Chapter 2

Trials and Plots

“Hello, new soldiers,” barked a tall muscular man, “As possible recruits for the governor’s own personal guard, all of you will have to endure many tests of strength, endurance, speed… well, basically everything. However, those of you who pass will be rewarded more prestige and gold than anyone in this city.”

In front of the man stood a crowd of more than three hundred applicants, one of whom was Taeyeon.

“Your first test will be an obstacle course. No additional weapons or aids will be allowed, so it will only be a test of physical strength. Godspeed, men and women,” continue the man. As he finished speaking, a pit opened up behind him. From Taeyeon’s vantage point, the obstacle course looked like a gigantic labyrinth.

“Normally, this pit is used in defense of the city to trap and stall invaders. However, Qwas hasn’t been invaded in over a century, so we use this pit instead to test recruits. Beware- there are many traps designed to kill and maim. I know many of you will not make it out alive, as such, any of you who want to leave now may do so.”

Taeyeon scoffed as over half of the people backed out.

Why would you apply if you weren’t committed…

“Now,” boomed the muscular man, “Begin! The time limit is one hour. If you wish to kill each other, well, we’ll turn a blind eye. It will help us determine who is truly strong.”

A wave of eager recruits rushed forward into the pit. Taeyeon, however, knew better than that. She could only watch and shake her head as dozens were impaled as arrows rained down from the walls.

Cautiously, she made her way forward. She took note of the remaining applicants who had followed the same thought process she did, waiting to see what would happen. Out of the 150 people who had been left, there were surprisingly only 3 others who had proceeded with caution like her.

One had flaming red hair, but was extremely short in stature. Another had strange-looking light blue, almost gray hair, with steely gray eyes as well.

The last one had raven black hair, and wore black combat boots.  The touch of red lipstick on her lips enhanced the chilling sensation that Taeyeon felt emanating from this one. As their gazes met, the woman smirked, and flipped her hair. As if taunting Taeyeon, the woman advanced forward into the labyrinth.

Taeyeon inched into the maze cautiously. She made sure to listen carefully. Her almost- supernatural hearing alerted her to movements of both other recruits and of dangerous y traps. Thus, she was able to avoid most of the arrows and stones that shot out from the walls. As she rounded a corner, she bumped into the woman from before.

“Hello there,” said the woman, “We meet again.”

“I’m positive that we have never met,” replied Taeyeon, eyes darting towards possible escape routes.

“No, I’m positive that we have met. Maybe even quite recently,” said the woman.

“If we met, then I would recognize your face.”

“Maybe so,” said the woman, grinning. Then, she lunged forward, her fist outstretched.

Taeyeon shied away, grabbing the woman’s fist and using her forward momentum to lift the woman over her head and slam her down on the hard concrete of the floor.

“Impressive,” said the woman, brushing off her pants, looking as if she had taken no damage at all.

Taeyeon knew at that moment that the woman was not normal. Even if they had a similar level of strength, the woman had an eerie amount of endurance, almost as if she could heal any damage done to her instantaneously. So, she ran as fast as she could. Surviving was more important than saving the hurt to her pride that escaping inflicted. Behind, she could hear the woman’s footsteps pounding towards her.

As she ran, she hurtled to a stop before an intersection. Taeyeon knew that intersections were the most likely places for y traps, so she took off her jean jacket and threw it into the middle. As expected, the floor of the intersection fell, leaving a bottomless hole many meters wide in its place.

The sound of footsteps neared her. Even without looking back, Taeyeon could tell that the woman was soon going to be within a few meters of her.

Sighing, Taeyeon dug into her bra. Even though this was technically cheating, and could get her eliminated if any officers were watching, she had no choice, and thanked the gods that the presiding officers who had taken away her weapons had been too noble to check whether she had any equipment stashed in her chest area. She dug out a steel string-normally what she used in case the string on her daggers broke. However, she now tied the string around her forearm. Again out of her bra, Taeyeon took out a small dagger. She tied the other end of the string around the handle of the dagger, in a small notch that all of her daggers had.

Then, she launched the dagger over the pit, until it ended up deeply embedded into a thin vertical crack on the side of the opposite wall. Flinching at the pain of the steel string digging into the flesh of her arm, Taeyeon swung over the pit, leaving the woman standing breathless right in the spot where Taeyeon had just stood.

Turning around, Taeyeon winked at the flabbergasted woman, and yet again, took off.

“Congratulations,” boomed the tall muscular man. “You sixteen have made it to the end of the obstacle course. However, the governor’s guard need not be a posse of that many people. Thus, we will undergo further eliminations, in the form of a team battle. As the governor’s guard, you will be expected to be a cohesive unit. We have formed teams of four based on what we observed in the labyrinth.”

“The first team is Taeyeon, Tiffany, Ice, and Flare. Gather up.”

To her surprise, Taeyeon’s team ended up composed of herself, along with the other three she saw at the beginning of the labyrinth. Both Ice and Flare seemed to physically match their names; Ice had steel gray eyes and blue-gray hair, while Flare had bright red hair. Like Taeyeon, both of them erred on the short side.

Tiffany, though, was the one Taeyeon was truly wary of. This was the girl that had sparked a few seconds of genuine fear and chills when their gazes met at the start of the labyrinth. This was also the girl that had chased her through part of the maze- the girl who had seemed almost as if she were invincible. It was also a mystery to Taeyeon how Tiffany’s red lipstick could still be so perfect, even after the rigorous challenge that the labyrinth posed.

