Ready or Not

"Wake up, kid, I have a present for you," Beat yelled, "I don't have all day kid, get up!"

Dean hadn't woken up for the last five minutes, and Beat was on quite a risky operation. If the olph found him, it would be horrible. He was taking quite the risk here for this kid. It would be nice if he decided to open his eyes!

"Hey, if you go back to sleep again I'm going to be olph stew, kid. Come on!" He shook Dean.

Dean was not used to waking up without a fight. However, he felt something warm next to his face and stretched his arms. If his mom was using fire, it was important. Usually she would douse him with water first, and if it was an emergency there was a chance of him finding himself in the oven. That would always wake him up. He half opened his eyes and could only see a small ball of light over his chest. Wait, the sun hadn't even gotten a chance to rise yet.

It was only him, and a creepy man huffing and puffing.

"Ah, Who are you?" Dean's tired voice shouted.

"Beat Wonder, your savior, kid."

Dean yawned. "Well, thank you for saving me, but why is it so early now?"

"Because it is! Now, you picked this fruit yesterday, and I need you to eat it before I go. I'm going to have to be gone for a while."

Beat tossed the fruit over to Dean, and it rolled onto his bed.

Dean hadn't even seen this bed before and had no idea where he was. It was so dark he couldn't even see the shadows. But for the man who saved his life, he picked up the fruit and ate it. Luckily, it was delicious and juicy! And the little seeds of the fruit swam down into his belly as he munched. Beat almost sighed in relief, and got up to head to the door.

Beat was planning a three week vacation. If he couldn't get to the third pyramid by the time he got back then it would just end up being a little bit longer. But something told him he would have to use his back up plan.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Bane dusted off his hands and saluted Dean once. "Welcome to King's Castle Academy, Kid, I'll see you in a few weeks!" Beat waved adieu running off towards the window.

Dean just scratched his head and mumbled to himself, "Whats King's Castle Academy?"

Beat turned the window into shrapnel as flames distorted the frame. The sparks bounced off his body and sizzled onto the floor. For a second, it gave off enough light that Dean, on the bed, could even tell where he was. Though he immediately shut his eyes after the doorway burst like a hand crushed pineapple, boom! Now was a good time to return to his dreams!

An olph burst the room's door with lightning, thundering like an angry beast, before five beams of blue bolts charged at the disappearing shadow. All Dean could see was a clash of red and blue mixing into a serious explosion.

"Boom!"

"Beat Wonder, give me the fruit back now, or die an honorable death!"

Beat laughed and didn't answer him. Three tons of fire were already fused and fired at the blue and angry olph.

It was a peak second triangle fire elementalist versus a third pyramid thunder elementalist at entry level. Pyramids were used to measure the power levels of elementalists, and they were divided by steps and realms. If you were a the peak second pyramid, you could probably survive against an entry third pyramid. However, it usually wasn't a good idea to test the odds. The two clashed with each other as Dean just scratched his head, and yawned trying to figure out where he was.

A sound like a fire cracker roared over the campus. Sparks danced under the two famous moons of Zenith.

"It's so early. On the first day of school there's already a fight?"

"Well, what do you expect? We made it into KCA!"

"Do you think that fire elementalist will make it?"

"Fifty low grade stones he's olph toast!"

The half-dragons on the side of the towers just watched the fight. It was not proper to disrupt such a battle. It would be a disrespect to the warrior code at KCA. As for the other olphs, not even a bomb could wake them up.

Bane scratched his eyes and put on his glasses watching the two streaks of blue and red fly off towards the creeping sun."So, he decided to give the boy the fruit, huh." He yawned. "Hope you break through to the third pyramid, Beat."

The sun finally rose and won the fight against the two moons.

Dean was still in his bed shivering and asleep. A small core was lying on his bed, and his stomach rumbled. However, he still snored through the constant pangs in his navel. At this point even if he vomited up the fruit, Yan wasn't going to get it back. And, even odder, Beat felt attached to Dean and would try his hardest to fight Yan off. It must have been the three elemental stones.

A few hours passed, and the sun reached the top of the sky.

Dean turned over and opened his eyes. He was greeted by the swiss cheese flooring with crispy holes showing the room below him. The youngling planted his foot onto the floor hoping it was stable. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and he immediately fell flipping as a cloud of dust arose. He felt like life was giving him lemons, and it was hard to make lemonade. A girl, much older than him, was staring at him.

