Ning looked at the girl that was fighting Rachel. She had light ginger hair that fell up to her chins on the side before pointing outsides.
Her eyes looked forever smiling, which for now was appropriate with how much she was laughing.
Ning snapped his fingers creating an outward-facing gravity around himself. The fire that was starting to burn on him was immediately put out.
At the same time, a point appeared in the space that pulled at the man who had just tried to burn Ning and was sent tumbling out of the metal platform.
Ning turned back to look at the girl.
The girl's height was short at around 160 cm, but not a single one of those centimeters could be underestimated right now.
Throwing objects at each other, making fire, disrupting them with sound, making each other's feet stick with magnetic force.
The two fought each other with some of the most unconventional tactics an Aether user could fight with.
Ning was surprised by how easily they were able to switch from one energy to another.
The other examinees had already left them alone, giving the two a section to fight on.
Ning's eyes flashed from side to side to look at this mess of a battlefield. He couldn't, for the love of God, understand how this could be fair at all.
The first guy had fallen out of the stage before the fight even properly began. 'If he wanted to teach them that the world was unfair by claiming the test to be fair,' he is certainly doing it correctly,' Ning thought.
Banrod seemed to be having fun fighting the people around him.
Peter and Harris on the other hand seemed to have already fallen out of the stage.
Heera, the girl with the ginger hair suddenly placed her palm close to the ground, bringing Ning's attention back towards her.
'What is she doing?' Ning thought. He knew that one didn't reach Aether Emperor without any help. The girl was certainly being treated by the tower like a princess.
Which meant, she had something that the others, even Rachel, likely didn't. That was the ability to become a powerhouse when she grew.
Her ability as a Dual Awakener.
Ning could almost guarantee that she was being groomed to be the next supreme of the tower. Which was why she had so much battle instinct driven into her.
They treated Rachel well enough for her to reach Aether King, but Aether Emperor would still take her quite a while.
Ning fought another guy as he used body enchantment to pick him up and throw him out, but his focus remained on the girl and her palm that was on the metal surface.
'Metal…' Ning suddenly realized something. Within a split second, he grew a few centimeters taller.
Rachel seemed to have realized as well and she grew a bit as well. Only she didn't grow the same way as Ning did, but instead by flying a little.
A massive jolt of pain shot through everyone's body for a split second, making them stiffen up and fall to the ground.
Heera shook her hand as numbness took over it as well. She hated the fact that she hadn't yet learned how to create electricity onto an object without using herself as a dummy conduit.
She needed to think of electricity passing through her to send it into the ground. However, she had done it.
She looked up with a smile to see everyone she had defeated, only to see a fist stop inches before her.
Rachel had been this close to punching Heera while she was distracted, but she had been stopped by someone else.
She looked to the side and saw the examiner casually put forth his arms to stop Rachel from attacking.
"Sigh, I didn't think you would be stupid to use an attack to bring down almost all of them," Tristan said as he looked at the groaning men and women who were struggling to stand up.
It would take them a while to get back to being fine. The other men and women who had fallen out off the stage already didn't know whether to call themselves lucky or not.
They had lost the exam… but they also hadn't had to feel the electric shock that put them all in pain.
"Alright, you 3 win," the man said.
Heera's eyes changed, and Rachel looked to the side as well. Only then did the two of them notice Ning casually standing with a dumb smile on his face.
At the last second, he had guessed that Heera was going to create electricity directly onto the ground. Which was why he created an inch or 2 tall rubber soles beneath his foot.
Most of the others had been wearing shoes with metal soles, so they fell victim to the electricity.
'Well, that was easy,' he thought as he looked at the fallen victims. Then, ignoring them, he walked off the metal stage.
Heera and Rachel did the same, as the ones on the ground finally got up. Once they started enchanting their bodies with Aether, they started feeling much better.
"Rest for a bit," the examiner said and closed his eyes as if to sleep. The group didn't understand what was happening, but they did as asked.
They really needed the rest.
After 5 minutes, the man opened his eyes and said, "alright, back on the stage. Now!"
The ones that thought they had a chance now immediately rushed to the stage.
The man then looked to the side and asked, "Do you want me to repeat myself?"
"Eh? Didn't we already pass?" Heera asked with a surprised face. Rachel and Ning were surprised too.
"I only said you won, not that you passed," the man said. "I will keep making you people fight until you place in the top 20 for 3 times."
"So, if you want to pass, you will need to win 2 more times," the man said.
"I told you. I would be very fair with the test. Everyone will get multiple chances to prove themselves. What's fairer than that?"
