The First Spell
Merlin’s eyes slowly began to open, he was in another place, a more familiar place, he was in his room. He closed his eyes and covered them with his arm. “Not that dream again,” he said as he rubbed his face with confusion. He turned his head and stared at his alarm clock. It was blinking twelve o’clock, “stupid alarm clock always resetting.” Merlin managed to find his pocket watch under piles of empty instant ramen noodle cups and figured the time after glaring at it with his half shut eyes.
“7:24 am, tooooooo early,” he mumbled as he put his head back to the pillow he so longed for in the length that couldn’t possibly be longer than a few seconds.
“AHHHHHH HAA HURRRRR HEEEE!” He choked on his saliva as he fell out of bed, dragging the blanket with him to the floor. “THE PRELEBURATION EXAM!” He yelled as he was trying to untangle himself from the knot he got into as he fell, “oh noo, I’m gonna be late!” He darted to his closet after he untangled himself from the routine knot he always succeeded in getting himself into. He managed to get on some pants and a shirt that he wore a few times before without washing. If it doesn’t smell, then no one would notice, it was what he lived by.
He smashed through his room door tumbling into the family room as he was putting on his shoes. His head hit the ground while he still held onto his shoe laces. “Ouccchhh shhhh” suddenly came out as he unrelenting his laces. As he was recapturing his vision, in his view was his father, Arthur, feeding a zebra by the spoonful. Merlin’s eyes were wide open and his jaw hanging to show his entire mouth and that little piece of gum he was saving from the night before, yet he wasn’t all that surprised, because his dad did this stuff all the time. “Don’t look at me like that! There isn’t a manual on how to feed zebras! I looked everywhere! Besides aren’t you late for your preleburation exam?”
“Oh damn! If I’m late they’re going to make me sit next to the three headed toad that slobbers everywhere,” said Merlin as he shivered in disgust, “you better not bring the zebra with you to the ceremony,” then darted through the front doors of the house.
“It’s alright Colonel, he’ll be ok.” Arthur said as he looked down to the floor, “even though today’s his preleburation exam, it had to come eventually. I tried convincing him not to go, but he kept insisting!” His father spoke to the zebra as if it understood everything he was saying. “I just hope he wore clean underwear, because it’s going to be a long day…”
They just stared at each other awkwardly, “I can call you Colonel, right?” His father asked Colonel as he was trying to shove the spoon into his mouth.
“Thiiisss iissss hhuuummmaaannnn fooooodddd” Arthur said as slow as he can hoping Colonel would understand, “damn it, this isn’t working, the fridge is over there; help yourself.”
Merlin lives in the middle of a forest. It is not that big of a forest, just large enough to keep people away from Arthur and his son. Arthur moved in there not too long after his wife’s death. He could not take care of Merlin alone, so he sacrificed his lifestyle in order to keep Merlin safe.
Merlin got onto a small trail that leads to the city. Merlin cannot afford a horse to ride to school, so he had no other choice but to run to the arena where the preleburation exam is taking place. It was too narrow for him to run as he pleased, he constantly kept dodging branches and mud puddles, but it was a daily route for him so he could ran through the trail blindfolded and got out with a few scratches here and there.
He finally emerged from the forest into the city of Iyas, the greatest city of wizard and witches. People come from all over the world to see the different types of magic that exist. Merlin decided to take a shortcut, through the crowded shopping district directly in the heart of Iyas, even though it was rush hour, it was still the fastest path.
“Are you going to watch the preleburation exam today, Martha?” he heard an old woman ask the fruit stand owner as he ran past them. “Yes of course! My daughter is one of the students taking the exam!”
He kept running at the same time losing his breathe. He began to wobble and sway all over the road trying to force himself to keep running. For some odd reason he thought it would help if he stuck out his head like a turtle which strained his neck. “Sorry” he said as he smacked an old timer on his head.
“Whoops!” he cried out almost colliding into a cart.
“You smell nice!” trying to flirt with a woman that seemed beautiful as she faced the other way, but to his surprise, as she turned toward him he let out a little whelp, “yeee” but continued running.
Merlin stopped to catch his breath at the corner of the block, he looked up and he saw people flying above him. Some were levitating, others were using carpets and miniature dragons. The sight never seized to amaze Merlin, he could spend hours and watch different kinds of people pass by. Some of them wore suits while others wore turbans. It was tradition that women ride on animals and dragons as means of transport provided by their spouse. You have no idea how many kids try looking up their skirts as they fly above.
He pulled out his pocket watch, people walking past, shoving him from side to side. “I can make it,” he reassured himself after checking the gold plated watch. He took off continuing to thrust himself at people.
“AHHH moovvv- OW! WATCH IT!”
