Overcoming The Beast

A large airship arrived to the town. It landed in the Desert. People walked out from it. They all wore a similar uniform.

One of them flew up and announced, "We are from the Council of Fire, here for the talented people of this town. Anyone above the age of ten and younger then twenty can come for the test."

Line of young a.d.u.l.ts was made quickly. All of the young Flamesmith Clan members were in the line. Leon was at the back thinking about joining when he saw Eos.

"You're joining the competition? The clan head is letting you?"

"Yup, the clan head told me to join"

Leon and Eos joined the Lone together. The rest was a quick crystal ball test. It just checked bone age and basic cultivation. The standards were abnormally low. All most half of the people that applied passed. They all enters the airship.

Leon saw Pace already sitting. Pace called for Leon: He raised his hand waved at Leon. Eos followed as well. They both sat next to Pace.

"If you're wondering why its so crowded. It's because the Coucil of Fire doesn't want to miss any talent. They want take sure they find hidden talents and more. If they missed a talented cultivator because they had recently become one and had a low cultivation. It would be a waste to the Fire Continent."

"Well it's a good thing, the next three rounds are made to find people's talent and adaptability. After that is when the real competition will commence. All talents will be found and only the best ten can make it through."

Clyde, Anastasia and Cesar had been sitting in front of Leon. Clyde got on his seat and turned back.

"Elder Brother Pace you forgot to tell Leon about the awards!"

"Brother Leon after each round the top hundred will be awarded! Not just low quality materials, the Council of Fire is going all out. Wait let me see. here it is!" Clyde took out a book. He flipped through some pages. "These are some of the prizes we were told about: a Hell Flame Cerberus's blood! That's a he'll beast!"

Dwight who was sitting behind Pace got up and said, "None of you better think of taking the Hell Flame Cerberus's Blood! It's perfect for my Volcanic Elephant's evolution into a Hell Fire Elephant."

Everyone ignored what he was saying. Clyde continued, "Other then that's more beast blood and we can even win a few beast eggs. I'm not sure what species the beasts are. The council of fire has been very secretive."

Like that the whole trip was spent on discussing about the competition. Leon didn't know much about this competition. He had heard about some of the prizes but that is all. This whole thing was going to be a surprise.

After a while the airship landed. A man at the front of the airship stood up.

"Everyone this is where the first round will begin. I wish you all the best of luck and hope you try your hardest for the nation."

"We Will!" many shouted in unison. Then they all started shuffling out the airship.

Leon, Eos and Pace grouped outside. They looked around at the test site. It was a beach. Golden sand and the salty water receding of the coast. The sun was high and it was around noon.

There were other airsh.i.p.s as well. Leon counted five others, but he was stuck staring at the biggest one. Unlike the others this one looked more modern and futuristic. It was also fancy as it had golden lining and exquisite designs. It had more engines and was much bigger then the others.

Pace saw the airship and said, "That should be from one of the royal cities. Looks like the competition will be tough."

Leon nodded So did Eos.

"Attention." A voice spread out. Everyone turned to look. A young man was standing in the air.

"This will be the site for your first round. The test is simple. At the bottom of the ocean there is a path that will lead you to the next test site. To pass this round you need to enter the path. Simple right?"

Seeing the kids confident faces he smiled. "There is no time limit. However when you enter the ocean you cannot leave without quitting. Other then that you can summon only one beast to help you. That is all."

"Begin!"

People started running to the ocean. So did Leon, Eos and Pace.

As they reached the water many ran in and then dived.

At the front someone used a rune to form stairs to take them over the water. The ground rose and steps were created. They ran up and swan dived into the water taking first place.

Someone else tried to run up the path but it collapsed. The person jumped through the curbing ground and made it to second place. People behind him fell into the water with people running past them.

A few cultivators ran on the water using runes to avoid slowing down due to the waters resistance. Some formed ice.

A few quickly summoned water beast. There were turtles and fish beast summoned. They used them as rides to move in the water. Even though it was the Fire Continet, cultivators liked to capture water and ice beast because of the type advantage. It made battles with fire beasts easier.

Leon just dived in normally. He wished he had learned lightning step. It would have allowed him to easily move through the water.

In the water there was light. Not only from the sun, plants in the ocean glowed as well. Looking downwards he saw a large gorge. As you moved down the gorge there were opening to caves on the sides and the very bottom there was a large hole.

"That should be the goal." Leon thought. "Those other openings should be airspace for cultivators to catch there breath."

Leon knew he could go through the whole dive without needing to breath but Pace and Eos would need to breath near the end.

"This test is well thought out. It really checks the adaptability, most of us are out of our elements. There is less fire energy and some cultivators don't have a water beast." Leon thought. "There also isn't a time limit. That should be to let as many people pass. Still many will fail. As we get lower there will be a higher pressure. It you're to slow the air spaces might fill up and you won't have space to breath from. They really are removing only a few weak cultivators from this test."

