A freezing and foggy early morning blanketed the Outcast Dormitory. I was packing my supply backpack in the corner of the room. My right arm, now perfectly calibrated with Troll bone, moved with deadly military efficiency. I arranged daggers, grappling hooks, and rations into the bag with highly precise speed.
The room door opened hurriedly. Finn stepped in with a bright face and panting breath. He wore an incredibly wide smile of relief.
"Kael! Have you heard the rumor?" exclaimed Finn with a spirited tone. "Orvelis Nightbane was pulled back to his father's territory last night! We are safe, Kael. This exam will just be an ordinary exam!"
I stopped my hand movements over the backpack. Instead of feeling happy, I turned my body and stared at Finn with an ice-cold gaze. There was not a single spark of relief in my eyes.
"Safe? Do you think a snake whose head has been stepped on will just let its prey go?" I asked with a flat tone.
The smile on Finn's face faded instantly. He swallowed hard. "But he is no longer at the academy, Kael."
I closed my backpack and pulled its straps tightly. "Listen closely, Finn. Sometimes, a hunting dog released from its chain is far more dangerous than its master who merely sits in a chair. Orvelis might have left, but he surely left his executioners behind to ensure we never make it out of that forest."
One hour later, we gathered on the muddy field at the Forbidden Forest border Exam Post.
A gray sky hung low, spewing thick fog that shrouded the tips of the giant trees. Hundreds of Basic Class cadets gathered with pale and tense faces. They all knew how high the mortality rate was in the Death Zone.
I walked through the crowd and rejoined my squad members. Ragnar stood shouldering his greatsword casually, while Virelith hugged her parchment board and medical bag with a sharp analytical gaze.
"Are you ready to spill some blood?" asked Ragnar with a wide grin.
"Logistically, we are exceedingly ready," answered Virelith while adjusting her glasses.
Ahead of us, Instructor Alric stepped onto the wooden podium. His voice, amplified using wind magic, echoed throughout the field.
"Listen closely, Cadets!" shouted Alric. "The Envoy of the Central Empire is unable to attend today. In his stead, exam supervision inside the Death Zone will be replaced by a line of outstanding Upper Class cadets."
Ten Upper Class cadets stepped forward and lined up neatly in front of the giant iron gates.
"To prevent bias and favoritism among cadets," continued Alric providing an explanation. "All supervisors from the Upper Class are required to wear standard helmets or iron hoods that cover their faces while inside the forest."
The ten supervisors simultaneously donned iron helmets concealing their identities.
Ragnar snorted softly and spat on the ground. "Look at those spoiled nobles. They stand behind helmets just so we cannot see their terrified faces. I bet they will run frantically if they meet real monsters."
I narrowed my red eyes, scanning the line of helmeted supervisors from end to end. Most of them indeed stood with an arrogant posture that I could read very easily.
However, my gaze locked onto one figure at the far right end of the line.
"Not all of them, Ragnar," I said softly. "Take back your arrogance."
Virelith turned to me. "What is it, Commander? Do you see an anomaly?"
I pointed with my chin toward the figure at the far right end. That person held a silver spear that occasionally emitted sparks of static lightning.
"Look at the one at the far end," I instructed them. "His posture is too perfect. There is not a single wasted movement. There is no arrogance in the way he stands. That is no cheap hired killer who can be bribed with a few coins. That is a pure executioner. Orvelis must have ordered him to aim for our necks."
My veteran instincts screamed warning of danger. The person behind that helmet was a deadly knight who must not be underestimated.
"Attention to the objective breakdown of the exam!" Instructor Alric's voice broke my focus again. "Your main objective is survival and extraction. The entire group will be teleported randomly using a Spatial Portal Artifact to various points in the Outer Zone of the Forbidden Forest. You are given a maximum of seventy-two hours, or exactly three days, to survive and find a way to the Extraction Fortress located on the other side of the forest."
Alric raised a dark crystal stone pulsating softly in his hand. "The grading system is determined by the number of Mutant Cores or Monster Mana Cores your group successfully collects. Remember this well, each group will only be provided with food and water rations for one day. This scarcity system is designed to force you to hunt monsters, or you will starve to death on the second day."
The Instructor then pointed toward the line of helmeted supervisors before him. "For safety rules, each group is provided with one Magic Flare. If you fire it into the air, your group is declared to surrender and fail. These Upper Class Supervisors will see the flare and come to rescue you. Killing fellow cadets is strictly forbidden and will be punished by hanging under military law! However, acts of sabotage, theft, and fighting to seize other groups' Mutant Cores are permitted."
Hearing that string of flawed safety rules, my tactical brain immediately dissected them and found the legal murder loophole Orvelis had prepared for my squad.
