Chapter three

"We still haven't heard our names and they are half way through the crowd by now." Dinela said, shuffling on her feet.

"Are you really expecting to hear our names?" Zion asked, looking at her weirdly.

"Let's just hope for the best."

"And the last name on the list is Carlos." The admission officer said and I gulped. We that didn't hear our names are about thirty in total if not less.

"So the rest of you are the imposters who refused to come out on their own accord, I won't send you to the railswing instead I'll make you half Dalacians, and once you pass the test you'll be come full Dalacians and become a student of the academy and also a senior." The principal announced and everyone started murmuring.

"Wow! O my goodness!" I heard someone say.

"They are so lucky."

"We are doomed!!" Another one said, I'm torn between whether this is a good thing or is a bad thing, I really hope it's a good thing.

"Form two lines, male's one one line and the females on another." The principal instructed.

"It'll be okay." I said quietly to Alero.

"Every time you say it'll be okay then things get even worse." Alero said upset, well she is not wrong.

The line became shorter and shorter, soon it'll be our turn. I wonder what they'll do to us in order to turn us into a dalacian. I can't wait for this nightmare to be over.

Agular was in front of me so she'll go first. The man brought out what seemed like a hand scanner, the kind that they use to scan you at expensive places or the airport. He scanned Agular's whole body and typed in something on it then placed it over her wrist.

"Next." He called. That's it? My turn came and he did the same, and also to Zion, after he was done with everyone we all faced the principal.

"Now for the best part, you all are going to hunt down creatures, the stronger creatures you kill the more points you get, the highest point is a 100 points, the point which you must get to be admitted is 60 points, you have till sun down how you will find and kill those animals is totally up to you, make it back in time or we will assume the animals have had dinner", he let out a wolfish laughter "you may begin." He said and we rushed out.

"How do we go about this?" Dinela asked as soon as we were out of the academy.

"We will work together to do this." Agular said.

"No! This is our chance to continue looking for the book of death and end Dario." Zion whispered.

"You're right."

"No, we are here now so we might as well see what the land of myth has to offer, we will do this and get through it together, we will leave here but we'll do it the right way." I glanced between them. Agular was more than happy to hear this.

"But Azyma-"

"I'm not Azyma but Zenom, we will regard each other by our fake names," I cut her off "we can do this, now where do we start." I said looking around.

"Okay, I think we should mingle with people that are actually from around here." Agular suggested.

"Why are you ladies just standing here?" A guy said from behind us and we turned around to see who it was.

"Hey." Agular greeted me.

"Hi, I'm falox, this are my friends Diane and Tim." He greeted back and introduced himself and his friends.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Zenom, and these are my friends Auglar and Zion." I said motioning to Dinela and Alero.

"Nice to meet you too, we were thinking we would start from Den forest. There are lots of animals there, we could all go together." He suggested.

"Sure." I agreed.

"It's not far from here we could walk there."

"Alright." We left the academy and were on our way to the forest.

"What are your strengths and weaknesses?" Diane asked Agular.

"I don't know." She said unsure.

"You can check it, just tap your wrist here." Diane showed her how to do it, she did as so and six keypads appeared on her wrist. She tapped on the third one and all Agular's strength and weaknesses were on display.

Strength; strong

Weakness: someone stronger

I decided to check mine, I tapped on my wrist and the six keypads showed, it was light and very faint but I could see it. I tapped on the third one and my strengths and weaknesses were on display. Strength; Warrior, Weakness; pain. While Zion's strength was Archery and her weakness was pollen.

"What's your strength?" I asked Diane.

"Its archery, falox is great with his sword and Tim is great with his axe." She stated proudly.

"Nice."

"Here we are, the Den forest, take out your weapons and let's look for our prey. We don't have time to waste." Tim said as he brought out his axe.

"We don't know how to use our weapons." Alero whispered to me.

"I'm aware of that," I whispered back "we need to take a deep breath, we'll let them go first." We started walking deep into the forest, the deeper we went the more frightened I was.

