THE TRIALS III

"Then let the trials begin."

Immediately she said those words she stepped backward, letting one of the men who had been standing beside her all this while step forward with numerous large books in his hands. It was the man whom the seven admins had handed their books to.

"Please step forward and proceed to the trials immediately your name is called." He announced in a weak voice but with the silence and tensed aura currently enveloping the contestants it wasn't really hard to hear what he was saying.

"Amarae Golth…Earth Manipulator."

Immediately the contestants heard the name being called, they began moving their eyes around each other with the hopes of finding out who the person being called was, soon a lanky teenage looking girl stepped forward, her composure reeked of uncertainty and fear.

With the help of the staircase that led to the center of the arena she easily made her way to the center of the arena where the trials' track was located.

Immediately she got to the beginning of the trials, she launched herself in a powerful way bursting past the hanging trunks with amazing strength but an amazing strength was already expected of an earth manipulator.

In no time she was able to clear the first part of the trials without much difficulty and then moved over to the second. Immediately her feet stepped onto the second part of the tracks, an arrow launched at her with a terrifying force both startling and frightening the contestants.

The sudden attack had quite shocked most of the other contestants as they had not believed the earlier claim of archers hiding and ordered to shoot at them.

The contestant Amarae had somehow managed to escape the close death experience and another one that was shot at her afterwards but then the tension and fear she was feeling was only getting worse, as she didn't know where the shots were coming from and at the moment a wrong move could cost her life. Although she felt as to give up she also felt reluctant to do so, especially when she was not in a condition of serious injury.

With a deep sigh Amarae continued to traverse the second part of trials with caution but just when she had gotten close to the end of the trials, she suddenly felt something swift and sharp pierce through her leg. A little taken aback by the sudden feeling she slowly looked down her legs only to realize an arrow bulging through her left leg and her blood spilling out uncontrollably.

Immediately tears dropped down her eyes with her fists and jaws clenched due to the intense pain she was currently feeling, but despite this painn she still continued to drag her injured leg alongside herself off the second part of the trial, her resolve still strong despite the pain.

She barely managed to escape a few more shots and just when she was at the very edge of the second trail.

Flip!

She heard a swift sound which was immediately followed by a more intense pain in her already injured left leg, the tears that had been slowly dropping down since immediately increased its intensity as her mouth would occasionally quiver from intense pain. Slowly moving her gaze down to her legs, she immediately noticed another arrow also dugged deep into her left leg which wasn't even far from the first shot, this immediately caused her quivering and tears to increase before finally dropping down unconscious.

Immediately the contestant dropped down and remained motionless, Verdant soldiers suddenly appeared from nowhere, rushed towards the unconscious contestant and immediately carried the unconscious body up and through one of the passages at the arena. Another set of Verdant soldiers also appeared and with the same effectiveness as the first set of soldiers, they quickly exchanged the broken tree trunks with new ones.

"Eris Alora…Fire Manipulator." The man with the books announced as soon as the presence of the Verdant soldiers could no longer be seen.

This sudden announcement returned the consciousness of the other contestants back to the trials, as their minds had been occupied by the recent happenings with the level of seriousness they were giving the trials increasing drastically after seeing the condition the first contestant was put through.

After a moment of her name being called, an attractive teenage looking girl with blonde hair stepped forward cladded in a not too outstanding armor. Her stoic and unamused expression gave her beautiful face a mature and unique look and the aura she let out was the same as one who wanted to be secluded from others.

'Come to think of it, her aura kind of reminds me of someone….Vanora.' Kairos thought as he stared at the contestant make her way towards the center of the arena.

'Although there is a major difference in their auras despite the similarity. While the reason for Vanora's type of aura was because of her not social background causing her to normally prefer being on her own, the latter's aura was one that seemed to be caused by pride….as though she was looking down on everyone.'

Soon the next contestant Eric Alora was already at the beginning of the track. Although from afar her expression seemed to be one of unenthusiasm when one squinted their eyes to get a closer look they would realize that it was one of concentration and not unconcern. Soon the flames on the torches could be seen drawing towards her, although slightly it was still easy for one to notice the wierd behavior.

And then in a shocking manner the intensity which with the flames drew to her increased as she quickly manipulated the incoming flames as though she had been expecting this reaction turning them into a ball of flames, in an experienced manner she then divided these flames between both her hands and to shock of everyone suddenly launched towards the truck obstacles.

With an amazing speed and the flames still burning in her hands she easily burst through the tree trunks as though they were nothing and in no time proceeded to the second trial were the intensity with which the other contestants watched increased.

Eris's speed didn't falter with the flames still in her hands and acting as some sort of boost to increase her speed even more. Soon arrows from every corner began flying towards her but she easily evaded them even crushing some with her flamed hands. Soon she had passed the second part of the trials and proceeded to the third trials.

Immediately the other contestants saw how quickly and effortlessly she had passed the second trial there seemed to be an uproar as most of the contestants now stared at Eric with admiration.

"Did you see how she easily passed the second trial unscathed with exception to the scratch one of the arrow had managed to make." One of the contestants said with excitement.

