*In the kingdom of Brister lies the Landshill Academy, the prestigious knight academy that takes the young men and women of the kingdom and turns them into knights. It’s a tough 3 years of training but those who graduate from the academy are then accepted into one of four knight orders and given a job for life. Before graduation each student will have to test their skills in front of the representatives of the orders. If their performance is good and the representative likes what they see that order will send a letter to them. One such student is getting prepared for his test down at one of the training facilities in the academy*
(Announcer): Now up next for the Order Test. Student #26, Jin Hephaestus.
*A young man with short brown hair and yellow eyes enters the training facility where representatives of the orders watch him from above in a booth. The young man was wearing a short-sleeved black and red hooded sweatshirt with black pants and a utility belt around his waist filled with various metal objects. On his hands were some brass knuckle knives*
(Jin): Uh. . .hi. I’m. . .Jin Hephaestus. Although I guess she already just said that *chuckles nervously*. Anyway, I’m honored to be here, thank you all for showing up, and I hope you’ll consider me for your order.
(Annoucer): The test will now begin.
*The arena that Jin stands in begins to fill up with artifical Eclipses that take on the appearance of five birds, five wolves, a lion, and a bear. Jin takes a deep breath and lifts up his fists. He begins to concentrate on his brass knuckle knives where they begin to glow as magical particles begin to pop out of the metal knuckles. At first, the knives on the knuckles are small but Jin concentrates to make the knives longer and deadlier. The green light to start the test appears and Jin begins by running to the closest Eclipse which is the bear Eclipse. Jin dodges the swipe of the Eclipse’s paw by sliding between its legs and managed to get behind the Eclipse where he climbs the back of the Eclipse to reach its neck and slice its head clean off with his brass knuckle knives. The body of the Eclipse falls to the ground as Jin jumps off the body to land safely. The five wolf Eclipses come running at Jin where he manages to slice through two of them with his brass knuckle knives, but the other three dodge his attack with two of them landing hits on his chest with their claws. Jin staggers from the pain but manages to stay on his feet and fight through the pain to get ready for the next attack. Jin begins to manipulate the metal on his hands resulting in a bright light. When the light dies down we see that Jin has created a wrist crossbow on his left hand. Jin then takes out some metal needles from his utility belt he had and manipulates them into arrows to fire. Jin loads up his crossbow and fires the arrows at the wolf Eclipses nailing them in the head and killing them. Some bird Eclipses try to attack him from above by firing their razor-sharp feathers at him, but he rolls out of the way at the last second. Jin looks up and fires at the Eclipses where he misses a number of shots before hitting 2 birds to kill them instantly. While he was distracted by the birds, the lion Eclipse pounces him from behind. Just when the Eclipse is about to claw away at Jin’s face, Jin manipulates the metal of the wrist crossbow to form bucklers to protect himself. Jin lifts the shields up to protect himself from the claw of the lion Eclipse who tries to claw away at the shields but has no luck. The Eclipse bites into the shield and tosses Jin across the arena. Jin lands hard on one of his sides but gets back up as the lion Eclipse comes charging back at him where he reaches into his utility belt and pulls out a round metal object. Jin begins to manipulate the shield on his right wrist where he forms a hand cannon and loads the metal ball into the cannon. With the Eclipse’s mouth open wide, Jin jams the hand cannon into the mouth of the Eclipse and fires it. Jin destroys the head of the lion Eclipse entirely with the metal ball exploding on contact. This just left 3 bird Eclipses where Jin takes out a few more explosive balls from his utility belt and fires them at the Eclipses. The Eclipses manage to dodge the attack a few times but Jin manages to destroy all of them allowing the final challenge to appear, a gorilla Eclipse which stood 11 feet tall. Letting out a mighty roar, the gorilla Eclipse comes charging at Jin who wasn’t fast enough to react to the attack of the Eclipse who punches him and sends him flying through the air where he lands on his back. Still dazed and feeling the effects of the attack, Jin is left defenseless as the Eclipse picks him up and begins to squeeze his body in the grip of his hands. Jin screams out in pain but begins to concentrate on the metal soles of his shoes, forming them into a blade. Jin kicks up where he manages to stab the chest of the Eclipse. Stomping a few times, the Eclipse succumbs to the pain and releases Jin who lands on the ground safely. Jin reaches into his utility belt and throws a flash grenade into the face of the Eclipse which blinds it. Climbing up one of the artificial structures nearby, Jin reaches into his utility belt and pulls out a handful of shiny metal rocks. Jin leaps off the structure and manipulates the metal to form a giant metal spike ball around his arm. Just as the Eclipse regained its sight, it was greeted with a spike ball to the face crushing its artificial skull and defeating it. The Eclipse falls to the ground backwards along with Jin who barely landed safely and once the body of the artificial Eclipse disappears Jin’s test was over. Beaten up a little and breathing heavily Jin takes a bow*
(Jin): Thank you all for this opportunity. Please consider me for your order.
