During the summer, the Observers came to the Town of Lore and held the exam in an abandoned building. Only six people were taking the test—Iris and I were two of the six.

We waited outside as the Observers would call in the examinees one at a time. Some would come out quick or others would take hours before the door opened again. And as I waited I could hear loud explosions, yelling, and smashing. 

Iris was called before me and she didn’t even take an hour. After some loud explosion, Iris exited the building and walked away while flipping her hair. As my best friend and crush went out she turned to me and winked. In return, I faked a smile and nodded.

“Next!”

I took a deep breath and walked into the abandoned building. On the inside, the place looked old dirty water was dripping from the ceilings, and all the windows were broken. Sitting by a long fancy table with golden chalices, paper with notes, and fancy clothing that shined so bright that the Observers looked like ghosts.

“State your name and power.”

“My name is Baxter Ale! I am fifteen and skilled with the sword!”

“What is your magic power?”

“I-I…I don’t have magic. I’m a Null good sirs…”

I sweated profusely after speaking the truth. A part of me wanted to lie but I knew that wasn’t smart. They would figure out my secret after seeing me not use mana and there was no way to play it off in front of experts like them.

The Observers said nothing and just continued to stare at me with emotionless expressions. 

I stuttered as I tried to speak more.

“I promise to show my good sirs my skills and why I deserve to be a Holy Knight!”

One of the Observers leaned forward.

“Your test will be to defeat the four wooden golems that we will throw at you before the timer runs out. You have ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes? To beat four golems?”

Another Observer stood up and took a wand out of his robe. He waved it which caused green sparkles of magic to come out and touch the ground near my feet.

“Earth Magic: Dolls of Mother.”

Spawning from the ground were for wooden golems which looked similar to people.

“Ready? Begin!”

The golems charged at me with incredible speed and attacked me all at the same time.

“W-woah!”

It was unbelievably tough while I was holding them back with my sword skills the golems were programmed with amazing hand-to-hand combat. I found myself getting hit constantly and thrown to the floor or the wall.

As I was getting beaten and bleeding from my nose I glazed over at the Observers who were writing everything down. I began to panic and got back up to counterattack.

I managed to slice one of the golems in half with one powerful swing. The other three jumped on me and managed to disarm me. Frustrated I grabbed one of the golems and ripped off its head with my bare hands.

Two more golems remained. Without another second I punched a massive hole in one of their stomachs and they stopped functioning. I grunted aloud due to my bare knuckles bleeding from the impact.

Then there was the last golem which took a lot longer to take down. We traded blows until I managed to grab the animated doll's face. With all my strength I slammed the wooden golem down on the ground, breaking its head into many pieces.

I stood before the Observers—sweating, breathing heavily, and bleeding. Like before they showed no emotion and continued to write in their notepads. I glanced over at the timer near the Observer at the center to see that I only had one minute left.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. The disappointment I had in myself was unbearable.

“Thank you, Baxter Ale,” One of the Observers said. “You will receive the results in four days. You can be off now.”

After bowing I exited the building and hurried back to my house. My mother saw my battered body and was worried sick but I  ignored her as I went up to my room and locked my door. I crashed onto my bed and proceeded to lament my own weakness.