One by one the students approached Trux and tried to land a successful punch. Each one failing to make a difference one after the other. Zahn stepped up to Trux and looked over the stone figure in front of him. He kept asking himself how much stronger he could be than regular stone. Zahn took a striking stance and mentally prepared himself to give everything he could for this punch. He knew that he did not need to hold back and he knew that he was most likely about to break every bone in his hand. He steadied his resolve to commit fully to the punch. He let out a slight yell as his fist flew forward. The punch had so much speed and strength that it even threw Zahn off balance.

The impact sent immense pain straight into Zahn’s arm. The pain vibrated into his shoulders. Zahn kept his eyes closed the entire time. He could feel the blood on his hand. His arm was dead. He could not so much as lift his arm anymore no matter how hard he tried. He opened his eyes to see how bad his hand and arm had been ruined. Blood was running down his arm and a small puddle was underneath his feet. Zahn took a deep breath and looked at his arm dangling from his side. The pain hit him all at once. Zahn fell to his knees and grabbed his arm with his other hand.

Trux looked down at him and the damage to his arm. He let out a small grin and began to speak, “Good. I’m glad to see you didn’t hold back. Now, get back over to the stands and start healing.”

Trux wiped away a small drop of blood from the corner of his mouth. The test continued until every last student had gotten a chance to break their body against the stone wall of Trux. Trux entered some data on his holopad as the students were recovering.

“Alright, next up is energy attack. This one will be a little different. I will still be the target of your attacks, but this time instead of a physical punch I want you to try and launch an energy blast at me. This is where the scores start getting very different so do your best.”, Trux told everyone.

Zahn had never used an energy attack before and was unsure how he was going to be able to launch an attack made of pure energy. He watched as a student walked up to the line. The boy was tall with spikey blonde hair and wore bright vibrant orange clothes. He took a stance and brought his hands together and started charging up a strange ball of energy in his hands off to the side of his body. The energy grew in strength more and more, but Zahn noticed something immediately before the attack ever launched.

The student shouted as he pushed his hands forwards to launch the blast towards Trux, “HAAAAAAAAAA!”

Zahn already knew the result. The blast never made it to Trux. It fizzled out after just a few seconds of being fired. Zahn recognized that the student had not charged enough energy into the blast and focused too much on the initial ball of energy instead of maintaining the current of energy he pushed out of his hands. He finally understood how to use energy attacks.

Trux looked at the student in disappointment. “Goko, get to the stands. You still have a lot to learn. And trying something you saw from a manga and expecting it to work is bizarre.” He looked at all of the other students and continued to speak. “I know a lot of you have probably zero experience with energy and the attacks you can make with it, and that is fine. This score will always have a base rating of 1 because you should be able to hit that with all of your energy automatically. I am specifically looking for students who are able to pass that bar. Now, I will explain briefly how to use an energy attack. First, you need to be able to sense the energy in your body. Imagine it, feel it, and grab it. Next, you want to take the energy and begin pulling it out of your body and form it into an attack. There is no limit to what the attack could look like. It could be completely formless. Lastly, you push that energy toward the opponent. Ok, that’s energy 101 done now someone step up and attack!”

The students stood around and looked at each other then themselves to try and feel the energy inside of them. Zahn stepped up to the line and faced Trux.

“I think I get it now.”, Zahn told the instructor.

Trux looked at him and responded, “Then show me.”

Zahn focused on his energy inside of his body and pulled out as much as he could. He placed his hands together in front of him and began charging more and more of his energy. The more energy he took from himself the weaker he began to feel. He grabbed every last bit that he had, but felt more inside of him that he could not take. He tried and tried, but his body was blocking him from taking it. The ball of energy formed in his hands expanded. The lights in the room started to flicker and a current of wind started generating around Zahn. His eyes began to glow with a bright purple as he looked at his target.

Trux braced himself as he looked into the glowing eyes of Zahn. He began to think about how incredible Zahn was with energy manipulation. He already knew he was able to sense energy early on, but to be able to draw out this much energy and control it was impressive even to him. He waited for Zahn to fire the attack at him, but nothing was happening. He began to grow confused the longer they stood there. He was beginning to wonder if Zahn was starting to fail to control it.

