Ben ran, his feet carrying him into the hall in a burst of motion. Suddenly, all eyes were on him. The class stood in orderly rows, waiting silently for the academy's director to speak. Ben froze for a moment, unsure where to go.
A powerful voice rang out from the front, cutting through the tension. "All students, be seated."
It was Korin, but not the Korin he knew. This version was firm, his voice layered with an authority that commanded respect and, from the looks on many students' faces, a little fear. A second order followed immediately. "We shall begin."
Ben felt chills. He quickly slipped into an empty spot at the back of his class's section just as a proctor stepped forward.
"Trial One: Essence Capacity and Projection," the proctor announced. "You will be called individually. You have one minute to draw ambient essence into your core, filling it to its absolute limit. You will then channel every drop of that power into your single most powerful strike against the designated target. Your score will be a measure of raw power output and essence efficiency. First up, Zane Carver of A1."
The process was agonizingly slow. One by one, students were called forward. Ben watched, his leg bouncing with nervous energy. He could feel the steady, reliable thrum of Adin's "patch" inside him, but with each passing minute, a tiny fraction of its effect seemed to fade, like a painkiller starting to wear off. A dull throb was beginning to whisper at the base of his skull.
Zane delivered a blast of flame that made the entire hall vibrate, the tattoo of dancing flames on his left arm glowing brightly. He scored a near-perfect rating.
"Current class: A1," the proctor announced, visibly nodding at Director Korin with astonishment. "Please proceed to the second test."
Zane left the hall with his head high and his chest puffed up, making his way toward the exit for the next trial.
Jax was called a dozen students later, producing a whip of crackling lightning that earned him proud, smug looks from the proctors.
Ben's anxiety grew with every name called. The line was shrinking, and the strange, heavy feeling in his gut was returning. Come on, come on, he thought, gritting his teeth. Just hold a little longer.
"Ben Frost Hero. A1. You're up."
He was the last student from A1, so Ben knew it was addressed to him, though it took him a few seconds to lose the shock. Frost is my surname, but did he just call me a hero in front of all these people? But time was ticking, and he didn't have the luxury of dwelling on the director's unexpected choice of words.
"Okay, I got this."
He stepped forward, his movements firm and steady. He closed his eyes, pulling on all the essence in his body. He knew somebody had poisoned him to make him fail. He would prove them wrong.
Energy trickled in, and Ben felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead as he pushed against the resurgent blockage of the poison. When the proctor called time, his core felt raw and angry; he needed that fury.
With a wave of his hands, the air around began to feel heavy. For a second, many couldn't breathe as Ben extracted water from the atmosphere, droplets forming mid-air. The air pressure released as the droplets pulled together into one massive sphere, a six-pack's worth of liquid hovering menacingly.
Then, with a swipe of his hand, Ben sent the water flying. It solidifieded ice mid-air into the shape of a giant, open palm and slammed into the target. He wasn't trying to hurt anyone; he just wanted to show what he could do before he collapsed. But as he looked around, he realized he might have angered the one who poisoned him.
'Good. That means he'll try again. I can't wait to catch you.' A frightening smile appeared on Ben's face at the thought.
On the other side of the hall, many were silent. Possessing that much power, precision, and control was rare for his age. Very few knew he had awakened his powers only a few short months ago.
He looked around and locked eyes with Jax, who was staring back, visibly angry. A lot of them seemed angry, as if he had insulted their own efforts. It was a creep show, but he didn't care. Now I know someone was behind that stunt, Ben thought, memorizing the crowd's faces. 'Let's hope he's impatient enough to come for me. I don't feel like chasing'.
As Ben started to make his way to the second test, he didn't know there was one more person watching him.
Adin stood at the back with the other D-Class students, talking to himself again as people watched. "I see, he extracted the water from the air. but why did it feel so cold? Perhaps he froze the humidity in the air; natural gases are always present. So why didn't the humidity turn straight into ice? He must have control over all three states. The only thing found in all three is the H₂O molecule... so he commands a natural element. Those powers are rare. But maybe, just maybe, he can learn to manipulate the molecule itself. That would be scary."
