128 Assessmen

Jayde and the rest of the students walked over to the stone pavilion. Once the students were all standing in the middle of the pavilion, four old mages walked out and stood in four different positions. From Jayde point of view, it seemed like each one of the mages stood on specific direction points. North, South, East, and West.

Each of the mages kneeled down and placed their hands on the stone floor, that is when Jayde noticed that there was a small engraved rune at their feet. As their magic was weaved into the rune, the stone floor beneath the feet of the youths lit up in a fiery orangey-amber color.

The array was a complex shape, a star shape heptagram, with a red glowing circle in the middle with a white rune. The seven points of the heptagram were connected by a ring. Outside on the ring, where the star points touch was a different rune, which was encircled with another ring. On the outside of this ring, it was broken into four sections.

Each of these sections was separated by a large glowing fiery circle with a large rune written in the middle, the sections between these circles each contained six different runes. Three separate rings of magic connected the large circle runes together. With the last ring being nearly fifty times thicker than the two inner circles.

Jayde had impressed with the intricacy as well as the beauty of the array — it was a stunning sight to see. The whole array glowed brightly, Jayde could feel the magic contained within the rune tickling her skin. The array kept on getting brighter when suddenly there was a flash of blinding light.

WHOOSH!

The bright light had temporary blinded Jayde, it took a couple of seconds before the world came into focus again. When Jayde could finally see she found that she was all alone, and she was now standing in the middle of a jungle.

Looking around Jayde noticed that a lush green canopy of leaves was above her, only snatches of bright sun lit up the area. Dense massive trees with thick ropes of vines lay in every direction. Beneath Jayde feet, the floor of the jungle was covered in deep green leaves and rotten vegetation.

The sound of exotic birds and insects filled the air, with the occasional grunts, growls, and snorts of different animals ringing out. The pungent aroma of rotting vegetation, as well as the sweet and acrid smell of plants, hit Jayde's nose making her sneeze.

[Isha, what the hell am I suppose to do now?]

Using the contract bond between the two of them, Isha observed the area around Jayde.

[Hmm, seems like a normal testing array,] Isha responded.

[These sorts of tests are meant to access a person's skills, all you have to do it make it out of this jungle alive and you will have passed. There will be a sort of doorway that you will see once you are out, you just have to enter it.]

Feeling a touch of concern for Nova, Ash, and Raven, Jayde asked Isha just how dangerous these sort of tests were.

[You can't physically die in this array, once you are in mortal danger you will be transported out of the array.] Isha stated matter-of-factly.

Happy to know that those three teenagers would be alright, Jayde looked around her. Not knowing which way was the right way, she shrugged as she decided to go north, she had just taken a step in that direction when Takara who as still on Jayde's shoulders gave her a nip on her ear.

Glancing down at the snow kitten large blue eyes, Jayde noticed Takara was starring to the right of her. Strange kitty, she thought. Biting her then looking away as if he had done nothing wrong.

Taking another step forward Takara again nipped her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jayde murmured.

You are going the wrong way woman, Takara grumbled to himself. Bumping Jayde head with his own, he then looked intently to the right. For all the gods' sake, please figure out what I am telling you.

After the kitten bumped Jayde head and again looked to the right, Jayde eyebrows rose in surprise.

"You telling me to go east?"

Finally, you get it, Takara thought.

As if the kitten was happy with Jayde, Takara rubbed his cheek against hers. With no better plan, Jayde changed her direction and headed east. Since Takara didn't nip her again, she figured she must have been right in her assumption that he was telling her which way to go.

Jayde hadn't gone far before she ran into a troop of Long-Armed Red Apes. Standing over six feet tall, with a barrel chest with long muscular arms and legs, these burly apes were powerful creatures that could tear a human to pieces with their bare hands.

Barely giving Jayde enough time to react the Long-Armed Red Apes gave a piercing scream, before attacking her. Retreating Jayde opened some distance between herself and the attacking apes. The Long-Armed Red Apes, seeing Jayde retreating hollered with excitement. Propelling themselves with their giant knuckles on the jungle floor that bolted towards Jayde.

Gripping her sword in both hands and infusing it with her fire magic, Jayde leaned down to her right, then sweeping her sword in an arc, her sword cleaning slice through the nearest ape's elbow, detaching it from the rest of the ape's arm, as the ape lost it's balance and started to fall to its left, Jayde again swung her sword through the ape's vulnerable neck.

As the ape's head tumbled off its shoulder, Jayde leapt on the dead ape's body, using the momentum she gained she lunged at the next ape.

For over an hour Jayde battled the Long-Armed Red Apes, until finally there were only six of them left, the apes seeing all their comrades dead on the ground in front of them, gave a long raged filled howl, before retreating.

Jayde stood there warily waiting to see if they would come back, after five minutes she finally relaxed slightly. Cleaning the blood off her sword she placed it back into her scabbard before picking up Takara and carried on heading east.

For two days Jayde fought her way through various packs of savage animals. Her clothing was in tatters and she was covered in multiple bruises, claw and bite marks. Dried blood caked her torn clothing. A goose shape lump marred her forehead, a souvenir from a being swiped by a tail of a fire lizard.

Blood leaked through her fingers as Jayde held the left side of her abdomen, where a griffin had slashed her open. Limping she finally exited the jungle. Jayde had used up all her stored healing potions in her satchel, and to her horror, she had discovered that she couldn't access her spatial ring in the array.

In front of Jayde was a white doorway, this must be the exit that Isha mentioned, she thought. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Jayde hobbled her way over. She had been worried that she was not going to make it through the assessment.

She was in no condition to continue fighting, and she was sure she would have fallen in her next battle. Seeing the exit to the array was such a welcoming sight.

Stepping through the white door, Jayde felt her whole world shift. An intense feeling of dizziness gripped her, and her eyes started to lose focus. Multiple images flashed past Jayde as she felt herself falling.

Just before her eyes closed, she could have sworn she saw the last scene when she was on Crypso 3Q3U, just before she activated the mini antimatter bomb.

Her whole world faded to black as Jayde lost consciousness.

--

Notes

Image of the array: https://ibb.co/XtBQpm