The team of Elites walks over to us like they own the place and completely ignore me, all staring at Natalie.

Trax yells again.

"You're a disgrace! We should have never picked you up from the Veridian Region!"

He raises a fist, and lightning crackles around it.

His words interest me.

I assumed Nat was from the Apex Region, but it seems there's some information I was lacking. My eyebrows raise as the water user puts his hand in front of the spiky-haired lightning mage.

"You know how protective the Director is about healers. Careful, Trax."

His fist crackles, and he stares ahead at her, then grunts out a reply through gritted teeth.

"I know... but she's definitely not the one he's looking for. That's clear after today..."

His eyes track over to a tank in silver armor with a [6] on his wristband.

"Plus, Mack has the same skill as her. If anyone manifests that ability, it'll be him. I don't think the Director will mind me taking out the garbage. I don't know why you sold out to these low-grade hunters, but now this year's exam results may be tarnished if I don't do anything about it."

Callum, the water mage of nearly equal strength to Trax, lowers his hand and nods.

"Do as you wish, I just thought a fair warning was in order."

Trax grins and stares Nat in the eyes while replying.

"Your consideration is appreciated, but I'll make my own decisions."

He lunges forward with what feels like a full-powered attack aiming straight for Nat's chest.

I think to myself while the scene plays out in slow motion thanks to my real perception.

While Natalie technically did give us information that would help in these exams during the pre-trials, none of it was really that helpful.

We were a bit more prepared for the tasks ahead, but if we followed her advice on the Simulation tests, we'd be in much worse shape than we are now.

It's not like she gave us secret answers on the written exam or some way to cheat the physical either.

Everything they're mad about was not Nat's fault at all. If anything, it's my fault. Trax is actually thinking pretty clearly. There's no possible way normal recruits from the Bedrock Region would have passed the tests like we just did.

All of the other recruits that came with us were either prematurely eliminated in the pre-trials or aren't even in the top 30 right now.

However, reacting in such a drastic manner without any solid proof is quite disturbing.

I let out a sigh and lunge forward, activating my own lightning magic.

There's a powerful twang of mana as Trax's fist slams into my open palm centimeters before impact aimed at Nat's heart.

Arcs of electricity surge through the air, and a shockwave of energy radiates through everyone.

Nat falls backward from the blast but grabs onto my free arm to stabilize herself before standing to her feet and shaking her head to rid herself of the shock and understand the situation.

I feel another pulse of electricity surge through me with the mana control output of a level 850-900 monster as the angry eyes of the man who threw this attack stare into mine.

I finally release his fist from my hand and he yells out again.

"It's you! You and that Emrie guy! It was you two that were stealing our points! Just another one of the Bedrock leeches! 14th? You're in 14th place now... Are you kidding me? You weren't even in the top 30 after the written or physical exams! There's no way you racked up enough points to pass without this one whispering the answers in your ear!"

He turns to Nat.

"I never even liked you in the first place. This is all because you were taken from your home to support the Apex Region's future, isn't it? Some kind of selfish revenge?"

He turns back to me, and I feel a probing sensation of Trax's aura go through me to try and figure out how strong my mana control is.

With the divine limiter on, my output still feels like a level 600-700 at best.

He feels this and yells again.

"It's because he's a lightning user too, isn't it! The only other applicant with this element in the exam. You wanted to take away from the rarity of my ability."

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He turns back to Nat.

"That was it, wasn't it? I understand now!"

She looks shocked, with her mouth open, and stutters out a reply.

"No- I- I thought my duty was done. I did what I was asked to get you through the pre-trials. My teammates made it this far themselves. If anything, they're the ones helping me-"

"That's enough! I don't buy it! From what I can sense, there's no possible way he could put up a fight against me in the sim rooms without extra information. There's just no way-"

Natalie has been nothing but nice to me, and with added information that she's most likely been working for the Apex Region for some reason that has to do with their Director searching for a healing ability, the questions in my head only grow.

One thing is for sure, though, it comes out of my mouth as I take a step closer to Trax.

"Hey! Believe her. She didn't tell me anything. The B-Class exams don't revolve around you, buddy."

His eyes widen at my remark, and I feel a very intense power surge behind his eyes.

His pupils turn yellow, and a wave of electricity bursts out to cover his entire body in the same bright yellow color as he responds.

"Actually, you're wrong. I will be the next A-Class hunter and train with the Director himself. These exams do in fact revolve around me, and you are all merely stepping stones to my rise in fame as the Association's strongest hunter."

A twisted smile forms across his face, and he replies.

"There can only be one Lightning Mage that will be known across the 8 Regions. That will be me."

He lunges toward me with speed and power far faster than what he showed before.

