It was now the end of January, which meant that it was time for our first round of exams. The written exam had been yesterday, and I think I did well enough on it. Today we had the XFE combat exam and tomorrow would be the teamwork exam...the former should be fine, but the latter was going to be a problem, I really wasn't looking forward to working with others.

So far, all our teamwork training sessions had consisted of us being randomly grouped into teams of two, three or four, and taking turns sparring against Instructor Silva...in other words, we weren't actually being taught anything, he didn't even give us any constructive feedback or criticism afterwards, so we had no idea if we were doing anything wrong.

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And we had absolutely no idea what the exam would even look like, without any clue on what to expect. Oh, well, guess I don't have a choice but to wait for tomorrow and see, for now I'll just worry about the XFE combat exam today. We had been informed that it'd involve us fighting Mutants, but hadn't received any details beyond that, though I wasn't too worried about it.

We didn't have classes on exam days and the exams were held in the afternoon, so I didn't have to force myself to wake up early, which was great. I had just arrived at the X-Warrior Academy, a little past 12:30 PM, we had been asked to be here by 1 PM at the latest. I made my way to the training hall where we were supposed to gather in and entered, seeing that a few of my classmates were already here.

Instructor Jin Satou was asleep on a bench in the sidelines of the hall, and had put a sign next to the bench that read 'don't wake me up till everyone gets here'. Besides me, eight others were here, so we were waiting on seven more to arrive. As I found a spot to sit down at the sidelines, I was approached by a group oozing unpleasantness...

"I can't wait to see you fail, Dud," Sneered Tairo, with a look of condescension, "Hope you aren't feeling cocky about having made it this far to begin with, it was just dumb luck, no doubt about that!"

"I second that," Laughed Misaki in agreement.

"Yeah, you should fail alongside him, that would be ideal," Chimed in Bytra, earning a glare from Misaki.

"Tch, nobody asked you, Loner Tramp!"

Despite the fact that these two were constantly at each other's throats, Misaki was now regularly hanging out with Tairo and Bytra. Hm, how do I get them to leave me alon-?

"Don't you guys have anything better to do?" Frowned Alex, walking over disapprovingly, "You're acting like immature high-school bullies."

Alex Jaice, a stereotypical 'nice guy', he often interjected whenever these assholes got bored and decides to pick on me. Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but I found it unnecessary and a little annoying, I can ignore them just fine and I didn't like being treated like someone who needed to be saved or whatever. He wasn't the only one, Andre Phillips also butted in at times, but right now, he wasn't here yet.

"You need to stop being so uptight, man. What's the harm in putting a Dud in his place?" Shrugged Tairo, giving me a look of disdain.

"Well, you need to stop being so arrogant, it's not cool," Frowned Alex disapprovingly.

"Hey I appreciate what you're trying to do, but you really don't need to trouble yourself...after all, when you hear a fly buzzing around you or a dog barking, the best approach is to just ignore the noise, wouldn't you agree?" I chimed in with a look of disinterest.

"Tch, you think you're so smart, don't you? You're all talk, Dud, I can't wait to see you flunk!" Chuckled Tairo, walking away with Bytra and Misaki on his heels.

I let out an internal sigh of relief as they left...just because I can ignore them doesn't mean that I don't get at least a little bit annoyed.

"Sorry you have to put up with that, man," Said Alex sympathetically.

I found his sympathy annoying, but he was technically being nice, so I won't antagonize him.

"What are you apologizing for? Don't make a big deal out of it, I'm used to it," I replied with indifference.

By this point, all sixteen of us had arrived, so one of the others woke up the instructor, who awoke with a sleepy glare, grouchy at the fact that his nap had been interrupted. I could empathize, but he had a job to do right now, so he shouldn't have chosen to sleep when he did to begin with.

"Grr, what a pain...okay, I'm going to explain what your first monthly XFE combat exam will consist of. Pay attention, because I won't repeat myself and I probably won't be taking any questions either, got it?"

At this point, we were used to the way he did things, so there was no sense in complaining. He then began explaining what the exam would consist of...

"Like the entrance exam, this exam will be administered in two stages...first, you'll each be fighting two Q-Ranked Mutants. And after that, you'll all be randomly paired up with three others and duel them. If you fail to take out both Mutants, you'll fail this exam. On the other hand, even if you lose all three of your assigned duels, you won't necessarily fail, which also means that winning all three duels won't guarantee a pass. The rules are simple, only use XFE attacks, you'll lose points for any physical attacks used. Now, let's get this over with quickly...we'll be making use of all fifteen training halls so that we can get the first stage done with ASAP."

After a few more minor clarifications, he sent us all off to the training halls, each of us would take the first stage of the exam at the same time, except for one, since there were sixteen of us and only fifteen training halls. I wasn't too worried about having to face Q-Ranked Mutants, but I was a little miffed at the 'no physical attacks' rule, which meant that I'd be limited to only being able to use my X-Weapons. Oh, well, fighting with a handicap served as good training, so I won't complain.

I entered the hall that I was assigned to and stepped in. It was empty except for a teleportation platform towards the back. According the instructor, the exam would begin as soon as we stepped onto the middle of the training area...well, no sense in waiting around, might as well get started with this.

