Looks like you kids are over here having fun. Mind if I join?" Xander asked, a toothy, predatory grin splitting his face. "Don't worry, I'll make it easier for you—you can both attack me together." He locked eyes with Tkos and Hope, his aura flaring with challenge.
Xander spun his staff in a lethal arc, preparing to lunge, but froze. Above, the sky didn't just darken—it shattered. Veins of violet-white electricity fractured the atmosphere, and a rhythmic, bone-shaking thunder rolled across the island, drowning out the screams of the forest.
"Is this part of the exam?" he hissed, his voice barely audible over the celestial roar.
"I don't think so," Tkos replied, his knuckles white as he gripped his spear.
"Up there!" Hope screamed, pointing toward the epicenter. A silhouette was suspended in the heart of the storm, a living conductor bathing in raw voltage, looking down at them with a cold indifference.
"Should that even be possible?" Xander gasped.
"On a regular day, no," Hope gritted out, her hair standing on end from the static. "But the storm was already brewing. He's seizing the atmosphere, hijacking the natural energy. He's making it possible."
"Should we just stand here and let him finish?" Tkos demanded, his spear tip trembling.
"We wait," Hope countered sharply. "Aside from purging the weak and sowing chaos, someone of that rank will be a monster to face later. Let him burn his mana thinning the herd. We strike when he's running on empty."
"Here it comes!" Xander roared.
He slammed his staff down, conjuring a shimmering kinetic dome just as the sky opened. It wasn't rain; it was a deluge of white fire. Bolts thick as an arm hammered the earth, vaporizing trees and incinerating students instantly. After several minutes of relentless, blinding bombardment, the sky fell silent. Lucien plummeted like a meteor, screaming through the air before slamming into the island with a localized earthquake, leaving a blackened, smoking crater in the soil.
Before the dust could even settle, a primal, guttural roar tore through the air—a sound so violent it felt like a physical blow. The earth erupted as a Rank 7 Grey Bear burst from the depths. Four meters of living tectonic plates, its skin was jagged, weathered stone, and its eyes glowed with a murderous, crimson heat. It was the island's wrath personified.
The beast roared again, a sonic wave that sent a command to every predator on the island. The forest turned into a slaughterhouse. Despite its mountainous bulk, the bear moved like a blurred shadow. Its claws, long as scythes, sheared through armor and bone alike, eliminating students in sprays of light and dust with a single, contemptuous swipe.
"I propose a temporary truce until we deal with the beasts!" Tkos shouted, his spear humming with energy. Hope and Xander signaled their grim agreement as the first wave of monsters crashed against them.
"Third Form: Falling Stars!" Tkos bellowed. His spear didn't just move; it vanished, replaced by a hundred piercing points of light that perforated the hides of the charging monsters. Beside him, Hope's eyes turned cold as her ability surged. Monsters entering her perimeter suddenly screeched in confusion, their minds fracturing as they began to tear their own pack-mates limb from limb.
The Great Bear turned, its crimson gaze locking onto Hope. It saw her dominance as a direct challenge. Dropping to all fours, it charged. The ground buckled under its weight, trees snapping like dry twigs as it barreled toward her. It arrived with the force of a landslide, its massive claw whistling through the air.
Before the strike could connect, Xander blurred into the gap.
"Down!" Xander screamed. A massive column of gravitational force slammed into the bear's back, forcing its chest into the dirt and grinding its momentum to a halt. "Repel!"
Blue veins snaked up Xander's neck as he swung his staff with every ounce of his strength. The impact against the bear's jaw sounded like a sledgehammer hitting a mountain. The beast was shoved back, its claws furrowing deep trenches into the bedrock to stay upright. It shook its head, a low, tectonic growl vibrating in its chest. Before it could recover, Tkos was a blur of steel, slamming his spear into the bear's flank. The tip shrieked against the stone hide, sparks flying as the weapon's edge chipped against the indestructible skin.
The bear didn't flinch. It used its own massive weight to pivot, slamming its shoulder into Tkos with the force of a battering ram. Tkos was launched backward, skipping across the dirt like a stone, his skin-hardening ability the only thing keeping his ribcage from imploding.
Xander went for the throat, but the bear's instincts were preternatural. It ducked the staff, rose onto its hind legs, and delivered a backhanded swipe that cracked the air. Xander survived by a hair's breadth. The bear let out a localized, deafening roar; the sheer s pressure hit Hope like a physical wall, forcing her to her knees as blood began to leak from her ears and nose.
The opening was all Xander needed. He poured Repel into his staff, the weapon glowing with kinetic tension as he swung for the bear's midsection. The contact created a thunderous shockwave that cleared the dust for twenty meters, yet the bear only buckled, taking half a step back.
Suddenly, the ground groaned. Xander snapped his staff to his chest just as a jagged earth spike thrust upward. The impact threw him into the air. The bear, relentless, stomped its massive paw, shattering the ground and launching jagged boulders upward like flak.
Mid-air and defenseless, Xander's eyes flared. He inverted his power, slamming the gravity on himself to plummet back to earth, the rocks whistling inches over his head. The moment his boots hit the dirt, he threw his hands out. "Repel!"
The boulders reversed course, screaming back toward the bear and exploding against its stone hide in a blinding cloud of shrapnel and dust.
"Can't you just make it fly out of here?" Hope shrieked, wiping blood from her face. "You're a gravity manipulator!"
"I can only repel or crush within five meters!" Xander spat, his chest heaving. He looked at Tkos, who was spitting blood as he stood back up. "What about you?"
Tkos gripped his spear, his skin shimmering like dull brass. "My first ability is useless here! I only have my B-rank hardening. I'm the shield—that's it!"
"Time's up," Xander growled, his eyes locked on the silhouette emerging from the dust cloud. "We attack together. If we stop, we die."
Hope's mind flickered to the rest of the island. To her left, the horizon was being scorched by Lucien's lightning killing both monsters and students in his path ,to her right, the forest was a silent, frozen graveyard—Amil's work. Those idiots are occupied, she thought bitterly. Tamy is probably occupied with the monsters as well . If the other students don't join us soon, we're going to be overrun. To her, the screaming students in the distance were just meat to buy them time.
"Time's up!" Xander's roar shattered her focus. "Now! Together!"