Chapter 5: To be Chosen

The first competitors up were the short, silver-haired boy and a young man with blonde hair, wearing black boots, white pants, and a light-colored shirt with a purple vest. His name, is Sekke Bronzazza. Shezu was watching from the crowd, waiting his turn like everyone else. But unlike everyone else, he was curious about what the boy was going to do. From the awarding ceremony he knew, or at the very least thought, that the boy had no magical talent. However, from what he glanced, he did have a grimoire. So...how was this going to play out? Before the match started, Sekke seemed to lean over and whisper something to the short boy. They were words Shezu was not able to hear, however.

"Now...Begin!" William proclaimed.

Sekke whipped out his grimoire, all the while proclaiming, "I'm not going to hold back. Come and get me Asta!"

He let out a pompous laugh as if to show off his superiority. Soon a blue-green ball formed around him, translucent nonetheless, with spouts coming out of it as well.

Bronze Creation Magic: Sekke Magnum Cannonball

"Don't hold back, I'm ready for ya," Sekke said, winking in his opponents direction as if to mock him even further. In return, the short, silver-haired boy replied, "Got it. Here I go."

Then, it happened. Dashing forward, he cleared the distance between him and his opponent in the blink of an eye. This was no small feat, as there was at least a good six feet between them. All the while, his grimoire started to radiate power, and a sword handle began to come out of it. Grabbing the hilt of the sword above his head, he then proceeded to unsheathe it out of the book, and strike down his opponent with it in one smooth motion. The blade he held was massive, about the width and length of his own body, and it cut through the bronze ball as if it were butter. Though, oddly enough, it didn't cut through the opponent. Though perhaps that was more of a curse than a blessing. With his opponent laying defeated on the ground, still holding his sword proclaimed, "I'm not here just to join the Magic Knights and have fun without any effort. I'm here...to become the Wizard King!"

The audience was stunned silent, no one knew what to say, Especially Shezu. Asta then put his sword back in his grimoire, the book swallowing it up as if it were a black hole. He then simply walked back into the crowd, meanwhile, some of the medical mages carted the other boy off in a stretcher to be healed. It was needed after all, since a mass of metal just crushed him. Shezu followed Asta with his eyes until he lost him.

"So, his name is Asta...well, at least I know his name now,"

Pretty soon, the next competitors were up, then the ones after them, and after them again. It was quite a series of fights. Earth golems being blasted with water spells, elements battling each other. Some strong nobles fought weak peasants in order to show how strong they were and how easily they could crush their opponents. Other times, nobles fought each other, in order to show their skills when faced with a real challenge, or perhaps to settle competitions with other families. The fights were impressive, on par with the opening fight, at the very least. But another one to take the cake was a spar that happened in the middle of the competition. It was a noble named Salim from the Hapshass family. He had long, smooth, blonde locks, and a white shirt with frills at the collar and cuffs. He was fighting the boy with black hair, the same boy who received the four-leaf clover from the awarding ceremony. They stood facing each other in the ring, waiting for the other to make a move. Salim was happy to oblige. Pulling out his grimoire, electrical energy began to pulse around him, readying a large attack. However, before he could fire it off, the tall, slim, black-haired boy opened his grimoire and shot off a spell of his own.

Wind Magic: Towering Tornado

As the name implied, a large column of wind shot up from the ground, swallowing up his opponent, and spitting him out. The fight was over before it could even began. Needless to say, the crowd was flabbergasted. The matches went on, until in the last ones came up. The sky was beginning to glow orange as it transitioned to twilight. It was now Shezu's turn. The young man walked up along with his competitor, staying a good distance away from each other. There was a tense moments of silence between the two, as a breeze of wind blew between them. Suddenly, they both opened there grimoires with haste.

"Before we get started, let us introduce ourselves, I'm Selb Blitz," the noble said with a smile that could drip venom, if it were any more snake-like.

"Shezu Ichor," The young man replied in a serious tone of voice.

