The hero is now gone, but I’m still here, now what? (Undergoing editing)

“Now, I'm not gonna play favorites with any of you and I'm gonna be completely impartial with the test, you don't need to worry about failing because I'm sure that all of you worked hard for this and I know that if you put in everything, you can all pass,” princess Neophyte placed the logbook on top of her legs and looked at all of them with a reassuring gaze, “so with that being said, how about you all do what you think is your best Technique?” She turned to the large guy, “you, start.”

 

“O-okay,” he nodded and took the massive weapon from his back, a second later, his hand glowed, then the light slowly went up to his Pledge, a moment later, the bone-like weapon that he was holding grew, pointed extensions and spiky protrusions getting added to its features.

 

Neophyte clapped, “good one,” she hummed, “Grow Weapon is a good Technique if your Pledge is organic, it's also fine if isn't as well.” She said to the large guy, “Also, if you want a tip, you should try imagining how you want your blade to look, visualize it as you use the Technique or if you want something simpler; focus on a single aspect that the Technique will influence. For example: something like Damage,” she hummed and wrote something down on the logbook before eyeing the circle underneath their feet.

 

“Your fluidity in using Light and your output is directly in the middle,” She said, “you passed,” a nod and she gestured to the door, “you can go to your next exam room, and please call someone else before you go!”

 

The large guy nodded before he walked out of the door.

 

Neophyte turned to the remaining four, her eyes scanned them for a bit and then said, “now, how about you try?” She turned to Zyra.

 

“Zyra,” Lucille's friend introduced herself with a bow, “uhm…” She raised her Pledge, a vine-whip, “I'm gonna use the same technique as the last guy but if you said that I can influence how it grows then…”
Zyra's hands glowed and she used Grow Weapon, when the light emanating from her hand went up to her Pledge, the influence of the Technique started and the effects were mild at first, with one half of her whip simply growing in size until a quarter into the change, black spines started to grow across the green surface of the whip continuing until the tip, which ended with a deadly looking set of them,  “... I made it more damaging?”

 

“Good work,” Neophyte nodded and wrote something down in the logbook, then she eyed the circle and nodded, “more than average, you pass with flying colors,” she gestured to the door.

 

Zyra nodded and started making her way to the door, eventually, she passed by Lucille and said, “I'll wait for you outside,”

 

Lucille only nodded in response as she was too busy trying to calm her wildly beating heart.

 

When Zyra left, she was immediately replaced by the next entree and there were five of them in the room once more. Neophyte eyed the next one to Zyra in line, “start using your technique,” She told the black haired boy who nodded and made a small fireball grow in front of him, Neophyte eyed it then nodded, “Fireball huh?” She smiled, “good work,” she looked at the circle underneath their feet, “on the lower side output wise though… well, like I said, I'm Impartial so… sorry, you didn't pass- but don't worry! I'm sure that you'll do well in the other tests!”

 

The boy smiled lightly and bowed, “thank you for the reassurance, your highness,”

 

And then he left, now, it was the other girl's turn and Lucille felt her heart beating wildly, it was then her turn after this and she wondered if princess Neophyte would even be impressed of what she's capable of, Lucille did her best to calm herself as the princess addressed the next girl, “you can start,”

 

“O-okay,” the girl with yellow hair nodded and closed her eyes, then her body glowed slightly yellow, which caused Neophyte to hum.

 

“Increasing your defense…” she said voice a tinged bit impressed, “say, do you know someone called Repudia?”

 

“He-he's my brother, princess,” she bowed.

 

“Oh, huh, small world, good work on using Toughen by the way,” she wrote it down on her logbook then eyed the circle underneath their feet, “Above average power,” she smiled, “good work,”

 

“T-thanks!” The girl happily skipped to the door.

 

Now… It was her turn and Lucille felt herself start to sweat as Neophyte's eyes turned to her, “you're the one with the sanguine Pledge correct?” Lucille nodded, “hm. A rare type of Pledge, it can get pretty powerful if you take care of it too,” Neophyte commented, “now let's see if your Technique is just as rare.” She smiled lightly.

 

“U-uhm it isn't but I- I hope that I pass!!” Lucille bowed before closing her eyes and calling upon her internal light reservoir, she weaved it to form a small bundle of cloth that wrapped itself across her entire body and when it was tightly bound on her ethereal skin, she activated it and turned it into a Technique- one that she learned because she wanted to be like the princess sitting in front of her, a Technique that raises the users speed-

 

“Huh, would you look at that,” Lucille opened her eyes and got ready for disappointment but instead what greeted her was bright white light, “the circle glowing like that means that you passed with a very high grade,” Neophyte complimented her with a clap that made Lucille's fear go away, “amazing work,” she smiled and Lucille nodded shakily, “how fine is your control for Light?”

 

“U-uhm not that fine,” Lucille admitted.

 

“How humble,” Neophyte said, “well, I see that you used Greater Speed, a personal favorite of mine when I was young,” the princess wrote things down on her logbook and nodded at Lucille, “good job and I'm sure that you'll pass even if you fail one of the tests, but that doesn't mean that you should get complacent, of course,”

 

Lucille bowed, “I won't!"

