Maya couldn’t believe it.

She finally managed to do it, after all these years. Since they were kids, Maya had always had a crush on Lina, and now she finally had the balls to put it into words. Maya didn’t even know where she got the confidence from, since she felt so worried and anxious about asking before Lina’s evaluation.

But.

She had something important in front of her right now. Maya’s own evaluation was exceptionally important, and it was something that she’d been building up the confidence to tackle for the last few days.

Maya tempered herself. Her mother wouldn’t let her live it down if she didn’t come out on top. Maya wanted more than just being better than her friends.

She wanted to make her mother proud. To make her mother feel like teaching her was the right decision.

Phew. Why’s there always so much shit going on. I’ll just do my best and hopefully I’ll do well. No point in stressing.

She slapped her cheeks twice and began walking from the bottom of the stairs to the examiner.

The examiner looked up at her from the table. She looked at the clipboard, then at Maya.

“Are you Maya? I have no family name here...”

“Yeah... I have no family name. Just Maya.” Mum had to throw away our family name after... well that’s old news. It’s fine. Loads of people don’t have family names, so it’s fine.

“Alright. Do you want to do your evaluation out here or in the pocket dimension?”

“In the pocket dimension.”

“Okay, follow me and the analysts please.”

The examiner and the analysts went into the portal, and Maya followed them.

She looked around at the barren room. The only thing she noticed was the training dummy, orb, and size of the room. Given how much space there was... she could go as wild as she wanted.

The examiner dragged her out of her stupor.

“You can start by pouring all of your mana into the orb over there.” She pointed at the translucent orb in the middle of the room, “It’ll be a lot like your entrance exam. Your mana will enter the orb, get analysed, then return to you entirely.”

Maya laughed at the examiner’s words.

“Did I say something funny?” She was genuinely curious.

“... No no... It’s just that I never did the entrance exam.”

“Huh? Wait... WHAT?! Is that even possible? Attending Aether Academy without going through its rigorous entrance exam... I didn’t even...”

“What? It’s not that big of a deal. I’m just that talented, duh.”

The examiner stared at Maya, deadpan.

Maya stifled a laugh.

“Okay, well... that doesn’t matter for the purpose of this evaluation, so don’t worry about it.”

“Wasn’t worrying anyway.”

“Right... you can start whenever you’re ready.”

Maya went over to the orb and placed her hand against its smooth glass. She poured the miniscule amount of mana she had into it. Maya never had all that much mana. Just enough to cast a few spells here or there, but never enough to put on a display like Rai or the Princess could. Her mana returned to her in its entirety once it was analysed.

Maya went back to the examiner and waited for her to say what to do next.

“So... we can test all of your techniques or whichever ones you want evaluated. Which would you like?”

“No idea. I’ll just throw them all out there and get on with it.”

“... I see... that’s okay. Well, I’ll ask some questions before we start. First, do your techniques have any names? It’s fine if they don’t.”

“Yeah, they do. But I don’t want them recorded here so just assume that they don’t.”

“Understandable. Do you have any enhancement techniques?”

“Nope.”

“Okay. Judging by your mana reserves, I assume the techniques you’re going to have evaluated are physical ones?”

Maya nodded.

“In that case... the dummy is all you’ll need to focus on. It has tools that will record things like your footwork, power, and efficiency in movement. Physical techniques are also rated slightly differently to magical ones, since they don’t rely on any kind of power source other than your own body. You also don’t have to worry about the dummy breaking, since it’s made of a really strong material.”

“Interesting... Will different types of attacks count as techniques? So if I use a specific type of kick, then is that classed as its own technique?”

“Well, you can class footwork as a technique, or a weapon style as a technique. If you use specific types of attacks that all deal lots of damage, or affect the target in different ways, then those would all count as their own techniques yes.”

Maya thought about it for a moment. Well... shadow strike will count as its own technique... my kicks will count as their own as well. Hopefully it’ll be enough.

“Alright. I’m ready to start. Should I just run through them all without stopping?”

“Yep! That’ll do great.”

“Phew. Okay. Let’s do it.”

Maya went over to the training dummy.

She started by sizing it up. Seems like it was modelled after a human male, middle-aged... alright.

Zone in.

The dummy reeled as a fist shaped crater formed in its torso area.

The examiner and analysts missed it. They didn’t even see Maya move her hand.

