"Okay, I think that's enough of a rest. Who's next?" Asked Instructor Satou, standing up with a stifled yawn and rubbing his eyes, nearly half an hour later.

For a moment, I thought he'd completely forgotten about continuing the exercise, he'd sort of dozed off a couple of times there. At this rate, it'll be a while before this would end, maybe I should volunteer earlier than I'd planned to...but if I went too early, then I might have to wait till everyone's done before I can go home, in which case I'd be better off volunteering later.

​​

Might as well ask...

"Hm, what is it, are you volunteering?" Inquired the instructor, as I raised my hand.

"Oh, uh...not exactly. Just wanted to clarify something, if I was to volunteer to go next, can I go home after the fight is over?" I asked hopefully.

"That's a good question. And, I wish I had better news, but unfortunately I can't let you guys go home till everyone has had a turn...sorry, kid, I don't mean to crush your hopes or anything."

"Er...no worries," I replied awkwardly.

Wow, he was being genuinely apologetic. Was he putting himself in my situation? That would explain it, since he definitely seemed like the type who'd be in a hurry to get home in a situation like this, so maybe he assumed I felt the same way and felt bad about having to give me a negative answer. My feelings weren't nearly as dramatic as all that, but I suppose I could appreciate his empathy...

"Tch, guess I might as well volunteer last then," I heard someone mumble to my right.

It was the guy who had picked the seat in the row I was in in the classroom, the one with the messy black hair and face-mask, Kiran Sigdel. Huh, guess I'll volunteer fifteenth then, the one before last.

The next person to step forward was Misaki Aki, she had placed somewhere in the top fifteen in the first stage of the entrance exam, I don't remember exactly where but I think it was thirteenth. She had longish black hair that was pulled back and tied in a braid in the back, which she kept over her left shoulder. She had black eyes, slightly thick eyebrows and had an average complexion. She wore a yellowish-orange sleeveless top with dark red fingerless gloves that went up to her elbows, with black tights on her legs under a short black skirt and dark red boots.

As she stood up and walked forward, I noticed Bytra looking uncomfortable as she stepped past her, averting her gaze nervously...huh, wonder what that's about, I'll file it away for later.

", !" She remarked, two yellow energy sai daggers forming in her hands before forming an eye mask around both her eyes, her pupils widening as it did.

She shot towards the instructor with her daggers positioned in front of her. He blocked her strikes as she neared him and swung her daggers in his direction repeatedly. Unable to get through his defenses, she suddenly flicked her left wrist upwards, tossing the dagger straight up into the air, using her free hand to swiftly grab the instructor's right wrist and drove the other dagger towards his chest.

Before she could strike, he grabbed the dagger with his other pincer, stopping it before she struck. She responded by catching the dagger she flung up using her teeth, and thrust her head forward and across, slashing it towards his face. He just about managed to get the end of his stinger in front of his face and block it.

"Alright, we're done here, next!" He suddenly declared, surprising all of us.

That bout had barely lasted ten seconds...

"Wait, already?" Misaki asked in bafflement.

"Yeah. Those few seconds were enough for me to see that you're skilled, so I don't see a need to keep going," He shrugged indifferently, waiting for the next person to volunteer.

"Okay, then...," Muttered Misaki, walking back to the sidelines with a dumbfounded expression.

I should clarify something about how the XFE manifested weapons work. They stay manifested when the user is in physical contact with them, however, if the user lets go of the Manifestation, it would disappear after ten seconds if the user didn't regain physical contact with it. That's why I could fire bullets, why Alex could fire arrows, and why Misaki had been able to fling her dagger up and catch it.

The seventh person to volunteer was a girl named Suri Patel, I think she had placed fifth in the first stage of the entrance exam, just below me. She had short black hair with three purple-dyed streaks, two on either side by her ears and one on the top right side of her head, black eyes and darkish skin. She was a bit on the short side, wearing faint black lipstick and a small gold earring on her left ear. She wore a sleeveless and shoulderless dark blue top that strapped around her neck with a low back, tight black trousers with black boots and matching fingerless gloves, along with elbow braces. As she stood up and stepped forward, Misaki accidentally bumped against her shoulder.

"Tch, watch where you're going," She growled irritably, flashing her a glare.

"What a bitch," I heard Misaki mumble venomously.

Suri walked to the middle, stretching her arms up and tilting her neck, loosening up.

