Marcus looked ready to take the shot from Darius's bow, but deep inside was different.

  'If this shot is like what I saw, the probability of me dying is close to 99 percent. But...'

  Marcus's muscles tensed, and rocks began forming all over his body until they covered all of him and began transferring to his shield.

  'The probability of me being able to stop it from killing the twins is 100.'

  Darius looked at Marcus's sharp brown eyes as he looked more like a statue than a human, and Darius smiled.

  "You said you aren't a coward. Then let's test it."

  Darius let go of the bow.

  The arrow traveled so fast that it looked like it teleported from the bow to Marcus's shield instantly.

  The arrow destroyed the rocks that covered the shield the moment it hit it, shards going everywhere.

  The shockwave was felt by everyone as they were all slightly pushed back into their seats.

  "This is even more powerful than the one I got." Marie's eyes widened in denial that Darius was holding back against her.

  "Is that what a real attack from a Rank 1 is? What would a rank 0 attack be?" Valeria said in a mix of fear and excitement that was weird for her.

  Marcus was being pushed back from the arrow's power.

  The arrow began rotating and continued going forward, destroying the shield.

  The arrow hit Marcus's chest, slowly destroying the rocks.

  Marcus grabbed the arrow with both of his hands. Lightning coming from the arrow was destroying the rock cover on both of his arms.

  The cover of his hands and chest got completely destroyed.

  Just as the arrow began going through his chest, he was able to stop it.

  Marcus fell to the ground from exhaustion. He looked at his hand, which was completely burned.

  "I was barely able to stop one arrow. I am weak. I knew it. I lost."

  "No, you're not." Darius said, walking to Marcus.

  Marcus looked up at Darius.

  "While maybe you're not in the top half of this class, that doesn't mean you're weak."

  Darius bent down to Marcus.

  "I chose everyone here myself. Even being the weakest here means you're one of the best in the world, and you haven't lost."

  Darius stood up.

  "Marcus Brunt: passed."

  "How?" Marcus asked in disbelief.

  "You proved that you weren't a coward and stopped a stronger arrow than any I've shot today and, overall, one of my stronger arrows. If that isn't a pass, then no one has passed today."

  As Marcus was standing up to leave, he heard Darius whisper.

  "The arrow wouldn't have killed you or the twins if you failed."

  "Yes, sir." Marcus straightened his back.

  Darius put his hand on Marcus's shoulder.

  "Make sure to tell Elise her heroic spirit is too much."

  Marcus nodded and went back to his seat, where he was welcomed with Jax, Ren, and Omar congratulating him for passing, and Elise healed his injuries.

  Dorian and Vivienne watched Marcus return to his seat. Neither spoke, but something had shifted in their expressions. They'd been saved by someone they'd looked down on.

  Darius watched them with a small smile that lasted for a second before disappearing.

  "Let's see. Marcus, Elise, Marie, Jax, Ren, and the twins were tested. That leaves..."

  A smirk appeared on his face.

  "The final trio."

  Darius clapped his hands to take the students' attention back.

  When they looked at him and saw his smirk, they were weirded out.

  "I don't feel good about this," Jax shivered.

  "Omar, Valeria, Roy. You three will have another set of rules."

  Everyone was confused.

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  "Why would they get other types of rules?" Marie asked in confusion.

  Omar raised his hand.

  "Would it be harder?"

  "Oh, don't worry. You'll like it. Matter of fact, why don't we start with you? Come here. You're next."

  Omar had a smirk.

  "Finally."

  He ran to the platform.

  "So what are the new rules?"

  "It's a simple change. You won't lose if you get out of the platform, and to win, you'll need to land an actual hit that does significant damage to me. So normally, even though it didn't happen, the barrier can let people get out of it, but from now on, that feature is disabled."

  "That sounds good." Omar punched his hands together, covering them in rock gloves.

  "Your weapon?"

  "My hands."

  "I figured. Let's start."

  The energy barrier went up.

  Omar didn't wait for Darius to draw his bow. He dashed forward, trying to land a fast hit to Darius's chest.

  Darius didn't teleport. He leaned to the right. The attack went through air. Darius tried to punch Omar's side, but a rock shield formed and blocked it.

  Omar went head-first to the ground. He stood on his hands and tried to kick Darius, a kick that was blocked.

