The students had a few moments to prepare themselves before the assessment started. Thankfully, this time the assessment wouldn't involve the other students with other colored headbands, so it was unlikely that anyone here would give them any trouble.
"Hey, so what are we going to do? Are we going to team up like last time or what?" Simyon asked.
"I'm sorry," Raze replied. "The teachers have something against me, so I need to do well on this assessment. You are strong, but in this assessment, I need to give it everything I have."
Simyon couldn't really argue against that. For the last month, he had been doing a strange set of training techniques designed to make his body stronger. Honestly, he wasn't sure if it was working or if he was getting used to the suffering.
Other than the two-step shift, though, Simyon didn't know many techniques that would allow him to help in catching the Hop Bunnies.
"Alright, begin!" Tod shouted, and the students rushed off, including Raze, leaving only Simyon and Dame at the starting block along with the rest.
"Alright, do you have some type of plan that we can work together on?" Simyon asked.
"Me? If I were to join in on this assessment, it wouldn't really be fair," Dame commented.
Simyon didn't really understand what he meant by this. To him, he thought Dame was someone who had just stumbled upon Raze. He had been fed the same story as the teachers, so Simyon knew no better.
It was odd, though, now that he thought about it. This person seemed to know a lot about techniques, was always calm in high-tension situations, and was relatively lax about everything. What gave this person confidence in the first place?
"Anyway, so the best thing I can do is stay out of people's way," Dame said as he walked into the forest. "Why don't you rub some honey juice on your body and attract the bunnies? If they're sucking on you, you could at least beat them a few times, right?"
Left dumbfounded, Simyon found himself on his own, but he didn't want to fall behind. He hadn't done all that training for nothing. He, too, wanted to take part in the upcoming assessment between students. So he ran forward and started to take his top off, taking Dame's advice quite literally as he looked for something sweet to put on himself.
Inside the forest, Raze wasted no time. His sharp senses allowed him to feel the general area where a Hop Bunny would be. Then he could tell where one was moving to and managed to hop side to side. After that, when it was in his sight, he would use the second descending step to rush and push it forward. In an instant, he would close the distance between him and the bunny.
At the same time, he would make a small slash with his bare hand across its back and use a little bit of his wind magic to sharpen it to the point that it was like a sword. It would hit the Hop Bunny and cut deep enough to kill it in one hit.
"This small amount of magic shouldn't affect the world. The portal had only opened up last time because of the earring reaching the unique stage. So it should be fine."
After killing the Hop Bunny, Raze, with next to no hesitation, had pulled out the crystal from its body. He was able to guide his fingers with ease using the wind magic to push away the flesh as well and cut away any fiddly bits. What would take approximately a minute or so to obtain the crystal, Raze was doing it in seconds.
He was taking this assessment quite seriously, and students were noticing it.
A couple of students had been following a Hop Bunny for a while when they were noticed. It started to run away, and they went after it. The two of them were catching up when they felt a large gust of wind pass them. They closed their eyes just for a moment, protecting them from the wind, and when they opened them, they could see the white-haired no-name holding the Hop Bunny in his hands.
He had pulled out the crystal right in front of their eyes.
"Heavenly crap!" one student said in disbelief. "How did he manage to get past us so fast?"
"Not only that, he managed to kill that Hop Bunny so quickly as well," the other boy commented.
Seeing this, they were stunned into amazement. This wasn't something someone could simply do with luck. It was clear that this no-name was quite skillful.
For a while now, the students had been keeping an eye on Raze. They had seen him running almost every day, practicing simple skills, and seeing his determination had set a small spark in them all. The only thing he was lacking in was actual skill, but what if he wasn't? What if that actually wasn't the case? Then, could he be the hope that they were looking for?
The Blue headbands wanted to prove what the five main clans said was wrong. They actually didn't care who was the one to do it. They all just desperately wanted someone to prove them wrong. The main issue was, did they want it to be a no-name, of all people?
Raze quickly moved on, dropping the beast on the ground, and continued his hunt through the forest. Many more students were able to witness his skill as he took out bunny after bunny. In the end, the hour was coming up, and he had managed to obtain a total of twenty-four crystals altogether.
