“Here we are, lads. The training site. Though it’s still quite fresh.” Captain Roy scratched his beard as he glanced at the students’ expression.

The training site seemed reminiscent of a high school’s track field, but there were a few obstacles in the way. It wasn’t all that, but the class wasn’t feeling like running especially since they weren’t allowed to change into their gym clothes.

“It’s hot! Why do we have to run in the blazing heat without changing into something comfortable!?” Whined a female student.

“Because in life sometimes you’ll have to do a lot of uncomfortable things just to achieve your goal,” Jace responded, folding his arms against his chest.

“Well said, my boy. Listen up everyone all you have to do is complete the course. It isn’t that hard.”

“But...” A male student added.

“But… you all have to complete it in at least 3 minutes. That should be doable for all of you.” Roy sighs.

“Yeah, I’m not doing that.”

Hearing this the captains all starred along with the students and the one person who denied to partake in the next part of the exam.

“What did you say, kid?” Roy said firmly.

“I said I’m not going to run around your half-assed track.”

“Oh man, he’s about to go at it, Isaac!” Junji nudged his friend.

“Great… it never fails.”

This guy is scary. Noel’s been like this from the first time he entered the academy. A lot of people made fun of him for wanting to become a Seer, but I can still respect his wish even though he’s so well off.

“What’s your name!?” Roy was preparing to approach the kid, but Jace held out his arm to block him.

“You need your eyes checked if you don’t recognize my face. I’m Noel and I have enough money and connections to get this place shut down.” Noel muttered in a smug tone.

“Jace, is this kid serious?”

“Yes, Captain. Unfortunately, every word he says is true.”

It was easy to tell that Noel belonged to a noble family, his clothes might as well have been made from money. He was dressed head to toe in blue dress clothes with a darker shade blazer.

“Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to let me pass this exam, alright?”

“Why would I do that?”

“If fear won’t move you, Roy then I’ll simply have to buy it from you. Name your price. How’s two hundred thousand sound?”

“...”

“Captain…” Jace shifts his gaze over towards Roy.

“That’s a fair share of cash, but it’s going to take more than that.”

“Seven hundred thousand.”

“Deal. You pass Noel, congratulations!”

“Oh, Captain… don’t you get paid enough?”

“Jace… I’m a gambling man. Most of my earnings go right towards that wheel.”

Whispers could be heard amongst the crowd of students while a lot of them gave Noel the evil eye, however, it didn’t seem to bother him once as he simply went over towards a tree to watch the other students suffer through the obstacle course.

“Freaking rich people! I didn’t think stuff like that actually happened in real life.” Junji complained.

“What can you do? Noel’s rich enough to own our souls.”

“Don’t even joke like that.”

“Now that we have that taken care of. Class, you’ll advance in sets of four and you’ll be timed. If you complete the course in under 3 minutes then you’ll move onto the next portion of the exam, if not then you can head on back home. Now if you all understand we’ll call your names and you can proceed. The rest of you can have a seat until it’s time for you to go.”

Isaac sat down across from the field, his legs spread out while his hands rested on him. Junji soon came over tugging at his orange shirt before sitting down next to him. Their eyes remained on the field as the students were lined up and the sound of a pistol went off to signal the runners off.

Even with this killer heat, they were pretty fast. Constant runs during their academy days prepared them for this and the comfort of gym clothes didn’t seem like it’d be slowing them down. The breaks between the four was an interesting sign of each runner’s ability and fitness level. If he could keep that pace then he’d set a new record.

The runners were now approaching the first obstacle in their way… the row of car tires. That seemed simple enough to get by especially for a guy like that. Yet… suddenly he screamed and fell over as his foot entered the tire.

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“What’s going on?” Isaac asked curiously.

“Haha! Looks like he fell into the tire trap! You see we hid makibishi spikes in the dirt. Most students think you have to track through the tires, but you don’t.” Roy chuckled.

