The carriages drove them back to the school and back to the Grand Pavillion. Standing in front of the steps was a lady with long tangles of white blonde hair and a shimmering red diamond in the middle of her forehead. She had a slim figure with noticeable curves and wore a skirted suit with a red and black tie under a bloody red robe.
“Ah, there you are,” said Ulrik. “I guess I’ll be leaving you to it then, professor.”
“Thank you Ulrik,” she had an unsettlingly sweet high pitched voice. The crowd of kids seemed shockingly frozen as if they were intimidated by her. Circe had that weird feeling in between his legs, the same one he adopted when he looked at Cassandra. A few kids managed to whistle and laugh it off. The goblin prostrated before her and then disappeared in purple smoke.
“Welcome students to your first year of Avalium University. My name is Alyssia Sempra, professor of Sorcerer studies and second in command of the Dean of this school. Today we are going to be sorting you into your RCS houses. In other words, today is the day of the Avaluation and I will be taking you into the battle room, where your name will be called and you must present your powers in front of the whole school. I must say most students suffer during this stage, so you really must know exactly what your power is and have at least an elementary control over it. You also must be sure that your power is potent enough to get through your entry test.”
“The battle room?” said Zebulon.
“What exactly are we going to be doing?” Avery asked.
“How long is it going to take?” added Phineas.
“We’re not going to be fighting each other, are we?” the Russian girl asked.
“We’re not…” a short mouse-haired boy gulped. “...going to be head to head with real monsters are we?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t say exactly what this test entails, it’s just school policies. But I honestly wish you guys the best and I hope to see you in my house. Now, if we can please get in a line and move this way.”
The students were led down a marvelous marble hall bedecked with portraits and huge silvery panels of windows that were inside arched hedges. The horde of kids was directed to the right of the hallway and then descended underground through a spiral of stairs. They passed through a silver door with markings of a snake on them. Suddenly an oily metallic cage closed around them and it zoomed forward until it slammed to a stop.
“When your name is called, the bars will be released and you will step into the room. Do what they tell you to do.”
“Is that star on the ground?” Phineas asked, peering out of the cage. Circe tried to steal a peek but there were too many heads in front of him.
“That’s the Star of Amyclist!” Avery said. “It’s known in the Shadower world for summoning monsters from other dimensions!”
Circe snaked his way through the crowd. Through the vista of the cage, he saw about a thousand students grouped into their own markered seats. And there were colored banners to represent what house they were in. Purple for monsters, Yellow for heroes, red for sorcerers, and blue for mechas. To Circe, the hero students looked attractive, the monstrums were intimidating, the sorcerers were grumpy and the mechas were pretty calm. At the far end of the room, there was a white statue sitting on a throne with bloody blindfolds one and two golden horns beside her. And in the middle of the gray marble floor of the stadium-sized room, there stood a red glowing star, brimming with a heinous vengeance.
“What the–what are they planning to do?” Circe muttered.
“They’re going to kill us! That’s what they’re doing,” said Avery with hot indignance. “We don’t know our powers well enough.”
“Some of us don’t, some of us do,” Phineas said admittedly. “And it’s to weed out the kids with weak powers from the strong ones. They can’t just allow anyone to come to this school without any real powers.”
It made sense, thought Circe. But it still didn’t stop his heart from nearly pumping out of his chest.
The first kid that the statue called was Emerio Havarez. He was a short thin Latino boy with pink dots on his face. He slowly walked past the parted sea of kids and entered the large ominous room. Emerio was met with a barrage of claps. But then the silence ensued, and anticipation took over.
“He’s not going to make it,” Phineas said.
“You don’t know that,” Avery said.
“Hmm…” said Circe.
The red star shined and the clustered smoky air started to materialize a giant beast with a body of a bear, the pincers of a spider, and the wings of a bat. The bear roared, quaking up the whole room.
“Hell naw! I’m not going to be fighting that!” Zebulon shouted.
“They might as well just throw me into a pit of lions,” Circe said admittedly.
The kids in the cage shouted. Some trampled each other to get out of the cage but it was carefully guarded by two goblins and Professor Sempra.
“No powers, no life.” said the goblins nastily.
