"Pick a weapon of your choice, you have six seconds!"
Ralph, Ivan, and Glen all turned to look at the platform upon hearing the voice starting a countdown from six.
On the platform were different types of weapons ranging from street tools, delicate weapons, classic weapons, and those that they had never seen before. Immediately after the voice called out 3, all three of them rushed towards the platform and grabbed whatever their hands could reach.
Ralph picked up a thin long sword, Glen's choice of weapon was a small shovel with sharp sides, as for Ivan…Ivan picked a strange-looking brick as his choice of weapon.
Immediately after they finished picking their weapons, the platform lowered back into the ground which then closed up when the voice reached zero.
The three of them stared at each other and the weapon they had picked, it went without saying that Ralph and Glen gave Ivan odd stares when they saw him firmly holding the brick in his right hand.
Was he planning to fight with that?
They both wondered but didn't say it out loud, Glen loosened his grip around the handle of his shovel before changing to a firm grip; he repeated this action as he got a good feel of his weapon.
Ralph gave a few swings with a long sword as if getting used to its weight, he nodded in satisfaction after five swings.
As for Ivan, he just stood there with his brick.
"Now that you have picked your weapons, the test will now begin. Good luck" the voice sounded once more before going silent.
Three seconds later, the door on the other side of the room opened, and on the other side was a metal cage that was pushed inside; they were unable to see what had pushed the cage inside the room before the door closed.
The metal cage was not too big and was just the size of three wardrobes combined, they could hear the faint growling sounds that came from whatever was inside the cage.
All three of them immediately got serious and entered a fighting pose, all their faces had serious expressions as they stared at the cage that began to fall apart.
Bang!!
All four sides of the cage fell to the ground with a loud noise and sitting in the middle of the fallen cage was a huge monster that the three of them did not recognize.
The monster had a buffed body that was covered in black hair, two extremely long arms that ended with large paws and long claws, thick legs that were as big as two people combined, and a round head with only one eye on it; they could not tell how the monster was able to make the sounds that it was making.
But that did not matter at the moment because immediately after the cage fell apart and the monster looked at them with its single eye, it stood up on its two legs and began to move toward them, step by step.
One thing was that the monster looked incredibly intimidating and scary, the good thing was that it was very slow when compared to human movements.
"Ar-are we supposed to fight that thing!" Glen stuttered as he stared at the big monster with wide eyes, his legs were shaking and his fingers trembled around the shovel he was holding.
"Keep calm and don't let yourself panic! It's moving slowly so we should be able to deal with it if we work together!" Ralph quickly called out upon seeing how Glen was reacting to the presence of a monster.
"B-but it's s-s-so big!" Glen responded without thinking.
"Listen here, you idiot! Get yourself together and don't mess up! Didn't you dislike how you were looked down on earlier? This is your chance to change that, now get a grip on yourself and stop acting like you have never seen a monster before!" Ralph yelled at Glen, his outburst successfully pulled Glen from the verge of despair.
.....
In another room that looked like a control room, Two people sat in front of a small screen that displayed the scene in the room where the three boys and the monster were facing off.
"Hmm, nice reaction. This kid has a good talent for leading, he would make a good team leader" one of them said while nodding.
"Indeed, a befitting character for an S-level talent Nexulyte. The other two look rather ordinary" Replied the second person.
"True, I wonder what's so special about him that we were not given information about him nor allowed to ask him ourselves, just look at his weapon choice"
" Let's just wait and see what they can do"
...
Back in the testing room, following Ralph's orders, Glen and Ivan had moved to both sides of the monster while Ralph remained standing in front to attract the monster's attention himself so that they could attack it from the sides.
Immediately the monster shortened the distance between itself and Ralph to three meters, it swiped toward him with one of its long hairy hands.
Swoosh!
The sound of the hand flying through the wind was so piercing that it made Ralph freeze for a moment but he quickly regained his calm and swung out with his sword.
Clang!!
The sound of his sword hitting the claws of the monster resounded inside the room and Ralph felt a small shock run through his arms as he was sent flying backwards.
While still in midair, Ralph shouted for Ivan and Glen to attack it.
"Now!!"
Without saying anything, Glen charged at the monster with his shovel.
He reached and hacked at its leg with the side of the shovel.
Ting!
The sound was as if Glen had struck a piece of iron, not even a scratch could be left on the body of the monster.
"What the!" Glen muttered in shock.
"Watch out!" Ivan's voice pulled him from his daze, he looked up and saw the other hand of the monster coming toward him.
