You ready yourself, it's time to demonstrate to the instructors your worth. You study your opponent who towers over you. A mocking grin painted on their face.

“Begin.”

Your legs are a blur, flying across the 7 meters. Your fist strikes nothing but air as they sidestep. That grin. “Push forward. Hound the enemy, boy!” Aunty Li’s orders engraved into your very being. They throw a punch of their own. When did they move in? Your jaw aches and you almost lost your grip on the stone clenched in you left hand. That grin.

The next minute is can only be described as a beating, your strength leaving you with every blow. A palm to the nose, a kick to the shin, multiple blows to the stomach. All the while that grin. It takes so much to keep standing but you have to get at least one hit in. Five years, five years that will not have been spent in vain!

A roar fills you as you feel it. Yes, this red aura of power. You can see it all, standing atop the world. THAT GRIN. The stone flakes to nothing as its energy fills you. Gathering the ki, mana, unidentifiable energy. One punch is all it will take. You think your haymaker is the wind in a tornado, the water in a flood, the earth and fire in a volcano. It isn’t. They duck and tackle you to the ground. Head bouncing on the stone floor the last thing you see is that poorly painted grin on the golem’s face as everything fades to black.

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A soft groan of pain emerges from the young boy as consciousness returns. Eyes cracking open he stares blankly at the ceiling before sitting up with a hiss. He’s on the second story of the monastery if the window’s view is anything to go by. The smell of herbs and charms against infection, spirits and misfortune telling him that he’s in the physician’s room.

“You will stay in bed until I deem so young Maud.” Physician Xander's sitting figure stated softly not even opening his eyes.

“u-Understood Physician Xander. Would you happen to… to know when I’m expected to move into the worker’s dormitory?”

“You have processed a stone, you are a squire now. You should be well enough by supper time to attend it. For now take the Codex by your bedside and parse through it. I will be near if any complications from the stone manifest. Another one is stirring. Farewell.”

With that the physician stood and walked out of the room. Leaving Maud to processes his shock. Turning to his bedside was a leather tome emblazoned with the words The Order of Iron and Ash.

With shaking hands he took it and hugged it to his chest, weeping.

Order of Iron and Ash

Engrave the follow into you very being

1. Bravery, honor and effort are of more import than birth. 

2. Your glories, your triumphs, your failures and your shame belongs to the Order

3. All of sound mind and body are welcome to the Order

4. Expect no glory and demand no thanks for deeds done

5. Speak no lies and commit no lies