The moment he thought that he might not make it, Alan landed right next to Merlin, he did not land as much as he fell and hit Merlin. Alan is Merlin’s best friend that’s been with him for the longest time. The way they met was a day they will not forget, mostly because they got beat down pretty badly. Alan was being picked on by a group of neighborhood bullies, led by the infamous Xanxus. Merlin saw the act and in the heat of the moment ran and punched Xanxus, he knows he should have thought things through better, but kids learn. Xanxus and his crew beat the snot out of them both, but Alan believes it was the thought that mattered. Ever since then they were inseparable.
“Oucchh, an angel fell from the heavens! I’ll give you a 2.5 on your landing though. Quick to the ARENA!” Merlin said in both the enthusiasm of regaining his hope and pain.
“OK! Right after you get off my leg.”
“Oh, sorry.”
Alan got up, focused his energy and began to levitate, as soon as he did, Merlin jumped on him, hung his arms around his neck and they kept levitating higher and higher. Right when they rose above the town’s buildings, they began to fly toward the arena.
“You’re a life saver!”
“Don’t waste your energy thanking me, no one said you’re getting in yet.”
“Ya ya, how’d you find me anyway?”
“I went to your house, and your dad told me that you left already, so I started looking for you, because somehow, I knew you weren’t going to make it without me, and I was right!”
The arena was finally in sight, it would be hard to miss it. The beautiful architectural presence, the circular building with life like angel statues coming out of the walls and the statues of the greatest wizards in history were all placed at the top facing the inner arena. Some say that the great wizards were all related to each other, coming down from the same blood line.
As they was getting nearer to the arena, the people waiting to get in became visible. The reason why they cannot fly in to the arena on their own is because they have a barrier at the top that will not allow any intruders to come in, Iyas takes their security seriously. Not too many years ago, a man thought that he finally found a spell that can make him invisible, and started throwing fruit at innocent people passing by, but Iyas police caught the confused man. A man fully naked throwing fruit everywhere is just not right.
Alan initiated the landing, and the dust underneath them blew away, the closer they came to the floor the stronger the wind that blew the dust away. Right when they landed, Alan slapped Merlin’s back and spoke, “You better get in.”
“You know I will!” he said wasting no time in running toward the entrance.
“Move aside! I’m taking the test!” Merlin yelled as he tried shoving people away, but got caught in the crowd’s swaying. He was being pushed from every direction, the front, the back and both sides. He began to feel nauseous as he swayed all over the place.
DING! DING! DING! DOOONGGG!
“It’s time for the Preleburation exam to take place! Ladies and Gentlemen, please be seated in the audience area and the students that are participating come forth!”
As the garish voice was giving out orders, merlin used this opportunity to crawl his way through the horde’s legs, since everyone stood still surprised how clear the voice was. As he kept on, the shorter population would shriek and try to stomp on him but the larger part of the crowd didn’t notice or care.
“That must have been the Praevalidus’s voice.” He couldn’t help but to eavesdrop on people since it was less rude than crawling through them. “He’s the only person alive that can get his magic to reach this far! Thank God he’s on our side.”
“It smells so bad down here! How the hell do mice do this all the time?!” After getting trampled on a few times, Merlin finally reached the gate in one piece. He stood up trying to cover the stains on his shirt while smirking at the fact that he had black pants on so it didn’t appear much. He didn’t see the massive mud stain on his butt from when he dodged an old lady’s attempt to get Merlin to walk under her skirt.
“Let me in! I’m doing the exam! Here’s my acceptance letter and proof of authentication. The proof was a small flame at the top of the letter that came directly from the Praevalidus.
“Come right in, but next time you should try to enter from the student’s entrance. It’s less crowded.” Whispered the guard as he opened the gate.
“WHAT?!” yelled Merlin in a rage of astonishment. Among other swear words he muttered under his breath.
As he continued to run through the hall regretting leaving his window open the night before which triggered the room to become a nest to the animals. As a result he had to stay up most of the night cleaning bird feces and that one porcupine that wrestled for the bed.
It was less congested inside the hall but the doors were endless and so were the torches to create that ominous feeling. “That’s stupid, where am I supposed to go?” he said as he stood motionless watching everyone moving around confident in their path. Screw it, he’s going to wing it. “I’m going to use my great senses of direction,” he slurred as he was getting his arms in position and his breathing in tune. He began to picture toads, a pond, a big toe, the carpet he saw on his way here, food, which in turn got him hungry, then he remembered he didn’t eat and realized his stomach was pointing toward a door.
“And my dad called me crazy. Thank you toad navigation!” He opened the door and it was a room with a vortex that lead to somewhere that did not look pleasant in the least. “Stupid toad navigation.”
He closed the door as quickly as he could before the vortex messed up his hair even more, and as he turned around to try another one, he bumped into his old teacher that home schooled him.
“Watch i-, oh hey Dr. Shammal! Do you know how to get to the arena? Man I’m lost!”
“Are you retarded? It’s right there!” Shammal said as he pointed to the light at the end of the hall, then looked down at his paperwork. “Why are you going to the arena anyway?”
