The Start Of The First Practical Assessments

Waking up in the morning and quickly getting himself ready, Cyrus made him way downstairs at the behest of his darker half.

"If I am to let you have another day to yourself you should at least do this one thing for me" were the words that had easily and quickly convinced him.

Quickly walking down the steps and into the large space below, he confirmed that the stock of prisoners had indeed been replenished.

Not wishing to be the one who had to do the deed that sickened him to his stomach to consider, he unhooked his mask from his belt and placed it on his face so that his counterpart could do what he wished.

Passing the reins from one to the other, the masked Cyrus looked at the prisoners in front of him with a look of satisfaction.

"How quick they were to send the replacements, it looks like the most limiting factor will not be the speed of delivery but instead the amount of Fidem that I have. I have already burned through half of it and I doubt the normal ways of earning it will be as lucrative as what happened at the start" mused the dark half as he opened his laboratory and let Ares out.

"Time for a feast.."

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The day was uneventful for the next few hours, where all Cyrus had to do was escort his two allies to and fro their classes while he created and sent out a series of letters while he was waiting in between classes.

His mind was occupied, although he still kept some focus on the world at large in case of another ambush, and because of this he was silent for most of the day all the way up until he found himself in his room once more.

Then all he did was sit on his bed with his legs crossed, thinking deeply about something that not even his counterpart could peer into for the thoughts were carefully concealed.

From the world within the dark Cyrus watched in awe, simply because he couldn't wrap his head around what was happening whatsoever.

"Some random old man gives half assed cryptic advice and his takeaway is to send a bunch of unrelated letters and then sit and do absolutely nothing. What a waste of a day, but he did promise me an extra day of me being in control so I will put up with it for now."

Hence, the day of nothing rolled by from start to finish

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A new day dawned once more, but this time the one who emerged from the room was the masked Cyrus who was more than happy to head down and feed his servant his daily meal.

"The decay rate of Ares is extremely slow, a combination of his resilient mental state going into undeath as well as my seal. All that is left is time, and soon I shall have my legion of undead" thought the dark half, while meeting with his two allies outside and aboveground.

The three were silent for awhile, until Imran spoke up not wanting a repeat of yesterday where not one word was exchanged, "So today is the big day then, the start of our first practical exam."

Perhaps feeling bad for Imran who was clearly not a fan of unending silence, Minerva spoke up, "Yet the stakes are nonexistent. The rankings will not be affected so all this will end up doing is giving the other on the ranking board a chance to see our abilities up close. We could of course choose to not participate, but the loss of Fidem is not something to take lightly. The loss of the gained Fidem from the practical assessment and the loss from skipping the assessments themselves."

"It is fine, there is nothing to worry about. We will just kill what we need to kill using the most efficient and simple method, there is nothing special to it" added the masked Cyrus, "Not to mention that the same applies to everyone else, but for you Imran you will not have to worry so much. As low as your rank is the focus will not be on you."

Ignoring the mocking, Imran decided that maybe silence was not so bad after all.

The trio reached their destination, the same auditorium that they had been in during the orientation, and found themselves a spot.

The space slowly filled up as time passed, with the entire student body who was attending the practical assessments now present.

All the talking, whispers, and murmurs of the several hundred students ceased all at once suddenly. Out of the shadows of the stage appeared Caligo alongside Cilla, who stood in front of the podium and spoke.

First came the cold and callous voice of Caligo, "Today marks the first day of the practical assessments. The location of these tests will not be here but instead you will be led to one of two arenas. Before you head there, a few things should be made evident to you."

Next came the cheery and warm voice of Cilla, "The first day of assessments will test each individual students strength. Every single student will be paired up with either the one above or below them in the rankings, and you will engage in combat. All restrictions will be removed, including killing your fellow student. I highly suggest you try to do just that, kill them brutally and mercilessly. Maybe you will show them mercy…but what if they do not have the same thing in mind?"

The contents of her message stood in stark contrast to the airy tone used to describe them, but no one had the space in their minds to consider that as everyone was stunned by being outright told to kill one another.

Before the shock fully ended Caligo spoke once more, "The fights will be arranged so that several of them will be going on at once, there are only so many hours in the day and there are quite a few of you. You are required to participate in at least one fight else you will lose a large amount of Fidem, but since this is the first time around there will be no reduction of your current rank. On the contrary, for every fight you win after the first you will be instead awarded some Fidem…the choice is yours. Now, follow the staff behind you to the testing grounds."

No one moved for a while, instead they were still considering the implications of what they were told to do…feeling the instinctive fear of having to kill another human being, a member of the same species.

Well not everyone, "What's so difficult about killing a few people, huh? Bunch of pansies my fellow students are, how sad for them," said Cyrus with a yawn at the end.

"Not everyone can be useful, they are better suited to heat up the homes of the citizenry rather than on the battlefield. It is still a respectful pursuit, if not a boring one through and through" replied Minerva, following behind Cyrus closely as he made his way towards the organizers.

The words that the two uttered resounded loudly, not because of the volume of what they said but because of how quiet the room was when they spoke.

The words lit a match in the heart of many of the students, not wishing to be looked down upon by the original speaker and perhaps feeling shame from being looked down on by one who was as beautiful as Minerva.

Footsteps sounded one after the other, eventually the trickle of students turned into a tide that surged forth towards the organizers in an orderly mayhem.

"Are they really going to have us kill one another?" asked Imran from behind Minerva and Cyrus, "Is that not a bit too extreme? Even if only a fourth of the students actually decide to go through with it the amount of deaths will be nearing triple digits. Not to mention the amount of discontent this would sow, creating lifelong enemies out of nowhere-"

"Settle down, all is not as it seems to be," interrupted an annoyed Cyrus," there is no way that they will be going through with it the way they said. The chance that they do is too small…but if they do go through with it in the way that you imagine then the fight ahead should be the least of your worries. The southern region would have to be on the brink of collapse if they decided to go with such extreme measures…let us wait and see what surprise Glacies has for us."

This settled Imran down somewhat, as well as unintentionally anyone else who heard his words that caused a ripple effect from where Cyrus and co. were walking.

Of course, this would only be a stop gap measure until all the students saw for themselves what lay ahead.