Looking towards the sky as I covered my eyes with my arm, I couldn't help but yawn.

The sun was exceptionally bright today, and even though it was early in the morning, 8:00 A.M., the sunlight was brightly illuminating the surroundings.

Arriving at section G, I was immediatly greeted by a large crowd of students. I'd estimate that there were a total of a hundred first years alone. They each stood on the upper areas of the arena as they all looked below where the platforms were located.

Usually, the platforms would've had many students sparring and fighting against each other, however, today there was no one present. It was a strangely odd sight.

After looking at the platforms of the arena below for a couple of seconds, turning around, I soon spotted Donna who was in front of the representative members of our class. Although I couldn't see clearly as I was still quite far, I spotted around twelve students sitting behind her.

Leisurely making my way there, I soon was able to see the identity of the members, and low and behold, apart from a few, they were the usual suspects. Kevin and his group.

"Hurry up you're the last one"

Spotting me from the distance, Donna quickly nudged for me to come over.

"Hm? I'm late?"

Checking her watch, Donna added

"Yes, by a full seven minutes"

"Alright"

Secretly clicking my tongue, I increased my pace.

Hurrying up, I soon arrived before our group and sat down on the ground. Thereafter, taking out my mp3, I put my earbuds on and played some music.

...it was too early for me to be socializing. Moreover, it seems like I wasn't the only one that felt that way as almost everyone was busy doing their own thing.

Ten minutes after I started playing music, appearing in the middle of the arena below, an imposing man wearing a black instructor uniform calmly looked at the audience before him. Thereafter, his booming voice reverberated through the whole area as he warmly smiled and introduced himself.

"Welcome everybody, my name is Sean O'lirey and today I will have the pleasure of hosting the tryouts for the intra-academy tournament!"

Stopping there as he waited for everyone to turn their attention towards him, instructor Sean clenched his fist and raised it in the air. Thereafter he started speaking, and with every word he said, his voice became louder and louder.

"Young aspiring heroes, this is the chance of your life!"

"If you are able to shine in this tournament, not only will you bring honor to the academy, you will also bring honor to yourselves and your relatives. This is the moment that all of you have been waiting for...the chance for you to spread your name far into the human domain. Let them know about you and your splendor!"

Pausing for a second and glancing at every student present, instructor Sean's already loud voice boomed even louder as it reverberated throughout the whole arena resulting in the handrails shaking.

"Instead of looking for guilds, make the guilds look for you...and what better way than by shining in this year's edition of the intra-academy tournament! So rise to the challenge and show them just what you're made of!"

Stopping there, raising both hands in the air his imposing figure basked underneath the sunlight.

After a short silence, staring at the instructor's imposing figure in the middle of the stage, the whole stadium erupted in cheers and applause.

"Waaa!"

"Yes!"

"We will definitely join!"

"We will do our best!"

With my mouth half open, I took off one of my earpieces as I looked towards my left and right where students could be seen cheering everywhere. My face couldn't help but scrunch up as my body involuntarily shook.

...seriously?

What was that just now?

Did no one notice the fact that he was purposely posing to make himself look cooler? Was I the only one?

...what in the world did I just witness?

Scanning the audience before him, and seeing everyone pumped up as a result of his speech, the corner of instructor Sean's mouth pulled upward.

Dramatically raising his hand in the air to stop everyone from talking, the instructor continued as his voice became more solemn.

"I will skip with the unnecessary information and get straight to the point. Because of some unforeseen changes as most of you know we have decided to push forward the tryouts. I know some of you may not be ready, but we simply had no choice...and for that, we apologize"

Pausing for a second, instructor Sean carefully glanced at everyone present. Thereafter, he subtly lowered his head in an apology. After a couple of seconds of silence, looking back up, he once again started speaking. This time, his voice was much brighter.

"However don't be demoralized. Take this setback as a lesson. Never take anything for granted. Situations might change when you least expect them to...therefore what you need to do is adapt and persevere through the setback. Only then will you truly be fit to be a hero!"

Scanning everyone in the room present to make sure they understood his message, instructor Sean looked towards his left where an old man stood.

-Clap!