“Come on Dr. Shammal! I’m here to try out my luck into getti-”
“NO! Why are you here?! I can’t protect you if you do!” Shammal yelled as he grabbed his arm and yanked him to move out.
“What are you doing? Let. Go. Of. Me. Please don’t. Make me. leave.” Merlin said as he tried not to laugh as hard as he could, letting out little snickers between his words. He was leaning on the wall with tears forming in his eyes from restraining himself from laughing. Shammal turned around and saw Merlin falling to the floor laughing, then looked at his hand, Shammal was holding a fake arm that was pulled off of Merlin.
“Merlin, fine I give up. But make sure you don’t do anything reckless,” Shammal said as his veins around his head appeared.
Shammal is only only trying to do what he thinks is best for Merlin, since no one knows Merlin better than he does, other than Alan and Arthur, of course. At the same time, Shammal understands how much Merlin loves magic, and cannot stop him from trying to get into the number one prestigious university of magic.
“Don’t worry Dr. Shammal! You think anyone can stop the mighty Merlin?!”
“Some of the students will do a fancy magic show to help them get accepted. It’s not the issue, do not do it! Don’t waste your-”
“Don’t worry Dr!” Merlin cut him off as he walked toward the arena entrance. He raised his hand to the sky and clutched his hand. Trying to keep his excitement in check, he tripped over his own leg and fell face first onto the floor. He always had a very slow reaction time.
“Damn I ruined my cool walk away moment!” he said as he rubbed his nose and stretched his face.
“Idiot, I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into,” chuckled Shammal as he walked toward the audience seating.
Merlin kept walking toward the light coming in from the arena. The closer he got to the entrance, the chanting and the voices from the audience was growing louder. He reached the end of the hall, the brightness caused Merlin to cover his eyes with his arm, he couldn’t make out what most of the people were chanting, but that is because they were not in sync with each other, so it came out as mumbled jargon. But he just stood there, motionless. Breathing slowly, trying to shove his nervousness deep down, not to mention the anticipation that is about to burst.
“Calm down Merlin, if you screw up, Arthur’s never going to live this down.”
He pushed himself out of the entrance. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light while he listened to the people screaming and laughing. The chanting stopped and as he looked around, he noticed everyone looking at him. As soon as realized he didn’t know where to go next, he was paralyzed and couldn’t move. He began to levitate and was pulled back into the potential candidates’ waiting area.
“Why isn’t there any guards at the entrance?!” Said a man as he was twirling his finger around. He clearly was the one flinging Merlin around.
“Ah man! Brush up your landing!” blurted Merlin as he was rubbing his ass.
“Where are your papers for partaking the exam?” said the man hurriedly.
Merlin just stood there eyeing the guy. Quick flash back. In Merlin’s room, hanging on his wall next to his oil lamp. There are his paper work with a note with ‘Do not forget this!’ A violent twitch in his eye as he was recalling the flash back.
Suddenly burst out, “OH SHITTTTTT!!! MY PAPERS!!! OH NOOOO!!!”
“It’s fine! It’s fine! My name is Tsuna Alborn. Im the vice principal her-”
He stopped midsentence after he noticed Merlin was not paying attention to a single word he was saying, to make it worse he was rolling on the floor yelling and suddenly going into the fetal position.
“Arthur is going to laugh at me until the day he dies! I hope he gets stomped on by the zebra! Then he can’t laugh at me!”
“Zebra?” asked Tsuna as he looked at the other contestants with confusion. “Enough!”
Merlin looked up with his dead pale face and saw all the contestants laughing and giggling at him. He saw this particular girl that was smiling at him. Her smile was brighter than the sun and her eyes were as beautiful as the moon. Shiny too, which is the reason he noticed her in the first place, since Merlin has a short attention span and loves shiny things. The moment he was going to smile back at her, Tsuna interrupted.
“What is your name?”
“Merlin, sir.”
“Family?”
“Abuhasna.”
“Abuhasna? I can’t say I have heard that family line before.”
“That’s because we’re a league of assassins, we have to stay hidden.”
“Oh, really?” Tsuna said in a tone that showed he was uninterested.
“No, I’m lying.” Merlin looked back at the girl as he said it.
“Ah! Here you are, Merlin Abuhasna,” said Tsuna as he ticked off Merlin’s name then continued to look at the rest of the names. “I believe everyone else is present. Now I’ll be explaining everything that will take place. But before that I would like you all to know how lucky you all are that prince Charles Julio will be participating in this year’s exam. I see some shameless girls already swarming him.”
There he sat, Prince Charles Julio, sitting quietly smiling as over a dozen girls are trying to get his attention. He did not seem like prince though, probably because he was not looking down on people. In fact, he was trying to fit in by wearing normal middle class clothes.
“So you’re a prince, huh?” asked merlin as he suddenly popped up in front of the prince, pushing off the girl off the seat next to him and putting his foot on it and observing every inch of the prince’s body head to toe to his back, causing the prince to spin around from Merlin’s pulling and shoving to get a better look.
