"You will fight me."
Everyone stands at the end of the obstacle course, still processing this remark. Officer Sharlach, who is standing in front of them, stays silent. It feels like the first person to make a sound would lose this battle. Erich uses the moment of silence to inspect the officer. The first thing he notices is, that he is extremely musculare. Even more so than he himself is. However his probably high age shows, since his hair is gray and his face full of wrinkles. His age or more accuratly experience shows in another way as well though. The mans body is riddled with scars. This simple truth gave him an air of strength, that no one seemed to want to mess with. Except one.
"Well, bring it on then!"
The person who first did the test, steps towards the man. This was the first time, Erich got to take a good look at the man. To his surprise the man is as, if not better build than the old officer. Although Sharlach is with all likelyhood not in his prime days anymore, that is still impressiv. It made his confidence -at least to a degree- understandable.
Silence returned once more. The short, blond hair of the selfconfident man sways in the wind. Imbued with the confidence of the man -probably carried over by the gentle breeze- Erich decides to step forth as well. The short haired person next to him notices this and says:
"Coming as well? I respect that. Greetings, I'm Rüdiger."
"What an odd situation to exchange names. I like it though. Hi, I'm Erich."
"Shouldn't you be preparing for the fight?"
This question was asked by the calm black haired guy. He also decides to join them. The other two in the back don't come closer. They do however take up fighting stances. The air around them is filled with tension. Everyone seems to instinctively see the old man as a threat. The man in question begins to talk:
" Now now, why are you so tense? I'm just an old soldier. To five younglings like you, I'm nothing."
He takes a short, ominous pause. Probably thinking about what to say next, his hand reaches for the sword in the sheeth on his waist.
"Plus, soon enough you will be fighting humavores, ten times stronger than me. Well that is, when I'm not using this."
And pulls the blade from its sheeth. The metal glistens in the orange light of the sunset. There is an ominous aura seeping from every pore of the sword. Was this real reasen they were instinctively tensing up around him. It is obvious to everyone, what that weapon is.
"It's a Bio Blade!"
The guy with the glasses points out the obvious. It looks, as if he couldn't hold his excitement, after seeing the blade. The man shuckles lightly at the sigth of the excitet, grown man. He continues his speach:
"That's right, it is a Bio Blade. The one thing allowing us humans, to rise to there level. To make thinks fare during our fight, I will be using this blade. It will be good training for, when you will have to fight the humavores!"
After that he raises his blade. Everyone understands this gesture. The battle is about to begin. For a moment he just stands there. He is focused on preparing for something. No one dares to get in his way. After a moment of silence, he signals the start of the fight:
"Release."
The ominous aura around the sword suddenly gets stronger, enveloping the entire area. A cold shiver runs down Erichs spine. Everyone else evidently feels the same. Mesmerized they look at the metal blade shifting and reshaping its form. It changes its tecture, elongates and becomes blunt around the edges. Before long the blade of the sword had turned into a long sort of lizard tail. Occasionally it spasmed on the ground. Truly an odd sight.
Abruptly with out any warning he whipped the tail in the direction of the men. Erich and the black haired guy dodged to the right, while Rüdiger and the other two jump to the left. All of them savely manage to avoide the attack. However the wooden structure behind them splintert into a thousand pieces by the force of the whip. The five can't help, but stand in place, taking in what just happened.
"Don't just stand there. Fight back."
Sharlach talked with a rumbling voice. As the recruits snap out of it, he restarted his attack. With just a light movement of his hand, the tail started uncontrollably thrashing in every direction. The glasses guy, who stands closest to the whip, does an unexpectetly good job at dodging all of the attacks, stepping from side to side. The two people next to him do less well, getting hit by quite a few of the slashes. Erich manages to barely get away from the attacks unharmed, using a long jump. The person that does the dodging the best, is the one with the black hair though. He not only majesticly dodges through the openings in the attacks, but also gets closer to Sharlach with every step.