His energy output with this ranked-up buff activated nears that of a level 1000 monster. The energy being multiplied throughout his body artificially increases his mana control momentarily to create an attack that is far deadlier than I expected.

His speed has also drastically increased, far greater than that of a double ranked-up monster. It feels almost like I'm facing that lightning wolf in the Vice City Labyrinth's 40th-floor boss room.

He is not as powerful but definitely shows the speed and agility of a level 1200 monster.

With an ability like this, it makes far more sense why they were able to clear the trials so fast.

If he wasn't unfortunate enough to have met me in these exams, his previous words might actually be true.

The strength and capabilities he shows are far greater than everyone here and could definitely be a candidate for an A-Class hunter.

However, with his fiery temper and attitude toward others, showing violent hostility without any concrete proof, and a god complex that he's trying to push on everyone around him just for being pampered by the association, it really makes me want to bring him down a peg.

As a lightning-imbued fist comes rocketing toward my face, I do a scan of the room and find there are less than a dozen people left here. The rest have gone inside their rooms.

While I could block his punch right now and beat him to the ground, that wouldn't be a feat Ray Anderson could do with the fractions of a second left to think of a plan against an unexpected punch.

Then again, a few words from Rodrigo repeat in my mind from his speech before we all made it into this room.

He said, killing will not be permitted.

If anyone takes things too far, he will be made to intervene.

I smirk, then slowly turn my eyes to meet Trax's gaze while he follows through with his punch.

I don't lift a finger or even attempt to block it.

His expression shifts for a moment, as my reflexes and perception of the situation shouldn't be this quick.

At the same time, a circular panel in the center of the massive room opens up, and a flash of light pours out, wearing a golden collar.

A blast of electricity and light magic follows, and I play along, letting myself get thrown back by the blast as Rodrigo blocks the lightning punch while in his ranked-up form.

He yells out.

"That's enough! I said you may sabotage and quarrel, but no lethal blows will be permitted!"

Trax looks at Rodrigo, and they both power down their buffs as I get to my feet pretending to act flustered.

However, Trax lunges forward again. Rodrigo blocks him from moving forward at me with a single arm covered in light magic, but lets him yell out.

"No! That- That wasn't a lethal blow at all- he- he saw it coming. His eyes, he was watching me throw that punch-"

Trax replays the imagery of my subtle smirk and eyes tracking his punch over and over in his mind, but his face turns pale as he murmurs under his breath.

"At least I think... That's what I saw, right..?"

He looks down at his hands, then up at Rodrigo.

"But if it was... you would have seen it too. An A-Class hunter wouldn't miss a detail like that..."

Rodrigo stares at him with a serious expression.

"This hunter didn't even see your attack coming. His pupils tracking your movements may be a survival response, but there was no effort made to block or move away from the blow aimed for his vitals at speeds far faster than anything recorded in his physical exam or even during the sim trials. That was in fact an intended Lethal blow."

Trax shakes himself out of his trance.

"Right... yeah- right. There's no way he could have seen that. He wasn't even top 30 in the written and physical, right...? He's not even top 12 overall now. I don't know my own power sometimes."

He smiles, chuckling a little, nodding, and reassuring himself of this fact while Rodrigo responds, staring at everyone here with stern expressions.

"I don't care if it was an accident or not. I'm just here to keep the peace. If you really want to kill each other that badly, save it for the tournament event in the next round."

Everyone's eyes widen at this statement, as Rodrigo just dropped a major hint about the 4th stage.

He jumps in the air as the circular hatch in the ceiling opens again.

"No more talking! Get to your rejuvenation rooms and stop causing problems. You've had a stressful first three trials, be glad you've made it this far. Heal up and mentally prepare yourself for the next stage."

He watches us from above and doesn't disappear into the ceiling again until everyone walks back to their room.

I walk in front of the door labeled [14], but turn around one last time to get a look at the large circular room as the silver door behind me opens.

The angry gaze of the lightning mage is locked on me from across the room as he stands in front of his open door too.

I lock eyes with him and give a convincing stare back, as it seems I've accidentally made quite the aggressive and strong rival to deal with in the upcoming rounds.

Our death stare across the 100-meter room holds for about five full seconds before the ceiling turns green and a new announcement rings out in the tone of a woman's voice I've never heard before.

[Attention all applicants. Stage 1 written test results have been reviewed by our proctors, and the machine-graded scores have been manually updated to include more creative solutions. There have been a few slight changes. Please review the updated rankings.]

I can hear and see that the same message is being played inside the room behind me, so even hunters inside their private suites are getting this update too.

As the message flashes a few more times, then a display of the updated rankings appears in front of us, my emotionless stare turns into a smile, and Trax's turns to one of disbelief.