“HUH?! MERLIN! What are you doing?!” shrieked Tsuna, the same moment Prince Charles’s guards rose up to attack.
“Now now,” said Charles lightly as he was laughing. Ushering his guards to sit down. “He’s a funny one, I like you. Merlin was it?”
“Ya, I’m surprised you haven’t heard of me! I’m the greatest magician in the world.”
“The greatest? That’s intresting. I guess we’ll see your skills in the exam.”
“Merlin! Back to your seat!” yelled Tsuna in frustration.
“Ya, we will.” Merlin said as he walked away trying to screw up his cool walk away without falling this time.
After Merlin got back to his seat, the vice principal started to speak again. Everyone was listening to the vice principal with all their attention. They had too, they didn’t know anything other than the fact that they were going to take a test soon, but didn’t know what it was. Except for Merlin of course. He was too busy looking for that pretty girl that gave him a few seconds of attention.
“As you all probably know, each year’s entrance exam is different.” Tsuna beckoned for someone far away to come. “This year we hired General Francis Joshua to take over the test process, since there are by far more contestants than usual. Please General, take it over when you’re ready.”
General Francis got closer to the middle, taking Tsuna’s place. “It’s an honor being in your presence my lord,” he said as he kneeled to Prince Charles.
“Please, I am nothing but a student today,” the Prince said as he signaled the General to get up.
“Thank you, your grace,” General Francis said as he got up and began pacing around the room to try figure out how to begin his poorly planned speech. “I am not in charge of the examination process, I am in charge of eliminating as many contestants as I can.”
Everyone’s faces began to fluster and worry, they were all waiting for some good news, but to their disappointment, there was none. The room became loud full of complaints and a few cried. The room grew quiet after they all realized that he will not speak until the room becomes quiet enough.
“You each will receive a gun, but instead of bullets, you will be using a paint bullet.” He took out a paint bullet out of his pocket and continued, “As you can see here, it is a rubber bullet filled with paint. Everybody that is not yourself, will be your target. It’ll hurt, but it will not cause you any harm, unless you get shot in the mouth and somehow swallow the paint. Even then you will have to swallow a lot of bullets for it to be harmful.”
The General called in a couple of soldiers that levitated a few dozen guns in front of them. “This is how we train every day in the army. Good luck kids, because it’s not fun,” said one of the soldiers walking in.
General Francis picked up his own gun and loaded it with the bullet he was showing to the class before, cocked it and shot the ceiling. Everyone was startled, and to Merlin who was not paying no interest in the least was now on the floor with his heart about to burst out of his chest. If you focused enough, you would see weak smoke coming out of the gun. But that was not what everyone was looking at, they were staring at the ceiling, at that little crack that was caused by the bullet.
“Are you saying were going to get shot by that?!” said one of the contestants, “we’ll die!”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, waitwaitwaitwait, did you say were going to get shot at?!” Merlin yelled in confusion at the General, waiting for a response.
“If you do not like it, leave,” said General Francis calmly, “last thing before we begin, all form of magic is allowed, but if you participate in this match, the only way to pass is to not get shot a single time. If you get shot, then you will be disqualified and will never be able to attend this university ever. So, before we begin, if you know you will lose and would rather train this year and wait for an easier entrance exam, now is the time to leave.”
No one moved an inch, the information they just received still did not sink into their brains yet, they could not believe what he just said. They all questioned themselves whether he was joking or not, it did not seem like he was. Almost everyone was terrified with the dilemma they had to choose between, another year of waiting or never attending at all if they lose.
“I do not believe everyone understood me, you will never attend this university if you get shot by a single bullet.” Said the General as he was getting the guns ready for distribution.
There was a sense of fear in the air, even though no one said anything until suddenly Merlin could hear a number of people telling their friends and themselves that they cannot do it. More than half the class had got up and left. Merlin was looking down at the floor, trying to calm himself down. Not a single shot is not something he could do, but he was going to try anyway. There are a lot of universities out there.
“Oh look at what we have here, Moron Merlin here to take the test! Oh, I’m going to have fun today!” said someone that rested his head on Merlin’s shoulder. “That was some ballsy move you did with the Prince.”
Merlin recognized his voice, he got up quickly and turned around, “Xanxus! Why the hell did you follow me here?! Quick Charles! He’s after your money! Run!”
Xanxus held onto Merlin’s collar as he tried to run away, Xanxus levitated him up and kept running in midair, not moving an inch. As Merlin stopped his effortless escape to gasp for some air, Xanxus brought him back down to the ground. “You really are a moron Merlin, I’m here to take the exam too.”
“You’re not going to leave with the rest of the crowd?” asked Merlin, trying to regain his posture and pride.
“If I leave, who is going to shoot you to the ground?” Xanxus said as he clenched Merlin’s shoulder tight enough to force Merlin to grab Xanxus’s shoulder and try to beat his death grip.
“Does anyone else want to leave?” asked the General.