Adin was smiling creepily like an evil spirit, his passion for learning unsatisfied. He had just found his first project.
Ben arrived at the second exam. The rules were posted with no one to announce them, just a black room, fluorescent lights, and stressed kids everywhere. A line formed leading to an 'Entry' sign. Ben had no time to stress or look for a reason not to go in.
Second Test - The Aegis Retrieval
"Goal: retrieve an object placed in front of an immovable, indestructible laser grid whose only target is the object."
Ben read the first line from the rules tablet on the wall. He'd never been a school kid, but what he just read didn't make sense. His ears, searching for clarity, picked up loud crowd noise from the sides of the entryway. "Okay, better to see than read," he muttered, moving to the right side of the large observation cage placed above the arena.
He could see a student standing in front of what looked like a wall of thick red lasers. In front of that wall, placed on the floor, was an egg, a ten-centimeter egg, not a steel one, or a plastic one, but a real massive egg.
The kid on trial held his hands forward, straining to lift something with all his might. Ben heard from the crowd's conversation that this student was a telekinetic;
he could make things fly with a simple thought.
It appeared he was also very weak, because he couldn't lift the egg. Apparently, he'd gotten into A1 class by a stroke of luck, but Ben knew better than to assume. He wanted to see what this kid could do. A timer glowed on all sides of the arena.
"0:25"
He has 25 seconds to make a decision, Ben thought, reading the guy's movements, cheering him on internally. He related to that feeling, proving your strength and still receiving doubts.
A few moments later, the telekinetic student stopped. He looked at the arena, at the laser. He noticed something.
Ben noticed the exact same thing. The lasers are placed horizontally across the room, but they have a dead zone above ground a few centimeters of a hole in the wall, enough space for the egg to reside. The problem is getting it there safely.
In the next few moments, Ben saw the telekinetic kid raising his hands again. The tile with the egg on it lifted to form a slide, guiding the egg away from the scary laser. The egg moved in a rotated path forward to its safe haven.
The laser activated as the time limit hit zero, dashing through the space where the egg had been. The egg was safe and sound.
The telekinetic student walked over to the egg, full of confidence from his success, blinding him to the hard truth. He slowed down, ducked, and gently picked up the egg.
It was cracked! The shell was broken all over his hand. The result announced by the proctor of the second test pulled him from his shock.
"Roy Space, class B1, final decision."
The student was crying on the inside, and it was visible on the outside. Ben knew he had to do better. Now that he'd seen the show, he understood the act, what needed to be done and what rules not to cross. But even if he got in line, he would still have to wait, so he decided to watch a few more attempts to find a real way to beat the test. He also didn't have time to burn; he sometimes pushed through the line to get a little closer because scared students were stepping back.
Ben watched a girl with big, oversized clothes and a red snow hat. She began to manifest threads and needles in the space around the caged egg, her hands embroidering a similar form. As she dropped her hands, a perfect replica of the egg in shape and size was formed. The female student placed the fake egg in front of the real one and waited.
The proctor turned to the girl and asked, "Would you like to skip the timer?"
The girl looked at the proctor with a sweet smile and answered, "Yes, please."
The timer suddenly stopped and the lasers began their path. But something extraordinary happened, the laser stopped right after it sliced through the fake thread-egg, and the beams disappeared. The girl left her marked location and headed towards the remaining egg. As soon as she picked it up, the proctor's voice shouted through the room.
"Zoe Jones, class A1, final decision."
Zoe played it cool, not showing much excitement as she walked elegantly towards the exit. But deep down, she was freaking out. She had been placed in B1 after the entrance exams, and now she had been moved up a rank. She was even more shocked that her little stunt had worked. On the other side of the arena, someone else was watching with admiration.
