"Uh...maybe one of us should go wake him?" Suggested Alex with a look of bemusement.

"I agree, I don't think he meant to fall asleep. We should definitely wake him up," Nodded Andre in agreement.

​​

"Tch, then go do it yourselves instead of standing around waiting for someone else to," Chimed in Suri, not mincing words.

In case it wasn't obvious, Instructor Jin Satou had fallen asleep during the break, and it had been nearly an hour now. No one had said anything for a while, till Alex spoke up. I kept out of it, as did some of the others, while those who were getting into in were starting to argue...and a couple of minutes later, the arguing woke the instructor up, so in the end, it didn't matter.

"Huh...what's with the racket, keep it down. Can't you see I'm trying to-...wait, this isn't my room..."

It took him a minute to gain his bearings, after which he rapidly got onto his feet like he'd been struck by a bolt of lightning, before trying to play it cool...

"Ahem...break's over, so, uh...who's next?" He inquired, stifling a yawn and rubbing his eyes sleepily.

The next person to volunteer was a girl named Lin Yang, she'd placed eighth in the first stage of the entrance exam. She had long black hair tied in a low ponytail, with the front covering most of her forehead and slightly parted in the middle, black eyes, a pale complexion and big round glasses. She wore a sleeveless black undershirt with a purple shoulderless top above it, a long black skirt with a slit on the right side and tall black boots. She also had a backpack on her for some reason, and didn't take it off when she volunteered for the next bout.

Earlier, in the classroom, she'd been one of the loudest people, she had a sort of...hyper energy about her.

"Alright, here goes...!"

"Oh, wait...I don't need to fight you, someone else volunteer," Interrupted the instructor, before she could bring forth her Manifestation.

"Huh? Why not?" She asked in confusion.

"I oversaw your fight in the second stage of the entrance exam, remember? So I already have a decent idea of what you're capable of."

"Oh...um, can I fight anyway?"

"Nah, the less effort for me the better. Next!"

She returned to the sidelines with a dejected expression, looking really disappointed. Wow, I almost felt bad for her, she looked like a little kid who had been shown a piece of chocolate cake and then had to watch while the cake was eaten in front of them without even getting to taste it...oh, man, that sounded horrible. Wait, what was I talking about?

Anyway, the next person was a guy named Mitchell Jones, he'd placed sixth in the first stage of the entrance exam. He had medium-length blonde hair that he pushed back from his forehead, blue eyes, freckles and was pretty short. He wore a long sleeved white top with a loose turtleneck collar, black suspenders, black trousers and black sandals.

"Aight, ready or not, here I come...!" He exclaimed with a grin, dashing forward as twelve purple energy long whip-like appendages extended out of his lower back.

He leapt up and spun himself forward as he neared the instructor, whipping him with all twelve tails at once. The instructor blocked it by crossing his pincers above him, but the impact caused his legs to buckle and forced him down onto one knee.

Mitchell then grabbed onto his pincers using four of his tails, keeping himself balanced above the instructor. He then rapidly whipped the remaining eight tails down at him repeatedly, the instructor responded by blocking them with his stinger, and before Mitchell could try and strike past it, he burst flames out of his pincers, forcing him to back away.

"!"

Purple energy wings sprouted out of his back and he flew up to get some distance. He then began spinning himself down, his tails zipping through the air as he rapidly spun down...

"Okay, that's enough. Next," Declared the instructor, dodging the attack and grabbing the back of his collar to keep him from crashing onto the ground, "Hey, did you forget that your Manifestations are in Phantom Mode?"

"Huh? Oh, crap...normally, that move would just have me harmlessly bounce off the ground if I missed my target, it totally slipped my mind that wouldn't work like that in Phantom Mode...," Realized Mitchell, with a sheepish expression.

Phantom Mode XFE would just phase through physical objects, but like I said before, it wasn't like they were holograms, or even completely intangible. I already mentioned that Phantom Mode XFE could make contact with other Phantom Mode XFE, but that wasn't all. Despite being in Phantom Mode, Mitchell had been able to fly using his wings, and Alex had also flown with his foot rockets Manifestation.

I didn't understand the exact physics behind it, but apparently, it wasn't something that could be explained by the known physics from before WWIII, so it was something that was still being studied. Well, it doesn't matter much to me, I just need to know how it works in specific situations, I don't care about why it works that way or the science behind it.

Anyway, with that, the thirteenth person to volunteer stepped forward, a girl named Seila Khan, the person who had placed second in the first stage of the entrance exam. Though, you wouldn't know it by looking at her, she was a total clumsy, nervous wreck. She only volunteered because none of the others who remained, including me, showed any signs of interest in volunteering. She wore an unzipped long-sleeved dark blue jacket with a black collar over a white undershirt, black trousers and dark blue boots.

