Before even I get to move an inch, Himarin is already in my face determined to be the first one to land a hit. I completely forgot how fast she is. Her first attack is a full throttle straight punch with her right arm, I just barely dodge it. Actually, I'm pretty sure it grazed my cheek.

As I dodge her attack and lean slightly to my left side to get beneath her arm and strike her body with my right fist, Himarin fully reads my movement and counters my attack by doing a full spin, following with her left arm, and ending it with a roundhouse kick using her right leg aimed at my face. I manage to put up my guard just in time and protect my head but since I am almost on the ground at that point, the force of the kick makes me fly a few meters to the rear and land on my back.

I gaze upon the sky for two good seconds before I get up. As I'm regaining my composure, I catch a glimpse of the others. From what I manage to witness in that short moment I could guess how it is going for everyone else.

Hidiku is holding his own, Lena is pretty much dominating. Charlotte and Enmei are getting a beatdown.

Basically how I expected it to be.

"Pay attention. Or have you given up already?"

Himarin's words bring me back to the fight at hand.

That's right, I need to work harder to achieve my goal, I can't let myself get distracted. Himarin is fully serious about this and so am I.

"Bring it on!"

Himarin grins and starts with another quick dash, leaping into the air, sending me another kick, this time to the right side of my head. I block it with my right arm and move in to get closer to her before she gets to do anything else. She tries bouncing backwards using her second leg, but it is too late as I am already throwing a hook at her left ribcage.

Or so I thought.

I'm just millimetres away from striking when she rotates her ankle towards me and strikes with a knee into the stomach. As the blow lands, I get barely lifted off the ground and my breath gets taken away. I drop down to my knees trying to catch my breath.

Where do you get this kind of reaction speed?...Not to mention that strength.

This is what it means to be an A-rank student.

After catching my breath, I get up and we continue with the test for another few minutes. I really thought it would be the death of me.

As we throw our fists and kicks at each other, moving all over the place, I'm mostly the one being pushed back without landing most of my blows.

I have been dominated.

The bell rings again and the test is over. Sitting on the ground, bruises all over my body, Himarin walks up to me and reaches her hand out. I grab it tightly as she pulls me up to my feet.

"Good job, you did really well."

Himarin tells me with a genuine smile on her face.

I turn my head slightly to the right and look at the ground.

"What are you talking about... I could barely touch you..."

Himarin starts patting my head.

"Now now, you still managed to mostly hold your own against me. In fact, there's only a small number of the students here that can manage to do even that, unlike those two brothers of mine. Despite all the practicing we have together, they go down way too fast. Be proud of yourself."

She continues to pat my head; this puts a smile on my face. The group gets together once more before we leave for our individual tests. Everyone starts chatting about how the previous one went for them. It is pretty clear who got a beat-down and who did just fine.

I hold up my bruised hand and look down at it. I'm not too happy about being on the beat-down team but I learned a lot during that short amount of time. I can always get her next time.

That said, I need to find an effective way to improve, maybe I could later ask Himarin for tips.

Hidiku stands next to me as we both look at the rest of the group chatting.

"So... What was it like fighting my sister?"

"She's tough. I can't believe she's just an A-Rank."

Hidiku giggles.

"That makes two of us. But hey, nicely done. I would have been knocked out a minute or two after the start."

How much longer it will take to get into the A-Ranks and how much more practice I'll need to do.

"Thanks..."

I say with a troubled voice.

Hidiku notices my tone.

"What's the matter?"

"It's nothing."

I say as I shake my head in denial.

Hidiku watches me as I walk off for the next test. I lift my arm up as if I am about to wave but stop midways.

"Good luck"

"Yeah."

Hidiku says as he looks up to the clear blue sky.

The next test I am headed to will be measuring my abilities, which aren't exactly strong. Not yet at least. As I said earlier, the tests I will be going through are based on my ability, which means improving my electricity manipulation.

Oh, that's right, I haven't said a word about my abilities yet.

Once activated, I can emit and manipulate electricity to my own will. That also means I possess the characteristics of electricity, for example moving ON or attaching myself to metal objects or letting an electric current run through a water stream. Though, right now I can only keep it activated for ten minutes at best, after that I need to wait for at least another twenty minutes to use it again. Normally, with an ability like mine, I would be a C-rank at best if not for the power and speed it grants me for the short time. It allows me to end fights in an instant. Well, I guess it's decent judging by how I've only had my ability for three years.

As I am preparing for my test, one of the teachers calls me in.

The metal structures resembling spiky rocks make it obvious that the course is made for people that can manipulate electricity.

I'm looking at the layout when the teacher asks me if I'm ready. I nod and walk off towards the obstacles.

I will be given multiple tasks here and the first one is to stay attached to the side of one of the metal rocks for as long as possible while standing still. Nothing hard really. Until my ten-minute time limit runs out that is.

