The next day had arrived, Jin and the rest of the remaining cadets lined up as Eric stood in front of them. He took a good look at each cadet and says
"Yesterday some of you showed promising skill. Today I'd like to see how you perform under pressure"
Eric reaches into a bag he has near him, he pulled out a bunch of grey ribbons. He handed out one ribbon to each cadet and says
"This test is simple, don't let anyone take your ribbon! If it is taken, you're eliminated… Show me what you got"
Eric then leads them to the same arena from yesterday only this time the whole thing was altered to resemble a forest.
"You will all have 30 minutes to compete, just don't kill each other. Everyone split up and we will begin"
Eric makes a swift exit as the cadets quickly dispersed, however Jin remained at the entrance waiting for the test to begin. After a minute or two the speaker rung out
"BEGIN"!
A loud beep followed the voice, and Jin made his way into the thicket of trees. As he was running an explosion ring out to his right sending a strong gust of wind towards him. Jin was blown back a few inches throwing him off balance, he was recovering he felt his Hyper Sense activate and he dodged to the left. When he turned around, he saw a man with brown hair, he sported a black cloak that slightly covered a padded uniform underneath.
"That was good, I'm surprised you dodged that. By the way my name is Adam"
"I'm not here to be friendly"
Adam smirked as his face quickly shifted to a cold dead look, Jin noticed and put his fists up, but Adam dashed and struck Jin in the stomach before he could even react. Adam made an attempt to grab Jin's ribbon from his waistband to end it quickly, but Jin grabbed his hand punching Adam in the face
"Shit this guy is pretty quick… hmm this might be fun"
Adam says to himself as he rushed Jin again, he threw a roundhouse kick towards Jin, but he jumped back slipping the kick and retaliated with a two-punch combo that Adam swiftly blocked. They began to trade blows countering each other with every attack, Jin found a hole in Adams defense hitting him in the chest knocking him back, Jin held his hand up and says
"Weapon Forge: Bo Staff"
His weapon appeared in his hand, he grabbed it and spun it around to the side of his body, he gestured Adam to come at him with his other hand
"You're a cocky bastard aren't you, hmm we'll see how confident you are in a second"
Adam's body began emanating a white aura he also had wisps of red mana flowing off of him, in that moment he instantly appeared in front of Jin his fist turned white as winded up his right fist for an uppercut
"White Flash"!
He uppercut Jin sending him flying through the treetops into the air, before he could recover Adam grabbed him by the neck and whipped his body into the ground below.
"Tch… this guy is just as fast as I am"
Jin slowly got up on his feet as Adam appeared a few feet in front of him, he chuckled looking at Jin saying
"Not so cocky now huh"
Jin ran at him and threw a kick to Adam's stomach; he caught Jin's leg and kicked his other leg out from under him causing Jin to fall to the ground. Adam immediately tried to follow up by smashing his fist into Jin's face,
"I'm done playing games"
Jin put his hands on the floor and propelled himself spinning around kicking Adam back, he stood on his feet and lightning began to crackle around him. Their eyes met and Jin summoned two daggers and dashed at him. As he closed the distance, he threw one at Adam just knicking him on the cheek then immediately threw the other dagger into the air, he flipped into the air and kicked it down at him, it pierced Adam in the thigh.
"Where did this power come from all of a sudden"!
Adam pulled the dagger from his thigh and rushed at Jin engaging in hand-to-hand combat, they both exchanged and countered each other until Adam landed another White Flash to Jin's stomach. As Jin was falling back, time suddenly felt like it slowed, Cains voice rung out in Jin's head
"Cultivation level 3 achieved, commencing enhancement."
Jin's body surged with mana; he vanished and stood back-to-back with Adam
"You've already lost"
Adam felt a chill run down his spine as Jin said this he jumped up and spun around kicking Adam face first into a tree and he fell unconscious
"No hard feelings, but this is mine"
Jin grabs Adam's ribbon and pockets it, he turned his head as he could still hear explosions going off in the distance and vanished and began to head towards it.
Meanwhile Mia is making progress with 2 ribbons collected already and was currently fighting Hunter for his
"Burning Skyfall"
Mia summoned a barrage of small meteors that rained down at him, he shot into the air floating in front of the meteors, he rushed at them at high speeds and began to bust through them like paper. As meteors were being ripped apart, he used air to propel himself towards Mia, he threw a fast concentrated gust of wind at her hitting her out of the air.
"Air Whip"
He grabbed Mia's leg with the air and then threw her at the ground creating a small crater. When he lowered himself down into it, he chuckled saying
"No one's here to save you this time, you're just some privileged brat coasting off Daddy's money"
Mia tried to get up and was pushed back down with his foot
"Haha you're just a pathetic man; you call me privileged… you know nothing about me or what I've been through"
"Oh, still talking back huh, you're lucky you are beautiful. I thought I'd have to beat you senseless by now but maybe I'll have some fun before I take that ribbon"
He grabbed her by the throat and picked her up
"Let me go bastard"
He ran his finger down her cheek and continued down to her breasts as she squirmed, he slapped her across the face saying
"A bitch should learn when to be obedient"
He began to grope her and touch all over her body, Mia teared up as his fingers slowly moved down her stomach
"That's it just stay silent and it will be over soon"
Just as he was about to slip his hand down her pants he heard someone from behind him say
"Let the girl go now"!
