Capaneus stepped inside the circle. He immediately activated both defensive mode and trackdown mode.

The buzzer went off.

Stain immediately went for a punch. Capaneus dodged that, by moving towards his right. Stain followed it with a kick. Capaneus blocked it with only 1 arm. The defensive mode, makes the plates inflate around the whole body. This makes the person more sturdier. The downfall of this mode is that it decreases the speed of the user. But, Capaneus was using the Trackdown mode to counter this disadvantage.

It was truly a brilliant strategy. Stain's attacks kept getting blocked by Capaneus. Capaneus could not dodge much, but he could perfectly block Stain's attacks. A punch by Stain, blocked by Capaneus' with his left arm. After this, he attacked Stain.

Stain dodged it, by jumping backwards. It was nowhere mentioned in the rules that attacking Stain was forbidden, so Capaneus did not break any rules.

"Good. Capaneus, was it?"

"Yeah!"

The buzzer went off again, and the test was over. Capaneus had taken 0 hits, during the test. He had come first again.

Everyone was amazed to see such an amazing performance by Capaneus.

"Okay! Now the 4th and the last test of the day will take place. The test is going to be a 1v1 fight. You will all get random opponents, whom you will need to face. When your name is called out, step inside the arena."

Everyone was nervous. A 1v1 fight. Everyone wanted to go against someone weaker than them. There was not a single person who wanted to go against Capaneus.

"The rules are very simple. Make the person opposite of you give up, or push them off the arena."

"Atlast. I will get to use this mode. I can perform it for hardly some seconds, but that should be enough here." Brian thought with excitement.

 

Names were called out, and recruits stepped inside the arena. Most of the fights ended early. The winner's ranks did not increase much.

Then came to fight, Capaneus. He was fighting a blue haired man, named Tyson. Tyson was in rank 17 currently.

"Begin!"

The fight started. Tyson rushed at Capaneus with offensive mode. Capaneus was in Mobility mode and Trackdown mode. He easily dodged Tyson's attack, and gave a punch to Tyson's face. Being in offensive mode, Tyson's defence was weak. He got a direct hit, and got thrown out of the arena. He hit the wall of the stadium, and the wall cracked.

BOOM!

Brian shuddered. He knew the pain of getting hit. Stain was holding back against the recruits, but Capaneus did not. The punch was powerful. Tyson fell to the ground. He looked like he had fainted, but then he stood up! He stood up, stepped inside the arena, and congratulated Capaneus.

"I let my guard down, but never expected you to be this powerful. Hahahaha."

After saying this, he stepped down, and sat in a bench present inside the stadium. He looked like he was not hurt at all. He had just taken a massive hit, but was sitting right in front of everyone like nothing ever happened!

 

"Next, Brian and Ethan."

Brian stepped inside the arena. Opposite to him was Ethan, with green hair. He seemed very nervous. His current rank was 376. Brian knew that this fight will be a bit easier for him. He did not waste time.

"Mobility mode." shouted Brian. He rushed towards Ethan. Ethan was still very nervous. He seemed not to move. Brian felt almost sorry for doing this to Ethan, but as he had to rise quickly in ranks for achieving his goal, he had to beat Ethan in this fight.

"Now to add this up, Override!"

Ethan, had finally decided to dodge, but he could not move for a second. He did not understand what was going on. In that split second, Brian used all his might and gave a powerful punch to Ethan. Ethan received the punch, and was sent flying out of the arena.

Ethan felt a lot of pain, and screamed in pain. Some medical help arrived to tend to Ethan.

Ethan had learnt 3 different functions of the suit. Mobility mode, Trackdown mode and Override. Mobility provided the user with great speed. Trackdown provided the user with quick senses, early response to opponent's moves and anticipation of what the opponent will do. Override, the mode Brian could just perform for 1 split second, allowed the user to paralyse the opponent. To counter this, the opponent must also use Override. Ethan did not know how to use Override yet, so he couldn't do anything.

"The training which I did for three months after I got this suit, helped me out a lot." Brian thought to himself. He had won the fight. He now waited for the other fights to end.

