Chapter 6: Tests of Phase 2

The remaining recruits were only 15 in number in their group. It varied what happened to the failures, thankfully few needed medical attention. Rollo looked at the people who didn't even make it into the physical tests with concern. They're only in the first major test for Keeper recruitment. 'I will be judged from here on...' This thought imprinted into his mind like hot irons.

Misao stretches while sitting on the bench by Rollo, her anxiety putting her on edge. It's finally time for real struggle and this causes her mind to go wild in worry. 'Brother, I'm here at last.... Will I actually fulfill your dream?` She ponders this as Ling's dolls moves to lead the recruits into the rooms.

"Hey, Misao, good luck." Rollo gives her a gloved thumbs up while standing up to be guided by one of these dolls. He adjusts his gloves while stepping towards one of those rooms. His face grows more serious than ever. 'Can't disappoint a new friend, I gotta pass ever harder now.'

"Y-yeah... Good luck to me..." Misao looks at the ground for a moment before taking a deep breath. She stands up and is hesitant to follow the doll for a moment. It feels weird to her, that wasn't a person but moves so much like a human. 'So weird, is this what a code can do? It feels uncanny.'

The rooms are gray with plain looking tiles which feel soft like training mats. Ling's doll moves towards a wall by the door to open a compartment filled with weapons. All of them are metallic black from whatever strange metal they're forged with. Misaso instinctively reaches for a sword as the doll goes to stand in the centre of this space.

"Hello! Welcome to phase 2, this is the second test and it's... The combat survival test! Here, we see your general combat ability and how long you'd survive against the lowest level of first class distortion!" Ling's voice comes out of a speaker within the doll. It bows towards their test taker within the room. "Note, you only fail this test if your survival time is lower than 20 seconds."

Misao grips her sword's handle tightly walking closer to the room's centre. She studies this strange doll construct and measures it up. The doll holds out its hand before a sword starts to grow out of its form. That freaks out Misao for a moment as Ling's voice turns back on. "Oh yeah, they will match your weapon of choice!"

Rollo pops his gloved fingers while stepping up to his testing doll. No weapon appears from it since he merely picks his good ol fists. "That keeps things simple for me!" He shouts so loud that the nearby rooms hear him slightly, his excitement is hard to contain.

"I wish everyone luck in their trials!" A hologram timer appears in each room as Ling clicks off the intercom. She sits back in her chair which is held up by two of her dolls. "Heya Even, How's idle sense reacting to some of the newbies?"

"Hm, Not amazing, Veit is untrustworthy even though he leaked where the necromancer's bases were and that boy you were concerned about, Ceallagh has something off about him." Even gets a cup of hot tea given to him from a lanky doll. "We may have to keep an eye out for a potential disaster from those two."

"Ceallagh? Isn't that Dr Sloan's kid? Strange, He seems pretty off from what the doc says about him." Ling leans towards Even with a raised eyebrow. She seems curious on what the holograms are showing. "He's fighting pretty weird huh..."

"Yes... Dr Sloan should be told his son is acting off but he hasn't been calling back to me." Even says before taking a small sip of his tea. His face is clearly concerned watching the feed of the test room on his holograms. "He's fighting in.... an odd way."

"What- Holy moly, Veit just instantly killed his test doll!" Ling states as her attention was pulled away towards Veit. She sensed how that doll was just sliced in half without a weapon at all. "Geez, I wonder how the others are doing." She looks towards the screen with Rollo with interest.

Rollo stances up against this doll with a grin, finally, some warm up- It's body suddenly springs to life with a right hook towards the red headed fighter. He raises his arms up for a block but it rocks him to the core. His stance was nearly broken by such force and sent sliding back. That strength is no joke, if too many of them hit with that power then this test is harder than expected.

'It has so many holes in that stance, this thing isn't even trying?' He takes his chances with a punch of his own towards this doll's chest. Rollo connects and it's similar to punching a firm sandbag, his knuckles felt that impact. 'Damnit, I won't be able to beat something like this on my own, Is this why they added a 20 second clause?'

That training doll randomly jerks up its knee kick towards Rollo's gut but he manages to roll with the impact but It shakes his organs this easily? This was the raw power of a first class distortion? Every second felt longer with each strike and counter strike, his body may give out before that doll. '9.... 10... 11' He counted as this battle went on.

He's hoping his endurance would last until the timer reached 20 seconds. '12... 13-' His train of thought was interrupted by an odd increase of speed. The doll did a left hook which struck his head pretty hard. His thoughts blurred for a moment from its raw strength. "Ugh..." 'I'm wide open, shit'

He takes one power jab from the doll to his ribs, his bones barely managing to handle the strain against it. Rollo grits his teeth as he reflexively retaliates by throwing a punch and cracks across its mask. It was brittle compared to the tough body but the head itself seems fine, blunt force might've been a bad idea.

"I really messed up... Huh." Rollo blurts out before getting rocked backwards with an even harder strike. He's breathing heavier, this is getting too close towards failure. His mind races and despite the pain, his body suddenly moves much lighter than expected and... KA-BOOM. The doll is sent flying. "Huh?"

"Oh! Good job, Kiddo! Don't worry about the sudden burst of power, we all have inner strength unknown to us." Ling behind the screen grins with an energy that Even picks up instantly. She chuckles to herself, trying not to have her laugh be too loud and get it caught in the audio. "I hope you enjoyed your start." Click!

"Ling, did you awaken his inner strength before he gets a code?" Even sighs before sipping his tea. His expression is one of great disappointment towards Ling. He doesn't get why she'd do something so foolish. "We can't help recruits like that on a whim."

"Even, I would never! All I did was stimulate his already active strength, Jack must've wanted him to fail letting him come here like this." Ling smiles at Even's gaze, nothing she said was a lie and he could tell. "It would be unfair to reject him on this basis, people with potential are hard to find."

"Jack is going to be pissed, his plan to keep his son out of this life failed..." Even says while sipping his slightly cooled cup of tea. He wonders a bit in thought before sighing. "I can't believe that I'm agreeing but you can't do this again with someone else, we need standards."

"Fair enough, I totally wasn't planning on doing anything else." Ling says smirking at Even, the sly thought of helping another recruit is definitely in her mind. She sits back to watch them toil and struggle. Let's go see how Misao is doing!