Once we reentered and my eyes had adjusted, I could make out the other twelve figures exiting the rooms on each side of the arena. Everyone else had adorned some new armor or weaponry, unlike myself, who had chosen not to get any new gear. By the expressions I saw on the faces of the other fighters, it seemed that I was the only one who was uneasy about this whole situation, which I suppose made sense given the fact they had all most likely been here longer than a day.

When I looked to the arena itself I was left quite puzzled, there was not a single thing it. The tiles on the floor were all completely flat and there wasn't anything indicating a challenge. I began to sweat, fear that they would simply pit us to fight against one another in a free-for-all battle, something I was certainly not prepared for. I scanned the entire arena, trying to find anything that would give me a hint as to what is was that we would be doing exactly.

I didn't have to wait very long for the answer as once again, the circle in the center of the floor opened up, and out came the announcer. He hovered above the hole for a few seconds as all the spotlights in the arena refocused themselves on him. The crowd roared in approval and excitement, anticipating whatever was going to happen.

Once again, the voice boomed throughout the arena, this time even more energetic and excited "Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you ready?"

The crowd responded with an earth-shattering bellow that was most likely every form of positive acknowledgement in existence.

"That's what I thought" the announcer smirked "Tonight we have some awesome challenges in store for you!"

The crowd once again announce their excitement with a boom of cheering and shouting. I had to cover my ears to make sure I didn't go deaf.

"The first challenge we have in store for our challengers is a climbing challenge!" He raised his hand to the air as I watched in awe as the arena changed.

Several circles of varying size appeared in the arena and then climb upwards, creating dozens of pillars. In the very center of the arena, one of the pillars climb much higher than the others. On top of it, resting above a magnificent golden pedestal, was a large glowing red sphere, presumably the goal we had to reach. Up and down the many pillars, stone rope bridges and rungs for climbing formed, giving a way to reach our goal.

The announcer then pointed his hand towards the ground saying "And now! For the finishing touch!" With that, a giant purple seal appeared below our feet, covering the span of the entire arena. "For those of you who don't know, this seal will nullify the use of any magic during this challenge, this is a pure test of skill" He pointed up to the glowing sphere atop the center pedestal "The first eight contestants to reach the orb will pass on to the next challenge!"

With that, he raised his hand and then cut it downwards, as though he were waving a flag, signaling the start of the challenge. For each door, there was a blur of speed as all the competitors made their way to the closest pillar. When I thought about it, this was nothing new to me, I was always hopping between rooftops and performing less that safe climbs around the city back home. I might actually have a chance to win this challenge!

I quickly made my way to the nearest column, following closely behind a girl in full body armor, not the best for mobility or climbing. I sprinted in front of her, eliciting a bit of angry grumbling, and quickly climbed up the ladder, getting to the top of the pillar. From here I had a few choices on where I could go: To my left there was a bridge with another boy slowly crossing, to my left there was another column leading up higher that I could jump to.

I backed my way right and then sprinted across the top of the column, leaping over to the column on the left. I barely got a grip on the rungs of the ladder, the impact of the jump had scraped up my hands pretty bad, but I had to keep moving. I needed to get done with this crazy arena thing as soon as possible, otherwise I could end up in a shallow grave, definitely not the best way to introduce myself to the camp.

Once I reached the top of the next column, I came face to face with another girl dressed in armor. She stared straight in to my eyes and then almost fell backwards, quickly backing away from me for some reason.

"You're the kid!" She blurted out, causing me a bit of confusion.

"What do you mean?" I asked, even though I knew exactly what she was talking about.

"You're the child of Strataros, you're Avien!" She said, changing her look to a glare and drawing a spear from her back, pointing it directly at my heart.

I put my hands up defensively as I looked around, trying to find some way to escape this less than favorable situation I had been placed in. There was a bridge right behind the girl leading to another pillar. To my right, there was another ladder and column that I could jump to, but if I tried to dash left my jacket would get shredded by the spear. I decided I would have to try and duck underneath the spear and charge right behind the girl, if I could draw my sword on my way across, I could cut the bridge as well.

I put my plan in to action, ducking down and cutting my cheek on the spear in the process. I bolted behind the girl, stumbling a bit as I tried to shift myself from crouching to standing. Once I was on the bridge, I made an effort to reach my sword, almost falling off of the stone platforms in the process. Once I had reached the other side of the bridge, I quickly swiped at the two ropes tying the platform to the two pillars.

The girl didn't fall and instead grabbed the platforms of the bridge and climbed them like a makeshift rope ladder. I had to move quick though, several people were already almost at the orb. As I ran towards the orb, a thought crossed my mind Why exactly am I doing this? I could just sit here and lose, then I wouldn't have to continue competing. I pushed it aside, knowing the answer, I wanted to prove to these people that I wasn't just some failure who never should have been born.

I picked up my pace, sprinting full speed towards the orb, it was only a few hundred feet away and there were only two people in my way. If I could jump over them, I could get to the goal and move on to the next challenge. I was closing in on them now, I had to get myself ready now, if I didn't do it now I would certainly fail. I closed my eyes and pushed off the ground, wind whipping through my hair as I flew over the two men.

Once I felt my feet hit the ground, I immediately broke back in to a sprint and made way right up the bridge leading to the pedestal. I wasn't going to be the first there, but I was definitely going to be one of the first eight. I reached the platform and placed my hand firmly on the glowing sphere, declaring my victory over the challenge and taking a moment to catch my breath.

I saw Lilith running up to the pedestal from the left, eyes widening as she saw me. As she placed her hand on the sphere and secured her spot in the second round, she gave me a smile and held up her hand for a high five. I obliged, firmly slapping my hand against hers, smiling as I realized I had certainly been lucky to be found by her and not someone else.

