Chapter 11

Lewis stood at the front entrance to Aaru Academy, two weeks after the kobold dungeon raid and two weeks before the official first day of Academy life, assuming he passed the exam he was about to take. Lewis walked through the gates and followed the streams of aspiring students towards a large colosseum-like building. Like Lewis had expected, Aaru was like a small town, the campus had multiple dorms to house the elite students that attended the school, a building that was only for dining, a training arena, a blacksmithy, a tech research facility, and the housing for Staff. Then there was the main building, built like a castle seen only in fantasy novels and on tv, only it was in a more modern and techy style.

"Welcome examinees to Aaru Academy! Please, check in at reception and retrieve your examinee number tag." A recurring message played in two minute intervals as Lewis stepped into the colosseum. A line flowed from reception endlessly, wrapping around the outer ring hallway of the structure. Judging by the layout, Lewis deduced that the actual use of the building lay in the center of the building. Lewis looked at the line and laughed, no way was he waiting to get in. Lewis walked directly to the reception desk, much to the objection of everyone in line. The students at the desk looked at Lewis in disdain and irritation. His uniform was black with purple, the Aaru emblem was on the left side, embroidered in gold. 

"Yeah, you can go to the back like ever-"

"Lewis Padova." Lewis interrupted. The kid sighed and looked down. Lewis's name was highlighted in red, the kids face changed to that of amusement.

"I see, alright then Lewis. You're checked in, your number tag is thirteen. Good luck you poor son of a bitch." The guy laughed at Lewis. Lewis grabbed the tag that was being handed to him, as he did, a vine came up and upper cut the kid out of his chair, vanishing just as quickly as it appeared. 

"Much appreciated." Lewis smiled as he walked past and through the doors towards the center of the coliseum. The kid was sprawled on his back, entirely unconscious. Lewis, upon entering the main portion of the colosseum, was met by a crowd of aspiring students. Some were in groups, like cliques, and others stood off to the sides, loners who in Lewis's opinion were the ones he needed to keep an eye out for. One such kid caught Lewis's eye, his bright red hair, dark skin and dark attire stood out from the rest.

[Damien Wright

Age: 14

Rating: 100

STR: 85  CHA: 91

DEX: 103  MAG: 97

INT: 114  CON: 110]

"Impressive. So there are a few kids who spent their summers training their abilities." Lewis mumbled to himself. Lewis found a pillar to stand against and leaned against it. The long wait for the official exam to begin, began.

***

At roughly two o'clock in the afternoon, the last kid filed into the colosseum and all the doors and openings immediately closed.

"Welcome to Aaru's hundred and thirty-fourth annual entrance exam. This year's participant count is the highest ever recorded at one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five examinees! So, in light of this outstanding number, we have decided to under-go the first ever preliminary examination. We will give you a ten minute time limit to form teams of five. When the time is up, instructions will be given." After the announcement was made, the kids began rushing around to find partners. Lewis remained unmoving, as did the Damien kid. After roughly eight minutes, almost everybody had formed teams, except for the few that remained unmoving throughout the exchange.

"Two minutes remain, anybody still not in a team of five by the end of the countdown, will be automatically disqualified." Another announcement was made, and this one caused everyone, including Lewis, who hadn't found a full team, to begin searching around for team mates. 

"Got a team?" Damien asked Lewis, seemingly appearing from thin air.

"No. Know anybody here?" Lewis replied.

"No. Maybe they need a couple of members?" Damien pointed to a group of three who seemed to also be a part of the stand alone group. Lewis nodded and the two dashed over.

"Need two?" Lewis asked the three, relief spread across their faces as they nodded. With the team formed, the only thing to wait for was the end of the count down.

"Time is up! Nobody was eliminated! Now, for the preliminary instructions! To begin with, this colosseum is far too small to accommodate such a large number of people, so you will be transferred into a gate owned by the school. The enchantments on your number tags have given us the information needed for us to place you officially in the teams you have formed, and will further record all information needed to evaluate you. The preliminary round is an all out Clash Royale! There are three hundred and seventy-one teams, and that number needs to fall to one hundred teams. That means we need seventy three percent of you to drop. The use of all Blessings are authorized. Weapons and killing are strictly prohibited. In order to knock a team from commision, all five team members must be incapacitated or forced to surrender. If even one member is standing by the end, that team moves on to the official exam. Good luck and good fortune." A final announcement was made before the world shifted and blended together as the entirety of the colosseum occupants were transferred into a gate dimension. The shift caused severe discomfort for Lewis, as it reminded him of the time he was sucked into the Labyrinth. As soon as his senses settled, he found himself standing in a dense jungle setting. His teammates were still struggling to adjust to the after effects of the gate transfer.

"This terrain is rather advantageous for me." Lewis stated, his vines were already active and blended in with the surroundings. The first after Lewis to adjust, was Damien, followed shortly after by the rest.

