The participants were very confused. From their distance, they felt nothing special. Why did the protection disciples act this weirdly as soon as they started closing in on Gravis? They really were not sure. The area around Gravis looked like any other.
"Before we begin, please state your name one at a time," shouted the Guild Master of Lightning. The participants quickly started listing off names, and every Guild Master noted some of them down in a book.
The Guild Masters of Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, and Darkness noted down 20 names each. One took the first 20, another the next 20, and so on. In the first wave, they had decided to let 100 participants attempt the exam due to the limited space around Gravis. Also, it was easier to keep track of them if there weren’t too many at once. "Alright, you can start now."
The first people started closing in, and for no particular reason, the participants started feeling nervous. As they came closer, their fear intensified, and they started feeling like they were walking to their deaths. It took all of their will and courage to continue.
The first people already stopped at the 25-meter mark. They were too afraid to continue. When the Guild Masters saw them, they frowned. Why would people with such weak wills even participate in the entrance exams? The will to move forward was the most important thing. If someone were not ready to put their life on the line, then how could they ever reach even a satisfactory height?
The youngsters who had stopped looked like their fear had paralyzed them. They were unable to even move their bodies. This showed their inexperience. If any of them acted like this in an actual fight, they would die immediately. Stiffening up out of fear was the worst thing anyone could do in a fight.
Only 30 of the 100 participants reached the 20-meter-mark, and they looked like they were nearly dying from fear. In the end, only two people managed to reach the 15-meter mark, and no one reached 14 meters. Now, every participant was staying still, breathing heavily.
Many of the participants thought the protection disciples had put up an act earlier. They saw nothing happening around Gravis, yet, also, their fellow participants couldn’t reach Gravis. They didn’t know what was happening to the participants, who currently were inside of Gravis’ Will-Aura, but they slowly grew nervous and serious.
In the next five minutes, some participants managed to gain some additional meters. Now, there were five people at the 15-meter mark, and the first two had reached the 14- and 13-meter mark, respectively.
"Time’s up," shouted the Guild Master of Wind, and Gravis retrieved his Will-Aura. How could the participants, frozen in fear, move, when Gravis kept releasing his Will-Aura? Every participant took a deep breath, shot one last fearful look at Gravis, and left.
"Everyone who just participated, move over to this side of the arena and stay together," ordered the Guild Master of Fire while pointing at a corner of the arena.
The Guild Masters listed off some names to the Guild Master of Light, and he scribbled the results down. His book only recorded the winners, and they were not many. Of course, the Guild Masters didn’t publicly announce the winners, so the others wouldn’t know the criteria for winning.
"Alright, next," ordered the Guild Master of Fire. The next participants stepped forward and announced their names. The same thing repeated, and they started closing in on Gravis.
This time, only two people reached the 15-meter mark, and no one came further. The others tried their best to get as far as possible in those five minutes. A lot of time passed like this, and evening was slowly approaching.
While the test itself only took five minutes, the announcing and jotting down of the names took another five. Only one group of Participants could be judged every ten minutes.
When the last group of participants was finished, over eight hours had already passed, and the sun was slowly setting on the horizon. The best participant had reached a distance of five meters from Gravis, while the worst one only managed 25.
"I will now read out the names of the people who qualified," announced the Guild Maser of Light and started listing them off. The named participants felt shocked and ecstatic. Some of them also felt confused, because they didn’t manage to get very far in the test.
After roughly 250 names were read, the Guild Master of Light stopped, and the faces of the remaining participants started whitening. Did the Elemental Guilds actually disqualify 95% of the participants in the first round? This was insane!
"I think you’ve made an error," shouted one participant from the losers-bracket. "I was in front of that guy," he shouted as he pointed at one of the winners. "How can he win when he was behind me?" he complained.
"Actually," said the Guild Master of Wind as she jumped down from her ’bench’ and landed gracefully on the floor. The Guild Master of Earth released a deep breath and slumped on the bench, drawing complaints from the other Guild Masters who’ve got squished by him.
"Our criteria were two-fold," she said as she walked closer to the participant, who shouted earlier. "You would pass by fulfilling any of those two criteria. First," she held up one finger. "You reach the 15-meter mark."
The participants were shocked. Reaching the 15-meter mark was insanely difficult. On average, only one or two people managed that, in each batch. No wonder there were so few people passing.
"The other criteria," the Guild Master of Wind said while lifting another finger. "Is advancing another five meters after you have initially stopped," she explained with patience, as she walked closer.
"That’s bullshit! If I would’ve known that, I would have tried harder!" shouted another youngster.
"Yeah, why didn’t you tell us?" shouted another one.
Being encouraged by each other, the losers started complaining louder. The Guild Masters on top of the bench furrowed their brows. This situation could get out of hand quickly.
"I hope Wendy doesn’t kill anyone," said the Guild Master of Light, and the others nodded.
The Guild Master of Wind didn’t seem to mind and came closer. A chorus had been created, continually shouting, "Let us in!"
The Guild Master of Wind stopped walking, and her kind smile transformed into a sneer. "Let you in?" she asked. "Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your heads in!" she shouted as a storm picked up in the surroundings.
A colossal tornado appeared, and before the participants could even react, they all started flying. The tornado was absolutely ferocious, and the 4750 People in the air slammed into each other constantly. The people spat blood and screams of pain replaced the earlier chorus of "let us in".
The Guild Master of Wind lifted her right arm, and the tornado transformed into a single wave of wind that carried all people. Without a comment, the wind-wave circulated once around the arena and then shot off into the distance with all the participants in the losers’ bracket.
Gravis heard the screams growing distant, and decided that he should be friendlier with the Guild Masters. They were Energy Gathering experts, after all.
The Guild Master of Wind looked into the distance, where she had thrown the participants to, and sneered.
"This should take the wind out of your sails."