Code of Shadows

Second Third (Part 36)

Everyone charged forward after Sera's speech to start the third test. I was cautious. It was a test, so shouldn't we be careful of what we are doing?

I was one of the last people to turn the corner, and I was glad I was because what I saw made me anxious.

In front of our group there was a labyrinth of swirling objects. There was a box on the floor that none of the objects seemed to stray too far from. On one wall, a huge clock ticked slowly as the timer was set to 15 minutes. The sky was open above us, but there were walls all around us. I started to feel like a trapped mouse for no reason at all.

A magnified voice boomed, then started talking.

"You have 15 minutes for this test, but I assure you that this will not be easy. You will have to stay in this arena without being pushed out of the box or hit by any of the moving objects. If you don't succeed at any of these tasks, you will be disqualified. There are no other rules than that. You will have five seconds to get into the boxed area before you will be disqualified," she started to count. "5... 4... 3..." I jumped into the array of spinning and swiping objects. I ducked and jumped. I lost track of time. I didn't have the chance to look up. I bumped into several other people as they tried to avoid obstacles. They pushed and shoved, and I would move away.

I finally found a quiet bit of the arena and looked up at the time. 5 minutes left. I looked around at the arena. My eyes locked with Doves, she was stuck in a triangle of spinning swords. My eyes widened in panic. She was going to get hit by them. I charged into the array of objects. I was sprinting, and I was surprised that none of the obstacles hit me. They seamed to come at me in slow motion, and I would hope over them easily. I had almost made it to Dove when someone jumped in front of me. I skidded to a halt, then zig-zagged around the person. I reached down and grabbed a fallen sword that a trainee had brought but had decided that they didn't need. The swords were closing in fast.

I reacted Dove and shoved off a few swords, they went spinning off to find a new target. Dove made a dive for the opening I had created, then a sword swiped at her middle using the flat of its blade. I dove to stop it, but I was too slow. I watched in slow motion as the sword hit Dove. Dove flew off a few feet, then disappeared as she teleported away. I sunk to my knees. No, this couldn't have happened. I had managed to make a good friend, and she had instantly been taken away because of one of these tests. The alarm rang signaling that the 15 minutes was over. Dove had made it into the 14th minute, and had just barely not made it by a few seconds. The objects dropped to the ground harmlessly around the remaining trainees. Not many people were missing from our ranks, but I could see as I looked around that this test had taken out the less nimble people.

I took a deep breath, then stood up and held my head high. I saw Dylan teetering by one of the edges as he tried to regain his balance after tripping over so obstacle. I laughed. He had made it through the whole obstacle test just to trip on a obstacle afterwards.

I pulled him back into balance.

He smirked at me. I shoved him lightly.

"I can't believe you. You made it through that whole test without being tripped or wacked, yet you can't keep your balance regularly," I teased.

Dylan was about to respond when Sera came into the training area.

"Great job to those who passed the third test, 15 of your ranks didn't. To save you the trouble of trying to figure out who was discharged, I am just going to tell you. They were Arik Koch, Abie Sandler, Aliya Cranston, Blake Roth, Catalina Polari, Caitlyn Biding, Dove Marian, HAL037TJ, Farin Triz, Jonathan Aster, Lani Ryne, Meredith Cosigner," I sucked a breath in. Really? All the friends I had managed to make so far had already been discharged. Sera listed the last three names, but I didn't listen.