First Demonic Dragon

The creature that descended fro the midst of the storm wasn't one that was uncommon to see in these lands.

Locusts are a fairly popular pet in Tehom; with three out of five homes owning at least one.

However, the ones that willingly let themselves be pets to just anyone are similar to corgis or chihuahuas in terms of power and temperament.

Those ridden by the Euphrates into battle are specifically bred for war; and bear the largest amount of Abaddon's magic in their bodies.

The difference is apparent with just a single look, as they go from being the size of a small grizzly bear to a full grown rhinoceros.

But Bagheera was somehow above even them.

He had a bit more musculature than other members of his species, and his hooves were so perfect and powerful that they threatened to crack the ground with every step.

His presence, though monstrous, was also noble and commanded equal parts fear and respect from onlookers.

When he landed out of the sky in front of Thrudd, the entire battlefield seem to come to it's first dead halt since the start of the exercise.

"Baggy!" Thrudd excitedly wrapped her arms around the neck of the large murder horse as if he were a fluffy border collie. "You came!"

The beast let out a few low growls that roughly meant 'Let's wrap this up quickly. It's too early to be up moving around.'

"Aww, you know you're always glad to play with me! Who's my goodest boy??"

Bagheera looked to the side anxiously and ground his hoof in the dirt.

"Come onnn~" Thrudd goaded. "Who's my goodest boy in the whole wide abyss??"

'...Me.'

"That's right! Mwah!" After planting a large kiss on the top of Bagheera's head she climbed aboard his back with ease.

Her personal saddle had already been outfitted onto her father's beast; allowing her to quickly get into a comfortable position.

"Alright.... Just like we practiced, Baggy. Let's give them hell in the two minutes we have left."

Now that she was on a mount, Thrudd's very demeanor was entirely different.

She stashed away her prized shield onto her back so that she could grip her weapon and the reigns easier.

Her prized longsword suddenly ballooned in size; growing several inches in both length and width until it was nearly unrecognizable.

Strong currents of red lightning ran from her arms and hands to the metal chain that acted as Bagheera's harness.

Lightning was transferred from the chain to the beast itself, but instead of shocking him, he was energized by it.

Bright red armor made from highly concentrated plasma covered multiple sections of Bagheera's already massive body and made him look even more fearsome.

Claws made from energy even formed along his hooves and three additional scorpion-like tails sprang from behind his back.

"Alright, boy! Go!" Thrudd pointed her sword forward fervently and her mount roared in response.

Horace Adetunji was one of the standouts of the exam.

Within the viewing room, he was highly praised by superiors for his adaptive ability and propensity for quick thinking, in addition to his talented use of hydrokinesis.

He was an extremely capable soldier; even by the standards of Abaddon's forces.

And that Horace, who was so widely praised for his ability, was cleanly severed into two halves faster than his eyes or mind could perceive.

'I... what... happened..?'

As the two pieces of his body hit the ground, he was only barely able to perceive the sight of tens of other applicants falling over with him; some big, and some small, but all cut the same.

Thrudd and Bagheera reappeared a whole 100 meters away from where they first stood; with everyone standing in their path being cleanly cut in half.

There were also a few who looked like their bodies punctured by some kind of high speed drill.

Those who were just outside of Thread's range looked on in awe and horror.

Her power may not have been as flashy as some of her parents, but she was somehow just as domineering.

Especially with a mount…

"Not bad, Baggy! Think we can do that even faster this time?"

Bagheera snorted as if to say 'Of course, who the hell do you think I am?'

"Just checking, you little drama queen." Thrudd rolled her eyes.

Ignoring the beast's retorts, Thrudd raised her sword onto her shoulder once again, and proceeded to rush through the examinees with glee.

She never slowed down, and she never stifled her ability to give the examinees a fighting chance.

With this final spurt, she would push the examinees to the brink and discover how they handled themselves in the face of impossibility.

'I hope you're keeping up the pace too, baby brother.' she thought.

Straga ducked under a swing of Monica's weapon and swept her legs out from underneath her to plant her firmly on the ground.

He raised his leg and stomped forcefully on the ground as if he were aiming for her abdomen.

But Monica willed her body to become pure flame at the last moment, and Straga's kick that was uncovered by mana, passed through her harmlessly.

While on the ground, she blasted Straga with a new current of burning blue flame that actually knocked him airborne.

And the young prince was… far from upset about this turn of events.

'So cold... but she's so hot... Wait, focus!'

Despite his attempt, Straga was unable to correct himself in time to deal with the ambush prepared for him in the sky.

A spear, sword, great axe, and pole arm pierced his torso from every direction; held by Adeline and three other examinees.

"Forgive us for this, my prince!"

"But we desire to become your father's most elite by any means necessary!"

The dragons began funneling pure anti-matter into Straga's body.