“I actually wanted to leave, but my shoe laces were tied to the chair, so I couldn’t leave. I think it’s a sign from God so I’ll stay,” said one of the contestants regaining hope.
Merlin tried to hold in his laughter since it was him that tied the guy’s shoelaces to his chair.
“That’s good, the number of the contestants went down from close to one hundred to twelve,” said the General, “did the squad finish setting up the landscape?”
“Yes, they finished a couple of minutes ago, sir!” replied one of his soldiers.
“Okay, it is finally time to begin! The terrain is going to be a mix of regions. Pick up a gun and as much ammo as you can carry and go. As soon as you set foot into the arena, you will become a target. Good luck.” exclaimed the general as he opened the door.
“I’m going out first,” yelled out Xanxus as he dodged and pushed his way through the crowd, he grabbed his gun and disappeared into the jungle terrain.
“It is crucial to enter the arena before everyone else, so if no one minds, I will be going next,” said Prince Charles as he slowly but confidently walked in.
The next that went in was a girl that had a weird aura around her, it did not seem like anybody else noticed it other than Merlin himself, so he did not give it another thought. After her was the cute girl that smiled at him, but she did not look at Merlin before she left like he hoped for. She seemed familiar, but he could not remember for the life of him where he came across her, the fish market? Or the bank he would go too to steal their candy they put out for customers?
Before he knew it, Merlin was the last one left. He grabbed his gun, and ran in a zigzag line into the terrain with some roll overs here and there, thinking that it would help him dodge the bullets that were being fired already, but to the people that sat in the audience, he looked like a total idiot that had a rat in his pants.
He rested behind a tree gasping for air trying to figure out where everyone is and how the hell he was going to shoot everyone that is protecting themselves with magic. He thought of a plan that any elementary student would have, to stay hidden until someone passes by, then blast them away. Snickering at his thought to be genius plan, he climbed up the tree and just hid there.
As he was looking out through the leaves as slow as he could, as to not attract attention to himself, he noticed Xanxus flying around in the sky just shooting aimlessly all over laughing even louder than the sound that came out of his gun when he shot.
“That is one crazy psychopath,” whispered Merlin as he stopped himself from shooting him, I could lose my hidden edge if I shoot him and miss.
“What happened?” he thought, “everything went pitch black.” There was an agonizing pain right between his eyes. He was shot. Merlin rubbed his forehead to relieve the pain and looked at his hand as he was regaining vision.
“Blood?” said Merlin, “No, paint.”
Then quickly realized that the person shot him might still be close by, he sprung out of the tree, slid a small distance from his hiding point and looked around. He knew it was not Xanxus since he was shot on his forehead, and he had the back of his head facing Xanxus. He saw the shooter, they had their gun pointed at right at him.
It was her, the girl that smiled at him back in that room. She was beautiful. Too beautiful. Her hair came up to her shoulders and her eyes were a weird shade of green, this time she was not smiling though, shame he thought. For some odd reason, she had a face of someone that regretted shooting him, or worry, he could not tell.
“Are you stupid?” She began.
“Are you?” was Merlin’s best comeback.
“Why would you hide when everyone can use heat sensing vision to find each other?”
“Huh? Heat sensing eyes?” he displayed a really confused look, “I might not know anything about that, but don’t think you won either!”
He shot her, but she jumped out of the way and dodged the bullet. While she was in midair, she was surprised to see the grin forming on Merlin’s face, she noticed it too late. She landed into a trap planted there by Merlin before and it swung here upside down. He used the time she was still in the state of panic and shot a nearby tree, causing the paint to splash onto her.
She waved her hand at the vine causing it to cut and slowly brought herself down, he assumed she was using wind magic, because it got really windy all of a sudden.
“Why didn’t you shoot me?” she said as she regained her posture.
He looked at her waiting and hoping the wind blew up her shirt to show some skin, “even though these guns aren’t as strong as the one Francis used inside that room, it still hurts like hell! I’m not going to be the reason a girl feels any pain.”
The moment he said that, the ground began to tremble. “An earthquake?! Run!” screamed out Merlin as he ran face first into a tree. He sat there on the ground, rubbing his face and watched the trees get sucked back into the ground, as if they were rewinding the growth process of nature. It was something he never saw before, he was amazed, yet the girl that was laughing at him finding it so amusing, seemed like she has seen this so many times that it did not affect her any more.
“That’s cute” she said as she poked him. Before he could tell her to shut up, she cut him off and said “here let me take this off.” She tried removing the paint that was all over his face with her magic, but it would not disappear.
“Damn, it must be prone to magic,” she said as she effortlessly kept trying.
“Move, let me try,” he said as he reached out for some leaves and dunk them into a small puddle near them before it shrunk so small that it eventually vanished. He got onto his knees right in front of her and grabbed her hand then began to rub off the paint. She blushed at how gentle and confident he was, not many people would be able to take the paint off given the circumstance.
