The island of Smocharde is, and has been for many centuries, a foothold of humanity. It has been dubbed 'the Dinner Plate Between Continents' by many a king over for good reason. The plate bit being the most obvious though as it is surrounded by sheer Cliffside ten meters above sea at high tide and has been completely flattened over time to accommodate for its growing wheat fields. Because of its natural barriers the only way to enter the island is through the great staircase carved from the cliff face itself by Vester Pierre Carpallion who's great Grandson, Pierre Carpallion sits on the council today as it's…
"No he isn't" called out a young man from the middle of the crowd that had gathered at the docks.
"What?"
"There is no Pierre Carpallion on the Vale council"
"Oh, that's because Smocharde is governed by its own council as an independent nation" Boomed the moustached gentleman standing on his pedestal. He was (especially in contrast to the crowd of visitors he addressed) dressed in severely outdated brightly coloured but faded clothes only emphasised by his sea blue quilted shirt and feather cap.
"Do we have to show our passports" asked an older lady from the back of the crowd standing before the odd greeter in front of the aforementioned 'great staircase'
"No, we're still within the borders of the Kingdom of Vale" the outdated gentleman responded in a tone sorely lacking its previous enthusiasm.
"So you are part of the Kingdom of Vale?" asked the first voice again
Around two meters behind the greeter stood two guards, "You'd think we'd just skip all this and say we're part of Vale right?" asked the shorter of the two, tanned and dressed in a blue surcoat with black and white patterns adorning its arms and a black metal breastplate.
"You of all people should be over there explaining why we're our own country, you are a Carpallion" responded the exasperated voice of the taller guard who was pale and dressed in a similar surcoat except it was all black and adorned with smaller copper plates on the chest, joints, and back and accented with a strap that ended in a larger plate on his left shoulder.
With a roll of his eyes the Carpallion responded "Come on, the guy is already lying, what's one more?"
"Look Lloyd, we're here to make sure only the right people are getting in and if you stopped talking you might see that there is a whole ship of people turning up at dock thirteen" Said the darker dressed guard as he began to walk off with the young noble at his heel.
"Also there's a pretty big difference between not mentioning that there are caves that let us travel up, and denying that we've got our own government. Besides it's important to know that we're going to have some different rules." He continued, turning his head just enough for Lloyd to make contact with his deep blue eyes while keeping tabs on the incoming visitors.
Spotting something he didn't, Lloyd warned his companion, "Ethan, look, their leader has horns."
Ethan's face stayed stony and his eyes stayed sharp as his short black hair flowed with an oncoming breeze exposing one of the large birth marks on the side of his upper temple. While the ship still easing its way into the port a woman jumped from its deck sending Ethan reaching for the bronzed claymore sheathed on the strap on his back. "Hey, hey, we're not here to fight anyone"
"Oh, you're just the take and leave type?" inquired Lloyd
"What do you…oh..." the woman approached with her hands up and her expression darkened. Her skin was naturally pale but tanned and a bit burnt and she wore a loose orange tank top with black denim shorts matching her boyish hair that was held up in a quiff by a pair of goat horns sprouting from the top of her forehead.
"We're not going to take anything either" she said, maintaining a calm tone which contrasted Lloyds almost panicked response, "Oh yeah but you're certainly going to leave behind your little house burning presents, who knows maybe a plague if you're feeling ambitious"
A look of disgust flashed across her amber eyes as she took a bit longer to respond, "I would like to speak to the port authority" her tone growing steely.
"That would be us, sir Rustcliffe and eighth son to Patriarch Pierre Carpallion, Lloyd Carpallion" Said Ethan, stepping forward, closing the distance and positioning himself between the other two.
"Look I think we got off on the wrong foot you thought I was aggressive and I was just eager…I'm Captain Delilah, we're just looking to wait out the night here, we've got a ship full of people and supplies, there's a storm coming and…"
"You should turn around" Ethan responded, his cold stern gaze matching his voice, unwavering.
"What? We might not last the night out there"
"You might not last the night here either, people tend to go missing here…Grimm" he offered icily enough for Delilah to read between the lines as to what he was really saying, "Your people don't last the night here".
Ethan sat back on the bench of the sand floored arena leaning on his greatsword chanelling his aura. He couldn't see much from here, the lights left the stands as silhouettes focusing on the wooden railing splitting the oval shaped pit. Letting his aura flicker off the copper plates, moving from the back of his hand, to his shoulder, down his back, and to his knees.
