CH.3 THE INFERNO & THE SWORDSMEN

I trained and studied harder than I ever had. I learned how to use a sword and became strong enough to punch through concrete and lift cars with my metal abilities, and in no time it was finally time for the entrance exam.

“GOOD LUCK KID!” shouted the hunter as I entered the building. There were probably about 60 other kids around me about my age. They all looked really serious, and to be honest they were kind of intimidating. The building had a very tall roof. We all were just standing in the center of the big room, until an older looking man in a silver cape walked out on the stage at the end of the building. He was probably somewhere around late 60's, he had white long beard, but almost no hair. He also was wearing strange goggles. “Welcome to the Brand school entry exam! This will be a free for all entry exam. When 10 people remain they will be allowed into the school.” He said “Everyone follow me to the bus that will take you to the battle grounds. May the strongest of you pass!”

The bus ride was near silent as I looked around. I took note of the competition. There was a kid with the music note mark under his left eye. A girl with a Caduceus under her left eye, a kid with no noticeable Brand, and even weirder a kid made entirely of fire. The others didn't really stick out to me all that much. I could feel that everyone was nervous, and the tension grew even more as we came closer to our destination. When the bus stopped we overlooked a huge circle plot with moat surrounding it as well as a massive glass dome covering it. The land mass must have stretched for miles; it also had three biomes: a forest, desert, and polar region. ‘How do they even have this?’ I thought as me and the other kids made our way down the only ramp entrance. The old man's voice came over the live speaker, “HELLO CONTESTANTS.” Boomed the loudspeaker. <> I reached to my back and noticed that a small red cloth was attached to my back with magnets. <> A sharp whistling noise played across the whole stadium. <> yelled the old man. So everyone was off. I thought it would be useful to know where each person was headed, but a few kids didn’t even move, and I could feel they were strong. One of them without a visible Brand under his eye had something off about him. He was staring right at me. I immediately ran into the woods and to the snowy biome. All that I was hoping was that I wouldn’t bump into him just like I did in the school, into that moron.

I made my way to the winter section. I posted myself up on a snowy mountain behind a huge rock. Right then that sharp whistling tone played again and the old man said in the announcer voice, <>

The chaos began. The sounds of fighting could be heard and the few who could fly were seen easily, but one looked like a huge fireball. I think he saw me, because the kid was making his way towards me. He stopped right above me. It was the kid that was completely on fire, I thought he wanted to fight but he just glared at me. “So are you just gonna stare at me or are we gonna fight!” I said to the burning kid. But he just continued to stare, then he started using sign language. From my limited knowledge it seemed like he said “your move”. Was he trying to mock me? I took that as an opportunity to attack. Luckily there was some steel that I found while I made my way up the mountain. If you ask me how I found steel in a freaking winter forest. I say that my training wasn’t for nothing. Hunter taught me that some types of stones might have a few grams of steel or iron in them. I turned all the steel I extracted from the rocks into a sword and charged the sword right at him. Just before the sword hit him, I brought myself to the sword and grabbed it like I was a magnet. He still dodged all my swings and trips then went for my flag. It would have been over for me, but I threw my sword back into the boulder then pulled myself to it. He didn't give me any room to breathe and immediately threw a fire blast at me which hurt like hell. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” I screamed, “WHAT THE HELL?!” I continued while he charged up his next attack. Fireboy started to fire a constant beam of heat. So I had to sprint away to not get burnt to a crisp. I could tell he had me way outclassed in strength and didn't quite feel like talking, so if I was gonna do anything to him I had to outsmart him. I needed a strategy fast!

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When I got around the opposite side of the boulder I threw my sword over his head which got him distracted for a split second. Now I had my chance. I pulled myself to the sword and before grabbing the sword I kicked him as hard as I could in mid-air, which sent him flying a few meters down. He was confused, but not for long. Right before I tried to hit him the second time I got nicked by his fire beam. But my plan worked. He got super close to the boulder and right when he was close enough I turned the sword into a chain and wrapped it around the boulder, which also caught him, binding the kids arms to the side. “I-I got you, I actually did it!”

I said while catching my breath, I then walked up to him to take his flag. I could see he struggled, he tried to melt down my chains, but couldn’t. He then looked down in defeat thinking he lost. But… for some reason I stopped. He was clearly very talented and must have put in a ton of hard work or at least more than me to get this strong. So I dropped the chains.

He looked at me confused and I sat down and beckoned him to do the same. Kid sat in front of me and started a fire with some branches from a nearby tree. “Nice, let's talk.” I said and He nodded. And I told him the series of events that led up to this point. “Now tell me a little bit about you. I don't know much but I should understand enough if you go slow." The kid nodded and signed “ok” but then suddenly the guy with the music Brand jumped down and yelled “I found y’all, get ready for my attack!” Luckily I still had the steel on my hand so I turned it into a metal boomerang. Hunter taught me how to use that too. I focused and hit him right into his stomach, which then sent him down the mountain.

“You think he's ok?” signed the fire guy. “Probably.” I replied to get back to the conversation “Well my name is Blaze, as you can probably tell I was born mute. But I was also born like this. I cannot turn this fire off. I'm stuck. And because of that my parents abandoned me when I was young.” He continued. “I was found on the street by hunter on the verge of starvation about 3 years ago and he trained me.” “Wow.” I say in response, “that's a lot for a kid to go through. Tell you what, how about we work together to win this thing, Hunter was also my mentor." "That sounds nice,” my new friend replied. I stood up but my burns from the fight still didn’t heal, usually Brand users have not only upgraded speed, power and durability, but their healing factor also is increased. But my burns still hurt. Blaze immediately saw that and tried to make me rest and signed, “I’m sorry for your injuries, I’ll do the rest, while you try not to move.”, to which I replied, “Nah, It’s ok. I’m fine.” He said, “Are you sure?" "Yeah,” I replied.