Mia bounced her harmless looking eyes back at Knox, who was staring back at her fiercely, and smiled. On she went, continuing down the line of examinees, one by one, continuing her same motion. While it took her almost 20 minutes to finish the 3rd line, it flew by for Knox, Blake and Tokar like it was nothing. She snapped her hand against the last examinee’s neck, causing him to fall to the ground.

Blake took a deep breath and a rubbed his eyes. “S***, man,” said Blake, worryingly. “I ain’t ready for this. I mean, she doesn’t even look tired.” Both Knox and Tokar looked towards Mia as she slowly walked down to their line.

“Worrying is only going to make things worst,” said Tokar. Blake nodded, though on the inside, he wasn’t so sure about that. Mia walked down the line, looking at each contestant one by one. Most tried to keep a poker face, or even attempt to look intimidating, but Mia could see right through them. A majority of them were very nervous on the outside.

Mia quickly scampered her way towards Tokar, standing directly in front of him. Tokar stood completely still and looked directly into Mia’s eyes, giving her the idea that he wasn’t scared.

“You look pretty tough,” said Mia, jokingly.

“Why do you say that?” he asked.

Mia giggled, trying to act innocent. Knox was still confused on why she had so many different personalities. “I’m just saying. You seem like a pretty strong psychic to me.”

“Well, I am fairly experienced.”

Mia’s smile turned into a smirk. “Fine, if you’re so tough, prove it to me.” Like always, she cocked her arm and prepared to swing down. However, right before she attempted to attack, she heard a voice coming from her right.

“What would be the meaning of this?” The voice echoed loudly and angrily over the examinees, who, along with Mia, turned towards the sound. It was hard so see from their location, but right over the edge of the left side of the pillar, a pair of eyes just barely peaked over. Mia quickly left Tokar and fast walked her way to the person.

As she got closer, the more anxious she became. I don’t get it, she thought. How on earth is that person looking over the pillar? I can’t even see his hands, so he clearly isn’t hanging on. She finally arrived towards the head and examined the person from what she could see. The person was obviously a boy, judging by his pure black, spiky hair. He also had a pair of sharp eyes, just like an eagle’s, with light, black eyebrows.

Mia got on her knees and leaned over the edge. She immediately widened her eyes in disbelief. The kid, who was rather small, standing at around 5’3”, wore black samurai robes, and walked barefooted. It was obvious that he was foreign, judging by his overall look. The thing that caught Mia’s attention was that he was standing on the edge of his sword, which was firmly stuck horizontally into the pillar. How the hell did he do that? Mia noticed that the sword was stuck far into the pillar, but she was still dumbfounded.

“Are you a dumb ass or something?” asked the boy. “I come here to take your pathetic exam, and before I know it, the elevator collapses!”

Mia, who was still in disbelief, took a second before answering. “Well, uh, it was just part of the exam. It was technically the first phase?”

The boy looked back at the examinees. “I doubt it. I can tell just by looking at those pathetic fools that they had no troubles with their elevator.” The boy laughed to himself for a second and glanced back at Mia. “Well, I guess the rumors were worst than I heard.”

“Rumors? What rumors?”

The boy leaped a few feet into the air and landed next to Mia. “Everyone knows that this wretched city is infamous for its discrimination against psychics. I guess you hate foreigners, such as I, as well.”

Mia started to grit her teeth in anger. She had just about had it with the boy. “Listen, kid. You can talk all you want, but how about you just get your oriental ass in line so we can get on with this thing! If not, then you can just head back to elementary school, alright?”

The boy laughed as he pulled his sword, which was a fairly long, slim katana, out of the pillar and put it back into its scabbard. “If you really give a s***, I’m actually 14 years old. I don’t care if you run this place or not, I could kill you and every last fool over there in seconds. What do you have to say that?”

Mia took a deep breath and sighed. She was ready to break the kid’s neck, but she would have her opportunity when he got in line. For now, she remained calm and escorted him to the fifth line.

While Mia was away, the majority of the examinees who were yet to be tested were conversing with one another about how they were feeling. Only a small amount felt confident in passing, which was understandable.

Knox, Blake and Tokar were watching as Mia walked the new contestant to the fifth line. Blake laughed to himself and said, “Man, poor kid. He can’t be older than 9 or 10, am I right? He’s just wasting his time taking the exam.”

“That’s not true,” said Tokar. “There are very young psychics who are born either very skilled or with an incredibly rare power. For all we know, he could be stronger than everyone here.”

“Yeah, but what are the chances?”

“Very low, but still possible.”