The whole battle room pierced the air with screaming and electrified horror as they saw the winged bear run toward its prey hungrily. Emerio shouted and ran back to the cage. But the cage was already locked tight.
“Please! Please open it!” He entreated. But no one opened the cage, no one knew how. Emerio tried to run in the opposite direction but the mutant bear pounced on him, crushed his skull with his paws, and chewed through the slimy loins of his belly.
“He didn’t have any powers,” said Phineas mournfully. “That sucks.”
“And you’re enjoying this aren’t you?” Avery asked.
“Yes and no. Learning from it more like.”
Another kid was called up, a girl named Casey Simms. Her head got torn off and blood splattered everywhere on the marble floor arena.
“Phineas Dempsey,” the statue called up next.
“Good luck,” Circe said as the red-haired kid moved forward with noodle legs.
Phineas walked tentatively up to the large arena. The furry creature went up to him to attack but Phineas held out his hands and the monstrous bear was levitated into the air and battered back and forth against the arena walls. Up ahead Phineas saw a yellow flag floating in mid-air and Phineas ran to get it before the bear could become conscious. Once he touched the flag, the bear disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
“Hero,” the statue declared.
Next was a girl named Mariana Portsmouth. She was able to hold back the bear by conjuring up water in midair and turning it into a ball that the bear could drown in. She was also able to get the flag on time, she was a hero. Then it was Natalia Vale; an African girl who was able to transform herself into smoke and conjure dark purple smoke in midair. She managed to distract the bear and become the first sorcerer. Then it was Avi Gomez, a Latina girl with gothic eyes and pink highlights, who was able to turn into a goat-headed humanoid with three bulging red eyes. She fought the bear fiercely earning three claw marks on her chest but she ended up getting the yellow flag and being sorted as the first monster.
Then it was Elliot Hargraves, a moody pale boy with long curly brown hair. He was able to conjure ghosts from under the ground. He defeated the monstrous bear and was sorted into Sorcerer. Lorraine Silva, a Portuguese girl, became invisible and was sorted into Hero. Then it was Jeremiah Goldcoin, a suntanned boy with long blonde hair that most of the girls in the audience gushed over, presented himself and he was able to attack the creature by shooting bright golden beams at it. He was grouped in as a hero. Aviv Parastroka, the Russian girl was able to turn her hands into any type of technological and mechanical tool. She cut the bear in half by turning her hands into chainsaws. She ended up being sorted into Mecha. Francis Hertz was able to electrocute the bear by shocking it with the electrons in its body, he was sorted into Mecha. Jonathan Ratliffe, a small mousy white-haired boy like Circe, was able to transform himself into a huge gray rat and was sorted into Monster. David Krank was able to conjure armies of zombies from under the ground, and he was sorted into Sorcerer. Fiona Veracruz, another Latina girl, was able to easily teleport herself to the other end of the room to retrieve the flag and became a Hero. Zeraph Abigail became a ferocious fox humanoid that was able to breathe pink fire, and Nathanial Hawthorne became a huge fiery dragon and they were both sorted into Monster. Naphtali Jareed was able to conjure large three-headed rattlesnakes from under the ground and was sorted into Sorcerer. Salvian Salvador was able to transform into a serpent humanoid with lion claws and was sorted into Monster. Pontius Locksilver was able to conjure a huge silver cage that swallowed the monster inside and crushed it to pieces, he was a Sorcerer. Levi Whiteman became a white-furred lion with angel wings and was sorted into Monster. Georgia Canterbury was able to release pink toxic clouds from her hands and she became a Sorcerer while James Fritz was able to project a silver screen that conjured large android ants, this earned him being sorted into Mecha. Jamie Soo, the Asian girl, was able to conjure mechanical robots into midair that shot bombs at the monstrous bear, she became a Mecha.
