Urk!
Raven felt his mark pulsing randomly.
'What!'
His [Trace Vision] activated on its own, and his head spun, making him lose his balance for a bit.
"Are you alright?" Pevon asked concerningly, making Janet turn around to see what happened.
Raven was clutching his eyes, and Pevon was barely supporting his body.
"What happened?" She also rushed to support him from the other side.
Her words fell on deaf ears, since his ear was ringing with an inconceivable pain.
Raven's world was entirely black and white, and despite covering them with his hands, he saw something flash over the facility for a split second before it vanished.
'What was that?' He wondered, his mind focusing on the flash while ignoring the pain.
His scrunched face slowly came back to normal, and his pain subsided.
"-you hear us?"
"Should we call for a healer?"
Slowly, he was able to hear their words, which he immediately reacted to.
"Nah, nah, I am fine." He said, standing on his own, still covering his eyes.
Since he was trying his [Trace Vision] previously, trying to decipher its abilities, he realized one thing.
His eyes changed from bright gold to a dull silver.
And it was really noticeable, since his eyes were the main highlights of his physical features.
It was really noticeable.
Tap!
He tapped his forehead with his fingers to act as the physical trigger needed to turn off the [Trace eyes].
"Are you really sure?" Pevon asked.
"Yeah, it was…" He took a breather, "Just an acute headache. Must be the lack of water."
"Oh! You should take care of yourself more," Janet said, making Pevon nod in agreement.
"She's right," He said, "Let's get some water before the second test."
"Yeah, let's do that." He spoke without even thinking.
His mind kept wandering off to that flash he saw over the facility.
What was that?
Why were there so many things he didn't know?
Sigh!
…
"Now, let us commence the second part of this screening test." As usual, Mark was the one announcing, and Eve stood behind, intimidating everyone.
Everyone had some speculations about the next test.
"A duo duel," His announcement triggered a wave of murmurs in the hall.
Mostly because a lot of candidates' speculations were correct.
A 2 versus 2 duel.
Some candidates who had performed decently well were being surrounded by stares.
But by far the most stares were pulled by one certain duo.
Pevon and Raven.
The mage candidates gave Raven a few stares, and the Warrior candidates gave Pevon a few stares.
But when they noticed the other side staring at their duos, they suddenly had a thought.
Were they duos?
Which made them prone to even more stares than normal.
"Doesn't feel good to be popular," Pevon said, fixing his collar just in case.
"I am surprised you aren't used to it, given your handsome appearance and your height," Raven replied, feeling equally uncomfortable.
But he was a lot more composed on the outside compared to Pevon.
Suddenly, he saw Janet giving him a side eye.
Those eyes didn't have the same wariness or spirit that the other stares had.
They meant something else entirely.
'Wait, what?' Suddenly, it hit him, 'What the!'
He glared at her to stop it at once, and she did, albeit slowly.
God forbid a guy compliments another guy.
What kind of group even was this?
"Come here, and draw a paper to label your team with a number. The duels would be decided based on that."
Mark informed them, pointing to a clay pot in front of them.
"Only one person from a group," Eve said mechanically, as she noticed many people swarming.
Janet bade them farewell, since the special ability candidates had their own testing facility.
'Man, I want to see what's going on the other side.' Raven thought, curious about other people's special abilities.
Technically, if he wanted, he could go there, since he had two special abilities now.
But it was probably a better idea to just not do that.
He needed to understand the power first, before he showed it to others.
And he needed to come up with an excuse for how he actually got those.
It would've been easier without Eve here.
Pevon, seeing Raven lost in thought, decided to take the lead and draw a number for themselves.
A few seconds later, he returned with the number 25 in his hand.
"Before we begin, there is just one rule I want to set," Mark said after they finished drawing their lots.
"Do not use fatal attacks."
That was all.
It was kind of obvious, but he still made sure to let them know.
"Let's commence," Eve announced.
"Team number 18 versus 8." She just drew numbers herself and continued, "Come here and fight."
"Give it all, because whether your team loses or wins, you would be graded on your actual performance." Mark chimed in with a little moe explanation.
"The criteria for judgment are literally anything you can think of and more."
Of course, that was the case.
But his eyes were immediately drawn to the candidates in front of him.
It was the guy with dual nature mana, and the most pretentious face and attitude of all time.
His partner, on the other hand, was rather meek.
A meek warrior.
'That's new.'
Their opponents were a bit nervous, and rightfully so.
That dual-natured mana guy was definitely something not to be trifled with.
"Start!" Cardinal Mark started the fight, and the match started.
The warriors of both duos immediately dashed forward, and the mages stayed behind, conjuring their spells.
Clash!
The warriors clashed, both wielding swords, since it was the meta for God knows how long.
A few exchanges in, and anyone could tell the warrior side was pretty equal.
They read each other's flow quite well and parried it with good precision
.
It was all going to come down to the mages
This was why nobody wanted to be a mage.
In the 2 seconds they took to conjure the spell, the warriors had already exchanged a few moves.
But there was a reason why it was still a lucrative option for a few.
The firepower.
The dual-natured guy was ready with his spells, a few milliseconds before the other guy, and
Swoosh!
Multiple conical-shaped pieces of rock travelled at high speed towards the other side.
But everyone's eyes widened, because the rocks had no fixed aim.
He was simply ignoring the safety of his duo.