Darius was standing in front of and looking at the unconscious and bleeding Jax on the ground. Darius held his right arm, which had a bullet in it.

  Ren stood up, followed by Elise and everyone else except Roy.

  'He really could kill us,' Omar thought as he stood from the shock.

  "JAX," Ren shouted.

  The moment the barrier dropped, they began running toward Darius and Jax.

  Darius raised his hand.

  "If anyone takes one more step, they will be expelled."

  The words made everyone stop. It took a second before Ren started walking again, but this time slowly.

  An arrow just missed Ren's head, cutting part of his hair.

  "You dare to go against my words?" Darius's tone shocked everyone, but he followed almost instantly with a softer tone. "Don't worry. He isn't dead."

  "Marie, throw some cold water on this dumbass face."

  Marie nodded and did as Darius ordered.

  The moment the water hit Jax's face, he woke up with a scream.

  "STOP," he said, sitting up.

  Darius kneeled down, tore a part of his shirt off, and started to bandage Jax's arm, which had a bullet wound that didn't stop bleeding.

  Jax looked at Darius, confused.

  "What about your wound?" he asked.

  "I'm used to having one."

  As Darius finished bandaging Jax's wound, he stood up.

  "Now go to your seat."

  Jax stood up and started walking.

  "Wait. What happened?" Elise asked.

  "He used his telekinesis to turn the platform into a big trap where anywhere you stand, you would get hit by a bullet, all while he is invisible. And the continuous dodging of bullets doesn't give you enough time to try and find him. It was a nearly perfect strategy." Darius scratched his chin with a smile on his face.

  "Well," Ren pinched the bridge of his nose. "You see, that wasn't what we asked for."

  "Looks like you'll need patience training." Darius looked disappointed, and Ren sighed.

  "The problem with his strategy is that he just stood in place while he controlled the bullets, which meant that the only place the bullets didn't go was the place where he was standing. So I found him, teleported to him, and hit him hard on his head, which made him lose control of the bullets that were following me. One hit him, and another hit me." Darius looked at Ren. "Got your answer? Now back to your seat."

  After everyone returned to their seats, Darius teleported the bullet out of his arm, but before he could find something to bandage his wound with, he found Elise in front of him.

  "What are you doing here?"

  Elise touched Darius's wound and healed it.

  "You know that I can heal. Why did you stop me from coming?"

  Behind Elise, on the seats, Jax and Ren had shocked faces looking at Jax's arm, now completely smooth.

  "If you want to become a healer, you need to understand this on your own."

  Elise lowered her hand.

  "Looks like there is more for me to learn."

  Then she left.

  Darius got the dust off his pants before he looked up.

  "Jax Clay: the first pass."

  Everyone's attention returned to Darius and the test.

  "Ren Link." Darius pointed at Ren and then to the ground. "Come here. You're next."

  "Ah, shit." Ren stood up and walked to the platform. "May I have a request?" he asked, shaking.

  "You didn't listen to my orders, and now you want a request?" Darius looked at Ren with his sharp purple eyes.

  Ren swallowed.

  "Yes, Teacher. Of course, only if you accept."

  "What is it?"

  "I want to be a sniper, sir, so may I have permission to fight from outside the platform?"

  Ren stood completely straight with his arms glued to his body.

  Darius sighed.

  "I'll allow it. I'll test another one. You have until that test ends to find your place, but you'll be graded more harshly than others."

  "Yes, sir."

  Ren walked quickly out of the platform.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Darius looked at him until he was off the platform, then looked at the others.

  "Elise, you're next. Come here."

  Elise went to the platform.

  "Will I be tested to the same degree as others?"

  "Even for a healer, knowing how to fight is a big advantage. So do you want to be treated differently?"

  Elise smiled.

  "No. I was just making sure that it will be the same."

  Elise went and chose a rapier.

  "A rapier? Do you at least know how to use it?" Darius's comment hit Marie in the chest.

  "What kind of idiot do you take me for? Who doesn't know the simple uses of a sword?"

  K.O.

  Marie became unconscious, and Omar started trying to wake her up, but nothing worked.

  The energy barrier went up.

  Darius took an arrow and drew it with the same lightning coming from it like when he was fighting Marie.

  Elise didn't move.

  As Darius let go, Elise didn't move, didn't create a wall. She just raised her hand.

  As the arrow touched her hand, she raised it, making the arrow go up and miss her, but not without it completely going through her hand and burning all of her arm.

  "What the actual fuck?" Jax didn't believe what he saw.

  Valeria leaned forward, studying Elise's technique with sharp eyes.

  After the arrow missed, Elise healed her arm and hand, returning them back to normal.