Blake shrugged. “Hey, Knox. You can kind of, like, read how strong people are right? You know, like with what you did with Silver. What about this guy?” Without saying anything, Knox looked at the boy and studied him for a few seconds. Surprisingly, he felt a very low level of power, almost as if he wasn’t a psychic at all.

Knox shook his head slowly and said, “I really don’t feel anything. He’s actually got a very low level of power among most of the people here.”

Blake pointed at Tokar and excitedly said, “See, I told you, and you’re supposed to be the smart one!”

Tokar face palmed himself. “I never said he was strong, idiot. I was just stating a possibility.”

Soon enough, after the kid was placed as the final contestant in the back of the line, Mia came back to Tokar. “Sorry about the dilemma. Anyways, let’s get on with this.” Once again, she prepared her hand once again and swung. Right before she connected, she noticed something odd. She followed through, but Tokar wasn’t there. As a matter of fact, Tokar was right behind her.

“What the hell?” she asked. “How did you do that?”

“It’s simple. My power allows me to switch the position of anyone that I’d like, as long as I’m in a 10 meter range.” Mia finally understood when she realized she was right next to Blake. “So, did I pass?”

Mia nodded, confirming that Tokar could move on. She shifted herself over to Blake, who was so worried that he couldn’t even focus on her gorgeous body, which was a common hobby of his.

“So, you’re pretty big, aren’t you?”

Blake played off a fake laugh. “Yeah, well, bigger than most people my age!” Mia didn’t seem to find his statement amusing.

“Alright, so tell me about yourself.”

“S***, where do I start. Well, the name’s Blake Rivers, age 17. I pretty much like getting high, but only when I’m stressed out, and, uh, hanging with the crew and some bitties.”

“The crew?” she asked.

“Yeah, the crew. They’re my boys back home in West MC. We’re the most bad ass people at our school, you feel me?”

Mia shook her head. “The only thing that I feel is that you’re a ambitionless retard.”

“The hell are you talking about. I got plenty of ambition, and as a mat-” Before Blake could continue talking, Mia quickly chopped him in the neck. He fell to his knees in deep pain, and just about to collapse to the ground.

“So, are you finished?” she asked, in a devious voice.

“Damn, no way!” Blake, who was in an immense amount of pain, raised himself of the ground and kept himself standing, even on shaking legs.

Mia, in an attempt of being a jerk, waited another minute as she watched Blake struggle to keep himself up, before she said that he passed. The moment he heard those words he fell back onto the ground, breathing heavily.

After over an hour of waiting, Knox had finally gotten the chance to talk to Mia again, being the first time since they met at the market. Mia could tell from Knox’s impression that he wasn’t happy with her, but she could care less. Now that he was here at the exam, everything was working out perfectly.

“It’s good to see you again, Knox.”

Knox remained silent for a moment. He clenched both of his fists in anger with his arms crossed, but he couldn’t risk attacking her. “Is she alright?” he asked.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to pass the exam to find out. And for all I know, she could be dead.”

You b****! I swear, if anything happened to her, I’ll make you pay for this!

“So, are you ready?” Knox simply nodded, uncrossing his arms and entering a defensive stance. She slowly raised her arm up, taking her time until she couldn’t bend her arm back any further. Soon enough she was ready, and with devilish eyes, she looked down at Knox, who was taking repetitive deep breaths. Right before she was about to swing, something odd happened. She expected him to summon the same red aura from before. An aura was summoned, but this time, a sparkling blue aura surrounded his body, rather than red.

“It’s blue?” she asked. She was confused why the color was different, but she swung her arm anyways. As soon as she connected with his neck, she could feel her fingers being crushed, as if she just attacked a plate of metal. She stopped her attack as soon as she could, knowing that if she continued to follow through, her fingers would break.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “I thought you could only enhance your strength.”

“Well, that’s just one part of it. I can choose between either enhancing my strength, like at the market, or my defense, like here. Not to mention, there’s more to come.”

Mia felt a chill run down her spine. Knox was powerful enough as he was, but the thought of him having 2 different enhancements was terrifying. This boy, he was so much potential. I know for sure that I would never want to face up against him.

“You pass,” she said. Knox smiled, knowing that he was one step closer to getting to Celia. Celia, he thought, I’m really close. I’ll definitely rescue you.

It was a great thing to know that Knox, Blake and Tokar passed, but they were still just barely into the exam. They were all well aware that they had a long ways to go, and every phase would be more difficult than the last.