“What about the paint on your face?” reminding him of the shot he received not too long ago.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll take it off later,” said Merlin, “my name’s Merlin”.
“Everyone knows your name after the stunt you pulled back in the room with the prince, you’ve got balls. My name’s Rose.”
Merlin stopped wiping, he was struck in awe. “She said balls didn’t she?! Oh my God! Is it finally time to become a man?” he thought. “She doesn’t mean to do it here, in front of all these people, does she?! She’s certainly brave.”
“Umm, I think we should wait till after the exam,” he said looking down pressing his index fingers together and kicking the dirt.
When he looked back up, it became the last thing from his mind, this is the longest conversation he ever had with a girl, an attractive one for that matter. And also the surrounding is breaking all the laws of nature and shrinking their way to nothingness, this is not something people see every day. What surprised him even more was that the girl seemed like she was used to the scenery, but what does he know? She is obviously more accustomed to magic than he is.
After all the green disappeared, the color changed to a deep tone of beige. It was sand emerging from under their feet. The once was jungle changed into a desert. There were no places to hide from the others. It was probably a statement from the judges to hurry up and get shot. At least that is what Merlin thought. But anyone that has an attention span longer than a rock would know it was to test their defensive spells.
There everyone was, all defenseless for a split second. But that split second felt like an eternity for Merlin. Some were closer to each other than the rest. A moment’s glance was all they needed to realize the dire situation they were in.
Rose was the first person to react, she quickly cast a spell that formed a shelter of sand around her and Merlin. Everyone else quickly retreated to a safe distance and each had their own magical barrier protecting them. All except for Xanxus, who was still in mid-air shooting at everyone.
Bullets began to fly everywhere, Merlin could hear the sound of the bullets hitting against the sand shield. He noticed Rose was beginning to sweat. The barrier began to crumble slowly. It was hard forming a shield for that long, especially if it was big enough to protect two people.
Merlin busted out of the shield and ran for it, he did not know where he was going, but he could not stay and cause Rose to get shot too because of him. All the contestants watched him as he ran aimlessly into the middle, stop and began to shoot at everyone. Bullets hit him on his knee, face, hands, chest and back. He was covered with paint, he wiped off the paint that got into his eyes and continued to shoot at anything that moved.
It was a fruitless effort. No one was getting hit due to them shielding themselves, but they were all able to shoot back at him and unlike Merlin, they hit their target.
General Francis, watching from the sides, leaned in to the Praevalidus and whispered, “we have a moron in this year’s exam.”
“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid action, it’s always from the noblest of causes,” the Praevalidus chuckled back to the General while running his fingers down his beard.
The Praevalidus signaled to a man in a black uniform, in turn signaled to the other men standing around the arena to change the playing field. They all pressed their hands against the floor and in the middle of the field, right in between Merlin’s legs, came forth a little leak, which kept growing forming into a fountain and into a spring.
The sand began to sink while the water rising. There was one part of land that seemed like it was rising above the water. They all tried flying towards it, but the water had an anti-magic spell casted on it, just like the paint.
Prince Charles, Rose and the girl with the scary aura figured it out quickest and made a run for the land. The rest saw the three running and decided to follow in pursuit of land, all except for Merlin and a petite girl with golden hair.
Merlin stared at her and wondered why she was not running to safety. The water raised to their necks at this point. The girl began to slap the water as fast as she could, she could barely swim. Everyone was staring at her now, from the contestants to the audience. It was an unspoken cease fire agreement.
Xanxus did not agree with it, but did not want to look like an ass by shooting everyone with their guard down. The rest of them did not know what to do, help out the enemy? It seemed a bit much.
The men in black all looked at the Praevalidus waiting for instructions from him whether to help the girl or lower the water levels. He raised his hand to signal not to do anything yet, but to be ready.
All of a sudden Merlin began to swim towards her as fast as he could, he did not care about her being a temporary enemy or about the exam. He was already shot, repeatedly in fact. He grabbed her by the waist and swam in the direction of the small island on the other side of the arena.
Everyone stared in awe at Merlin as he carried girl, nearing the land, they respected his actions to a point that they all stood up and began clapping for him. Merlin crawled up the sand dragging the girl behind him, soaking wet.
He looked around while he crawled and wondered why everyone was applauding, did something happen while he was swimming? He did not know, but the Prince knew. Prince Charles cut in between Merlin and the girl, raised his hand, and placed it on her chest. A little spark ignited on his hand and the light grew stronger, at the same time he pushed down on her chest causing the water inside her to come out.
Her eyes opened the same time the water gushed out, after coughing violently, she saw the Prince holding her in his arms, she looked around the arena, all the audience were standing and applauding. They were chanting, “Prince Charles”, “Prince Charles”.
She froze and quickly looked back at the man holding her in his arms. Her face turned into a bright red color that you could say resembles a tomato, and she breaks out of his arms rolls over to a safe enough distance and begins to stutter, “The P- P- P- P- P- Prince Ch- Ch- Ch- Charles was holding me?!”
