Chapter 30: 5th place

In the meeting room inside the Heroic Hall, 5 Advisors were facing 5 individuals, nominees for the title of the King of the Psiora.

The Regal Advisor requested for one of his assistants who had a useful resource of projection. The information or an image that she had in her mind could be displayed in the form of a half-transparent hologram.

The young woman with a seemingly regular humanoid body but with a very prolonged head with no hair. She took the tablet with information that had been prepared beforehand and started her magic. Five separate holograms appeared on top of each candidate. Basic information, achieved tasks, and total stars.

Safo read with awe, the competitors were no joke.

[ 1. Kardon Gar - son of the Internal Security Adviser Kundlur Gar. Head of the Internal Security Army (ISA). Age - 25. 10 years of work experience in ISA.

Tasks:

Task 1. 500.000 zee investment from the Safe Universe Bank for gears and weaponry for ISA. 4 Stars

Task 2. 5-starred secret mission - completed. 5 Stars

Task 3. 5-starred secret mission - completed. 5 Stars

Task 5. Prevented the uprising on Hfan. 3 Stars (-1 for casualties amongst the civilian)

Task 7. Intellectual level 4 Lice - extra tiny, the best for espionage. Intellectual level 2 Cockroaches - immune to most types of radiation. 4 and 3 (too small to do the necessary job) Stars

Total stars: 24 Stars ]

Kardon Gar was a tough-looking guy, in the body of a humanoid bug. He had four transparent wings folded on his back, six limbs four of which were muscular hands. Hard skin was glittering on the light, the top of his head was a dense bone carapace. Being mostly black and grey in color gave him an advantage on the secret stealth missions. He was at a regular height of about 1.9 meters.

Kardon served in the secret service under his father’s command most of his life. During his service time, he successfully completed hundreds of high-risk missions. Earning his position to replace his father.

The first task in the trial was not his merit. His father used the connections that he managed to build as an Adviser and organized the investments. Nevertheless, the rest of the tasks Kardon accomplished by himself.

Kardon became some sort of an idol for youth after declaring his participation for the title.

[ 2. Yon Ace - son of the former Psiora war hero Tarron Ace. Currently Rank 5 in the Empire army. Age - 24. The youngest psiora that earned a Status (at 20 years) - Exceptional.

Tasks:

Task 2: 4-starred order - completed. 4 Stars

Task 3: 4-starred order - completed. 4 Stars

Task 4: Empire military training camp for kids - 4 Stars

Task 6: Achieved Status - Exceptional. 5 Stars

Task 7: Intellectual level 2 Peacock from the Empire’s hunting grounds. 3 Stars

Total stars: 20 Stars ]

Yon Ace was on New Tenga for the first time. After Psiora lost the war to the Empire, the latter banned the military from recruiting. new soldiers. Every single soldier was dismissed from their position. Some started their mercenary career, some were private guards, others lost their aim in life. Taroon Ace was the third type. His interest in family dramatically dropped while his love for alcohol increased.

The Empire hired children for the army to raise patriotic soldiers. It was the best way to get the most from the military forces. Yan’s father got hooked on the rod and practically sold his only child.

The Empire fed, clothed, and raised him as a cog in the wheel. When he heard that the New Tenga decided to choose a different royal lineage and his former commander was taking participation in it, Yan rushed to leave the army.

[ 3. B’hemah the ”Behemoth” Cultrin - vice president of the billion zee intergalactic corporation Ptech. Son of the president of Ptech, Hueat Cultrin. Age - 22.

Tasks:

Task 1: 10 million zee, investment to open a branch of Ptech on the planet Psiora. 5 Stars

Task 2: 5-starred order - completed. 4 Stars (hired the mercenaries)

Task 3: 5-starred order - completed. 4 Stars (hired the mercenaries)

Task 4: Presented a hi-tech way of construction. 5 droid-builders (1 million each) donated to the government. 5 Stars

Task 5: 5 radiation-resistant droids (1 million each) donated to the planet Hfan. 5 Stars

Task 7: Intellectual level 3, cold-resistant birds. 3 Stars. Intellectual level 3, small radiation-resistant birds. 4 Stars. Intellectual level 4, cold-resistant birds. 4 Stars.

Total stars: 34 Stars ]

An enormous dark red humanoid bull, but not in a muscular way. B’hemah, the spoiled son of a spoiled father. For a businessman family with a billion zee corporation, New Tenga was another project to conquer, improve and earn profit. Father and son invested and bought everything that they could to finish the tasks. They hired mercenaries to do the orders from the bureau. As a punishment B’hemah received only 4 Stars for the second and third tasks.

Intellectual level 4, gore metal bull, 5-star animal costing several hundred million zees. B’hemah was blessed to be born in a rich family and obtain such a rare body. His skin was impenetrable as a metal. His sharp horns could pierce through any flesh and crush and bone.

The bull wasn’t in the best shape though, he was fat and slow, but still fearsome.

[ 4. M.M. - Rank 3 in the Empire army. Age - 56. Commander of the Rank 4. Retired. 40 years of military experience.

Tasks:

Task 6: Achieved Status - Exceptional. 5 Stars

Total stars: 5 Stars ]

M.M was a dark horse in the race, no one ever saw him in New Tenga. Yan Ace knew him from his time in the Empire army. M.M. was a Rank 5 when Yan was a kid.

Nobody knew the reasons for M.M. wanting to take part in a competition. Several people attended a meeting on his behalf.

[ 5. Safo Nur - son of Princess Tala, grandson of the Great King Admaloo. Age - 18.

Tasks:

Task 7: Intellectual level 4, invisible (while in motion) Dogs. 4 Stars

Total stars: 4 Stars ]

Safo Nur was even more nervous after reading the holographic screens. He couldn’t imagine himself winning the fight against his opponents, especially without a resource. Two of them were fit, muscular, and army guys. The third one was an insanely fat bull, Safo was speechless. He already made plans to practice screaming “I give up!”, faster and louder.

He was sweating cold just by standing near them. A couple of times when they made eye contact with him, Safo tried to smile and greet the guys, only to receive a harsh, disdain stare for an answer.

‘Am I going to die here? After so much effort to get here, I will be crushed under the belly of a red bull.’ Safo was full of regrets.

{“Are you sure you can win a fight with these people, Safo?”} Luna was depressing the situation even more. {“Maybe I should find another vessel for me? Haha, no offense, haha.”}

In front of Safo was Kutch with a dejected expression. Safo was glad that he had a friend who was concerned about him, unlike O’rmon who seemed not to care at all.

When in fact, Kutch was crying inwardly, his precious puppies were counted as Safo's present to New Tenga. His uncle, Halazar, used them to put some Stars on Safo’s data. Puppies would be gifted and Kutch could not gain any profit out of them.

Achraf was thinking the same as Luna, to try to find some animal and hire psiora people's magic abilities to assist with transferring her from Safo’s potentially endangered body.

When the meeting was over, everyone was leaving to start preparation to fulfill the demands of the trial. Nobody had enough time to threaten or do harm to Safo now. They had important things to do instead.

Safo reunited with his companions when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning around he saw a handsome gazelle-man standing tall behind him. Knife-like ringed dark-brown horns, and reddish-brown coat, his hooves mutated to fingers making them extra hard. It was Yan Ace, a former Empire soldier.

"Umm... Hi?!"