  Darius let out a low whistle.

  Elise pointed her now-healed hand at Darius. A blinding light came from it.

  Darius closed his eyes for less than a second, but that was enough for Elise to get close enough to try and thrust him with the rapier.

  But Darius teleported behind her, and before he could do anything, the same blinding light came again. This time, he teleported up to escape any attack attempt.

  Elise looked up at Darius in the sky. She looked at the ground, then bent her knees and jumped while pointing the rapier at him.

  Darius saw her. He pointed at her, and lightning came from his finger, cutting her momentum and sending her back to the ground.

  Darius teleported to the ground under the falling Elise, but Elise didn't care that she just got hit by lightning.

  She turned around, trying to hit Darius while she was falling and healing herself.

  Darius moved to the side and dodged the thrust.

  The moment Elise fell on the ground, Darius held her throat.

  "You have lost."

  As Elise healed herself, Darius started his usual feedback.

  "Your thrust form and timing were good. Your use of healing and light was perfect. But just because you can heal yourself doesn't mean taking dumb risks. If you took 'What if you missed me with the last attack?' into consideration, you wouldn't have lost this fast."

  "There are a lot of things to learn."

  "You're at the start of your journey. You can't count how many things you need to learn and understand, so don't think about how many things you need to learn. Just focus on learning the next thing."

  "I understand," Elise said, then walked off the platform.

  The moment her foot got off the platform, Darius ducked, just dodging a bullet by inches.

  Darius focused, and when the second bullet came, he calculated where it came from. After stopping it with a lightning field he made around him, he teleported to the top of the middle and tallest tower: a very small circular platform that could hardly fit one person.

  "A sniper who was found is a dead one," Darius said as he went to hit Ren with a fist to the head.

  Ren turned around and blocked the punch with a shield.

  Darius smiled and started continuously hitting the shield again and again.

  But as he was hitting it, a hole appeared in the middle of it, and from it, Ren shot Darius, who had already teleported away the moment he saw the hole.

  When Darius came back, he was attacked, but this time with a sword.

  When he dodged the very bad sword swing, Ren fell down from the circle.

  As Ren was falling, he took a handgun out of his jacket, used his link power to turn it into a grappling hook, and shot it up.

  It held onto the circle, and Ren began going down slowly.

  Darius, seeing this, smiled.

  "What an idiot."

  Darius teleported to Ren, grabbed his collar, and teleported both of them to the platform.

  "You didn't think about that, did you?" Darius said, mocking Ren.

  "Look at your hand," Ren said calmly.

  Darius, confused, looked at his hand and found a small scratch on it.

  'He turned his collar into a spiked one before I grabbed him, and it was small enough for me to not even feel it.'

  "Your rule says if we get a hit on you, we win. A scratch is more than a hit."

  The veins in Darius's forehead bulged, looking like jagged blue lightning beneath his skin. And it was with real lightning going all around him.

  "Playing on technicality, huh? Okay, you win. Stand up."

  Ren slowly stood up with fear written on his face.

  The moment he fully stood up, Darius kicked his stomach, throwing him back to his seat.

  "Ren Link: passed."

  "Next, Marcus Brunt."

  Marcus stood up and walked to the platform. He stood for a couple of seconds, silent and without choosing a weapon.

  "Did the cat take your tongue? Marcus, what is it?"

  Marcus finally broke his silence.

  "Sir, I apologize, but my main focus is defense, and from what I saw, I can't stop your arrows, so I don't want to waste your time on this test. I still have a lot of training."

  Darius listened to Marcus very closely.

  "So you are a coward."

  "I am not a coward, sir. I am just a realist."

  "Realist? Is that what you say to yourself to go to sleep?"

  Marcus's veins were beginning to show.

  "I understand, sir. I will take the test. You can stop now."

  "Do you? Then take a shield and stand there and don't move."

  Marcus did as Darius told him.

  Darius put an arrow in the bow.

  "Do you know who is behind you?"

  "The twins, sir."

  "Yes, and they're still recovering, which means they are completely vulnerable." Darius started drawing his bow.

  The twins behind Marcus had regained consciousness a long time ago, but they sat hunched and silent, Vivienne's hand gripping Dorian's arm. The damage from the hit, combined with the shame of their failure, made them shadows of the confident students who'd walked in.

  "Sir, what are you doing?"

  "If you don't stop this arrow, it will go through you and into the twins. Taking your build into consideration maybe you will survive, but they won't. And of course, you can step away and just let the arrow hit them."

  Darius already drew his bow, and lightning started coming out.

  Marcus stood his ground and put the shield in front of him.