In school, the situation was not as bad as it was when the students were about to take their examination. Although what was taking place today in the school was still part of the examination, the one the students had already done held more points so they weren't really bothered about this part of the examination.
From the speakers around the school, the examiners announced what the students were going to be doing as the second part of the examination.
"Today you all are going to be put in dangerous and challenging real-life situations to see how you respond to it, those who respond best will get the most points. Do not worry too much about this part, this part is just to see how quick you are to think on your feet. The second part of the examination will begin momentarily so get ready. When you here your name, come into the building where the first part of the examination took place."
"Sky Dipson."
Walking into the one storeyed building, Sky could see it looked way different from the time they had used it for their examination. It now had a huge cube in the middle and it was no longer a storeyed building. It looked like a very wide and high hall with a huge cube in the middle.
"Please step into the cube." an examiner said to Sky.
Opening the door of the cube, Sky stepped in and looked around. The cube was made out of glass at least 4 centimeters thick and Sky could see multiple nanobots flying in the air creating what appeared to be a holographic display of a desert along with three people.
"As you might already know," Sky heard the voice of another examiner, "Veda soldiers use magical abilities. Those nanobots you are seeing are creating realistic holograms of a desert and Veda soldiers. When I say realistic, I mean it might be a hologram but it is just as real as the actual thing only with less attributes."
Sky listened attentively as the examiner continued explaining what he was going to deal with in the cube.
"For example," the examiner continued, "the sandstorm of the desert won't be as strong as the one in real life, same thing with the soldiers. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Sky answered
"Good. You are in a desert with three hostiles who are out for your life. Back-up is five minutes away, try to survive till then. The full body suit next to you is a simulating suit. When you receive an attack that can kill you, it will turn red. You will feel the pain of any attacks you receive while wearing the suit but you will not actually be injured. Your examination starts now."
Quickly putting on the full body suit, Sky could see a timer on the wrist part of the suit counting down from five minutes. Looking around him, it no longer looked like he was inside a huge cube. He could see a sandstorm coming from ahead of him along with three hostiles running towards him.
Immediately picking the pocket knife he saw on the floor, Sky began running, looking for any thing he can use to hide or cover himself before the hostiles caught up to him.
Seeing a rundown building with lots of debris around it, Sky ran into the building as two fireballs were thrown at him. Looking at the timer on his wrist, Sky could see he still had four minutes to try to survive.
Running past the line of sight of the hostiles, Sky ran back to where he had entered from and stayed behind the wall. 'If I'm going to try to survive for four more minutes I can't have all three of them chasing me.' Sky thought to himself while taking deep steady breaths and holding the pocket knife tightly in his hand.
As Sky was behind the wall waiting for the first person that will pass through the entrance, he saw and felt the heat from more fireballs being thrown into the building. 'I know one of them is using fire magic, but what about the other two.'
Coming through the entrance and walking forward carefully was a man with fire on his palm and fingertips. Not wasting any time, Sky stabbed him right at the back of his head, pulled the knife out and ran deeper into the building.
Hot on his heels were the other two hostiles. Teleporting to his front, one of the hostiles gave Sky a punch on his nose. 'Crap that hurt.' Sky thought while stumbling backwards and holding his nose. Attempting to stab the hostile in front of him, Sky's hand was grabbed from behind by the second remaining hostile. The hostile in front of Sky threw a punch at him in the stomach but Sky managed to move his body out of the way and kicked the hostile on his knee so hard it was almost bent in.
The hostile behind Sky hit the back of his head which made Sky dizzy. Almost falling to the floor, Sky turned around, jumped and tried to kick the hostile's head but the kick passes through the head of the hostile and Sky fell to the ground unconscious.
Opening his eyes, Sky could see he was still inside the cube but it no longer had the holograms of the desert and hostiles.
"You did well." one of the examiners said to Sky. "You managed to survive for two minutes forty-nine seconds, and you didn't hesitate to kill one of the hostiles."
"Why would I hesitate?" Sky said as he took the suit off. "I knew he wasn't real and it was either me or him so of course I chose myself."
Leaving the building, Sky was permitted to go home. The next student was called and he also went into the building and into the cube. After the examiners explained everything the hologram inside the cube was not the desert Sky had seen. The hologram was now a busy street with vehicles and people moving everywhere. Three hostiles came out of a building and ran after the student.
After surviving for one minute fifty-nine seconds, the student left the building and another student was called.
"Samuel O'Connor"
"Fred Hunt"
"Sasha Wells"
"Deuce Grut"
"Ria Trindy"
The students were called one after the other and as they were leaving the building they were going home, apart from some who wanted to wait for their friends.
"Catherine West"
"Good luck." Jake told Catherine as she walked to the building.
"Thanks." Entering the building, Cat also saw the huge cube in the middle. Stepping into it after being told to do so by an examiner, the examiner explained what was going to happen in the cube and the scenery became different.
Now in a building which looked like the armory of the Veda soldiers, Cat could see weapons like an acid grenade, a staff for mana increase, a mana-powered blaster, illusion ray and many more. Looking at all the weapons in the armory, Cat knew what most of them were and she could hear footsteps approaching the room she was in.
Quickly picking up a few acid grenades, with the illusion ray Catherine shot a beam out of it into the corridor which turned into an illusion of her. After getting the attention of the hostiles, the illusion ran down the corridor and the hostiles gave chase, running after the illusion they thought was the real Catherine towards the room where Catherine was waiting for them with three acid grenades in her hands.
When the hostiles reached the door to the room Catherine was hiding in, she was about to throw the acid grenades at them but hesitated. Looking around the corridor for any signs of Catherine, one of the hostiles spotted her hiding in the armory.
Seeing the hostiles coming towards her, Catherine threw the acid grenades at them and it exploded. Their bodies began to burn from the acid and the hostile that took most of the damage from the acid grenades fell down and disintegrated.
Catherine quickly picked up the mana-powered blaster because it was the closest weapon. Not knowing what it would do, she pointed the blaster at the hostile she was seeing and pulled the trigger.
Raising his hands in an X position, the energy that was shot out from the blaster touched a shield around the man's hands and dissipated.
Firing continuously, the shield around the man's hands broke and the energy from the blaster with Catherine was beginning to hit the man eventually killing him. Now noticing that the third hostile was nowhere to be seen, Catherine dropped to the floor feeling very exhausted but before she could catch her breath, a sword went through her chest. Looking up, Catherine saw the third hostile become visible and her suit light up red before she died.
Opening her eyes, Catherine saw the cube back to the way it was when she got into it.
"You survived for three minutes." one of the examiners told her as she left the cube. "And you knew how to use the weapons to an extent. Have you used them before?"
"No." Cat answered. "I don't know how I did it."
"Interesting." the examiner said.
In a room not too far away from the cube, other examiners were watching what was going on in the cube and in the building.
"Looks like we have a prodigy here." one examiner said to another.
"Yes. Though she did hesitate to throw those grenades at first, unlike that boy with blonde hair. What's his name?"
"Sky Dipson." an examiner in the room answered. "That girl also, Sasha Wells, she survived for three minutes ten seconds, a second year student. It seems like this set of second years might become the strongest third year students this school has seen."
"Don't worry Cat." Jake said to Cat after she had left the building. "You don't have to wait for me, you don't even know when I'm going to be called. I might be the last person."
"No Jake." Cat said defiantly. "It doesn't matter when they call you. I'll wait till you're done."
"Cat the time's already 8 pm. Are you sure you wanna wait till I'm done?"
"Yes."
"Okay." Jake finally stopped protesting.
"Vince Manning"
More names were called into the building until finally, Jake's name was called.
"Jake Cayden"