I readied my weapons and stepped forward after setting a Save point. I know that I'd probably be better served if I set my Save points a lot further back, which would give me plenty of time to recover any XFE I expended, but the problem with that was the waiting time. Let's say I set a Save point two hours prior to whatever it was that I was taking the precaution against, I would then have to wait a whole two hours all over again if I had to use Load...besides, so long as I didn't completely use up my XFE, the way I did things shouldn't pose any problem.

Anyway, getting back to the matter at hand, I had just stepped onto the middle of the training hall, and as I did, a holographic countdown appeared above the teleportation platform. I took out my X-Blade handles and increased the output settings on my X-Blasters to about three times the minimum, as the countdown reached five...four...three...two...aaand...one!

As the countdown ended, I activated my blades and shot forward, right as two Mutants appeared. So, these were Q-Ranked Mutants, huh? I had studied up on the Mutant species that had been named and classified, and I recognized these two types. One was a large dog-looking creature with jet black fur and menacing red eyes, it's height while on all fours was about the same as mine, which meant that it was taller if it stood up on its hind legs. As for what it was called, and I'm not even kidding here, it was named Doggo.

Oh, and that's also their scientific name. Yeah, gone are the days where creatures are given fancy species names anymore, most of the Mutant species were classified under dumb names like this one. As for the other Mutant that had gotten teleported in, it was called a Monke. It was a monkey-looking Mutant that was a few inches taller than me, with long fangs and claws, and wild dark brown fur.

Both Mutants growled hungrily as they looked at me, their eyes staring at me ravenously. Apparently, Mutants didn't eat other Mutants, that's apparently the main reason why they were all classified under the common label of 'Mutants'. Mutants grew up at a rapid rate, and also procreated rapidly, but since they had almost nothing to eat, they tended to die off without living for too long. Their death rate was high, but unfortunately, their rate of procreation was higher, so their numbers only continued to grow.

Some Mutants ate plants, but most were carnivores, they ate humans and animals, which scientists had discovered by feeding various captured Mutants with a variety of different options. They would eat pretty much any animal meat, clearly had a hunger for human meat as well, and some ate plants. And while there are plants outside the Sanctuary, most of them are evolved due to the radiation following WWIII...to put it simply, most of the plants outside the Sanctuary are Mutants too.

Anyway, none of the species that were captured and observed showed any interest in the meat of fellow Mutants, even if they were literally starving to death. Basically, what I'm trying to get at is this...these two Mutants were probably incredibly hungry, and I was probably looking like a slice of cake to them.

The Doggo sprinted towards me with its teeth bared, growling and drooling violently, before pouncing as it neared me. I ducked and rolled swiftly, slashing its underside with one of my blades. I then quickly got to me feet and sprang off to the left while firing a couple of blasts as the Monke screeched and swung its claws at me. It dodged my first shot, the second striking its right shoulder and injuring it.

Okay, these things are definitely a huge step up from the J-Ranked Mutants that I'd fought during the entrance exam. My slash had been too shallow, and the blast onto the Monke had hurt its shoulder but it looked like it could still move its arm just fine. Still, my XFE Attribute was Dark, which was like poison to these things, so a drawn out fight worked just fine for me.

Both Mutants then charged at me at the same time, though ended up halting and snapping at each other with threatening growls as they ended up getting in each other's way. Hm, so they won't eat each other, but they won't work together either...I see, they were both so hungry that they each wanted my flesh all to themselves.

"Come on, now, you freaks...you don't have to fight over me, you're gonna make me blush!" I called out tauntingly, to see how they would react.

How smart or dumb are these things? Can they be provoked? You might argue that this isn't the time to test stuff like that out, but I'd argue that this was the perfect time. It was definitely safer than experimenting while actually out on the field, that's for sure.

Oh, and the answer is yes, they could be provoked. They may not understand my words, but they could understand that I was taunting them. Both Mutants blindly charged at me after I yelled at them, the Monke sprang towards me and tried to bite my head off, swinging its claws at my shoulders. I crossed my arms across each other to form my barrier, its claws deflected off but left a few cracks in my barrier.

I dropped my arms and sprang back while firing a barrage of six consecutive shots, the Monke was too close to evade them, it began to leap away, but only one of my shots missed, the rest striking it in the chest and abdomen, though they only left shallow wounds.

Before I could land after springing back, the Doggo leapt at me from behind, its fangs bared and claws raised. I quickly formed my barrier, the Mutant bounced off, shattering the barrier as it fell away. It let out a snarl as it shook itself and got back on its feet, then pounced at me as I landed, I swiftly swung myself around and dashed forward, avoiding its claws before slashing off its lower jaw with one of my blades and blasting its left side with four shots from my wrist-blasters as I shot past it.

I then quickly got some distance, but it looked like I had done enough damage. Both Mutants were on the ground, struggling to move as blood began spewing out of their mouths and eyes. Looks like I had struck them with enough of my Dark Attribute XFE to incapacitate them. Now I just need to finish them off. I increased the output on my X-Blasters to the maximum and walked over to the Doggo, which was writhing on the ground in agony.

I pointed both my X-Blasters towards its head at near point-blank range and blasted it till its head was blown apart into tiny chunks. I then headed towards the Monke and gave it the same treatment, blowing its head apart. I then slowly exhaled and stretched my arms up with a sigh of relief. There, I'm done. The first stage of this exam was cleared.

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