i saw another guy post a small chapter from a novel he was working on (having something to do with elves), so i might as well try and post up mines. it's still in progress, and so far i'm at 7 chapters at 20 or so pages. here's the prologue and first chapter:
Nishi Sentou Gakuin
West Combat Academy
By: Patrick Phan
Prologue
It is today- in a different world. There is no war, there is no peace. Four academies: respectively the North, West, East, and South combat academies are in a violent blood feud. Each year, the "meat grinder", mi-to assaiki, is held, in where select students from each of these academies do battle until one is dead or no longer able to fight. Everyone harnesses different powers- from brute strength to dark shadow magic- some are not even human. In this world inhabited by fighters, only four students will become the masters of their home academy, and will all fight in one last battle to see who is the real grand battle master.
Chapter 1
Double Murder
Fwip! Fwip! Fwip! Arrows rained down on the ground as John sprinted across an open field. He could easily run past the four hundred or so slowpokes around him, but if he pulled ahead he wouldn't have the advantage of having twenty human shields around him. He watched as a person ahead get hit with an arrow square in the forehead, knocking him out cold with a dull thud. He fell to the ground backwards as others trampled over him and tripped on him. John jumped over the downed man with ease and burst forward ahead of the others. He jumped onto a large stone platform floating on a shallow river. He jumped across the platforms as plumes of water shot up from the river by underwater explosions. The instructors had taken care to set them far away from the platforms, but John was showered with shrapnel as he stepped onto land and made it for a large wall studded with fake rocks. About a hundred had already been taken out by the fifteen archers guarding the open field. He climbed with ease over the wall and instead of climbing down the other side, he jumped off when he was on top. He felt something dull strike his chest and stomach when he landed flat on the ground facedown. He quickly got to his feet and climbed up a rope ladder, knocking down a person who was climbing up.
"HEY!" cried the man.
"What goes up must come down," John said as he climbed up the ladder. He got onto the monkey bars and slowly advanced from ring to ring. He was almost at the end and his hands were sore when something hard struck him in the small of his back. He turned his head around just in time to see an applicant he had pushed off the ladder trying to kick him off the monkey bars.
"What goes up must come down," he repeated while lashing out at John's legs. John remained calm and kicked out backwards, hitting the applicant in the crotch.
"AGH!" He let go of the bars, plummeted down, and was then caught by the net set up below. John jumped onto the opposite platform at the end of the monkey bars. He saw double doors ahead of him and opened it. It revealed a large room with the end obscured with black colored walls. This entire building was dedicated to being a maze. John wasn't in the mood for thinking, so he hung on to the top of one wall and hoisted himself up over wall. Fwip! John felt a sharp pain as an arrow struck him in the ribs. He wheezed out in pain and fell over to the side he had climbed from. Archers had been posted here also to make sure no one would take the "shortcut" through the maze. He attempted again and this time he got over. However, the two archers spotted him and arrows rained down on him. These archers were rapidly draining his patience.
"STOP IT YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!!! I'M NOT-" An arrow struck him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. He ducked and hid under a dead end. He was in no mood for anymore archers, so he closed his eyes and sighed an ancient spell.
"Largior upon thee an inflecto and calamus of ater navitas!" Instantly a maple wood longbow appeared in his hand. A quiver appeared on the side of John's hip. Two archers on the west and east walls of the buildings were standing in opera-style seats raised twenty or more feet above the ground. He took careful aim and was spotted by the archer on the west wall. Doing! The drawstring rebounded as the arrow flew into the air. Fwip! The archer ducked- just in time. The arrow hit the wall above him and bounced off. The archer reached for an arrow in his quiver and yelled to the archer on the east wall.
"Watch-" An arrow penetrated the right side of the west archer's head. He crumpled to the ground, dropping his longbow down to the floor below. John turned to face the east archer with lightning quick speed, and when he was just about to release the drawstring the east archer launched three arrows in quick succession, one of them striking John in the stomach and two of them in his chest. John fell over backward, feeling waves of pain lash out all throughout his body.
"SECURITY!" a voice came from above. A door behind John opened. John swung around just in time to see a burly man with a ski mask and black sweater with the yellow letters WCA stamped on it on take a crack at him with a baseball bat. John ducked as another goon in the same outfit came out, this one wielding brass knuckles. John swept his foot across the ground, knocking the goon with the bat off his feet. He made a grab for the baseball bat and swung at the goon with the brass knuckles, hitting him in the side with a crunch. He wheezed and fell to the ground. Just as the other one got up, John split his head open with the baseball bat. CRACK! Blood gushed out of the man's head and he fell to the ground, unmoving. The other one was attempting to get up with great difficulty. John got ready to take him out too when he heard another CRACK! This time it came from him. He slumped to the ground instantly, unconscious.
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"He's lucky those arrows had no points. Otherwise he should be dead like the ones he killed today."
"Huh? What?" John spoke weakly. He opened his eyes and felt an intense throbbing pain in his head. He moaned and put his hand over the source of where it came from. He felt something fuzzy on the back of his head. He attempted to rip it off, but was stopped by the doctor standing at the left side of his hospital bed.
"Don't! Those are bandages."
"For what?"
"You had a concussion when one thug slammed you in the back of the head with a baseball bat. You're pretty lucky you can still talk."
"What did I do to deserve that?"
The doctor whispered something to the nurse beside him. The nurse quietly left the room. The doctor then took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak.
"You...killed one archer assigned to guard a maze that was part of the exam and you also killed another security guard. It took three to bring you down. I'm pretty sure you'll be hanged for all that, but that's for the academy headmaster to decide."
Just then an old man walked in. He was wearing a red jacket with a black outline of a dragon emblazoned diagonally across the jacket. His entire head was covered thinly with graying hair. He looked of Japanese descent and walked in a very dignified and noble way. He was followed by an instructor wearing black sweat pants, a white, sweaty T-shirt, a whistle hanging from his neck, and a flat top hairstyle similar to those of high-ranked officers in the Army.
"Is this the one?" the old man in the red jacket asked.
"Yes, headmaster," replied the doctor.
"Now, son, tell me what you did," said the headmaster to John.
"I didn't do nothing!" John snapped.
"Tell the truth, maggot!" the instructor snapped back.
"You did something from what I heard," replied the headmaster calmly.
"Spit it out, meat!" barked the instructor.
"Meat? I see no meat here," John replied coolly.
"You'll be meat when I see you hanging from the gallows!" the instructor shot back.
"Now, now, Smith, you want to hang everything you see. This boy sounds promising," commented the headmaster.
"Promising as a what? Juvenile murderer?" the instructor countered.
"No. He's aggressive, impatient, a good archer, nimble, quick, and obviously strong enough to overpower two security guards. He has the fine mark of a future great warrior, assassin, or archer," the headmaster triumphed.
"Still, he murdered a licensed instructor and a security guard..," the instructor mumbled, defeated.
"Would you like to stay here and be trained in this fine academy?" the headmaster asked, facing John.
"Sure, I'm game. That's why I applied here," said John.
"Then it is so. No one will be hanged! It is final! This fine young man here is staying!"
if you like it (which i doubt), check out the whole thing at http://www.freewebs.com/mechwarrior6/nishisentougakuin.htm