Dean was kind of hoping this was a dream. The girl was underneath a pair of white covers, and was looking at him with her jaw dropped. She rolled it up, and looked up with insight.

"Have you fallen through the floor because of the battle?"

"Yup," Dean said, "I promise it wasn't on purpose."

"Well, I can see that. But do you think I should care?"

Dean sighed. "If I were you, I'd probably be upset, but I'd forgive the kind new boy who fell through the ceiling."

"Hmm, you sound like you'd be nicer than me. Fortunately, I'm still under the covers. Now get out of here!"

"Yes, mam!" Dean nodded and ran out into the hallway. He huffed and puffed against the wall. He still wasn't quite sure where he was, or what this place was. But from the pink colors, and the paintings of girls on the walls he had a feeling. How the hell was he supposed to get back upstairs?

Oh no, he couldn't start a day off like this. On his first day, if he got the reputation of being a peeping tom that would be horrible! He had enough of that sort of stuff back at his old school. Finally, he bowed his head and knocked on the door.

"Ugh, can I help you?" The girl he'd busted in on asked peeking through her door.

"I'm kind of in 'no man's land' here, miss. Can you please tell me how to get back up to the first floor?"

She laughed. "Are you a freshman, kid?"

Dean really had no idea, but he nodded hoping to escape his plight.

"Ugh, come in here. My names Monica, you?"Monica was still wearing her pajamas. They were a pair of shorts, and shirt emblazoned with knight's dogs and wizard owls. If she was any cuter, he might really feel like this wasn't real. It wasn't the time of day that made her look unreal, but it was more the pretty amber eyes he had never seen before. She also had a pair of green streaks in her hair.

Dean whispered, "I'm Dean. Just arrived last night."

"Well, get in here, Dean. If any of the girls see you, you'll probably die on your first day." She creaked open the door quietly.

"Thanks for saving me." Dean brushed some dirt off his shirt.

"Yeah, I'll help you out this time. But if you do it again, I'll send you out the window instead!"

A gentle tide of water washed against Dean's feet as he felt himself start rising. Unfortunately, the water was very cold, and there was little he could do but accept it. He grabbed onto the floor and pulled himself up. Then he looked back down at the girl who had her arms akimbo.

"Oh, yeah, Dean. Leave the door open. I'll send for the mechs to fix it. If they can't get in, I'll come visit you at night, and it won't be pretty you here!"

"Thanks for the help Monica." Dean said.

Dean went to go lie down in his bed. He hoped to get a few more minutes of rest.

However, it seemed like Omnipresent wasn't going to give him a break today.

Three knights were standing by his torn open door scratching their heads.

"Are you Dean Towers?" A man clad in silver echelon armor was staring at him through a hole in the room.

"Yeah, am I in trouble?" Dean wondered.

"You're not lucky that's all I can say kid. You got to walk with us to the trial room immediately."

Dean sighed and got up following the three guards.

"I'm Collin by the way," The knight greeted, "these two are Rayleigh and Casper."

"How do you do, kid?" Casper greeted, and Rayleigh nodded.

"So, can you tell me where I am," Dean asked, "I know I'm in Great Castle Academy, but where exactly is that."

Collin laughed. "Well, you know we're still on planet Zenith, right?"

"Yeah, but where exactly on planet Zenith? I just woke up here."

Rayleigh giggled. "Ha, you're one of the luckiest kids in Crovana. Most people would give an arm to be here, and you just woke up here."

"Wait, Crovana, you mean to the west by the Artican Ocean?"

"Well, we're definitely not on the east coast." Collin pointed. "Here, walk into that room. You should see two elementalists waiting for you."

Dean sighed. 'But I'm from the east coast.'

The entranceway led him into a forest full of stone trees and had a bevy of pigmies dancing around two people. The pigmies had paintings on their faces like they were an ancient tribe, but they also had spears, and when he walked in they stopped moving. They were known for being viscous, and attacking in groups. Dean could only imagine what they were here for. He already noticed the three weapons on the stump and planned which weapon he would take. If his dad was here, Lok Powers, he would probably make him do it without a weapon. Regardless, it wasn't time to think about his family.

"Are you Dean Power's?" A man walked up to him with his hands behind his back.

"Yup!" Dean smiled covering his eyes. He was blocking what looked like two suns.

