"You are all, in short, here because you all showed potential to become great huntsmen and huntresses whilst you were at the different primary combat schools across Remnant. I am not one to miss out on potential. That being said, although I pride myself on having one of the best academies available, it is perhaps one of the smallest. Some of you here already know this, but we only ever have space for 16 potential huntsmen and huntresses, and standing before me are 71 boys and girls fighting for those spots. As you can tell, we are going to have to whittle down the amount of you there are here until we have just 16 left."
General Ironwood was stood up on a stage, pacing around in front of a podium, with all the other teachers stood there as well. Vertiya and Yimesz were stood in a crowd of boys and girls roughly the same age as them, all with various weapons, some wielding fairly normal swords, rapiers, and so on, whereas other kids had more unusual ones: Vertiya could spot claws, leg blades, and even one girl wielding a pair of fans. Although Vertiya was curious to see what everyone was using, General Ironwood spoke up again, and Vertiya turned her attention back to him.
"Now, to do that, we have a series of tests you will have to undergo. There will be various stages which will eliminate potential students until we reach a total of 32. By this point, we will have an idea of who works well together, and will draft you into 8 teams of four. In order to get down to 16, or four teams, each of the eight teams will be matched against each one other team randomly. The winning team from each battle will get in. The losing team, I'm afraid, will not."
"Did he just say what I think he said?" Yimesz mumbled out of the corner of his mouth to Vertiya, not breaking eye contact with the stage.
"Yeah, and it sounds like I'm going to be carrying your sorry ass through this as well, aren't I," Vertiya replied, also not breaking eye contact.
"Always the complimentary one," Yimesz responded, before Ironwood went on.
"The first stage is straightforward enough. Each of you will have to go against a simulation of a Grimm by yourself, in a one versus one environment. For obvious reasons, you will not be able to take any help from any outside source. If you defeat the Grimm, you will move on to the next stage. If not, you will unfortunately have to leave. There's a catch, however: in a realistic situation, if you get jumped on by Grimm, you will not have a chance to prepare for what Grimm you are fighting. As such, the Grimm you will battle will be randomised directly prior to fighting it. Although it is random, there is always only one student who will end up battling a Nevermore. No one has succeeded yet."
Ironwood's last point sent a ripple of murmurs throughout the group of kids. After all, Nevermores were incredibly tough to kill even as a team, so to think that someone would have to battle one by themselves was dumbfounding. Sure, it was only a simulation, but just the thought of fighting one was panic worthy.
"Odds on you getting the Nevermore?" Yimesz said, nudging Vertiya and grinning.
Vertiya sighed, shaking her head. "If you weren't a dork, I'd say one in seventy-one. Unfortunately, you are though, so let's just say first round on me if I am. First round on you if I'm not, though."
"You know, just in case it does happen, I'll go with it," Yimesz replied, before the teachers moved off the stage. As they did, the stage lowered into the ground, with screens coming down from the ceiling above it. It practically looked like an arena – which, Vertiya reminded herself, was most likely the angle they were going for.
"Anyway, first up, Plutonine Hawkrest?" Ironwood called out, at which point a boy who looked a little older than most of the general group half walked, half staggered forward and into the arena, drinking out of what looked something like a hip flask. Ironwood didn't look impressed, but either way he still moved out of the area, getting out his scroll and typing something into it. Various images of Grimm flashed on the screen, before it finally stopped on the image of a Boarbatusk. Right on cue, a Boarbatusk appeared, almost as though it was scanned in in 3D.
"Well, I guess everyone has their own fighting styles," Vertiya said, a little concerned. The guy, Plutonine, looked rather drunk, and hardly even aware of anyone in the area, let alone the Boarbatusk.
"Well, they did say they need to get rid of some of the number here," Yimesz pointed out. Plutonine didn't even seem to have a weapon on him; all he had was a hip flask. "So, I guess after this we should be down to seventy? Odds of getting in will be better then."
"I'm not going to assume anything yet," Vertiya replied, as a bell went off, and the Boarbatusk charged.
Plutonine was not phased in the slightest by the charging Boarbatusk coming straight at him, and didn't even seem to get out a weapon. Instead, once the Grimm was close enough, Plutonine, in one smooth move, grabbed the Boarbatusk mid-charge by one of its tusks, and span, launching it towards the other side of the arena. The Boarbatusk slammed into what looked like thin air, until a small ripple of blue spread out from where it hit and it became clear there was some sort of force field around the arena. The Boarbatusk looked rattled upon landing, but almost immediately it was back up on his feet, and charging again.
"I'm surprised, I thought he'd be out on the first attack."
Vertiya thought that Yimesz said it. Yimesz thought Vertiya had said it. As it turned out, neither of them had. It was the girl who was wielding the pair of fans, who had somehow ended up next to them.
"Yeah, I thought so too, guess we're alike in that manner. I'm Yimesz," Yimesz said, instantly turning on his charm, as he always did whenever talking to a girl. Vertiya sighed, before shimmying to the side. She wasn't particularly interested in listening to Yimesz flirt – granted, he was good at it, but that didn't mean she was bothered about getting tips. Vertiya had other things to deal with first –getting through Atlas was higher up the priority list.