Maya’s shadow strike. She named it such because it was so fast that people couldn’t see it if they weren’t looking for it.

The data went through, and the examiner read through it thoroughly.

Maya moved on to her next technique.

A series of kicks that struck the dummy’s leg, torso, and head, consecutively with one leg. Each hit was aimed at a pressure point. Maya’s mother practically forced her to learn anatomy to the point that Maya knew where most of the important pressure points were. She even knew the weak points for the majority of wildlife that were common or even uncommon throughout Zenith. But, in the end, Maya’s techniques were designed to combat humans far more than animals or beasts. She adapted the kick techniques her mother taught her to be even deadlier by striking the pressure points that she’d learned of.

Maya felt like her kicks were her signature strength, even though the shadow strike was technically faster. Her kicks were just so powerful that they could instantly neutralise most fighters.

She’d executed the shadow kicks so fast that the examiner almost missed it.

The data came through once again, and the examiner and analysts went over it. They knew that physical technique users were rare... but every single time they ever saw one, they were always fighters of the highest calibre.

Maya was no different.

She used her next technique. It was just as fast as the shadow strike, so the examiner and analysts just about missed it. They managed to catch Maya’s hand returning to her after the strike though.

They checked the data.

Death.

The data for the dummy showed death as the only outcome for such a technique. There was no visible change in its appearance as the examiner and analysts looked up at it. The examiner couldn’t believe that a student knew such a... disturbing technique. But the data didn’t lie about its potency.

Maya had just used a snake’s bite. She would’ve instantly crushed the target’s windpipe with a shadow strike, and the dummy recorded that.

Her mother called it an instant kill technique that she should only ever use if her life was in actual danger since it was so lethal. Maya knew it to be a technique derived from the martial arts her mother learned in the army. A lot of her mother’s techniques were like that, even though Maya hadn’t fully learned them just yet. She still hadn’t learned her mother’s Dance yet either.

Mum always talks about how her General taught their whole regiment how to make their own Dances and how cool they all are, but she still won’t teach me. Ughh!

She moved on. Maya had one more technique that she wanted to show here.

She dashed backwards. After a moment, she flew towards the dummy.

Time for the Guillotine. Let’s blow them away!

Maya soared through the air with unnatural momentum. She twirled mid-air in a beautiful motion. Her foot collided with the dummy’s head from its side.

The impact was so powerful that its reverberations made it all the way to the examiner and analysts.

The dummy’s head was kicked clean off.

Maya spun in the air as she flew past the dummy, and skidded as she landed on her feet and hands.

The dummy’s head rolled to the examiner and analysts as the data came in.

They were blown away.

Maya made her way back over to them after dusting off her hands.

“Well? How’d I do?”

The examiner stood up from her seat and quickly walked around the table.

“Right, so normally I’d leave it to surprise but since you’re a physical technique user I’ll just tell you here first.”

“Okay, the suspense is killing me so just give me the bad news so I can go cry and be done with it.”

“No no no! You did incredible! All of your techniques came out as legendary! The system counted four of them. Does that sound right to you?”

Maya brightened up quickly.

“Yep! That sounds exactly right! Okay... um... I’m thanking you all here so I can go and run to my friends!”

“Haha, of course. You should do what makes you happy. Thank you for your display!”

Maya thanked them all and sprinted out of the portal.

She found the nearest staircase and ran over to her friends.

“Guys! Look at the ranking board!”

They all looked at her with surprise, since none of them expected her to be there so fast.

Amy was the first to see it.

“... Tied first place... with Lina! HOLY SHIT!”

They exploded with joy and cheers.

Maya jumped around with them and cheered for her success.

Lina was just as happy.

Then, a voice that boomed throughout the auditorium got all of their attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen. This technique evaluation has been incredible, and we’re glad that all of you have gone onto the testing ground and had your techniques evaluated. Now, we have a special announcement to make.”

They paused for effect.

“The final three evaluations to take place will be the evaluations of the Headmaster’s personal mentees!”

The students in the crowd went so wild that the floor began to shake. They were incredibly excited to see the final evaluations.

The students also knew that there were only three people in attendance who hasn’t gone for their evaluations yet, and those three had to be the headmaster’s mentees.

Feris, Rai, and Sin.

Their evaluations were about to begin.