Even though time had slowed down for Agon, the attacker was still fast. No one in the team was quick enough to reach her in time as the man slashed Anika from shoulder to hip.

The force behind the slash tore her shirt.

‘Why is it happening again?’ Agon wondered.

A scene of a girl dying flashed before his eyes.

Why the hell was it happening again?!!

His Ord bubbled and felt like his brain was boiling.

But such feelings disappeared as Anika jumped back. She had a grimace on her face and no injuries.

Under her shirt was wire wrapped around her body that had served as armor. Relief washed over Agon. He didn't waste time thinking anymore and immediately gathered Ord in his fist.

The man gave him a side glance and cursed under his breath. “Fuck!”

The attacker threw a couple of projectiles that looked like toy swords. Agon ducked under the shots and gave chase.

Each step felt like he was pushing on the earth; Ord in his body gathered to his fist—the familiar feeling of battle.

He had to protect his comrades!

"Oh, a Warrior? Their abilities always have the strongest punch behind them," the man smiled and wiggled his eyes. "Get it? Punch, because most of their abilities involve punching."

Agon stared at the man. "You know, you're kind of a lame guy. Why can't you just fight without telling some lame jokes?"

As soon as he said that, the man's posture dropped, and he almost seemed like he was about to cry.

Feeling bad about it, Agon was about to apologize. But the man straightened his posture and took a low stance. "Blink, and you will miss it."

Within an instant, the man's figure disappeared, and in less than a tenth of a second, he was in front of Agon. The attacker swung his sword overhead; if the attack landed, it would split Agon's head like a firewood hit by an ax.

Agon punched up, and his fist clashed with the sword. Normally a sword would cut through a fist like butter. But with so much Ord imbued in his fist, the sword couldn't even touch his skin.

'This feels heavy!' Agon winced. The weapon felt heavier than its size suggested, adding to its power. 'But I won't give up!'

Clang!... The sword shattered. A couple of metal shards hit Agon's face, causing a stinging pain. He ignored it and kept his eyes on the enemy.

The man swung his other hand, which had no weapon in it.

Agon felt a stinging sensation from his collarbone to his stomach. Looking down, he saw blood seeping out of him. His clothes were dyed red.

What?

He didn't feel any panic. Was he in shock? The world seemed to slow down as the attacker swung his empty hand toward Agon's head. If a sword were in that hand, it would decapitate him.

"Careful!" Sei's voice rang out as one of his mirrors hit the man on his side with its wooden edge.

The man coughed out blood and was thrown away by the hit. His body bounced twice off the ground before he came to a halt.

"He has an ability that makes the sword in his left hand invisible. When he cut you, the weapon was covered in blood, and I saw it for a split second. It's a short sword." Sei explained. He never took his eyes off the opponent. "What about you? Did you feel anything wrong when fighting him?"

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"I dunno, his sword felt heavy?" Agon didn't know what to say.

He wasn't the kind of guy who tried to see through the enemy's abilities and come up with a plan. In battle, his goal was to hit an enemy with a super-strong punch.

"Heavy sword in right hand, invisible weapon in left. Was that some kind of ability? Or was it a Magic Weapon?" Sei wondered out loud.

"I doubt it was the weapon since it already could cut through my Ord and dissipate it without allowing it to explode." Anika put up her own conjecture.

After that, it was some smart talk between her and Sei.

Something Agon didn't want to be involved with. If everyone created a punching ability, the world would be simpler. The winner would be the guy with the strongest punch!

When they finished planning, Sei created a mirror and started floating around. The man said nothing and charged Anika.

She created Ord spheres and rained blasts of Ord down on him. The man was fast and cut many projectile blasts; he dodged even more than he cut.

But the man hadn't noticed Anika's missed shots were sinking into a mirror behind him. Sei was hiding behind that same mirror.

Wait what?

Agon looked at the Sei standing beside him and the one behind the mirror.

‘A clone? You know what, I’m not even gonna bother trying to figure out what’s happening anymore.’

Then Anika smirked as five mirrors trapped the man from all sides and one from the top. The mirrors released all the shots Anika had missed, leaving no room for dodging.

"Ahhhh!" The man screamed in pain, and the mirrors turned into specs of light. Leaving behind a bloodied man lying on the ground.

"Is he alive?" Agon asked. He was afraid that they might have killed the man.

Also, the guy had talked about his kid; Agon didn't want an orphan to be out there because of them.

"He tried to kill us. So don’t feel sorry," Anika stared at the downed man with disdain.

Sei didn't seem to care. "Whatever, let's just go to our destination."

It was at that moment Agon realized; he had some cold-hearted teammates.

***

Seimei was a small town just outside of the capital city of Sun Country. It was also the place where we would have the next part of the exams.

The only thing that stood out was the river running next to it and the town’s eight towers.

This whole town used to belong to the Seimei Clan, who were massacred because of a certain incident. It was a tale as old as time; like Icarus, the Seimei Clan flew too close to the sun. They had so much but wanted more.

The town had stone houses, and none of them were taller than two stories. There were eight lookout towers surrounding the town. One tower had crashed, and some debris had landed on the river.

We walked along said river until we got close to the tower.

"Is this really the place? There's no one here," Gem looked around; his delinquent face made him seem like a loan shark trying to find his next victim.

Bets was also cautious, but he had that mafia boss appearance—a strong and terrifying guy. "We're probably the first.”

He was right. The riddle hadn't changed from the original story. So the hidden entrance should be here. But people hadn't started looking for it yet. "Let's go and hide."

Approaching the river, I opened the lid of the barrel I carried in my back. With no instructions from me, Carpy already knew what to do.

He jumped from the barrel into the river, forming an air pocket. I jumped down there until I felt the mud at the bottom of the river. A circle of water spun around me, but no speck of water touched my skin.

"That's your fish?" Bets looked down in surprise.

"I thought it was just a lingering spirit, and you were pretty dumb to tame something like that!" Gem, of course, said something without thinking it through.

If I weren't his friend, I would probably take his words as an insult. But Gem was as blunt as a baseball bat and didn’t have a polite bone in his body.

"It's around a low-class demon now, but he will become one of the strongest beings out there one day," my words showed no doubt. However, I was a little worried about why Carpy’s appearance hadn’t changed despite growing stronger.

"You always say some nonsense. Sometimes I have to remind myself not to believe everything you say," Gem jumped down with me, and Bets followed along.

Like always, Gem couldn't keep quiet even when we were hiding. So he asked. "By the way, why are we hiding? Don't you already know where we need to be?"

The answer to that was complicated.

Who was the fastest man in the world? Most people would answer Usain Bolt. What about the second-fastest man? Maybe one in ten thousand people would know. What about the fifth fastest man? Essentially, no one would know. "If we went first, it would put a target on our back."

Also, there was something big happening behind the scenes. So we needed to conserve our energy. There will be an attack after the exams. But for all I knew, the attack would come sooner this time.

"Someone is coming," Bets whispered.

We didn’t speak anymore and waited for the next team to arrive. But contrary to our expectations, it wasn’t just one, but two teams arrived.

But amongst the six people, only two stood out. They were both standing on opposite sides.

One had a flute in his hand. The other was slouched, thin, and looked like a zombie, and he was carrying a coffin on his back.