"Everyone hides." Tim whispered -yell.

"Why?", Instead of doing just that I asked why while everyone else hid " what's wron-" I felt someone yank me, as I was about to scream a hand was placed over my mouth.

"Not a single word." Falox whispered into my ear. I heard a low growl which made me push myself closer to him.

Our body was so close I could feel his breath against my neck but that wasn't the only thing I felt, his groin was poking me, I moved away from him and to his side but my movement didn't go dunno.

I heard footsteps along with growls.

"what's that?" I asked quietly.

"Its a phalyon a tiger like being, part tiger and snake." He said shakily.

"What!" How's that possible? Well this is the land of myth, I've got to see this thing for myself and besides are we not supposed to try to kill it.

"Are we not supposed to try to kill it instead of hiding?" I looked back at him and fear was written all over his face.

"This is a strong, fierce, stealth and dangerous animal, it'll kill us before we even get five feet close to it." He informed me.

"Oh."

"We'll wait until it's gone before we continue, we'll challenge only animals within our capability and stay low if we want to leave this forest alive." He explained but that didn't mean I couldn't take a peek.

I placed my back firmly on the tree and tried to look at the creature but couldn't see anything "its gone." I said still looking for it.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Unfortunately, I really wished I could have snuck a glance at it, everyone came out of hiding and so did we.

"That was close."

"No kidding."

"We don't have time to waist let's jeeo going." We kept moving looking for our next prey, all these doesn't feel right taking the lives of these creatures for our own selfish interest.

"Is this normal?" I bursted out, I wanted to take it back but it was too late

"What?" Tim asked looking back at me

"Killing creatures, taking lives."

"Yes, it's perfectly normal in this works you kill or be killed and kill to get what you want that's how its done here but you should know that."

"Oh, Of course I do, I was just feeling guilty.”

"Guilty? What's that?" Falox asked with a confused expression, this is MY cue to shut my face.

"Nothing."

"Hmm so who taught you how to use a sword?" I wracked my brain trying to think of an answer to Falox's question.

"My dad." A smooth lie, simple and straightforward. The thought of my dad made my heart clenched and my thoughts wandered to Dario, that bastard! The mere thought of him made my blood boil. No doubt he is in this world. I hope things don't turn for the worst.

"My dad was a drunk." The other girl said , what's her name again? Diane, such a nice name unlike mine, Axymah.

"Yeah?"

"He used to beat my mom whenever he came home while I just cowardly hide in the kitchen wardrobe. That bastard got what he deserved though, a wretched death. Painful and slow he died in the hands of the Alkazars, the mist evil, cryek creatures in Rayem." She said with a sinister smile, if only Dario got what he deserved.

"What's Rayem?" Zion asked curious

"Are you kidding? You've never heard of Rayem?!" Tim asked with a surprised chuckle.

"That's a talk for another day, we'll tell you after all this nonsense is over.”

"Nothing bad is ever over." I spoke from experience, just when I thought things were okay we're back to normal this happens I can't wait for this nightmare to be over

"Are you okay?" Falox asked.

"I'm fine." I don't think I'm capable of telling a single truth anymore, lying every minute can be injurious to the mental health of a person.

Chapter four

Look at that baby!" Tim said, giving a sinister smile.

"Omg!! What's that?" Alero exclaimed as she hid behind Dinela causing the creature to see us.

"Oh oh!" "Run!!" Falox yelled and bolted, without a second thought I ran as fast as my tired legs could carry me, I looked back and immediately regretted it, the creature was right behind Diane, Alero and I.

I forced my legs to run faster, the creature let out a screeching sound that shook me to the core, there is no out running this thing, all I could hear was the fast thudding of the creature and my heart beat, blood rushed to my ears as adrenaline took over and in a split second I was holding onto dear life on a tree. I looked down and saw the creature growling at me, I brought out my sword and aimed it inside its mouth.