"Cute, but I wasn't talking to you," the girl replied coolly, walking past Yimesz and towards Vertiya. Vertiya was as shocked as Yimesz's expression showed, but she still managed to somehow hear Yimesz mumble something like, 'always the dykes' before he moved away. "That your brother, I take it?" the girl asked Vertiya.
"I… um… Twin, to be precise," Vertiya replied, a little hesitantly. "I'm a little, err, disconcerted though. Why me?" she asked. Most people never took interest in Vertiya – she was the bookworm, Yimesz was the social king. He got the attention usually, and lapped it up. Vertiya was an introvert after all, and usually much preferred the company of herself, or at most, her brother.
"You seemed interesting. And no, not for the reason your brother mumbled," the girl explained to her. "From what I can see, there are two kids in this room who don't have an obvious weapon. One is currently fighting a Grimm, whilst too drunk to realise probably what day it is, let alone what he's meant to be doing at the moment. You are the other. And considering I have the choice of a pirate wannabe or someone who looked like reasonable conversation, my mind was made," she explained. "I'm Fen, by the way."
"Vertiya," Vertiya replied. The girl, Fen, was a similar height to Vertiya – maybe a tiny bit taller – but unlike the long, flowing green hair that Vertiya had, Fen's was remarkably short, shorter than Yimesz's. Not only that though, she had some sort of bandana covering the lower half of her face, meaning her only visible facial feature were ruby red eyes. Vertiya had never seen eyes that colour – sure, hers and Yimesz's were a distinctive lime green that was also highly uncommon, but red was almost as uncommon as silver. "Besides, some people have… uncommon fighting styles. Drunken fist is a thing, or so I'm told," Vertiya pointed out, before a sound of commotion ripple through the audience. Vertiya turned, and although the Boarbatusk had started charging again, the boy, Plutonine, was more concerned about the fact his hip flask was empty. Groaning, he twisted the lid back on, and the hip flask transformed into what could only be resembled as a ship's cannon, which was held in both hands by Plutonine. With a mighty roar, Plutonine fired the cannon, and a giant cannonball shot out, slamming straight into the Boarbatusk. "Or… uncommon ways of concealing their weapons?" Vertiya added.
"You're one to talk," Fen replied. "Or are you saving the big reveal for when you end up on the stage?"
"Let's just say I'm also not one for… conventional battling," Vertiya said, and through sleight of hand a card suddenly appeared in between Vertiya's index and middle finger, before she extended it to Fen, who took it and looked at it with a lot of concentration.
"Dust embedded cards? Definitely not your average rapier," Fen said, handing the card back to Vertiya. "Why the unconventional weapon, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I was never really that good at standard fighting myself, I preferred to use wits to beat my opponent," Vertiya explained to her. "So, all things considered, I decided to use something that fit my style, and I enjoyed doing magic tricks when I was younger, so I felt like cards was the best fit for me. Besides, it catches people out."
"Well, I'm curious as to how they work," Fen told her, as what sounded like a wheel spinning came from the arena. The Boarbatusk, clearly aggravated, had gone into a wheel formation, and was spinning rapidly on the spot, before charging towards Plutonine. Laughing, Plutonine pressed something on his cannon, causing it to transform into what resembled a large battle hammer. Changing his stance, he started wielding the hammer as if it were a baseball bat, and when the Boarbatusk lifted off the ground in an attempt to hit Plutonine in the torso, the boy swung, slamming straight into the Grimm and causing it to dissolve into fragments behind him.
"I guess he wasn't out on the first attack?" Vertiya said, but her tone was surprised if anything. Most people, after all, hardly expected a drunk to be able to take out a Grimm with such apparent ease, yet here Plutonine was, stumbling his way out of the arena with his weapon now back as a hip flask.
"Eh, he'll probably be out before the team fights, I'd imagine. If not, good luck to whoever has to deal with him," Fen pointed out.
The next batch of fights went by without anything particularly interesting happening. Some got simple Beowolves, some got Ursas, one particular girl was unfortunate enough to get a Death stalker, and as such she and a few others had already been knocked out by the Grimm. Vertiya was not a fan of the randomness of this trial, but she wasn't exactly going to go against Ironwood's way of teaching on the first day. He had his reasons for this test being this way, which he had stated before, after all.
"Yimesz Hylae."
Vertiya started paying attention at this point. After all, it was her brother up next, and she could quite easily see him heading up to the stage, being cheered by a small gathering. Vertiya sighed, but not with shock. After all, he was exactly like this at Alsius, so Vertiya knew full well that if he was left alone, he'd find a group of primarily females within a couple of minutes.
The randomisation process started, and Yimesz was looking up at the screen in a rather bored matter, until he saw what was up against. A Beowolf. Vertiya could make out Yimesz's facial expression, basically saying 'is that it', until she realised what was appearing above the word Beowolf: Alpha. Alpha Beowolves were no easy feat, and although there had already been something like 20 fights by this point, not one had cropped up yet. Yimesz's facial expression dropped when he too realised what he was up against, and instead he raised his fists, knuckledusters at the ready as the Alpha Beowolf spawned in, roaring at Yimesz. It stood almost 5 feet over him.
"Come on Yi, you are not getting knocked out this quickly," Vertiya mumbled to herself, concerned. With all the effort she had taken to get Yimesz into Atlas, she was not about to see him get knocked out at the first hurdle.