"First."
A girl with twin daggers at her belt stepped forward.
She walked slowly, her body tense.
One step.
Two.
Three...
By the eighth step, her legs trembled.
At ten, she dropped to her knees.
"Tsk," the examiner waved. "Out."
She gritted her teeth, stood, and limped back without a word.
"Next."
A boy with a staff came forward. He had a calm look, but by the twelfth step, his face had gone pale. He managed fourteen before he stumbled and fell.
Another failure.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
This one gritted his teeth, face red, veins bulging at his neck as he pushed forward.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
He reached the seventeenth step, and then he staggered. A choked sound escaped his throat as he collapsed to his knees, coughing violently. Blood splattered across the stone floor.
"Disqualified," the examiner said flatly, not even sparing a second glance. One of the guild staff dragged the fallen boy off to the side.
No one laughed now.
