Chapter 8: Ocoloss

Stumbling out of the classroom and abandoning Cedric who was facing his repercussions for being late, I made my way to the Trials class I had next.

"Hey Valen!" Tyrus greeted me as I turned the corner.

"Hello Tyrus." I replied meekly, still exhausted from my previous match. "Where's Leon?" I asked, wondering where that giant was hiding.

He flashed me a puzzled face. "I'm not too sure either, I left class earlier after he said he had something to do. On the topic of lost companions, where's Cedric?"

"Right there." I uttered before turning around and making a steady retreat.

Walking menacingly towards me was an infuriated Cedric. His disdain eyelids twitching with every step he took, a false smile embedded onto his face.

"Heyyy Valen, lucky to see you here." He hissed, grabbing me firmly by the shoulder and stopping me from avoiding the situation.

"Just a prank! Jokes! Yes, funny jokes." I pampered whilst trying to remove his iron firm grip from my shoulder, but to no avail.

"Oh really now?" Cedric spewed, his words bathed in venom.

A sharp and loud voice cut through the hallway, giving me an opportunity to escape when Cedric's attention had been diverted. "Class commence! Everyone to their group seats."

Thank the Gods, I thought to myself. Who knows what an angered Cedric was capable of?

Everyone waddled into the classroom and found their seats before Professor Karlee started her usual briefing.

"Last lesson we organised and hopefully finalised some of our groups. Those who are still trying to find a position, you can use this lesson to sort it out, however for the completed groups, we are going to do something more practical." She hinted, allowing conversations to break out for a few seconds. "As you may have heard from other lessons, the learning schedule has been been bumped up massively and while a usual class might have a few weeks of preparation, you lot will be facing the Ocoloss today."

"Miss the Ocoloss!? Isn't it way too early for us to be even attempting that." A student shouted out from the back, his emotions a mix between fear and anger.

"Yeah he's right. It's way too dangerous for beginners like us!"

Calls of agreement and protests descended upon the room, but were quelled by the Professor's raised hand.

"I can understand some of your worries," She said sympathetically. "However, this has been a direct order from the higher ups who request that we make use of the exclusive technology given to us. As you may know, the Ocoloss is essentially a replica of a floor on the Trials and contains beasts originating from the actual tower that have been brought here. There is no better form of training for the upcoming hardships of the Trials other than the use of the Ocoloss."

"But Professor it's still out of our ability range!" A voice called out, collecting a few nods of approval.

"We have taken that into account and have only brung the weakest monsters from the Trials. Not only this, but there will be constant supervision from actual challengers as well. I can assure you that your safety is our main priority."

What a joke, I thought to myself. They bring themselves to Ashburn Academy expecting the highest form of education but when there's a hint of danger, they go running off.

Tyrus, who noticed my anger gently nudged me and gave an inquisitive look.

"It's nothing." I muttered under my breath.

Tyrus, who seemed satisfied with the response resumed his focus on what Professor Karlee was saying.

"That concludes everything that I wanted to say to you, those with completed groups, gather around me, and for the uncompleted groups, you have free reign over this entire area in order to sort out your groups."

"Still no sign of Leon." Tyrus said worryingly, his usual joker face was replaced by one of anxiousness.

"It's Leon, if anyone is going to put that bull in danger it has to be a second or third year at least." Cedric voiced reassuringly.

Getting up from his seat Tyrus looked towards the entrance. "I guess you're right." He whispered, his eyes not matching his words.

Following Cedric down towards the Professor with Cedic trailing behind, we got caught in an avalanche of people all going to the same place as us.

Slowly slithering my way to the front of the crowd, a firm shoulder met mine. "Watch where you're going kid." A voice barked from above.

"My bad, I'll be more observant next time." I <font _mstmutation="1" _msthash="20488" _msttexthash="158613">apologised</font>, not wanting to make a scene.

He shook his head and stomped through. "Damn right."

His last words caused my eyebrows to switch slightly as I felt the immediate urge to put the big guy on the floor, but the disapproving look from Cedric who had caught on stopped me.

"Ignore jackasses like him, he's honestly not worth your time."

"Fine." I grunted, finally finding my way to the front.

Professor Kaylee waved her hands in the air. "Now that everyone with a group has gathered, please let me escort you to the next room where the Ocoloss will be waiting." She gestured for us all to follow as we went to the room.

Opening the large, steel doors and stepping into the room, it was evident that the school did it's best to replicate everything. Although I haven't experienced what the Trials waiting area had looked like, stories from challengers had given me a vague picture. What was waiting on the other side however, made my little imagination seem like a joke.

From the vibrant, blue fired lanterns that hung along the sides of the rectangle room, to the ominous hooded figure that stood before the two stairs leading up to a high platform, everything seemed dark and eerie. The room was littered with shades of grey and black, mostly from the shadows created by ancient walls that sprung up from the surroundings like a ruin. The walls themselves seemed identical to those of the stories I heard, but instead of it being majestic, the walls here wreaked of death.

A whimper of a voice spoke up. "Um P-Professor a-are you sure it's safe here?"

"Yes, I can assure you that nothing here can hurt you."

Taking another look around the shadowy room, I noticed something that looked out of place. Right by the left stairway up, a knight stood tall, brandishing it's sword in the air like a momentum. It's figure was clad in a smooth amour, but there was no sign of erosion or faults with the statue itself.

It seems too new and it sticks out like a sore thumb in all of these worn down relics. Thinking back, didn't the Professor mention something about supervision from challengers?

To confirm my suspicions, I broke away from the crowded group still observing the room and moved towards the peculiar statue.