  All of that exchange happened in a little more than a second.

  "I didn't know Omar was that fast," Marie was shocked from what she saw.

  Darius teleported away.

  Omar jumped back on his feet and looked up, and as he expected, he found Darius aiming his bow at him.

  Omar bent his knees and jumped toward Darius.

  "That isn't the best move. It can lead to a lot of mistakes," Elise said.

  When Omar crossed half the distance to Darius, Darius teleported behind him and shot the arrow.

  "Like this," she added to strengthen her comment.

  When Omar saw Darius teleport, he didn't look for him. He just let fire come out of every part of his body, and as a result, he burned the arrow before it could touch him.

  Darius teleported to the ground before the fire could touch him, and Omar fell to the ground. They both looked at each other.

  Jax whistled.

  "You're good, kid, but let's stop playing around." Darius's purple eyes lit up, lightning coming out of every part of him.

  "No holding back. A real fight." Omar's legs broke the platform. His brown eyes lit up, making them have a slight reddish look, and his rock gauntlets lit with fire.

  Darius began teleporting everywhere, and Omar stood in his place in a defensive stance.

  Then five different arrows from five different places, all enchanted with lightning, were shot at him.

  As he punched two of them, he dodged another two and burned the remaining one. Then he aimed his hands at the ground, and a firestorm came out of them, covering all the platform and going up most of the energy barrier, which led Darius to teleport to the highest place of the barrier.

  Omar knew that and used his super strength to its best ability. He jumped to him through the firestorm and punched him. Darius tried to block it with his arm, but it left some damage.

  If they were playing with the old rules, Omar would have won, but in the new rules, bruising Darius's arm wasn't enough. He needed a real injury.

  The moment the fire disappeared from the ground, Darius teleported to the ground and aimed upward.

  Before the rest of the fire could disappear, a rain of fiery rock went down on Darius.

  Darius kept teleporting on the ground to dodge them all, and he did.

  And even though enough time had gone for Omar to fall back down, he didn't.

  As the fire cleared up, it revealed Omar had made a platform in an X shape connecting to the energy barrier.

  Darius's and Omar's smugs went from ear to ear.

  Darius aimed his bow at Omar, lightning coming out of it, strong enough that it began destroying the platform.

  Omar understood what was happening.

  "You want to finish this now, I see. Okay, let it be."

  Omar began creating a rock under the platform and made it bigger and bigger, to the point that its diameter covered the whole platform, and then lit it with fire.

  "Let's finish this, old man."

  Roy couldn't help but, for the first time since this test started, react with a small smirk.

  Omar jumped the rest of the barrier's length, went down on the boulder, and kicked it, making it fall at a very fast speed.

  Omar knew that Darius could just teleport above to dodge the attack, so he let fire cover all of the part above the boulder, making it impossible to teleport up and giving the boulder more speed while keeping it burning.

  At the same time, Darius shot the arrow.

  The arrow went through the boulder, breaking it into smaller pieces, but even those smaller pieces were big enough to make them hundreds of kilograms.

  Darius shot a lot of arrows and used lightning to try to destroy the boulders into smaller pieces so he could dodge them or block them.

  Omar was standing in fire, covered in an all-rock suit. Under him, the X platform turned into a full platform to make it harder for the arrow to go through it.

  The arrow, of course, went through it anyway. The arrow took some time to reach Omar, but not enough for him to move away enough.

  The arrow went through Omar's arm and hit the barrier roof. The shockwave made Omar lose his balance and begin falling down, but that didn't stop him from making more fire so Darius couldn't teleport up.

  Darius kept destroying the boulder with arrows and lightning, but it didn't work.

  'I didn't think I'd use this.'

  Darius drew the bow. Lightning coming from the arrow on the bow was strong enough that it was destroying everything around it, even though it wasn't aimed at them.

  When he shot it, a dragon made from lightning appeared, traveling with the arrow. The lightning dragon consumed the boulder, breaking it into small rocks, and even some of these rocks got completely deleted.

  The dragon then disappeared.

  The attack was exhausting for Darius.

  "We're useless on this team," Jax said with disbelief.

  "Talk about yourself. I can still heal," Elise said with a shaky voice.

  The rocks slammed onto the ground.