Lloyd, Kai Teon, the black-haired girl from before, whose name is Max, Kaia, and another brown-haired guy who is named Percy are all standing in line next to each other on the training field. In front of them is a man who is a foot taller than Lloyd and the woman from the day before, who brought the three to Lucius. The woman looks annoyed, as if she was forced into this.

  "Morning, shitheads!"

  "Hey! Language Nova!"

  "Sorry! Good morning, recruits! Better?!"

  The man glares at her before turning his attention back to the recruits.

  "Good morning, recruits, my name is Cole."

  "There is no need to introduce yourself; we already got all the information about you from Lucius."

  Nova says before she starts to walk along the line of recruits.

  "Congratulations, you six are the only ones to pass this year! But now it's going to get hard."

  She stops and glares at the six for a moment before going along the line again.

  "As you know, we, who are gifted with more power than ordinary humans, are here to fight the Nightmare plague. The ones that are even too much for police or the military!"

  "God, why is she stressing so much?!"

  Kai thinks to himself. Nova stops in front of Kaia and looks her deep in the eyes.

  "Even the weak ones of us have to be stronger than the best tank or aircraft!"

  She takes a step back again, her gaze wandering over the faces of the six.

  "And as long as you aren't able to put out such a feat, you'll be thrown out right away. No matter how good you performed during the entrance exams."

  She walks back to stand next to Cole, looks up at him, and continues to speak, as if she is explaining all this to him rather than the recruits.

  "That's what we are here for, to test if you are capable of doing this and then train you to fight Nightmares."

  After she stops talking, she looks back at the six.

  "Sadly, for me, I'm not the one to decide if you can stay or not; this is in Lucius's hands only."

  "Enough of this."

  Cole says before taking a step forward.

  "You'll go into groups of two to fight us. Don't worry, we're going to hold back."

  Paired are Kaia and Max, Kai and Lloyd, and Percy and Teon. Percy nods at Teon, who does it back. Coles takes off his jacket and lets it fall to the ground, revealing a muscular physique under a black shirt.

  "So, two verses two. Of course, the first team has a disadvantage, because you don't know what abilities we have."

  He grins before stretching his arms in front of his chest.

  "Who wants to go first?"

  "We!"

  Kai calls out near instantly before getting a hard slap on the back of his head from Lloyd.

  "Ouch, what's that for?"

  "Are you brain dead?"

  Lloyd yells at him furiously.

  "I'm not, but I know what they're capable of! Cole is one of the top 20 Souls-Corp fighters, and Nova is number one; the media calls her 'the Speedweaver.' You guys really have no internet where you come from!"

  Cole gives Kai an impressed look, while Nova just scoffs at the mention of her nickname.

  "So you know who we are."

  "I even know what your abilities can do!"

  Cole grins at Kai's words.

  "Then you two won't start."

  Kais's jaw drops; wordless, he just stares at Cole for a few moments.

  "What! Why not?!"

  "Because I said so, and that is reason enough."

  Cole says in a serious tone. Then Nove steps forward and speaks.

  "How about ladies first?"

  "Are you two okay with that?"

  Max looks at Kaia, who seems to be really nervous, before turning back to Cole and Nova.

  "Yeah, we are."

  Moments later the four fighters are standing face-to-face while the others sit on the sideline. Kai pouts as he watches Cole and Nova get ready. Nove pulls two guns out of their holsters and loads in mags. This action shocks the kids, and Kaia, who is supposed to face her off, takes a step back.

  "Don't overdo it, Nova!"

  "Yeah yeah! If she can't take it, she shouldn't be here in the first place."

  Kaia winces at the comment and looks down on the ground.

  "Concentrate, Kaia!"

  "Y...yes!"

  The girl straightens up again and raises her gaze again. At the same time Max steps closer until she is only a few centimeters away from Cole and looks up at him, a big cocky grin on her face.

  "Ready to lose to a recruit, big guy?"

  "Pretty confident for such a small girl."

  Max takes a few steps back before going into a battle stance. Cole gives the sign to start, and before he can even move a muscle, Max is already standing right in front of him, delivering a jab to his chest, following it up with an uppercut. Cole lets out a surprised gasp and stumbles a few steps back. Suddenly Cole goes down on one knee, supporting himself with one hand.

  "Interesting, I'm feeling weaker."

  The reason Cole feels this sudden surge of weakness is Max's ability, 'You are my Equal,' the moment he gave the starting signal. This power reduces her opponents' physical capabilities to that of her own and momentarily blocks their innate ability. Before Cole can fully grasp the situation he is in, Max dashes at him again, trying to hit another uppercut. But this time Cole catches her fist and counters with a right hook to her side, sending Max to her knees. She grits her teeth in pain. After losing concentration because of the pain, her ability deactivates. Cole takes a deep breath before delivering another punch. Max barely manages to roll away but still gets struck by his fist. Trying to stand up, she feels a sudden surge of pain where Cole's fist struck her, as if another strike landed. She coughs out before tapping out.

