Enter the Arena

Alone is a desert wasteland, a small straw dummy was standing bound to a wooden pole that was buried into the sand.

A small bird landing on its shoulder, it let out a high pitch whistle and flew away after a few seconds. The sound of something whizzing by flew past the bird and entered the dummy's head, exploding into small tufts of yellow straw.

Ferron who was laying down 5000 meters away looked up from the scope saw the result and was feeling happy inside while he maintained a normal look on his face. He got up and brushed the sand from his green military training uniform. Raphael who was also laying down beside him holding binoculars nodded his head in approval got up without a speck of sand on him and started walking back to the training field where they were 30 minutes ago.

Ferron put the long cannon like gun back into case where he got it from and looked at it one more time, then closed it. It was still unbelievable to him that he could hit a human sized target nearly 5 kilometers away, it wasn't even his best. All he did was quickly calculate the wind, temperature, curvature of the planet, the pressure of the atmosphere, and the altitude.

Thankfully the device Raphael had given him had told him all of that information between him and his target, so all he had to do was calculate. Raphael had showed the equations to him and he memorized all of them, quickly picking up the small tricks to them too. He was not a physics major for nothing.

They arrived back at the camp and Ferron put the large case on the table where there were a variety of firearms there. Some extremely futuristic and some Ferron remembered, were used back in the 1920s. Ferron turned back and walked back to Raphael who was standing near him and when Ferron got a few feet away he started speaking stopping Ferron dead in his tracks.

"You have managed to work your way up until now. Good job, you can now qualify to start the second part of this trial. Got to sleep and meet me back here when the sun rises, you have 15 hours. Dismissed!" With that Raphael turned around and started heading for the canteen.

Ferron, who initially had a neutral face, now breathed a sigh of relief. The Ever Living Dragon incident had happened 5 months ago and ever since then he was trained to the bone. Almost every waking moment he was under Raphaels intense training. Different fighting styles and unique traits to the weapon were all hammered into Ferron head by Raphael personally.

The weapon that took the longest to master was the scythe; the iconic weapon of a Grim Reaper. To Ferron it didn't feel right. Unbalanced and a long, it made fighting close and in an enclosed space harder. But after weeks of continuous practice he was getting better and better. Raphael frowned at Ferrons initial talent at the scythe was, politely saying, complete garbage. As time went on Raphael disapproval quickly changed into surprise as Ferron had learned how to perfect it. It took him longer than any other weapon but his skill was almost at the level of an angel.

Raphael grew slightly weary of him. This kind of skill was not something that a mortal should have. He looked into Ferrons body and saw the greyish-transparent soul had latched onto his other two souls. They were small grey tendrils the came out of the transparent soul and were latched onto the other two souls. It was giving off energy. It put Raphael off because he had never felt it before.

It felt ancient, like something that shouldn't be here. Just what exactly was this mortal, and what is that in his body. Questions bombarded Raphael as he continued looking at Ferron practice the scythe. But gradually he felt that it contained no danger. For now.

Raphael just sat back and paid attention to it while Ferron continued to train. Time passed and they he was waiting at the canteen waiting for Ferron to wake up, he still had 2 hours but he would normally arrive around 30 minutes before the time limit having his plans go faster, which Raphael appreciated. Not many were willing to wake up early and always tried to me a few seconds early.

An hour passed and Ferron came walking into the canteen holding the maroon egg Raphael had given him. Raphael had given him instruction on how to hatch the egg, and made sure that Ferron knew how to hatch it. When Ferron had heard this his eyes opened wide.

He was going to hatch such a terrifying beast?! Why?! He was just a normal person who died and became the apprentice to a Grim Reaper. Why did he have to hatch such a mythical beast that can reincarnate?!

Raphael heard all this but ignored it, it was too much of a bother to explain things to this ignorant kid. All he said was; "Just keep it around with you when you're not training. It will get familiar with your body heat and scent, after it hatches it will treat you as a mother." Alright go keep it company while I make changes to the plan, meet me at the canteen in 3 hours."

Ferron didn't know about being a mother but if he could treat this dragon like his pet, he would be very fulfilled. Ferron ate while holding the egg in his lap and tried his best not to spill anything on top of the egg. He ate a bit awkwardly since the egg was indeed getting bigger. It was around the size of his abdomen and was getting slightly heavier. He brought the issue up with his instructor and he waved it off saying that's how you would know that it's close to hatching.

Once Ferron finished his food he put the tray back onto the kitchen counter and walked back into the barracks to cover the egg in his blankets and walked back to the canteen. When Raphael saw Ferron had walked through the entrance he stood up and signaled to Ferron to follow him. When they walked out of the canteen and started heading toward the field. It was then Ferron stopped in his tracks with his eyes wide and his mouth open.

The Roman colosseum stood towering over them. It was not chipped and broken away by age, but brand new. Like it was teleported away when it was just built. Raphael scowled and yelled at him. "pick up the pace or we're not going inside at all!"

Ferron ran into the entrance and made his way to the pit where gladiators would fight. He noticed a large stand of weapons from swords to guns and Raphael standing beside them looking as gruff as ever.

"Pick one and we'll get started."