Max and his four-hundred classmates had made it to the Entrance Wall. The south end of the Taming Grounds where their story of awakening and bonding would begin.
They huddled in loose formation— anxiously waiting, as Professor Fennix explained the rules of engagement alongside his Firefalcon Flume.
His hair still steamed as if he didn't fall in flame minutes ago.
Max's ears still rang from the howls inside. He had to strain his senses to hear the professor's announcement.
"Alright, aspirants, it's simple. As Tamer's, it is our job to be entirely in tune with what's natural. Instinct, fight, flight, fleeing….. life and death. These aspects of nature cannot be manipulated by higher powers or bias. At least for as long as possible. We're throwing you into the wild. It's your job to survive…. to see what aspect of that very thing will embrace you. In doing so, many of you will leave this event as Freshman Tamer's who can manipulate the base forms of the Tamer's Trinity. The rules here are simple, four hundred of you are going in. Two hundred will leave and make up the Freshman class of Tamer's. To survive, to win, you have to enter the Taming Grounds, find your biome and tame the beast that chooses you through the manipulation of your shared Psymana. From there, you fight, you run, you feast. Whatever your animal nature sees as fit to win or until there are only two hundred of you left."
There was a new silence that dawned on them.
Max already knew what it was. "People will die... kids, will die. Some will be eaten. Some will be broken. Gotta make sure it's not Martha….. or me."
"But….. I don't know how to use Psymana!" Someone yelled.
"Idiot!" Another student whispered in a Neo-noble accent that got the others at the front of the formation laughing.
Flume— perched on top of Prof. Fennix's arm flapped his wings and screeched, sending scorching winds at the snickering students to silence them.
Prof. Fennix continued, "Whoever admitted their ignorance, you just saved your class. I'm glad at least one of you stated the obvious, few of you know how to use Psymana. Even less of you can use Terramana or Cosmana. Not to worry, throughout the Taming Grounds, you'll find Trinity-Flow Bands."
Prof. Fennix pulled a band out of his longcoat pocket. It was made of leathers and had a sort of eyeball glyph etched into the center. Prof. Fennix fit it around his head so the eye was at the center of his forehead. Purple and fiery orange essence flowed from the eye, "This Trinity-Flow Band is Psymana focused. It boosts your own flow of Psymana and makes actions easier. If you find one of these, it will help you in manipulating and discovering the flow of your own Psymana. Which will make it easier for you to Tame your chosen beast. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"There's twenty of these Psymana Bands in the Taming-Grounds."
The crowd sighed and clicked their teeth— silencing immediately as Flume partially opened his wings again beside Prof. Fennix.
"Twenty? For four-hundred students? That's ridiculous." Martha whispered beside Max.
"It's not twenty total." Max whispered in reply.
Martha side eyed Max as Prof. Fennix removed the band and handed it to Flume.
"There's twenty Psymana Bands." Max reiterated. "Meaning there's likely sixty whole Trinity-Flow Bands. Twenty Psymana Bands, twenty Terramana Bands, twenty Cosmana Bands. This will challenge everyone and create skill diversity amongst the freshman class. It'll allow us to face unique and diverse matchups. It also means, about a third of the class of survivors will be made up of banded students. So….. getting a band gives you a thirty-three percent increase to your chances of winning. In theory."
Martha looked up at him as Flume flew over the Tamer's wall to drop the band back into the grounds, "I thought you failed….. basically all your classes?"
"I did." Max replied.
"Anymore questions?" Prof. Fennix asked.
Silence. Excitement. Terror. It ebbed and flowed through the ranks of students like ocean currents in high tide. Intense and rising.
Prof. Fennix nodded to himself, "There never is. With that being said, you will now begin your Taming Trials."
Fireworks went off in the distance, crowds of faraway relatives and watchers cheered from their safe high rises as the clouds split and allowed the sun to beam down on them.
The massive entrance wall slide across the grounds, opening and giving way to a massive multi-biomed wild land that spread for miles.
Prof. Fennix stepped aside and motioned inside, "Begin!"
The students took off at a sprint.
Max and Martha pushed and shoved past students in a rush to enter the wild.
Max was still fighting off the echoes of howls shaking his skull when the first row of Neo-noble students suddenly spun around and turned on the students.
With their superior training and gear, they hacked, bludgeoned and shot down a handful of already terrified students.
"You fuck—" Martha started only for Max to tackle her into the bordering forest to their left.
As he did so, a volley of arrows, boomerangs and spears whistled through the crowd, splitting open students heads and gouging out eyeballs.