Luckily, the attacks of the monster were slow which gave Glen enough time to bend down and dodge the powerful strike before quickly running away.
Ivan, who was the last to attack, kept his distance from the monster.
It wasn't due to fear, he was timing the monster, and the instant he found it in the position he was waiting for, he launched his brick at its head.
Thud!
The brick hit the head of the monster heavily and immediately caused a small injury on it. Despite being very small, it was the only successful attack from the three of them and it also appeared to have hurt the monster as it let out an ear-piercing roar the next moment before swiping down at Ivan.
Ivan quickly moved and tried to retrieve his brick but was forced to stop and run in the other direction to avoid the leg of the monster that was coming in the form of a kick.
"It doesn't attack with just its hands!" Ralph said to inform Glen.
Ralph ran forward and picked up Ivan's brick before throwing it to him.
" Its head must be the weakest, let's try to attack it there," Ralph said before running forward.
It became a game of tag as the three of them ran around in between the monster's legs while attacking and avoiding its attacks.
But all their strikes were unable to leave even a wound on its tough body.
"Ivan, go throw your brick at its face, Glen, prepare to toss me as high as possible!" Ralph called out and the two instantly understood what he had in mind.
Ivan quickly ran to the front of the monster and sent his brick toward its only eye, the brick obviously missed but still landed on its face.
The monster was enraged and attacked Ivan with its two long hands while changing after him, this caused it to bend its body slightly.
"Glen!"
Ralph shouted, he was already running toward Glen who immediately dropped his shovel and balanced himself before putting both hands together for Ralph to step on before launching him up with all his might.
Ralph was only able to reach slightly above the monster's back but it was enough. He stretched out both legs and gave a heavy stomp on the back of the monster's neck, putting all his weight into it.
BAM!!!
The monster was unable to balance itself and fell heavily to the ground.
Glen immediately jumped on its back and ran toward its head before bringing down his shovel in full swing.
Whack!!
Glen's shovel dug deep into the back of the monster's head, and a huge amount of blood gushed out.
The monster let out a painful roar, its head was immediately bathed in blood.
Glen pulled out his shovel and was about to hack down again when the monster suddenly stopped moving and its body began to tremble, the next instance….
Boom!!
A powerful burst of red energy exploded from the monster's body sending Glen who was standing on it flying away without restraint.
Bang!
Glen slammed into the side of the wall, his head cracked and he immediately lost consciousness. He left a trail of blood on the wall as he slid down on it and fell to the floor.
"Glen!" Ralph shouted when he saw Glen's condition. He was about to go check on him when he suddenly saw the monster move, it pressed its hands on the ground and lunged at Ralph.
Ralph's eyes widened when he saw this, the monster's speed had increased!
He was barely able to fully raise his sword before the huge paw of the monster slammed into his body and sent him flying toward the wall.
BAM!!
Ralph's back slammed against the wall heavily and he immediately spat out blood before passing out as well.
Only Ivan and the monster were now left in the room.
...
In the control room.
"Damn! Why didn't we know that that monster was about to evolve??" One of the people exclaimed in panic and rose from his seat in a hurry and rushed out of the room.
"This won't be considered a test if the higher-ups found out, it's a death sentence!" The last person who was still staring at the screen muttered in worry.
...
Ivan stared at his two unconscious friends before turning back to look at the monster but all he saw was a blur before a huge hairy leg filled his vision.
Bang!
Pain spread all across Ivan's face, his eyes immediately blurred and the last thing he felt before passing out was his head slamming into the wall.
Now left alone in the room, the monster turned and started working toward Ralph who happened to be the closest to it. But before it could move too far, it suddenly stopped and turned back and saw Ivan standing with his head lowered and covered in blood; he was still unconscious and was still holding the brick that was now covered in Nexus energy.
Roar!!
The monster let out another sound and was about to move in Ivan's direction when the brick in Ivan's hand suddenly shot out at a blinding speed with Nexus energy still covering it.
Swoosh!!
Bang!!
The brick flew at high speed and pierced the face of the monster, shattering its head into pieces in one strike!
Thud!
The monster stood motionless for a few seconds before falling to the ground, Ivan remained standing with his head lowered.
One of the two people who had left the control room in a hurry arrived at this moment and was shocked by the sight in front of him, the monster had been killed before he arrived.
Back in the control room, the other person stared at the screen in shock and disbelief.
"He's unconscious, how's that possible?!"