Unsurprisingly, an explosion occurred as every tangible piece of the young prince's body was blown apart into nothingness.

The soldiers seemed taken aback by the fact that their planned actually worked so well, meanwhile on the ground, Monica was horrified.

She never could have imagined just how much it would hurt to see her young suitor 'die' and for a moment she forgot that it was just an exercise.

And then it happened.

The clones that Straga had created to cause pandemonium in the tests suddenly exploded too.

His remains floated overhead towards the clouds in the sky where they all fused into one mass.

But the energy just seemed to keep growing and growing until all that could be seen for hundreds of miles was a black pool floating above the sky.

The air seemed to literally vibrate with power as skulls began to form from the black mass.

But these weren't ordinary skulls; they were the heads of a very large and terrifying dragon.

More and more dragon skulls began to spring up from the mass of black liquid until there were exactly one hundred in total.

The skulls opened their numerous mouths in unison and let out a combined roar that was impossibly loud and destructive.

The terrain that was rocky and rugged from the constant battles was flattened immediately and ground into impossibly soft sand.

'N-No way...'

'The prince is...'

'He's just like his father...'

'A monster...!'

As Straga began gathering power within his jaws, the applicants on the ground who weren't instantly crushed by his roar began scrambling to come up with a plan.

With an unholy terror hanging in the sky above and an imperceivable threat awaiting them on the ground, passing this test seemed more and more like an impossibility.

'No... I'm thinking about this wrong.' Adeline forced herself up from the ground and tightened her grip on her weapon.

She, and most everyone else here were already free from the shackles of death by their maker.

So what else was their left to fear?

What reason was their to lose the will to fight?

How could they possibly grow gutless in the face of two impossibilities when they were also impossibilities themselves?

Once the others saw Adeline stand up fearlessly, they also began to will their own bodies to meet the challenge posed by the siblings head on.

Even Monica, who was blessed with none of Abaddon's immortality or his empowerment, felt the urge to continue.

And if she was going to stand up, then who else here could dare to claim to be afraid?

No one knew who acted first, but a sudden warcry spurned the movement of all of the remaining examinees.

-

"What the hell…?"

Monica couldn't say what had just happened to her.

At one moment she was running fearlessly into what most people would have considered to be their doom.

But now… she was standing in a nice hotel room that she certainly didn't recognize.

*Flutter*

Noticing movement out of the corner of her eye, Monica was immediately on guard, but what she had seen was only a harmless piece of paper…

'Is this what they call PTSD…?' She shook her head at herself before she finally dropped her battered weapon and picked up the sheet of paper.

She recognized the handwriting instantly.

*Congratulations! You have successfully completed the entrance examination for the Euphrates Special Forces. Wasn't that fun??*

Monica stared at the paper dryly. 'No, it most certainly was not, Mrs. S.' (Seras)

*Now that you have finished the testing period, you have all been sent home so that you might get some much needed rest. Any poison within your bodies should have already begun to dissipate, but you should still perform a healing spell for any persistent discomfort.*

Monica looked around and realized the reason why she ended up in a hotel instead of at home.

They were trying to prevent her from asking too many questions.

Try as she might've, she didn't even remember the way to get home anymore.

'God damnit my family is scary!' She shivered.

Nonetheless, she continued reading in the hopes that she would get more answers.

*From here on, you will be given a week to get the rest and baths that you so desperately need after two months in the wilderness. Exactly seven days from now at ten a.m exactly, you will be summoned again to a space where the results of your examinations will be announced. Though all of you who are reading this did successfully make it to the end of the exercise, not all of you will pass. Please keep that in mind.*

Monica swallowed dryly as she felt the paper trembling in her hands.

Sometimes you think that you have done enough to get by, but… in the moments afterwards you are no longer sure.

Monica wasn't naive enough to think that Abaddon would just blindly accept her due to nepotism.

If anything she believed that he would look at her twice as hard as everyone else because they were practically family, and he knew full well just how much Erica had been teaching her.

The mistakes she'd made had never felt so glaringly apparent until this moment.

Monica placed the letter down on the bed, as she was now too in her head to even read it properly.

She walked into the bathroom and immediately began running water in the tub.

Piece by piece, she peeled off her armor and realized exactly why the royal family had decided not to cram a few hundred examinees into an auditorium right away.

Their poor noses would just melt right off…

Monica barely waited for the tub to fill up before heaving her body inside.

The feeling of clean, hot water soaking into her pores after her camping trip from hell was practically orgasmic.

She didn't bother to cut off the stream until the water was reaching her neck.

Finally, she rested her back against the wall of the tub and allowed herself feel her fatigue for the first time in two months.

It's effect was instantaneous.

Before she knew what was happening, Monica had blinked one single time and ended up putting herself right to sleep.