The Elements

1 month later

I tied my hair in 2 pony tails and stretched a little before I went to the kitchen to eat something before we head to the exam. The past month pasted a little to fast and the exam was today. I practiced every single day and I did a lot of progress during the last month, Ash’s words not mine. To be honest I feel stronger and I look stronger. All my muscles are now toned Ana I even have a beginning of a 6 pack. I’m proud of myself for making it until here, but I won’tbe able to be truly proud of myself until I pass this exam with flying colours and won myself a spot in Team Alpha.

“Morning champion! Ready to kick some asses?” Ash said when I walked into the kitchen.

I took my usual seat right next to Hazel, but I ignored him as I started to eat. He is mad at me because I went in his room one night and wrote on one of his walls “BATMAN FOREVER! “, and wrote on his face with permanent marker Spiderloser. To say that he was pissed would be an underestimate. Since then he didn’t utter a word to me.

“Yeah. I think so.” I shrugged and continued to eat my waffles.

“What do you mean with ‘I think so’? You have to be confident if you want to win! That’s not the attitude of a winner” Ash said and puffed out his chest.

During this past month, Ash turned up to be not as a big of an asshole as I first though he is. Now I’m seeing him like my bigger annoying brother.

I rolled my eyes and ate my breakfast in silence. During breakfast I hold me a speech about how good I am and how I can do this! Now I am all confident, but I know when I’ll arrive at the arena I’ll be insecure again.

After all of us finished breakfast, we headed to the arena. The exam will be held at Arena of All Supernatural Beings and I heard that the arena is huge. It has the usual stadium with bleachers, but it also has empty fields, forests, cliffs and a swimming area.

In the stadium area the combat round will be held and the trainers, judges and us,the competitors will stay until we’ll be named one by one.

The whole ride was filled with silence. I think they knew that I need some time to prepare myself for what’s about to come. I was pulled out of my thoughts when the car came to a halt. I looked through the window and I saw an gigantic, enormous, super fucking big arena. God, this place it’s huge.

We walked to the reception, were I had to confirm my participation. Behind the huge reception desk was a petite lady in her late 30′s.

“Hello! I’m Mandy and I think you are here for the exam, right?” she asked with a big smile plastered on her face.

I smiled back at her. “Yes. I’m Shadow Renoir.”

“Okay, I’ll check you off and then you’re free to go.” she started to type furiously on her computer.

“Uh, Mandy. I wanted to ask you about the lockers room and what clothes do I need to wear. I heard that I will given here the clothes I need to wear.”

“Oh, don’t worry honey. In the moment you walk through the door that leads you to the first round you’ll be automatically changed in your personalized sport gear.” she said without looking at me.

All I could say was to let out an “Oh.“. Mature I know.

“Okay, I finished your file and now you can go. The door to the combat section is right there.” she pointed her finger to her right and there were 2 big metal doors “The whole right part of the arena are the bleachers and is reserved for the competitors and the rest is for the trainers. Sorry, but after you walk in, you can’t talk with your trainer anymore.” she said with a sad smile.

“It’s fine. Thank you, Mandy!” I said with a smile and started to walk away.

“You welcome honey! Good luck!” she waved at me with a big smile.

I stopped when I arrived in front of the metal doors. I sighed and turned around to face the boys.

“Good luck, S. Beat the crap out of them. The secret is to be confident and be cautious in the last round. At the others round, don’t hold back, just let it go. Oh, and one last thing. If you feel like you can’t go further in the last round, don’t push yourself. I don’t want you dead. Oh, and don’t tell anyone about your element or battle moves! You don’t know who your opponent is.” Ash gave me the last minute advice.

“Yes, sir!” I mocked him.

He rolled his eyes at me and gave me a I’m-fucking-serious look.

“I should say Good luck, S, but I won’t because you don’t need it. You are too fucking awesome. Now shuu! Go and beat those fuckers!!! And I’m still mad at you!” Haz yelled and ran into the arena.

I chuckled while Ash shook his head. We walked into the arena and went on separate ways.

The arena was the size of a stadium. In the center was the battle ground which was dusty with no sign of grass. Above the battle ground were 5 big flat TVs used as screens for every part of the stadium. The bleachers were now almost empty but I know for sure that they will be full in no time. After I finish my little analyze, I made my way to the ‘reserved for competitors’ section. I took a seat at the top of the bleachers, from where I can see perfectly fine.

The stadium was already full, and it had been only ten minutes. After ten more minutes, in which I thought I will die of boredom, a tall man with white hair and a beard walked in the middle of the stadium with a microphone. He talked about the exam, what stages we have to pass and the rules. The only new thing that made me make eye contact with Ash, who was on the other side of the stadium, was that he confirmed the new fifth round in combat and we’re allowed to use our element during combat. He kept talking for while, saying the mandatory thank you’s to the sponsors and wishes us good luck.

I huffed out of boredom and looked around me. I was a little surprised to see people from all over the world in here. All of them were from all races, genders, heights or weights. I was surprised only because I though that there would be a different Academy in their country or continent. But at the same times it makes sense. I heard that this Academy is the best one out here.

If there are different countries or continents. This is a different dimension after all.

“I’m happy that I’m not the only one who looks like a major loner.” I jumped a little and turned to my right to see the owner of the voice.

There was a petite girl, with medium dark hair and warm brown eyes. I couldn’t help but think of one of those cute teddy bears when I looked at her. It could be the nice smile and the warm eyes.

“Yeah.” I said and shifted awkwardly.

She chuckled. “Come on! Relax. I’m not going to kill you with a katana. By the way, I’m Spark, but you can call me Sparky.” she said and extended her hand for me to shake.

