Chapter 3

Waking up the next morning, Theo felt the warmth of the sun on his face. He had a scowl, and an intense headache.

"What the fu_ ahhhhhhh!"

The Oji - San was sitting on a chair opposite his bed, the old man was lighting a blunt.

Jolting out of bed with a shriek, he grabbed the closest thing he could find, which turned out to be his phone.

He hurled it at the old man. Realizing what he had just done and what it meant for his phone, he watched in horror as it sliced through the air towards the old man.

It hit the old man's chest and bounced right off.

'kind of anticlimactic'

"how are you feeling boy?" the old man asked in a tender voice. "I see your wounds healed nicely."

Hearing that, he touched his ribs, then started moving around a little bit. He was fine.

'but how? it's vague, but I remember my ribs being crushed under that monster's feet. But I feel fine now.'

"I know what you're wondering, but your body's very different now." Saying that, the old man got up and raised up his shirt.

"The hole in my abdomen is gone now. That's because our body has gone through, cryo-metamorphosis".

"It's the serum you were given during your induction. It meant to make you just strong enough to take on hex, vampires, and sometimes even werewolves."

Staring at the old man, Theo began wondering who he was exactly.

"Oh, and if you're wondering who I am, I'm Jakob, and I'm a paladin."

Hearing this, Theo's eyes widened in shock. The paladins were so rare, they were considered a myth. Paladins are the peak of the knights of Arthur. It is said, that the first paladins far surpassed Arthur in combat.

"You have your combat expo today, so get ready." Jakob said snapping him out of his trance.

"Wait, I thought it was in a week's time." Theo shouted back.

"It has been a week, you just slept through it."

'I'm fucked, I'm royally fucked, I'm not even used to my body yet.'

"And if you're worrying about getting used to your body, you'll be fine. Not many people know this, but the longer you sleep in your new body, the more control you have." "I'll meet you at the mansion." Jakob said, before he left the room.

Getting out of bed, Theo decided to test his sensitivity. He started with walking around, then stationary jogs, then he finally tried some combat moves.

Satisfied with the result, he decided to get ready for the expo.

The expo was an event for rookie knights like Theo, whereby they show off their skills in combat the paladins and other high-ranking knights.

If your skills were acknowledged by a paladin, you would be asked to join the paladins as an Intruxh-ahrambe, which is a paladin under superviral training.

If the other high-ranking knights acknowledge your skills, you will be upgraded from a rookie to a high troop member.

Theo hurried out of his room, took a cab to mansion and waited outside because he saw the crowd of rookies standing there.

"If it isn't Theo-duck"

Turning around at the sound of the familiar voice, Theo was taken aback by the appearance of his supposed "friend".

Standing in front of him at 6'3 was Bo. Apparently, he cut his hair, and dyed the sides of it black.

He had four piercings on each ear, and one on his right eyebrow.

He was wearing a pair of jeans, with a black wife beater, and a pair of large boots.

"damn, you look scary as hell" Theo jabbed him on the shoulder.

"Are you ready for this. I know I am!" Bo said, sporting his signature grin.

"I'm super nervous Bo" he replied.

Just then the doors opened, and standing there was the blondie from the induction ceremony.

"Follow me" the blondie said without saying anything else.

Instead of passing through the stairs, like on the day of the induction, the rookies were led straight ahead into a room that looked exactly the same as the one from the induction.

They were also led through a door that was just at the back of it.

The door led them to a long hallway, at the end of which was a large arena-like circle in the middle of it.

The arena was laid out in an old-fashioned way. With seats surrounding center, and in the middle of which was a stand, where the judges of the fights would sit.

The paladins, and the high- ranking knights were already in their seats, and waiting for the rookies.

Seeing the faces of the paladins and the knights, sent a shiver up Theo's spine. He gulped with anxiety.

Quite frankly, Theo was an excellent fighter. In their previous class, he and Bo were at the top of the other rookies.

His combat abilities were no joke. Where he had a problem was his confidence in fighting.

Theo had no problem with fighting monsters. He had a problem with fighting people.

Staring at the paladins, he recognized Jakob, but not the other paladins.

Nobody below the Arthur class knew who the paladins were. This was done to reduce the many, many targets on their back.

After they reached the assembly point, they were asked to retrieve their weapons from the stands behind them.

Looking back they saw the stands, and proceeded to retrieve their weapons. Theo picked up his longsword, which now had intricate runic symbols on the blade.

He looked at others and found out that their weapons also had runic symbols on them.

On closer inspection, each weapon had different patterns.

Standing outside the arena, Theo was beyond nervous.

Sweaty palms, shaky legs, and a highly accelerated heartbeat.

Walking to the center of the ring, Blondie cleared his throat before speaking.

" You assemble before the paladins today to show us what great feats you are capable of. Those of you who are interested in becoming 'Intruxh-ahrambe' , should indicate by going left, and the rest of you should stay where you are "

only three participants moved left, Theo, Bo, and goth boy.

The expo started with a guy with a long sword. He had weird curly perms and wore black leather from top to bottom. The other guy was welding twin daggers and barely had clothes on at all. He wore tight fitted black jeans with no top at all. In the center of his chest was a large claw shaped scar. He was lean and sported a permanent scowl.

The match started with scar dude dashing forward.

He was fast, really fast.

Making a horizontal slash, the strike was parried to the right by leather boy. another quick stab went for his torso, but that was also blocked.

Leather boy stepped back, and attempted to attack with a diagonal strike to his neck.

The fight was with actual deadly weapons, and an attack like that was obviously very fatal. You may be wondering, 'if it's an expo then why the hell are they fighting like they want to kill each other'.

The answer was Ceri and its kind. Prior to the match, they set up a barrier around the ring, which prevents the participants from sustaining fatal injuries.

Leather boy's strike was blocked by scar dude with his left blade. His right blade on the other hand went to work.

making a deep cut to leather boy's left knee, he nudged him away. Loosing balance, leather boy tried to compensate by putting most of the weight on the other leg.

BIG MISTAKE.

Stepping on his other knee, leather boy toppled over. landing on his arse, he was about to get up.

Surprise motherfucker.

Scar dude's dagger was on his neck. He thought about getting up, but he realized both his hands were planted to the floor.

Acknowledging he lost, he yielded the match.

The next match was a relatively quick one between a large dude with two axes, and a smaller girl with a cold stare. She was wielding a sniper.

Very impractical.

Thirty seconds after the match started, the boy had two holes on each knee, writhing in pain.

'She's scary' Theo thought.

The expo went on for quite a while. Fighters had weapons ranging from daggers to swords, arrows to get even pistols.

But it was finally time for the main event. Bo stepped out first, with his evil grin, and a predatory gait. He seemed so confident in what he could do, you could basically feel it in the air.

His weapon wasn't so quiet either.

Holding two really large cleavers in his hands, they had a cerated blade a curved edge. The handles were thick, and had an equally thick chain connected to it. The chains bundled up around his wrist, and ran up his forearm a bit.

Standing in the middle of the ring, Bo looked up towards the stand the paladins were seated and pointed towards Jakob.

Jakob didn't bother with the stairs, he jumped from the stand all the way to the center of the arena, just next to Bo.