CHAPTER 8-ACADEMY ENTRANCE EXAM

Aqua flew away, tridents forming from the tip of her fingers. Brik would probably be on the other side, and with his bone claw, it was a given that he would be slaughtering demons. There were many other great warriors here, who had trained for years. X knew what he had to do. He had to go all out, in hopes that he would be able to qualify. He closed his eyes and took the Fire Escape stance. When he opened his eyes, they had a slight red glow. Taking a deep breath, he muttered

'Fire Escape'

Turning to fire, X sped past many contestants, searching for demons. When he found one, he appeared behind it, his hatchet embedded in its back. The demon turned around, swinging its feeble arm towards his neck. X ducked from the attack, then dragged his hatchet through its body, slicing apart the left part of the demon. Leaving the demon's body behind, the blond guy turned back to fire, and zoomed away, leaving all the spectators mystified. The fire steam then went past a few other people, heating their bodies by the mere second or less of contact. 

X saw another demon, and this time, released his hatchet out of the flame and headed straight to the demon. Without changing direction, X crashed with the demon head-on, implanting his hatchet in its heart, and burning its body while he turned back to a human. Heaving heavily, X pulled his hatchet out of the burnt demon and walked some distance. He was tired. Using Fire Escape two times, for a longer time than usual, was extremely tiring. Then he heard a voice, and turned around. The girl with a bandage around her left arm screamed as she punched the demon's face with her other hand. The head splattered during impact, leaving behind blood red blood, and a headless demon body. The girl then jogged, and X saw that there were nearly three demons in the direction she was heading in, hiding. Since it was hard to spot a demon, and especially one that was not in combat, he could not let her take those kills. Although he was exhausted, and using this skill was very tiring, he had to do it. 

'Fire Escape'

 As the bandaged girl walked towards the demons, she suddenly felt very warm, with the temperature increasing by the moment. Suddenly a stream of golden-red fire roared past her, scorching a part of her hair. She ran as fast as possible, but the flame was at least twice as fast. Then the fire turned into a guy with long blond hair, slightly muscular features, and a hatchet, parts of his body set on fire, cutting apart the three demons she was targeting. He swung his hatchet, missing the demon's neck by an inch, cutting a fatal gash in its upper chest. Another demon jumped up behind him and slashed his back with its sharp claws. It then died, as the kid rotated, hatchet in his outstretched right arm, beheading it. The third demon crawled back, obviously afraid of the guy who killed one of its companions. The demon beside it collapsed, blood leaking from its cut chest. The third demon then pounced, and when it did, the kid dodged and punched it in its guy. The demon fell, grabbing its stomach, which steamed where he punched. The kid then cut off its head.

The bandaged girl caught up with him. X did not like the idea of talking to her, especially when he had stolen her kill. It also did not help that he was out of breath, or that his back was cut, and blood was leaking out of it. Why was she coming here, when he had already killed the demons? The girl caught up to him and said

'Those were my kills. Why did you steal it?'

'Uhh...umm well'

X was unable to express himself. The girl looked at him with surprise. Who would have thought that this great demon slayer would be unable to talk to people? Snickering, she spoke

'Well, my name is Rose. They call me one fist arose in my village. You?'

'X'

Suddenly, X spotted a demon, and running away from her, he held out his hatchet. He had killed five demons. Twenty more to go. If he could avoid these kinds of awkward conversations, he could get into the academy without difficulty. Running up to the demon, he sent forth a flurry of swings, slicing the demon to bits before it could even react. He could not hold back. He should all of his abilities except for Fire Escape because it was tiring to use it consecutively.

X was running around to find demons when he heard a bell ring five times. 5 minutes were up. 20 minutes more. 19 demons more. He could do that. He found 2 demons getting swarmed by multiple contestants. 

'Fire Escape'

Swing. Slash. The hatchet moved faster than the others could react. 17 more. he stepped away before the others could fight him, and went on searching. He could not let even one demon getaway. He should kill all of them. He could do it.

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Darren knew that he was good. He had spent his entire life learning his family's swordsmanship skills. He had honed his body to become a master swordsman. He even had a sword which cost more money than a couple of chariots, made by expert blacksmiths, who had spent years crafting it. Down to the decorations, his iron sword was perfect. He knew he would be one of the people to get into the academy. But why? Why was it, that wherever he went, no one was there? He was good, but not that good. He had seen the guy with the bone claws coming out of his knuckles gutting demons, howling like a maniac. He had seen that girl with the water powers, flying around and slaughtering demons with her water tridents. In the regions where those two were, no other contestant was to be seen. And in the region where he was, there were no other people as well. 