The man sighed. "Huh, I forgot to adjust my power again, Elizabeth." He looked back.

"Well, do it quickly before he faints Samuel. We still have to give him his test."

Dean lowered his arms and looked at the man, Samuel, who was floating a few feet away from him. There were three swirls of different turbid energies holding him up. Dean had never seen anyone with more than one element before. But he did know one thing about it. Once you made it past the fourth pyramid, you were able to gather different elements. That meant that the man in front of him was at least at the sixth Pyramid. Dean, however, didn't feel frightened.

"I'm Samuel and this is Elizabeth. We're here to see if you're worthy of this school. You got a problem with that kid?"

Dean shook his head. "Why would I have a problem? I don't even know where I am yet."

Collin walked in. "Apparently, he's from the east coast sir. He's never even heard of us."

"Well, then Dean welcome to the best school in Avarog continent. Probably the best school in Zenith. How about you don't ask any more questions and just accept the challenge."

"Do I really have a choice. I pick the sword." He pointed over towards the stump with the three weapons.

"Great choice, Dean!" Elizabeth walked over flipping the blade and handed it to him.

"These fellows here are called war pigmies, and you'll be fighting for as long as you can. If you make it past a minute you're in my honors class, and if you beat the record you'll get a prize. But you might not want to do that, Damen would be upset."

Samuel leaned in. "Damen's this really bad student who doesn't like to be beaten. But if you do, I'll watch your back. You hear me kid."

Dean grabbed the sword and accepted the challenge. The pigmies surrounded him dancing with their spears, juggling them, and adding some knives into the mix. Luckily, Dean's dad was farsighted enough to teach him a few moves. And one of those moves was based on the dragon. His dad always emphasized being able to run away from enemies. He also had a prediction that Dean would amount to nothing, so he trained him constantly.

He started moving around using dragon steps, like it was natural, and spun his sword a few times.

A bird cawed on the trees and swooped past Dean. He had his sword in his hand and was dancing away from a series of throwing knives. Wait, this was an entry level test. They seemed like adults wielding spears! It felt like he was facing ten little knights! He wacked away the spear from his right side and flipped backwards flowing like a dragon in the middle of a weaponized sea. The monkey's tide became more turbulent, and another two monkeys ran out flanking him. If he really had a choice, he'd probably not want to fight two more. The first minute passed, and Elizabeth sighed.

"You were right about him. He's really been trained before."

"I do have the book of prophecy. Why would you bet against me in the first place?"

"It's not like you've never been wrong before, Samuel." She tossed up two gems, and the bag on his side wiggled out to catch them.

"Poof!" One of the pigmies sky-rocketed towards a tree, and another three ran out. Dean had no idea how he'd gotten so much better at fighting. He was three seconds away from setting the record.

"Well, shall we Elizabeth." Samuel said.

"I think it be bad if he beat that record, poor Damen. I bring the earth, you bring the fire."

Suddenly, Dean had a lot more to deal with, and he felt very slighted. It was not a fun day, so far, and all he saw was streams of energy trying to eat him up. His dad never prepared him for this!

The Elements lashed out at him as he tried to hack at the monkeys without getting struck. The bird above him cawed and seemed angry at his persistence. All in the room seemed to be tossed on its head, and they all tried to make him fail.

If it came down to it, the grass would probably swallow him whole if it had a mind. The branches were blowing in the wind, and leaves were getting in his eyes. The ground was holding him down because it was muddy. It was purely horrible. Dean flipped back into the air as a set of five spears almost nicked his shoe laces. The pygmies laughed waiting for him to come back down.

But then Confetti dropped from the ceiling of the room, and the birds stopped trying to hurt him and hummed a tune of victory. However, Samuel held out his hand and shot out a bolt of lightning at Dean. The record couldn't be too much higher than the old one, it was policy. But the kid even had the balls to block, what gall! He glided back, for an extra second, and slid all the way to Collin who was scratching his head.

"Plop." Dean dropped to his knees sizzled by the bolt. Samuel appeared behind him and pushed him down.

"You ate the fruit didn't' you." He whispered into his ears.

Dean nodded before a kiss grazed the side of his cheek.

"Well, welcome to the advanced class Dean! See you tomorrow!" Elizabeth laughed. "You're the first student I ever had to give an award too."

He smiled, and returned to his favorite place, dreamland. He was happy to go back. And the first day would start soon.