Accepting the gauntlet

After the time that his mother passed away,the war had already ended,or so the people thought, but they had no sure way of telling it was really all over.But soon the days turn into months and the months turned into years of glorious prosperity and soon the camp village had escalated into becoming an almost modern township.

As always in their society ,there existed the three classes of people;the elite or wealthy families were at the top of it earning exorbitant sums of money only to be wasted on their lavish lifestyles while segregating themselves from the lower classes.The moderate income families having just enough for their livelihoods ,and the low income families who struggled for their everyday lives,were basically the backbone of the growing province,providing rich agricultural lands which provided the goods and a large percentage of income from trades with neighboring kingdoms and provinces ,but only to be treated extremely by the higher ups.

The day is September thirteenth ;and it marked a special day for Aiden in two ways,the first being that it marked the anniversary of his birth and second in the sense that he now felt ready to prove himself worthy of becoming a student of the Heavenly Knights Academy,the only school erected thus far in the growing province as to provide students opportunities to learn, acquire,practice and execute powerful skill sets in areas of war,including sorcery ,armed combat ,archery, weapons making etc., in the hopes that the kingdoms and the world at large would be ready to counter and prevent any effect of another clash between heaven and hell and loss of human life.

Aiden had been up all night at his lamp lit desk,contemplating his strategy to defeat his opponent in order to enter and become a part of the school,but suddenly as he was beginning to explore his thoughts,he heard the sound of wooden slippers shuffling down the street. "My letter has arrived." He said to himself. He peered out of his open window to confirm this,but to his surprise no one was there but there were a few parcels but no mailman.

Without another hesitation he crept quietly out of the window,and jumped of the roof to the point in the front yard which he now stood.As he walked a little closer to the parcels in front of his gaze, an eerie feeling took over him his " sixth" sense of danger now became extremely alert.

SWOOSH , a fist came crashing to the ground with Aiden effortlessly dodging it,but h was still astonished by the speed of the shadowy figure.He quickly replied with a flurry of left hooks,SWOOSH!,they all went as the figure too,displayed his skill of dodging.Aiden tried again in attacking the stranger ,this time adding an additional right hook and a leg sweep and THUMP ,the ,cloaked,tall man fell with a groan.Aiden moved in closer and noticed the bag he was carrying then almost immediately recognized the face of his attacker as the moonlight had shone up his face

"Joe?,is the you?" ,Aiden inquired,poking at his arm. "Who else would I be?,King Richard?" he said. "That figures, since you're the only postal worker who would try attacking a customer?" He smirked. "Wisecrack, are you gonna help me up or are you going to continue your chattering?" Joe asked. So Aiden helped him up until he could stand properly on his own and asked, "You have mail for me? I see parcels but no mail."

"As a matter of fact I do," he reached into his pocket and took out an opened mail letter and handed it to him. "Thanks," he said as he climbed up the pipe leading to the roof and crept silently once morning his room. As the postman made his way out of the yard he said , "You should really be thanking me for the training I just gave you ,because you'll be needing a lot more for your big day tomorrow."

Closing the window behind him Aiden took his letter under the light of the table lamp to read.

*Dear Sir Aiden Wen

We the council of the Heavenly Knights Academy have accepted your application to become a student of our school and furthermore you are summoned to the premises of the academy on September thirteenth1690 to perform *combat with your opponent ,Kizame yang at noon and no later .Any delay in time from either of you will cause your inevitable elimination.

We ,the teacher's council wish you good luck and hope that if not both, one of you will be able to call yourselves honored and privileged students of The Heavenly Knights Academy

Sincerely

Mr.Kashimoto*

Head of the teacher council

Heavenly Knights Academy

After reading the letter he said to himself as he looked at the rapidly approaching dawn. "Kizame Yang huh? He'll definitely be a tough opponent to defeat, especially since he belongs to the wealthiest family in the province but no matter ,THE GAUNTLET IS ACCEPTED*!!"

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