Chapter 2: Unfamiliar Faces
"Eh?" my face basically flat on the floor as a I slowly began to push myself up, blood dripping from my nose and chin. As I stared at the faces around me I thought to myself at first 'holy fuck what do I say here?' and then really 'hey he looks pretty strong'. I bowed my head the blood dripping like a leaky faucet onto the floor.
"Stavn Forsberg! Age 17! It is a honour to work with you all!" my voice remaining calm for once and yes I know, that is a terrible way to really introduce yourself to your new colleagues. I also suppose I haven't really, well, described myself that well. So here goes. I am Stavn Forsberg as you know I'm born to a lord's wife's servant, a true and utter bastard. I turn 18 this coming winter, I'm not the tallest nor am I the strongest in fact I look more ordinary than most. My hair is black like the night sky and my eyes shine like the brightest emeralds (I once received a love letter saying this, frankly I don't care about that stuff).
The man in front of me sighed before reclining into a chair behind him.
"Another pompous brat... you're staying with those 3; Caleo, Phyora and Relund. You 3 make yourselves useful and show him the room and Headquarters."
The 3 of them all turned at once giving a swift salute before ushering me towards our room.
"Sa Stavn wher' yi' frum?" a low voice came beside my ear. "Um Caleo bee da way."
"Has he got something wrong with him?" I quickly remarked not taking a measure of where I currently stood. Quickly his arm wrapped around my neck and he began to lift me up throttling me as he went. "Yi' sey samthin' abit ma'?"
It took me a few seconds to realise that if I didn't apologize he'd probably kill me and the others would hide the body but then he dropped me to the ground.
"Just kidding." His accent changing completely, sounding more like mine than what it was before. The other 2 began to head into the room with one of them entering. "Before you ask he uses magic to steal accents. Its about the only thing he's good at except for throttling newcomers like yourself." The person stood before me was a girl, Phyora. Her hair was dirty blonde her eyes whilst looking very dead, were grey for the most part with flashes of blue hinted at small parts.
Caleo walked past me entering the room his size now becoming more apparent and especially his... well... his look. He was over the size of the doorway having to bend down to enter the room. His hair, well he had no hair nor eyebrows. I hadn't really payed much attention to who they were but now that I was finally seeing them it came to me that they themselves are like me... outcast.
I headed into the room and what lay before me wasn't a bedroom like home. There lay 2 bunkbeds, one on either side of the room, between them at the far side was a wardrobe and at the end of each bed lay a chest for clothing and items. The chests were to be shared, split in half. This was all to maximise the space used in the room, as apart from that and a few chairs. It was quite barren.
"Which one is mine?" I asked as I entered, the man that entered pointed at the top bunk on the beds opposite him. "You must be Relund then?", the man nodded his head.
Phyora stepped up behind me "You won't get much out of him, he had his tongue cut out when he was very young." I spun around nearly hitting her with my bag, she stood there with her eyes closed and a bright smile on her face. I felt moved, it felt caring for a second but it then began to feel quite sinister. I turned back to Relund and nodded to him, he scratched his ginger beard before getting up and walking out of the room taking Caleo with him.
I began to unpack my belongings into the chest as Phyora began to mention stuff about the squads training schedule and meeting schedule. Then all I could hear was the ringing of a bell, Phyora bolted out of the room, I quickly put down my bag and began to follow her quickly. Relund and Caleo both were in front of her, their faces looked serious as if they knew exactly what they were going to be tasked with.
We ended up in the common area, the captain stood above the rest, he had very short grey hair, but he was built like a mountain.
"Ahem! So as you know we've had a few newcomers join our ranks, so you all know what this means!" quickly everyone's eyes darted towards me. I stepped back slowly nervously waiting for what would happen, since they all had the same look it felt as if I would die from fear. Then all of a sudden the captain took a deep breath.
"ITS TIME TO TEST OUR NEWCOMERS IN THE ARENA!" as he said this the whole room began to fill up with the deafening cheers of my seniors and higher ups. I was quickly lifted all the way to the arena. I suppose I had no choice in what would happen since as soon as I was put down they handed me a sword and shield and threw me into the arena with the other newcomers.
I stood there at the side and gazed around the area, my fellow newcomers looked as terrified as I did. Then the captain stood above the rest again, "You will all fight till you are unconscious and only one remains. Now... BEGIN!" the crowd roaring soon after.
The clash of the practice swords slamming into shields echoed through the room as the crowd all of a sudden grew quiet. I soon found out why, there was a boy around my age at the other side of the room who was showing how familiar he was with a blade. He first took down his closest opponent in lightning speed, moving from person to person swiftly taking a brief engage and then executing the perfect counter to their attacks. In no time at all, all that remained of the starting 8 was 3, I hadn't been paying attention at all and then I felt a sudden blow to the back of my head, from then nothing.
I awoke in my room with Caleo and Phyora both dying of laughter, whilst Relund just sat there with a wide grin on his face.
"I... I honestly can't believe you lost that easily.. seriously how?" they both remarked at once both forgetting to breath as they laughed. My face turned bright red in embarrassment before quickly burying it into my pillows. Who was that guy before? Why was he so good? These thoughts crossed my mind, that and the pain of the sword still throbbing on the back of my head.
I felt ashamed of my performance, yet I felt thirsty to begin training more.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone