I place my hand into the field, a strange tingling sensation as though thousand of tiny sparks are hitting it after moment they’re inside, it doesn’t hurt it just feels strange and distracting as I walk through the rest of the barrier allowing my body to be consumed by the tingling feelings.

I cannot hear anything except the buzzing, not even the noise of the other women off in the distance that I’m closinig as I walk forwards in thiis buzzing field of tingling strangeness.

A shift in the buzzing happens to my right, I look around for a spliti moment but don’t delay in leaping forward. This move doesn’t help as I land on the ground awkwardly with a large shadow appearing above me, I consider my options as I catch a glimpse of the blade travelling towards me.

I correct my steps and kick off towards in the correct direction, the sword travels through the air with me and takes a slash at my waist.

I grit my teeth and fling my body sideways to avoid the blade that swipes at the air, the buzzing settles down in my ears allowing me to return to running yet I don’t relax my guard as I watch all around me.

This challenge is proving more difficult than I thought, I’m relying on this body’s natural abilities to deal with these otherworldly blades that appear from no where and without any natural noise. I’m falling behind in the time that’s needed to show off so I’ll need to do something risky yet there’s limited options available. There’s Halzdadt nearby who is dodging several sets of blades with ease while many of the other ones are attempting to dodge many single blades.

The buzzing shifts to my left, I clench my fist thinking about my options as the first blade takes a swipe at me from above straight down.

It’s easy to dodge but it’s followed up by another blade sideways, I dodge this slash with ease it disappears into nothing but it slows my speed down a lot, I speed up when I feel a strange twinge on my shoulder.

I leap to the side as a sword shadow appears from no where, the buzzing returns to normal as the sword disappear into smoke.

I clench my fist again, I cannot fall behind.

I continue running forward, I don’t pay attention to the buzzing sound in my ears anymore as I run forward. A shadow appears from above slicing down, it misses me. A sword slices horizontally but it also misses me.

I continue running forward as another sword appears, this time it’s a sword at the floor level.

I grit my teeth and gather my power into my fist and touch it on the ground while I’m running, the usage of power causes pain to course over my body but I cannot break my focus as I prepare for the moment.

I peer backwards and spot the sword over where I touched the ground, I use my power to send my body back to that power causing it to reappear there.

I reach upwards and touch the strange blade with my hand still using my power, the sword swipes forward as though I’m still at my old position pulling my body forward at incredible speed. The sword disappears after it misses my body sending my body flying forward at incredibly speed.

This all happened in a split moment under the cover of smoke, hopefully it’s enough to fool everyone here as the less questions asked about my powers the better. I twiist my body to look behind me and spot countless swords appearing in the air as I’m flyiing through it.

*SWOOSH*

I see a blade that nearly hit my head, I touch my head and pull down several cut pieces of hair.

I twist my body around again to face the incoming direction, I twist my body yet again and pull my legs up causing a blade to swiipe at my leggings creating a large tear on the side. None of these strikes have resulted in the red-light dust so I’m not sure what’s going on but won’t question it as I pprepare myself for the landing.

Several dozen of blades have gathered behind me ready to strike, I look at where I’m about to land and spot a problem Halzdadt is just about to walk there. I cannot control where I’m landing but the good thing is that the whiite-haired woman has several sword of her own that she’s avoiding with her own sort of dodging technique. I place my feet out in front of me and prepare myself.

My feet hit the ground and drag in the stone floor, I don’t allow this to stop me as I continue to run and pass the white-haired beauty.

She stands there stunned for a moment before remembering about behind her and look there, several dozens of swords have appeared there creating an enormous mass of blades. She begins to run but it’s too late as I reach the other side of the field closely followed by Halzdadt.

“How did you do that?,” she marches up panting.

“My own skill,” II say while panting, Hazel walks up joined alongside an attendant.

“Congratulations Valley, you came in second and have the third highest score in your age bracket for the last 300 years.”

“Ah..,” I frown at this news internally deciding if it was worth it to take the damage to my body, “is that something special?,” I ask while peering at Halzdadt’s face.

“Of course, only 1 person has reached the top 10 in the last 200 years.”

“Does that mean anything?,” I say watching Halzdadt walk away with a massive frown on her face,“do I get anything special?”

“Special? Well just the glory,” the attendant beside us speaks up, her voice is difficult to hear over the crowd talking quietly over one another creating a roar of whispered voices.

“Alright, thanks for the glory,” I say with no expressions unmoved by the words before looking at Hazel, “what about that blessing?”

“I promised didn’t I?” Hazel says looking towards me.

“Is there something wrong?”

“No, not at all. Let’s go quickly to the corridor over there,” she says while point to the corridor and begins to walk over there leaving the gathering crowd behind.

I shrug my shoulders and follow her, blessing type powers can even impact my innate powers that don’t obey natural laws or principles, if I’m able to harness a blessing that’s able to amplify it by some amount then I might be able to shake the restrictions in this realm. We walk towards the white stone building towards a dark archway leading into some dark tunnel without any lighting, crossing through the doorway only to be met with a wave of cold air sending shivers and goosebumps.

“I heard you used some sort of special power?,” Hazel says as we arrive several steps into the tunnel away from the crowds noise.

“It wasn’t anything special, what about the blessing what type is it?”

“Natures… Silvwyn.”

