Episode three: Attention!

Damian has successfully registered himself with the aid of Kruger and his team for the entrance examination. The examination is about to begin and the first round is a competition between individuals to test battle prowess. As the match was about to begin Gordon made an announcement. "There are twelve thousand three hundred and sixty seven people here and only those who win will proceed to the next round. Those who surrender or are immobilized will loose and if there is no winner before the timer runs out, you both will be disqualified." announced Gordon.

There was a tall tower at the corner of the arena, and on it was a commentator dresses is a formal black suit. He was holding a microphone in his right hand and had not a single strand of hair on his head. "May the first contestants, number 1 and 2 please come into the arena." Once the two first contestants stepped into the arena, there was a see through dome that covered them, preventing any damage to those outside the arena, they were amazed by it as the had never seen anything of the sort before but they were even more amazed at the feeling of becoming an official "Apostle". There was a loud bang and that signaled the start of the very first match. Damian was scouting for good talents while he was watching the matches. From time to time he would analyse the movement of those fighting and access them to see if they are worth his attention. What was he doing? He was assembling a team to help him in his quest against Draco, but he was greatly disappointed by the first match as it ended in seconds with both participants knocked out! Hence the match was announced as a draw. More and more matches went by and Damian did not find a single person worthy of his quest, "These awakeners, do they not possess the spirit of my divinity? The one which I passed down to my Apostles? Why are they so weak?! Perhaps there are still those worthy of my quest, I'll keep looking." Several matches passed and it was Damian's turn. He was matched up against a lad in his late teens maybe 16 or 17, he was a tall blonde lad that measured about 6 feet and had colourful green eyes. "This person is very young" Damian said to himself. "The others were at least 20, some even going all the way up to 40 or 45. I feel that this lad has some talent, don't disappoint me." And thus the match begun. He launched himself at Damian with speed like that of a missile! To his surprise Damian avoided it, "Hmm" he thought to himself, "This is the first one with talent, he was able to dodge my attack, but let's see how long he can hold up." Hence he kept attacking at high speeds and Damian kept dodging it until eventually a smile came upon Damian's face "Good" he said to himself " I have found some one with enough talent to join me. Another issue I face is the group of people who serve Draco, this organization must have intel concerning them but they would most likely only share it with those in high offices. I have to grab their attention, perhaps that way I'll get a higher chance." He strength out his arm and caught his opponent who was still speeding around the place, using the barrier to increase his momentum and speed with ever bounce. At the point he was caught, he was moving at the speed of hundreds of miles an hour, and in such a small space he could barely be seen by other examinees, so he was indeed greatly shocked as to how he was caught with such great ease. Damian then slammed him into the ground, leaving him out cold. "He's out?!" yelled the commentator "He was knocked out in a single move?! We may have ourselves a potential recruit here everyone" The examiners were indeed impressed by this performance. The matches went on as they were before, with Damian filled with disappointment as he could not find any other person. Time went by and the last match came to an end.

"Step forward!" yelled Gordon those of you that passed. "You are four thousand and two in number! I will begin to call your names now.......xx...xx.x.....xx....xx....xx...xx..xx..xx..xx..xx.......", "Calling their names one by one?" thought Damian "That's rather bothersome, doesn't this world have other forms of technology that can handle this?". At the end of it all, Gordon gave the rules for the next round. "You all will now be moving to the next round" he said to those who had passed " You will be divided into one thousand three hundred and thirty four teams of three and you will each face beasts on par with commander ranks! Those who pass are those who can last till the timer runs down, it will be set to ten minutes and we are not responsible for your death as you may give up now." No one wanted to give up and with that the second round started.