Shortly after, seeing the old man nodding his head slightly, instructor Sean clapped his hand once and said

"Alright, enough with that, let's get back to the tryouts"

Rubbing his nose, taking out a piece of paper from his pocket, instructor Sean started reading it. As he read the paper, his tone started becoming more monotonous with every passing second.

...it was apparent that he was only good at improvising.

"We will shortly be separating each year, and from there, we will once again split you according to your classes"

"Each class will compete with another class from the respective year, and the matches will be displayed on the large monitors above."

Pausing and pointing upwards where four large monitors that were each the size of a large truck stood, instructor Seans' monotonous voice continued to ring across the arena.

"This examination will take part in the virtual world and thereafter, based on performances, the teams that perform the best will directly be chosen as members for the tournament..."

Pausing there to make sure that everyone understood, instructor Sean started flipping through a couple of pages before he resumed speaking.

"Today's trial is simple. It will be a six vs six code breaker competition. One of the main competitions in the tournament. The rules are simple all you have to do..."

Listening to the instructor speak, I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

How can someone's personality change so much? Going from being an overly dramatic individual to this monotonous and boring one.

...he must really hate boring stuff.

Anyhow, that didn't matter at the moment. Currently, he was explaining the rules of the codebreaker game and as I had made the game, I already knew the rules hence why I wasn't paying attention.

The rules were simple.

It was sort of like capture the flag, no it was basically like capture the flag with some twists to the game.

Each team, through the virtual world, would enter a map which was selected at random by the professors...and from there, each team, in order to defeat the other team, must insert a specific code on a metal pillar that they each had to protect. Sort of like the flag from capture the flag.

Once the code was put in, the team would win. Simple as that.

However, there was a catch.

In order for someone to break the code, they needed to first get the code that was given to a team member before the competition started.

The person holding the code was not selected at random as the team could choose who held the code before the game started.

Thus, the goal of the team was to first get the code before making their way towards the other team and breaking the code by inserting it in the metal pillar on the other side.

Therefore, the hardest part of the game was not inserting the code...but actually finding the code, as one of the six people present had it.

To make matters worse, there was also a time limit for the game...making this trial even harder as defeating a person one by one was put out of the equation.

"...Alright, that's enough from me for today, I will let your instructors take over. I hope to see you when the time the real tournament comes. I wish you all the best of luck!"

Finished with what he was saying, instructor Sean smiled once again at the audience before he turned around and left. A wave of applause followed suit.

-Clap! -Clap! -Clap!

After instructor Sean finished speaking, taking out her tablet, Donna calmly looked at her students.

There were a total of twelve students representing our class and apart from the usual people, there were a couple of new faces, me included.

Pursing her lips, Donna scrolled through her tablet before looking at everyone and saying

"There will be two A25 groups and before you say anything, the teams have already been decided beforehand therefore no, you can't choose."

Pausing and pointing towards certain individuals, Donna continued

"Now...the teams are. On my right, Melissa, Kevin, Troy, Emma, and Christopher. You will be the first team"

Staring at the people whose name she had just called and seeing them nod at each other, Donna looked away and continued

"On my left, Jin, Amanda, Ren, Arnold, Donald, and Zack.."

As the members of our group were being announced, my mouth couldn't help but twitch as I realized who was part of my team.

...I was fine with Amanda, but Jin and Arnold?

Oh, dear.

Unbothered by my distress, after making sure she got the names right, putting the tablet down, Donna calmly explained.

"You six will each be competing against a team from another class in a six versus six scenario and from there we will judge your performances."

"Considering that there will be a lot of matches today, you only have to fight once, however, even if you win, it won't mean that all of you will be chosen. So if you want to make sure you get selected, you must think of an adequate strategy first and make sure that you crush your opponent"

Pausing there, Donna solemnly looked at everyone present before saying.

"That's enough from me. Huddle up in your teams and come up with an adequate strategy. I have high expectations from you"

Finished with what she wanted to say, Donna briefly glanced at everyone present before leaving.

*Sigh*

As I watched Donna leave, an exhausted and tired sigh escaped from my mouth.

Brushing my hair to the side, I glanced towards my group in the distance. My eyes soon interlocked with theirs, and a bitter smile appeared on my face.

'...Now how am I going to deal with this?'