Double chapters today :D

---

I stood there looming above the dead beast the size of a tiger, I was waiting for approval of having finished the first test. But I misunderstood something which quickly I came to realise as the sand shifted and they leaped out, there wasn't a single beast inside the arena but three. The last two waited for me to lower my guard and ambushed me, they leaped out of the sand with incredible speed and crashed into my back launching me forward. I hit the sandy ground multiple times as I tumbled forward, they chased me and aimed to lock me down to the ground. They leaped again and came upon my body putting my tumbling to a stop, one bit down on my legs keeping me in place with its jaws while the other stood over me as I stared up at it unable to move. It looked into my eyes then down to my neck as it opened its jaw to bite down, but then all went dark. The whole arena was engulfed with a black mist after an explosion of force from my position, I couldn't feel my body anymore but I knew it was there. I could sense everything the mist touched including myself, the beasts down to the smallest difference in the sand.The beasts had been thrown away from my body and their senses had taken a hit from the mist's side effects, being that sight, hearing and smell were no longer usable outside a meter radius from themselves. I had to hurry as I could not keep this form for long, I forced my body to move and make as much distance as possible between me and the two beasts. After I had ran through half the arena I unsummon Wayne and resummon Ember, the mist starts to dissipate and within seconds disappears completely while the usage of my mana stops with it.

I stopped running and turned around, the beasts had finally noticed my position and turned to give chase. There was about twenty or so meters between us but they ate through that length fast, I readied Ember to load a larger projectile type. When they arrived within five meters I pulled the trigger, the explosive shot flew right in between them and exploded sending half of itself towards each beast and knocking it away while doing the same effect a blunt shot would. I didn't stop there and immediately ran in between the beasts who were knocked down and a couple meters away from each other, while within the span of four seconds I pulled the trigger six times, two blunts followed by a piercing shot per beast all aimed at their heads. One died while the other survived by tilting its head quickly making the last two shots hit its eye, blinding both eyes as the pierce shot went through the shattered bone and onto the other eye. I stood there as the beast yelped and then hissed while sniffing and listening to find my position, it's nose was sharp and after locating me it charged but my gun was already lined up. The final shot left the barrel and pierced its cracked scales right between two bloody eye sockets, killing the last beast. A voice filled my ears from the room's comms,"You shall now be teleported to the next test, please await your squad members there. The test will be a three on three match."

Teleportation circles surrounded me, runic inscriptions summoned by mages to connect a beings mana to another runic inscription which is the destination. The being is then moved through space between the circle and the destination circle. When I appeared I found myself inside a similar room with another five outfit leaders and three recruits, the gorgon's team. They are on the other side of the room from me within the blackened barrier and currently arguing about something, I ignored them and sat down on the sand resting and recovering my mana. That fight had taken about 30% of my mana reserves and from what our technology can detect my mana recovery is about 0.0010% per second normally and 0.005% while meditating, a state in which you retrieve your aura completely and focus your mana solely on your mana pores. Mana pores are the ethereal tunnels that connect our body to the soul, a soul that resides within the spirit realm. But meditation has a downside, as aura is the sole defence our body naturally has against attacks targeting our mana pores and therefore is a state solely used while out of combat. I was currently out of combat so I entered a meditative state while waiting for Anabel and Ell. Meditation also has another side effect as while within that state the mana focusing on the pores enlarges them by force slowly over time, increasing one's mana reserves. Your mana reserves refer to how much mana your body can hold and how fast mana can be transferred from your soul, by cycling your mana into your pores you also put stress on your body to hold denser mana and the denser the mana your body can hold the more mana you have.

After about one forth of an hour Anabel appeared next to me, she looked pale and worn out but not injured unlike my legs. At first I figured the outfit leaders would heal injuries but it became apparent that any non fatal injury sustained within the second test was kept throughout the third also, a mercenary would face worse odds in the wild and we still had no idea what kind of beasts lived in the other realms. She turned and looked at me for a couple seconds while I meditated, looking over my leg injuries and the blood tickling down from my forehead's minor injury. "I..ah..." she seemed about to say something but held it back, entering her own meditative state and a more advanced one for that. Using her knowledge and larger mana reserves she quickly regenerated her mana while I was still missing around 16%, the difference between me and a real sorceress. Only eight minutes after Ell appeared behind us, cuts all over her left arm and weapons still in hand. She wielded nature magic as her race's main element and with it controlled vine like whips with bladed edges like a polearm, ten of them seemingly growing out of her arms and back. Over the room's comms a voice spoke to us, "You have exactly five minutes to recover yourselves how ever you can, you will be instructed before the match begins."