The ball of energy was half a meter in diameter and continued to grow. Zahn was pulling more energy and pushing into it. He finally collapsed down to one knee and knew it was time to fire the attack. He began trying to compress the energy similar to how he was able to store the energy into the pods back in the mines at home. The ball started to shrink to a quarter of a meter, then finally it reached around the size of a baseball. Zahn was unable to control it anymore. He took the energy into his right hand. The ball hovered over his hand as he pointed it towards Trux. The blast launched in an instant. A shockwave left behind it as it went supersonic through the air. Zahn fell down onto his stomach, completely unconscious.

The ball struck Trux directly in his arms as he braced to block it. Upon impact a massive explosion erupted. The blast shattered the ground and sent the students flying back into the stands. Smoke flooded the room and the exhaust vents started up to clear the room of the smoke. The clearing smoke revealed an impressive sight for the students.

Trux remained standing even after being pushed back an entire meter. His feet left trenches in the ground and were buried into it. His arms were cracked as pieces of stone fell off of them. He let out a slight pant as he put his hands down and spit out a glob of blood. He looked over to Zahn who had been launched into the wall from the explosion.

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“Now that was impressive.”, he said with a bit of enthusiasm. He walked over to his holopad and began typing in a few things. Shortly after a voice could be heard from the device.

“What can I assist you with?”, the voice asked.

“I have a student with complete energy drain. Need him placed in a pod so he can recharge for the next tests.”, Trux answered.

“Certainly!”, the voice said.

A few minutes went by as a team of 3 people walked in with a medical bed. They went to Zahn and picked him up onto the bed and carried him away to be placed into a pod. The rest of the class went back to the line on the side of the room where they first were.

Trux looked at all of them and began speaking, “That is a great example of an energy attack. He used up every last bit of energy he had in that attack. I do not recommend doing that as you now know it leaves you completely out of the fight afterwards. This will not be the case as you gain more experience and power, but since you are all new to this when your body loses all of its energy it starts trying to shut down. For this test, I would love to see each one of you passed out. We have plenty of pods that can help you regain your energy so give it your all!”

The test continued with student after student passing out from using all of their energy or failing to do so. The test ended with every student being taken to the infirmary to wait for energy recharges so that the next tests could begin.

Zahn woke up inside of the strange pod that was helping restore the energy in his body. He looked around to see a lot of the pods filled with many students and others were standing around with Trux waiting for everyone. He could feel his energy being restored at a fairly quick rate, but the energy was abnormal to him. It did not feel like his own energy. He started to assume it was due to the pod directly flooding his body with energy. His body needed more time to fully absorb the energy and convert it into his own. He lifted up the door to the pod and started to get out of it when he was stopped by a nurse.

“Woah, you’re not free to leave yet. Let me check your energy levels.”, she demanded as she pulled out a scanner and quickly hovered it over his body and began typing on a holopad.

Zahn could already tell his energy was around half of what it normally is so he assumed he was fine.

The nurse continued, “Your energy reading is around 90% for a level 1. You should be fine to leave.”

Zahn thanked her for the help and joined the rest of the class as they waited for the last few students to wake up so that they could begin the next test.

After all of the students had recovered they were all taken back to the gym area. Trux stood in front of them and began explaining the next test.

He began instructing, “This next test will actually be two in one. You are going to be hit with the most powerful human made weapon in existence. You will then be judged on your defensive ability as well as your recovery ability afterwards. Now, follow me.”

Trux began walking to a door at the back of the training area. As all the students stepped behind him the door slid open to a strange room with blast glass and a large vault-like door leading into an empty room. Everyone flooded into the room and awaited their next instructions.

Trux then turned to them from a control panel and started to explain, “This is one of the most dangerous rooms on the entire academy campus. One by one you will each walk into that room and you will be hit by the strongest weapon humans have ever created–a nuke. You will feel the radiation heat nearly instantly, your skin will melt away and you will begin to be vaporized. You will only be exposed to it for as long as we determine is safe for you. The higher your defense the longer we will expose you to the blast. After we shut it off you will then have to sit inside and regenerate while we let the system disperse the radiation. Good luck.”