“That’s just plain mean, how were we supposed to know this!?” Junji complained once more.

The poor student never got back up and instead, the others used him as an example. Now there was a new lead, but that didn’t last long when the next obstacle came up. There was a wall that they’d have to climb, most likely to reinforce the importance of upper body strength. The students all head up, but soon… they weren’t able to move anymore.

No matter how hard they struggled the substance that was lathered all over the wall was impairing their movement and soon time quickly ran out for them much to their displeasure.

“Sorry, guys you all weren’t cut out for this it seems. Hit the showers then head back home, your services won’t be needed for Terra.” Roy said harshly.

“This is bullshit! What the hell is this stuff!? How are we supposed to climb the wall like this!?”

“That isn’t for us to figure out. The whole point of this course is to get you familiar with unseen forces. Things aren’t always going to be written on the wall. Life isn’t as simple as that. You’re going to encounter plenty of situations where you’ll have to climb an unclimbable wall. I wanted to see how you’d handle it and right now you all would be dead.”

“Damn it!” The male student cursed before heading off.

Maybe the Captain’s logic was flawed. The gel-like substance on it made it impossible for students to climb it safely and so they all failed to complete the course. Each round more and more students were sent home. At this rate, nobody would pass this year. From all the constant failures the morale was lowering rapidly. Prompting some students to even call it quits.

“This is depressing… I don’t know how we’re going to get past that wall, Isaac.”

“I don’t think we can under normal circumstances.”

“Then we’ll have to come up with a plan…’

“Hey look, there up next!”

“Great the doofuses.”

When the pistol went off… the students rushed off… but this round was different. Much like before the two quickly outpaced the other contestants leaving a dust cloud in their wake. Upon the field of tires, the male managed to leap over them, landing roughly on the ground.

“There’s no way! That’s not humanly possible!” Junji shouted.

“Finally this one seems promising,” Roy mentioned.

“That’s Yadon. He’s a highly motivated student at the academy. His physical feats were impressive from what I’ve read over.”

“Oh really? His features really show it.”

“He’s also capable of using magic so he’s a keeper.”

Yadon acted like a beast more than a human and his appearance was no different. His orange hair was long and flowed within the confines of the hair tie. Even from afar his muscles were defined and toned enough to lust over.

Everyone was on edge when he approached the unclimbable wall. That wall has blocked so many students from passing this stupid course and Yadon was too determined for it to put a hold on his dreams. In a mighty roar, the man clenched his right fist.

“Get out of my way!” He shouted, raising his right foot up to kick the center of the wall.

“What is he doing?” Roy asked.

The force of the kick was enough to create cracks within the wall… before finally shattering to pieces. A lot of the students were in shock, but Yadon kept running afterward with his girlfriend complimenting him.

“Way to go, baby! I knew you could bust that wall up!”

“Thanks, bae! No stupid wall was going to stop me!”

The rest of the course seemed simple enough. The next task involved crawling through a muddy pipe and besides getting dirty that didn’t stop the remaining students. After completing this the next obstacle that came into play was the final surprise. Yadon stepped on a part of the ground that felt strange and soon an explosion came about.

“Explosions!?” Isaac shouted.

“Minefields! They’ve reached the minefields!” Roy cheered with excitement.

“Can’t that kill someone!?” Junji turned his head towards the Captain.

“Very much so.”

When the dust settled and the smoke cleared Yadon didn’t seem too fazed and was able to cross the finish line. The students cheered for him, but their cheers were quickly halted once another explosion went off. This time a student wasn’t as lucky.

Everything went silent expect a deafening ringing sound which blocked everything out. He was not aware of where he was one moment he was running and the next he was on the ground. He made sure to move every limb to make sure nothing was broken, but for some reason, his left leg felt lighter… that was strange. Upon closer inspection it turns out that he could see the bloodied bone sticking out with a constant squirt of blood gushing out, a stream of bodily plasma leaving him in a pool of his own fluids.