"Ell! What happened to your arm?!" Anabel went under Ell's vines which were currently holding her up and put Ell's arm over her shoulder to hold her up.

"A plains wyvern...Very long claws..." she put up a smile while Anabel set her down and rested her palm over her injury, pouring her mana into it she started healing. The cuts started to close seemingly on their own as Ell's worn out expression slowly faded, Anabel on the other hand was glancing towards me slightly ashamed.

"Don't worry about it." I exclaimed.

"Huh? W...what?.." Her glances turned into a slightly flushed stare.

"My injuries aren't worth healing magic, your mana is more precious than a couple bite marks. Its why you didn't offer to heal them, you don't need to be ashamed of your decisions it will only slow you down." I knew why she didn't offer but was too busy meditating to relieve her guilt before.

"Y..Yeah..." she looked back down focusing on healing Ell's arm.

"So what monsters did you guys get to fight?" Ell was already brimming with energy and curiosity.

"A shade....It's a corrupted dark spirit that attacks your soul directly ignoring your aura...Deadly to mage types but still susceptible to physical attacks." Anabel answered her question first then they both turned to me.

"Dog like beasts with hard scale armour, about the size of a tiger or lion. Long tusk like saberteeth and strong hind legs for quick leaps. I don't know what they are called." The pain from the bite had finally subsided but the headache from the fall was still present.

"Those are Argers, they are one of many descendant races from the spirit beasts. I'm surprised you managed to incapacitate three of them, your not a physical fighter so their head on and agile movements must have been a pain." Anabel finished healing Ell's wounds and let go of her arm, leaving her stand on her own.

Ell's wound disappeared along with her weariness, her vines retreated into her uniform hiding themselves. Right on cue a voice alerted us the the start of the match, "Your time is up, you shall now proceed to the final test. Damage will be sustained unless it is fatal, limb severing or sense depriving, in which case you will be teleported instantly out of harms way but you will be counted out of the fight. When all members from a team are counted as out the test ends and you will be all teleported out of the arena. Ready yourselves, the match begins....Now!"

The Gorgon and Drakeling had already started their charge, dual short swords and pole-arm in hand respectively while the dwarfess held a two handed dwarven artillery cannon. The Gorgon slither forward at terrifying speed while surrounding her self in her race's prime element, fire blazed all over her scaled body and surrounded her blades. The Drakeling on the other hand used his large wing span to launch himself into the air aiming for our backline with his blazing pole-arm, fire surging all over his body as well. The dwarfess loaded her cannon and moved towards a supportive position within her firing range, close enough to shoot us and far enough to not deal with physical fighters. Ell sprinted forward towards the Gorgon with her vine's behind her like spears, Anabel started chanting a spell as green runes floated above her arm gestures while I walked forward with Ember in hand. I honestly couldn't possibly miss the next shot, the Drakeling made it too easy and when he saw my pistol he instantly knew how much he had fucked up. I raised my arm and in quick succession fired a single piercing shot aiming for his head, 3/4 of the way through his leap he was teleported out of the arena. I glanced at Ell while she forced the Gorgon to dance around her vines while keeping her a safe distance away, the Gorgon tried cutting the vines and even slashed one apart but the vine simply regrew its length and blade. I then looked on behind them and saw the dwarfess taking aim on Ell, with trained movements I rushed forward as quickly as I could right as Anabel's spell finished. A rush of energy flowed through my body as the buff took effect, my speed doubled as each step turned into a leap and I raced past Ell and the Gorgon.

