The students sat quietly in an arena reminiscent of the Colosseum. In the king’s box sat William and Felix - though instead of wine, only bottles of water stood before them, and they were dressed plainly, in black.

“The two-on-two fights are hereby declared open,” William said. “Don’t worry. This test and the other three won’t directly affect your placement. We won’t be counting how many times you come out on top during these tests. We’re interested in something else entirely.”

“And what that something else is, is a completely different question,” Felix continued. “So put everything unnecessary out of your heads and just be yourselves.”

The first team was already ready for battle. A transparent placard appeared in the air with the names of the members of the first group.

Team 1a: Zen & Lauren
Team 1b: Alex & Kano

Zen and Lauren came out from the left side of the arena. Alex and Kano were on the right.

“Duel number one has begun. You have three minutes. Good luck, guys!” Felix shouted, and sat back down in his place.

Zen raised his hand, and a pillar of fire rose and shot from where he stood toward where Alex and Kano were standing. It passed right between them. They reacted on instinct and jumped back. Another pillar of fire formed across the middle of the first line, so that the arena seemed to be divided into four parts. Above it, a huge burning cross could be seen.

“Wow, that’s strong,” David said.

“I see, he’s a man of art,” Ksyu remarked.

“He just likes to show off,” David replied.

“He’s powerful,” Aram thought.

“Not bad, but I don’t think it’ll be enough. Let’s wait and see what the second one does,” Reia said.

“That’s Lauren, so you can consider Alex and Kano already finished. They don’t stand a chance. Neither of them,” said Ksyu.

“Does he have some special superpower?” Reia asked.

“You’ll understand everything in a moment.”

Suddenly, bandages appeared on Kano’s and Alex’s bodies. They wrapped around both boys, leaving only their nostrils and eyes uncovered. Meanwhile, Alex closed his eyes, and an umbrella appeared in front of him. He took it in his left hand and began to wave it. Water poured from the umbrella.

“He’s putting out the fire. It’s lucky he has an active ability like water,” David said.

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter,” Ksyu replied.

“Ugh, boring,” Reia said.

Suddenly there was an explosion behind Kano and Alex. The next explosion struck right in front of them. But they paid it no attention.

“Fearless boys, though,” said Aram.

“Yes, yes,” Ksyu said.

Alex closed his eyes, and the umbrella turned into a bow and arrow. He drew the bow, and the arrow flew across the entire arena and plunged into Zen’s body.

“Oh my… He’ll kill him!” Aram shouted.

Everyone started eagerly discussing the fight. The audience was thrilled.

Two seconds later, the arrow passed clean through Zen’s body.

“What?” David was startled.

“What kind of superpower is that? Can he pass objects through himself? Or is there some other mystery behind it?” Reia asked.

Alex hadn’t meant to kill Zen by accident. He had started running toward him, until he noticed that the arrow had passed straight through him.

“What kind of game is this?” Alex was a little shocked.

“Shoot a few arrows at him and his friend. If his ability lets him dematerialize but he isn’t too strong, then the two of them won’t be able to dodge all your arrows at once,” Kano advised.

“Yes, right.”

Alex fired two arrows at Zen and Lauren. But again they passed straight through their bodies.

“Damn it!” Alex shouted, and thrust his hand forward.

Water began to gather in his palm and took the shape of a small ball that flew toward Zen and Lauren. But the water, like the arrows, passed straight through the boys.

“What the hell!”

“We’ll have to get closer.”

Alex and Kano started running straight at their opponents.

“Where are they going in such a hurry?” David didn’t understand what was happening.

“To their defeat, ahahaha,” Ksyu laughed.

“Why doesn’t he throw fire again?” Kano couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Why are they standing so calmly? Why aren’t they moving, Kano?”

“I have no ide…”

Before Kano could finish, they both fell into a huge pit.

“What the hell is this pit? Where did it come from?” Alex began to shout.

“We’ve lost,” said Kano, pointing up.

Zen stood above them, fire blazing in his hand.

“Stop! Time’s up!” said Felix. “Our first winners are Zen and Lauren. Congratulations.”

“Damn, damn, damn!” Alex shouted.

“We lost.”

“How could they not notice this huge pit?” David wondered.

“It’s all very simple. Lauren has that kind of superpower,” Ksyu replied.

“Something like hallucinations, right?” Reia said.

“Yeah,” Ksyu continued. “Most people use such superpowers to create scary, frightening hallucinations. But Lauren is cunning. He did the opposite - he created an explosion and covered it up with a hallucination. So the boys simply didn’t know this pit existed. But the explosion was too big a thing to hide from our eyes.”

“And they themselves were standing in a completely different spot, projecting a hallucination of themselves and waiting for the moment their rivals decided to attack.”

“Cool superpower,” Aram said. “If everyone here has powers this strong, then today’s battles are going to be very interesting.”

“The only one you need to worry about is sitting right next to you!” David shouted, shooting Aram a vicious glance.

“Worry about yourself, got it!”

“Worry about yourself, got it,” David mimicked.

“Boys, wait a little, you’ll get to show each other your mighty powers soon enough,” Ksyu cut in.

Suddenly, a voice rang out in the heads of Aram, Reia, David, and Ksyu.

“Team two, get ready. You’re next.”

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