2 Days Skip,
9:39 Pm,
Ryo dashes swiftly towards a standing wooden dummy, with his blazing sword held tightly by his two hands, brightly leaving traces of burning flames on his track.
Then, in a single, swift slash, he decapitated right through the dummy in front of him, and with smooth, clean movements, he unsheathed his weapon, all the while the wooden dummy disintegrated behind him, setting a flashy facade.
He looked up at the digital clock hanging above, flashing red-colored numbers.
"9:39 in the evening already?" He murmured in disbelief.
Since 7 pm, he has been training in the allotted training grounds, continuously practicing both his physical, and magical skills.
And hours quickly passed by without him noticing. But, he doesn't plan to stop yet. He sat on the wooden bench nearby and grabbed the water bottle he placed earlier.
He stared forward, his mind traveling endlessly around, as he took a sip of his water.
"They're strong. Most of them are. They held their ground against the fourth easily, one even pinned him (Ryujin), singlehandedly."
"Everything here is a competition."
He remembered the things he heard in the past. Then, a brief image of his mother appeared on his mind.
"For her, I'll do it." He murmured. Having concluded his break, he placed his water bottle on the bench, and stood up, ready to train again.
As he was about to go in the middle, the sound of the iron door opening echoed.
He glanced over in the direction of the sound and saw a familiar figure walking.
Dark Red Hair, Glasses, Blue sweaters, and White Pajamas, it was the familiar figure of Tsubasa Rin.
As she walked, she noticed Ryo's presence on the side.
"Kyosuke-san, Good Evening, fancy seeing you here." She greeted.
Her hair was still quite messy, and her eyes seemed sleepy as if she had just woken up.
"Good evening," Ryo nonchalantly greeted back. "Are you also going to use this room?"
"Yes, Kyosuke-san, if you don't mind."
"Sure."
Concluding their conversation, Ryo gets into his place and places a dummy again in front of him.
Rin was on the other side of him. He looked over before starting.
Rin was tying her hair up into a ponytail, with a dummy in front of her. After finishing, she faced the dummy, while holding a red shard in her hand.
She raised it up and focused her energy all over her body, and soon after, her body emitted a radiant reddish glow.
Then, she summoned 4 Knife-sized red shards around her that her red shard could control in her hand.
She swayed the shard, and the knife shards followed smoothly.
In a single command, she pointed the shard towards the dummy, and right after, the knife shards launched themselves at the dummy, piercing right through its wooden body.
Then, in a single command, all the knife shards returned back to her, floating just around her.
"That was good," Ryo remarked,
"Thanks but, not yet enough," Rin replied,
Not feeling the need to talk further, Ryo turned back to his dummy and began his training.
.,,
2 hours quickly passed by, and it was already 11 pm.
Feeling immensely tired and exhausted, Ryo wrapped up and drank from his water bottle.
He looked for the final time over to Rin, who was still in focus on her training.
Throughout her training, she is focusing on her physical movements, and speed, all the while swinging her knife blades.
Ryo quickly left the room, leaving Rin alone.
...
Rin took a final peek, before letting out a sigh of relief. All this time, she felt awkward and stiff. She wanted to practice all on her own, and yet, someone was with her.
To say the least, she felt shy.
Now that she was alone, she prepared her stance.
She straightened her body and extended both of her hands forward.
Then, her glowing aura grew stronger around her, as circular fields of energy began surrounding her.
Then, her previously four-shard knives turned threefold, and they began emitting a bright, crimson glow.
And then, at her command, all those shards simultaneously launched themselves towards the dummy.
As they collided, they exploded into small, yet sharp pieces that further penetrated the target internally.
But she's not yet finished. She moves her hand around, controlling the smaller shards inside the dummy to further spread out, akin to a virus infecting a body.
Not long after, every wooden strand forming the dummy was destroyed, only super thin, silk-like debris was left on the scene.
As strong as that magic spell was, it also took a big toll on the user's magical energy.
She fell on her knees, and soon spat out blood, clenching her teeth. The toll on her body was severe.
"I-I need more." She murmured, despite trying her best to endure the pain.
Her technique is strong, however, her energy capacity can't keep up.
If this continues, I'll be left behind again.
A flashback of her memories surfaced in her mind. Then, an unpleasant feeling hugged her chest, suffocating it tightly.
She tried hard to gasp for air, feeling thorns in her chest as she tried to breathe.
Sweat dripped from her head, as her face became pale. It was nothing but misery.
After those moments of intense pain, the pain ceased, and she felt relief.
She was able to sit up and compose herself.
"I can't survive like this..." She whispered to herself under her breath.
She needs to be strong, otherwise, she'll be an underdog. She needs to train and improve herself.
With this mindset, she pulled herself up and prepared again to challenge her limits.
...
The exam day.
The whole class A-1 gathered in the school's backyard, with Asahi in front of them.
In the backyard, was a path leading to a cave.