The Praevalidus signaled for the exam to be over. The men nodded their heads, looked at each other, and then placed their hands on the ground in one unified movement. The ground began to shake and the water grew violent, but eventually it began to sink.
“Are you okay?” Merlin asked the girl, holding out his hand, waiting for her to grab on.
“Yeah thanks, by the way, my name is Guinevere,” she said after she grabbed ahold of his hand and was pulled up.
“Merlin,” before Merlin could say anything else, a loud horn went off, signaling to everyone that the exam was over.
Four people were shot during the exam, out of twelve. Three guys and one girl. Everyone could see the paint on them since it was so visible. They were all shot once, except for Merlin, who was shot over fifty-six times. The horn was still blowing in the background while the four failures were looking at each other.
They all looked devastated, except for Merlin who was laughing at his painted ass and almost crying from the pain. The girl looked around the audience trying to search for the General or anyone else in charge who might come by and expel her from ever trying to get in. She could not find the people she was looking for. She slowly began to levitate on top of the sinking sand, just enough so that no one would notice. And after a couple of seconds of mental preparation she darted to the exit as fast as she could.
After she made it clear outside of the arena, the two guys followed as fast as they could, using the commotion of the girl’s escape to their advantage. Merlin stopped trying to rub the paint off of himself when he looked at the two guys escaping and felt upset they did not include him in their plan.
The arena returned into its original state, except for a stand that appeared in the middle where the Praevalidus walked toward and stood behind. He raised his hands and made a downward motion to silence the audience.
“The Preleburation exam is now over!” he said in his old cracked voice, “for all of you who do not know me, my name is Dae Bundelwod, some people call me by Praevalidus, but Professor Bundelwod would be sufficient. I am the headmaster of Voumince, school of wizardry, but enough of the introductions, please all of you, for a line in front of the stand so I can begin the inspection.”
The remaining contestants walked toward him and made an irregular line in front of the stand. Merlin was panicking because he was not shot once or twice, but over fifty times. He was trying to discreetly cover himself. He placed a hand over his chest and the other covering his crotch. It was not, by any means, effective, but Merlin thought it was.
“Good enough,” Professor Bundelwod said as he walked toward the first contestant, onto the next and then to the third. He walked passed them all nodding his head in approval, then he came across the last contestant, Merlin.
They both made eye contact and kept staring at each other awkwardly. Orange lines were running down his face from all of his sweating. Right before the Praevalidus turned around and walked back to his stand, he whispered to Merlin, “this is going to be a good year”.
“You all pass!” he yelled out excitedly.
The crowd roared and cheered from their stands, and so did the contestants, except for three of them, the weird aura girl in the hoodie cloak, the prince and Merlin. The girl stood motionless while everyone around her danced and laughed, the prince just stood smiling and acted all high and mighty. Merlin stood their confused, looking around and pointing at himself, now embracing the paint on his body.
“Now I will judge their magical essence and the number of spells left. Then determine which level to put them in,” explained Professor Bundelwod, he pulled out a piece of paper with the names of the contestants. The names of the three escapees had been already scratched off.
“Please Grimmjov to the stage, oh silly me, we didn’t put the stage yet.” He pointed at an area in the arena, and a couple of weeds grew out of the earth and grew quickly intertwining with each other forming a mini stage.
“Go ahead Mr. Grimmjov,” he gestured with his hands.
As Grimmjov was walking toward the stage, the professor thought it would be a good time to explain to the people that are not so accustomed to magic, it could range from little kids that do not know anything about the world yet or maybe a man that lived under a rock all his life.
“As you all probably know, the number of spells it says that we can cast is our lifeline. If we reach zero, we will, let’s say, disappear.” He paused for a bit to look around, then continued, “unfortunately in today’s world the higher your number, the higher you are in the society’s social status.”
“It went from over a hundred contestants, to twelve, to nine brave young ones. Everyone was going to pass from the beginning, we just didn’t want the cowards included. Because entering this life means that you will face great adversary and trouble, only the brave will come out unscathed,” he said ending the speech looking at Merlin.
“Oh good, you’re ready,” continued Professor Bundelwod, he beckoned to someone in the back to come, he came instantly carrying a round device. The man put it around Grimmjov’s arm and walked away. The Praevalidus snapped his fingers and the machine came to life. A number appeared on top Grimmjov’s head, but it was not big enough for everyone to see.
“It must be getting old like me, hit it a few times if you don’t mind,” said the professor, watching Grimmjov swatting the device a couple of times, when suddenly the numbers on top of his head grew to a big enough size. The professor put on a pair of glasses before he looked up.
“112,183 number of spells, not bad,” he said as he looked down into his heart. The glasses helped see the magical essence of a person, the strength of the essence, determines how strong the spells are. The magical essence was engulfed around his heart, forming a never ending spinning sphere.
