Ch 3 - The Test Begins
The paladins arrived an hour later at the royal palace. Axelson, the King's Royal Announcer, walked up to the group of paladins. "Welcome to the Royal Palace. Right this way please," he said. The paladins followed him to the royal hallway where the King sat at his throne; Daring, Dexter, and Darling at his side. "Young Paladins," Axelson began, "I present to you your king, His Majesty, King Charming." Turning to the king, Axelson proclaimed, "Your Majesty, may I present the young graduates of the Royal Paladin Academy."
King Charming stood up from his seat, "I thank you all for being able to attend this event. I welcome you all to the royal palace, and I hope to see many of you in my Royal Guard," he proclaimed. "However, I will now test you all to see who among you may join my Royal Guard. There will be a tournament, single elimination to decide whom amongst you may join. The semi-finalists of this tournament will all be offered spots on my Guard, as several of my previous guards have retired from my service recently." He looked to Axelson, "Bring out the tickets," he said. Looking back at the group, "you will all each be given a ticket from 1-16. These will decide who your opponents will be for the first round." Axelson returned, carrying an upturned helmet containing 16 slips of papers. "Please take one each," he said. Tora approached the helmet and took one slip. "It looks like I am number 1," he said. After Tora, every paladin approached and received their numbers.
After everyone had received their tickets, King Charming announced, "the first round will now begin. Number 1 and 16, please step up to the floor." Tora and another paladin stepped onto the floor. "Ready," Axelson announced, "and begin!" Tora's opponent immediately drew his sword, raised it, and rushed at Tora. Using the sheath of his blade, Tora, blocked the downward strike with both hands, and, after pushing his opponent back, kicked him hard in the stomach. The young paladin staggered backwards, and, seeing that Tora's blade was still sheathed, became enraged. "Draw your sword Tora! Just because you were the top of our class doesn't mean you can look down on me!" he shouted.
He rushed at Tora once more, and Tora defended the same way. After his second attempt failed, he switched to thrusting at Tora with his sword. At this vain attempt, Tora easily parried his attack, and, using the tip of the sheath, hit his opponent square in the gut. His opponent fell, with Tora standing above him, staring down with a bored look at his fallen opponent. "The winner of the first match of the first round is, Tora Hanate! He now moves on to the quarter-finals," Axelson announced.
The matches continued, with paladins falling one after the other, and others advancing to the next fight. As the last quarter-final match ended, King Charming stood up once more. "To those of you who have proven victorious thus far, I offer you positions in the Royal Guard. Congratulations. You have all proven your skills to myself and the royal family." He turned to look at Tora, who stared back with his now usual blank face. "Now, to determine the winner of this tournament. To the four of you, I offer the winner of this tournament the position of Vice-Captain of the Royal Guard, and appoint them to be the personal guard for my daughter, Darling Charming" he proclaimed. At this, Darling turned sharply to look at her father, then turned to look at Tora, the one that her father took so much interest in. 'I wonder if he is any good,' she thought to herself. 'Maybe I'll have to test him myself if he wins this tournament.' "Now then," the King announced, "may the semi-finals begin!"