The very first match was between Damian's team and a huge beast with a humanoid figure and an odd head looking a bit like that of a lizard or perhaps a diseased dragon. Damian sat back and watched what his team would do without him, pretending to have fallen asleep in the arena. " You arrogant little fool! Don't think just because you won you can behave so arrogantly!" said one of his teammates who goes by the name of Mark. "It's not arrogance" replied another "it's masked fear, I mean look at this guy. He is barely up to 13 and won his match by a fluke! He is scared shitless right now." "Yeah you're right Dave, since he's "asleep", let's use him as bait. Perhaps by the time the beats is done with him the timer would have run down.". Then Dave replied "I don't think we can last more than 5 minutes with that thing but I'm open to your suggestion.".

They both charged at it, hitting it with everything they had got, but to no avail. Their hits had little to no impact on the beast. After a mere three minutes, they were completely suppressed and ready to give up, when Damian stoop up and walked over, he provoked the beast to get it's attention first and then said to himself "This beast is commander rank. I was accessed by that Kruger as one who is akin to a commander rank, so it may be hard to kill it, then again if I do this too easily I would attract more attention than I need. In that case, I'll provoke it so that it blasts me and then I'll casually take the hit, then I'd reflect the attack in the process, that way I'll look a tad roughed up when I bring it down." Thus he followed his plan through and provoked it into attacking him, and when it did he casually took the hit with an arm stretched forth. To his surprise it had no effect on him. "This pathetic being, is it really really on par with commander ranks ?" He thought to himself. "Useless." He had already begun to reflect the attack, so it was far too late to recall it now, and just like that, all eyes were on him, for he had effortlessly taken down a commander rank beast. "H-How?!" muttered Dave, and Mark stood speechless. The examiners were amazed but tried to keep their cool. They looked at Damian with great respect for none of them could do what he just did. In other words he could easily pass off as their superior in terms if strength.

With this, Damian and his team had passed. Damian then set off to look for his missile opponent in order to discuss with him. Upon finding him, he rushed over and tapped him, he then asked, "What is your name?" however, the response Damian got was rather cold as he replied, "It is of no concerning to you what my name is. What do you want?" Damian replied, "Loosing is a fate that would eventually come, but a true looser such as yourself is one who doesn't loose with dignity and use his losses to obtain success." Upon hearing this he was greatly enraged and yelled back, "I am Fernando Kalahari, the greatest talent the world will ever see!!! How dare you speak to me in such a manner?!" Shocked, Damian responded "I am Damian Kalahari, you must be my cousin, for I am the only child my parents birthed. Pleasure to meet you. It's too bad you are so ill mannered."

"How dare you, you little half pint! Leave my presence if you do not have what to say. There is no way we're cousins!" replied Fernando. "Actually" said Damian, "there is. Have you ever heard the name "Draco". He is an overlord, one that must be eliminated at once. And I need your help with him. Join me and I will ensure you grow stronger than your peers." Fernando replied, "Hahahahaha, you sound like a deranged old cultist! Leave me alone." With these words, Fernando walked away from Damian and Damian could only watch, as it would be almost impossible to convince this conceited young fellow. He headed back to the testing area to take the final test luckily he wasn't late. Gordon was explaining the details of the last test. "This is the final test and you would be testing your physical strength as well as spiritual abilities! There is a stele over in the arena and you will be required to punch it with everything you've got, after which you'd head over to the taller stele and measure your spiritual capabilities by placing your hand on the space provides for you on the stele. The stele is capable of testing physical strength of even Lords as well as their spiritual energy. Your energy must reach 10000 joules before you'll be allowed to pass the test and you spiritual capabilities must be over 10. The number of people left now are one hundred and three, I wish you good luck!". "One hundred and three eh?....hmm, the last two tests really cleaned up the crowd. So this world now has a way of testing physical and spiritual capabilities, but the physical stele looks like it'll break if I punch it, meaning my physical strength must be more than that of a lord and the spiritual stele will explode if I pour in all my spiritual energy..... perhaps Kruger thought I put in all my energy when I helped with that insignificant bug, hence he grouped me in with commanders. I'll have to control my strength and spiritual energy while taking the tests." Damian thought to himself. "9000! Fail!.......8300! Fail!!.....7000! Fail!!....9999! Fail!! 10000! Pass.........5000! Fail!!.......20!! How the heck did you get in here?! Get out!!!!" Yelled the examiners. "Wow this is a very strict examination. Even a single point lower than the requirement and you fail" said Damian. " DAMIAN KALAHARI!!" yelled the examiner in charge of Damian. "Well I guess it's my turn now" said Damian. He thought to himself while preparing his punch "10000 is the pass mark and I don't wanna be average but I don't want to be too suspicious yet...Soo..." *BANG!!* "120000!!" yelled the examiner in fear "He used a hundred and twenty thousand joules of energy to punch that stele!....Ahem.... Don't be conceited.... move over to the spirit stele." Damian placed his hand on the spirit stele and it reacted with a spiritual capability of 987. "What?!" yelled everyone present as though they had planned to do it. The examiner told him to stay back for a discussion with one of the lords of the organization that will take place after the test. After the tests were done only 6 passed, Damian inclusive and hence he went to meet the lord of the organization.

