Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 58: New Challenges Awaits

A flash of light and a piercing sound assaulted Damion’s senses, and he nearly stumbled to the ground from disorientation.

He grabbed his head and placed a hand on his knee, leaning over to stabilize himself.

He slowly regained his bearings, and the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Alexia staring down at him with a derisive gaze.

She was probably surprised that he was the first to arrive out of all the other promising students, however, her shock only multiplied when Matilda appeared next.

She stared hard, waiting for the next person to appear. Her brother came next, but she still didn’t seem satisfied.

Then Emily came next, along with Melruen, Noriko... then Drax.

Damion had already stabilized himself, so he could see the order in which they came.

’Where’s Kenzo and Lyra?’ he thought.

In response to his thoughts, Kenzo appeared, blood dripping down his arm and his shirt torn slightly. His gaze fell on Drax, and the subtle silver glow in his eyes made one wonder what had occurred back there.

The next second Lyra appeared, and the portal she stepped out from vomited Aspasia, flickered, and blinked out.

"That’s all?" Alexia mumbled without meaning to.

Damion heard her, but refrained from reacting. Her surprise was understandable. Those who everyone believed would make it were unexpectedly replaced by students deemed inferior.

Jordan was nowhere to be found, so he probably would have been teleported out of the tunnel before it collapsed on him.

The other students who were with them in the tunnel were not fortunate enough to be there. The weeding was complete, and those selected for the Training Program were standing before Alexia.

The ten students stood straight after recovering from the effects of the teleportation. It was some of them’s first time, so their reactions were understandable.

Ten minutes into their wait, an armored individual came through a portal similar to the one they arrived through, and Alexia left. The glowing blue eyes of the person could be seen through the shadows in the visors of the helmet, and without further ado, he ordered them to follow after him. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

The students sighed, thinking it was another sprint again, but they were wrong.

Damion looked around at the cave they were in, the curiosity in his eyes growing. If it wasn’t for the lights embedded in the walls, he wouldn’t have known that he wasn’t in the same place.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s where they were headed.

The armored individual walked ahead of them in silence, his pace slow. The distance covered since they started walking should have taken them to the end of the tunnel already, but they hadn’t even reached half of the way.

Damion was curious about the weird spatial situation of the tunnel. He still didn’t know how they had transitioned from the Hall to the tunnel in the first place, but since no one was complaining or saying anything about it, he decided to stay silent about it too.

The group reunited, and Damion asked Kenzo what happened back in the tunnel. He was given the silent treatment at first, before Kenzo decided not to be a prick and answer.

"Everyone seemed to understand what the crystal’s function was after you used it," Kenzo explained. "So those closest to it went for it, hoping to be the first... or second,"

"Matilda delivered your message to me, so I held them off while she used the crystal,"

"I wasn’t able to hold them back for long, so Kaiden slipped through my defenses and made use of the crystal,"

"Emily used her Ability to stall after a drawn out fight, and she built an earth wall around herself and the crystal while she and Melruen used it,"

"Noriko didn’t participate in the fight, but when he saw an opportunity to strike, he took it, blasting everyone away with his flames and using the crystal,"

"It was at that moment I noticed the crystal dimming, and I knew something was wrong," Kenzo said, wiping his bleeding arm with a cloth. "Then that speed rat took the brief moment of my inattention to use the crystal, slashing my arm as he passed,"

"The other students weren’t so lucky and fought Aspasia and Jordan at the back, who undoubtedly beat them. I used the crystal right after Drax, and the rest is history. Now leave me alone."

Kenzo moved to the side, focusing on attending to his injuries while Matilda used her Ability to see if there were any poisonous substances in it.

Damion fell in thoughts, furrowing his brows as the cogs in his mind turned.

Lyra moved close to him, her Exoskeleton dented and scratched in some places, but looked to be repairing itself.

"Do you have any idea where we’re going?" Damion asked her.

"If this Training Program is the same as the last, then we’re probably heading for the Training Hub where we would stay for the rest of our first year," Lyra replied.

"We would be trained, take on missions and whatnot," she paused for a second, checking a hologram she opened up from her palm. "I can’t be so sure though, things might have changed."

A minute went by in silence. The tension in the tunnel had dropped slightly, but it was still relatively high.

Damion’s mind spun as he tried to deduce the reason for the weird space in the tunnel. He came up with some ideas, but they were all scrapped when he really thought about them.

Just like that, an hour passed before they finally exited the tunnel.

Damion breathed in the cool, fresh air, and as his eyes settled on the jungle before him, he smiled. ’There are lots of shadows here,’ he thought.

The man in armor took off his helmet and turned around, sending a probing glance at them.

"I’m Captain Shodan Black, and I will be your instructor throughout your stay in the Base," the Black man before them said.

Damion sensed several presences in the range of Dragon’s Authority, and he turned to look.

He found two other groups of students listening to an armored individual debriefing them, and a thought entered his mind.

"Your stay here would be long or short, depending on your performance," Captain Shodan took a step forward and said. "So try your best and excel, or die trying..."