I closed in the distance right as the first shot was fired, before it exited the cannons barrel I had raised Ember mid run and shot a blunt shot. The two projectiles collided and exploded, was this dwarf trying to kill her teammate?...I ran past the explosion and got within close quarters of her, my agility with a pistol even of this size was faster than her slow and rigid movements with a two handed cannon. I kicked the cannon to the side as it was aiming for my face while at the same time pulling my trigger, the piercing shot flew true and would have killed her if it wasn't for the teleportation. I turned to engage the Gorgon but was left disappointed as a column of fire rose from her previous position, the Gorgon would have been done for if it wasn't for one terrible miscalculation on Anabel's part. Drakons are immune to damage by normal fire, with that in mind I rushed forward but the speed buff Anabel gave me had run out. Due to the large column of fire and the bright light it emitted Ell was momentarily blinded, the Gorgon surged forth from the fire and slithered under her vines aiming for the kill. But I wasn't having it, to achieve my goal of joining the second scouting regiment to the new realm I had to ace the best score on these tests and with the blunder with the Argers my blood was already long boiling. I burnt my mana supply as I summoned forth Wayne and loaded both Aethers, pulling both triggers I released a flurry of projectiles with keen accuracy. The Gorgon heard the shots and was able to deflect most of Ember's shots and dodge the rest but what came after was the real attack, using Ember's attacks as cover and to pin her down I charged up Wayne's attack. Pulling the trigger my arm fell backwards with trained movements to not injure it as a purple projectile shot forth from the barrel and expanded to three times the size of my fist, I called it a blast shot. A projectile of pure condensed chaos mana holding untold destructive force but draining requirements, in total while in combat I could fire five of these but their speed was half of a normal projectile and required precision, timing and locking down your target.

The blast shot was only moments away from the Gorgon as it moved its arms and blades to deflect the smaller projectiles, she was teleported out right after. Ell fell on her knees relieved while Anabel stood in place staring at where the column of fire once rose, we were teleported out of the room right after. The Gorgon's squad was all there along with the other members of their squad and the rest of ours, while the Gorgon and the dwarfess glared at me the Drakeling walked towards me and held his hand up. "Nice aim hot shot, that was completely my fault." he had an embarrassed expression on his reptilian face,as to not be rude I shook his hand and we parted ways walking towards our squad. We also had received a system message with the following;

Your examination has ended therefore please continue on with your day while our experts decide on your rankings, you will receive another notification tomorrow morning with your rank and a status update along with a permissions update to allow you to see other's ranks. If further examination is required you will be sent a private message by your outfit sub-commander; Reas Castell

I closed the message and looked around our group.

"Well I expected you all to be more beat up, guess you aren't as bad as I expected." Captain Carlos looked us over and our minor injuries, he then turned and glanced back "What are you waiting for? We're heading to the training room. It's time to properly introduce ourselves and see each other's abilities." and with that we start the descent down the stairs towards room 52.

It wasn't a rule or anything, more of a custom within the E.A. Stating your past and recounting your glory or failures, sharing them with your squad members. I was told of this by the recruiter and that the squad wouldn't fully trust me if I didn't abide by this custom. Honestly I didn't like it, remembering it all that is. But I promised myself I wouldn't turn back anymore, I wouldn't give up and finally make something out of myself. We got to the 52nd room, entered and sat down to the side on the benches with the captain standing up in front of us.Captain Carlos started first "We'll start with me I guess I use to be part of the human military on the north american continent, After the third void wave that is." The third wave it was called, the wave that almost annihilated our race. The Etyrians had survived two of those and we barely survived one with their help. "I was a simple soldier helping in clearing out the void remnants to move the portals and rifts, in the end I couldn't stand the government's lamenting and left. Now here I am. As for combat I perform in melee range with a range of body enhancement magic utilising our race's chaos attribute to mostly augment my damage and manoeuvrability. My main abilities are teleportation along with martial arts combined with magic." he opened his arms wide with a grinning expression then walked over to the bench and sat down while Lia got up.

"Honestly speaking not much to say from my part, I'm the daughter of the southern were-clan's pack leader. Left home in look for adventure with pay...That's about it.My combat style is similar to the Captains but I also rely on stone bending along with this cub." She raises her left arm and runic inscriptions appear along it while red ethereal dust flowed out of them, next to her a lion twice the size of a normal one appeared."This is Fei, she's my contracted spirit."The lioness had dark red fur with an even darker red mane, her eyes seemed lit with flames if you looked close enough. "Jerrald your turn."and with that she walked back to the bench and sat down while tapping on Jerrald's back, he sighed and got up right after Fei dissipated.

