We arrived in the arena, which was prepared in the amphitheatre, right after the bell rang as our excitement could not be contained.

I began stretching while William simply stood there.

Man, are you not excited in the slightest? We are going to be determining our future here! I thought internally.

The arena was absolutely bustling. There were roughly fifty students here, which was an insane amount considering the Security Squadron only consisted of ten members. 

We had to wait around a bit, which helped me cool down my excitement. William was as usual, to no one’s surprise. William, in actuality, was in immense panic. He had been trying not to show it, and even I hadn’t noticed.

After a while, a girl who looked around seventeen got in the ring. She had four rings on her arm, which meant she was a third grader. Also, unlike the boys, she was wearing the girls’ uniform which had a black skirt instead of pants. 

She’s 15? No way! I thought, shocked at how young she actually was. 

She had purple hair and black eyes, which complimented each other nicely. She could be considered a beauty by many, although I did not care much for it.

“I apologise for the wait.” She said, bowing her head slightly. “We had to make certain preparations, as the number of attendees surpassed our expectations.”

She raised her head and said in a louder voice, “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Vice Captain Katrina, of the Security Squadron. Unfortunately, Captain Meran will be late for the event today. He wanted me to convey his apologies.” 

It was disappointing to hear Meran would be absent, but I did not think much of it. 

“Now, we will begin the event by doing duels among students and squadron members. Afterwards, we will evaluate your duel to see if you are eligible to become a member. We will host a written exam afterwards for the qualifiers. During the combat phase, use of external magic is prohibited, although you may use it to augment your body. We aren’t trying to get anyone hurt during the tryouts.” 

Written exam? I hate those.. I thought, slightly annoyed at this announcement.

“We will now begin. If your name is announced, please step into the ring.” 

My heart started pounding as she read out the first name. “Lisa Terrel.” 

Not me.. I thought, disappointed.

The girl whose name was read out stepped on stage. She had pink hair which were made into buns on her sides, and had an aura which made it seem like she cared very little. 

“You may pick a weapon from behind you. They are props, so do not expect much from them.” 

Lisa picked something that resembled a war axe. Although they were props, they still looked very menacing. 

“Your opponent will be Chris from the Squadron. He is one of our best.” 

As she said that, a boy with blonde hair got on the stage. He had green eyes.

He had a shortsword on his belt, which showed that he was a close range fighter. He drew his sword and took a stance.

“Begin.” As soon as the command was given, Lisa dashed forward with immense speed and cleaved her axe through the air. Her axe landed, although it was unable to find Chris. He had already moved to the left slightly and dodged the attack. I had not even been able to see him move. My mouth was agape.

Lisa swung her axe towards Chris once more, although this time Chris chose to use his sword to deflect the incoming attack. It looked like he struggled in terms of strength, but was able to gain enough time for him to move away.

Up until now, Chris had been mostly on the defensive and refrained from attacking. It was almost as if he was observing Lisa, understanding how she moved before going in for an attack. However, this “study” phase was now clearly over, as he began his assault.

With astonishing speed, he aimed in towards her stomach. Lisa was able to evade the attack, yet it had left her dazed and unprepared for the follow-up assault Chris was about to do. 

Chris went again, this time sweeping her off her feet, and causing her to fall over backwards. Chris held his sword to her neck, indicating he had won. The match was over.

Chris extended his hand and helped her up. Afterwards, he gave his opinion in regards to the match.

“Your form isn’t terrible. Although recklessly charging in is often considered a bad move, you had me off guard at the beginning. However, you did not improve much in terms of strategy afterwards which made you easy to predict.”

“That so? Sheesh, you were much faster than I expected. You ain’t half bad either.” Lisa responded, with a small hint of trying to protect her pride. 

A few more matches happened, and the numbers started to thin down. Until finally, 

“William, of the house of Ascania.” 

Suddenly, I realised something. This was the first time I had heard William’s surname, and it sounded familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I assumed it was one of the European noble houses.

William got onto the arena, and cracked his knuckles. As far as I had come to know him, he was a magic type user. I was interested to see how he fought, considering I had not seen him do so at all, so far.

His opponent, who was introduced as Vera, was a girl with blonde hair. She had a rapier as a weapon, while William had opted to pick nothing.

Vera spoke first,

“No weapon? I promise you, you will need it.”

William shook his head, and grinned. “It doesn’t fit well with my style.”

Interrupting them, Katrina blew the whistle.

“Begin!”

Vera dashed ahead, and swiped at William. Normally, he would have been unable to dodge such speed. However..

What!? 

William had just disappeared. He was gone. Everyone was in shock, but particularly Vera was in a panic. Most of us here knew what that meant.

William is an Echo!

Suddenly, William appeared behind Vera, landing a swift kick behind her. Vera suddenly lost her balance, and did a quick flip, but managed to regain it after getting back on her feet. 

“An Echo.. that’s interesting.” Vera smiled. “Looks like you aren’t incompetent either. I guess I will have to get serious.”

William had a devious smile. This was the first time I had seen him show so much emotion. 

Vera was on the defensive. Although the use of magic was not allowed outside of augmentation, that did not include echoes who turned invisible by casting magic inside their bodies. William was well within the rules.

William dashed ahead, but just before he collided with Vera, he turned invisible once more. However, Vera had predicted this. She moved swiftly, and predicted William’s current position. She poked her rapier into him, forcing William to become visible again.

This was the weakness of echoes. They could be invisible as long as they had mana to spare, but as soon as they interacted with someone, or had someone interact with them, they were made visible again.