He turned around and saw Jin standing there with blood trickling down his face from his encounter with Adam, he slammed Mia into the ground knocking her unconscious and looked Jin in the eye replying
"So, what if I don't, you going to play white knight for this bitch"
"I said let her go…. If I have to say it again you won't like the outcome"
Hunter began to float into the air chuckling at the absurdity of Jin's words, wind began to violently swirl around them and Hunter says
"You're funny… I'll just beat you both then"
He shot a barrage of air bullets at Jin, he dodged them, and one was about to strike him in the shoulder. He flipped over it and jumped at Hunter so fast you couldn't see him.
"Shotgun"
Jin threw his punch at Hunter, it suddenly collided with an air wall, and he was instantly swatted away by an air whip. Jin landed on the ground and Hunter pointed his hand at Mia. He began to shoot another barrage of air bullets down at her and Jin rushed over to her picking her up and used Hyper Tension to jump from tree to tree dodging them
"This guy is pissing me off, I'm going to end this now"
Mia slowly opened her eyes and saw Jin, she noticed him holding her and slightly blushed saying
"What's going on here"?
"He was going to kill you… Listen I can't protect you and fight him at the same time, I'm going to put you down somewhere safe and take care of this guy"
Jin stopped on a tree branch and let her down to rest before he jumped away she says
"Wait! What's your name? I'm Mia Warren"
"Jin Aldeus"
He vanishes leaving Mia to her thoughts, he then goes to the crater where Mia was slammed and shouts
"HEY DOUCHEBAG! OVER HERE"!
Hunter without hesitating shoots himself towards Jin from the sky shouting
"WIND SLICE"
He waved his arm sending a deadly wind slice at Jin, He stood still as it came barreling toward him slicing anything in its path and he put his hand up summoning a sword with Weapon Forge and sliced through Hunters attack. Hunter began to throw more Wind slices at Jin, and he jumped up at Hunter slicing through them one by one, as he closed in, he summoned a spear and threw it at Hunter. When he swiftly dodged it, Jin instantly hit him with an axe kick sending Hunter flying at the ground. As he collided with the ground it sent out a shockwave ripping apart all the trees in the surrounding area. Jin landed next to Hunter as he was unconscious and laid out in the rubble, he took his ribbon and Cain says
"Weapon Forge mastery level 2 achieved; as a reward a new sub-skill has been unlocked, it's called Elemental Imbue. This allows you to imbue the weapons you summon with any element of your choosing"
"I guess this training was worth it after all"
Mia looked at Jin from behind a small shrub and watched him intently
"Just how strong is he"?
Suddenly a loud beep rung out across the arena and a voice was heard saying
"Time is up, all cadets report to the entrance"
Jin smiled as he started to walk away Mia ran up to him and said
"Jin wait"!
He stopped and looked at her, she looked nervous and was fidgeting a lot but she tried to fight through it Jin just stood there silently and she says
"I uh… mmm I wanted to say thank you, you didn't have to step in and help but you did"
"Don't mention it…. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing"
They both walked away and headed toward the entrance, when the cadets convened Eric stood ready to greet them all as they arrived
"Nicely done cadets! Rest up because tomorrow's test will be a little different. See you then"
The cadets dispersed and when Jin was leaving the arena he noticed Mia staring at him he shrugged it off and continued to his room. When he got to his room he jumped into his bed sinking into it
"I need to be careful… I could barely control myself today"
He remembered seeing Hunter violate Mia, seeing her cry and telling him to get off her triggered something within him. His fists tightened for a moment and then he slowly relaxed himself saying
"Next time I see that bastard fucking with anyone, I won't hold back"
Suddenly he heard a knock on his door, he got up to check but as he reached for the door he felt a disturbing presence on the other side. Cain utters
"Sir run now"!
Without warning the door flew at him he dodged to the side and took a look seeing Adam standing there, he took a step forward, but his face morphed into something almost demonic looking
"You thought our battle would be over so easily… I'm going to prove to him how useless you really are"
"What"?
Adam dashed at Jin punching him in the face, he was sent flying through his wall out onto the street, while Jin flew through the air Adam whipped a ball of red mana at him. Jin summoned a bo staff smacking the ball to the right and it collided with a building rubble flew everywhere. Jin landed on the ground and suddenly a person's burnt corpse landed in front of him, civilians and cars started to flee from the scene, causing chaos to ensue
"Tch… Who the hell are you?"
"My true name is Zaigon the first Reaper King, ha-ha my master is very interested in you. I'm not very sure why though, but nevertheless I'm here to test you"
His body surged with mana sending a shockwave out, the cadets rushed outside to see the commotion only to see Jin in a standoff with Adam
"Test me… What the hell are you even talking about? What master"?
"That information will be revealed in time. Today I'm going to show you just how weak you are"