"Okay, come at me whenever you're ready," Said the instructor, stifling a yawn.

Despite the yawn, he was definitely on alert...he'd had one too many close calls during this exercise, he definitely wanted to avoid another close bout.

"Yeah, yeah...let's get this over with," She replied bluntly, "!"

Starting with her Secondary Manifestation? Interesting, most Prodigies tended to attack with their Primary Manifestation first...

Purple energy wrapped around her wrist and palm like a glove, a purple energy shuriken formed in her left hand, and she flung it at him, which he easily deflected using his stinger. She then flicked her wrist to form three more shurikens which she held between her fingers, and swung her arm towards him, throwing all three at him simultaneously.

He deflected them easily again, as she shot forward towards him, leaping up as she neared him, twisting her body across diagonally and slamming her heel down at him. He swiftly crossed his arms above him to block her kick, and as her heel crashed onto his crossed arms...

"I've got you now, ," She remarked in a cold, intimidating voice, as a long purple energy chainsaw formed out of her extended right hand.

She slashed it down at his shoulder, he got his stinger in the way, but the rapidly spinning chain blade severely cracked the end of it.

"Crap, !" Exclaimed the instructor, flames bursting out of his pincers and forcing her to get away from him, "Yeah, we're done here. Next!"

"Sounds good to me," Replied Suri, deactivating her Manifestations.

Phantom Mode didn't mean they were like holograms, just drastically restricted...in other words, just because they didn't do any serious damage in Phantom Mode doesn't mean that they do no damage at all, for instance, Phantom flames were still slightly warm and Phantom lightning had a weak electric charge.

If you stabbed someone with a blade Manifestation in Phantom Mode, it wouldn't hurt much and leaves no visible damage, but it does kill a small number of your cells, not a significant amount, but excessive exposure to XFE attacks even in Phantom Mode could be dangerous. Especially against Paragons who have the Dark Attribute like I do, since dark XFE attacks would leave lingering damage like poison or venom, it was more effective against Mutants but was still pretty toxic to humans too.

Anyway, with that, the eighth person volunteered, a guy named Makoto Amano. He had medium-length black hair that framed his face, black eyes, pasty and pale skin, average height and he was a bit on the, uh, how to put this nicely...eh, I'll be blunt, he was fat. He had a lollipop in his mouth, wore an orange-and-black striped long-sleeved t-shirt with dark brown cargo pants that went a little past his knees and black sandals.

", !"

Two green energy hammers manifested in his hands, they had long handles and large blocks at the hammer ends. He then stretched his arms out and rapidly swung them in, slamming the hammers together and sending out a powerful shockwave towards the instructor, who skipped back to get out of its range.

Given Makoto's, er, build, he was unlikely to be very agile, so I was curious as to how he was able to pass the entrance exam...looks like he was good as using his ability.

That shockwave attack he just used would work exactly the same regardless of whether his Manifestations were in Phantom Mode or not, and he was showing no intention of moving in closer to his opponent, so it must be his, or at least one of his, main attack options.

The instructor was keeping his distance, and based on his expression, I'd guess that he was considering using his Secondary Manifestation again. Makoto then raised both hammers...and flung them at the instructor with all his might, who dodged them pretty easily.

The instructor then shot towards him with his stinger raised, and as he neared him, Makoto re-manifested his hammers and slammed them together in front of him again, sending out another shockwave. The instructor sprang up as high as he could to avoid it and fired off a couple of fireballs, which Makoto was unable to avoid.

"Next!"

The ninth person to volunteer was a guy named Andre Phillips, he'd placed tenth in the first stage of the entrance exam. He looked a bit on the older side, maybe about a couple of years older than I was. He had a dark complexion, a bowl-cut hairstyle, dark gray eyes and was pretty tall. He wore a dark green baggy long sleeved turtleneck sweater that was loose around the neck, knee-length black shorts with a white stripe on either side over black full-length tights and dark blue boots.

"Here I come...," Remarked Andre, as blue XFE wrapped around his hands and forearms, forming a thick protective layer of energy around both his arms from below the elbow.

He punched his fists together a couple of times, before sprinting forward with his arms close to his chest...hm, looks like a boxing stance.

He reached the instructor and unleashed a series a rapid punches at him, which were all blocked, but he put some extra muscle into his last two punches to slightly knock away the instructor's pincers and create a small opening. He swiftly pounced on that opening, swinging a heavy right uppercut at his chin, right as the instructor whipped his stinger towards him.

