It turned out her targeting system worked like a charm, now ! Problem was... Her rail-cannon lacked power to kill the biggest things out there. She killed the frog as well as a few other things... However, the dragon-like creature as well as the massive bull on two legs... She could barely scratch them. It was the same with the electroshocks in her gauntlets. At best, all it did was piss them off or make them do a funny dance...

Fortunately, her anti-gravitational system saved her hide a few times ! Although, to be honest, she jumped too high a few times, forcing Avo to rescue her or increase the gravity on her armor.

With only a little less than two weeks left before the qualifiers started, Sala was stressed out whether she should improve her weapons (maybe design new ones, altogether...) or the rest of her equipment which also happened to have quite a few problems. Finally, she decided to work on the latter, hoping she would then have enough time to work on the first.

Now, every morning, Sala joined Avo outside the gates, testing (and more importantly, training in) her armor. The afternoons and most of the nights were spent working out the kinks and problems.

Avo did the same thing with his Dragon Ball-look alike. Still, contrary to her, he appeared a bit frustrated the magic wasn't working how he wanted it to. Although she wanted to help him if she could, the truth was she had no idea how any of it was supposed to work ! Shamanism, witchcraft or ritual magic... Whatever it was had its own set of laws ! Laws that didn't make sense. At least to her. And apparently, to Avo either...

Because of his frustration, the namekian took it out on the monsters outside the gates, or tried to take his mind off his problem by sewing and enchanting. Sala never had time to build the machines she promised him, so, at the moment, he was limited in his creations by what he could do with his own hands. Needless to say, the results were far from being... fashionable. Or good. Between the woolen horrors and the poorly stitched leather “clothes” (emphasis on the parentheses), Avo was a long way from renewing his wardrobe. Still, he made some progress both in his technique and with his enchantments. Plus, the practice was calming...

The two weeks passed in a blink, with the duo working on their respective projects or just relaxing in some way. When it came time for registration, Sala was nervously fiddling one last time on her equipment, while Avo had a hard time containing the nervous energy in his body... This resulted in him fidgeting a fair bit.

They exited their temporary residence's lobby and walked the twenty minutes walk separating them from the inscription area – several desks aligned with personnel put out in the courtyard of the college just for the occasion. The duo stood in line silently. Sala was too nervous and her friend was just studying the crowd with his sight.

“There are a couple of guys who seem pretty strong... That's it. I don't think we have to worry about the rest of them...”

“Speak for yourself ! If anything goes wrong with my armor... I'll be powerless ! Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have linked all my equipment to a single power source ! I should have created a lot of somethings instead of just one !” Lower, she added : “I think I'll do just that after this tournament...”

“Relax, Sala ! Do you know the difference (and advantage) you have over them ?”

She perked up at that. Every advantage was good to take. She hoped he would give him some incredible killer move or something ! She shook her head and the namekian explained :

“You've spent time outside the gates ! You went through very real, very life-threatening training... I didn't even help you once the past four days ! Unless these guys are more powerful than the monsters we faced, I don't think there's anything to worry about...”

She grumbled something like “I would've preferred a killer-move...” before nodding. Avo was right : everyday, she had asked the captain if anyone had gone outside to train (apart from them, obviously !). And although a few hotshot did try to go out, even succeeding for some, they hightailed it back to town mere minutes after exiting ! The namekian wasn't finished, however :

“Besides, I think that your weapons will be effective against most of these jokers...” he added while looking at a funny looking... clown ? He had a red nose and chalk-white skin with curly red hair... even oversized shoes he kept tripping on. Sala couldn't figure out why a guy like this was here... He didn't look strong at all. She focused her targeting system on the man... and found that his energy sat a little over 300. Not powerful, but not weak, either... Still, he was far from being top 32 material. Be that as it may, he wasn't completely out, considering the average power here was around 400. It had somewhat decreased with every new arrival on this moon.

The inscriptions were taken care of by the college students, their future upperclassmen. A couple hours after they stood in line, it was finally their turn...

“Names and races...” The woman with three eyes asked laconically.

“Avo Cado, namekian.” he said. On his left, his friend told the woman :

“Sala Malik, human.”

The student wrote it down, nodding. Then, she explained, handing them a piece of paper at the same time :

“This is your Contestant number. If you pass the first round, you'll need to answer it when it's called.The first round of qualifiers will take place in the gymnasium. Please follow the others...”

The people having registered all headed in the same direction, so it was easy enough to locate the place. When they entered the building, they once more stood in line... Several machines were sitting in the middle of the room, with lines of people in front of them. On their side, an examiner explained the purpose of this qualifier to the participant, who then cast a spell at the machine.

“I think they're testing our destructive power... Look up !” Sala pointed at a series of screens hovering above the machines with symbols on them. She retrieved the universal translator and pointed it at one of the screen. After a short silence, she nodded : “As I thought : those are numbers. They're measuring our power output ! Wonder if there's an upper limit...”