 

The other fights ended after a while. The sun was about to set, and the sky was orange in colour. Crows were chirping away, and the atmosphere was very tense.

"Recruits. Wonderful job on the test of 'Profession of Pride.' You will now become a true soldier. You have not only shown your current capabilities here to the branch leader, but also shown them that you are all fit to be soldiers. Some of you are extremely good, some of you are very hardworking, some of you are afraid but have still decided to join the army and some of you have joined for fame and glory. All of these reasons are accepted while joining the army. But always remember, that you will all be joining the army for serving your country. You will fight for bringing peace in this country."

A silent breeze blew outside the arena, where all the recruits were waiting to be chosen to a branch of the army.

"Now, your names will be called out according to your ranks. Please step forward when your names are called, and the branch leaders who want you in their branch, will lift their hands. You can select the branch you want to join from the branches who want to select you."

"Now, firstly Capaneus. "

Capaneus stepped forward, and when he did, all the branch leaders lifted their hands to make him join them. Capaneus, without thinking much, answered "Tiger branch."

He was told to go where the remaining Tiger branch members were standing. The selection continued.

"Anders." He had Blue-black hair.

All hands except for Lynx's, the head of the tiger branch, were raised. He chose the Fox branch.

"Emily." She had pink hair.

Again, all hands except for Lynx's were raised. She chose the Peacock branch.

"Prithvi." He had light brown hair.

He chose the Elephant branch.

"Rank 5, Eva" She had purple hair.

She chose the Vulture branch.

"Simon" He was bald.

He chose the Snake branch.

"Oliver" He had brown hair.

Lynx, rose his hand for the second time. Oliver chose the Tiger branch.

"Harvey" He had dark grey hair.

He chose the Bear branch.

"Amelia" She had black hair.

All 9 hands shot up to the sky, except for lynx. She chose the Eagle branch.

"Rank 10, Brian"

Yet again, 9 hands rose up in the sky. Lynx did not raise his hand up. Brian wanted to join the Tiger branch.

"Ea...Eagle Branch. " Brian said with some disappointment.

He walked away to the members of the branch. He could not see the remaining of the branch placements. He waited there for some time. 4 other members joined them after some time. Dean joined them next, and the members of the Eagle branch left of for their headquarters.

 

After reaching the headquarters, the seniors went to their rooms. There were only us new recruits and Dean, leader of the Eagle branch.

"Welcome new recruits. This is the Eagle headquarters. Currently there are 6,047 members in this branch of the army. Most of them are currently at guard duty near the border. The Tiger, Eagle and Peacock branch are the strongest branch in the army, and hence most of the guards near the borders are from these 3 branches. In every branch there are two divisions. The In-division and the Out-division. The In-division are the ones who patrol and stay near the borders of the country. The Out-Division are the ones that undertake missions within the country and even in other countries. To stay in the Out-division, you must know how to use all 7 of the different modes of these suits. All of you don't know what the 7th mode is, do you? I cannot explain how to use this mode yet to you, cause if I do, and if you try to use it, you might die!"

There was a pin-drop silence for some time.

Dean continued, "So, to stay in the Out-division, you will need to master all the other 6 modes of the suit, within 6 months. If you can do that, then great. If you cannot, then you will be sent to In-Division. Of course you can come back to Out-Division if you can master the other 6 modes anytime later. But let me warn you, mastering the six modes, is very difficult. All of you are within the top 30 of the selection tests, and hence might have a chance. Anyone below rank 30, is not chosen by me. All the recruits, who will be randomly placed in the Eagle branch, will automatically be sent to the In-division. This is the system followed by all the branches of the army, only difference being that their selections are more broader sometimes. Okay, I have been speaking for a very long time now, and you all must be so tired. Now, you can all go to bed, and enjoy the welcome feast tomorrow. Any questions, will be answered tomorrow. Good Night."

He gave each of the new recruits a key to their room. They were said that their rooms would be on the third floor of the base.

Uffff

"Such a tiring day. The tension just keeps building up. Now I need to master the 6 modes within 6 months! This is going to be hard."

Brian took a bath, changed his clothes and went off for bed.