Max and Martha hit the ground and rolled through waves of foliage before colliding with a tree.
"…..thanks for the save, I think." Martha huffed as Max stood up.
"I needed a battering ram." Max replied before looking behind him to find a number of knocked out students slowly recovering. Many of which were his neighbors.
"Oh. Of course. You're allergic to heroism." Martha got up and dusted herself off.
"Right." Max huffed, "We need to get moving. The nobles are banding together. I'm guessing their families have a shared interest in all of them succeeding. They could care less about us."
"Why don't we do the same?" Martha asked.
"Because we're not the same." Max had his bow in hand and spun around with an arrow loaded on the string as he took aim.
Martha didn't hesitate and ducked as Max fired over her head.
The arrow whistled through the air and cut through Thalia's curly brown hair as she sprinted out of the way of the projectile and hid behind a tree.
"You still think your aim is better than mine, Max?" Thalia called out to him.
"Come find out." Max racked another arrow in his bow. His back muscles strained as he pulled the string back to his cheek.
"I'm at a good distance right here, actually." Thalia replied.
Martha stood in front of Max with her WarHammer held in a two handed grip.
"We've already lost a few friends." Thalia said.
"Cruelty of nature." Max said.
"Right. Because throwing a bunch of teenagers into a box full of animals to team up and kill eachother is natural." Thalia replied, "Doesn't this anger you?"
"….. it's the least of my worries." Max replied.
Metal cut through the leaves on branches, alerting Max to the incoming speed of another projectile.
He looked to his left and found a steel glaive curving around to hit him.
He didn't flinch. He didn't look away from the tree as Martha turned and swung her hammer.
It smashed into the metallic shaped weapon and knocked it back into a tree.
Max prepared for Thalia to use the chance to run to a new position of cover, but she never moved.
And he couldn't hear all that well due to the howls.
"Dammit! Shut up!" Max cursed as he listened.
Silence.
Distant screams.
The growing smell of blood.
The heat of magic—
Dust and rubble fell on his head.
"Up top!" Max jumped backward to look up into the canopy and fired.
The arrow whistled through the air and hit Thalia in the arm as she ran across the branches.
She hesitated only momentarily before jumping across to the next tree.
It was there that she dropped to a slide across a thicker branch and grabbed the Psymana Band hanging there.
She jumped again as Max fired relentlessly from the ground. She moved like a deer in flight, leaping and bounding through the branches before disappear behind the tree closest to them.
Martha charged.
Thalia didn't let her hit the tree as she jumped out from behind cover with the band around her head. Brilliant forest green, yellow and brown fiery flows of magic sparked and danced around her head and the band slowly forming into antlers.
She charged Martha.
Thalia Thorn. The small quick-witted tactician, charged Martha. Max's physical juggernaut of a sister.
The two collided with Thalia sending Martha flying backward to hit the ground by Max.
Martha rolled and got to her feet. As she slid across the ground, she grabbed Max's shoulder and dragged him back with her.
The two recovered in sibling sync.
Thalia stood across from them with her hands up.
Max had two arrows racked. Martha had her hammer ready.
"You think you're fast enough?" Thalia asked.
"I know I am." Max replied.
"Not for me." Thalia said before letting her raised hands point to her left.
Max and Martha looked and found a beast step out of the woodland.
It looked similar to a deer but it had darker fur, two sets of ears and eyes as well as much more detailed and larger antlers.
The more it moved, the more Max realized it didn't actually look much like a deer beyond the antlers, ears and hooves. It was too muscular. It's fur wasn't the right quality. And it moved like it could stand on two legs.
Max's jaw dropped as he put the pieces together.
"Thalia….. you formed a bond with a Dire Dryad…?"
Thalia ripped off her Psymana Bond and tossed it to them, "If you're feeling warmed up, then I think it's your turn. Beast up. You know they already are."
Max lowered his bow.
Martha dropped her hammer.
Thalia bowed and her magical antlers dispersed.
At the same time, the Dire-Dryad also bowed and the two took off.
Martha looked over at Max, eyes wide with disbeleif and excitement.
"Go ahead." Max motioned to the Psymana Band, "Take it."
"YES!" Martha lunged at the band and put it on.
Max tried to stop the migraine that was forming from the howls. He had to focus on surviving. On keeping his sister safe as more students stepped into their powers and began killing others in the name of nature.
As he watched Martha tie on the hand, he couldn't help but wonder.
"What beast will I bond with today?"