This system looked very fair on paper, but in the field, it was a perfect execution arena.
That random spatial teleportation could be manipulated very easily by bribed committee members to throw my squad directly into the Inner Zone, a death zone filled with high-tier monsters. Meanwhile, the safety Magic Flare would be utterly useless if the Supervisor assigned to respond to our call was the executioner with the lightning spear up ahead.
That knight would only need to arrive deliberately late. He could wait casually on a tree branch, watching the monsters chew our bones to nothing, then return to the academy and record our deaths as a tragic accident due to cadet negligence.
"Now," shouted Instructor Alric concluding his briefing. "Form your survival teams! Maximum of four people in one group. You have five minutes before the Portal Artifact is activated!"
The cadets immediately scattered and shouted looking for groups. Panic began to be felt in the air.
I turned and saw Finn standing trembling alone not far from our position. Other factions rejected him because Finn lacked any flashy combat magic.
"Finn, come here," I called.
Finn turned and walked closer hesitantly.
"Join my squad," I offered with a serious tone. "You possess decent navigation talent. I can ensure you survive this exam and make it out alive."
Finn stared at me with widened eyes. He then looked at Ragnar who was grinning savagely while baring his teeth. His gaze then shifted to Virelith who was staring at Finn while scribbling something on her parchment, exactly like a mad scientist calculating the value of a cadaver dissection.
Finn trembled violently. He took a step back with glassy eyes.
"Sorry, Kael. I am very grateful for your offer, but I truly do not want to!" refused Finn with a half-pleading tone.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Your reason?"
"Because you are all monsters!" complained Finn, nearly crying on the spot. "If I go with you, I will not die eaten by wild beasts inside that forest. I will surely die from the explosion of crazy problems that always follow you everywhere!"
Ragnar fell silent for a moment, then laughed uproariously until he clutched his stomach. "Bwahahaha! This kid has very good survival instincts!"
Virelith crossed Finn's name off her parchment with an incredibly flat face. "A highly logical decision. His weak psychological burden would not be efficient for our group's logistics. He would only become noisy meat bait."
I exhaled a long breath watching Finn run away looking for an ordinary cadet group. Now, our team was short one person. There were only the three of us, while the maximum quota was four.
I swept my gaze around. Other cadets avoided us as if our squad were a deadly plague. Everyone in this academy knew that I was the primary target of the Nightbane faction's hatred.
Amidst that deadlock, the elegant clicking sound of shoe heels broke the noise of the muddy field.
The scent of night jasmine mixed with the aroma of ozone swept away the dust in the air. Selena Lune stepped approaching us. Her cadet uniform was modified very neatly and elegantly. A mysterious smile adorned her red lips.
"You look very pathetic," said Selena casually. She thrust a blue-stamped piece of paper from the Student Senate toward my chest. "A flawed formation. You need a healer in there."
Ragnar snorted roughly, gripping the hilt of his greatsword. "Since when does a sociopathic shadow mage like you care about other people's wounds, Miss Senate?"
Selena shifted her gaze to Ragnar. Her smile grew even wider and sweeter.
"Since I found out that half of the helmeted supervisors up ahead have been paid in full by Nightbane's remaining treasury," answered Selena with a cheerful tone. "That money was given specifically to ensure not a single one of your bones returns intact from that forest."
I took the stamped paper and stared into the girl's crystal blue eyes. My brain instantly grasped the tactical value of her presence.
Selena did not intend to join this exam for grades. She was a bureaucratic ace card, as well as the eyes and ears of Lysandra Morcant. By involving a core member of the Student Senate in my squad, Nightbane would not be able to kill us without triggering an open faction war with Morcant.
"You are risking your own life just to be Lysandra's eyes and ears in there?" I asked, testing her resolve.
Selena returned my gaze without blinking. "Death is a very boring show if not witnessed from the front row seat, Draven. I want to see how you destroy Orvelis's executioner."
A cold and deadly smirk formed on my lips. I welcomed the challenge gladly.
"Welcome to the squad of dead men, Selena," I said while handing our group form paper to the exam committee.
The sound of a long trumpet echoed piercing the fog. The giant iron gates separating the academy area from the Forbidden Forest opened with the heavy creak of metal. Various magic circles were activated to send the Cadets to random locations.
The four of us stood side by side. The official formation of the Deck Hounds had been formed perfectly. The Veteran led at the front. The Vanguard carried his giant sword on the right side. The Support analyzed every possibility on the left side. And the Random Variable smiled sweetly in the back row.
We stepped inside through those iron gates, penetrating the thick fog that instantly swallowed our vision. The real exam, and the war of slaughter inside the forest, finally began.