Malik Absalom, the square-faced black boy that bullied Circe, was able to conjure fire and was sorted into Sorcerer. After him was a Swedish girl with white blonde hair named Jasmine Jezelberg who was able to make the monstrous creature do her bidding by folding her hands and muttering incantations under her breath. The winged bear ended up eating itself and Jasmine was sorted into Sorcerer. Ian Quiksilver, a thin freckled blonde boy was able to change his body into whatever substance he touched. His body turned to gray marble as soon as his fingers touched the ground. He managed to kill the bear and was sorted into Hero. Briar Quigly, an athletic square-jawed boy was able to conjure vines and ravenous plants from the ground and strangle the bear. His own arms elongated into vines and he tore the bear's flesh to pieces with it. He ended up being sorted into Hero. After Briar was a Mexican boy named Canores Merida. He had a dark disheveled bowl of hair, bold eyebrows and large baby eyes. When his eyes turned red and he splayed out his hands, he was able to conjure large man eating ants from the ground, with some smaller ants crawling out of his mouth.
"Eugh!" said Avery.
After the flesh-eating fight, Canores won and was sorted into Sorcerer. Elena Yorkshire, who was able to transform into any type of human liquid, transformed herself into silver water and splashed past the bear to retrieve the golden flag. This heralded her as a Hero. Akatu Mbege, a slim athletic African boy, was able to transform into a monstrous ten-legged spider that spat acid, and Hussein Abadi transformed into a leopard humanoid with a leopard-coated lizard tale, they were both sorted into Monster. Namia Balswourth became a three-headed werewolf with eyes on its back and a furry lizard tail, she ended up being sorted into Monster. Bailey Brighton, a short curvy colorless girl that reminded Circe of Cassandra, was able to clone herself and was turned into a Hero. Jackson Cairn was able to morph into a rock monster and squash the bear creature to a fleshly pulp. Jackson became a Monster Max Steele used his super strength to quake the ground and pummel the monster down similar to Jackson, he became a hero. Herelt Voxzimmer used his booming voice to destroy the monster and he became a Hero. Harper Feely transformed into a Harpy and was able to sneak her way into grabbing the yellow flag, she was sorted into Monster. Jarvis Broadbent became a huge one-eyed giant with horns and was sorted into Monster. Teju Omar transformed into a lizard humanoid, was able to slither past the monstrous bear, and was sorted into Monster. Avery Calhoun became a fire-breathing gargoyle and Zebulon Brooks was a three-headed spotted hyena.
Every kid that came up received outstanding cheers and appraisals, even the ones that lost miserably.
Kids like Mumford Mumbly (who kept on boasting about how he would easily get past the bat bear hybrid) but he didn't have any powers and ended up getting his stomach impaled and died a bloody death as the mammoth bear devoured him. Jesse Basemath could only manage to create acidic chemicals in mid-air that weren't potent enough to smother the bear and he ended up being beheaded and eaten alive. His bladder loins and genitals were thrown at the crazed audience who were cheering excitedly. Eleanor Periwinkle and Tamar Fitch were able to turn into fairies and spray blue and pink fairy dust but they got squished alive. Then there were six other kids after who lacked any real powers, just like Mumford Mumbly, and were eaten alive.
“Circe Chimer.” the statue called out. Circe nervously walked out into the large arena and was met with countless strange looks and myriads of boos. He had several notebooks thrown at him and one student had actually managed to throw a knife at him. But Circe tried to stay focused on the task. He could see the large batlike hybrid of a bear hounding towards him with his hungry pincers. And Circe, unsure of what to do with all the contemptuous yelling and insults filling his ears, ran. But the creature slashed him against the wall, causing a leaking tear of blood on his chest. Circe got up and tried to fight back but the bear slashed again, one more and he would surely be dead. Then suddenly his body started growing large scaly bat wings and his skin grew fur and his mouth grew large monstrous teeth. Circe swung around and hit the bear with his large lion paws and devoured it. The bear tried to fight back but it was too late. Circe, calming down enough ran to retrieve the yellow flag.
“Monster,” said the statue but no one cheered. Circe, worn out and completely crestfallen at his lack of support went to join Avery and Zebulon at the monster's side. He dolefully watched the other kids being sorted until the ceremony was over and Professor Sempra came to gather them.
“You guys did great, you all showed some wondrous powers that exemplified the house that you’re in. Now it’s time to visit the Darkplenty Hall for some food.”
But it seemed that nobody, especially Circe, felt all that hungry.
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