows on the beach. From the corner of his eyes, Finn saw one of the teens prepare to shoot while laughing.
“This is 100, suckers!”
The elf aimed his bow at a seagull and let go of the string. The arrow bent under the force before flying straight for the bird. However, only 12 feet into its travel, something got in its way.
Finn appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the arrow midair. However, elven bows were no joke, so after scraping his palm to bits, the boy was forced to catch it with his shoulder.
Finn gritted his teeth, pulled out the arrow, armed his own bow and shot a faraway seagull. Legolas saw the arrow flying and tried to shoot it out of the sky, but he was a draw too late.
“Finn gets 100 kills. The time has run out. Congratulations to the winners!”
Olivia armed her huge, purple bow and shot an arrow straight up. 100 feet above their heads, the arrow burst into countless small flames which struck the remaining seagulls and burned them to a crisp.
‘It’s like the fourth of July.’ Finn smiled while looking at his new teacher. ‘I’ve got a lot to learn.’