 

Lucille walked out of the classroom with a beaming smile plastered on her face and when she opened the door, another guy walked in after her, she looked around to try and spot Zyra and a tuft of blue hair soon made itself known on her line of sight, she walked up to her acquaintance? Friend? - Something along those lines- and gave Zyra a wave.

 

“We're on the last test!” She grinned to which her friend simply nodded before jerking her head to the other end of the hallway, where a bunch of students stood, waiting for their own tests. Most of them were on the line for the princess’ exam, with a pragmatic few going to the smaller lines in order to finish their entrance exam quickly.

 

Lucille and Zyra and… “oh, hi! I didn't see you there!” She greeted and the girl with yellow hair turned to her, “I'm Lucille,”

 

“Yhaine,” she introduced.

 

“Nice to meet you,” she said just as the memory of Yhaine squealing as she got out of the classroom surfaced, does she like Neophyte as well? Might as well ask- “so, what's your opinion on the princess? She's pretty cool right? I mean, I've seen her multiple times for the past few years because she always came to our village every week to help-”

 

…

 

The examination room- wait, no, not room- building for the Physical Exams was large, far larger than Lucille originally imagined, it was quite frankly absurd at how large it was. Lucille eyed the massive gymnasium, “Uh, wow. Is the gymnasium here really this big?”

 

Zyra turned to her followed by Yhaine, both nodded while the former added, “I heard that the school modifies this place during the entrance exam to be packed with all sorts of gym equipment that'll allow the teachers to evaluate our strength from our results using them so that they can optimize the dummies that we fight,”

 

“Whoa…” Lucille breathed. "That is honestly so cool,” she muttered in awe.

 

“You've never seen anything like this before?” Yhaine asked her and Lucille nodded, “odd, there are a lot of gyms like this across Everlast,”

 

“We're both Florist,” Zyra replied.

 

“But you both can go to Everlast right? I've been to the capital of the Fauna and Flora territories,” she retorted and Zyra only shrugged.

 

“Personally, I've tried going to Everlast before and immediately got overwhelmed by the sheer size of the city compared to my town so I decided that I never wanted to do it- again.”

 

Lucille snorted at Zyra's words while Yhaine chuckled before saying, “I can give you both a tour?” She said, “I know a few decent spots around Everlast,” Lucille and Zyra turned to her and she shrugged, “we don't really need to explore the entire city, just… get the hang for it you know?” Humming, Yhaine walked forward and pushed the doors to the gymnasium opened, “give you guys the impression of what Everlast is like, see how it feels, that sort of thing.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” Zyra nodded as she passed through the doors.

 

“I- I wanna go!” Lucille said before rushing after the two, “uhm- maybe we can go see that thing that Princess Neophyte designed?”

 

“What..?” Zyra and Yhaine turned to her.

 

“You know-” Lucille started, “the thing?” She tried to jog her memory about the building that the princess personally designed, “- the one with the uh… the one that has that food challenge?” She tried, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember anything.

 

“Oh, the princess’ glorified restaurant?” Smirked Yhaine while Zyra stared in consideration, “the one with the cheap and easy to make food right? The “Fast Food” as she called it,” the yellow haired girl hummed, “well, sure, we can go try those but honestly? The food there can get you easily fat and everyone knows they're only fit for the princess and her… taxing fighting style,”

 

Zyra eyed Lucille, “I remember you mentioning something about wanting to imitate Neophyte's fighting style,” she hummed, “maybe you'll actually get something good out of it, I know I won't, I heard the food there has too much oil,”

 

“True that,” Yhaine agreed as the trio stopped before a treadmill, “and speaking of Neophyte, how about we test our speed first? It's the only empty thing here,” Lucille and Zyra looked around and saw that true enough, Yhaine was right.

 

“Sure, why not,” Zyra shrugged and stepped forward, “do we need to use our Techniques or?..”

 

“No- no,” Yhaine waved her off, “that'll botch the results and the teachers will make us fight stronger dummies, just your baseline strength,”

 

Lucille watched as Zyra walked up to the treadmill and started- she felt worried for her own test, she knew that the princess already said that she could pass the entrance exam even when she failed one of the tests but if Lucille could help it, she would ace this one as well, and passing all three tests with aces means that she would be in the same classroom as the princess and that opens up to so many more opportunities to see her, to follow her- to aim for her- er, that came out wrong- and to aim for her level power.

 

Zyra soon finished and Yhaine quickly followed and when she was done, Lucille eyed their results and… they're kind of slow aren't they?

 

“Why are your results like that?” She pointed to the two pieces of paper that her companions were holding, when they responded with a confused tilt of their heads, Lucille elaborated, “your speeds are too slow,”

 

“Well yeah,” Zyra answered, “I practiced the aim of my Pledge and how to use it for long ranged attacks, not my speed, it's only natural that I'm slow,”

 

“Oh.” Lucille said, “and you guys didn't increase your speed at all?”