*Two Days later*
*Two days go by and Jin logs into his email outside of the academy to check his messages and see which orders are interested in him. Jin is shocked to see he received no letters from any orders meaning that none of them were impressed with his performance. Feeling miserable, Jin goes to sit down at a bench on the verge of crying with his head down at how he failed to earn favor with an order.
(Jin): Oh man. What am I going to tell my folks?
(???): You can tell them that you’re going to be a knight.
*A mysterious voice spoke to Jin. Jin looks up to see a middle-aged man with grey hair, black eyes, and wearing a nice black suit with an orange scarf and glasses while carrying a cane. The man’s presence scares Jin enough that he jumps a little earning a good chuckle from the middle-aged man and his two associates standing behind him who are Amarti and Zia. Amarti was wearing a long-sleeved light-yellow shirt with black pants while Zia was wearing a long-skirted blue maid outift*
(Middle-aged man): Apologies for startling you and for not sending you a letter. Since you were the only applicant we chose from your class, we wanted to invite you personally to our order.
*The middle-aged man hands Jin a letter*
(Middle-aged man): Ah, but where are my manners. My name is Morrison Lamorak, chief knight and commander of the Black Tortoise Order. Please feel free to call me Morrison and these are my associates Amarti Cloudsfall and Zia Aeberos.
(Amarti): Yo.
(Zia): A pleasure to meet you.
(Jin): Woah, THE Morrison Lamorak? The Conductor of Storms? Your strategies and tactics from the war are still talked about to this day. It’s an honor to meet you sir.
(Morrison): *Chuckles* It’s good to see my achievements are still being passed on to the next generation.
(Jin): They said after the war you retired from active duty and started the Black Tortoise Order which operates as Internal Affairs for the kingdom.
(Morrison): That’s correct, and I believe your skills will be beneficial to our order.
(Jin): Um, no offence sir but I really don’t see how my skills could help anyone in Internal Affairs.
(Amarti): Well Internal Affairs is just one side of the job. In truth, we run a private sector here in Black Tortoise and after seeing your performance I believe your skills and assets would benefit not only us but the whole kingdom greatly. You’re a little rough around the edges, but with the right guidance you could become something great if you’re interested.
(Morrison): Please come to the office tomorrow morning for your trial period. If it’s something you’re not interested in, we’ll find something else for you to do.
*Morrison patted the shoulder of Jin before walking off with Amarti and Zia leaving Jin there to take in everything he just heard. Jin gets up and shouts at them*
(Jin): Hey! Does this work really help out the kingdom?
(Morrison): Oh yeah. The work we do helps out the kingdom in ways you never thought imaginable. There are more ways to help out the kingdom than fighting on the frontlines.
*Jin sits back down on the bench and opens up his letter where he reads about the order inviting him over for a 1-week trial period. Looking at the bottom of the letter he sees the emblem of the Black Tortoise Order which was a black tortoise with a shell that looked like a shield. Along with this emblem there was another emblem he’s never seen before. The emblem showed an eye with the castle of Brister in the background with a yellow backdrop*
SHADOW EYE
The shadows are always watching
The story begins February 2022
Author’s Notes: Well guys we’re here. The final preview for my novel. Sorry for the delay. With everything going on today I forgot to upload it this morning. Anyway, thank you very much for reading this preview as well as the others. Allow me to talk about the character of Jin. As you guess, Jin was the last character I created for the novel. I wanted to create a character that would help as an entry point for everyone reading the novel. He’s a young knight who doesn’t know all that much, so when he asks questions about this and that it comes across as genuine because he really doesn’t know anything unlike the other characters I’ve introduced. Compared to others, Jin will be significantly weaker than them which will serve to give him plenty of room to grow so look forward to his growth. While he’s not strong he’s not entirely weak or stupid. One of the important things I wanted to do with Jin’s character was make him not come across as the typical shonen male lead. Don’t make him a hothead, stupid, or overly emotional. I wanted to present him as a normal character you could see in real life and someone you could relate to. He has some level of intelligence and strength, a strong sense of justice but is flexible and will only get stronger as time goes on. The name Hephaestus as you can guess is a reference the Greek God of Fire as well as the craftsman and blacksmith to the gods. I wanted his skills to be that of a blacksmith/craftsman. A wild card of sorts when it comes to fighting meaning he’ll have a versatile array of tools, equipment, and weapons to fight with as opposed to the others who are already set in their methods of fighting. Originally, there was going to be a female character who would also be recruited along with Jin, but I felt her character wasn’t written as strongly as Jin was. I put her to the side for now and hopefully down the line I can revisit her and find a place for her in the story. Okay, that’s all for now. If I feel like it I may post a small preview of the first chapter down the line, but as of right now the series will start on February 2022. More details will be released in the coming months. Again, thanks for reading this as well as the other previews. I’m excited to release this series and I think you’ll all be impressed with the characters, the story, and fights. Look forward to it and remember: the shadows are always watching.