The students seemed visibly disturbed. They had heard of the power of a nuke, but they were scared to be face to face with that type of weapon. Trux looked at each one and asked who wanted to go first. No one stepped forward so he pointed out to a guy standing off to the side. The student was wearing elaborate clothes, very colorful with gold accents. His hair was a dull yellow, and his orange eyes were full of fear. He stepped forward before Trux stopped him.

“There are two things you need to know before you enter. Number one, you need to take off your shirt and put on these lead-lined pants. This will keep you decently dressed after it's over. No one wants to see you naked. We will also have a vest for the ladies so you won’t have to worry about that. There is also a changing room right over there so you can take off your clothes in there if you would like to take your clothes off instead of wearing them under the lead clothes. I would highly suggest taking them off as the heat may still burn up your clothes. Number two, this is going to hurt more than anything you have faced before. The nuclear radiation and blast you are about to be exposed to is around 1,000 kilotons. This is relatively the same as being hit by a Level 7 Immortal’s attack if exposed for a full 60 seconds. The first 10 seconds will be equal to a Level 4. Now, let’s get started!”, Trux explained.

The student walked into the room after changing and the giant door closed behind him. Trux pointed to a spot in the room for him to stand at and then gave a thumbs up when he was there. Zahn watched as Trux pressed a few buttons on the console and then flipped a switch on the side. The doors at the end of the room–about 50 meters away from the student–opened. A green button began to flash on the console. Trux pressed it and immediately the blast launched energy into the room. Everyone watched as the light in the room flashed. The light faded within 5 seconds and the student was on the ground lifeless. Trux pressed a flashing red button on the console and the blast doors instantly closed to block the radiation and heat.

The poor student was unrecognizable. The lower half of his body was covered by the pants, but the exposed torso was nothing but muscle tissue and bones. There was no blood. There was nothing but a charred corpse left. The students and Trux all watched as the bones began to form muscle fibers and the muscle fibers formed skin. It took a total of 45 seconds for him to stand up and regain his senses.

Trux opened the door for him to exit and as he walked out he collapsed onto the floor. Trux started recording the results onto his holopad as the students all surrounded the passed out student. They were scared to go next.

“Alright, let’s keep going. He will be fine. I’ll wake him up so he can change in a minute, but for now grab another pair of pants out of that locker.”, Trux said.

Each student went one by one. Some were able to withstand more of the blast than others, and some were able to heal faster than others. After a few more students went it was time for Zahn to take his turn.

Zahn walked into the room after changing into the lead pants. He stood in place and watched the doors across the room start to open. Suddenly the flash blinded his eyes. Trux’s eyebrows raised for a second. Zahn could feel the heat and the radiation as he tensed up. The flash disappeared and he looked down at his arms. He could see parts of his skin burning slightly, but the pain was not as bad as he expected. He could feel an overwhelming energy source coming from the blast. He wanted to see if he could get closer to it. Zahn started walking towards the blast, the force was strong and kept pushing him back. He could feel himself getting weaker, but did not understand why. Trux looked down at the timer, and was baffled. The timer was at 25 seconds. He didn’t know if he should stop the test or let Zahn continue to test his defense.

Zahn continued walking towards the blast. His skin was burning worse and the pain increased. He looked down at his hand and saw the tendons holding his bones together in spots. Zahn felt his energy drain completely and suddenly the pain skyrocketed and the skin vaporized off of his upper body immediately. Zahn reached out towards the blast and stood his ground. He could feel the energy from the nuke and reached out to control it. Suddenly the blast doors closed as Trux had pressed the button. Zahn turned around to see he had walked nearly 30 meters towards the blast. He started walking back towards the exit. His upper body was nothing more than muscle fibers and bones like everyone else, but unlike the others he was still able to walk as he was healing. One of his eyes was gone and began to regenerate. He was in shock. He never noticed he lost his eye and the rest of his face.

He walked out of the room to the shock of the other students. Zahn looked over to Trux as he was typing data into the holo pad. He went into the changing room and changed clothes and returned to the rest of the class and the tests continued. Zahn sat against the wall and slowly passed out from energy exhaustion. While he was asleep thoughts and dreams kept entering his mind. Thoughts of power, thoughts of the nuke, thoughts of Grith all flooded his mind. What would be the next test, was the last thought to enter his mind as he finally drifted into a deep sleep dreaming of all the possible tests to come.