In Taeyeon’s eyes, this team battle round would be a challenge. How was she supposed to fight well with three people who she had just met, one of whom definitely had something against her?

“You four teams will fight each other all at once. The winning team will be appointed as the governor’s personal guard,” as he spoke, the burly officer’s gaze seemed to rest a second longer on Taeyeon’s team. “The fighter who impresses us the most will be appointed as captain of the guard. Since this is a ceremonial procedure, and since we wish to impress upon any threats our power, this battle will be held in the adjacent arena in one hour. I assure you, the stands will be filled with spectators who will spread word of the winning team’s prowess. In the hour’s time that you have, you guys will be free to do anything you wish. Your weapons will be returned as well. Dismissed.”

“So guysssss, what do you want to do?” chirped an overly-enthusiastic Flare.

“Uh…” muttered Ice, clearly looking uncomfortable at Flare’s arm around his shoulders.

“Oh, got it, we should warm up! Like run a few dozen miles, that kind of stuff!” continued Flare.

Tiffany sighed loudly, massaging her temples, looking extremely pissed off.

“Aw sweetie, you look so tired, get some rest. Taeyeon you should look after her! We can’t have a weakling fighting with us in the arena. I guess Ice and I will go and run a couple laps around the city.”

“Around the entire city?!” exclaimed Ice.

“Yeah! Come on, it’s not thaaaaaaat long,” said Flare as she dragged Ice away. Taeyeon could only laugh as Ice shot pitiful ‘help-me’ glances at Taeyeon, to no avail.

After Flare and Ice left, Taeyeon swore she could feel the temperature drop ten degrees.

Tiffany stood up, stretching, and Taeyeon mentally flinched.

“We should spar,” said Tiffany.

“Why?” said Taeyeon, “so you can try to kill me again, since you failed in the labyrinth?”

Tiffany laughed, her voice sounding melodious, like wind chimes. “I wasn’t necessarily trying to kill you… I was just testing you. After all, the officer did say that we can’t have weaklings guarding the governor.”

“Yeah right,” replied Taeyeon, “I’ve been an assassin for years. I can sense murderous intent easily, and boy was it emanating heavily from you.”

Though now, Taeyeon found it hard to believe that this same girl, a girl who actually seemed kind of sweet, was the girl who almost tried to kill her in the labyrinth.”

“I wasn’t, ok? Just trust me.”

And strangely, Taeyeon did.

Approximately fifty-five minutes later, when Taeyeon was just beginning to panic, Ice and Flare showed up at the arena. More precisely, Flare showed up practically lugging an exhausted Ice behind her.

“What happened?” questioned Tiffany.

“We *pant pant* ran around the city *pant pant* five times *pant pant*” replied Ice, his chest heaving up and down, and his forehead covered with a sheen of sweat.

Meanwhile, Flare looked perfectly fine, and exclaimed, “Yeah, it was super fun! I always love a good workout!”

“Are you like, superhuman or something?” asked Taeyeon, wondering how anyone could not be exhausted after running around the entire city five times in only fifty-five minutes. She herself could only manage to run around the city two times before collapsing in a puddle of sweat.

“Uh… no! I just trained a lot ever since I was a kid, and now things like this are easy peasy for me!” said Flare.

Just as Flare finished speaking, a loud voice boomed over the intercom, “Take your positions! The gates are open in two minutes!” Outside, Taeyeon could hear a loud crowd screaming and chanting.

“What do we do about this guy?” asked Tiffany, nudging a passed-out Ice with her toe.

“Don’t worry, I’ll carry him!” said Flare.

As she got into position before the door leading into the arena, Taeyeon double and triple checked all her equipment: twin knives, spare steel string, five extra throwing daggers tucked in her belt. Around her, she saw the other three doing the same. Since Ice was out cold, Taeyeon wasn’t sure exactly what his weapon was.

Flare had long plated gloves that extended up to her elbows. The knuckles of the glove were tipped with medium-length spikes, which made sense. Flare seemed to have a vast amount of strength- Taeyeon was sure that just one punch could knock even the best of fighters out.

Tiffany, on the other hand, wielded a single-edged sword in one hand. Her other arm was plated with heavy armor. Taeyeon guessed that Tiffany used the plated arm as a sort of shield. It was much more convenient and mobile than having to carry around an actual shield.

After a few moments, an announcer’s voice came through the intercoms, “The battle will begin in…

Five

Four

Three

Two

One!”

~

The man twirled in his spinning chair. Never before had he felt so exhilarated.

“The plan has been executed?” he asked his servant.

“Yes. Right now, the best assassins in the city are all slaughtering each other in the arena,” replied his faithful servant.

“Good. You are dismissed,” as the servant walked out, the man motioned towards his nearby assassin. The servant would not leave alive.

Before the assassin walked out, the man said, “Once you’re done disposing of that servant, inform our dear spy that his successful manipulation has earned him a handsome reward. The next one requires some extra planning, but I trust that our spy will see to it.”

~

AN

Hello! I haven't proofread this chapter yet, so sorry for any of those kind of errors! Also, don't be afraid or lazy to leave a commment, I don't bite ;)