''Okay, so I can try to copy the egg with ice manipulation,'' Ben thought, ''but will it work on a cold target? If the laser targets body heat, my replica would fail. But threads don't have body heat, and it worked for her.'' Ben was now talking to himself, a side effect of the poison sapping his energy and loosening his grip on his own mind.
Next came Jax, with a grin that could scare the devil himself.
He strutted into the arena, looking around the room like a gladiator bathing in the crowd's attention. The moment the timer started, Jax thrust his hand toward the upper lane of the laser grid. A lightning strike erupted, shocking the system and blinding the crowd. As the smoke cleared, all eyes fell on the egg.
"I hope the egg is okay, man," one student muttered, leaning over to his teammate.
"Yeah, me too. kinda makes me hungry though."
Ben could hear all types of conversations in that short time, but he was also taking mental notes.
"Yo, did you see that? He hit the fuse box! Lit the whole thing up in smoke!" a stoner student blabbered in the back.
"Yo. You think if I hit the box, I can fuse the lasers too?"
"I don't see a reason why not," his friend replied.
"Alright, I got dibs. Write that down, don't let nobody use it. Hold the line for me while I go pee."
Ben didn't know if this guy was his friend or a future bully, but he'd extracted valuable intel. He had planed a show in the cage. Now, it was his turn to shine.
He had three different ways to beat the test in his head; he preferred not to repeat a method, believing originality would be a factor in his score.
''Three paths. I can use water to gently move the egg. That's my safest bet. I can make an ice copy, but that's already been done. Or I can hit the fuse box, after Jax short-circuited the whole building and pissed off the proctors, that's a one-way ticket to a low grade. But if i out-do then it might be cool. Right? Besides I have something I really want to try.''
Ben entered the arena with the eyes of the crowd heavy upon him. He was out of time, his body breaking down. His face was flushed, his palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. But he was ready!
The crowd was going nuts. After his display in the first test, some were starting to change their first impression of him as a weak, privileged essence user.
"Ooh, this is the icy boy! you a cuty, baby<3"
"Let's see what you can do, hooo."
"I heard he got a face rubed by some weirdo in the bathroom today."
Ben flinched at that last one, but he pushed it aside. He had one goal. He took a step forward. The clock started. Ben proceeded by conjuring a cube of water in his hand, which he sent gliding across the room through the lasers. It began to wrap around the egg, feeling the height, the length, the whole size of the egg, he created an ice replica of the egg, which he placed just a few centimeters from the real one. Then he looked at the timer.
The proctor looked at Ben. "Would you like to skip the timer?"
Ben looked over. He knew he had already completed the test, but he didnt want it to end there. "Nah. We only just started cooking."
The proctor returned a look of pure confusion; he was too old for that kind of slang.
Ben looked straight at the egg and formed a watery, snail-like creature that functioned as a pair of gentle arms. The short-looking snail wrapped around the egg and carefully moved it over to the safe space, untouched by the laser.
"Just in case. I don't want the egg to crack," Ben said calmly. He even placed a small box of ice around the egg for extra protection. ''Now, it's time to experiment.'' A wide grin spread across his face. He didn't know what he wanted to prove, only that he wanted to be better than Jax. First, he would humiliate him. Then, he would destroy him.
Ben formed a sphere of water instantly. He was starting to lose the fight against the pain, which was why he decided to form all the water he would need at once, to avoid straining his injured body and core. Shaping water was cheap; changing its state and creating it from nothing was what cost him a great deal of essence.
''Now I need a chainsaw.''
Ben gave the water sphere a single, focused look, and half of it morphed, crystallising into a roaring, serrated chainsaw made of solid ice. The frozen blade screamed to life and bit into the laser metal holders on the ceiling. The entire arena erupted in shock as the metal framework on one side crashed down. Ben moved the remaining water to the other side, forming an identical chainsaw that delivered the same destructive verdict.
Suddenly, Ben's vision blurred. One moment, he saw the wrecked laser machine, the next everything was a foggy, indistinct smear. His hearing became muffled and distant. He found himself on his knees, coughing up blood onto the floor. Looking at the crimson stain on his hand, he knew he had to act quickly. Just retrieve the egg while he could still move.