  Teon, who was closely watching the fight, looks confused.

  "What just happened there? She dodged his punch."

  "That was his innate ability."

  Kai whispers. He's sitting right beside Teon and leans closer while his voice gets even quieter.

  "After every hit he can make more impacts occur at the same point whenever he wants to. He calls it "After Hits."

  Teon looks at Cole, thinking what would happen if he were to happen to copy this ability. At the same time, Nova and Kaia's fight is starting to speed up more and more, with Nova shooting rubber bullets at Kaia, which get faster and faster with each bullet. Kaia struggles to dodge these by using flash step and getting closer to Nova. It doesn't take long for a bullet to hit her on the forehead, causing her to fall to the ground.

  "Disappointing!"

  Nova sneers before turning around without helping Kaia up from the ground. Max limps over to her friend, still holding her side. As she looks down at Kaia, she sees that the girl's eyes are slowly tearing up.

  "Hey, it's okay. You did well!"

  Kaia nods slightly before slowly standing up and walking together with Max to the side where the others are sitting. Cole waves over the next team, and Teon and Percy stand up.

  "I guess it's my turn now."

  As Percy and Teon get ready to face off against the two Souls-Corp members, Kai leans over to the two girls and congratulates them for the good fights, bringing small smiles to both of their faces.

  "Are you two ready?"

  Cole asks while Nova reloads her guns. As Cole gives the sign to start, Percy slowly starts to walk towards Cole, reaching with his right hand into the air beside him. His hand disappears for a moment before reappearing as he pulls it back, now holding a longsword in it.

  Parcival, or Percy, as his friends call him, has the innate ability called Knight's Arsenal. It allows him to store any weapon he finds in a pocket dimension and even grants him the power to use the true potential of mythological weapons. Stopping two steps in front of Cole, he raises the sword, pointing its tip towards Cole.

  In the meantime, Teon just watches Nova, who is already aiming at him. In the blink of an eye, Teon moves to stand next to Nova with a flash step and swings at her with his left. Nova ducks under the attack and shoots up, aiming at Teon's face.

  "These bullets were even faster than when she fought Kaia."

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  Teon thinks to himself after dodging the bullet and jumping backwards. Nova starts to fire relentlessly at him, giving him no time to attack.

  Percy is still staring down Cole while Teon is fighting, waiting for Cole to make the first move. After a moment of nothing happening between the two, Cole shrugs his shoulders and steps closer. Just as he is in range of Percy's sword, the boy thrusts forward. Cole's eyes widen in surprise, and he leans to the side, evading the attack. Percy reacts and switches from a thrust to a horizontal slash, slicing Cole's forearm open. Cole grins as Perc steps out of his fist's reach.

  "Impressive. Too bad I'm too fast for you."

  Suddenly the blade of the sword breaks in half.

  "What?!"

  "Just before you cut me, I was able to hide that flat side of your sword. A little bit is enough for my ability to do the rest."

  Percy still looks at his broken sword, stunned by what just happened, not noticing Cole, who walks closer until he is able to punch Percy in the stomach, sending him to his knees.

  Teon is still trying to dodge Nova's bullets, which are getting faster and faster, until he is no longer able and gets hit multiple times in his torso.

  "You are out!"

  Percy still looks shocked as he and Teon sit back down with the others. Kai jumps up excited, while Lloyd shakes his head and follows him.

  "Now let's see how he compares to the rest."

  Teon thinks to himself as Kai stops in front of Cole. Nova reloads her guns before looking up at Kai.

  "This rubber ammunition won't work on me."

  The sickening sound of bones cracking and flesh being ripped apart, paired with screams of pain from Lloyd, echoes over the field. Bone sprouted out of his skin, covering his whole body like armor. Blood drips from his arms, sunlight reflecting from claws as white as snow.

  Nova watches the event happening in front of her with disgust and sneers as Lloyd's screams quiet down. The rest of the recruits look shocked at what they just witnessed.

  Except for Kai, who has his gaze fixed on Kai's figure.

  "My god, what kind of recruits have so much control over their power? What did you bring me there, Lucius?"

  Cole thinks as he watches Lloyd. After he gathers himself again, shaking himself for a second, he gives the sign to start. Immediately after, Lloyd dashes towards Nova, his claws slamming down on her. Just as he is about to hit her, she fires two shots straight against Lloyd's chest, sending the boy flying many meters away.

  Lloyd coughs out, landing on the ground; he slides a bit backwards, his feet carving marks into the ground.

  "What just happened?"

  Even though Nova was caught off guard for a second, by making use of her innate ability "Acceleration," she sped up the ammunition, which created enough power to send Lloyd flying.