"Hmph, well Shezu, let's give it our best shall we?"

"After yo-"

But before he could even finish, a bolt of energy streaked past his right ear, licking it. Shezu felt a sharp pain in it, before it went completely numb. He let his right hand touched the hit ear, caressing it and pinching it as hard as he could to see if he could feel anything. But no, he couldn't feel a single thing. He looked back at his opponent, and more importantly, the source of the attack. Selb had both his hands shaped like pistols, with electricity continuously coming out of the two extended out.

Lightning Magic: Stunning Bolt

Selb continued to smile, all the while saying, "well, if you insist."

The only thing Shezu could do was look in shock, and fear. Selb continued to fire off his bolts again and again, with the only thing the blood mage could do being dodge them. Shezu tried to think of a plan.

"Damn, I'm in trouble! Let's see… I can judge by where the shots are going to go by the position of his fingers, so I at least have that. But on the downside, there is no one behind me, which means he can fire as much as wants without hurting anyone. Not to mention I don't feel like using the people behind me as a meat shield. The best hope I have is to slip in between the shots and nail him with some hardened blood."

Shezu tried to concentrate, trying to summon a ball of solid blood like he did during the tests. However, every time he tried to do it, he would notice a bolt of lightning coming towards him, forcing him to dodge and break his focus.

"Oh, who am I kidding! I can barely dodge his attacks, let alone pull off a counter of my own."

All the while, Selb was thinking to himself with a slimy smile, "that's right, dance you commoner clown, DANCE!"

To enforce his want, he shot a few bolts at Shezu's feet, making him swerve and jive. Suddenly, he shot a bolt to Shezu's right, making the boy dodge left. Unfortunately, this is what the lightning user wanted. He then fired a bolt at him right before his opponent could rebound, hitting him right in the arm. It was a feint. Shezu felt the same shock of pain like he did before, only this time it was through his entire left arm. He was fortunately able to quickly recover, and catch his second breath. To add to his fortune, he didn't have to dodge any more bolts, at least not for the moment. Selb was too busy giving him the most pompous smile a person ever had, impressed with his little maneuver.

"Heh, don't get too full of yourself there…" Shezu thought to himself while shooting a spiteful look in his opponent's direction.

Squeezing his left arm with his right, it was in the same situation as his ear. No matter how hard he squeezed, he couldn't feel a thing. Even worse, not only couldn't he feel it, he couldn't even move it. Now matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even get it to flinch. The only time it ever moved was when he used his still functioning arm to lift it up, but it would always flop down like a wet noodle when he let go. To make matters worse, the bolts started to fire off again. Shezu's second wind was over. It was back to dodging again, only this time, the boy's useless arm was swinging about wildly like it was a ribbon of meat. This caused some snickering from the onlookers at the sheer ridiculousness of it, which definitely didn't help matters. Shezu was running out of ideas, energy, and time.

"Damnit! What am I going to do! I can't launch a counterattack, I'm running out of breath, and my left arm is useless...wait..,"

It was then that Shezu had an epiphany.

"My left arm is useless!"

While Shezu was coming to his realization, Selb was coming to one of his own.

"Well, this was fun, but now…"

"What do you say we end this, Shezu?"

The young man simply responded, in a tired voice, "Heh, couldn't agree more."

Abruptly, Shezu rushed forward towards his opponent. This took Selb by surprise, but not for long, as he quickly shot off a bolt in order to stun him. It hit him, but only in his left arm once again. Shezu wasn't as quick as the boy with the black sword, but that didn't matter, since he had a shield to protect him. That shield, was his useless arm.

"I might not be willing to use the people behind me as a meat shield, but my useless arm will do just fine!"