"Fuck, jungle? My blessing is damn near useless here." One of the other three cursed. Her sky blue hair and eyes stood out in the greens and browns of the surrounding vegetation.

"You're telling me. All I got is a basic Grizzly. If it were a forest or mountainous terrain, I'd have this in the bag." A brown haired husky kid replied with spite.

"Then adjust and adapt to the environment. If you limit yourself to the terrain your blessings are strongest in, you'll never improve." Damien lectured. Lewis looked at the rag tag bunch with a hint of disapproval. Two girls and three boys, one already gave his blessing away, and none of them looked entirely too experienced. Though their ratings were all higher than eighty, the lack of caution and awareness exuded from their behavior in obvious display. As the group complained, one of Lewis's vines alerted him to the presence of multiple opponents. 

"We got some uninvited guests coming from the two o'clock position from where I'm standing." Lewis advised the group. Sure enough, shortly after Lewis gave the alert, five students burst from the vegetation, wielding a variety of activated skills, and set upon the off guard team. Damien was the quickest to respond as he swiftly engaged in a fist fight with one of the opposing members. The other three instantly panicked and activated their blessings, using them in ineffective ways as they attempted to protect themselves. The sound of fighting now filled the once tranquil peace of the jungle. A black haired kid with violent green eyes jumped at Lewis with a transformed fist resembling a lion's paw, but Lewis stood still and calm as his vines wrapped around the kid and slammed him into a tree with the same force as a runaway freighter. The tree splintered where impacted, but remained standing steady. The black haired kid stared at the sky blankly as the world spun around him. Lewis left the kid there for the moment while he joined the fray. The first person he chose to help was the husky boy, who was heavily injured and running out of breath. Lewis stepped up to the opponent, grabbed him by the neck and slammed down with all his strength. The husky boy stared at Lewis in absolute astonishment as Lewis moved on to help the blue haired girl. Her skill seemed to revolve around ice, and she blasted it around without any thought. Lewis had to dodge both her and her opponents attacks as they both specialized in long range skill attacks.

"Do I really have to be paired up with these incompetent bastards?" Lewis grumbled as he dashed under yet another icy blast from Blue. By the time he had reached the opposing girl, Damien had finished his fight and was moving on to help the last girl, and Lewis was shivering from the cold air surrounding the miniature battlefield. Lewis tapped the opposing girl on the shoulder, who turned around in confusion, only to be grabbed by the shirt and thrown over Lewis's shoulder, hitting the ground on her back and sending her to sleep.

"Thank-"

"Shut up." Lewis stated as he walked away, approaching the black haired boy who had attacked him initially. The boy stared at Lewis as he approached, he had only just got his senses back and was attempting to escape.

"Oh, a coward who'd abandon his own allies to survive! Can't say I'm surprised though." Lewis commented as he stood in front of the kid.

"As long as one of us is still standing, we can make it into the exam." The kid repeated the last announcement.

"Still standing, you say?" Lewis pondered aloud before wrapping vines around the kid and holding him still. The kid began to struggle, fear developing behind his eyes. Lewis glanced down at the kid's left leg, and without hesitation, kicked it outwards, breaking the shin in two. The kid began to scream, but a swift left hook across his jaw shut him up to a mere whimper.

"Now you can't stand, or run away. To abandon your allies is the scummiest thing you could do, consider this a lesson." Lewis released the now incapacitated kid and turned to look at his indifferent teammates.

"I would hardly call that necessary." Damien commented as he stared at the broken kid without much remorse.

"Take him out here, and he won't be able to find revenge within this preliminary. Necessary? Depends on where your perspectives are. I have an agenda that I must accomplish, and part of it lies within this academy, or will. So to me, to prevent anything from hindering my goals, yes, it was necessary." Lewis explained as he began walking away from the kid, after grabbing his number tag, and began searching the remaining four for theirs.

"I wasn't asking if it was. I just simply stated that I neither agree nor disagree with the deed. I see it simply as something that was an in the moment decision." Damien helped Lewis by finding the remaining tags. The tags were different from Lewis's. Three of them were yellow and the other two were green. Lewis's was red, the classifications were something he had religiously researched while he was training. They were based on the hierarchy order of the monarchy system.

Red- Peasant. Poor with no background.

Yellow- Commoner. Normal family.

Green- Knight. Recommended by powerful families or schools.

Blue- Merchant. High class background, small chain businesses.

Black- Noble. Conglomerate Heir or equal.

White- Royalty. Ancient Family background that continues to hold massive power in society.

"Each one of these tags could end up being worth points. It's like picking up loot while in a dungeon, anything that is useful should be grabbed." Lewis stuffed the three tags he earned into his pocket. The other two he gave back to Damien.