Lloyd on the other hand was doing a bit more practical training, covering the basics more to keep himself distracted than anything else. His two red blades were attached to his right forarm and extended two feet past his knuckles, he repeated numbered motions, altering his rhythm in an attempt to throw off an imaginary enemy.
Their waiting was finally interrupted when a booming, masculine voice came over the loudspeaker, "Initiates, I apologise for my tardiness. As you know I am here as your enrolment instructor. As you also know, I will be overseeing the first of your tests today…well we are unfortunately on a timed schedule today so I think its best if we get straight into the meat and potatoes of it eh?" Both boys turned to the booth where a round silhouette stood.
"This first test will go over the basics of combat, now normally we would do this test last but since you already have the required amenities here" arms extended from the figure to gesture the lengths of the arena, "we may as well test you on your home turf. Both of you, please go to either side of the barrier on opposite sides of the arena, raise your weapons above your head when you are ready and we will begin the test" the boys did as instructed, staring each other down from the same angle as they had done so many times before mounted on mechanical horses.
Lined up roughly a hundred meters away were several pale metal crates adjourned with two green crossed over axes. Both boys raised their weapons and on cue the crates slid open revealing scrawny humanoid machines which stood up with the space to move, "We will be doing this in two rounds, the first round we will be one on one since most applicants haven't fought Beacon's training automatons".
The first robot stepped out of its box and walked towards Ethan with its rifle drawn. Before it could even fire its first shot Ethan was B-lining straight for it, its quick semi-automatic fire was easily intercepted as the bullets were stopped by the blunt side of the copper greatsword. Within the first seconds the fight had finished with the robot cleanly bisected at the waist, "Good" boomed the professor.
"We just needed to make sure you can handle a bit of gunfire. For the second round you will fight three opponents, a Huntsman will often find himself facing many enemies alone after all."
The robot in the middle opened fire on Ethan while the other two marched forward, one bladed arm behind and the other covering their torsos, ready to intercept. Ethan had been training for this for years, blocking the bullets as the robots attempted to flank him. He felt almost disappointed at how low the bar was, until one of the machines switched from its rigid marching to an inhumanly quick lunge.
Despite his surprise he was quickly able to intercept the blade at the base of his blade and lever the end into a swing leaving a deep cut in the torso of his attacker, but while his blade was occupied the other robot made its move.
He only had the time to position the plate on his left scapular in the way, the arm-blade scraping against it and almost biting into his rear on the other end. Instead of an immediate counter attack, Ethan held his sword diagonally to his spine to intercept another volley of bullets on the way to moving into place against the robot's second arm.
Ethan had kept calm through all of this, his thoughts focused and his aura swelling. As the second blade hit, Ethan channelled the energy out from his core into the shoulder plate from which a dagger of lightning launched into the robot, frying its circuits.
With his sword pointed behind him, almost as if he was dragging it, Ethan dashed towards the final opponent, crossing the last couple of dozen meters in a few seconds. Swinging his blade from its resting position, the robot was sliced in half at a near perfect 45 degree angle, ending the round.
With a one man round of applause the voice returned, but this time from the main entrance to the pit "Good work boys, you know, when I first enrolled we didn't have these" the man said gesturing to the broken machines.
"Instead our instructors would accompany us into the wilderness and find us some beewolves to fight, I still remember being disarmed and having to wrestle the alpha to the ground…"
The man sported grey hair and a large moustache that almost covered his mouth, all parts of his hair seemed to wave out in unison from the centre of his face. If the voice hadn't given him away the round shape certainly had, it was covered by a dark red suit jacket and pants with gold lining and buttons decorating him like the general of his own army.
"And using my dental floss I sawed through the Grimm's neck and stood victorious. Anyway, we decided doing that and initiation is a bit pointless so now we just do the combat test to make sure those outside the schools are up to scratch" Ethan had the tip of his blade buried in the ground as he listened intently throughout the whole story, Lloyd however had quickly grown tired of the long winded tale.
"So, Ethan Rustcliffe, Lloyd Carpallion, your belongings have been loaded into the bulkhead. We don't have to leave for another hour so if you have any last goodbyes now is the time to make them" the Professor Finished.
"Yes Professor Port, I… I should go and speak to the patriarch before I go" Ethan said, pulling his blade from the ground.
"Do you want me to take Legacy up to the ship?"
"No thanks Lloyd".
"What, you think you're going to have to fight him as some last test or something?" he joked.
"No...I would just like to stand before him again as a warrior, let him see that I really am just like Grandpa".
"Well, his seventeen year investment paid off then".