  Kai ignores everything that just happened around him and just stares at Cole. Cole, in the meantime, applauds Lloyd and compliments him for doing better than the rest.

  "Hey, I'm your opponent; look at me!"

  Cole turns his attention to Kai.

  "I'm sorry."

  "I'm going to beat you without breaking a sweat."

  "Oh really? Then come at me."

  Kai slowly walks towards Cole. Faster than any of the watching recruits could react, Cole uses flashstep to appear directly in front of Kai, aiming a punch at the boy's face. Milliseconds before Cole's fist can connect with his face, Kai vanishes into a cloud of smoke and reappears back behind Cole. His arms crossed in front of his chest, the boy turns around to look at Cole.

  "Power of smoke, from a character of one of my favorite childhood shows."

  "So this isn't your power?"

  "It is just as I said."

  Kai and Cole each turn around to look at the other.

  "I'm disappointed. I thought one of the strongest Souls-Corp members would be able to hit me before I could react."

  After the words leave Kai's mouth, everyone except for Nova, Cole, and Kai himself starts shivering. Cole glares at the boy while releasing his Soul-Pressure.

  "Don't underestimate me. I'm one of the strongest for a reason."

  "Then stop holding back."

  Kai's serious expression turns into a cocky grin.

  "Or you might actually lose."

  "Cole! Stop now, you're overreacting!"

  Nova's words fall on deaf ears, and she curses her comrade for getting provoked so easily. Kais' grin widens excitedly as his hair slowly changes color to a shining blond and becomes even more spiky.

  "This feels fucking amazing!"

  Everyone on the field could feel it; even Lucius on the far side of the base noticed Kais's soul-energy suddenly was multiplied by 50 before he concentrated the full pressure of it on Cole. The man begins to struggle to stand up straight, his knees shaking.

  "W...what is this?"

  Smiling Kai slowly walks until he stands right in front of Cole, who punches against his chest before two more impacts appear where Cole's fist landed before. Kai doesn't even flinch and starts speaking.

  "This is the power of a warrior pure of heart."

  He grins before landing a punch against Cole's stomach, sending the man falling to his knees in front of him, coughing.

  "I think I won!"

  The boy's hair turns back to normal, and he walks over to Lloyd, helping him up after he fell because of the soul pressure from before. Nova walks over to Cole and just looks down at him.

  "That was it for today, recruits. You can go now."

  The four who were sitting on the side stand up and run over to Kai and Lloyd. Excited, the 6 leave the field, and after showering and changing into clean clothes, they meet up in the cafeteria, eating together.

  "Dude. How strong are you for real? You bodied this cool guy as if it was nothing; it was crazy!"

  Max says loudly while fidgeting on her seat. Kai smiles down at his food.

  "Thanks, I appreciate you saying this and hyping me up, but I really think he was still strongly holding back."

  "Even if you were the only one to beat one of them."

  Teon's gaze wanders to Lloyd sitting next to him.

  "You were also impressive. It must've really hurt to grow this armor."

  Lloyd finishes chewing his food before he answers.

  "I'm used to it by now."

  Suddenly Percy slams his hand on the table. The suddenly loud sound causes Kaia to wince. Max glares at him.

  "Man, do you have to scare her like this?! What took you so long?"

  "I just like showering a bit longer. Anyways, I just overheard Lucius and Nova talking about Kai."

  Everyone at the table looks up at Percy.

  "It seems Cole wasn't holding back that much. Sounded like you are around the same level as him."

  Everyone is quiet before Max breaks the silence.

  "You're on the same level as some of the strongest people on earth, dude!"

  "That's not enough for me."

  His words are met with surprised looks. Teon speaks up.

  "What do you mean by that?"

  Kai swallows food before leaning back in his chair and looking up at the room's ceiling.

  "Well... I applied here with the goal to become a Hyper-Lethal."

  "Interesting goal."

  Lucius says as he suddenly appears behind Percy. The six look at him, surprised at how he was able to get close to them without them feeling his pressure.

  "Which rank do you have in mind?"

  The attention of the group changes back to Kai, waiting for an answer. Meanwhile, Kai looks down at his plate, embarrassed.

  "Well, my ego says I have to become number one. But any would be enough."

  Lucius laughs.

  "Number one? You're funny."

  His expression turns more serious.

  "But I have to disappoint you; as long as the current number one is alive, no one on this planet is able to claim this spot."

  He stares at a point far away in the room.

  "I can't even remember the last time a Nightmare was strong enough to force him to act."

  Kai blushes a bit more than he already was.

  "Yeah, I thought so already. It's just wishful thinking."

  Lucius pats the boy's shoulder. He looks at Kaia for a moment, who is nervously poking at her food, before he turns and leaves without saying a word.