Avery was sent tumbling across the floor, his gasp of pain feeding worry into the standing fighters hearts. The examiner looked through the window briefly, but seemed to judge that no intervention was needed.
Gritting his teeth, Rowan raised the shield up to slam one more time, but the Earthwulf snapped forward, luckily only biting at air. Rowan still stumbled back however, the near miss spiking his adrenaline as he wearily eyed the wulf's fangs.
Lenny and Aoife continued to grunt as they pulled on the net, the Earthwulf's feet shifting for grip as they did. Not wanting to be bitten, Rowan grabbed his earlier dropped spear, and began swimming it like a quarterstaff at the snarling beast.
It was inelegant, but it worked. As each smack bounced off the wulf's head, it slowly grow more and more sluggish, eventually collapsing under the combined weight of the net and a likely concussion.
The window door clicked open, and through walked the examiner with a faint smile on her face. She approached the Earthwulf, and each fighter stepped back, tripping over themselves in their exhaustion.
"That looks like a success, I would say. You had one injury fighting a Earthwulf when none of you are awakened. One of you grab him, and all of you get outside the cage will you."
Not intending to say any more, she grabbed the Earthwulf and dragged it into the corner, where it lay breathing heavily.
Lenny was the one who grabbed Avery, slinging one of his arms over his shoulders as the smaller boy groaned in pain. Each one of them staggered out of the room, with the exception of Nadia, who had remained unscathed for the duration of the fight.
Finally outside the room, Lenny and Nadia began undoing Avery's armour straps, attempting to figure out where the injury was, and how severe. Rowan and Aoife were breathing heavily leaning against a wall, losing the energy to stand as the lactic acid fatigued their muscles.
"Before any of you go to the aptitude test, I'll need to record your names. Ah, I should probably help him out I suppose"
Exiting the cage, the examiner knelt next to Avery and placed her hand on his chest where the skin already had a faint tinge. Immediately, the tinge began to fade, and Avery's groans slowly turned into grunts as he shifted himself to a sitting position.
"Perfect. Now, you two on the wall. Names?"
Not giving us any time to marvel at the ability she had just used, Aoife and rowan stammered out their names, still looking at Avery's now healed chest. The examiner then went to the three on the floor, and once she had their names, collapsed down in her lawn chair.
"Alright, the five of you are free to leave, take the doors opposite the ones you came in, and good luck with the aptitude test."
She said nothing more, and apparently that was that. Avery's armour was already mostly off, but the rest took a couple minutes to place the sets back where they had found them. Leaving the exam room felt weird. They had just struggled in what felt like a battle for survival, and now they had to go take yet another test.
"At least it's the final one. Then we'll know if we've got our licence or not."
Nadia echoed his thoughts, and the others nodded in agreement. As far as Rowan knew, there was no way to prepare for the aptitude test. Some people just simply couldn't survive in Hells, and they would be permanently disqualified from ever getting a licence
"Why is the combat test before the aptitude anyway? Or, better yet, why can't the aptitude be first? That written exam sucked, I don't wanna have come all this way just to find out I'm ineligible."
Avery's complaints sparked a hint of worry in Rowan's mind that was quickly extinguished.
'No point worrying if I passed the written exam when I haven't even passed the aptitude.'
"straightening his back, he immediately regretted it. The tension in his body lashed out all at once, and he felt muscles twinge in all the wrong ways. The others noticed and winced, reminded of their own pains and exertions.
They once again passed by different office workers, who looked on with pity. They had likely been seeing groups come through in various stages of exertion, and from the sobbing of the previous group, likely trauma as well.
Remembering how the previous group seemed to have faired, Rowan felt grateful that he was placed with the kid of awakeners. They had remained steadfast while he fell over himself and thrashed around with a stick.
"Honestly, you did better than I thought you would Rowan, despite being skin and bones you actually really helped bring it down. I bet it could hardly think with it's head being used as a drum."
The group laughed as they walked, though Rowan felt a biting sting at the implication that his success was unexpected. Rowan looked down at his arms and grimaced.
'I really need to make you guys bigger. Soon as I get a proper meal, we're getting a good workout in!'
After his silent promise, Lenny, who was leading the group, turned the final corner as the test room appeared at the end of the hallway. A buzzing chattering could be heard ahead, likely from the previous participants who had already received their results and wanted to spectate the rest.
As they passed through the doorway, the chattering came to a quick halt, everyone was happily looking at the five newcomers. There was about two dozen people in the room, all obviously separated into their combat test groups. In the centre of the room, there was a pedestal with a small metallic cage.
Inside of the cage, was a buzzing void. Unmistakeably, it was a Hell. Seeing one in such close proximity, the hairs on the back of Rowan's neck rose immediately. All five of the group locked their gazes onto the first ever Hell they had seen in person.
"The pictures don't do it justice, it's like it's not even there!"
Avery leant down closer to it verbalising how it did truly seem like empty space.
"Indeed, young man. I presume you would like to go first?"
The examiner was of a smaller stature, and standing off to the side he had blended right in with the 17 year olds surrounding him. Avery seemed briefly taken aback, but he quickly regained his composure and eagerly nodded.
"Very well then"
The examiner rotated the cage on the pedestal, so that a small circular hole was now pointed towards Avery. There was little to no distance between the hold and the Hell, it was nearly flush.
"Simply stick your least favourite finger in here. If you pull your hand back and it's still there, you are eligible. If not, you will have sucesfuly removed your least favourite finger."
Some of the surrounding teenagers giggled at that, and even the examiner had a slight smile on his face.
'If even he finds it funny, it must be pretty rare. I really should have checked the ratio before I came here...'
Avery nodded once, and then extended his left pinky finger forward. The crowd grew silent as the finger disappeared from view, and after a brief pause, Avery pulled his hand back.
"Would you look at that! You're eligible young man! Well done, so long as your other two tests were in order, you'll receive your licence soon."
Avery fist-pumped the air before moving behind the rest of us, examining the finger he nearly lost.
Next up was Lenny, and without needing to be told, he stepped forward and put his pinky finger in the Hell. Instantly he drew his hand back, gasping in pain. His finger was gone, two thirds of it stolen by the Hell. The crowd was silent, the earlier jokes were forgotten when it actually happened.
"Shit!!"
Lenny stormed out, cradling his mutilated hand with the other as he left. Shock and terror rushed through Rowan as the once distant fear manifested in front of him.
"Such a shame, he looked as though he had potential, too. Such a shame, such a shame."
The examiner muttered and tsked as he watched Lenny go. Sighing, he motioned for Aoife to go up next, and she did so, belatedly.
She fared better than Lenny, the finger coming out still attached. Nadia the same, and before I knew it, it was my turn to take the test.
My tongue felt like cotton in my mouth as I swallowed, staring down the Hell. Shaking, I raised my hand to the Hell, and not giving myself time to prepare, moved it pinky into the Hell.