Ben got up and ran forward, completely blind, as the entire laser's tracks crashed and broke apart around him. He reached the egg by sheer, desperate momentum. It worked, but he could barely move.
He reached a trembling hand out and shattered the protective ice box around the egg. Ben was getting used to the pain now; his mind was going into shock, which somehow made it easier. He had a tiny bit of essence juice left, but only for one small, precise manipulation. He collapsed on the floor in front of the egg. The timer was still running; the test only stopped when time expired or the student requested the lasers to fire early. Ben had pushed his luck when he had a winning game, but he'd wanted to make a statement.
Now he was lying paralyzed in front of the egg.
He just needed to reach it. The egg sat in the laser's dead zone, a specially designed hole. Ben couldn't move his body. He didn't have the essence to pull water from the air. The only liquid splashed across the arena was blood. His hands, his clothes, the wall, the floor, everything was painted red.
Then, out of pure, desperate instinct, it happened.
Ben looked at the blood on his hand, and splashed it all over the egg, while his mind going blank, His hand reached for the egg without touching it. With the last shred of his will, Ben pulled the egg to his chest as it flew directly to him.
The lights snapped on. The proctor stared at Ben's broken form with a cocktail of pity and pure, undiluted annoyance.
"Ben Frost Hero. Class A1, final decision!" the proctor barked to the crowd. Then, turning to the medics, his voice dropped to a grumble. "Now get his sorry ass to the clinic."
He pinched the bridge of his nose, surveying the wrecked arena. "Piece of shit kids, breaking all my goddamn lasers," he muttered. You could see he was not having it. Too many students had tried to power their way through a test designed for finesse. To his surprise, some had even succeeded, but every broken laser meant repairs, every repair meant a delay, and every delay was a wrench in the meticulously planned schedule. His patience had already run out.
Ben's eyes fluttered open to the sterile white of a hospital room. A doctor was checking his chart and looked up when he noticed Ben was awake.
"Welcome back," the doctor said. "You gave us quite a scare. How are you feeling?"
"Like I got hit by a truck," Ben croaked, his throat dry. "What was wrong with me?" he asked, already knowing the probable cause.
The doctor's expression turned serious. "You were poisoned. The toxin was synthetic, completely man-made. Not something that occurs in nature. Your body was fighting a manufactured compound designed specifically to disrupt the flow of essence. This is advanced, dangerous stuff. Do you have any idea who did this?"
Ben's jaw tightened. He knew it was deliberate. He had his suspicions, but proof was another matter entirely.
After being cleared by medical, Ben made his way to the final trial arena. He found nineteen other students already standing in a tense cluster, waiting. They were all that remained of Class A1, along with a few new additions who had climbed the ranks.
Before he could process the scene further, Director Korin's voice cut through the murmurs. "Finalists. Gather round."
Ben joined the circle of students surrounding the massive, circular arena. Korin stood in the centre, his gaze sweeping across them like a hawk.
"The third trial is simple in design, but profound in consequence," Korin announced, his voice echoing in the space. "It is A battle of endurance, and strength. All twenty of you will enter the arena together. Your rank within this class will be determined by a single factor: how long you remain standing."
He let the silence hang for a moment, ensuring every student felt its weight.
"The last one standing wins the right to be number one. apart from many academy resources as you all might know, the student who holds the top rank at the year's end will earn the title 'Hero of the Essence Academy.' This is not just a rank; it is the first, most direct step on the path toward true greatness. It is a legacy."
Ben could have sworn Korin was looking directly at him.
Korin's eyes hardened. "You may use whatever means your training and essence have granted you. But remember this above all: you are training to be guardians, to be heroes. You are not barbarians. Conduct yourselves with that truth in mind."
"The match ends when only one combatant remains conscious or willing to fight. Do your best. You may begin!"
Around Ben, the other nineteen students shifted into ready stances, their expressions a mix of naked nerves and grim determination. The final test had arrived.