She nervously stepped forward onto the main training area, and the moment she stepped off the sidelines...she tripped and fell on her face. Did she just...trip on her own feet? She accidentally kicked the back of her heel while trying to take a step forward...how in the world did she pass the entrance exam anyway?

She stood up with an expression that said 'I want to disappear', the tips of her ears were red and so was her face.

"Uh...take your time, whenever you're ready," Instructor Satou tried easing her nerves awkwardly.

She silently nodded and took a deep breath, slowly exhaling...and suddenly, it felt like the air in the room changed. She stopped shaking, all traces of her nerves were gone. There was an eerie calmness about her, cold and calculating...

"," She stated calmly, as two yellow energy swords formed in either hand.

They were both about a meter long and pretty wide, sort of like cricket bats but flat. And did she say 'expansive'?

She took a few steps forward and pointed the blade in her right hand towards the instructor...and in the blink of an eye, it extended out about twenty meters, straight towards the instructor, who narrowly evaded it after a slight look of alarm. Whoa, that was fast...

He'd evaded to the left, and she then flicked her wrist across in that direction, whipping the blade at him. He ducked at the last second, before swiftly rolling away as she extended the second blade out as well.

For the next few seconds, she seemed to completely have him on the ropes, using wristy flicks to swing both blades at him rapidly, giving him no openings to escape or counter. Meanwhile, he was dodging the two whizzing blades by the skin of his teeth, narrowly avoiding them-...well, actually, for all I knew, he may have gotten grazed a bunch of times, I was having a little trouble following every single movement with my eyes.

Seila seemed to get frustrated that she wasn't landing any significant blows, and swung both blades horizontally inwards at him from either side...before they could slash through him, he caught them with his pincers and shot forward while running his pincers across the length of the blades, keeping a grip on them to prevent her from moving them. He raised his stinger as he neared her, when she suddenly let go of both blades and sprinted forward with her arms raised...

," She remarked, her fists and arms sparking and crackling with electricity.

She caught him off guard by dashing towards him, and as she closed in, she went low and unleashed a barrage of punches at his abdomen, most of them getting blocked, but she landed a solid hit to the right side of his midsection. She began going in to continue her attack, but before she could, her arms were locked behind her, the instructor had her in a lock, gripping her right arm behind her lower back and left arm behind her head.

...okay, this time, I had zero idea on how he did that. How did he get behind her? Based on her expression, she had no clue either. He was well-versed at using his Manifestations, his evasion, blocking and reaction time were incredible, but what was most impressive from what I'd seen so far, were his grappling and lock techniques.

Well, anyway...with that, there were only three people left to go. The fourteenth person to volunteer was a girl named Katie Cummins, she'd placed seventh in the first stage of the entrance exam. She had shortish blonde hair that was tied in a low and short ponytail, red eyes and her expression didn't give away any emotions. She was on the short side, I'd say barely five feet tall. She wore a light blue sleeveless top with a black collar, black shorts with thigh-high black stockings and black boots, with narrow red wristbands on both wrists.

"Oh, great...looks like we're almost done," Remarked Instructor Sato, with a sigh of relief, before adding enthusiastically, "Hurry up, let's finish this off already!"

Well, I had to hand it to him, he definitely wore his emotions on his sleeve, I could respect that. Katie nodded and stepped forward, her expression blank and hard to read.

"," She stated in a monotone voice.

Yellow energy formed out of her lower back, manifesting in the shape of a long and thick tail...with what looked like a dragon's head at the end of it. It was about twenty-five meters in length, she looked tiny in comparison. Without moving a muscle, the dragon head shot towards the instructor rapidly, swiftly surrounding him before he could get out of its range.

The dragon head then opened its mouth and zipped towards him, slamming its jaws shut as it reached him, right as he planted his pincers on the top of the dragon head and jumped over it using his arms, firing a barrage of fireballs at it before backing away and charging up a large ball of flames between his pincers.

Woah, her Manifestation was seriously impressive...and her control over it was incredible, it moved so fluidly that it almost seemed like it had a mind of its own, she hadn't moved from her spot even once since this bout began. And as a result, the instructor was getting ready to fire off the most intense attack we'd seen so far. Even in Phantom Mode, that much flames would probably sting a bit. She still showed no signs of moving, instead...

"."

The dragon head opened its mouth again, lightning beginning to build up in its open mouth, crackling violently. She fired it as soon as the instructor blasted his flames at her, the two attacks clashing and canceling each other out...the air felt all static-y and warm, and when they clashed, it had been LOUD. That would have been seriously destructive if their attacks hadn't been in Phantom Mode.

"Okay, so that happened...this fight is over, so, uh...next, please," Sighed the instructor.

Just two people left. And the next person to volunteer...was me...

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