"Damian!" he exclaimed "You are quite the talent, you are the none in a million kind of talent, you see." "You mean one in a million, don't you sir?" replied Damian, "No!" replied the lord with an odd chuckle "You're the first to exist with such talent at such a young age. I'm offering you the chance to become a High Captain, with this office you gain control of hundreds of thousands of other warriors such as yourself and access to certain information, not to mention, the money you get paid is enormous, what do you think?". "It is a deal." replied Damian. "Good!" said the lord. "My name is James, and I have a team with me here, team c you will work with them to defeat a Captain ranked beast. Do well to impress me.".

Damian was told the whereabouts of his team and what he had to do and hence he got ready to begin another test. In the ring he and his team were face to face with a Captain ranked beast, but something wasn't right, both his teammates were disabled, one without arms and the other without legs, in other words he was on his own. The match started. The beast attacked relentlessly and Damian avoided it, waiting for a time to strike as well as making it look as though he put in some actual effort. Eventually, the time came for him to end it, he began to spark with lightning, he stretched forth his arm and blasted it with what to him, was a casual lightning strike but to the lord was a highly advanced light strike! "Team C has passed the test!" announced a voice from nowhere. Damian thought to himself "With this, I am one step closer to my goal." "Bravo!!!" yelled the lord "You are definitely qualified! Well done" Damian replied "Thank you sir, for this opportunity. It is greatly appreciated." then he turned to check in on his so called team just to make sure they're fine but alas they were both fast asleep. "This lord guy........ why does he keep these disabled people, don't tell me he puts them in this kinda situation all the time. Come to think of it they have got to be quite powerful, to be able to sleep through out the entire fight." The lord, James took him to see the privileges he has recently obtained by becoming a High Captain as well as introduce him to his subordinates. "From now on this man, Damian Kalahari will be in charge of you all! He is the new high Captain I have recruited and you will obey his orders!" Announced Gordon. Now the crowd was obviously against a child leading them but they could not say anything in the presence of lord James hence they accepted it as it was. Once Damian was officially proclaimed High Captain and given access to the information he desired (some of it at least) he said to himself " My battle against Draco starts now, but first it's time to establish some actual dominance." He began to levitate and filled the room with a scary aura, one that felt like the very air being breathed was filled with death! Then he said with a voice like thunder, "Who is in any objection of my capabilities?" The terrified subordinates fell to their knees and managed to mutter, "None sir...." "LOUDER!!" replied Damian "No sir! We have none!!" replied the soldiers with more confidence (maybe also scared of what he would do to them if they didn't answer properly).

***With this, Damian is the newest High Captain of the organization.

Next chapter: Recruits

Author: I'm sorry guys I was unable to update anything yesterday, also pardon my drawings I did them half asleep yesterday night*😅...... bye 😇**

Also please forgive me for my mistake with "have" and "has" as I said I was half asleep 😅

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