An Expected Betrayal |TBATE

Chapter 18 - Let's get going!

(A.N Sorry for late upload, I fell asleep)

GREY

"Next!"

I stepped into the testing room. It's been 1 year since my 13th birthday. I was now 14 so Caera and I were getting ready for our ascender test. Somehow we managed to convince the Denoir's let Caera dropout of school to become an ascender with me. They didn't care what I did since I'm not their child. Even Seris let her come with me, which was surprising since Seris is very overprotective.

I talked to Seth and the rest but none of them wanted to join us. Another thing, Valen and Enola started dating. So did Seth and Mayla, although I think that was mainly due to Mayla being overly loving with Seth. That meant only Caera and I were single in our friend group.

Anyway Caera and I were in line for the test to become an ascender. If we fail we couldn't even dream of becoming an ascender but if we succeed we'll be able to go on ascents as much as we want. My main goal is to practice my swordsmanship for a year meaning I'll use mana as little as possible. Caera wants to train her soul fire. Since it'll be just us and we won't come across anyone else it's the perfect place for her to train. If Caera had become an ascender without me I'm sure she would hate the fact that her blood would probably force her to get a bodyguard or two.

I entered a small changing room with a tight suit folded up and a locker for my current clothes. "For your own safety , please wear the protective suit," a tiny voice repeated as I changed. Once I put the suit on–which was covered in runes– I made my way to the assessment hall.

I was expecting to enter a fancy arena of some sorts but instead I found myself in a huge empty room. Both the floor and the walls were divided into white squares. "Candidate Grey, Striker, Your first assessment will now begin," a voice boomed from above.

Then a row of square tiles separated itself from the wall and three huge spider mana beasts covered in their own armor crawled out. They weren't all that strong but I don't think I could kill them since the people running this place will probably get angry.

I dodged their attacks while I just had my own few spells to attack. I learned that I couldn't use all four elements despite Alacrya's rune system. The only reason I did before was because I didn't know any better and no one checked. I also got two new runes, well, not really. Since we got two bestowment ceremonies I could have 9 runes or spells to fake. Unfortunately I couldn't get more since once we got out of the academy we would need to get an achievement to get a chance for a new rune.

Although I'm not sure I think the elemental runes people here in Alacrya get require them to have that affinity. So even though they can't tell, a person rarely has runes with two different elements. Never has someone gotten three elements so if I had 4... well you already know what would happen.

The spells I chose were, Piston stamp, basic augmentation, weapon augmentation, ice lance, fire to enhance my weapon, thunderclap impulse, fire barrier, ice armor and ice weapon augmentation. They weren't the best since I preferred to have a wind spell but being a tri-elemental would still be suspicious.

I used piston stamp to jump above the spiders and then shot a couple of ice spears at them. It didn't do much but I assume it was because of the armor. I then augmented my sword and attacked the middle one. Once I got my feet back onto the ground the spiders ran back into the holes in the wall.

"The next assessment will now begin," said the disembodied voice. Tiles in the walls then stretched out to create small platforms along the walls. I felt the tiles under me start to shake before they flew up into the air a few feet. Then water started to fill the chamber. "Reach the gem at the top of the assessment hall before the water touches you."