"Come here, and attack me."
Murmur!
The facility erupted with murmuring of candidates.
Attack her?
Was she serious?
'Does she only have one dialogue?' Raven giggled.
Even back then, when she used to train him, she always said the same dialogue.
-'Attack!'
"What Cardinal Eve means is that your first test is to attack us with all the powers you can muster, and we would grade it on different aspects of your attack."
'Different aspects,' The words stuck to Raven, 'Meaning they would grade speed, power, form, and everything as well.'
"You get one single attack, so," He paused, clasping his hands, "Good luck, ladies and gentlemen."
"Also, by the end of this screening test, we would select the top few people, and the rest would go home."
'The strongest attack I have?' Raven pondered.
Depending on the factor, they would be measuring the 'strength' of the attacks; he could change his ways of attacking to maximize the power.
But he realized who he was against.
They were most likely smarter than that.
He decided to just prepare a crystal lance as powerful as he could, but release it through a minimum amount of cross-sectional area his body allowed.
This was another theory he had thought of in the carriage and practiced a bit.
It worked, but only marginally.
Marginally, however, was still better than nothing.
But not now.
He would prepare the spell right before his chance.
After all, the energy loss in the closed loop was minimal, but it wasn't zero.
He had to maximize his performance.
"Mages, to my side," Mark's voice resounded in the facility, "And Warriors, to Cardinal Eve."
Tch!
He clicked his tongue.
He didn't like this guy at all.
Every time he tested him and taught him, he only ever pointed out his mistakes.
Did he hate him or something?
"Good luck!" Pevon's voice woke him up from the daze.
He noticed he had raised his hand.
Clap!
"Break a leg!" Raven dapped him up.
They weren't completely idle in the last 2 days.
Raven did utilize this time to teach him something useful.
His 'special' and 'exclusive' handshake, which 'he' invented.
Raven called it dap.
Inventors get to choose a name after all.
Such an original name for such an original invention indeed.
Pevon went ahead and joined the line meant for warriors, and Raven joined the line for mages.
A massive chunk of the facility was cleared, with the candidates on one side and the Cardinals on the other.
A brunette girl was first in line for mages.
Raven's eyes were fixed on her as he was trying to gauge the level of this competition.
And he wasn't alone.
This was the first time a test like this was conducted, and there was no prior information available.
So nobody's mental scale was calibrated, and nobody was prepared.
She focused hard and began materializing a ball of water, which grew larger and larger as seconds passed.
And a few seconds later,
Swish! Gurgle!
The ball travelled at Mark at a rather astonishing speed.
Raven wasn't sure how it was so fast, despite being in a shape that was not optimal for aerodynamics.
And it only had one answer.
She was just better than him.
The bar for the test instantly rose in his mind.
Raven kept watching as the ball travelled to Cardinal Mark, but with a slight deviation.
It wasn't accurate.
And this made Raven think.
'Would they deduct points for accuracy?'
He didn't know.
But in his books, there was no such thing as 'overprepared'.
And what better way to increase accuracy than getting inspired by the good old firearms?
The water ball, despite being so fast and powerful, was negated into thin air by Cardinal Mark.
"Good!" He nodded with a pleasant smile, "Next!"
Now, with her gone, he was fifth in the line, and her performance made him realize he had to do his best.
Another guy went, and this time, used a fire spell.
It was mediocre compared to the other girl.
It took him a bit longer to conjure as well, but the accuracy was good.
Raven decided that it was now the perfect time to start on his own spell.
He had planned to take his sweet time, but there was no wasted time there.
The process was very efficient.
Phew!
He had stored multiple spells before, but one big one?
This was going to be the first for him.
The queue was moving quickly, and he started breaking a sweat in the queue itself.
Maintaining the spell and pushing it past the normal size took quite a bit of concentration.
And he also had to add rotation to make it accurate as well.
Another layer to his spell meant the matrix of the spell was more complex and harder to maintain.
An added layer of complexity.
"Next!"
Cardinal Mark announced that the guy in front of Raven went ahead.
The next would be him.
He finally completed his spell, but there was no headroom to relax.
The guy in front of him was the most impressive one yet.
He had dual-natured mana.
He conjured a rather massive piece of rock and propelled it using his other elemental nature of mana.
Wind.
Whoosh!
Bang!
The rock hit him, but as usual, Cardinal Mark remained unscathed.
But everyone present could feel the shockwaves it produced and the intensity of it.
"Impressive!" This was the first time Cardinal had said anything apart from 'Good'.
It directly implied that he was just better than the rest.
"Next!"
It was finally Raven's turn.
He gradually made his way to the empty area, and without sharing a single word,
Boom!
He launched his crystal lance, which was of a thinner size than usual, but it was explosive, to say the least.
As if it were a bullet, it launched almost immediately when he came up and shot at Cardinal Mark at a speed faster than even the first girl.
And the rotation involved made it accurate as well.
Bang!
The crystal lance shattered the second it reached Cardinal Mark, but he had his brows raised in slight surprise.
Even the candidates were hesitant.
The bar for everyone had moved up again.
His gamble, or more like educated preparation, had paid off.
According to him, it was decently powerful, large, fast, and accurate.
A great success in his books.
"Impressive!" He exclaimed, "Next."