Rain poured harder.
What had once been merely difficult terrain had turned hostile—mud clinging to boots like shackles, roots slick beneath trembling hands, every step demanding twice the effort. Breath tore raggedly from exhausted lungs. Hunger hollowed their cores. Thirst burned like sandpaper down their throats.
Students were scattered across the mountain.
Some pushed upward with clenched teeth and shaking legs. Others had collapsed entirely, chests heaving as rain drenched them without mercy. The mountain did not care who they were.
It did not care about noble blood.
It did not care about talent.
Then—
A voice echoed across the storm.
Clear. Calm. Unavoidable.
"Attention."
Every student froze, instinctively lifting their heads despite the rain stinging their eyes.
"The number of flags available," Marcus continued smoothly, "has been adjusted."
A deliberate pause.
"Three hundred."
Silence.
Absolute.
Then—
Chaos.
"Three hundred?!"
"What do you mean adjusted?!"
"That's not fair!"
The fragile hope they had clung to shattered instantly. Five hundred had meant endurance. Patience. Strategy.
Three hundred meant elimination.
Immediate. Brutal. Final.
Aric forced himself upright, rain sliding down his jawline. His pride burned hotter than the ache tearing through his legs.
"Three hundred or nothing," he muttered.
Neva's eyes narrowed.
Her breathing remained controlled, but her movements sharpened—no wasted motion now, no safe pacing. Efficiency alone would no longer guarantee survival.
Mira felt her chest tighten painfully.
Her calculations collapsed and reformed in seconds. Three hundred meant mistakes were fatal. She swallowed hard and pushed forward despite the tremor in her thighs.
Rey and Moriko exchanged a glance.
"…Guess we can't afford to joke anymore," Moriko said quietly.
Jay stopped.
Only for a moment.
He had predicted endurance would be the true filter.
Three hundred changed the nature of the test entirely.
This was no longer about surviving the mountain.
It was about defeating the others.
His gaze swept upward—then downward.
Students ahead. Students faltering. Students already finished.
Jay exhaled slowly.
No room for patience now.
He moved.
Not recklessly.
Not emotionally.
Decisively.
He adjusted his grip on the wooden branch he had torn earlier, driving it into the mud as leverage. His path shifted diagonally again, avoiding congested routes and unstable slopes.
At first, no one noticed.
Then—
"Hey… is he speeding up?"
Jay passed one student.
Then another.
His movements were fluid but efficient—each step placed deliberately, momentum preserved instead of wasted. He didn't sprint wildly like the desperate.
He advanced like someone who had been waiting.
"How does he still have strength…?"
A breathless whisper followed in his wake.
Someone tried to mirror his path.
They slipped.
Jay didn't look back.
Higher up, Aric sensed someone closing the distance. His jaw tightened.
'Now? He moves now?'
Neva caught sight of him as well, rain streaming down her lashes.
So he was conserving.
Mira saw him cut through the slope with quiet precision. Her gaze lingered.
He never rushed…
Inside the observation chamber, Marcus leaned forward slightly.
"Oh?" he murmured, eyes tracking the single figure ascending with calculated force.
A faint smile touched his lips.
"So someone finally understood."
Time blurred into pain.
Legs trembled violently. Fingers numbed. Muscles screamed.
Students who had surged early now paid the price—collapsed against rocks, crawling, barely conscious. Rain mixed with mud, turning the mountain into a treacherous slide.
Thunder cracked overhead.
The rain intensified.
Some tilted their faces upward, mouths open in desperate relief.
Others stiffened in dread.
Jay clenched his jaw.
Rain meant instability.
Instability meant risk.
He slowed slightly, planting each step with surgical care. The branch sank deep into the earth, stabilizing his weight. A student near him slipped violently, sliding several meters before stopping with a broken cry.
Jay did not turn.
The peak emerged through the mist.
Close.
Twenty figures were already there.
Some standing.
Most collapsed.
All utterly drained.
Jay climbed the final incline, muscles finally protesting despite his restraint. His foot slipped once
Just once
But the branch held firm, wood biting into the soil as he pulled himself upward.
Then—
He stepped onto solid ground.
The flag stood at the center of the peak, drenched and snapping weakly in the storm.
Aric knelt nearby, one hand braced against stone, breath harsh and uneven.
Neva stood upright despite the tremor in her arms, rain tracing down her pale hair.
Mira leaned against a rock, eyes half-lidded but fiercely aware.
Rey and Moriko sat back-to-back, too exhausted to argue.
Jay walked forward.
Not hurried.
Not triumphant.
Simply certain.
He reached out.
And grasped the flag.
A small motion.
But irreversible.
Below them, chaos continued.
But it no longer concerned him.
Marcus's voice echoed once more across the peak.
"Well done."
Jay ran a hand through his soaked hair, his breathing steadying as his gaze swept across the broken mountain below.
The second trial—
had ended.
And something fundamental had shifted.