Entrance Test

Zyrtec Kingdom, in the royal castle, soldiers and servants could be seen running around seeming to be in search of someone or something.

"Lady Sterling, where are you?" was the call as they searched around.

In one of the bedrooms, four people stood there, two adults, a young man and a young teenage girl. They all exuded a royal aura. The two adults had crowns on their heads, which explained that they were the king and queen of the kingdom.

The king looked at the empty king sized bed before looking at the bedsheet tied to one of the windows, he caressed his brows as he sighed.

He looked at the knight standing at the side,"tell everyone to cancel the search... Sterling went on another adventure"

The knight saluted before withdrawing out of the room.

"She must have sneaked out after Uncle Oab left..." the girl said as she hugged a stuffed bear.

"See why I didn't want to allow Oab visit, Sterling tends to go haywire anytime he does and he mostly brings news that pique her interest, ugh" the beautiful woman in royal apparel said as she huffed in frustration. She is the current queen of the kingdom, Dorothy Zyrtec.

"Wife, it's not Oab's fault... She would have learnt of this, one way or the other" the king said as he approached Dorothy and embraced her before he began to pat her.

"I'm just worried, Luke... She's the future queen of our kingdom and she lacks in every aspect aside from her talents in battle" Dorothy said as she leaned into the embrace of her husband.

"There's no need to be worried, mom ... I think she will be fine, she has always been" the young man said as he flipped a page of the book he was reading. He had the features of Luke and Dorothy combined, he had Dorothy's black hair while he had Luke's blue eyes.

"You've got a point, Norman... You being here makes me more at ease..." Dorothy glanced at the young man with a smile.

Norman glanced at his mom and nodded before looking back at his book, Dorothy nodded as she understood him, knowing Norman didn't talk much.

"I still wonder how you both do it, I and daddy don't understand brother at all" the young girl pouted.

"Gabrielle, you just need to spend time with him and you will"

"Hmph, he is too boring" Gabrielle looked away with a huff causing the king and queen to smile helplessly. No one noticed Norman's stoic expression break before he composed himself. There was a residual sharp gleam in his eyes.

Persie Kingdom

This was the kingdom where Guardian Academy is located, the academy is run by the royal family, aside from the principal and most teachers, the academy staffs are mostly royalty.

No one has ever seen the principal but it is believed that the king of Persie Kingdom and the Principal are on par with each other.

Guardian Academy is located east of the kingdom, surrounded by small settlements, but before reaching the settlements you'll have to cross the hundred beast valley, which is a huge forest.

The dragon-scaled griffin landed at the entrance of the forest, Oab stood atop it as he watched the seven boys and girls jump off.

Having jumped off, they noticed they weren't the only ones in the vicinity, five other dragon-scaled griffins were already there, with students standing around them, the number of students varied.

Ezra noticed that they had the least number and he frowned as he knew this would lead to some skirmishes.

"Yo, Oab...finally back, we had to wait a long while for you" the huge man standing on the red griffin said as he folded his arms and stared at Oab who just picked his nose. He had the highest number of students around him.

"Yeah, you waited... But I never asked you to,did I,Darren?" Oab retorted without looking at the man.

Darren's mouth twitched before he noticed the seven students around Oab, he suddenly burst into laughter.

"Is that the number of fresh blood* you were able to get?"

Oab sneered,"quality over quantity... I'm sure your most favorable student can't match up to the least of mine"

"Are you joking, I've got a red talent of a deity class, and not just one but five " Darren retorted as he grinned.

Oab sighed as he decided to ignore the huge man, looking down at the seven people below him.

"I've got nothing much to say, kids... This is a test but accidents could happen, so make sure you survive through the forest and reach the town... " Oab said.

"... I can sense that you all have reached the threshold of getting into the 1st Order, therefore a battle would be the best stimulus to help you breakthrough..."

Oab conjured seven black metal bands which he sent towards Ezra and the others, the black bands immediately attached themselves to their wrists.

"... Your mission is to kill at least 100 demonic beasts while transversing the forest, those black bands will record your kill numbers and give us a general location of your position"

Ezra tapped on the screen of the band, the number zerk came up on the screen coupled with his name.

"...your safety is important, conflicts might arise between you and other students, fighting is allowed but no killing, once you kill ... Your recommendation is revoked and you would be handed to the kingdom guards... "

" There are supervisors in every area of the valley, so your safety is assured, but I still repeat, there can be unforeseen circumstances, so be careful" Oab instructed.

While Oab was instructing, the other teachers were doing the same.

Darren looked down at his students after he was done instructing them, in a low voice which reached the ears of all his students,"a few injuries is enough... I want you all to give those seven a hard time"

Darren felt a stare and looked towards the source, he noticed the brown skinned, white haired boy with red pupils staring at him apathetically, he was stunned, the boy looked away and Darren regained his composure.

"What was that?" When he had looked at the boy's eyes, he felt like he was going to be devoured by an entity. Looking back at his students, "be careful of that white haired kid"

*********

Ezra looked away from Darren before his lips curved upwards,"a few injuries, huh?"

"Ezra, which weapon are you proficient with?" Oab said, which pulled him out of his thoughts.

He looked around and noticed that he was the only one who hadn't gone out to accept a weapon from Oab. He looked up at Oab and shook his head.

"I'm more proficient fighting barehanded"

"Oh... I got something for you then..." Oab said as he tapped the air and a slit opened in space. He took out a pair of red and black coloured gauntlets and threw them towards Ezra who caught them. The slit in space closed.

Ezra was stunned by what Oab did, which hardened his belief that he was truly in a parallel world. Holding the gauntlet, Ezra felt a connection, like the gauntlets were his and he could feel the happiness of the gauntlets as if it was happy to return back to it's owner.

"I don't know the name of the gauntlet, I found it in a ruin, it's a mortal grade weapon, you can use it" Oab said.

Ezra caressed it, and the name of the gauntlet appeared in his mind.

Gauntlets of Primordial Chaos

Ezra wore it, it reached his arm and stopped just below his elbow. His aura changed, but no one noticed.

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*Fresh blood - refers to people who start something newly or are new in a place.