"This should be enough," Raze thought, huffing and panting. He was a little hot as well. "I think all that running might have conditioned me better as well, but using my Qi constantly is still quite tiring. I hope after this little test, we get to keep the crystals as well because I could use them to make some Qi potions as well," Raze thought to himself.
The students heard the loud horn-like sound indicating it was the end of the test. They started to head back, and while they did, many of them were talking about what they had seen. How Raze, the white-haired student, had killed the beasts so quickly right in front of their eyes. It was whispered among the students because as soon as they saw the teachers, they straightened up.
"Alright, please display the number of crystals you have managed to obtain to us all," Tod shouted.
Coming out of the forest a little sticky from some type of honey was none other than Simyon. He had several small little red bite marks on his body. It wasn't from the Hop Bunnies but instead from the many bugs in the forest. Seeing this, Dame was trying to hold in his laughter. He felt a little bad because he didn't expect the young one to take his suggestion so seriously. So he moved on over to him.
"So, did you manage to catch any?" Dame asked.
"Your plan was a dud," Simyon replied, gritting his teeth. He was about to say more until he felt Dame pass something into his hands.
When opening them, he could see that there were three power stones present. "What the…"
"I already told you, I don't need to take part in the upcoming assessment, so these are on the house for you," Dame whispered.
Tod and the other teacher came around inspecting students and their crystals. The Hop Bunnies were fast, so most students could only get one or two crystals, with the odd few getting more. One of the highest-scoring students was Liam, who had obtained a total of eight crystals.
"Whoa, he got eight, that's really good!"
"I have seen him working hard every day; he's even been perfecting that technique," another whispered.
Liam's determination had continued after that day. He didn't give up, and equally just like the others, seeing how Raze was doing, he too had pushed himself further. It was also his chance to make up for his loss in fighting for him to come out on top in this test.
"Alright, Raze," Tod said. "It looks like you didn't get lost this time, so why don't you go ahead and show me how many crystals you managed to gather."
Taking the pouch that was on his side, Raze opened it up. "You can count them; there are around twenty-four inside."
"TWENTY-FOUR!" one of the students closest shouted. Many of them gasped as well at the sheer number. They were imagining how hard, how fast one had to be to get 24 crystals in an hour. Was it even possible to get a higher number?
Quickly, Tod snatched the bag out of Raze's hand and started to count the crystals one by one. It was true; there were twenty-four crystals inside, but how was it possible? This number, in this amount of time, maybe even a teacher wouldn't be able to achieve such a thing. The more he thought about it, the more impossible he thought it was.
"You are really scum," Tod said as he smiled. "I can't believe it; you stole these crystals from your fellow students, didn't you? I thought it was strange; I thought the number of crystals the others had was a little low."
"Now it makes sense; you took the power stones and thought you could get away with it. Did you really think you could fool the eyes of me?"
Hearing this, Raze started to tense his fists, both of them that were down by his side. The other students had seen Raze get the crystals by himself. They knew that this wasn't true, but would they speak up for him? Surely, one of the others would say something.
Running in their minds was the thought, if one of the others spoke up, then they would too. However, no one did, not a single person spoke up, leaving it so no one said a thing.
Simyon wanted to say something, but it was clear that they wouldn't take his word.
"Ha, I will be taking these crystals... and good luck in getting picked. Trash like you should just leave the academy," Tod said as he marked another X by Raze's name and placed the pouch on his side.
Simyon was in disbelief, but Dame thought it was to be expected. In a way with Raze trying too hard, he had just shown something that was too unachievable. Which did make him wonder.
'How did Raze manage to catch so many. With the techniques I showed him and being a 2 star Pagan warrior, he shouldn't have been able to get that many. Could I even get that many crystals without destroying the place?'
Tod was about to walk off, heading to the next student until he heard something.
"No!" Raze shouted, his head down, and his fists still tensed. "I don't care if you have something against me, but those crystals are mine, and no one takes things from me that are mine!"