"Alright then." He looks around the group "I'm the ex platoon leader of the second Jax-Force one of three platoons led by ex-outfit leader Jax Meister, I aided in the second wave thirty years ago as a young soldier and then lead the second Jax-Force in the third wave fourteen years ago. I've seen as many battles as you all have seen years, but as seasoned a warrior as i may be the battlefield never stopped calling and as such I stayed My combat style consists mostly of barrier summoning through the runes on my shield and spear, I also have the ability to use aura magic to regenerate your bodies. But beware as lost limbs will most probably stay lost, the regeneration is minimal and gives a slight burst in adrenaline flow." He nodded to Kale and took a seat while Kale got up and stood in front of us also.

Kale crossed his arms and started to speak "Life long member of the E.A mercenaries, I was born into the group as both my parents were members. Along with my two siblings, my sister being Ell's mother and two others we formed our own squad. I was as I am now the squads first ranger which entails taking leadership in scouting missions and reconnaissance objectives, I have a long history of bandit hunting along with aiding in the second and third void waves. My combat style focuses around bow and arrow with augmentation and runic magic while utilising our race's nature attribute to gain positions unobtainable through normal means." His eyes seemingly begin to glow as a dense green aura forms out of them while the sand beneath him shook, a series of trees and vines let him rise as high as he wished them to while giving him incredible angles for a sniper along with natural cover and stealth."Ell your next." He forced the tree and vines back under the sand then stepped over back to the bench to sit down.

Ell got up and rushed to stand in front of us, she gleamed at us and began "I..umm..Trained under mother and her squad until she retired." she stopped to think for a moment staring emptily at something "Was with her squad when our race built up the forces to help Earth in the third wave and also...Ah! Helped with recovering civilians!" She then did a series of gestures in midair to form a green rune which turned to green sparks and entered her body "I focus on medium range agility combat with my babies!" Ten long green vines grew out of her uniform which then grew blade like thorns shaped like an arrow head "My arrow-vines can attack fast in medium range while also able to shoot their thorns for a long range barrage! Though the thorns take a couple moments to regrow...Ana? Its your turn..." she looked worried while she glanced at Anabel who looked to be spacing out.

"Hmm? Oh...Yeah...Sorry...Sorry..." Anabel got up and stood in front of Ell who stepped around her and sat down. "First I..I want to say something..." She turned and glanced between me and Ell "I'm sorry for my blunder...I knew Drakons are immune to fire but...I forgot...But that's not an excuse is it?...I made a mistake...And I..."

"Stop."

"Huh?W...Why?..." Her expression went pale as I spoke up, saying what everyone else was also most probably thinking.

"Yes you made a mistake but you were also drained from the previous fight, we all were. Draining us before hand for the second...or I should say third test, was one of the plans the leaders had. They wanted to see how we would perform and making us face against bad odds was one way of doing so, apologising won't do anything but put everyone down. Instead look up and promise us you won't fail again, every one makes mistakes but staying stuck on those mistakes without learning from them...That would be the real mistake. In a life and death situation you should count more on your team mates, if they can cover for what you lack at that moment than all is well." I don't know why I decided to speak out, I guess that's just who I am.

A couple moments after "Alright now that you're done sulking, Connery continue." The captain was the one to talk now, asking Anabel to continue and breaking the ice.

"I..uh..Yeah...Yes Sir." She straightened herself "I'm part of humanity's first true generation of sorcerers and sorceresses, I was taught under the teachings of the brightest minds along with my peer classmates. I was the second top sorceress of my class and fifth best from the whole school. My combat magic is divided into three types, assault magic which entails in large area magic barrages, minor healing magic giving me the ability to aid major wounds with physical contact and close other types of wounds within a certain range. My third magic type is single target augmentation magic, more specifically called buffing and allows me to increase one's agility, eye to mind perceptiveness, skin toughness comparable to small mana barriers and a debuff that can temporarily add nausea to an enemy." She stood there for a bit to let us take it in, when we didn't respond she turned slightly red.

"That's amazing ana!" Ell was the first to react and clapped her hands together while her expression was one of pure delight,Anabel turned redder as she moved to sit back down next to Ell.

I guess it was my turn, so I decided to start from the beginning and skip the sulky parts,I got up and stepped forward onto the sand, turning around I was now right in front of everyone. They said their stories and now it was my turn to share mine.

---

Edited by: Birse ;Have a good day everyone~

Author; Those that read my previous story should know...I'm not sorry.... Remember to rate :D!