11 First Impressions

The Pit became filled to the brim with the stench of sweat. I walked out of the simulation and immediately was faced by one of the drill instructors. A middle-aged man with a suit of armor coated in various accessories. One large sword with a blue and white hilt mixed with a blue and black hilt cover is attached at the side. He looked at me, "Young man, where do you hail from?" I replied, "From the village of Evandria, sir." He chuckled, "That little village? Who knew such inadequate work could reign from the son of Grand himself. Pathetic." With that final statement, he spits onto my face and I flinched and wiped my face off, I was pissed off. I began walking away from him, muttering to myself, "What the hell was his problem." I had to make sure he couldn't hear me but I wish I said it and screamed it into his face. What did he think gave him the right to call me out of nowhere like that. Has any other scribe done better than me? I thought I did well and of course, I tried my darndest. Petty quarrels are the quickest way to anger me. I'll prove to that moron what I'm capable of. According to Karthus, I'm death itself. I don't know about him but I wouldn't talk to the reaper like that when I meet him face to face. Asshole.

On an unrelated note, fellow Scribes were permitted to lounge in one of the Pits 'commons' it's essentially an area with several long rows of wooden tables. The kind of tables that you eat at while at a bar. Broken battered and gross. Vomit stained portions of the seats and that was no surprise. I can only imagine what kind of rigorous things they may do to us for "training". My mind has become deadset that I may make no new friends, and just be tortured into a tool of the Human arsenal. I got up and grabbed one of the wooden cups by the kitchen to quench my thirst. Not to mention I was also hungry, No one is able to tell what time of day it is in the Pit. I couldn't tell if it was even lunchtime but I definitely felt like I could eat anything edible. To my surprise, as I sat down some girl came along and sat across from me. I shot a glance at her, she was an elf.

Looking down at my uniform, she decided to speak to break the ice. "I'm Ivani, just so you know." I looked up, "I'm Osiris." The conversation was incredibly awkward, I don't talk to women. This is horrible, why is she even here. "I know what that man said to you was wrong." I clenched my fist under the table. "It's none of your business. He'll get what he deserves eventually." Ivani smirked, "Quite an ego on yourself huh, human?" I get that Ivani wants to talk but I'm trying to prepare myself for the next test mentally, Her trying to make friends is starting to mess up my flow. "Hey Ivani, I get what you're trying to do. But I'm going to ace this next test but I can't do that with this small talk going on. I need to focus." She nodded her head. Thank goodness, I went back into my plan of what I was going to possibly need for our next aptitude test.

An alarm sounded, and we all rushed back into the main arena. Ivani was to my right in the line. It was about to get real, this test was going to be the one on one fight. The man who pissed me off was about to talk, "It's now time for your one on one combat simulation. We will set you all in pairs beforehand to know who is going to be your sparring partner. No weapons will be allowed, only your two fists and thirst for victory." After this short monologue, glances shot across the room. The tension started rising in my head, I almost felt nervous. I have never had an opportunity to fight someone one on one. I did have martial arts training when I was younger by my father but we stopped doing that years ago. I felt like I may get cold feet when I had to step on the platform, but this was something that I needed to succeed at. I never necessarily wanted to be the Lord of death but who wouldn't want that awesome-sounding title all to themselves?

The instructors put us into groups of 16. It was sort of weird though, over in the corner was a big caged arena, but none of us were going to fight there. We were told that we would be doing it in several places around the room. This felt more like random combat than anything else. I got grouped with some fairly large kids, I was big for myself but these people were about as tall and wide as I was. Four of them started smiling and looked directly at Osiris, he was going to become their main target. The rumors about him being a champion lead them to believe he was a goal, ready to be accomplished when taken down by their own two hands. They didn't say anything to him but once the competition was ready to start Osiris was going to need to be prepared.

A total of four groups were spread out in a square fashion across the pit, of the four groups only 2 fights would be held, two competitors at a time. Unlike the last test, the instructors did actually say what they were going to be looking for, fewer hits taken gains points, more hits loses points, and a knockout gets you an ace. I came into this test thinking everyone would be fighting, but from the instructions, we were given. Each of the 4 groups had to pick one single person to represent their group. In a sense, this would weed out the ones who weren't up for being a punching bag. Which is understandable, but I saw what the instructors were doing. Looking at each individual expression, and those who were not fazed in the slightest. Those who showed no fear would probably be scouted out for separate branches. For me, I've always tried to be more reserved but if I were to ever have to lead someone why not start now? I was going to volunteer myself, and of course, nobody even gave a second thought. I was the "Champion." I hated that title, but I had to at least act like it.

The instructors were looking for you to knock someone out, and if you did that your group would ace the test. Osiris felt a bit queasy hearing that portion when called out. It didn't seem like the most ethical thing to look for in hand-to-hand, but then he remembered they are looking for soldiers and not just plain fighters. Ivani was not in the same group as Osiris, he began to wonder if she would win or not. He also wondered what kind of magic or abilities she might have. After thinking this, Osiris lost his confidence in one quick swoop. He didn't know how to use his abilities at all yet. The only time he used them was when he was almost dead. He looked up at the ceiling of the pit and mouthed the words, "What the fuck."