***

As I'm boringly standing on the metal rock, the floor starts to rumble, accompanied by a tremor every few seconds. The tremor is getting stronger and stronger with each wave until the course begins to slowly crumble.

It is getting out of hand and I'm having difficulties with holding my balance. A few more tremors and I finally fall off the four-meter-tall rock, landing on my butt.

"Ouch...It would have been nice if I could do my tests in peace..."

Sitting on the ground, I look in the direction where the tremors seemed to be coming from and it becomes very clear what is happening.

I should have known. It is Charlotte.

Charlotte uses a staff, which means she can use magic-like abilities and she really loves to blow stuff up, so they let her blow off bigger and bigger targets generated by one of the teacher's abilities to see how strong her ability can get.

She can use more types of it, like healing or buffing too, but yeah... She really likes blowing stuff up. I just wish they had an entirely different place for her tests.

I get up in order to continue with, then I look back in her direction to give it a last glance. I don't remember her being able to go on for this long. She has improved. I won't be left behind. I return my gaze before me and walk off to my next test.

As we are practicing and improving our skills, the town's people are living their regular lives. Farmers harvesting the field's crops, shopkeepers running their businesses and knights patrolling individual districts.

A mother and her daughter are walking through the crowded streets outside of the Hogo-sha district, holding hands so the little girl doesn't get separated from her mother and get lost, the little girl suddenly stops and looks at the sky. Her mother stops a bit further and looks at her.

[Mother's Perspective]

"Come here Sophie or you will get lost."

My daughter points with her finger at the sky.

"Mom, look! There's something flying up in the sky."

I look up at where she's pointing at.

As we stand here watching the object in the distance, more and more people gather around us as they start noticing the floating object and stare at it.

The longer we stand here and gaze upon it, the more apparent it becomes that it's slowly descending towards the Hogo-sha district. The mayor's mansion to be precise. It's been built in this district, so the mayor is safe.

One of the knights on lookout in the district uses an ability that allows him to see into great distance, but only to a limited extent. Once the object gets into his ability's range, its nature becomes painfully clear.

It's a muscular humanoid figure at least two-meters-tall and black as ash. Knees bent backwards, a twisted spine through the body piercing through its back and becoming visible to the naked eye. Horns coming out of its shoulder blades and face resembling a male with its eye sockets completely empty.

This can mean only one thing.

As soon as the observing knight realizes, he runs to the nearest emergency bell and starts ringing it to alert the rest of the knights about the threat that is only getting closer and closer.

[Random Knight's Perspective]

We group up and head for the mayor's mansion to make sure he gets out safely. At the current height, the demon is in, and with its speed, we have enough time to get to the mayor and escort him out.

There's only five of us as the rest didn't have enough time to prepare yet and we need to get the mayor out as soon as possible.

As we are running towards the mansion, the demon stops moving for a few good seconds. It looks down at us and a grin appears on its eyeless face.

Just before entering the mansion, I gaze upon the demon and notice its grin as I'm struck by a feeling.

Something bad is about to happen.

I halt my advance before the entrance with cold sweat running down my body.

"Wait! Don't go inside!"

I try to warn them, but it is too late.

As the rest of the knights take their first step inside, the demon comes ramming down into the building, crushing my comrades right before my eyes.

I freeze up.

Standing right behind the demon, I look at my friends crushed beneath the rubble. Streams of blood flowing down from beneath the destruction, bodies torn apart, scattered all over the place with visible organs hanging out of them, intestines hanging off the wooden supports for the roof.

Frozen in place, unable to attack nor run for my life. The demon looks at me and gives me the same grin it had given a few moments ago, then walks off, further into the mansion.

As I feel completely powerless, I drop down to my knees and follow the demon heading deeper into the building with my eyes, until finally it disappears into the vast darkness of the hallway.

It takes me a bit, but I finally come back to my senses. I get up on my feet and turn back.

The Mayor has his own skilled personal knights with him. I have to alert the rest of the district in case they get back up!

Little did I know the same demon was standing right behind me.

It came back for me....no. It never let me go in the first place. It is merely toying with me. The next thing I know, my lower jaw comes loose. The demon swung its hand and ripped the skin and muscles that were keeping my face together. My tongue is hanging out, I'm unable to say anything or yell for help! I fall on my back as my legs fail me.

I have nowhere to run....

The monster steps on my stomach with its full weight. I'm unable to breathe, it hurts! I slowly begin to break down into tears when the demon leans towards me and gets into my face, then gently strokes me on the head as if it's patting me.

The demon's hands are thick and rough.

It leans back again, then strikes me its fingers directly into my eyes, running them through the sockets.

I yell out as I'm now crying blood instead. It hurts so much.

The demon lifts me up, holding me by the skull from the inside through my eye sockets. It carries me to a near rectangular pillar and finally ends my suffering by swinging me with full force onto the edge of the pillar, causing my head to split.

The demon bends down to the corpse and starts awkwardly touching it as if it was collecting something.

Now the demon is truly headed inside the mayor's mansion.