Soon it was the day of the test. Everyone came on time. They were all standing in the building which housed the spatial fragment.
Principal Absal Igor greeted the teams:
"Good morning students. As you know this test is being conducted inside a space fragment. It is a very expensive item as all of you know. That itself shows the importance the government attaches to the evaluations in the martial class. We all hope that you students will rise through the challenges of the martial way and become citizens who contribute to the prosperity of this country. Know that all heroes who are accomplished warriors and eminent personalities started of as students. This may be the beginning of your journey.
Now regarding the test. The field inside the space fragment would be a forest, complete with thick group of trees, grasslands, river, ponds, swamps etc. There will be lot of flora and fauna in there as well. Now the most important thing. Your objective is survival in the forest. The points will be based on the number and quality of your hunt. There will be separate points for survival skills as well.
Minimum supplies will be given to you before you go in. There are some check points in the test, in which there are some extra supplies. These include medicines, weapons and other miscellaneous gadgets required for survival. The spatial fragment has a space of 500 sq km. As I said, it has an ecosystem of its own, with herbivore, carnivores, scavengers and various species of flora and fauna for the completion of that environment."
He paused there and solemnly looked at the students. Then he said:
" For the further stability of the environment inside the spatial fragment an animus has been introduced into this environment" The students gasped. This was not something they signed up for. They began to murmur.
The principal spiked his aura silencing the students. They shuddered. Everyone except that of Mahaansh's students. They had felt much powerful aura from their martial teacher. Most of them did not even flinch. " First of all you are not little kids anymore. It is time that you face the cruel reality of the world. What you are going tom face after your education will be much worse than this. At least here you have the teachers to protect you when some thing goes wrong."
Then he suppressed his aura and said:
"As you know and animus represents a completely different level of life than other animals that you see. They have the intelligence on par with us. The reason they don't rule over us is because, their emotions get the better of them. Yes, they are powerful and yes, it is dangerous. But you have to face it. You are now under the military rule and this is an order"
Now, the animus is a plantera leo. It is some thing which can innately manipulate the vegetation around it and is a very prized species. It is not there with its pride. It is alone and various measures has been taken such that it won't move from its cave normally. Normally that is. You should all be ready to face any extraordinary situations.
That will all be the briefing. We will start the test. "
He gestured to one of the workers. The worker pressed a few buttons and pulled a lever. Suddenly the space fragment began to shine. The various teams began to enter the spatial fragment one by one. This was done so that they did not land in the same place and a fight immediately started. They were being sent to various locations.
Soon, it was the turn of Ben's team. Ben and his team found themselves in a grassland. Once they gathered their bearing all of them began to puke. This was the result of entering the space fragment. They vomited nonstop for about 15 minutes. They had some tablets which was used to stop this. After some time when they gathered their bearing and looked at each other.
Saarsh: "That was the most horrible 15 minutes of my life!!!!
Rais: You had time to calculate the time!!!!
Roshin: Exactly. It felt like an eternity.
Jim: As much as I like to lie down like this, this is a forest.
Ben: Yes, we need to find somewhere to hide from the beasts."
They all decided to go and find a shelter. In the forest they were sure they could not find something that was exactly a shelter. But they had to find a place to hide or could at least fend of animals easily. With that in mind they moved from the grasslands to an area with more trees and other vegetation. They could feel the aura of the animus. It was anything but ordinary. They were quite some distance from the animus. From a map they had, which was with the essential kit, they could understand that they were in the outer periphery of this jungle. At a distance, probably a few kms away, they could see the boundary of the spatial fragment. It felt like they were in a dome which was the blue sky. There was a sun in the sky. They did not know if there would be a moon at night.
From the aura that was coming, they calculated that the animus was in the centre of the forest and they were in its outer periphery. So they did not go in. They began to explore the boundary of this forest. Soon, they found a cave which they found was empty. So they decided to make it their temporary camp. They wanted to rest for some time, to reach the peak, so that they could start the hunt soon. They also began to discuss some things:
Jim: "So what are we going to do now? The supplies we have will only last for 2 days maximum.
Rais: We will have to start hunting soon. If not, only will we starve, we will also fall behind in points.
Saarsh: Yes. But how will we cook? It may alert other teams. This time the teachers have not said anything about fighting between two groups.
Roshin: Oh shoot. This time it seems they want us to fight it seems."
Ben was thinking about something. His friends looked at him. He was looking in the direction of the animus. They had a bad feeling about it. Ben said: " What if we use the animus for our protection?" Everyone looked at him. " It will be fun guys." They could feel a headache coming.