New Beginnings : Rise of the Darkness

Pressure Tests and A Quick Punt (Past and Present Pt. 1)

Fang POV
"Prepared?" Edgar asked me as I stepped out of my changing room, giving me a scare.

"Yeah, I should be able to do okay." I said nervously as I ran through the basic Skills Steps that would be tested.

"Meh, don't worry. It's gonna be fine." Janet reassured me.

"Thanks. I'll try my best. I'll be cheering you guys on as well!" I thanked them.

The whole bunch of 7th Graders had gathered outside the gym. Some were still in their changing rooms, but most had stepped outside. Then, the test began.

"Acropella!" the examiner read off a huge list of names. A blonde girl nervously stepped forward and followed him into the testing room where we had practised days earlier. For 1 VS bots, there were only 80 bots, different from the usual 160. Plus, you could get hit up to 8 times. But of course, the least number of hits would be the best. The fastest time was also prioritised.

As time passed, I found myself stepping into the exam room and facing the sea of bots. From a glass dome behind me, the examiner told me, "I'm going to activate it...now."

Immediately they sprang to life and launched multiple shots at me. Of course, since I was a short-ranged brawler, They would be moving back and forth, closer and further to give me some fighting chance. As a group of bots advanced towards me, I wiped each one out out as I weaved through the red bullets. Having charged my Super and equipped my Fresh Kicks Star Power, I zipped towards a group of twenty bots and wiped eighteen of them out, but received two strikes in the process.

There were now 43 of them left and I still had my Super charged. I watched as a group of four bots slid towards me, then equipped my Divine Soles Star Power and wiped all of them out in one go. Even though I was shot once, my Divine Soles Star Power absorbed the shot and I received no strike. One by one, I began wiping them out with sneakers until there were only 18 left.

Then, I returned to my Fresh Kicks Star Power and flew towards them. In quick succession, I wiped all of them out and received another two strikes.

"Well done!" the examiner congratulated me, "You're the best out of all the short ranges so far. You've gotten a whopping 92 out of 100!"

"Thanks, sir!" I thanked him as I headed to the respawn machine.

"How did you do?" Edgar asked me the second I exited the testing area. I had asked him the same question and he told me he got an 87. I quickly told him about my 92 and his face was tinted with a hint of envy. "That's an A*!" he cheered, "Well done!"

87 was an A, which was already quite good. But Edgar wasn't really happy.

Actually, Edgar and I could already leave, but we wanted to accompany Janet. Now that it was getting closer to her turn, she was stressing out.

In less than thirty minutes, Janet was called in and in three minutes, she came out looking happy, telling us that she got a 94, which was an A* for her as well!

We then returned to our rooms and noticed that lunch was in an hour. "Let's check our schedules—the cafeterias aren't even open yet. Then we will go to the BioCafe for lunch at 1130, because that's when it opens right?"

I nodded my head and quickly tapped a few things on my RoboPlanner. After lunch, Skills Training would resume as normal until 1500. Then we were free.

I quickly tapped the area of my RoboPlanner labelled "Exam Notifications". Sure enough, I saw an Alchemy Exam coming up the coming Monday. Edgar had the same exam, but since Janet didn't study Alchemy, she was lucky enough not to have it.

"Well, we still have roughly 25 minutes until lunch. Wanna go for a match?" Edgar asked.

"Okay, but I wanna go for a Brawl Ball match." I insisted.

When we reached the venue, we found that the map that day was Pinhole Punt. I loved this map.

Since there were only three of us, we joined another trio of 7th Graders who wanted to play the same game. One of them was a boy with shining blond hair, turquoise eyes and olive skin. Bolts of lightning crackled around his fingertips.

The second was a girl with ice blue hair and a slightly bluish complexion. Her body was crusted in frost and icy wind swirled around her body like an aura.

The last was a stylish male with flaming red hair. His eyes burned with the ferocity of a sun and were coloured a raging orange. Flames danced around his hands like lamps.

"Hi, I'm Astro!" the Astrakinetic introduced himself. Then he pointed at the Cryokinetic and Pyrokinetic, calling them Hydro and Pyral respectively.