Winter’s POV:  

We all gathered in the arena and waited for the newcomers to get their rank evaluated. There were multiple newcomers today. 

There was a bald contestant wielding a giant battle axe fighting one of the rank evaluators. He brought down his lightning charged axe, in a powerful vertical swipe cutting the air as it swung down, but the proctor sidestepped and kicked the flat of the blade to the side causing the bald hunter to lose balance from the momentum. The proctor punched the hunter in the jaw knocking him unconscious. “High E-Rank” the proctor said shaking him awake.  

“But I did my workout of 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, and 100 squats.” The hunter cried.  

“You rely too much on strength and have no technique, mediocre lightning control. That’s the only reason why you didn’t place lower.” The proctor said, shooing him away.  

I watched as the hunter walked with his head hung below his shoulders back into the stands to watch the next fight. “Next up we have, Akio Asami.” The proctor announced looking into the crowd. 

A boy walked out of the stands and into the middle of the arena, he had platinum blonde hair, with light yellow eyes to match his hair. The way he walked you could tell he was an annoying noble brat. He wore a golden chest plate. He had a long sword; the blade was made of obsidian, making it seem like he was a villain.

He was pretty attractive, the girls around us were fawning over him. I looked over to my sister to see if she was interested. She was looking around for something or someone, but I couldn’t tell who or what.  

It wasn’t until that boy Orion walked in with Atlas and his small harem that she stopped looking around. Orion said something to Atlas which made his eyebrows raise when he looked at Shiro.  I wonder what they were talking about. I have to admit Orion was cute but not my type, I looked at my sister and she raised her hand and shook it to bring them over.  

They came over to us and sat down next to us. “Nice to see you guys again.” Orion smiled.  “Who’s fighting?”  

“Just some noble, probably gonna be decently high rank because they paid the examiner or something.” I explained.  

We watched as Akio jumped from the stands and into the arena. “Are you Akio?” The proctor asked. 

“Yeah, let’s get this over with.” Akio sighed unsheathing his sword but his back.  

“Let me fight this brat.” Jack announced as he walked into the arena.  

The proctor looked at Atlas to confirm that Jack should fight. Atlas nodded and the original proctor walked away to the stands. Atlas usually lets people fight instead of the proctor if they are above B rank. Unfortunately, I am not B I’m high C but my sister is B so she can sub for a proctor if needed.  

Jack cracked his knuckles and smiled, I couldn’t help but feel bad for the poor noble boy. Jack was ruthless when he was testing people, I watched him as he dislocated some dudes are from yanking on his arm.  

The match began and Jack didn’t even give Akio a chance to ready himself before he charged him. Jack punched the noble in the throat causing Akio to cough as he tried to block. Akio kicked Jack in the chest which sent him flying across the arena. “I guess I should get serious.” Akio cracked his neck.  

He charged at Jack with his blade swirling with 3 different elements, Lightning, Fire, and I think wind I saw all swirling around the blade. Jack got up in time to dodge a powerful downward slash from the noble. I have to admit Akio was decently strong, I wouldn’t be surprised if he placed C or B.  

Their little fight was so fast I couldn’t tell what was going on, all I could hear was the electricity from the light blue lightning. Finally, Jack caught his hand and put his head under his arm like some kind of wrestling move and kneed him in the chest. He then elbowed his solo plexus which caused the noble to fall face first on the ground. “Ah what was all that talk.” Jack mocked. 

He kicked Akio in the side which sent him flying across the arena. “I thought you were getting serious.” Jack taunted once more. 

I could hear Akio cough from over here. He got up and I started to cheer for him silently. Everyone in the crowd cheered for Akio as he got up.  

I could feel the change in the mana around the arena as Akio charged his body up with lightning. He got in a stance to charge at Jack. Wind started to bend out of the way of Akio and build up beneath his feet.  

[Piston Stamp.] 

He paired it up with fire to propel himself forward at such high speeds that Jack couldn’t react in time the blade of Akio’s sword plunged into darkness as a cloak of darkness shrouded around Jack and the blade came out of Akio’s shadow and stabbed his leg. “This is over, you get Mid C rank.” Jack announced and looked at Atlas for confirmation.  

Jack was never fair on giving out ranks, but this time he gave him a pretty decent rank and Atlas confirmed it. This I when Akio shouted at Jack. “This isn’t over, I have everything under control.” and stabbed Jack in the back of the leg. The air in the arena started to get heavy as Jack’s killing intent lost control. 

Shit. 

I looked at summer who was already dashing at Jack to stop him from killing Akio. I dashed out and tackled Akio out of the way just in time to see a giant opaque obsidian black spike jutted from where Akio’s shadow was. I looked at Jack who was being held back by Summer and Orion.  

Jack was still trying to kill Akio; he threw Orion and Summer off of him and rushed at Akio. Jack lunged at him, and everything seemed to freeze. An oppressing aura swept over the arena causing everyone to freeze, including Jack. I tried to look but I was too afraid too. “Jack that’s enough.” Atlas said calmly but with so much authority. 

Jack was the first to start moving and he still lunged at Akio until he suddenly fell unconscious. Atlas stood over Jack’s unconscious body and looked at Akio. “Welcome to the guild please go see Knox to get that wound healed.” he said. “Winter grab Jack and take him to the courtyard. He should wake up in an hour or two.”  

I nodded silently before picking up Jack and heading to the courtyard. “Testing will continue as planned. Next up is Josiah Richton.” I heard as I was leaving.