Mia quickly finished off the 4th line, eliminating just about the same amount of people as every other row. She was glad to know that only one last line remained, and also anxious to get to the end. She glared back at the spiky haired foreigner, who stood perfectly still for his entirety there. Just for that, she quickly went through the line, until she stopped at a man she found to be interesting.

The man was much taller than average, standing at around 6’6”. He wore the typical wife beater that every buff man wore, which matched his skin head, along with loose gym shorts. What truly stood out to her was his tattoo, which was an orange snake with black blots that coiled and his neck and went down to his right wrist. Out of any examinee that she met, this one definitely was the scariest.

“I like your tattoo,” said Mia, trying to not sound scared.

The man looked down at her and widened his huge, brown eyes, along with a creepy, wide smile. For every second longer that the buff man stared down at her, the more Mia could feel goose bumps run up her arm.

“Well, any-”

The man interrupted her, saying, “Name, Bain. Age, 24.” Bain’s deep voice didn’t help anyone. Not only did he look terrifying, but he also sounded terrifying.

“I see, Bain. Well, good luck, even though you probably won’t need it.”

Due to being so much smaller than him, Mia jumped into the air and smashed her hand into his neck. As she expected, he didn’t move a muscle from the attack. As a matter of fact, Mia was probably felt more pain than him.

“Very impressive, Mr. Bain.” Bain Smiled cockily, knowing that she had no chance of hurting him. “You pass.

Another 10 minutes had passed, and only a few contestants remained, including the samurai boy. She quickly knocked out another examinee until she finally arrived at the 3rd to last person.

To the boy’s left, and skinny man with a long face and messy haircut looked down at him. “Heh, you’re pretty calm for a little kid. Too bad you’re about to get your ass kicked.”

The boy stayed quiet, which angered the man. “Well, why aren’t you pissed off? You know that you won’t pass, so why don’t you just leave before that woman breaks your little neck.”

The boy smiled and gave the man a demented look. “You should shut up, before I seriously hurt you.”

“Hurt me? Are you kidding? S***, you couldn’t even hurt a fly! I’d like to see your ass try.”

“Fine. Prepare to suffer.” The boy raised his hand, summoning a dark red aura around it, similar to Knox’s. With great speed, he gripped the man’s lower leg and dug his fingers into the muscle. Before the man could even feel the pain, the boy ripped out a large chunk of the man’s leg, throwing it onto the ground. Blood started flooding out of the wound immediately, but it took the man a few seconds to even notice. As soon as he did, he screamed a cry of mercy, falling to the ground in affliction. The screams sounded like a banshee, penetrating the ears of all of the contestants. Mia, who noticed the bleeding man, quickly ordered some soldiers over to the scene, helping him up. She was in disbelief when she saw the large chunk of muscle on the ground. What scared her the most was that the boy didn’t even feel bad about it. To be precise, he was actually smiling.

From the 3rd line, Knox could feel a disturbing feeling forming in his stomach. It was definitely the aura of a psychic, and it was pointing straight at the boy.

“What’s wrong?” asked Blake, who was still on the ground.

“Him,” said Knox. “I’ve never felt such a strong power from a psychic before, other than my dad. He’s…really dangerous.” Both Tokar and Blake felt uneasy about Knox’s words.

“Damn,” said the boy. “He’s screams almost made me go deaf.”

“I think that’s hardly the problem,” replied Mia. “And because of you, he’s out of the exam.”

“Well, if he could be defeated by someone like me so easily, he never stood a chance anyways.”

“I guess you have a point. Anyways, tell me about yourself. You seem very powerful, and I really want to know more about you.”

“Really know?” asked the boy. “Alright, let’s see. My name is Saga Yamada, age 14. Obviously I’m a samurai, and the reason that I came here is for a challenge.”

“A challenge?” she asked, curiously.

“Yes. When I heard about that assassination, I knew that I would want to fight this guy. I live for testing my strength and trying to get stronger, plain and simple. Also, I guess this exam won’t be half bad, even though the first 2 phases have been a joke so far. I’m more interested in some of the other psychics here. They look like they could provide a challenge.”

“That’s interesting. Good luck, kid. Let’s hope that scene you just pulled off will prove how strong you really are.”

As Mia positioned herself one last time, she watched as Saga unsheathed his sword and place the dull side against his neck. “Swing if you want,” he said. “but don’t cry when you lose your fingers.” Without a second thought, Mia lowered her arm and told him that he passed. She went back to the front of the crowd and counted out the remaining examinees.

“Congratulations to the 84 psychics that are still remaining. Luckily for you guys, we’ve set up a feast before we start phase 3, but don’t get too comfortable. We’ll be starting in just 3 hours, so let’s go!”