Chapter Fourteen

Days passed, and according to reports, it was believed that there was an explosion of power transformers. The city was left without that service, almost a whole day, there were no clues that led them to us, but our concern was the day of the long awaited test, there was a lot of movement in the corridors of the dormitory, no one could calm the tension we had.

Alison arrived in the early hours of the morning to join the group. In the bedroom she changed as much as she could, at that moment I tried to avoid looking at him after what had happened, I could not believe that he was an irregular, but neither could I judge him. He was a boy equally rejected by society, the two poles that the world hated the most.

Without speaking, we both left the room and went down to the small square to meet the group. There, on different buses, we left the city for the state capital where the tests would be held.

It was the largest in Glosbar, there were more huge buildings, almost 15 floors each, and little by little we got closer to the place where we would do the test.

We stopped in a strange place. It was amazing, it was almost the size of the school and about ten floors, thousands of windows maybe there. The dark blue color made it more exciting to be there. But the pressure of not being left behind affected me.

Professor Clouds spoke to bring us back to reality and say goodbye.

-Well, I'll go with you guys up to here, have a good time.

We entered a room and saw hundreds of students from different schools.

A tall, eccentric-looking man spoke to us.

-Nort Walt School?

-Yes," replied Alejandra, "because I'm from the class, I'm taking the floor.

-Well, the government has left them this test, like a video game, to make it faster and not take months. There are several grade points, currently there are 400 schools and 10016 students in this place," said the man.

He took out a notebook and kept talking.

-But first everyone will be opponents, if they want to work in a group that will take away points. Second, they will have some devices on their chests, which are used to quit and to measure their activity on the test; when they deactivate them, nobody should attack them. Third, there will be homunculi and robots that will attack them, they will gain points, if they manage to overcome them, at the moment they surrender, a manager will come out of one of the doors and immediately will bring them back to the main room, they will have a quick check-up to evaluate their state. According to the order in which they leave the room they will be given the score. Aahh, Some homunculi will talk and try to intimidate them. Fourth, there are four floors, and they will have to go up all of them and the test will be over.

-And if someone is badly hurt," Saul asked.

-The device they have will measure their state of health, which will immediately be changed, and this will give a warning and medical personnel will enter, although they were designed not to do much damage, only to immobilize them and take them to the limit. Since it is such a maze, no one will see it," she answered. "There are thousands of cameras that will focus on all of you, so don't worry.

He was a somewhat eccentric person, and immediately made a strange gesture and responded.

-I was forgetting, you are all opponents, you also get points for beating your partners, if you kill someone you will face the law and they made a decision about you. Control yourselves. Fifth, the goal is to get to floor four, we are on floor one, as you can see this is similar to video games, but you can die if you are not careful. If you are afraid there is a door you can leave. Finally, when you get there, you will have to fight against whoever you meet, if there is anyone there, well, most likely, no one will get there every time there are no casualties for a long time or we see something significant, it will tell you how many students are still in the test.

-Wait....wait... we've been in school for two months now, and we already have to fight? Are you kidding me?" said a boy from another classroom.

-Youth, the school taught you the basics, you had to practice, no matter what your level, everyone has the same chance to pass this test if they know how to handle it. That being said, you'll all need it.

All the freshmen at North Walt gathered and entered through a small, large door, and found themselves with hundreds of doors, each choosing their path from one of the many paths they had taken.

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Five minutes later the test began.

Luan, I was in a remote place.

The labyrinth was made of bushes and had multiple paths, there was no one around.

The boy looked for the stairs to the third floor.

Suddenly, in the middle of the bushes, a human-shaped homunculus appeared in front of him, carrying a sword, and immediately attacked him.

He managed to avoid it, and his heart began to beat with fear, because he was eliminated a few minutes after starting.

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The homunculus didn't give him any breathing space, he chased after him and attacked him without stopping. The boy defended himself with a sword that he had, but he disarmed it and with nothing else to do, he had to run again. Until he was trapped in a place where there was no way out.

-Surrender, you are unprotected," said the homunculus, but Luan tried to face him without weapons.

And he attacked him, hurting his arms.

If I really hurt you, you will have to go through the shame of being taken out on a stretcher at the beginning of the trial," said the homunculus.

-I won't do it," shouted Luan.

-What a pity," answered the homunculus.

In an instant a sword pierced him, from one moment to another.

A student who passed by saw the scene and ended up with him.

Both boys looked at each other.

- Are you the stupid one that was on the news because you almost drowned in the river? .... Don't worry, this will only hurt for a moment, the doctors will come for you.

Those simple words really bothered Luan, someone he didn't know and didn't know anything about, making fun of his bad luck. A little annoyed, he drew strength where he didn't have it.

He reacted by avoiding being seriously injured, and jumped to take the sword from his homunculus.

-You are not as useless as I thought, although you are no longer in condition, those wounds limit much when it comes to fighting.

Both clashed their swords, to try to disarm the other but neither yielded.

Luan, I wanted to finish this now and get to the next floor, and I use power manipulation.

By the time they both came back to clash again. Until his opponent's broke.

Disable your device, he told his opponent.

-You know I won't, you'll have to knock me out.

Luan made the combination of quick moves Snaider taught him. He left his opponent clueless about how to react and knocked him out in a matter of seconds. Deactivating his device.

-Mmmm, thank God, I was able to do what Snaider taught me, I would have lost if I fought as usual.

He sat down to rest for a while, he knew that things would be more difficult when he was hurt that way, he didn't feel any pain, but his body would start to fail him at a certain point.

He walked for several minutes until he found a ladder and climbed it.

He found another maze, but one made of concrete.

And lonely like the previous one.