"I appreciate the information." Damien replied as he pocketed the tags.

"You two are far stronger than what red tags should be. You should be closer to green or blue tags. Why are you posing as Peasants?" The husky boy asked.

"I'm not posing as anything." Lewis and Damien replied unanimously.

"Okay, sure. Well, I'm Ben Nawledge, my family owns Nawledge Potions and Grimoires. I'm a blue tag, and ashamed to say that my experience in battles is low. I owe you a debt for protecting me sir." Ben thanked Lewis while introducing himself.

"It's Lewis." Lewis sighed.

"I'm in the same debt as Ben, my name is Bianca Makaveli, an heir to the Makaveli Corporation. It is a pleasure to meet you, Lewis." Blue bowed her head.

"I don't care about either of you two Peasant Tags. I would have beat them all if you hadn't interfered with me. Now, if you're all done with the pointless crap, it's time to appoint me the Leader of the group."  The last girl, a blonde with what looked to be pink eyes, probably contacts, and a pretty face, pushed through the group and stood in front of them. She was somewhere around five foot tall, a short girl with a tall order of attitude.

[Sarah Lawson

Age: 14

Rating: 94.8

STR: 98  CHA: 106

DEX: 87  MAG: 123

INT: 90  CON: 65]

"Excuse me? Who the fu-"

"I suppose you could have handled yourself, Miss Lawson. Next time, we will leave it all to you. But, as to the appointment of 'Leader', we will decline. If you feel like that is unacceptable, please, do remain silent, as there is no fucks here to give." Lewis interrupted Damien and addressed the short girl. Her face turned red in anger.

"How dare you! You obviously must know who I am, and yet you still proceed to disrespect me? I will have you disqualified before the exam even-" Lewis flashed up to the little girl and grabbed her by the throat and lifted her to his eye level. She struggled by punching, clawing and kicking Lewis, but none of her feeble attacks did him any harm.

"If that's so, then why don't I just silence you instead?" Lewis threatened the girl.

"I-I'm s-sorry!" Sarah choked out. Lewis let go of the short girl and began to walk away from the area. Sarah sat on the ground sweating, crying, and coughing. The other three looked at her, then at Lewis before ultimately following Lewis. Sarah stared at their receding backs hatefully, but quickly stood up and followed after them.

***

The group of five found themselves lost in the jungle, but had met two other groups and successfully fought them until they either surrendered or were incapacitated. Lewis now had seven tags; four yellow, two green and a red. Sarah had zero tags, Ben had one red tag, Bianca had three yellow tags, and Damien had three green tags and a yellow tag. 

"If they wanted to dwindle the teams down, why'd they space us so much?" Bianca asked as she leaned back against a tree in exhaustion. Sarah remained distant from the group, continuously glancing around the surroundings, like she was watching for someone. Lewis noticed the suspicious behavior, and doubled his vine security. As soon as he did, several of them were triggered and then cut down. Lewis's eyes narrowed and activated the house centipede.

"We're surrounded." Lewis warned the group, staring directly at Sarah. Sarah went pale, as if she had been caught red-handed.

"Wow, so those vines must have been you huh?" Someone called out from the foliage. A moment later, four teams emerged from all around Lewis and his team. A tall boy with silver hair and light pink eyes stepped forward. He wore a white badge proudly on his jacket.

"And if they were?" Lewis asked in a challenging tone to the question.

"Then I should deal with you first right? But don't worry, you'll still pass the preliminaries, but you'll never work in any Blessed occupation for the rest of your life. You laid your hands on my cousin, my family's pride has been tainted, and I must cleanse that." The boy smiled menacingly before motioning for the surrounding groups to attack. The light crackling around Lewis intensified as he dashed up to the boy and threw a right hook towards his jaw, but upon contact, Lewis only felt what seemed to be steel. The boy looked at Lewis in amusement, a solid plate of bone-like armor had appeared on the kid's jaw.

"You're faster than I was told, but your feeble attack can't do anything against my Ankylosaurus Blessing." The boy mused. Lewis dashed back a bit and stared wearily at the boy.

[Henry Lawson

Age: 14

Rating: 85.1(145.8)

STR: 69(109)  CHA: 117

DEX: 41  MAG: 130(200)

INT: 106(112)  CON: 48(296)]

"Crazy ability you have there. I wasn't aware that dinosaurs were blessings." Lewis was intrigued.

"Only ancient families have such powers, so it's no wonder you weren't aware." The boy once again motioned for the stunned groups to move forward. Lewis used his vines to unbalance most of them and looked at Damien, Damien nodded and jumped to action, followed by Ben and Bianca. Sarah remained behind her cousin, smiling victoriously. Lewis switched to black ant and walked towards Henry.