"Alright, first point-based Test." Asahi sounds and looks like he just dragged his body out of bed. "This will consist of three-part exams. Each exam that you pass will automatically give you 50. However, for the last part, the reward will be 100, so do your best. That being said, enter this cave one by one.
He moved to the side, revealing the entrance to the cave.
Ryo found himself at the back of the line, with Haruto and Arata beside him.
"I-I'm so freakin' nervous!" Arata exclaimed, his hands shaking.
"T-That's way too nervous! You can do it!" Haruto cheered up, trying to calm Arata down.
However, Ryo looked as emotionless as he usually is. Black, and sleepy eyes, uninterested, not feeling even a tad anxious.
"H-How come Kyosuke isn't even nervous?!" Arata continued his exclaims. Ryo only looks at him nonchalantly. "Nervousness kills potential. That's all. Just take some deep breath." Ryo said as he followed the person in front of him.
Arata and Haruto are amazed by his calm and composed demeanor as they soon follow.
Ryo arrived inside the cave, where it was dark, even the outlines of their figures weren't visible. He continued walking blindly, until out of nowhere, a door appeared.
The door was red, and it was glowing in a whitish glow. He slightly peeked behind him and saw that Haruto and Arata were nowhere to be seen. With no other choice, he grabbed the knob, and opened the door, revealing an unexpected scene inside.
Inside was... the rooftop of some building. It was like the door was some dimensional door that brought him to another dimension.
He took a step forward, and the strong wind clashed against him. As he walked deeper, the door behind him disintegrated into thin air.
He took a cautious look around. Every building around him was small. Only his, and some buildings in front, which look like his path, are huge.
"This is... a dimension designed by someone... with an insanely strong spatial magic."
The scenery looks like it was straight up from a parkour scene in a game. A single ground, with buildings lined up, forming an almost single, straight pathway, with obstacles such as fences in the middle.
As Ryo was observing around, Asahi's voice echoed out of nowhere.
"The reason for the mock matches with your physical and magic skills was to determine the type of test for you. The first test is about overcoming weaknesses."
"So, physical it is."
He thought to himself. Even he believes that he still has a lot of room to improve his physical skills. His mock matches, especially the first match, were won by the skin of his teeth. This is a test to prove his physical skills.
"Yeah... so, you'll see a big timer above, and once that turns zero, the exam will start." As Asahi said these words, a big number "5" appeared right above Ryo. And slowly, it began ticking off.
Ryo prepared himself, as the number slowly went down. And finally, it reaches 0.
As it reached zero, a hologram of a person manifested in front of him. That person was wearing all black, and a black mask, resembling stereotypical robber attire.
It looked at him, and as soon as it saw him, it began running away.
"So the exam is to chase for a burglar, on top of buildings."
He let out an exasperated sigh, as he looked at the running burglar once again. Then, he bent out and bolted towards that burglar. His speed was completely faster than the burglar's.
He easily jumped over the building's obstacles and caught up to the burglar in no time. He held the burglar by the arm and pressed him down on the ground.
However, as soon as he did that, the burglar's hologram disappeared into thin air.
"What the...?" Confused, he looked around, and far away, he saw the burglar running away.
"Did he teleport?" He murmured to himself in confusion. But, there was no time to waste. He immediately ran after that burglar. This time, they were almost at the same speed, it was as if the burglar had entered his "second boss phase".
"He's much faster than before. Damn it," He cursed under his breath, as he speeds up. He jumped over obstacles and ran through them.
Each moment he ran, was devasting on him. His knees began hurting, and his chest began getting tighter. He was slowly being deprived of oxygen as he continued on further.
"If I didn't train yesterday, I would have been dead already."
Exerting more energy, his body began to get tired and weary, but he was already nearing the burglar. He pushed the last energy that his body could provide and went in for a steal.
Using a table obstacle, he jumped above it, using it to gain momentum, and with just enough speed, he was able to land on the burglar and pin him to the ground.
He was out of breath, and he pushed himself further to completely pin his target on the ground.
And then being done, the test ended. Soon, the dimensional space disappeared, returning his tired body back to the cave.
He fell on the ground, as he caught his breath hard. His head was spinning, and aching. He slowly stood up, yet still catching his breath. He looked around, and this time, there was light in the pathway forward.
"I-I hope the next exam is not as gruesome as t-that." He murmured to himself.
After a short moment of rest, he walked on forward.
Ryo already passed.
As for the others...
"Goodbye, Mr. Murderer!" Reina playfully waved goodbye, as he pinned the "murderer" in the ground. Her expression was delighted, as she was enjoying every moment of her exam.
"Это слишком просто." (This is too easy.) Agatha walked with a small, satisfied smile on her face as she walked elegantly, hugging her white teddy bear in her arms. It was as if she didn't even tire at all.
As for Candi, she nonchalantly pulled out the blades she used from the unconscious hologram body. She nonchalantly walked down, spinning her blades on her fingers.
And lastly, for the last early competitor, Hayashi Silas, with a straight face, sat down on the piles of unconscious hologram bodies, looking down ferociously.
...