URBAN SKYLAND

I woke up, and I noticed that 30 minutes are left, to reach our destination. I have never been to Skyland, in such an urban city, so I was excited and ready to discover the whole city, meet worthy opponents, and most importantly find mystical beasts I could write about in my memoirs.

'LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE ARRIVED AT OUR DESTINATION. GATHER YOUR BELONGINGS ABD GET READY TO LEAVE THE BOAT. ' The captain said.

I took my backpack and got out, and the moment I lifted my head, I already started seeing big buildings far away from the shore, and many 'montgolfières' which are hot air balloons flying up in the sky like clouds.

There were many of them, and so I assumed that it was the most popular public transportation. I have heard that Skyland is an ecosystem city, which mostly relied on solar power, and other things that preserved the cleanliness of the air and the atmosphere.

A nature-friendly city, which was truly respectable because I like to see that people are respecting nature, and are preserving it and its creatures. My destination was the Voyageur's headquarters, and that's where the exam will start. And so, I went on a hot air balloon with other people who wanted to pass the exam as well. The ride was mesmerizing, we were on such a high level, and we were even higher than skyscrapers. I could see the whole city, people were the size of ants, and even up there I could still feel the urban lifestyle of the citizen of Skyland, and the city itself. What was even more amazing is that I felt a high META aura down there, which meant that there are talented and powerful META users in the city.

The ride was a bit long, since the city is huge, and I couldn't wait to start this exam already.

I was accompanied by my 2 new acquaintances, Joseph Kidd and Rikishi Yusuke whom I mentioned earlier. Rikishi was a calm and wise man, with long raven hair, black small eyes, and pale skin. He was a self-proclaimed modern samurai and that's because he didn't wear a kimono but wore a black suit, a black suit with a black samurai sword, isn't that cool?

On the other side, there was Kidd, a naïve and reckless lad, but he was kind. He had a slick back hair style, with shaved sides. He had green eyes, like gems, and brownish bronzed skin. He wore a white tight shirt which clearly showed his shredded physique, black jogging pants, and sneakers. I wonder what training he did to achieve this greek god body. Perhaps, if I am lucky enough, I will have the chance to fight them in the Voyageur exam, that would be thrilling.

The 3 of us discussed numerous things, but the most important subject was META ability. Joseph didn't hesitate to tell us about one of his META abilities which was named 'Overheat', a META ability that relied on him increasing his blood pressure and body temperature, which allowed him to be faster and stronger, but he could use it for just 10 minutes because it had negative effects. Before Joseph told me about his META ability, I already knew it would be something related to physical power, stamina, and speed. Rikishi also told us about one of his META abilities, which was 'Slice&Dice', a technique that enhanced his katana, which allowed him to cut through all matter, but to be able to use such a technique, you need to be in a calm and focused state, otherwise the technique will rebound, and you will be 'Sliced&Diced'. As expected from Yusuke, he was sure nothing can break his cold gaze, cold mind, and his balanced state of mind.

And because they were friendly enough to talk freely about their META abilities, I had to talk about mine too. Plus, they looked at me with such interest, they were curious about my META ability, because they have seen it in the last fight versus the Sea King.

And so I started explaining the concept of my META ability :

´ my ability is called 'Death match', an ability that was usable on only one opponent. The ability was based on me taunting the opponent and aiming at him with my bat, which was necessary to do, a sort of incantation, I would say. The moment, I aim at my opponent I have to say ' The Deathmatch has started.' After immediately saying these words, I teleport myself and my opponent into a sort of coliseum, where there was only me and him, a fair 1vs1. But there are rules of course, if I am not able to defeat my opponent in 5 minutes, the META ability gets canceled, and we come back to the place we were in. ´

Both Joseph and Rikishi were truly amazed by my vague imagination, which allowed me to create such a complex ability, but the truth is that I didn't tell them everything about my META ability. If I was able to defeat the opponent without killing him, I can borrow his ability if he says these words ' I quit, you win ' or anything that means that he accepted his defeat, but if I kill him, I don't even need to press him to quit, I can just kill and technically steal his ability. And that happened in York Island when I killed the Sea King because he refused to quit the Deathmatch, so I had to finish him because he had an amazing ability that I stole, that I will use versus a strong opponent, the ability's name was 'King of The Deeps', which is a secret for the moment being. Although I set a rule, which is if I am not able to defeat the opponent in 'Death match' within the 5 minutes, or I lose to him or die, He will be able to take my META ability, and all the META abilities I accumulated from past opponents.

I was so emerged in this chitchat with Joseph and Yusuke, that we have already arrived at the headquarters, time truly flies when you're enjoying yourself. We landed at the headquarters and were welcomed by 4 Elite Voyageurs, and one of them was none but the famous mercenary Setsuna Aiki . He looked at me , then smiled and winked at me.

We then went in, with more than 40 participants, to get explanations about how the exam will be done.