Suddenly, like an explosion, everybody around me began rushing towards the tower. There were definitely mages among the group, as some students began to fly towards the tower. Others had super speed, and a couple just ran at a regular pace.

"Remember, you all need to work together to achieve the goal! Your goal is to place in the top 700 participants!" yelled Mr. Otsuka.

I made my way to the base of the tower and noticed people aiding each other in climbing it. I tried climbing it myself but was getting nowhere. I couldn't grasp exactly how this was to be done. I saw ledges protruding from the walls, and thought I might be able to use them to scale the tower.

I grabbed ahold of one of the ledges, but it immediately collapsed. It was a retracting platform, a trap! I fell down, not even making it a few feet from where I stood.

"Ow!" I yelled as I hit the ground.

After I stood back up, followed by moments of clueless thoughts, a girl walked over to me, she was wielding a large claymore.

"Hey, wanna help me scale this beast?" she asked. I stared her in the eyes for quite some time before smirking. Her presence, along with the presence of everybody else was getting me amped.~

"Hell yeah I do, let's get after it!" I said. The two of us began climbing the tower, using our swords as handles to stabilize ourselves as we climbed. We would stab them into the side of the tower where it was weak, and climb from there. There were ledges every now and then where we could rest.

"This tower is tall, we should probably get going quickly so we can make it to the top before everybody else does. If we can find more people, maybe we could work together somehow," said the girl.

"I agree. We're using our swords like pegs, this will tire us out quickly."

Looking above us, I noticed the mages had advanced significantly further than us. They seemed to be flying to the top, but staying close to the group, probably just to follow the rules. Mr. Otsuka made note of this~

"Mages, help out your fellow individuals, don't just fly and wait for them to catch up, aid them!"

Hearing this was enough to send hordes of mages flying in our direction. One of them flew over to me and the girl I was with. He was wearing a black robe and casting strange purple magic. He gazed at us~

"Hey, you two need a lift to the top? I can help ya," he said. This was our ticket, out of nowhere, a friendly mage was offering to help us get to the top of the tower.

"Absolutely, thank you so much," I said back.

"Don't mention it brother, the name's Kage by the way," he said, before letting the two of us climb onto his broomstick. He was clearly very powerful. We took off, and began an ascent towards the top, flying past numerous traps and individuals.

"That's the way! Watch out for traps!" yelled Mr. Otsuka. I had already fallen for a trap, but I was sure I wouldn't fall for any more now that we were being aided by Kage the mage!

That was until I realized that there were projectiles stationed on the walls of the tower. They were anti-air projectiles and were set up to prevent people from flying straight to the top. I warned Kage~

"Yo Kage, do you see those up there? They look like cannons. Be careful, okay?" I said. He nodded in affirmation.

"I see 'em, don't worry, I'll get us around them. If any projectiles start flying our way, I'll need you and claymore girl to hit them with your swords to knock them out of the way," he said.

"My name is Haruka!" yelled the girl with the claymore. She seemed annoyed.

As we continued to fly, I noticed many students falling to the safety net below. They were being bombarded by traps such as retracting platforms, protruding walls that punched you, and even some small enemies that surrounded the tower. It was pretty chaotic underneath us.

"BEEBEEBEEP-BOOP!"~

One of the cannons took an aim at us and locked onto our path. Kage turned around and gave us a nod and we drew our weapons.

"It's about to fire at us, hit it with your sword! Just don't chop my head off, please," said Kage before speeding up his flight. Suddenly, the cannon shot a high-speed projectile our way. We could hear Mr. Otsuka's voice from below speaking into the microphone.

"You're setting off the cannons! Whatever shall you do to avoid these heat-seeking missiles?"

Haruka and I answered his question as one of the missiles approached us from behind. Haruka, sitting behind me, took a big swing at it with her claymore and struck it, slicing it in half and sending it plummeting down. It exploded as it hit the ground.

"BOOM~"

"Well done you three up there! Very resourceful!" yelled Mr. Otsuka. We knew he had witnessed what our group had done, further boosting our confidence. Other groups had less fortunate luck than ours though.

One group slightly higher than ours was comprised of a mage and two knife-wielding individuals who were unable to circumvent the missile strike... the missile hit their trio and exploded, sending the three of them plummeting to the safety net below. The explosions were incredibly small, causing no injury to whoever was caught inside of them.

"BOOM~"

"AHHH, DAMNIT!" Yelled the group members. After they fell, Kage and I realized that we were in the lead. We were getting close to the top of the tower. Our team might actually be the one to grab the orb! However, the entirety of the large group was now split among every part of the tower. We were spread out everywhere, rather than together as a collective group.