This was the epiphany Shezu had. The lightning mage realized what his opponent was doing, and tries to shoot off as many stun bolts as he could. But it was to no avail, as Shezu was low to the ground, he couldn't hit his legs. Not only that, but his head was tucked in, and his body was turned to show only his side to his opponent. Thus the only thing Selb could hit was that already useless arm. With this to his advantage, Shezu was able to concentrate on making a hardened blood ball. He didn't even have to deal with the pain of the bolts, given that his arm was already numb. The only pain he felt was the blood coming out of his body. He formed a mass of blood hardened just like the shield that protected him. With that, he swung his arm upward, slamming the mass into his opponent's chin like an iron uppercut. In a moment that seemed to freeze, Selb was launched into mid-air, and quickly fell down right back to earth. Everyone stared in shock at the result, and was with this, that the last of the fights concluded.

"And that marks the end of the examination," William declared. All the examinees were present under the podium where the captains of the Magic Knights were seated.

"Each examinee will come forward when their number is called out. The squad captains will raise their hands if they wish to have you join their team. It is up to the examinee to accept the offer or not, and if more than one captain raises their hand, it is also up for the examinee to choose. However, as mentioned before, if there are no takers...the examinee will not be able to join the Magic Knights."

Everyone once again took a gulp, as the announcer stated, "examinee one, step forward…"

One by one, the examinees were called up, and one by one, they were rejected. The first examinee to be offered a position was number 32, to the Purple Orcas. It continued, with everyone holding their breath to see whether or not a hand would be raised for them. Until finally...it was Shezu's turn.

"Number 78, step forward…"

Shezu stood before the nine captains of the Magic Knights

"...any hands?"

...and none of them were raising their hands.

For a tense moment, everything stood still. With Shezu looking at the captains, and the captains looking back with no interest at all. Then Shezu started hear the words he didn't want to hear. The words he dreaded to hear.

"Number 78, no han-"

"Excuse me?"

The voice that spoke up surprised everyone, as it belonged to the captain of the Crimson Lions, Fuegoleon Vermillion. Shezu recognized him, as he was the same man who saved him from the jade magic user form the Coral Peacocks.

"Huh, how did I not notice that he was here?"

"I'm curious...Shezu was it? Why do you wish to join the magic knights?"

Fuegoleon was not feigning interest. He legitimately seemed like he was curious about Shezu's intentions for joining the Magic Knights. But Shezu...didn't even know how to respond. He could feel in his gut that his answer would decide the outcome of the captain's decision. What could he say? What should he say? In the end, all he could say was what anyone should say. He told the truth.

"When I was a child, a group of bandits attacked my village in the common realm. They were called the 'Flames of Avalon.'"

"The Flames of...what?"

"Oh yeah, I heard of them."

"They were a pretty evil group."

Shezu continued, looking down as he recalled the unpleasant memory, "they were going to burn down my village, along with everyone in it. But then, a group of Magic Knights came to the rescue, Saving me and everyone else there...Before they came, all I remember feeling is fear. Like, I was being drowned by it… but when Knights saved us, it was like all that fear simply vanished."

Looking back up towards the captain, he then spoke with a new sense of confidence, "that's why I want to join the Magic Knights. I want to become someone who is able to erase fear, even from the hearts of people themselves."

With his tale done, all the captains looked at him with different looks of reaction. Some who were impressed smiled. Others raised an eyebrow in confusion, as if they didn't know what he was saying. While others seemed to not even be amused. But the most notable thing that happened after the story, was that a single hand was raised by a captain. That hand, belong to the captain of the Crimson Lions.

"Here...we'll take him"

Everyone was stunned into silence.

"What! No way!"

"The Crimson Lions, they got the second amount of stars last year. They're considered the strongest Magic Knight group, just behind the Golden Dawn."

"No way can a commoner just join!"

Shezu himself was shocked by this outcome. The most he hoped for was joining one of the lesser Magic Knight squads, like the Purple Orcas, Green Mantis, or Coral Peacocks. But not the Black Bulls. Even Shezu didn't believe that he could survive that. However, the Crimson Lions! Only nobles were expected to join them, along with the Golden Dawn and Silver Eagles. What could Shezu say? Except…

"Yes! I accept!"