While the others are busy dodging with moderate success, he gets in punshing range of the Officer. With determination in his eyes he pulls his arm back to punsh and punshes. Sadly he gets blocked by Sharlach, using the arm not holding the Bio blade. The Bio Blade-User then proceeds to grab his arm and hold him in place. Before he can even react to the grab, the whip retracts, becoming shorter and thicker. It no longer resambles a lizards- but instead a crocodiles tail. With a devistating crack Sharlach hits him in the side with the tail. He lets go and his victim lands a few meters to the right of him. He is laying on his side, not moving anymore.
Although he lost, this exchange opens up an opportiunity. Now that the whip was retracted, all four remainig participents start running towards their trainer. Of course the blade didn't stay retracted for long. Only shortly after they start running the whip is in full length again, flying in a horizontal line towards them. The glasses guy trys to slide underneath, however the blade, almost acting on its own, suddenly starts flying lower. The tall man, who sees this, jumps infront of him, blocking the whip with his back. Both of them fly atleast three meters, landing on the ground. The shirt, the tall guy was wearing, is torn open. A nasty, even though not deadly, wound streches across his back. Glasses got of with only a nosebleed and cracked lenses. The whip, now rapidly approaching Rüdiger, gets grabed by him mid air. To his surprise it starts rapping itself around him. Erich takes adventage of the chaos and slips through. While running, he notices the tail next to him, retracting in the same direction, he is running. When looking behind himself he sees the large man -Rüdiger- flying towards him. Just moments later he is flying in the same direction as well, only landing, when he has shot way past Sharlach.
The result: everyone except the old man is laying on the ground. Even worse: he hasn't moved a step the entier fight.
Rüdiger and the glasses, having taken the least damage, stand up, legs shaking. The tall man asks glasses a question:
"Do you know what to do? People with glasses are smart, right?"
"Well, I wouldn't call myself smart, but I do know a bit about Bio Blades. Looking at the blade, it's obvious, that it's the transformative typ. That typ usually has to turn extremly soft, when it changes rapidly. In other words we have to hit the blade, when it's transforming."
"Well then, tell that plan to the other two. I won't be of much help in this state."
With that conversation over, glasses starts running. Of course he got attacked by Sharlach's whip. He has to jump back and forth avoiding the scaled tail. However since he still doesn't move and glasses is proficient at dodging he managed to make it to the others.
After hearing the plan, Rüdiger says:
"Well then, lets start!"
Erich: "Wait, I think I am best for this plan."
"Why?"
"Because I am more agile than you and stronger than glasses."
Reluctantly Rüdiger agrees and glasses was just glad he didn't have to do it. With the most strength he could muster, Erich runs towards their enemy. The moment he does, Sharlach starts mercilessly swinging his whip at at Erich. He barely manages dodging his attacks multiple times. Finally he gets as close as the black haired guy before him. And when he once again retracts the whip, Erich punshes strate through it. A blue slimy substance scaters everywhere. It is undoutably Biomatter.
"So that was your plan."
Sharlach murmures. Erich simply smiles, before getting hit in the stomach with the handle of Sharlach's Bio Blade. He dropes to his knees, yet he doesn't stop smiling, because he knows he has won. Before the Officer can do anything, he gets punched on the cheek by black hair. Sharlach stumbles, but he doesn't fall. Looking in the eyes of his new pupiles, he shows he can still fight. And then ... he lets his blade fall to the ground.
"Man, if gotten rusty. You kept me on my toes the entier time!"
Glasses: "Is it over?"
"Sure is! You hit me. That was the point of the exam."
Everyone sighs, not even trying to say anything. Black hair sits down in exhaustion. The still hurting tall guy comes over.
"Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah, by the way I'm Erich."
Erich grabs the tall guys hand and pulls himself up. He can feel the excitment and adrenalin of victory coursing through his veins. It's a great feeling.
Sharlach explains: "Erich, Kurt -he looks at the glasses guy- , Frank -he looks at the tall guy- Rüdiger and Maik. Be proud, you are all officaly recruits now ... Oh, and be warned, this was only the beginning."