Emry's Demons

Chapter 1

*** Thank you so, so much @elysian-exe for the beautiful cover!!!!

Chapter 1 – The Duels

Emry

This was the moment of truth, and Emry knew it. This was what she had been studying, training, fighting for, for the last couple of years.

And she was going to nail it.

The army wasn't a fancy organization to belong to. Ever since The Great War, young children, sometimes at the mere age of twelve, enlisted to the army if there was nothing else waiting for them outside of it. Orphans, thieves, poor, unwanted – the army took them all in, and made them soldiers. If they were tested and found suitable to become slayers, it also gave them a weapon.

The army paid very well for risking your life, that's for sure.

Emry was downright poor. Enlisting to the army at only twelve, leaving school behind, was the only way to guarantee her two parents and little sister's survival.

It has been eight years since then. She was grown now, she was strong. And she was fearless.

That's what fighting did to a person. She had faced the cruelest of demons. The ugliest, the darkest. She, along with the squad of slayers she had belonged to, until now. Now, many years later, it was her turn – and the turn of everyone who had enlisted at the same year as her – to be tested for their continuation in the army, and specifically for leadership. If they failed, the army would discharge them, and they would have to find their way on the streets.

If she failed, she and her family would be done for.

The examinations for the Slayer Unit included a massive knowledge exam with time limitation, and the Duels.

She had already done the knowledge exam. Now, she was waiting at the smelly, full of crumpled mattresses floor for her final duel, while watching others fight their own. Some would win, but if they wouldn't win enough combats – the army might give them up.

"Look," Shelly, another slayer of her squad, pointed at the wall. "They're posting the knowledge scores."

Silence. Everyone turned quiet the minute three commanders stepped inside and started to attach a huge piece of paper to the wall, with the ID numbers of the twenty soldiers who passed the exam, ranked from first to last.

Emry fisted her fingers. Weighted average of both the knowledge examination and the Duels would eventually determine the scores, so being rated first at the knowledge test was important.

She just had to be first. She had to be. She had been studying for that exam for years. For years. Every time her friends decided to hang out, she would often stay alone and read. Besides, the army was giving a prize for the soldier who, after the calculation with the Duels scores, would be rated first. And that was a lot of money.

And money was all she could see, as she had been giving it everything she had.

Waiting for the results of the first test, her heart was pounding and her leg was irritatingly tapping on the floor. The commanders were taking their time, as if deliberately provoking everyone. Her green, big eyes were staring at them impatiently.

She had to be first. She had to be first. She had to be first.

And then they were done.

And her ID was there, but she was not rated first.

She could feel the rage inside of her – red, hot, angry violence spreading through her veins.

She was rated second. Second.