Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness
Why I Won't Fail

Twang. Draycos heard a bowstring being released from somewhere to his upper right. Without slowing his pace, he jumped to his right side and kept running as a handful of crossbow bolts whistled past his left ear. Everything in the tunnel had a purple-blue glow to it from the clouds surrounding Draycos on all sides.

He had been sprinting down the purplish-blue tunnel for about ten minutes now, and every few minutes there was some obstacle impeding his progress. First there was a large boulder rolling down the tunnel towards him, but it was some sort of illusion, as Draycos ran right through it without pausing. The next one was a wall he had been forced to climb over. And now he had to deal with dodging ranged weapons from unseen attackers. That had been the fourth set of bolts fired at him that he managed to avoid.

They’re not pulling any punches with this one. Maybe they keep firing at me since I doubt they got a good feel for my defensive capabilities during that fight with the mock dragon.

After another handful of minutes, Draycos could finally see the end of the swirling tunnel of purple-blue clouds. Relieved, Draycos picked up the pace as much as he could, attempting to reach the end of the tunnel before another obstacle popped up.

Twang. The sound came from behind him this time.

Shit! Draycos twisted his upper body around just in time to see another set of crossbow bolts already on top of him. Without any time to dodge, Draycos lifted his right arm to keep the bolts from getting his head, and three crossbow bolts buried themselves deeply in his right shoulder. Draycos yelled in pain as they almost reached his bones; it hurt much less just getting broken bones then having some foreign object bury itself in his flesh. He tripped and fell right at the exit of the tunnel, sliding to a stop beyond the exit.

Gripping his right shoulder, he managed to prop himself up on his left elbow and looked around. He was right back where he started before running down that booby-trapped tunnel, which was already starting to fragment and dissipate into the air.

A voice started speaking again as Draycos managed to stand up, but it wasn’t Zero’s voice that was talking this time. “You have now finished the agility assessment portion of the exam,” a cool feminine voice echoed throughout the area. It sounded very gentle, like a flower on the verge of losing its petals. “Since you possess no magicka, you will receive a total of zero for that category. We will now proceed to start with the final portion of the assessment exam, which will determine your endurance.”

“Great, still no break for me,” Draycos grumbled as he grabbed one of the bolt shafts sticking out of his shoulder. He attempted to pull it out, but the excruciating pain that resulted from this action prevented him from doing so.

Just then, his entire surroundings began to shift and squirm, causing Draycos to look around in surprise. All the clouds were vanishing as if they were being blown away by a strong gale, relieving what laid beneath them.

Draycos was now standing on a cobblestone ground in the middle of a large square-shaped stone coliseum. The sun was now blazing overhead onto the hot age-worn stones of the structure, and debris filled the otherwise empty stands. A large stone statue of a dragon standing on four legs towered above the outside of the building on a large decorative pillar, but its body was in bad shape. Its lower jaw had been broken off, and one of the wings that extended majestically out of its back had been demolished. It was missing most of its tail, too, and one gleaming golden eye glare in Draycos’s direction. The whole area looked like the place could fall apart at any disruption.

“The endurance assessment will now begin,” the female voice rang out.

Clack. Startled by the sound, Draycos looked around to see its source, but he couldn’t locate it.

Clack. The sound came from above this time, and Draycos looked up.

Clack. Two golden eyes were now focused on Draycos as a piece of stone from the rubble below flew up through the air and placed itself in a broken section of the stone dragon’s body.

The entire coliseum shook and rumbled as rocky debris throughout the structure lifted themselves off the ground and flew at the dragon positioned on the pillar, gradually making the statue whole once more. When the last stone fragment flew into place, the surface of the entire dragons cracked violently and shattered with a loud crash, sending out a large cloud of dust that forced Draycos to shield his face with his arms.