Once the eighth person placed their hand on the sphere, there came another announcement "That concludes the first round! We have our eight contestants moving on to round two! We will begin very shortly!" With a wave of his hand, all the pillars lowered themselves back in to the ground, leaving nothing but the winners and the golden pedestal in the center.

As gathered my breath, preparing myself for whatever was next, given I had barely survived this challenge and the next one was sure to be more dangerous. The other contestants didn't seem to be as out of it as I was, this of course made sense, they were all well trained warriors. They stretched themselves out, preparing themselves for the coming challenge.

The winners of the first challenge were quite diverse, even if you didn't consider we were probably every variety of apprentice in this group alone. There was three boys and five girls. Each person carried different weapons and had on different armor, there was everything from a classic suit of armor you'd see on a knight to Lilith's flaming scarf. It seemed as though everyone was glaring at me, they must have heard what the girl had said about me, and I was fairly certain that everyone in camp had a good idea what I looked like at this point.

Before too long the announcer came back on saying "Alright everyone, it is time for challenge number two! This one will certainly require magic if our fighters hope to survive." He said as the glowing seal under our feet faded. "And now, it's time to meet our next challenge!"

A circle formed in the center of the arena, this one much larger than any of the holes in the arena that had been created previously. The arena began to shake immensely, it felt like an earthquake unfortunately, we didn't have anything to hold on to, leaving us at the mercy of the shaking. Then, to my shock and terror, a large dark figured soared out of the hole and landed right in front of us, causing us each to take a few cautious steps backwards.

Standing in front of us was one of the most terrifying and simultaneously fascinating things I had ever seen. The beast looked like a massive eagle, but it certainly wasn't any kind I had ever seen. I slowly inched to the side, trying to get a better view of the creature. It was just as I had seen, but not quite; It's front half was that of a giant eagle, but it's back was different, instead of feathers and talons, it had fur and paws. That's when it hit me, this thing was a gryphon, a half bird, half lion beast of legend, or I guess now it was a beast of fact.

"In this challenge, our fighters will have to get a feather from the gryphon's wings and place it on the altar, the first four to complete this task will move on to the third round!" The announcer exclaimed excitedly as his platform flew away.

With that, it had begun, the golden chains shackled around the gryphon's feet broke and set it free, making this challenge five thousand times more dangerous than before. I no longer had a desire to prove to these people that I was worthy, or powerful, or anything, not if it was going to get me killed. I immediately got as far away from the gryphon as I possibly could, backing myself all the way up against the wall.

One of the boys charged the beast and was instantly knocked to the ground, a massive talon locking around his body keeping him in place. He struggled around, but it was to no avail, he was not going anywhere, the beast was definitely stronger than him. One of the girls attempted to charge the beast from the same side, assuming it could hit her if she approached from the side it was occupied holding down the boy with. Her plan didn't go well however, the gryphon brandished its wing outwards, knocking the girl against a wall and presumably unconscious.

While the gryphon was distracted briefly with the girl, the boy under its talon drew a knife and stabbed it directly in to the gryphon's ankle, causing it to toss him away. I had to rush sideways to avoid the boy hitting me, he hit the wall and slumped to the ground, his sides were scarred and bloody. I shook him to see if he was okay, but he definitely was not conscious, he needed to see a doctor as soon as possible.

It was completely insane that these people went through activities like this every other day, and it was even more insane that I hadn't just forfeited immediately after being chosen. I couldn't quit now though, I had come this far and I had to at least try and fight, right? Adrenaline kicked in and my brain went on auto-pilot, like when I had killed the Ser Wolf in the city.

I bolted forwards, rushing the gryphon and dodging in between the other fighters. If I was going to make it out of this alive, I was going to have to be quick about this, go in, grab the feather, get out. When I got close enough to the gryphon, it immediately swiped left, so I ducked to its right, but then it swiped right, so I ducked left. It kept swiping and I kept dodging, I was waiting for an opening and a chance to strike, but I couldn't find one.

Taking advantage of my distracting of the gryphon, one of the girls charged in and quickly slid under the beast. When she came out of the other side, she immediately sprinted towards the altar, a feather in her left hand. She pressed the feather to the altar and smiled as it let off a pulse of red light, illuminating the girl and solidifying her spot in the third round.

I used the moment of confusion from the gryphon to duck back and get myself out of range of its claws. I had to think of a better approach to getting the feather, I wasn't going to use someone like the girl had used me, I didn't feel that was right. Behind the gryphon, I saw one of the boys slowly making his way to the back of the beast. He quickly jumped up, vaulting over the beast and plucking a feather from its wing before finally landing in front and dashing to the altar, touching his feather to the orb.

There were only two spots in the third round left, I looked for Lilith who would most assuredly be making her move on the gryphon now. She was standing right in front of the thing, sword in hand, staring down the beast, asserting her power and showing the gryphon who was boss. The gryphon swiped with its right wing and Lilith dodged the attack, but she didn't realize that it was a bait.

My vision slowed as I saw the gryphon coil back its left talon, ready to strike Lilith as she dodged right in to the attack. I had to stop the attack, but I was at least 30 feet away and there was no way I could cover the distance in that short amount of time, but I had to try. I began running, my blood pumping harder and my heart beating even faster, the talon approaching Lilith, I wasn't going to make it. I panicked.

All of a sudden, there was a teal glow illuminating my left hand and then it felt like I was running five times faster. I reached the beast just before its talon connected and I was able to push Lilith out of the way, but unfortunately, I didn't have the time to draw my sword. Its claws slashed right through my shoulder, sending me flying backwards, head smashing against the ground. The last thing I saw before my vision went black was Lilith leaning over me, tears filling her eyes.