My aim was quite good as my sword pierced its throat and was sticking out from the back of its neck. I jumped on the creature pushing my sword deeper and landed on my feet. The creature growled in pain as it fell to the ground immediately turning to dust, I took my sword from the floor and put it back.

"Wow!" Diane exclaimed, running out from her hiding spot which happened to be behind a fallen tree.

"Nice skills, Tim could learn a thing or two from you." She squealed as she got closer.

"Impressive." Falox said, causing me to blush.

"How did you do that?" Alero asked, her eyes almost popping out from their sockets.

"Not really sure, I just did." I have no idea how I did that but it felt good.

"Not cool! That was my kill!" Tim yelled angrily.

"I'm sorry, it started chasing us that's why I- I'm sorry." I'm not sorry but I don't want to make an enemy out of him, I don't need that right now.

"You have nothing to be sorry about Zenom. If it was your kill then why did you run instead of killing it, all talk and no action should be your second name really." I Diane said, rolling her eyes at him and I stifled a giggle.

"Nice work!" Dinela said proudly and I gave her a charming smile. "So how many points did you get?" Dinela asked, looking at my wrist.

"I don't know, let me check." I said bringing my wrist to my face.

"You should have about fifteen points now." Falox took a guess which was correct.

"So now you're five points ahead of falox and fifteen points ahead of the rest of us." Tim said not sounding excited about it.

"Okay." I said feigning innocence, I have a feeling Tim dislikes me.

"Let's look for another one."

"The next one is seriously mine, anyone who takes it will have to answer to me." This Tim guy needs an attitude check.

“Don't threaten us, if we decide to kill the next one we will so don't think we're afraid of you." Dinela said, placing her hands on her hips.

"Bitch!" Tim muttered and pushed past me.

“What did you just call me?!" Dinela asked, ready for a fight."

"Drop it okay, we've barely known each other and we're already fighting." Alero's face palmed herself.

"Thanks, miss obvious." Falox said sarcastically.

"Let's just keep going, which way should we go?"

"That way." Falox said, pointing east.

"Will someone tell that jerk ass he is going the wrong way?!"

"Tim, you're going the wrong way!!" Alero screamed as he was now quite far from us.

"He didn't answer, he's probably upset."

"I'll go tell him." Diane said, leaving our midst.

"Hurry and meet us back."

"Will do." We started going east, the thoughts of what I did earlier kept running through my mind, how did I do that?

"So where are you ladies from?"Falox asked curiously "you're probably from Norwane city, you look like you're from there." I have no idea what Norwane city is or where its located but since we don't know anywhere here I decided to go with it.

"Yes, good guess."

"What about you?" Dinela asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"Same, I was born and raised there, I came here so I'll be able to go to the best academy in the whole of Aliva, Blieum academy but only the richest go there. I got the chance when the incident happened, Tim and Diane also decided to grab this opportunity." He said, looking back at us.

"Since when have you guys known each other?" We need to learn about them if we're going to be hanging out together.

"We are childhood friends."

"Cool, are you like an only child?"

"Nope, I have an older sister and a junior sister, she's just three melyenia old." He said smiling, he looks good when he smiles.

"Melyenia?" Zion asked confused maybe its the land of myth word for 'year'

"Yes. Stay back! There is a mongoli over there, if you kill it you'll get at least seventeen points." He said grinning wildly.

"So who's going to kill it?" Dinela asked glancing between all of us. "Tim said it was his kill."

"But he's not here." Dinela argued.

"Let's chill a bit, maybe he'll show up." We heard yelling and snapped our head in its direction. Tim was charging towards the Mongoli and swung his axe against its shoulder with great force. He battled with it and won. I won't lie that surprised me.

"That's how you do it." He said boldly walking past us.

"He managed to kill one creature and now he's king." rolled her eyes. "Whatever, let's just keep looking for more creatures to terminate, you guys are almost at sixty while we are still at zero."