Vera pounced on William, taking advantage of his moment of weakness. He rolled on the ground, attempting to dodge her, but Vera was way more crafty than he was. She threw her rapier, preventing William from moving further. William rushed to claim the rapier, but he neglected his back. She went on the offensive instantly, landing a crushing kick onto his head. William was knocked out, and Vera was victorious.

William got escorted off the arena as the crowd stared in absolute awe. 

Needless to say, echoes were rare. For generations, echo-type magic was held by a few select families, although I did not know William’s family was one of them. 

A few more rounds happened afterwards. I waited with impatience as more and more people did their matches. 

“Daniel, no surname.” Katrina called on my name. There were five people left in the waiting line, however I practically leapt up from my seat and rushed to the ring. 

Katrina giggled. “Excited, are you?”

I nodded. “Yes ma’am!” 

Katrina smiled and nodded, then looked at her list. “You will be partnered against Frederick.” 

Soon after, a boy who I assumed was Frederick joined me in the ring. It would be wrong to call this thing a boy though. He was a third grader judging by the four rings on his cuffs, but there was something odd with him. He was massive.

He was easily two metres at the least. Not only was he tall, he had an immense amount of muscle mass. Suffice to say, he had the dream body of every teenage boy. My first reaction was that I was completely screwed and that I was going to die here. 

However, after a bit of evaluation, I came to the conclusion he had to be slow from his body mass. If he had much speed even after that much strength, it would be completely unbalanced. As most would say, it would have been unfair.

I took a sword from the stack of fake weapons. The sword felt light, lighter than a real counterpart. I was worried it might mess up my combat performance as it was much lighter than what I was used to, but after a few swings, I quickly got used to it.

I looked over at Fred. Unsurprisingly, he had picked no weapons. He was going to fight me bare-handed. 

I took a deep breath. Although I couldn’t use Invicta here, the confidence of it being an option still motivated me. 

Right foot to the back, and left foot to the front.. Lower your torso and have your sword behind your back.. 

I remembered for a moment everything my father had taught me before his demise. 

I promise.. This is my first step to avenging you both. 

Katrina finally blew the whistle and gave the start. Immediately, I rushed towards his back. I was very fast, as fast as my non-modified body would allow. However, Fred had anticipated my path. He readied his fist and threw a punch, however I ducked which caused me to slide and lose time. This gave Fred enough time to prepare himself. 

Tsk. I bit my tongue with frustration. However, now I had learned something. Fred wasn’t very smart. He behaved purely on instinct and didn’t bother to think further. I dashed towards his back, and just like last time, Fred prepared his fist and threw it at me. However, unlike last time, I leapt over his massive arm which landed me promptly behind his back. I used my fake sword to land a clean blow on his neck, but Fred didn’t even react. He simply stood there, without moving. 

I felt like several seconds passed before Katrina began to giggle. “Fred, you seriously have to stop with this.”

What does she mean? I thought to myself. 

I heard a male voice laugh from behind me. “Guess that one was a bit faulty. Sorry bout that, Kat.”

I looked behind me and saw a boy around my height, who was apparently a third grader, walking up to the ring. He had red wild hair, and a pair of goggles on his forehead. He soon entered the ring, and bowed slightly

“Hi, I’m Fred.” he smiled.

Wait, if you are Fred.. I looked behind me at the giant behind me, who still stood motionless.

Fred spoke up. “I’m a marionette mage. And that over there is my third prototype. I designed it for combat, but it couldn’t even keep up against someone without magic.” he sighed.

Rude! I was mildly annoyed that he looked down at me, but I was used to it at this point, so I didn’t mind it. 

Fred continued to explain. “As you can see, he does not have much of a tactician. He just sees the enemy and fights. I will need to revamp him a bit. But he’s pretty lifelike, don’t you think?”

I nodded. “I actually thought he was a real person.” 

Fred laughed. “A shame we will have to cut your match short because of this glitch, though. You did pretty well, even though you didn’t use any mana. You are the kid everyone’s been talking about, aren’t you?”

I scratched my head. “People are talking about me?” 

He nodded. “Someone without mana in the nation’s top academy is unheard of. Of course people are going to talk about it.” 

Ah, there go my chances in the squadron. 

Next morning, I didn’t really want to get out of bed. I was feeling pretty lazy, until William suddenly entered the room, making me jump. 

Yep, not sleepy anymore. I yawned. “What’s up?” I asked William why he seemed like he was in such a hurry. 

William handed me a piece of paper. “Read it.” 

I looked at the paper he gave me and almost died. It was a list of those who had been given permission to go over to the written exam phase of the try-outs, and our names were on the list. 

I will save the details, but I was ecstatic. I spent the next hour jumping around the room and bothering William about the next phase, which he had no clue about. 

That afternoon, the written exam was held. There was nothing to write home about, so I will keep it relatively short. 

It was mostly a resume type of exam. It asked questions such as how we would benefit the squadron, why we should be picked over other possible candidates, etcetera. 

After the exam, William and I waited with excitement for the results. Well, I was mostly the one waiting with excitement. William was indifferent to everything as usual, but soon the results for the exams were posted onto the bulletin board as usual. William and I rushed over and tried to see our names through the crowd. I was cutting through the crowd as usual, while William stayed back. 

I looked at the list, and at the very top, I saw William Ascania. He had placed first overall, in both combat and exam. I started to look down, but as I went further down, I panicked as I didn’t see my name. However, at the very bottom, the student who placed last.. Was me.

We had passed.