And with that...it was done.

Shezu left before the rest of the examinees were judged and waited outside to be fetched, as was required. He went towards the main gate, passing the guards that greeted him at the start of the exam. As soon as he left the colosseum, the number stamped across his grimoire dissipated. All the examinees that were deemed worthy to be Magic Knights formed their own groups based on their squad. Shezu was the first to be chosen by the Crimson Lions, so he had the privilege of choosing where the group was going to form. After staking his claim, he looked out towards the city, and even further towards the horizon. He took a deep breath.

"I did it...I actually did it…"

The exam was over, and all the captains were heading out in order to meet their new recruits. However, before Fuegoleon could leave, someone called to him.

"Vermillion."

Fuego turned to see where the cold, icy voice came from. It belonged to Nozel Silva, captain of the Silver Eagles. He wore a blue cape trimmed with white fur, a white shirt, pants, and sandals.

"Ah Nozel," Furagoleon responded in a friendly manner, "something I can do for you?"

"Yes, I was wondering if you could answer for me a small question?"

"And…that would be?"

"Why would you let a commoner into your squad?"

Nozel had a look of genuine displeasure on his face, as if he were insulted by Fuegoleon's actions.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. I'm surprised that the squad who got second place in the festival of stars last year would let someone like that into their group."

Fuegoleon put a hand to his chin, as if he were contemplating the question.

"Well...what can I say? I see potential in the boy."

"Really? Is that your reason?"

"As far as I'm concerned Nozel, that's the only reason I need. Besides I don't see how the members I choose for my team are any of your business."

This made Nozel shot his fellow captain a venomous look. He then stormed past him, looking to leave.

"Just be careful Fuegoleon. Let too many incompetent people into your squad and you might just lose all those stars you earned."

"Is that what this is about. You know Nozel, third place is nothing to be ashamed of," Fuegoleon said with a smug grin.

"Hmph."

With that, both of the captains left the testing ground, along with their attendants.

"Hello there. We meet again…"

Shezu turned to see Fuegoleon, his captain.

"Uh, yeah, guess we do…"

Pulling an object from the folds of his clothes, he handed it to Shezu. It was a letter with a wax seal stamped with the seal of a roaring lion.

"Read the contents of the letter. It contains information about our base of operations, along with other information. Bring it when you come to the base when dawn breaks."

Shezu held the letter in his hands like he was holding paper made out of gold, all the while responding with a soft, "Yes, sir."

And just like that, the captain left just as soon as he arrived. But before leaving, Shezu noticed the attendant that was with him. He was a young man, just about as old as Shezu. He had the same hair as the captain, the same color of eyes, even the same attire! In all honesty, he was like a younger version of the captain himself. Shezu and him gave each other a silent, neutral look, before Fuego broke it.

"Leopold, come!"

The young man did as he was told, following his captain without a second of hesitation, and without giving Shezu a second look. The only thing Shezu thought was, "Huh, wonder if they're related?"

Carmilla Ichor was sitting at the table, both hands clasped in front of her. She was rocking back and forth, all the while tapping her foot. Eurale, on the other hand, was washing the dishes. Though in truth he was only doing it to pass the time and take his mind of things for a while. Both were waiting with much concern.

"Where was Shezu? What was he doing? Was he okay?"

These were the thought that raced through their minds. Until, they finally heard the knock on the door. They both raced towards it, ripping it open to see their son standing there with a smile. Carmilla practically yanked Shezu back inside. Immediately after, the young man was bombarded with questions.

"How are you!?"

"How did it go!?"

"Did, you get in!?"

"Are you hurt!?"

All Shezu could do was wait until the bombardment stopped, and only then was he able to give a look that was a mixture of confusion, surprise, and anxiety.

"Well...I definitely got news."

Notes: Well, now we know who Shezu is going to go on adventures on with. This is the point where the story starts to go its own way. Think of it like what was going on behind the scenes. Until next time!