Permora (4)
Aside from the descendants of the four great families, some other competitors were strong yet unknown as they had not taken the test under Mike.
There was a guy who could solidify and manipulate shadows, a girl who could amplify and reduce sounds to injure and sneak up on opponents, a girl who could enhance the strength and effect of anything she touched, and a guy who could force his body to move as fast as his mind could think meaning he did not have the bodily limitations of normal people.
These were the ones the academy's higher-ups were watching using robotic birds scattered around any place a competitor could be found. These higher-ups discussed a lot of matters while watching the students, they spoke about who they thought had the best and worst chances of passing, and the recent increase in mutated beast attacks on the human population left.
Five days later
The competitors had moved significantly closer to the academy but on the way, a lot of them had died through the survivors had gotten much stronger than they were less than a week ago. They had finally adapted to living by the law of the jungle, "Kill or be killed". It was not an easy lesson to learn as a lot of people had to die before the rest had understood it despite this, the test could still be considered to be going on peacefully until something terrible happened.
Somewhere in Permora
"Manalee stop right there you dubious traitor", a man with a large beard wearing a black uniform shouted while chasing after a girl wearing a similar uniform. He and his partner caught up to her and exchanged a few punches before she fell like a stone in an alley. "Surrender now, Manalee, we've had a long friendship don't let it end like this", the other man calmly said to the girl. She slowly got on her feet, wiped the blood on her face, and said, "You may have captured me but my mission is already over", before crushing a remote-like object in her hand.
She was about to put something in her mouth when a sword fell from the sky severing her hand from her arm. Using her state of shock to his advantage, the bearded man rushed at her and hit her in the abdomen causing her to cough out blood, definitely from internal injuries, and faint. A person wearing the same kind of uniform was floating in the sky and the sword zapped back to him, he looked at Manalee's limp body sadly and said, "Here I was thinking we were in love". His look of sadness changed to urgency as he saw what she had broken in her hand, he flew off and arrived at a valley with a gate that had been opened and beasts were cautiously passing through the gate.
He quickly killed those and inputted a password to close the gates and left to report what had happened but unfortunately, he did not notice one beast, a flaming lion, which hand was long gone and was running towards the location where the test for future students was being held. One could tell this beast had some intelligence as it looked at beasts as prey and gazed at humans with intense hatred which would cause trouble later.
The man who cut off Manalee's hand arrived at the room where the academy's higher-ups were watching the test, he bowed to them and said, "Manalee betrayed us and opened the valley's gates. She's been subdued and I've closed the gates but we do not know who she's working for and what they were planning to do. An old man smiled at him and said, "Capturing someone you feel affection for is not easy, the academy appreciates all your effort, Elliot". "Thank you, master Krone", Elliot said, "but we still know nothing about who sent her, what their motives are because she said her mission was completed and we don't even know what she's done yet".
An old woman asked, "Elliot did she try to consume anything when she was cornered? Elliot froze for a moment before answering, "Yes she almost swallowed a red pill but I prevented it. "Old hag you don't think it's them do you ? a bald topless man asked her. "Shut it you mindless brute jumping to conclusions is dangerous", she replied. "Ahem", the man named Krone coughed and said with a smile, "That's all for now Elliot, you can leave".
Elliot bowed then left and Krone stopped smiling immediately then said," I can feel you staring at me, Karl, say what you have in mind". "Sir we are thinking about the same thing, the return of that crazy cult". "Impossible, the old woman who spoke earlier said, "We killed them all off decades ago". " Well the fact that they're still here means we didn't kill them all", the bald man said, "You probably don't remember it, Alicia, since it's been so long and old age has caught up with you". Alicia flared when she heard her name being mentioned," How dare you mock my name when you name is Karl, I mean who is still named Karl these days". "My parents named me Karl", he retorted. "Well you act as if I chose my name, Alice said." SILENCE". A loud voice sounded throughout the room and a large man with a very eye-catching mane of red hair. The moment he entered he began to scold them. "Karl you should know better than to argue with your elders, Alicia you should be mature enough to not let him get in your head and Krone along with the rest of you, how could you just sit there and watch them argue while we have problems to solve". He kept speaking while walking before sitting on a chair elevated above the rest. He had an aura around him that just commanded respect as he was none other than the current principal of Permora Academy.
Meanwhile, the escaped beast had started a massacre. Even though it couldn't understand what these humans had done but it had the feeling that only when it had killed all the humans around it would its desire for revenge be satisfied. Slowly some observant people started to notice that there were fewer and fewer people around as well as more beasts were moving together seemingly running away from something.
This phenomenon caused all the people to be slowly pushed into one area. Connor, Will, and Aliah had also arrived there and looked in surprise at how many students were left, they were simply too few. They were only a few hundred which could be considered a lot but if compared to the number of those who started then only about fifteen percent, not the estimated forty percent, had survived till now.
Knowing that they would need each other, they all gathered together and talked about their experiences in the past few days