Draycos lowered his arms and looked up at the dragon statue. Or what used to be a stone statue. Small pieces of stone were still falling off its scales, but where the statue had been was now a large humanoid dragon with pure white scales and skin, standing on top of the pillar with one knee of the pillar top, as if the dragon had woken up from a bowing position. A large crystal of various shades of blue and purple protruded from its chest, completely covering the pectoral muscles, and wicked hook-shaped spikes grew out of the back of its long serpentine neck. Its underbelly scales were chrome-blue, and its fingers and toes were entirely curved claws, with one toe on the back of each foot. Blue muscle-like membranes covered its body in certain areas where the scales or skin didn’t cover, as if some of its muscles were exposed. They were on the dragon’s Achilles heels, its biceps, neck muscles, and on each of its toes that the large talons didn’t cover. Three large white horns jutted out from its head as its solid gold eye glared at Draycos. Its tail whipped back and forth, the spiky tip knocking down various surrounding pillars as the dragon rose to both feet. The dragon opened its mouth and let out a deafening shriek, sending dust flying from the sheer force of its voice.

Draycos was still bracing himself against the wind pressure of its cry when the white dragons suddenly crouched down, looking like a cat stalking its prey. It kicked off from the pillar, instantly destroying it and the surrounding area as it unfurled its wings. The skin in between the wing spines were silver and appeared to give off glittering stardust as the dragon quickly flew in on Draycos. Before Draycos could even move from bracing himself against the dragon’s roar, the dragon wound it right arm back and landed a solid strong punch right to Draycos’s torso.

Draycos was sent flying from the impact, hitting the wall of the coliseum arena behind him before he even knew he had been hit. A soundless scream of pain escaped his lips before blood erupted from his mouth. He had never even imagined that he could experience pain on the level before; it made the injuries he had received up to this point seem like nothing but small scratches. All his ribs had been broken from that single attack, and he was convinced that some of them had pierced his lungs. A handful of his organs had been crushed, and he was bleeding profusely from his head. He was still stuck in the wall of the coliseum, his head hanging limply.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit! That hurts. It really does hurt so much. I feel like I could pass out at any moment from the pain. Draycos struggled to slowly lift his head to look at the white dragon. It was standing in the middle of the arena right where Draycos had been, arms crossed over its chest as it quietly observed Draycos. Its wings were still fully extended, and its tail slowly swished back and forth. It reminded Draycos of a curious cat that was waiting for something to happen.

It’s obviously waiting for something. Draycos surmised. I’m guessing it’s trying to see if I’m at my limit or not. I doubt I’ll pass the assessment exam like this; I have no clue how well I did on the test so far. It’s almost certain I’ll fail if I pass out now. A handful of memories of his training with Zero and Damrabe suddenly spilled over to the front of his mind, and he weakly curled his hands into fists.

I’m not a superhero; I can’t do everything just by trying. I’m just the kind of guy who hates wasting stuff. Draycos began to pry himself out of the wall, and the dragon ceased all movement as it continued to observe him. But what I hate more is throwing aside the time and effort of others who are expecting things of me. So many dragons have gone out of their way to look after me and help me get stronger. I don’t want to have wasted the time of all those dragons that invested their time in my training. I don’t want to face all of them again and tell them that I failed to pass the exam. I don’t want to see those faces when I tell them that. I don’t want to fail. I want to pass!

With a loud groan of extreme effort, Draycos managed to peel himself out of the wall and fell face-first to the ground. His left shoulder had dislocated from the impact to the wall, and the arm itself was busted. Draycos managed to get his right arm under him and started working. Slowly but surely, he got to his feet, however unsteady he was, and glared at the dragon in front of him, his left arm hanging uselessly by his side.

“This...is an...endurance test...right?” Draycos huffed, spitting out blood with each word. A smile crossed his face. “Come on! I’m...I’m not done yet! Keep...going! Don’t stop...until I...cry uncle!”

The white dragon remained silent as it crouched once more and kicked off the ground, accompanied by another explosion of dust. It pulled its right arm back once more and threw it forward as it got close enough to Draycos to hit.

But that punch never landed. It stopped just short of Draycos’s nose, and the wind force from the punch ruffled the boy’s hair and clothes as the dragon remained suspended in midair, frozen in place.

Draycos’s eyes had completely glazed over; he had lost consciousness while still standing, A light breeze blew through the arena, and Draycos slowly fell forward, landing on the ground without a sound.

The white dragon’s body began to turn into fragments of light as it dissolved into the air from where it remained frozen in place. It gave a long hard look at Draycos, and then silently nodded at the unconscious young man before it completely disappeared, leaving Draycos alone in the coliseum.