Who names their kid Spark? Elementars apparently.

I looked at her for a second and hesitate before I shook her hand. “I’m Shadow. Nice to meet you.” I said and smiled at her. She seems to be a nice girl. She honestly had me at katana, what can I say.

“Nice to meet you too. What’s your element?” she asked with curiosity shinning in her big teddy eyes.

I scoffed and crossed my arms. “Don’t get me wrong, but I’m not telling you.”

“I understand your worry, but keep calm. I’m not your opponent.”

“And how do you know that?” I asked incredulously.

“Because I hacked into the system of the academy and searched for my file.” she said with a smirk and I gasped.

“That’s so awesome! And who’s your opponent?” I asked already looking around.

“Thank you, and I thought that you’ll be one of those people that would yell at me for doing something so crazy. His name is Rock, but I don’t remember his family name.” she said and pointed her finger at a guy. He was pretty tall and well built, but the bigger they are, the easier they fall.

“I think you can beat him. He doesn’t look like such a big competition.” I said with honesty.

“I think that too. Look! It’s starting!”

I turned back to face the front and on the screen from the middle appeared the name of the first competitor.

Lincoln Blanche.

I watched as he got up from his seat and walked to the door that leads to the first round. He walked with confidence without looking left and right and with a neutral face on.

How can he be so emotionless. I’m shitting my pants only when I think that I have to pass this whole exam with people watching me.

Is he human? Oh, wait, we’re not. Sorry, my bad.

My eyebrows were furrowed as I stared at him as his face appeared on the screen. He looked oddly familiar, but I can’t tell where I saw him before. I shook my head and stopped thinking about it as I started to have a headache.

“Hey, are you okay?” Sparky asked worried and I brushed it off.

“Yeah, I’m just nervous. It’s finally starting and this is our chance.”

She smiled brightly. “I’m sure we’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

I hope so.

I looked back at Lincoln and studied him. He was tall and fit with slightly tan skin, cold blue eyes and ash blond hair that was swept to the right.

He suddenly stopped in front of the door and raised his eyes making eye contact with me. A strong sense of déjà vu hit me. I narrowed my eyes at him and he glared right back before he smirked and walked through the door.

All screens lightened up and then each of them showed a different section of the exam. the middle one kept the name of the concurrent and his profile (date of birth, age, gender, element) which was not yet updated. The one from the left up corner was focused on the Obstacle Race, the one from the right showed the Nature Race, the left down corner had on the Power Controlling and the last one had the Combat round.

As Lincoln was the first one, the rest of screens showed only the trails. My focus went back to the main screen when I heard people gasp. Lincoln appeared at the Obstacle race, but his ear was what made everyone gasp. He was dressed in all black, besides his sneakers that were white. His black shirt had a white elegant snowflake in the middle, and the same snowflake was on his black sport jacket. When I looked back at his profile, it was updated and as I thought, his element was Snow.

He has one of the rare elements.

The camera focused on is face and I frowned. His mark was a silver snowflake and it was on his left temple, exactly like me. I brushed it off as he walked to the start line and got ready.

As soon as a female voice said “Go!” he bolted through the cones. The obstacles were the same ones like the ones Ash had showed me: cones, agility ladder, sprint, monkey net, cargo net, log hop and sprint. I watched in amazement how fast and at the same time graceful he ran past every obstacle. After he crossed the finish line he wasn’t even panting and was waiting patiently to find out his score.

My jaw dropped and I felt the color drain out of my face when I heard his score. He scored five minutes sharp and he was only the first competitor.

“I’m screwed.” I mumbled under my breath and rubbed my face.

“No, you’re not. I think you can be faster than him. Don’t ask me how, ’cause even I don’t know how. I just know. I have a feeling” Sparky said and patted my back.

I smiled at her. “Thanks. It’s just that I really want to be accepted in Team Alpha. I know it sounds crazy....”

Her eyes were big and full of excitement. “I doesn’t sounds crazy! I want to be accepted there too!” she said and we both squealed happily.

“We two, will be best friends and both in Team Alpha. I feel it.” I said suddenly confident with a bright smile.

“Hell yeah!” she said and we high fived each other.

When I looked back at the screens, I saw that Lincoln already finished his second round with four minutes and ten seconds. At this round the minimum score you need to make is six, but the majority scores around five, if you’re really good four. Obviously, he fits in the good ones category.

I sighed. This is gonna be a long hell of a day. I started to talk with Sparky, trying to distract myself from that guy and his ninja skills. After half an hour he finished all his rounds, including combat. He freaking won all 5 rounds! The medics carried him out of the arena, but dude he beat them all like it was nothing.

Three hours later and I was about to fall asleep on Sparky. My head was on her shoulder and her head was on top of mine. We both were tired and bored and that’s a horrible combination. The good new is that no one had a better score than Lincoln which means that I still have a chance, even thought a guy named Sky was close behind him with five minutes in the first round, four minutes and twenty-eight seconds at the second and won all combats. He had Starshooter as his element and it suited him so well. His skin has a soft glow and his eyes were sparkling like the stars and that was the cutest thing ever. Meanwhile there’s Lincoln with his icy blue eyes that could freeze your soul. Literally.

The exam isn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. The only cool things were when Lincoln and Sky used their elements. Lincoln freeze his opponent and Sky shoot him with stars. It was so fucking awesome.

I was about to fall asleep, but jolted up when the female voice announced the next competitor. “Shiro Spark, please present yourself at the first section of the Exam.”

Sparky got up from her seat and stretched “Finally.” she said and started to walk to the door.

“GO SPARKY!!” I yelled at her and she winked at me.

“See you after your round, Shads.”

And with that she walked through the door.