“Yellow! Congratulations on getting into the second level of the school,” he shouted while Grimmjov flew off the stage ecstatic about not getting into Red, the third and lowest level. While in the air, Grimmjov used a spell to shoot out fireworks that was coming out of his hands. The fireworks weren’t all that big, but they were still flying all over the place, it was a beautiful show. The audience were all watching and applauding at the same time.
“Yes, yes, I know it’s a tradition for students to give a show after their acceptance, please refrain from hurting anyone,” the professor sighed worried about another lawsuit, he continued, “next up, Guinevere, please step to the stage.”
“Oh it says here you’re from the Maldivine family, well let’s see where you belong,” he said as he levitated the device from Grimmjov’s arm and placed it on hers all by moving a finger.
“345,930, impressive! You’re not from the Maldivine family for nothing I see, hmm, this is going to be a tough one,” he said after he checked her essence, it was strong and powerful, but very unstable, so he decided, “Yellow!”
“What? A Maldivine member in yellow?” people from the audience began to ask.
She was not as excited as Grimmjov, her father was going to get angry when he finds out what happened. But nonetheless, she raised her arms to give the audience a show, light began to emit from her hand, and then suddenly it exploded. She got used to the reaction, she was not too good with magic. It was the reason why she drowned, she thought she was the one that did not do the spell right.
“Alright next, Prince Charles!” the Praevalidus exclaimed after coughing from all the smoke, the prince went up to Guinevere, took off the device bracelet and placed it on his own arm, the number floated in the sky before he got to the stage.
“Oh thank you for that, now let’s see here, the prince. 420,012, very impressive! I’d say, blue!”
Everyone cheered and some girls were yelling out his name, he placed out his hand and started a mini hurricane that kept growing and growing. His escorts and body guards levitated roses to him that caught into the hurricane and began to circle around, turning it into a red and pink hurricane. Usually the hurricane could become much bigger, but because it was carrying roses inside of them, it grew heavier. The hurricane was double the size of a person, but it was still bigger than most people could do it.
The crowd watched in awe and finally when the prince dispersed the hurricane, all the roses fell to the ground and everyone stood up and the audience came to life. They were cheering and screaming his name.
“Yes, yes, that was beautiful, next up, Medusa,” the professor said as he was growing restless.
Merlin watched her walk up to the stage, while she walked she yanked the device off the prince and it flew directly onto her arm. He knows something is weird with her, but he cannot put his finger on it.
“343,882”
Medusa walked off the stage without doing any kind of show, not even cracking a smile.
“Awkwardddd,” whispered the professor, “next up Merlin!”
“Oh that’s my son!” Arthur told the guy next to him, who did not look impressed at all.
Merlin walked onto the stage, he looked at the professor and started nodding his head toward Medusa. He was too afraid to ask her for the device, she was on a whole different level of weird.
The professor laughed and levitated the device from her and onto his arm. The professor looked into his magical essence. It was remarkable. The magical essence engulfed his entire body like an inferno. But the number that appeared over his head shocked everyone, even the professor.
Everyone erupted with laughter in the stand. They all threw their trash at him while he stood motionless on the stage. They were screaming insults and jokes about him. Even Xanxus fell to the ground laughing.
Rose jumped onto the stage and covered them both with a shield of wind, to protect him from the trash, but he could still hear their taunting.
“Forget them!” she yelled to get her voice over the sound of the wind.
Merlin was angry. He spread his arms outward. The wind from the shield slowly traveled down spinning around him. His eyes became a neon blue and slowly he began to glow a neon blue too.
Two large wind dragons flew out of his arms and picking up all of the roses that were on the floor, while the dragons were flying all over the arena. They kept getting longer as their body would not end from his arms. The dragons were roaring and scaring the audience, he yanked his arms in causing the dragons on both sides of the arena to turn around and head toward each other. The moment they met they began to intertwine and fly up ward toward the protective shield.
The dragons were magnificent, they were red from all the roses that it picked up. They hit the shield and it kept trying to push through the shield. Sparks began to fly and eventually it broke through, scattering glass like pieces of the shield, disappearing before it hit the ground.
The dragons kept flying through the sky, past the clouds and dispersed. It was raining pink and red roses, it was more beautiful than anything any one has ever seen. But they were still scared of the amount of power this one kid has. It was unbelievable. Not even the Praevalidus has that much power!
Merlin fell back-first to the ground, he fainted. Everyone was silent. No one knew what to do or say in that situation. Arthur flew next to him from the stands, whistled and waited. Colonel came galloping through the arena’s entrance and stood near Merlin’s face and began to lick it. Arthur put Merlin on Colonel and sat himself down and turned around to exit.
He then remembered something, he turned around facing the professor and asked, “which level?”
“Red,” he replied.
The professor was not idly standing doing nothing after he fainted, he was still examining his magical essence. “Like I thought, this will be a good year,” he thought to himself.
“Was that a zebra?” the professor asked what was on everyone’s mind.