Proof

After their delicious lunch, the two dragons had fun until night fell.

Gladis finished preparing her things for her move to the Masters' headquarters to begin her training as a postulant. And at dawn, she said goodbye to her parents and went with Ashes to the Capital.

"Not so fast!" Ashes called the dragoness who was far ahead of him "Remember I'm not very good at flying yet, worse if it's at this height!"

One of Ashes' main fears was being elevated to a great height. Now that he could fly, his great fear now was falling and getting seriously injured.

"Sorry!" She said while she smiled. She slowed her down and positioned herself next to Ashes. "It's a little while to go. Let's descend."

Gladis descended to the ground

Ashes hovered in the air and slowly descended. It took him several minutes for his scaled feet to touch the grass on the ground.

The ice dragoness and the shadow dragon walked for several minutes until they reached the great walls of the city known as Capital, where all the races of the continent coexist.

[Note: These walls are more than twenty meters high]

They reached the great gate in the wall, where they were blocked by the spears of two silver-armored soldiers: a wolf and a dragon.

"Names and reason for entry." The wolf ordered.

"Gladis Silverstal, I am a postulant for Master." Gladis responded to the order.

"Ashes... Only Ashes. I come at the request of Master Senka." Ashes responded trying to fight his nerves from seeing the weapons of the two guards.

"You can pass."

The guards parted their spears and let the pair of dragons pass.

If with only one town Ashes was surprised, here in the capital he multiplied that by hundreds of times. He went blank trying to process how wonderful the sight was.

Gladis clapped him on the back to bring him back to reality.

"Then I'll show you the city. Let's go!" Gladis then pulled the gray dragon next to her by the arm.

Upon arrival, Master Senka met them at the headquarters gate. She gave them a formal welcome and guided them. She took Gladis to what would be her new room during her stay and then she took Ashes to another room.

"Did the Grandmaster accept the request?" Ashes asked Master Senka.

The dragoness fell silent and opened a large door, revealing a circular platform in the middle of the room.

Ashes were confused at the entrance to the room. He only saw Master Senka walking up onto the platform.

"The Grandmaster accepted my request, but on one condition!" She raised her voice "If you want to be here and become my student, get on the platform and prove yourself with me! Show the strength of your will!"

Ashes gulped. His body was telling him to step back from Master Senka's imposing presence. He took a step forward and walked onto the platform.

A smile formed on the dragoness's scaled face.

Ashes made a basic combat pose. He had only slightly raised his fists.

"Let's get started!"

With just a blink of an eye, Ashes had lost sight of Master Senka.

"¡ARGH-!"

The dragoness had used her tail to grab Ashes by the neck. The gray dragon was trying desperately to break out of Master Senka's grasp, but it only won for the tail to put even more pressure on his neck.

"What happened to those pleas that night ?!" She claimed him while she suffocated him "Didn't you want to be strong ?! Prove it!"

With what little strength Ashes had, he managed to bite into Master Senka's tail. She felt an electric current all over her back, similar to a cat stepping on the tail, and got her to get away from him.

Ashes fell to his knees as he tried to catch the breath.

"I can't even blink!" Ashes thought "Concentrate. I must use my element to move forward. It may not be more than normal breath, but I must use it as a distraction."

Ashes stood up to his feet, and a trail of black smoke billowed from his snout. He ran straight towards the black dragoness, who was already waiting for the attack.

Ashes released the toxic breath of the shadow element as a distraction and slid across the floor. He then tried to make Master Senka lose her balance by hitting her right leg, but what he did not count is that the dragoness already had that provided. She grabbed Ashes and threw him back to his starting position.

"Fire against fire won't work. Attempting to attack another shadow dragon with the toxic breath is useless." Master Senka clarified.

"Tch." Ashes complained.

The only thing he had learned had been ineffective.

"Then what will you do?" She asked him "Staying there on the ground being a mere spectator?"

Ashes stood up and tried to ram Master Senka, but she with a single blow from her tail managed to push the gray dragon away.

Over, over and over Ashes got up and tried to attack, but each time he was driven off by the blows of the black dragoness.

His dragon legs were shaking, but he still stood. His body was full of slight bruises, but a weak body like him hurt too much.

Master Senka was standing with her arms crossed. The only damage that could be visualized were the marks of Ashes' teeth on her tail, this due to the bite that he made to save himself from her.

"He has proven to be persistent ..." thought the black dragoness "He has gotten up about twenty times and was knocked down the same amount. His body will collapse if he takes one more step."

She was startled by the scream of effort the gray dragon let out as it charged a new attack. She thought that if he took one more step he would collapse and she was almost right.

Ashes collapsed a step before reaching the dragoness.

"I'll take him with the medic."

The black-scaled dragoness lifted Ashes's unconscious body and carried it to a room not far from where they stood.

Inside that room was a whitish-furred wolfish female in nurse's clothes.

"Slena, can you ease his blows?" Master Senka asked the female wolf.

"Right away, Miss Senka. Lay him down on the bed." The female wolf said politely.

The black dragoness left Ashes on the bed and withdrew from the infirmary.

As she closed the door, she heard a voice calling her name. It was Gladis, who had already finished fixing her room, and went to find Ashes.

"Where is Ashes? I assume you are not in that room, his presentation in front of the other Masters has been finished.

"Yes." The shadow element dragon replied "He's in here. When he wakes up, tell him he approved."

"Wake...up?"