"Yeah…and the way she is able to manipulate her element fire, her affinity to the surrounding mana should be high." Another contestant praised which was followed by many other praises too all acknowledging Eric's great ability and achievement.

"Humph…what a show off." Astin suddenly snorted despite all the surrounding praises this immediately caused the gaze of almost everyone who had heard him to glare at him strongly this including Kairos.

"Pretty sure I could even do better than her." Astin continued speaking clearly ignoring the numerous gazes on him with an unimpressed expression on his face.

It was Karios turn to act now as he quickly nudged Astin on shoulder and whispered to him in his ears:

"You keep speaking this proudly and this newly conveted fans of her might actually tear you down despite your status."

Astin simply laughed to this and slightly shook his head while muttering just five words.

"We will have to see then." His expression filled with pride and his shoulders risen slightly as he spoke.

Soon all attention was returned back to Eric as she seemed to be having no problem traversing the third trial as well, despite the levitated rocks she was currently traversing through would constantly shake, she still managed to pass through while using the flames that were still in his hands to either balance herself or launch towards a higher levitating stone.

She eventually conquered the last and final trial and then made her way back to where the rest of the contestants were currently standing, immediately she got there so many gazes were directed to her and some people even trying to start up a conversation but she remained stoic to all these advances, her expression still indifferent as though she had already expected the outcome of trials or did not even outright care of the outcome, infact her expression almost looked unimpressed.

The people around eventually gave up all thoughts of starting up any conversation and focused their attention to the man with the numerous books, everybody slightly if not fully nervous on who might be called up next.

"Astin Gunnar….Air Manipulator." The man immediately announced causing Astin's face to suddenly grin up.

"I guess even fate wants me to show you how good I am." He muttered to Kairos and began moving towards the center of the arena still bearing a wide grin.

Meanwhile Karios remained speechless as two words kept resounding in his ears 'Air Manipulator'

But he didn't seem to be the only one with same dumbfounded expression as many also had same expression with some even claiming the Military Center might have made a mistake with the element they registered or that Astin outright lied about the element he could manipulate

But this sort of reaction was not far from normal as Air Manipulators were a set with high value despite the region or Faction and this was due to the high versatility of the element. Infact it is believed to be the strongest element, meaning people with the ability to manipulate the element are naturally expected to grow strong and powerful.

But this wasn't the only reason for the high value for the element as it's rarity was another reason, Air Manipulators are so rare it's possible only five exist in a whole Faction…this was why everyone had a shocked expression when they heard of Astin's ability to manipulate air, as Air Manipulators are not found that commonly.

Immediately Astin got the beginning of the track all eyes naturally focused on him, everyone eager to see the outcome of his trail especially with his claim at being able to manipulate air.

Karios was about focusing on his trial told after snapping out of his shock when he noticed something that caught his attention, it was the other man that stood with the old man with the books and Captain Blair.

Karios had at first noticed his odd behavior at the beginning of the trial of the first contestant but simply waved it off, but now he saw him repeating same thing with Astin's trial he could only assume he had did same with Eric's trial too but it has skipped his gaze.

Kairos had observed that the man kept staring at a circular object in his hand when the contestant began the match and when they ended the match…although he was not sure of what it was for, he at least had a theory on what was going on.

….The trials also involved time effectiveness meaning contestants are also graded on the amount of time it takes for them to end the trials and on why they probably purposely left out this important piece of information? probably because they wanted the contestants to get less time conscious or it could just also be a method to reduce the amount of contestants that actually win the trials.

'Either way it would be safer to just finish the trials as fast as possible whether time effective or not.' Kairos thought to himself and then focused his gaze at Astin who has already began the first part of that trials.

At the first stage of the trial, Astin didn't really have any much problems bursting through the trunk obstacles, infact one could say the method at which he did it didn't lose out to Eric's in terms of amazement.

His movements were light and brief but the pressure he used to burst through the trunk were a complete opposite, it was one that carried so much force that when he burst through the trunks, a loud bang would resound through the whole arena.

In no time he was done with the first trial and quickly moved onto the second where he continued to amaze everyone. To the surprise of everyone he suddenly slowed down his pace in the second trial to a point where it seemed like he was simply taking a stroll.

Arrows immediately rained down on Astin as he stepped his feet on the second trial but to the surprise of everyone despite his pace he was able to avoid all the shots, almost as though he already knew where the shots would land even before the arrows were released and the expression on his face was one that remained unfazed as though it didn't take him that much effort.

And just as quickly as the first trial, Astin also cleared the second trial and then proceeded to the last were he easily traversed the levitating rock clearing it even faster than Eric.

Immediately he was done, the whole place remained silent probably from shock as they watched Astin walk back to where they stood with a wide intimidating grin.

Soon the shock from Astin's performance finally died down, and the moral of the other contestants boosted after watching two of their type easily clear the trials.

More names were called, with a few managing to clear the trials with an almost outstanding manner that could almost match with that of Eric and Astin, some only barely managing to pass the trials and many either forfeiting or collapsing in the process of the trials.

The man with the books stepped forward again, the numerous books in his hands now reduced to one.

"Kairos Leander Eros….Vulgar?"