 

Yhaine shook her head, “nope! I'm more of a tank,” she answered for the two of them, “it uh, makes sense because of my Pledge,” Lucille looked her over but found nothing, Yhaine chuckled, “ah, I've hidden it because it's annoying to keep it up but here-” she called her Pledge and a full plate of armor came down on her and Lucille can only stare, “pretty neat right?”

 

“I… guess,” Lucille replied, “a full body armor huh?” If she didn't know that her Pledge could grow stronger by killing monsters and demons, she would feel pretty jealous right about now- not that she'd dwell on it for too long of course. Lucille smiled at Yhaine before walking up to the treadmill, “well, I guess here goes nothing-”

A little while later and all three of them finished their physicals after that, they made their way to one of the teachers overseeing the process of fighting the dummies and when they neared, she gave them an appraising look, “are you three a team?” She asked and Lucille and her companions looked at each other, “Are you gonna fight together?” She asked again.

 

Lucille decided to be honest, “Well no-”

 

“Yes,” Zyra answered with a nod, “we're here to fight together, with me at the back, Yhaine at the front, and Lucille at the center acting as our opportunistic attacker,”

 

“... I see,” nodded the teacher, “if you can all walk into this room right here-” they moved to said room, a square thing with no roof and four walls on either side, it looked hastily built.

 

They were followed by the teacher soon after and Lucille looked around as the teacher started explaining things: the room was small- not really spacious, but also not overtly cramped either, with beige walls shaped in a square and a shiny wooden floor, at the far end wall of the room is a group of Dummies.

 

The teacher walked forward, “- now, as you can see, we already have pre-prepared Dummies, in terms of power, they're around the same level as the weakest Demon but I can always increase their power if I think it's appropriate,” Lucille nodded to acknowledge her words, “and usually, I would only activate one but seeing as all of you are in a group, it's expected that I'm gonna be turning on all of them regardless of your group's size,” Lucille counted the Dummies, that's what? 14 Enemies that they needed to beat? Can they even do that?

 

“Your score depends on how many you defeat with the perfect score being achieved when you manage to beat all of them,” the teacher finished.

 

Zyra nodded, “Got it,” she said before turning to Yhaine and Lucille, “let's try to get the perfect score,”

 

Yhaine called her Pledge, “Yes, let's.”

 

All three girls nodded at the teacher who snapped her fingers and released her Light into the wooden dolls, they came to life, their 6 foot tall figures intimidating compared to Lucille and Zyra's measly 5 feet and a half but they stood their ground, with the former readying her dagger-like Pledge and the other cracking her vine-like whip.

 

The first of the Dummies took their first few steps forward and Yhaine greeted them with her armored form, taking in their attacks while failing to dish out her own due to the amount of fists assaulting her at the same time, Zyra assisted, with her whipping any Dummies that got too far from the tank while Lucille stood at the center, ready to protect their ranged attacker.

 

Two Dummies went past Yhaine and Lucille dashed forward, picking one target and leaving the other to Zyra, she started slashing the doll's guts before kicking it on the knees and sending it to the ground, in the corner of her eye, the Dummy that went near her snapped back as Zyra whipped it away, the hole on its chest lighting up from the leakage of Light.

 

Lucille moved away from her first kill before readying herself for the other Dummies that'll past Yhaine, she didn't know how many there are left but the now inert/dead Dummies at least numbered around 5 so she assumed that there were 9 of them still standing.

 

Another Dummy went past Yhaine and Zyra took quick care of it, whipping it over and over until it was down on the ground, unmoving. Another came- this time three and Lucille used her best Technique, increasing her speed and allowing her to incapacitate all three via strikes to the knee and ankles before letting Zyra take care of the rest.

 

“Good job Lucille!” Complimented the blue haired girl, as she slew one dummy before going to the next, “I knew you had a good head on top of those shoulders!”

 

“Thanks,” Lucille grinned then she paused when she saw the state of their tank- “Yhaine? Are you okay?” She asked the armored girl, who at the moment is being grappled by three Dummies, her arms being forced to twist in painful looking ways- Lucille moved before she knew it, breaking formation and gutting one of the Dummies before slashing another on the knees, in reaction, the wooden dolls moved to attack here, giving their tank breathing room.

 

Lucille moved out of the way, “there!”

 

She took a step back and went to the two Dummies that pushed forward, Zyra was struggling to move them back with her attacks, with the two walking near each other and blocking any and all attacks that came at each other with their forearms.

 

Lucille came into the fray and plunged her Pledge into the back of one of the Dummies, making it turn around- she kicked it on the back of the knee and let her blade and gravity do the rest, the dummy fell while her Pledge was still on its back and a massive gash formed on its wooden body as her Pledge tore through it like paper-

 

She gasped when a punch to her chest came down and she glared at the dummy and watched as it was put down by Zyra, “t-thanks,” she wiped the blood off of her mouth before facing Yhaine and going back to formation, “I really didn't expect that to happen,”

 

“Neither did I,” Zyra said, “these Dummies are pretty hard to beat aren't they?”

 

Lucille nodded, “yes,”

 

Even with those worried words though, the Dummies were no match for their group and they came out of the room victorious and with perfect scores.