Reinforcing my hidden hand with mana, I kept my stride towards the statue until I was around a metre away from the it's large figure that stood around eight feet tall.

With a sudden creak, the arm with the sword swung downwards as I pivoted on my right leg, positioning myself to the knight's side with a mana reinforced hand itching to release a solid blow on the aggressor.

Hungry for action, I threw the punch into its stone ribs, sending it across the room as it used it's hand to slow down it's momentum, an irritating screeching reverberating around the room.

Darting towards the knight in an instant, I released an early roundhouse kick at it's head with pinpoint accuracy. The knight reacted even faster, bringing the heavy decorative sword to its face, acting as a sort of shield. The clang of my foot against the rock fueled my next attack which was launched at one of the knight's supporting legs.

My other leg ploughed into the exposed limb with a crackle as the rock crumbled beneath the force. The knight seemingly angered by my action, sent a piercing punch at my right side with an increased speed that even I found hard dodging.

My nimble legs launched me away before the punch made contact, but the force of the blow still sent a shockwave of air to impact me in the chest. Using my hand to dig into the ground, I stopped myself from crashing into the upcoming wall to my rear.

A soft, but deep chuckle filled the room. "We've got a feisty one this time!" The voice boomed with excitement and amusement.

Stepping out from the shadow where the voice came from, a stocky dwarf came marching out with his meaty clobberes for arms folded around each other.

"What's your name boy?!"

"Valen from high house Cynrad." I replied, standing up to the gaze from the prideful dwarf.

Stopping a few metres away from me, he shook his head in approval. "Maybe I made the right decision coming here after all!"

"Of course you have, this is one of the best academies you foul mouthed mutt." A sharp voice cut out from the shadow where the dwarf emerged.

"Ooh, Mr. Twinkle Toes, your words are especially venomous today!" The dwarf bellowed towards the approaching figure.

The human that came forward was dressed in a fine military jacket laced with golden straps and a cutlass hanging from his side. His long hair was vibrant white and flowed freely behind his shoulders.

"Cut your bickering already, we are not exactly leaving a good first impression."

Both arguing supervisors turned quickly to where the voice came from.

"Well, if it wasn't for this muscle for brains idiot attacking a student then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation." The human figure huffed, turning his head to the side.

"As long as no-one was actually hurt, then it's fine for little, "test"." The other human figure smirked. "Let's get started shall we?"

Professor Kaylee led the rest of the group to where the superiors and I were standing. "Welcome to the ocoloss starting room. As you may have overheard, these experienced challengers will be your supervisors during this training. I'm sure they can introduce themselves." She shot the three challengers with a threatening glare after witnessing the whole ordeal before.

The black haired human stepped forward hesitantly. "Hello students, as your teacher has so kindly explained, we three challengers will be ensuring that your safety is maintained throughout your training in the ocoloss."

"I'm Dugin.' The dwarf grunted. "As long as you're under my care you can rest assured accidents won't happen. I can't say the same for the two beside me though!" He jested, gleaming a smile as his companions who returned it with a disappointed look.

"Ignore the fool." The white haired human said planely, cupping his forehead in his hands. "You students can address me as Aimon from high house Luxen, the black haired one to my side is Darmond from high house Cinder."

The stocky dwarf walked up the stairway to the large door that isolated the room, his loud footsteps ringing around the desolate room and his ashburn beard swinging around his chin. "Since there's three of us supervisors, we can take three groups at a time to the ocoloss." He looked around the room at our half frightened, but eager expressions. "Any volunteers?"

Locking eyes with the jestfull dwarf, I raised my hand slowly as two other group leaders followed my example.

"The daring one is the first to go huh?" He asked rhetorically. "Well then you three bring your groups up here and we'll guide you through."

Making the first move up the platform, the other leaders trailed behind sceptical of what was waiting on the other side. I glanced at my back and saw Cedric, Tyrus and… Leon?

He must have arrived just now. Regardless I carried on forward to the door and waited for the rest of them to catch up.

"Psst kid." The dwarf discreetly whispered to me. "You want me as a supervisor right?" He winked.

"Picking favourites are we now?" Aimon asked, walking past the small dwarf.

"Pffft." Dugin muttered, but made no attempt to deny the accusation.

The uniformed supervisor steadily approached me. "Since I can't trust this useless dwarf with anything these days, I'll be supervising your group. Do you mind my proposal?"

"It's fine, I don't mind."

I could hear a subtle traitor being murmed behind my back but I ignored it.

"Valen!" Cedric called as my group formed around me.

"Hey guys." I said, trying my best to smile. "How'd you find Leon anyway?"

"He said his little business took longer than he thought, maybe a confession?" Tyrus responded, winking at the embarrassed Leon.

"Nothing like that you dimwit." He exclaimed.

"Well all that matters is that you're here and well." Cedric added. "So, what's the plan Valen? I know you always dive head first into confrontations but isn't this… a bit more radical?"

"Don't worry." I said, sweeping the dust from my shoulder pads. "With supervisors here it's true that our safety will be practically guaranteed and the ocoloss is a place that I want to explore."

Tyrus shook his head. "We haven't been with you long Valen, but I'm already getting dangerous vibes whenever you do something like this."

"Wanna leave then?" I asked.

"Hell no, this sort of stuff gets me riled up and excited! Ain't that right you stump?"

"Speak for yourself." Leon chimed in, lifting a flailing Tyrus by his head. "But I'm happy here right now, so whatever comes I'll do my best as a protector." For once, a genuine smile came across his face.

Turning around and walking towards the opening doors that fluttered with emerging light I said one last thing to the group before we awesomely stormed through the large doors leading to an unknown expanse.

"Glad to have you aboard."