The group walked into the vast expanse of what seemed like a training room.
Unlike any training room either one of them had ever been to, this one looked far more costly, larger, and definitely more state-of-the-art.
There were a number of platforms scattered around, and on each one sat something different.
Some held humanoid robots, standing eerily still, their metal frames catching the overhead light.
Others held machines that looked like massive blaster cannons mounted to the ground, their barrels dark and waiting.
And then, on a few others, sat ancient rocks etched with strange inscriptions.
The markings couldn’t be read from how far Thors stood, but he could tell the two large boulders were different from one another, despite looking almost identical from a distance.
"What is this place?..." one of the students spoke.
Kaely turned to reply as they reached the middle of the training hall. "This is a meager training facility where your abilities will be tested, your speed, your durability, your quick thinking, and your powers."
"On each platform there is an obstacle that will challenge you. The goal is not to finish the trial, though if you do, that would guarantee you a rather excellent score. The real goal is to last as long as you can, based on strategy and raw talent."
Kaely paused for a moment, watching as the cadets absorbed every piece of information she had dropped on them.
’So the goal is lasting as long as possible... against what, exactly?’ Thors wondered, placing a hand beneath his chin as he fell into deep thought.
"This is going to be a piece of cake," a cadet said, throwing an arm over Thors’ shoulder and pulling him close to say the words.
Thors blinked a few times, stunned by the sudden familiarity of the gesture, yet he only stared and said nothing.
"I am Seoul, and you are?"
"—Thors."
"That’s a strong name there," Seoul said, patting Thors on the head, taking full advantage of his height difference.
This annoyed Thors a little. He wasn’t that short — average height, ish — but it was still annoying, getting patted on the head like a child.
He frowned, shoving Seoul’s hand off his shoulder.
Yet the handsome man only smiled, winking at him before walking forward. "Watch and cheer for me, Thors."
’What is that supposed to mean? Why would I cheer for this bastard?’ Thors thought.
A moment later, he was left stunned.
"Seoul Larynx, come up and take the test."
Thors’ eyes widened, but quickly reverted back to normal, a faint smile tugging at his lips. ’How did he know he’d be called first?’
The dashing young man mounted the grey platform directed to him by Kaely, calm and confident, as though bracing against whatever would be thrown at him, as if he already knew exactly what would happen.
And then...
It began.
A few of the humanoid robots on the platform, three of them launched forward at him like rabid animals, their hands swinging erratically, servos whining with the strain of the motion.
They dove at Seoul at full speed, the first two robots missing the dashing man by mere inches as he dodged them with ease.
Not with a jump. Not with some exaggerated, desperate lunge.
Just a simple tilt of his body, as though he could already predict where the attack was going before it was ever thrown.
The third humanoid robot lurched forward, its faceless head snapping towards Seoul, ready to land a devastating headbutt.
And that was when it happened.
The entire platform instantly erupted into a chaos of explosions and dust, the ground splintering beneath the soles of the handsome man’s shoes as he moved too fast for the human eye to perceive.
Thors had only blinked, and in that single instant, the entire battle had already been decided.
Two humanoid robots lay in rubble, their bodies torn apart in scattered metal chunks, while the third barely remained standing, half its body already ripped away. Its left shoulder down through its torso reduced to a mangled, sparking husk, hardly any parts left intact.
Thors and the others stared on, clearly amazed by Seoul’s movement. ’No doubt about it, that’s super speed.’
Seoul smiled, then lunged forward at the last robot, the wind exploding around his body as he struck clean across the face of the faceless machine. The force of his movement and his inhuman strength tore the head clean off the mechanism in one gruesome motion, sparks scattering across the platform like dying fireflies.
Afterward, a loud mechanical chime rang out through the room.
{You have successfully passed the first test}
Given how the examiners had made the tests sound difficult, watching Seoul cakewalk through the first left the other candidates boiling in their stances, eager for their own turn.
The next test began almost immediately.
Seoul stood now on the platform with the large, blaster-like cannons.
The rule for the second test was simple: last long enough while evading the blasts from the cannons, or destroy the mechanism outright.
For someone like Seoul, with his super speed, the test was over the moment it began.
The monstrous speedster dashed towards the machine the instant it opened fire, evading the first beam of searing red light as it screamed toward him at a speed nearly matching his own.
He barely evaded the first. Then the second.
And then he reached the cannon before it could fire a third, bashing it to pieces in a single, brutal strike.
Again, another test ended in the blink of an eye.
At this rate, the trials were looking to become nothing more than a breeze in the face of the dashing young man.
But then he reached the third platform...
And what happened there left Seoul, and the entire group, in stunned awe.
The dashing young speedster lost immediately, the moment the test began, thrown clean off the platform in a single second and sent crashing down onto the ground below.
And what had taken him out, was, strangely...
Thors furrowed his brow in disbelief. "A rock."