Suddenly, a chain shot out from his hand towards Kazuki. He tried to dodge, but he was caught off guard and the chain still grazed his cheek, leaving a small cut.

Kazuki rubbed his hand against his face. “The hell-, are you trying to kill me!” If that cut any deeper, I may have died! My strength may of boosted, but my heath and defense are still the same.

Instead of responding, the boy flicked his wrist so that the chain curved back to wrap around Kazuki's body.

“Seriously, what’s your problem?!” Kazuki’s arms were chained behind his back as he looked at Ichiro with anger. Once again he didn’t respond and his other hand started to glow.

“You won’t be messing with us again,” he said. But Kazuki was strong enough now to easily break out of the chains. He dodged the chain coming out of Ichiro’s hand and punched him in the gut.

“You piece of trash!” He grunted in surprise, falling on the ground with his hands on his stomach. Kazuki leaped over his body and continued running through the forest. A couple of minutes later, he heard a loud crack, as one of the trees in front of him fell in his path.

“What the-“ A large, muscular teenager picked up the fallen tree and swung at Kazuki. But Kazuki was able to dodge under and the momentum from the swing made the other boy lose his footing. Kazuki continued to make his way through the forest when suddenly a bunch of trees blocked his path. He turned around and saw a monster. It’s stoney face was covered in cracks.

It lunged at Kazuki with a shriek. It attempted to slash him in the chest, but was too slow.

Kazuki dodged and punched the monster in the side causing it to conbust. Copper coins fell to the ground. So this is what they meant by monsters dropping coins. I’ve never actually been monster hunting before.

Suddenly, two monsters that looked like stone ones appeared behind Kazuki. Except for one difference, there were no cracks and metallic streaks ran through their bodies. One of them charged towards Kazuki, except it was zig-zagging side to side instead of charging head on like the stone monster.

Kazuki jumped above the monster and struck it with his heel, crushing it just like the stone one. He quickly moved to both of the other monsters and swiftly took them out. All of them burst and spat out silver coins. Kazuki counted thirty-five in total. This really is a great way to earn money! But I can’t keep collecting coins, or I may not finish in time. Kazuki ran out of the forest and entered a grassy clearing. All around him he saw pandemonium, monsters fighting students, students fighting students, and even some monsters fighting monsters. Even though he had only stood there for a second, he was immediately attacked by a group of kids using earth magic. One of them had made his feet sink into the earth, while the two others attacked him with rocks and branches from the forest. Kazuki quickly broke out of the earthy quicksand and punched one of the kids in the ribs, and banged the other two kids’ heads together.

“I can’t be here long,” he muttered to himself, as a stray fireball went hissing over his shoulder. As the fireball flew into the middle of the area, it exploded causing everyone in the field to take cover. As most of the students were distracted, Haru grabbed Kazuki and starting running for the finish line. Kazuki grinned. “Perfect timing. And thanks for putting a spell on the kunai back there, really saved me.”

“I hid until you threw it so there was a smokescreen,” said Haru as they booked it for the finish line. Suddenly, a hand burst out of the earth and grabbed Kazuki's leg.

Kazuki jolted back in shock, “What the-“ The hand yanked on Kazuki's leg, pulling him partly into the earth. The hand disappeared into the earth.

“Kazuki, are you all right?!” Haru tried pulling Kazuki's leg out but it was stuck in the ground.

Kazuki tried to pull his leg even harder. What’s going on! I can’t get my leg out of this dirt even though it sunk in so easily!?

The dirt opened and a small, skinny kid climbed out. “Nice! Looks like I got another one,” he turned to Kazuki and grinned. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a race to finis- WHAA!!”

While the kid had been talking, Kazuki had used his strength to pull out his leg. He burst toward the shocked examinee and punched him in the nose, sending him flying backwards. But even as he fell, he was still able to open the ground underneath him, and he disappeared into the dirt. “Haru watch the ground!” Kazuki told her while scanning the earth for any signs of the kid.

“Okay.” Haru began to look at the dirt as well. Suddenly, right in front of Kazuki, the earth opened up again. Kazuki expected the kid to jump out, but nothing happened. Then he heard the ground open behind him and realized what was happening.

“A decoy?!” He tried to turn around, but wasn’t fast enough and ended up getting punched in the jaw. Crap, looks like my defense is still the same, I’ve taken a lot of damage during this exam. It’s fine though, I think I’ve figured this guy out. Kazuki stumbled backward as the boy burrowed back underground. “It’s over!” Instead of waiting, Kazuki smashed the ground with his fists right when it solidified, causing the other boy to be shot from his hole. Kazuki punched him in the ribs, shooting him into a tree and knocking him out. “Haru, come on, we’re almost at the finish line!”

However, a black orb was sent flying over Kazuki’s head, just barely missing. There was an explosion where the orb landed, taking out several trees.

It was the girl from earlier. “How dare you hurt my friend like that!” Shiraiyuki cried. “『Heaven Hell Bomb』”

A sphere of energy with light and dark elements to it spun out from her hand and shot at Kazuki. He quickly ducked and ran to the girl. “You guys attacked us first!” he yelled as he threw a kick at the girl.

She put her right hand up and blocked Kazuki’s attack, “『Light Wall』” She then raised her left arm to attack. “『Dark Surge』”

A beam of darkness shot out from her hand, but Kazuki kicked off of the light wall and dodged the blast. This is bad. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up, and I’m not prone to fighting women. Especially a noble like her. He turned around and ran to the finish line. “Haru! Come on!”

“I’m coming!” Haru said as she stood up from the ground.

“Hey! Get back here!” Shiraiyuki yelled.

As the two passed the finish line, with Kazuki beating Haru by a couple of seconds, they noticed that they were the 4th and 5th to finish in the race. Kazuki looked at the three who got there before him and Haru. There were two guys and a girl, one of the guys had leather pants with a leather jacket to compliment it. He also high tops, and a black t-shirt underneath the jacket. There was an acoustic guitar slung around his back and he had black slicked-back hair with brown eyes. The other guy was wearing circular glasses and cargo shorts with a button-down shirt. His brown hair looked like he just woke up and he had brown eyes to go with it. The final person was a girl wearing a black and white dress. Her hair was also black with random white strands flowing through it.

“There’s something different about that one girl but I can’t put my finger on it,” said Kazuki to Haru.

“Well I’m sure it’s nothing important,” she replied.

Shiraiyuki ran across the finish line, out of breath and panting. “Hey! Why did you run off like that?”

Kazuki shrugged and looked at Haru, “Well anyway, we should get back to the hotel.”

“Don’t just ignore me!” she cried.

Kazuki and Haru made their way back, with Shiraiyuki trying to get them talk to her. Meanwhile, a discussion was taking place between the top two finishers in the entrance exam.

“Hey lady, you clearly cheated back there ya know,” The boy in leather leered at the girl.

“I did not. I finished the race fair just like you,” she argued.

“I still should have gotten first!” He said passionately, stamping his foot on the ground. “From now on, I'll show you who’s the real strongest student in this school!” He marched off, and the girl quickly followed.

The boy with messy hair was on his computer, typing down the events of the exam. “Wow, I didn’t think I’d be able to see so many interesting abilities, this will be great for my research!” With that, the first day of the entrance exams drew to a close.