“The ancient elven goddess that was forced underground when the heavens split? Her beauty was said to be matched by her power?”

“You know a little bit about her, that’s good. I never thought that her story would be told still,” Hazel’s eyes go misty as she speaks, “well you got most of it right,” her face returns to normal as she returns to smiling at me, Her large body standing over mine as we’re alone in this corridor, her uniform clinging to her body from the work done while also exposing her ample bosom and hard nipples.

“Which part did I get wrong?,” I say while finding myself at eye level towards her breasts. I fight an internal urge to grab them.

“She was cut off from the light of the mother star, the mother tree so her world darkened. She needed to find a solution and this is part of it,” Hazel brings her fingers up to her head and clenches her muscles. A spark of power comes into form on her fingers, a bright light appears, an incredibly bright light is hard to look at appears brighter than the sun in the tunnel, I cannot keep looking at it forcing me to turn away.

I feel a touch on my neck, I want to shake it off but stop myself once I notice the flow of strange power coming into my body.

It’s latching deep onto something inside my body, I don’t fight it as another soft touch lands on the other side of my neck filling it with the same feelings.

The touch travels from up my neck bringing the power along with it, her hand glides through my silky hair and arrives on my forehead before dragging down onto my nose alongside the incredibly bright light coming through my shut eyes.

Luckily this only lasts a moment before it disappears, I open my eyes trying to see what’s going on when I’m immediately greeted by her face up close to mine with a glowing tattoo on her forehead emitting some sort of power, I close my eyes again finding myself trusting this woman I’ve just met. She places her hands on my shoulders and shifts my body.

I feel some wetness on my forehead, I open my eyes to see her face travelling down to my neck placing her lips on it and sucking softly.

“Valley!,” a voice comes from the end of the tunnel, “just because you beat me in that test doesn’t mean you are better than me. Don’t get too full of yourself,” her voice approaches the two of us.

“Halzdadt, have you seen Hazel?,” a voice comes further away but Hazel doesn’t seem to pay attention to them as she goes to kiss the other side of my neck.

“AH, you two, what, what are you two doing?,” Halzdadt’s voice comes from nearby, something inside me is lit as I wrap my arms around Hazel’s waist and bury my face into her dark grey hair inhaling her body scent.

“What’s that Halzdadt?,” the second voice comes closer.

“Look for yourself, I can’t…” Halzdadt walks away outside the tunnel, I can feel Hazel lift away from my neck as a strange energy courses through my body settling into it quickly. I can feel it do something to my energy yet I’d have to try it out to see what sort of benefits the blessing will bring.

“The blessing ceremony is done, you have been received the light of our mother star silvwyn and will be blessed until the light no longer shines.”

“For how long?” I ask buried in her hair.

“It should be forever but that’s for proper priests, I only know the basics ceremonies.”

“What other ceremonies are there?” I ask while looking Hazel in her eyes.

“Well there’s this one,” Hazel touches my chin and kisses my lips, I can feel her tongue work its way into my mouth bringing along a strange numbing feeling.

I bring my hand up her back as we nosily exchange saliva, someone clearing their throat can be heard in the tunnel.

Hazel widens her eyes and breaks out of the heated moment, “Balfie, what are you doing here?”

“You’re the group leader, we’re meant to gather for the next round,” the short blonde-haired girl speaks giving me a momentary glare before turning to Hazel.

“Oh right, has everyone finished?”

“Yeah, for a few minutes now. A few people have been asking for you.”

“Right. Sorry, I’ll come along now,” Hazel returns to look at me, “Valley you need to take a few minutes to adjust, just head out once you’re done.”

Hazel stands up leaving my arms, I can only watch her away while speaking.

“Sure, thanks I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Hazel nods her head while the short blonde haired girl walks away with her leaving me alone for a moment in the dark quiet tunnel. I watch them for a moment before looking internally towards my power and spot countless threads of tiny white light coursing over all over, I cannot tell what they do but they don’t seem harmful in anyway, I think about returning for a moment before dismissing it immediately. I’m just getting started at this academy and who knows what other secrets are hiding around the corner.

I have some time until I need to return and check on everyone else…

I walk towards the end of the tunnel, the crowd is murmuring in a quiet roar as a large column has appeared in the middle of the stadium, a large stone pillar over 100 metres in width and thousands of metres tall stands in the middle of the stadium as if it has always been there. Large grotesque heads are covered all over the column as you get further up into the unseeable distance. All sorts of demons, devils, mutated beasts and even fallen ancient gods.

All beings that I have encountered before.

Hazel and several other officials are standing by the pillar with one other woman with short purple hair, someone that I haven’t talked to before.

I look over the crowd and firstly spot Halzdadt with her bright hair, followed by the short blonde girl Balfie and then the rest of the now whittled down crowd.

I walk over to them, watching the purple haired girl as she walks up to the pillar and bows towards it before chanting a small hymn in a beautiful melody.

Her body begins to glow purple as energy gushes out of it gathering into a cloud above her, it gathers into a more solid form above her before it suddenly expands in size as an energy fills it in from all around us while it changes form into a silver blade.

The blade slashes down on the column leaving no mark on it.

“Nann Dalfon, passed,” is spoken from the distance in an old unmoved voice.

The purple haired girl leaves the front while I arrive at the group, no one is willing to speak with me but that’s fine as I watch the next person leave.