The cultivators were diving down quickly. Lines of by legs could be seen behind as people swam. Hundreds of people were swimming down together. All wearing different uniforms and ornaments. Some had even taken off most there clothes to swim faster.

The water cultivators were flying through. They took the lead. They had runic abilities for swimming and breathing underwater.

Leon was swimming with Eos and Pace. He looked back up and could see the others from his clan. Clyde, Dwight, Cesar and Anastasia were swimming together as well.

The leads in the group finally went past the first breathing cave. People swam to them and started resting.

"This test will be one of the longer ones to finish. Many will slowly move through. Only the Beast will finish it quickly."

Pace looked at Leon and Eos. He signaled to say something. Leon understood he was summoning a beast. Pace did just that. He summoned his soul book and then a water beast came out from a summoning circle. It was a meter long fish with purple and white scales.

Leon identified it in a second, "Pace has a Purple Cloud fish? This is will do."

Pace signaled Leon and Eos to hold on to the fish. When the three of them grabbed on the fish rocked down. The water pushed on Leon. He wasn't as effected however Eos was. She managed to grab on strongly to the fish and made sure she wasn't thrown of.

The fish took them out from the middle position. It quickly swam past a the people swimming without beast. They reached turn from of the pack. This was everyone with water beasts or abilities to let them swim faster. However Even when the fish swam as fast as it could it couldn't out swim them. It was stuck at the back of the group.

The Purple Cloud Fish reached a constant pace. Everyone had. Leon looked back again to see the group thinning. When entering Leon was sure there were thousands of people that were on the beach. Now there were hundreds. People were swimming to the air spaces to breath. Barely any one went straight down. Most of the people that could hold there breath for long were all in the leading pack.

At one of the Higher air caves someone swam out. He didn't look to be rested.

"So he's going to be the first to be removed."

The perils couldn't breath. He saw the cave lower and tried to swim there. He covered his mouth and tried to stop the instinctive opening of it for air. But he couldn't make it. He lost consciousness and started floating back up.

"He shouldn't die. At most he'll be unconscious for a while."

The diving continued. People from the leading pack started to scatter as even they had to rest. The pressure could also be felt. The kilometers of water above them weighted down on there bodies.

The person in lead was still the person who created the earth stairs. He was using a water ability to propel himself through the water. The person behind him activated a rune on their hand.

Leon who was far away easily understood what the rune was. "Some one's finally going to attack." Other then summoning only one beast the rules really didn't restrict what cultivators did in the water. So attacking each other was allowed.

The person in second place had a light arrow from in front of her. She then shot it at the person in first place. It hit right on the shoulder. People behind had seen the use of runic abilities. They started using abilities as well.

The person in the lead didn't falter. He manifested his soul book and then summoned a beast. A dolphin like beast appeared. It was blue and looked beautiful. The girl was surprised. He had other cards up his sleeve? Before she knew it she was launched away by wh.i.p.s of water.

Beasts shot water pulses. They controlled water to slow and move people back. Pace controlled the fish to circle around and dodge the abilities.

"Pace really has good choice making skills. Although Purple Cloud fish isn't a great beast fighting wise its great at moving through the water. Looks like he prepared for the competition by making sure he was ready for everything."

Leon couldn't really summon any of his beast. He could summon the Dragon and have it take him to the bottom. But that would reveal it to everyone. Although no one would be able to steal it. His corpse would be found in a few days. He would be either killed by assassins sent from other continents or be taken away by strong cultivators who would try to forcefully extract the Dragon beast from his soul book.

Leon thought about it and that coils imply to all of his beasts. He would need to reach summoning master to summon them with our any fear of being attacked. Even of he was he would be able to Handle it. At the moment he was still weak.

"I need to find a talented beast that I can summon without worry. The Dragon isn't enough. The chimera can transform but it seems like it's increase in pride won't let it anymore."

There were only fifty people left at the leading pack. All the others had to rest or had gotten into fights and were left behind.

The top fifty were all focused on swimming. An unwritten rule formed. If you attacked you would be thrown out. The rule didn't need enforcement everyone understood it was better to just swim down then to attack.

They finally reached near the end. They were approaching the last air cave. After that, it was pure rush to the circular hole on the ocean bed.

Leon had assumed right. He saw that both Pace and Eos had gotten red. They looked to be struggling. Leon didn't really need them to try that hard. They didn't need to come first place in these rounds as it was just a sieve to separate the talented ones from the non talents.

There was a prize but even of they rested they would be able to make win it. These rounds awareded the top hundred. Which they would surely make.

Leon decided to have them rest.