"That's why you three are the ones that will have the next turns."

"That doesn't sound thrilling," Zion said and Agular nudged her arm.

*****

Thirty minetes till sunset "We should just go back." Agular miabed.

"Not until you have had your last kill " doesn't sound right.

“You guys will run late, you've already scored sixty and Zenom is even forty scores above everyone." My score is ninety three so what?

"I'm sorry for that, it was your kill, I should not have killed it."

"What are you talking about? You totally saved my life that nyxe thing would have killed me, thank you." Agular said with a smile which I returned.

"Maybe I can give you some points out of mine." That should fix this.

"It doesn't work that way." Diane muttered and groaned, that stuffer hurt her badly. Okay let me fill you in on what happened, Zion had her turn and killed a boafer, Agular and Diane also had their turn, after a while of taking turns it was knky Diane and Agular that didn't have a sixty so Diane went first and took on a boafer, it wasn't easy peasy.

The creature was Strong and it's skin was thicker than that of a Rhino therefore it was very hard for her to penetrate its skin, it didn't go down without a fight, it broke her arm right befits she took it down, she lost quite a lot of blood but Falox fixed her arm and bandaged it up with a piece of cloth from her shirt that's why now her stomach is left exposed and you can almost see her bra or whatever she used as a bra. And my dear friend Alero, I mean Agular took on a nynx, she had the least score and the creature was perfect, it would complete her score and even give her extra but she couldn't do it, she tried the element if surprise but got surprised herself, the thing attacked her and she ran, we thought she would handle it.

It used its strong tail to kjocj her off the ground breaking her leg, it stalked towards her. It was this close to ending her when I jumped in, fear and rage took over me seeing my dear friend in that situation all 'cause of me caused my heart to ache, they were both here because of me, I leaped into action and plunged my sword in it's neck. It whined and groaned in pain, I attacked it over and over, it fell to the ground and died slowly. I felt a pang of guilt in my chest as it took its last breath. I rushed to help my friend and falox fixed her up to the best of his ability. Now we are trying to find her a small easy prey to take on, all she needed was fifteen points.

"I still can't believe you took on a nynx, I'd hate to be on the other end of that sword " Falox chuckled and I let out a forced smile.

"Look at that one, beautiful, small but agile and fast, that will give you fifteen points." Tim said as we all hid behind a bush.

"That's all I need, but what if it hurts me."

"It can't, it's a baby lolax all it can do is run you'll need to be able to catch it if you want to kill it." Falox said deep thoughts.

"I have an idea," Agular said grinning.

"I don't need to chase after it." She walked stealthily towards a nearby tree close to the creature. She successfully climbed the tree and got into a comfortable position and brought out three arrows and her bow then aimed it at the creature, the bushes rustled spooking the creature and it bolted, Falox wasn't kidding it was as fast as lightning, it was running so fast I could barely see it this is one challenging kill. Agular tried aiming at the creature but couldn't get a good one she ended up getting down from the tree and climbing another one.

"Just shoot it down already." Tim moaned.

"You can't kill what you can't see." There is no denying that.

"Might I remind you we have barely any time left." This dude needs to take a chill pill.

"Like seriously." Zion said, as though reading my mind, creepy.

"Let's give her a few more minetes." Zion pleaded.

"She'll make the kill." Come on. The creature finally stopped but not to take a breath, the arrows were sticking out from its sides as it forced oxygen into its lungs.

"She did it!!" Zion yelped happily, Agular smiled proudly and I happily looked at her. Suddenly I felt anxious, the hairs on my neck stood and I felt a shiver run down my sound.

"We should hear her going or we'll be Kate.”

I was more than eager to leave this place. Zion helped Agular get down from the tree and we were all on our way back to the academy.

"Let's hurry or we'll be late." But we can't 'cause of Agular's leg Diane's arm they are slowing us down. Tim groaned frustrated at how slow we were going and scooped Alero into his arms bridal style and jugged ahead of us.