The crowd of students was zoned in on watching the match. The two students on the stage were absolutely stunning. It was almost as if they had done this before.

Julian was holding the birch box in his left hand while Arielle was staring at him. She didn't recognize the box because, by the time they became a couple, Julian had already changed containers for his talismans.

'Let's end this.'

Julian opened the box and pulled out a single talisman with a command written on it.

'Do you honestly believe your stupid ability can beat mine? You don't even have any heavenly aura. Right now you're as weak as an F class.'

Arielle scoffed at Julian's actions. She believed that there was no way that a single talisman could beat her. She folded her arms and closed her eyes.

"Although there isn't much you can do with a weak ability like that, I applaud the effort. With that being said, I'll let you get one free hit. If you manage to hurt me then I'll forfeit. However, if I remain unharmed after your hit, then you will forfeit. Deal?"

The crowd was focused on the match even more now. The splendid match that they were enjoying was now all down to one move.

"There's no way he can hurt her. Every attack just goes right through."

"I don't know, man. I think he's got more up his sleeve. You saw that kick earlier. That can only be achieved if you've broken the second tier of a martial skill."

Julian smiled. He almost started laughing.

'She's too confident in her ability.'

"Deal."

He looked up at Arielle and made his move. He dashed towards her and slapped the talisman to the front of his fist.

'How stupid. He should know by now that physical attacks won't work on me.'

She looked uninterested in Julian's movements. From her point of view, it didn't matter what he tried. There was nothing he could do to harm her.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Julian activated the talisman and windbreak while throwing a punch as hard as he could. He looked into Arielle's eyes and smirked.

One second, Arielle was firmly standing in the center of the stage, and the next she was crashing onto the ground outside of the stage. Blood was dripping from her mouth while she was unconscious.

The crowd roared in excitement.

"Did you see that!? What just happened?"

"I don't know! I was sure it was going to go straight through her."

Albus walked onto the stage to declare the end of the match.

"Winner, Julian Valera!"

Julian took a bow and walked off of the stage.

'That's what you get for being too cocky.'

He was pleased with the results. Luke ran over to him with a look of astonishment.

"You have got to tell me how you did that!"

Julian laughed before answering him.

"It wasn't very complicated. Her ability requires aura to function just like everyone else. All I did was dispel the aura that my talisman came in contact with. The result was the inability to keep her ability activated and allowing my punch to connect with her stomach."

Luke was stunned at how well Julian assessed the situation and formulated a plan for it. For once, he felt like he might actually learn something valuable from someone.

The rest of the matches finished without too much excitement. Arielle was taken to the infirmary to recuperate and was back on the training field before the fights were over. She kept throwing daggers with her eyes at Julian until Albus came up to speak.

"Well done in the second stage. You all fought well, and I believe that many of you have the potential to rise high into the ranks of the Imperium. With that being said, we will now move on to the final portion of your exam. You will be split up into teams of 5 and paired with an Imperium squad captain. Each team will be given a flag that they must protect. If your flag is stolen, then your entire team loses. Whichever team has the most flags after the 1-hour time limit is up, wins the game. If you take a look at the screen behind me, you will find your number beside one of the captains. Meet up with the rest of your team and prepare to begin."

Julian looked at the screen to find his captain. He was placed on Captain Thomas Meyer's team. He turned around and scanned the crowd and saw a sign that said 'Cap. Meyer' on, and he walked over to it.

Standing under the sign was a tall, lanky man that looked to be about 24 years old. He had silver hair and deep blue eyes. Julian saluted by hitting his right fist against the left side of his chest.

"I'm Julian Valera, sir. I've been assigned to your team."

Thomas gave Julian a smile and waved his hand.

"You don't have to be so formal with me. I only recently became a captain, so I'm not used to all of this 'sir' business yet. Just call me Tom. It's nice to meet you, Julian."

He stretched his hand out and Julian shook it with a smile.

"Okay then, Tom. I look forward to being on your team."

Just then a hand grabbed Julian on his shoulder. He turned to look and saw Luna standing behind him with a smile.

"Looks like we're on the same team, Ju-ju!"

"What are the odds?"

Luke walked up next to Julian after saying that.

"This should be fun then. With you two, this will be a cakewalk."

The three of them laughed and waited for their last two members.

After about 5 minutes, two female students walked up to the group.

"Hello. We were assigned to this team. My name is Shioka Tansho but everyone calls me Shio, and this is Iris Lafrenz."

Shio pointed to Iris and she bowed her head.

"It's nice to meet you all. I hope I don't drag you down."

Iris's voice was soft. She had long, light pink hair and green eyes.

Shio's voice was quite stern. She had dark magenta hair that went down to her shoulders and crimson eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, too."

Julian gave them a smile and bowed his head.

"Now that we're all here, let's have a brief discussion about what we can do so we can formulate a strategy. Since you two are new, we'll let you go first."

Tom nodded to Iris and Shio. Shio was the first to speak.

"My ability allows me to create a magnetic field onto whatever I touch."

Tom smiled and then looked at Iris.

"What about you, Iris?"

Iris looked at Shio and then turned back to answer.

"My ability allows me to travel through time."

************************************************************

If you enjoy this story and want to help keep it going, consider supporting me on P a t r e o n!

https://www.p a t r e o n.com/ryan_spears

(Be sure to remove the spaces)