With a wicked grin, Avo commented :

“Let's find out, shall we ?”

“211. 176. 140... Kinda low. Oh ! 298. Almost 300... Not bad !” As they advanced slowly, Sala reported the scores of their predecessors. In order to satisfy his curiosity and watch what kind of spells these people used, Avo added 20 centimeters to his height. The creaking of his bones even made a few other contestants look back with annoyance. Fireballs, mana bolts, ice spikes, rock bullets... They were numerous. Their powers, however, were lacking in his eyes. He could be wrong, but he didn't feel threatened by those things, at all ! And people were supposed to do their worst... or best, whatever !

Finally, Sala was up !

“Alright ! Aim your most powerful spell at the target !” The examiner laconically explained, gesturing toward the round metallic contraption at chest height. The woman took a low stance with her arm directed toward the target. Metallic clicking sounds resounded as the cannon on her arm extended ; from her shoulders, two bars came out and planted themselves in the ground a few meters behind her. Her MGP roared to life, electricity coursing from her chest to her weapon... This qualifier was important both to continue and establish herself among this rabble : there was no way she would do less than the best she could !

After a few seconds of charge, she fired, two deafening and almost instantaneous sounds shook the gymnasium. The first was the shot she fired. The second was the bullet charged with electricity, heated to the point of incandescence hitting the target. The flash her weapon produced imprinted itself on the retina of every onlookers, partially blinding them for a moment. The machine... stood its ground. Despite the obvious power, the rail-cannon had only dented the target a few centimeters in...

The examiner and the spectators, however, had saucer eyes and a gaping mouth... The examiner looked back at Sala, sweat on his forehead. This time, he really was paying attention to her and her get-up. He consulted the file on her... She wanted to join the engineering department... Figured ! If this thing was something she invented, the professors would probably want to meet her. Maybe even recruit her right off the bat ! He made a note of her results as well as a commentary on her performance (something he rarely did !), took a picture of the aftermath... Then, commented :

“355... Very impressive ! You've beaten the previous record by 2 points ! Please continue this way !” And he showed her to the waiting room. “Huh... Oh ! N-next please !” The man said after Sala left his field of view. As he looked back at Avo, he seemed a bit annoyed until he saw the color of his skin... He, too, had heard of the rumors of the green lunatic and his friend... He turned back to where Sala left, a finger raised. “This... Was she...” Were those really them ? His mind had a hard time processing...

“Looks like she made an impression.” Avo muttered with a troubled smile.

It took a few seconds for the examiner to collect his thoughts, after which he explained what Avo had to do. Contrary to earlier, however, his tone contained a bit of excited curiosity... Also, contrary to his friend, the namekian didn't really want to stand out too much... They already were enough rumors about him.

He fished out a metal ball which he bought a few days ago from his pocket. Truth was, he didn't really know (or care) what the true purpose of the thing was. He just wanted to use it as the blunt instrument it was in his eyes.

He dropped the ball carelessly and while everyone watching expected it to impact loudly on the ground, instead it hovered half a meter away from his open hand. The ball rose in the air in front of the target and started spinning. Gently at first, then picking up speed. Once it was fast enough for him, he imagined the ball being compressed in a tube... an explosion of force pushing the ball forward !

Although the projectile didn't reach the speed nor did it generate as much heat as Sala's did, the sound of metal against metal still echoed loudly in the hall... Way more loudly than anybody here could do. The worst part of it was... How casually the namekian unleashed such a force. Sure, the mental aspect of magic was well known and studied... However, most magicians couldn't use it like that ! The most they could do was... maybe make a pen fly, or something small. Or they were sensitive to people's emotions... On the other hand, it almost seemed a natural action for this contestant, as if telekinesis was like walking or talking for others... It also seemed he could easily use it in a fight !

The examiner made another note and recorded his score :

Not as powerful as Examinee Malik's machine, but impressive use of telekinesis (fast and powerful). A simple ball of metal launched at high-speed generated a 334 score. There also exists rumors that ever since he arrived, he exited the town alone in the morning to come back in the afternoon. Stories differ on his magic, but they agree on this point. KaEoH !

The mention of keeping an eye on him at the end was probably unnecessary... Still, if the professors didn't notice his talent, at least, it wouldn't be his fault...

Avo smiled at the examiner and bade his goodbye, joining Sala in the waiting room. As for the room in question, it was more of a hall than anything else given the number of participants. It seemed a lot of people had passed this stage of the tournament...

“So... How much ?” Sala asked, appearing almost instantly by his side (it was a bit spooky to be honest...)

“Huh ? Oh ! You mean my score ?” He shrugged, uncaring and answered : “334. Didn't want to strain the thing too much after your little light show !” He added with a smile.

The duo chatted and joked for a while, waiting for the second part of the qualifiers to begin. Finally, as the noise of conversation was starting to get really loud (almost unbearable for the namekian's ears), a student came to announce how the next part would unfold...