He could see the homunculi lying lifeless on the ground. As he walked I noticed that certain walls had doors, small ones.

He opened them and saw that they drove and another place, I try to think if he entered or not, I end up doing it.

And this led him to witness a struggle between two students and several homunculi, much larger than the one he had fought.

It was a lost battle for both boys, Luan realized it was a trap and wanted to go back, but it was too late.

He had already been seen and would be pursued.

With his wounded hands he fought against the homunculus.

Their weapons were sparking as they collided.

Luan again did the same as with his previous opponent, but this one did the same, avoiding the destruction of his sword.

-You think we're the same as those weaklings down there. You can't do it with us.

Luan felt scared, he didn't even beat the one in front of him and was able to climb up here because of someone else's interference.

He squeezed his sword using manipulation of his energy and broke his opponent's sword so well that he was injured.

He tried to attack him but Luan finished him off, one had won but his outlook would not be encouraging, the two students who were fighting gave up when they saw themselves surrounded by so many homunculi.

And now he would be alone against five homunculi.

He took the sword from the one he had beaten, tried to think about all he had learned with Alison and Snaider in these two months of school.

And he went off to fight.

The five made a circle to surround him and try to break him morally so that he would surrender, he didn't listen to them.

He told them, come and get me.

Two went to fight him at the same time and while they were fighting they tried to break him down mentally.

He managed to intercept their every move to avoid being hurt. However, his arms were weaker than this one's. And they put more pressure on his wounded muscles, taking away his strength.

It will only hurt for a moment, you will wake up in the infirmary.

Luan, faced with so much difficulty, took a sword that had one of them in a matter of seconds and ended up with this one, however he neglected one of the sides and received a cut on his chest.

The four homunculi looked at each other, and when they were about to attack him all at once, a boy appeared, who shouted.

-I thought it was a test of power, not one of resistance.

They all looked at him and pounced on him.

With two swords he stopped the four of them. But he got into trouble because of the strength they had, they were stronger than a student.

He felt the outrage of his partner. And that he had thought he could stop.

He stepped aside and saw that it was a fight he couldn't win.

-Hey, let's each fight two, if you can't, if you don't push the button and get out.

Luan approached them.

-Let's do it.

-Let's do it. Wow, they know that working in a group will take points away from them, and they still do it," said the homunculus.

-It's better than losing to something like you.

The homunculi decided to attack all of the same target to finish this quickly.

They went over Luan but out of the blue, in those seconds' ties, he decided to put into practice what he learned with Snaider, with the same moves he did with him, finishing quickly with two of them.

Both the boy in front of him and the homunculi were terrified, he didn't give them time to attack, without words he finished them off.

-Finish yours, I'll leave you to it.

He smiled at the speed of his companion, and he smiled enough to do so and leave as if nothing had happened.

-Up there we meet, and just in case, I'm Albert.

......

Luan walked for almost half an hour looking for the next staircase, and sat down minutes later his injury began to affect him.

As he walked, he heard a voice calling him.

-Luan.

He looked back, it was a familiar face, Liz ran to him and hugged him.

He blushed a little, since she had never hugged him before.

-I was looking for you," the girl said.

-I was looking for you," said the girl.

She approached him, covered her mouth so that the cameras would not read her lips, and said in his ear.

-I know everything, Luan, I'm an irregular too, I can see the memory of others and I know the whole map.

The boy tried to process the information, his other partner was also an irregular, and tried to calm down, but they gave the first bulletin.

Total students standing, 4500.

-How did they manage to eliminate so many?

-The test was designed to eliminate most of them. The first two floors were to eliminate the weakest physically and mentally.

-We can't make teams anyway, they'll cut our points, he said.

-It doesn't matter, I've beaten almost 15," she said happily.

-So many, I only beat two.

-Don't worry, you just have to get down and go.

-How... you could see the weakness of those homunculi and defeat them.

-You don't think it was easy, the people on this floor gave me the fight.

-It doesn't matter, let's go, I know where the stairs are," said the girl holding his hand.

Both of them ran together and reached the stairs, Luan was a little confused, because of his partner's behavior, she treated him as if he was someone she loved, and he started to remember what she did for him. A few days ago. She seemed to know and preferred not to look at him.

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When they went up to the third floor, they found a lonely and frightening panorama, it looked like a labyrinth with poor lamps that gave poor lighting, the walls were made of wood, the cameras were more noticeable than on the previous floors. As they walked they found bodies of broken-down robbers, which still had electricity.

You couldn't see the shape of these, because they were in pieces. And they went on their way to but they were on guard to fight.

There were five directions to take, Liz, chose the first one and they noticed that the energy slowly diminished in this one.

When they reached a certain point, they felt the presence of someone, and this one attacked them from behind taking advantage of the little light.

Luan held him with a sword he had, the person who attacked them was covered with blood.

Liz wanted to fight. But Luan wanted to try

-Let me, I'll do it," said the boy.

And the two began to clash their swords, measuring each other to gain an advantage in their position.

And in the middle of the fight a little boy turned off his lamps, the subject took advantage of this and buried his sword in his shoulder, which almost cut his Orta vein.

Liz, reacted to this, and in the back gave him a blow, knocking him out. And deactivating his device.

-I know that you want to demonstrate all that you learned, and you think that you will be able to do it because you simply trained with Alison and Snaider, besides you defeated those two homunculi, but each one of the person that we are here wants to arrive ll but possible, so they are not going to give you anything, not only they are the statistics and the level of energy, you should think about what you are going to do and to take advantage of the atmosphere in which these, small things, as the one that I pass now, almost eliminates you.

-I'm sorry I...

-Let's keep going, maybe with that wound you won't make it to floor four one, but you're already above average, that's good, let's go.