Did that mean that he was as powerful as them? Probably, Although he could not be sure. But one thing was certain, he would be in the top three. The other kids were staying away from him because of that. He was way too good to be comparable to them. And after joining the academy, he would train, develop his powers, and become the strongest knight, even stronger than the Dragon Knight, and then he would get paid so much, that he would make his father look poor. 

Darren was thinking about this prospective future. It did not occur to him that the temperature was rising steadily. Darren spotted a demon, standing pretty close to him. He could get there within minutes, and get his 14th kill. Since everyone else had gone away, he was easily getting the kills. 

It was only then that he realized that it was getting hotter. Much hotter. Darren looked at the demon. It was only ten meters away. The demon saw him and started running, but Darren was faster. He threw his sword, aiming for the demon's back. The sword pierced its calf muscles, and the demon shrieked in pain. Not where he wanted, but Darren was pleased with the results. He then saw a fat guy, with no armor or weapons, tumbling towards it, his belly shaking. How dare this guy try to steal the Great Darren's kill.

Then his body broke out into a sweat. Light flashed on his right side, blinding him. His right side almost burnt due to the sudden flow of heat, before cooling rapidly, as the source of the heat had moved away. Had moved forward. Very fast. When his eyes recovered, he saw a muscular blond kid, covered in sweat, holding a hatchet that had pierced the demon's heart.

'21'

the kid replied. Before Darren could make out what just happened, or what he had said, bells rang, and everybody was silent. 1,2,3...20. They had five minutes left. He went over and cursed that blondie.

'You..you stole my kill.'

The blond kid lowered his head, possibly because he was feeling sorry, or maybe just to piss him off. Darren continued to scold the guy, and when he was trying to leave, Darren held his hand. 

'You, answer me, why did you steal my kill? Can't you see, everyone else, they are scared of me? There is barely anybody else here because they all ran away from me. I am equal to that bone boy, and that water girl.'

'Brik and Aqua.'

X muttered. So they were so powerful, that people were scared of them. They must have reached twenty-five kills by now if that is the case.

'Bro sword guy, be honest. This guy can turn to flame and is much faster than you. He has killed twenty-one demons, which is impressive. Are you sure they are scared of you, or him? By the way, there is a demon there, so if you guys are busy quarreling, shall I take the kill it.'

The fat kid said. Darren got pissed, and started insulting him, asking him why he even decided to join up without a weapon, and stating that he must have gotten no demon kills. The fire guy just stood there, like he could not comprehend how he could have scared people away. Just then, they heard a scream. A really loud scream, filled with rage. The fire guy's face morphed, and they had a feeling that this scream was very familiar to this guy. The stuff of his nightmares, even.

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Brik did not know who started it. The rumor that he was hurting people. He might have done it unknowingly. But whoever it is, he would rip off their head. Because of that person, the others were blocking his attacks, protecting the demons from him, so that he did not pass the exam.

Brik roared with anger, a scream that sent shivers down the back of everyone trying to stop him. They were trying to stop him because somebody said he was hurting people. Well, then he would start hurting people. He brought out his claws, extremely pissed off. He replaced the heads of the people in front of him with the heads of the demons who had killed Uncle Ken. He ran forward and swung his claws towards a kid, who hid his face behind a shiny sword. His claw collided with the sword with so much force, that the sword clattered down from his hand in multiple pieces, torn to shreds by bone. Blood flowed down the claws from his knuckles, but it did not bother Brik. He swung his right arm and tore through a shield like it was made of paper. Another attack, a kick to one of the kids, and she was sent flying, her armor breaking apart from the force. He jumped above a few of the others, going so high into the air that a few people thought he could fly like that pesky water girl. He landed behind them all, rising dust. A few bones of his broke during the impact, but Brik just mended them.

He jumped to his side, landing feet first onto a village house, reminiscent of the houses in the village where Uncle Ken died. Then, propelling himself forward, he launched himself onto the demon, they were trying to protect, and in one fell swoop, in one swing of his hand, the demon was dead. Then, bells rang. 1,2,3...17,18,19...24,25.

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Suddenly, they all were escorted back out of the village by the same teleportation magic. X turned his head to see that around him was the girl with the bandaged hand Rose, the fat guy, and the annoying guy with the expensive sword, along with many people he did not know. A lot of them were heavily injured by claw marks, and judging from Brik's scream, he was not sure if it was caused by the demons or by his old friend. Dusan Sinclair Rubeus then appeared out of nowhere, flying like Aqua. He spoke with a grand, booming voice that seemed happy, overjoyed even. Like he was extremely satisfied with the results

 'Good work children. And now, allow me to introduce to you, the top 8 candidates who will proceed to the next round. And half of them will become students of our prestigious academy.'

He then opened a scroll, and took a deep breath.