At a vast clearing, trainees stood behind a redwood fence that bordered a red circle from all sides.
The circular sand arena was big enough for two adult humans to move and wrestle within, and a few meters away from it stood the fence.
At the moment, Rion was standing at the centre of the arena, listening to the cheers and boos of the energetic crowd.
Wahhh! Boo!
"You can do this!"
"Beat them up, little one!"
"You still smell of your mother’s milk!!"
"Did someone lose their kid?!"
"Don’t you dare smear the name of the Panther!!"
He didn’t know how to react to the continuous remakes and decided to just ignore them.
A soft voice echoed within the arena, "Everyone, may I have your attention?"
Marin said as he stepped inside the arena, his words that sounded like a request were a command disguised as one.
He stood beside Rion with his usual kind and cheerful smile on his face.
He pointed his hand at him and announced loudly, "This son of Dhaevrak dares to grow fangs before leaving the milk, now..." he pointed at the crowd and continued, "Which of you dares to show him the weight of a fang?"
The crowd went silent, and all of them began to look at each other. None of them wanted to be the first — they didn’t want to bully a child.
A few minutes passed into this pondering silence until a youthful voice dwarfed it, "I will."
Everyone turned their heads in the direction of the voice and saw a raised hand, which was of a boy with a slightly chubby body.
"You want to be his first opponent, Hans?" Marin asked with a raised eyebrow.
He couldn’t believe that Hans, who was called the sloth, would be the first one to step up for Rion’s fang trial.
"I... do," Hans replied slowly.
Cheers erupted into the crowd.
Waahhh!
Followed by a few shouts.
"He moves!!"
"Go get him, Hans!"
"Get that prideful kid out of here, sloth!"
Hans walked into the arena, each step full of determination. He wasn’t just fighting to show this stupid kid his place, but he was also proving that he could change, that he was also a Dhaevrak just as they were.
"A brave man has stepped into the arena to start the trial," Marin announced and turned his head to the right and looked atop the cliff that flanked the clearing.
Six figures stood there, and Rion knew one of them — Haria.
Balthar, a tall, muscular man with his red hair styled in a single undercut Dutch braid, turned his head towards Haria and spoke with a hint of tease, "He must be very interesting... that you are here to check on him, Group Leader."
Before Haria could reply, the sound of stomping feet resounded through the cliff like the march of soldiers as the crowd began to drum the ground for the beginning of the trial.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"It’s going to be hard to recover from this," Haria mumbled.
Balthar nodded and replied, "He is just 8 years old, after all."
She looked at him with a tilted head and asked, "But isn’t Hans 11 years old?"
He looked at her with confusion and muttered, "Huh?"
"Let the trial begin!" Marin shouted.
Rion looked at Hans, who was a few inches taller than him, with cautious eyes.
He closed his eyes and when he opened them; they had turned piercing red from the usual ocean blue.
He focused on him, and small red and orange circles appeared all around Hans’s body. Seeing so many of them, he thought, ’So many weak points... I don’t even feel like counting them.’
Hans ran towards him and threw a punch to his abdomen, which Rion dodged with wide eyes.
His eyes turned back to blue, and he questioned inwardly, ’What’s going on?’ He couldn’t understand what was happening.
Hans stepped forward and threw more punches at him, but he dodged all of them and finally asked with a frown, "Why are you...So slow?"
Hans’s eyes trembled in bubbling anger and he shouted, "How dare you—"
But his shout was cut short as Rion threw an uppercut at one of his critical weak points — his chin.
Dhuk!
The upper cut landed perfectly and took the wind out of him.
All Hans saw before falling was Rion’s confused face. He remarked inwardly, ’That hurt...’
Thud!
Hans’ unconscious body fell face-first to the ground, and the crowd went silent. All of them stared at him with wide eyes.
The silence continued to stretch forward until a joyous voice cut through it like an arrow, "Rion!! Throw him out!!"
Rion turned towards the direction of the voice, and his gaze landed on a smiling Dora.
He gave her a nod and picked up Hans on his shoulder, shocking everyone even further. Hans was twice his size, after all.
He walked to the edge of the circle and placed Hans outside of it.
Just as he did so, a furious voice resounded within the crowd, "I will show you your place."
Rion turned towards the speaker, and his eyes fell on a bald boy with a slightly muscular body.
The crowd began to shout his name, "Ruka! Ruka! Ruka!"
Rion looked at him with his red eyes and was left disappointed, ’He is the same as the one before.’
Soon, both of them stood before each other, and Rion was ready to capitalise on his weak points as fast as he could.
Ruka stepped forward, threw a kick to his head, and Rion ducked.
Ruka twisted his leg, stomped at him, and Rion rolled to the side.
Ruka continued to throw attacks at him, and Rion continued to dodge them.
"Fight me instead of running away, you rat!!" Ruka shouted furiously.
However, Rion didn’t care... he wasn’t dodging because he couldn’t counter. No, he was doing it because, for the first time, he was able to read the incoming attacks.
He wasn’t able to see Haria’s attacks, and Hans was simply too slow for him to do what he was doing right now — he was learning.
"Fight him properly!!"
"Have some shame!!"
"Throw a kick in his balls!!"
"Why are you saying such things to a fking child!!"
The crowd began to throw boos and curses at him, but only nine figures were able to guess Rion’s actions.
The five squad leaders, Haria, Marin and lastly, Varok and Haden, who were watching all of it from the peak of Redwood Basin.