“Whose is this... ?” The boy’s hand was soaked in the red water. “Wait... This is… This is my… BLOOD!” The boy screamed at the top of his lungs as he stared at what remained of his leg. There were strings of meat varying in length hanging from what used to be his leg. Pretty soon his eyes went blank.

A collection of intrusive thoughts forced their way in its head as he thought about how difficult life would be for him, how he had failed and how much longer this unbearable pain would continue to shoot through his body. It didn’t take long for the loss of blood to cause him to pass out.

“Jace…”

“I’m on it, Captain.” Jace rushed over to the kid along with a medical team as he helped put him on a stretcher.

“That’s terrible… I can’t imagine losing a limb. Not alone one of my legs.” Isaac muttered, suddenly feeling down at the scene.

“Man if that happens to us we’re pretty much flunked.”

Even with the injured student, the students continued to run. With the absence of the sticky wall, a lot more students were passing. They were somehow careful enough to avoid the dangerous minefield which took the flesh off from one unfortunate guy.

“Isaac, Junji! You two are next! Get into position!” Roy shouted.

It felt like forever, but it was finally time for the duo to run off. The wall was the main obstacle in their way, but the introduction of the minefield was quite gory. That thing was a complete detriment to one’s health and it felt a little over the top.

I can’t lose now. I came this far and all I have to do is complete the race in under 3 minutes… I have to make my family proud. Here goes nothing.

The signal was heard loud and clear, but before the students could take off something surprising happened. The female next to Isaac was sparkling with yellow electricity, but before he could get a good look at her she was gone like the wind… her movement wasn’t even visible to the eye, not even the Captains could keep up with her fearsome speed. In a blink of an eye, she had reached the finish line and the sound of explosions were heard as she managed to set off all of the mines but was long out of the blast radius.

When everything was settled there were still a residue of her electricity clinging to the ground which remained for a moment more.

“What the hell!? Jace… what’s her time?”

“I don’t know, I blinked and it was basically over.”

“Who is that student?”

“That’s Keianna. I heard she’s a problem child though. It’s a waste of talent.”

The other students who were running were left in awe, but Roy had to remind them that they were still being time and so they continued off while some of the others complained that she cheated because she was using magic.

“Huh? Bite me, you never said magic was off limits.”

“I’ll give you this one. I never stated that. Even though it’s an unfair advantage it is apart of you. Who am I to limit that.” Roy lets her off the hook much to the dismay of the other students who start whispering again.

The impressive showing that Keianna put on took a lot of the attention away from Isaac and Junji who were still running through the course. They definitely weren’t the most athletic bunch in the group.

Geez… that girl was so fast. It’s hard to perform at your best when you’ve been outdone like that!

The motivation for the runners was drained. Junji and Isaac kept an even pace until they got to the minefield where they picked up speed.

“Even though she probably triggered most of them we should still be careful!” Junji shouted as he ran.

“I like my legs attached! I really don’t want to lose them!”

“Time!” Roy shouted. “Alright, let’s finish this up and move on to the next task.”

It took some time until everyone was finished with their runs. The class looked about half as big thanks to the obstacle course. The two Captains seemed tickled with the performances from Yadon and Keianna.

“It’s safe to say that Keianna has the highest record set,” Jace mentions.

“I didn’t think anyone could move that fast. I’m jealous. I might have a new rival besides my girlfriend!” Yadon shouted.

Keianna didn’t seem to care about his declaration, but time didn’t wait on them. Roy was already about to discuss the final phase of the exam.

“Alright, we’re heading to the next stage of the exam. If you all clear this then you will all have officially graduated.”

“Bring it on, what else can you throw at us!” Junji yelled.

“Yeah! There’s no way we’re going to back down now!” Isaac added.

“Everyone back on the bus. We’re heading out!” Roy signaled.

No one knew what to expect for the final part of the exam. The students, however, seemed really eager to move on. With everything that happened today was these students truly capable of becoming Seers?