Chapter 33: The Test

Bryce woke up, smiled at Violet's sleeping face, and after kissing her softly, rose and went to get breakfast. He wanted to have energy for the upcoming "exam". After eating, he went back to the training room to practice until he had to leave. About fifteen minutes before he had to head out, Violet walked in to see him.

"You're up late." Bryce said.

Violet looked at him lovingly, but he could tell she was busy thinking about something else. "I know, but I've been awake for a little while. I was wondering…if there was some way to…possibly make me human."

"Why would you want to do that?"

Violet looked at him. "If I was human, I'd be perfect for you and…"

Bryce interrupted her with a warm embrace and a kiss. "You're perfect for me the way you are. If I could fall in love with you as a Pokémon, and still love you now as a Pokémon, then you know I'll always love you for who you are…a Pokémon. I love you, and you love me. That's all that matters."

Violet smiled up at him as he continued. "I know your parents didn't want us to be together, but you chose me. You've made sacrifices to be with me…because you love me."

Violet held him close to her, beaming as her tail wagged happily.

"…besides," Bryce added, "Why would you want to get rid of that cute tail of yours?"

She giggled as the portal appeared. "Make me proud."

"I hope to." He replied, stepping into the portal.

Unlike normally warping into his teacher's training room, he was once again inside the room with all the new recruits. A voice spoke from the speakers from the ceiling.

"Everyone, in a few minutes you will all be facing each other to determine what group and rank you will be placed in. Before that, you will have three minutes with your instructors. You will be warped there now."

A few of the contestants looked ready to destroy each other, while others were terrified. Some of them just looked like they didn't care, but Bryce was willing to bet they were thinking of ideas.

As they were all warped to their instructors, Bryce thought he noticed someone looking at him, but he didn't have enough time to see who it was.

Bryce expected his teacher to swarm him with tips and tricks, but instead he just explained a little about the layout and what to expect.

"Now, you are going to be transported to a randomly generated field. It will have multiple areas to go, but one by one they will be blocked off. If the room turns red, you have thirty seconds to get out. Otherwise, you'll be automatically taken out. Also, none of the hits you take or deal will actually hurt someone physically. There will be a health bar above their head. Blue is full, green is almost full, yellow is half, and red is near defeated. Once defeated, players 'dissolve' out. Also, you will start out with a very basic weapon, but you can find others, however, they are either hard to reach or out in the open where you could be easily taken out. That's about all you need to know."

"No tips or anything?" Bryce asked.

"I know you have plenty of ideas up your sleeve, and it is your test, not mine. So you'll be fine." He smiled.

"Time's up." The same voice spoke.

"Good luck out there."

Bryce nodded before being sent into the battlefield.

All of the players were warped into a battle field with steel containers, pipes, and several passageways. It looked like the inside of a steel production factory. There were six rooms in total, but the one that everyone was in was gigantic. Bryce also immediately noticed weapons on the ground, including a thunder tome very close to him. While nobody could move, they could look around. Luckily for Bryce, there were no contestants very close to him.

*Looks like the best thing to do is hide for a little while until there are less players.* Bryce thought.

"Contestants! Here are the rules. Everyone will be given a weapon they can use. They will be given to you now."

At that moment, all of the weapons floated up from the ground in front of their respective owners. Bryce's weapon was a wind spell.

"Second, you may have already noticed that there are other weapons laying around. Some of them you may have never even seen, but they are first come, first serve. Also, when a certain amount of time has gone by, some of the rooms will flash red. After that happens, you'll have a minute to vacate that area. If you don't, you'll be eliminated. Other than that, there are no rules. Remember, you can't actually be hurt or injured, so fight as if you were in an actual situation as this. Now…BEGIN!"

Bryce quickly ran towards the thunder tome and quickly ran back to the corner he was near. Kneeling back behind a steel crate, he looked around. Hiding at first was a good choice. It was utter turmoil everywhere. As he looked around, he noticed an air vent directly above him. Figuring it was safer than hiding behind a crate, Bryce used the wind spell on his feet to send him soaring up to the duct and land safely on it. It was still so crazy in the room, no one noticed him.

Staying here was a much better idea. Not only was he out of harm's way here, it was easier to view the battles going on. As he looked to his left, he noticed a tome, however this one was blue. As he took the book in his hands and turned it over, Bryce realized what type of tome this was. A picture of a raindrop was on the back of the book. It was a water tome. He opened the book and began to read it, keeping an eye on the ensuing battle. The tome was a small one, but it did seem quite helpful.

Just as Bryce finished the book, there was a small flash on the air vent he was perched on. As he looked towards the location of the flash, he noticed the Sheikah from earlier that week. She turned to Bryce and their eyes met. Somehow, in that moment, there was a silent agreement to both stay here and not fight. Looking above her, Bryce noticed her energy bar was in the red.