"The Ankylosaurus was considered the most armored Cretaceous dinosaur, considered the most armored animal to date even. But, even it had limits. It's your blessing, so you tell me… How much force needs to be applied to the fused armor plates before you can get to the meat inside?" Lewis questioned Henry, who looked at Lewis in confusion.

"This isn't history class, professor. Nobody pays any attention to such useless details anyway." Henry scoffed.

"About six metric tons. That's the answer to the question. But, since your ability is most likely only in the earliest stages, I'd say it's closer to needing only half, maybe one, metric ton." Lewis stood in front of the now armored Henry. Though it was mainly his head and chest, some parts of his abdomen and extremities were lightly armored as well. Henry threw a poor, untrained punch at Lewis, but it was far too easy to dodge.

"Dodge all you want, but if it's endurance you're after, this match is mine." Henry taunted as he once again went to attack, but Lewis simply slapped the boy, shattering the armor on his face. Henry's eyes were now full of confusion and disbelief.

"Who said this was going to be about endurance? Ah, you seem to be shaking. Where's all that bravado and cockiness?" Lewis asked with faux concern. Henry looked at Lewis, a dangerous and violent feeling emanated from Lewis. All who were present felt it, and those that were too weak simply fainted from it.

"Who, no, what are you?" Henry trembled and Sarah was as white as a sheet. The fighting that had been going on around had stopped entirely. Those that were attempting to jump Lewis were now retreating or fainted.

"I'm just a lowly Peasant Tag, remember?" Lewis smiled as he brought his fist up, burying it into Henry's gut. The armor on and around shattered and blood immediately spewed from Henry's mouth and nose as several organs were ruptured. Blood trickled on to Lewis's arm and shoulder due to him holding Henry in place instead of sending him flying into the forest.

"Ah, my apologies your ancientness, I forgot to hold back. Oh, but I doubt you ever intended to hold back yourself right? See, I gave a warning earlier, and it seems I was ignored. Tsk, tsk. Now I have to give another lesson." Lewis looked directly at Sarah, who was now backed into a tree, sobbing in pure terror. Never had she thought such a monster would appear in the exams. She only joined the team to gain easy points for later, or subordinates to tend to her every whim, an easy school life of luxury. Lewis kneeled Henry in front of her, and held him up by his silver hair. Henry's eyes were glossy, and he looked at Sarah with tear filled eyes, begging for her to save him.

"Oh my, well if we don't do something, he might really die. Oh what shall we ever do?" Though Lewis spoke with fake concern, the look on his face was one of pure amusement. He was enjoying this, the fear, the power, the control. Those that knew him best, knew that his true colors were shown only to those that betray him, or abuse animals for sport or fun. A sociopath molded by the darkness of humanity.

"Please… please! Don't… don't kill me! Y-yeah, it was his fault! H-he roped me into this plan! I never intended to ignore your warning, it was all him! I'll be loyal, I'll serve you in any way you want!" Sarah began to plead for mercy.

"Wow, you are so self-centered. The entire universe revolves around you, huh princess? Here we have the cousin you begged to avenge you, but now you throw him under the bus to save your ass. A shame, truly. You'd rather let him die than be punished for your own misdeeds. Well, what can I expect? I'll heal him for you." Lewis sighed in false exasperation. Using his inversion skill, he redirected the blood flow to the ruptured and torn organs, mending them to a seriously injured state instead of mortally lethal.

"Are you giving us mercy?" Sarah asked incredulously. Lewis looked at her and laughed.

"Fuck no!" Lewis threw Henry into a tree as if he was just some branch or pebble he had picked up on the road.

"Henry!" Sarah cried out. Lewis reached out and grabbed her by the shirt and lifted up, once again bringing her to his eye level.

"Don't pretend to worry about him now. What was it he said? I'll never work in any Blessed occupation? What a wonderful idea he had. Sarah, I'll give you two choices. You can either serve me for the rest of your life, your every waking moment spent on my whims, never to betray me or my commands. Or, you can quit here and never think about working in the blessed fields. What will it be?" Lewis glared at Sarah and used his Choice skill. Sarah stared back in horror, her choices suddenly ripped from her save for two. Her thoughts only contained those options, and she was filled with terror. His words carried so much power, it altered her will.

"I'll serve you." Sarah replied, almost robotically. Once the choice was made, it couldn't be disobeyed. She felt her mindset change, any and all thoughts against Lewis were locked away, practically erased, She now saw Lewis as an omnipotent and unyielding master. Her thoughts shifted, focusing only on how best to serve him. Lewis let her go and walked towards the still standing, opposing groups.

"Alright, so who's next?" Lewis asked them with a grin. Not a single person moved, instead they simply surrendered, figuring it was better to give up now and succeed elsewhere than to suffer grievous injury and never work in their desired fields. With this, Lewis had one white tag, eight blue tags, seven green tags, ten yellow tags, and a single red tag, a total of twenty-seven tags.