Andre swiftly brought his left arm up to block the stinger, as the instructor ducked backwards to avoid his punch, the back of his fist brushing against the instructor's chin and nose. That had been a good try, but he was now completely open for attack from the instructor's pincers. He began to grab him using his pincers, when suddenly...

"!"

Short but sharp spikes appeared all across his Primary Manifestation, and he began to slam the back of his fist down at the instructor's face. Before his attack could strike, the instructor rapidly tripped him and got him onto the ground on his back in the blink of an eye, in a swift and fluid motion. Whoa, what just happened...? I watched him do it, but I couldn't quite understand how he did it...in an instant, he had Andre on his back, who had a confused look on his face.

Let me think back to exactly what he did...right before the back of Andre's fist could strike his face, he tripped him with a flick of his foot and knocked his balance off sideways, and then, with incredible flexibility, he evaded the downward backhand strike which ended up just grazing his shoulder. And then, he placed his foot inside the line of Andre's ankle and swung his foot outwards in the opposite direction to the direction he had initially thrown him off balance in, as he grabbed his shoulder and pushed across, slammed him onto the ground on his back.

And he'd done all that while being off balance himself...well, that last move made it clear that the instructor was holding back on us by a lot, only showing us glimpses of what he was actually capable of when we caught him off guard.

"Oops, might've been a bit too rough there...sorry about that, hope I didn't hurt you," He said apologetically, helping Andre up.

"Oh, no worries, sir, I'm perfectly fine," Andre replied with an amicable smile, though I could see a hint of fear in his eyes...that last move had definitely startled him, right as he must have been thinking that he was about to land a hit, he suddenly found himself on his back a second later.

"Okay, next! Let's do one more and then take a break."

The next person to step forward was...Bytra. I noticed Misaki staring at her with a 'where do I know you from?' kinda expression. Earlier, Bytra had looked pretty nervous when Misaki walked past her. Did they know each other?

Bytra stepped forward with a slightly nervous expression, taking deep breaths to compose herself. She hadn't changed much in appearance since I first met her, besides having grown a bit taller and curvier. She had shoulder length brown hair that grew past her eyebrows in front, bright green eyes and wore a red hairclip on the front left side of her hair. She wore a loose short sleeved red dress that went down to her knees with her left shoulder exposed, a black belt around her waist and purple tights on her legs with red shoes.

Tch, I wish she'd just failed the entrance exam. Or burnt up in a fire. Or something. Oh, well, you can't always get what you want...but one of these days, I'll pay her back for giving me one of the worst experiences in my life so far. But there's no rush and no need to force an opportunity, so for now, I'm willing to be patient and wait for an opportunity to present itself.

", ," She stated tentatively, looking like she was hesitant.

Was she nervous because the instructor's last move had scared her, or would she have been nervous either way? Doesn't matter, either way, I was enjoying watching her sweat...

"Uh, so...you gonna attack or what?" Inquired the instructor with a raised eyebrow.

"H-huh? Oh, r-right, um...here I come," She replied timidly, sprinting forward rapidly and swinging her whip at him.

He began trying to grab it, but before he could, she flicked her wrist like it was made of rubber, changing the trajectory of the whip. The instructor noticed and sprang back to avoid it. She shot forward after him and flicked her wrist with a spin, the whip zipping forward in a spiral path. The spinning trajectory threw the instructor off, but he still managed to block it at the very last second.

Tch, she's not bad at handling that whip...well, I already knew that from watching her during the entrance exam, but I'd been looking forward to seeing her struggle because of her nerves...how disappointing.

"Eh, you know what, let's wrap this up. I wanna take that break already," Suddenly declared the instructor, as Bytra began to rush forward again.

Another abrupt end, but she looked pretty relieved that it was over. And this was bound to be another long break, the instructor certainly looked to be in no hurry whatsoever. I doubt he's actually feeling any physical exhaustion, he was definitely a lot stronger than he'd initially let on. It wouldn't be much longer before I planned to volunteer, and I had to admit, I was pretty excited to see how I'd do...

_____________________________________________

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.

Join the Discord server, I plan to tease upcoming chapters and future story arcs here, and you can also discuss or ask me any questions about the story and characters. Use the invite link to join:

https://discord.gg/sRbx9VbTVP