"You made a smart choice, staying here until the beginning fight blows over." She commented.

"You were braver than me." He replied.

After that, they sat in silence. As Bryce watched the fight, some of the rooms closed off, but that wasn't his focus. He was looking for the people he expected to be here in the end. As Bryce noticed several contestants being eliminated, he realized the real threat in this game was a Quilava. He was wielding double swords, and he was destroying everything in his path. Bryce was hoping someone could take him out. If worse came to worse, at least he had the water tome.

It was strange how many ways players could be defeated. Most were beaten in battle, but there were others that were taken out by the closing rooms, a few were thrown into walls, some were actually hit by their own reflected attacks. In a room full of over a hundred players, it was amazing how long it was before they were taken down to only five. All that was left was Bryce, the Sheikah, Quilava, and two other Pokémon: A Grovyle and a Haunter. From what Bryce could tell, Grovyle and Haunter had teamed up to take out Quilava. Haunter was a dark spell caster, but he also used shadow ball and other Ghost type moves. He would attack from a distance while Grovyle would attack close range with kicks, trying to distract Quilava.

As they were fighting, a stray shadow ball reflected by Quilava flew at the air vent and slammed into the Sheikah's side, knocking her out. Bryce managed to not fall off as the duct shook. He felt sorry for the Sheikah being taken out by bad luck, but there wasn't anything he could do. Continuing to watch the fight, Bryce saw that Quilava had caught onto his opponent's plan. Grovyle tried a low kick, but Quilava jumped up high. Haunter threw a shadow ball; however instead of hitting Quilava, he performed a downward stab onto the unsuspecting Grovyle, knocking him out of the game. Haunter was surprised, but he continued to fight. Bryce quickly realized a ranged fighter wouldn't be able to take him out easily, and he'd have to make a move as soon as Haunter was defeated.

Sure enough, Haunter wasn't fast enough to dodge Quilava, and a horizontal slice sent him flying into the wall. Bryce floated above Quilava as he slashed Haunter one more time to defeat him, and used the water spell on his feet and quickly fell onto Quilava, delivering a powerful blow that took away a little over three forth's of his health. He was just barely above the red level on his health bar. He turned to face Bryce with a smug grin(1) that made Bryce tighten the grip on his tome.

Bryce shot two electric bolts at the ceiling, dropping some wiring which Quilava dodged. While he was preoccupied, Bryce electrified his shoes, which he learned also sped up his running and dodging. He also used the water spell to put water spheres around his arms. Quilava ran forward and attacked with a horizontal slice, which Bryce dodged and tried to counter with a low sweep. Quilava used the same strategy as he did with Grovyle, but as he came down in a stab motion, Bryce rolled behind him and shot the water off his hands, still in the shape of fists. Since Quilava was landing from the stab, he couldn't dodge the attack and slid backward with the power of the blow. His bar slid into the red and almost out of health. Bryce had been smart with his strategy so far, but he knew that mages generally have low health, so one hit could defeat him. Bryce used the electric ability so quickly run circles around Quilava and create three versions of himself(2). Quilava was facing one clone of Bryce and the other two were in his peripherals. The Bryce facing him ran forward, and Quilava destroyed him, which also took away a third of the real Bryce's health, and he ran towards the other clone of Bryce and defeated him with a vertical cut, but as he did that, the real Bryce used a newly created aqua sword and ran towards Quilava and delivered one final slice. Quilava turned to face Bryce and grinned. As Bryce looked down, he realized why. Quilava's other sword was protruding from his chest. They defeated each other at the same time. He smirked back and they were transferred back at the same time.

"…and with that, the contest is over! The top 5 players have been determined. In fifth:"

A pedestal with five places arose and Grovyle was standing on the lowest one.

"…in forth:"

Haunter was teleported to the place just above Grovyle.

"…third place has been determined after watching the fight in slow motion:"

A screen appeared with the final blows of Quilava and Bryce. It turned out, because Bryce's health was higher, it took longer for it to fall to zero. As he realized this, Quilava was teleported to the platform with the three below it.

"… the runner-up is:"

Bryce was teleported to the platform. It wasn't until then he realized: there was one other player. He must have been hiding out.

"…and our winner is:"

As the light cleared away from the winner's pedestal, Bryce looked up, shocked at the winner.

Author's Notes: Finally! Time to actually post! Also finally are the OC's that will be appearing: Quilava, Grovyle, Haunter, and our mystery winner! Who is the winner? Find out next chapter!

PS: Let me know if the fight scene(s) was/were okay. I haven't written one before.

If you've watched Harper's Island episode 11 "Splash" where Shane fights Wakefield and he smiles creepily, that's what I was trying to imitate. It's hard to put into words though.

That move is in an anime "Code Lyoko". One of the characters, Ulrich, has that ability (called triplicate or triangulate).

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