Mr. Otsuka noticed this and shook his head. He knew that despite giving clear instructions to stick together that people would eventually split from the pack. He decided to throw his initial plan out the window.

"I said to progress COLLECTIVELY, but I guess that's impossible. Whoever gets the orb first can claim victory and end the challenge. Best of luck from here to the end!" yelled Mr. Otsuka. Kage turned around and looked at us~

"Hey guys, you hear that? No more "sticking together", let's ride this baby to the top!" he said, before turning around once more.

"What are you about to do??" I asked. He gave me a devilish smile~

"I'm about to kick it into turbo, hold on to whatever you can grasp, this is about to get nutty."

Suddenly, I could feel the G-Forces in my body rising. Haruka behind me was gripping my shoulders tightly. We began to ascend incredibly quickly, the speed increasing exponentially.

"OH MY GOD, KAGE THIS IS QUICK!" I yelled.

"I know, hang on now, we're almost to the top!"

We were flying at near-light speed, swerving in between different projectiles, exploding as they came into contact with each other. Kage was single-handedly destroying this challenge, despite the director's advice against it. But I guess all of the rules were thrown out of the window at this point.

"Hey, what was your name, by the way?" asked Kage.

"HAAHAHAHAACHIRO!" I said, stunned by the dizzying speed.

"Oh, well then Haahahahaachiro, it's nice to meet you. That's quite an odd name isn't it?"

"NO, JUST HACHIRO!"

"Ahhhh Hachiro, you had me confused, must be the speed we're traveling at. You know Hachiro, we've been flying incredibly fast for some time now, this tower really extends far into the sky. I think it would have taken days for us to climb it manually, but I can see the top!"

We approached the top of the tower, and Kage drastically slowed his speed down. When we reached the top, we saw the orb. It was a golden orb that was suspended in mid-air. It was quiet up here, there was nobody around us...we landed on the roof, Haruka and I tumbling off of the broomstick onto the ground. We were both dazed.

When we came to our feet, Kage had already reached the orb. He was awaiting our arrival.

"Well guys, here's the orb, let's go ahead and take it," said Kage. The three of us walked over to grab it. Kage held his hand open and grasped the orb. It glowed dimly in his hands. Suddenly, confetti shot into the air, controlled by confetti blasters stationed around the perimeter of the roof of the tower.

It was then that we noticed a slide that led to the bottom of the tower. it was labeled "EXIT". We could hear Mr. Otsuka's voice through the microphone, as there was a speaker stationed at the top of the roof.

"Congratulations to whoever is up here! I assume it's the mage that sent his group zooming into the clouds earlier, please take the slide to return to the floor of the tower!"

"We did it, guys! Let's go give this orb to Mr. Otsuka!" said Haruka. Kage interrupted~

"Ahem, I did it. I just carried you two to the top. But regardless, let's return the orb and get outta here, I'm assuming all of us will pass onto the final exam, so we should get some rest."

Haruka and I agreed with Kage, and the three of us rode down the sky-high slide. It was a tube-slide meaning there was no risk of us falling to our deaths. When we reached the bottom, we noticed numerous people laying on the ground, exhausted, and even more people laying in the safety net, also exhausted.

Mr. Otsuka came over to greet us, and we handed him the orb.

"Wow, you three really killed this challenge. I don't think anyone has ever done as well as you. What is your name, skilled mage?" he asked.

"Kage Takahashi. Pleased to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Well, with this, your exams have concluded. I will tally the results, and give everybody a speech when we all return on who is making it to the final examination. You three should get some rest," said Mr. Otsuka.

"Thank you so much," we all said, before leaving to go our separate ways. When we left the examination room, I thought to myself for a while. Kage was seriously skilled, he outclassed everybody there... I felt out of my league...

A few minutes after leaving, my phone started buzzing. it was my father, he had sent me a few messages. He tried to call me earlier to tell me he finished unpacking my stuff in my dorm, but I was too busy taking the exam to have noticed. I decided that what I would do next is head to my dorm and relax for the rest of the day.

The exam was finished, at least, for now...

I exited the building, went to a restaurant to grab some dinner, and left to go back to my dorm as the evening settled in and night began to fall. I wanted to make it there before any unusuals could come out of the shadows and attack me, so I walked at a quick pace.

Once I got back to my dorm room, I would settle down, have a good night's sleep, and hope that I made the final examination.