Divinity

--- [Jade’s perspective]

He punches me in the stomach, I punch him in his.

He kicks me in the shin, I kick him in his.

Every time he goes for an attack, I completely abandon all defense, and instead focus on getting in an attack of my own.

Dodging and attacking at once is borderline impossible, so for every hit I take, he takes one too.

Not only am I stronger than him, but my specialty also negates all damage he deals to me.

It’s completely one-sided.

Every now and then he uses his ability to erase large sections of my body; obviously I can’t deal that much damage back to him, but his stamina is drained more from dishing out the attack than mine is from regenerating back.

Everything he does is useless.

He understands that and gets desperate.

The only way for him to beat me is if he kills me before I have time to regenerate.

If he can use his specialty on my head, that would be enough, but it’s also the only way…

Since that’s the only way for him to win, all I need to do is make sure he can’t pull that off.

The tricky thing about dodging or blocking in the middle of combat is that you never know what is coming until they attack, meaning you have to rely on your reflexes.

This is not the case now.

Since I know the only way for him to win, avoiding it is trivial.

It doesn’t take long before he’s out of breath, his movements become sluggish, and the accumulated damage is too much.

His body eventually gives out, and his face is planted firmly into the ground.

Even at the very end, he never gave up.

He only stopped fighting when he was physically unable to continue.

I don’t know his story, or why he’s seemingly so desperate to rank up, but I’m sure he must have a good reason.

Any reasonable person would have given up the moment they knew defeat was inevitable, but he didn’t.

I wish the hunters who’ll have to deal with him next year good luck…

I put my hand in his pocket, and take the flag…

As I get back to base, the first thing I see is our allies seriously wounded.

They have chunks of their arms and legs ripped out, and they’re desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

This must be Ethan’s doing…

There’s also the last remaining person on the enemy team passed out on the ground.

He must be the one Ethan attacked our base with; I guess he wasn’t as tough.

Out of nowhere, the exam host appears and congratulates us on our victory.

--- [Alex’s perspective] A few minutes later back at camp

“The first round is finally over, and the winners have been decided. The winning teams were team Isabella, team Lucas, and team Jade. Congratulations to all of you for passing, that itself is no easy task. Unfortunately, three people from team Jade had to drop out due to their injuries, so the 12 of you are everyone who will go on to the next stage.” – Leanne

Seems like both Lucas and Rin passed then, good for them!

“Now then, let me explain the rules of round two. This round will be very different from the last. There won’t be any teams, and no direct fighting. Instead, it will be an objective measure of your strength. It’s true that not everyone specializes in pure strength, and you can still be effective in combat even if you’re relatively weak. That, however, is the exception and not the rule. The further you get as a hunter, the more vital raw strength becomes. The point of this round is to weed out the weakest among you.” – Leanne

Interesting…

So, they’re somehow going to measure our power, and the strongest will be the ones who pass…

I know she said strength is vital, and to a certain extent I agree, but I still can’t help but feel that it’s a little unfair.

Someone like Lucas isn’t a terrifying fighter because of his strength, it’s his insane ability to dodge almost anything that is thrown at him.

The same could be said for Lett…

Sure, they might not have as much raw power as me, but that doesn’t make them any worse fighters…

I hope they can pull through…

“To assist me with this I have brought with me another hunter from my guild. Introduce yourself before I continue explaining.” – Leanne

“Right! Hi everyone, I’m C-rank hunter Roxy Stella from the Venomous Snakes guild. It’s nice to meet you all!” – Roxy

“You see, Roxy has a unique ability, one that is perfectly suited for this task. Who better to explain it than her?” – Leanne

She takes a step back, and lets Roxy take over for a bit.

“Yes, uhm… You see, I’m able to tell exactly how strong an attack is just by looking at it. It works for people both stronger and weaker than me. Additionally, I can assign an exact number to it. With these numbers, we can objectively rank the power of your attacks.” – Roxy

I see…

I was thinking we would have to destroy something, or maybe attack Leanne herself or something to tell who was strongest.

It might not seem like it at first, but her ability is extremely powerful both in and out of combat.

She can never be surprised by the power an enemy’s attack, she can provide vital info to her teammates, and it’s very helpful for training and testing purposes.

Interesting.

“We planned to let about half, eight to be exact, of the people who passed the first round to go on to the third and final round. Despite three of the round one winners already being out, this number will not change. That means only four of you are guaranteed to fail this round.” – Leanne

Eight will pass, four will fail…

The one I’m most worried for is Lett, but with numbers like that, her chances aren’t half bad.

She’ll pull through, I know it.

“However, it won’t be quite as simple as the eight strongest passes, and the others fail. Another thing that is just as important in combat as strength, if not more so, is durability. After you’ve thrown your attack, Roxy will throw one the exact same level back at you. If you can’t stay conscious after taking your own attack, you’re disqualified. What that means is that you might have to hold back your power to make sure you stay awake.” – Leanne

Oh…

That throws a massive wrench into things…

Charged attacks are pretty much off-limits then since they’re way above what you’re normally capable of.

We also don’t know what the third round has in store for us, so we can’t risk getting too injured either.

At the same time, it can’t be too weak either, or you won’t pass.

It’s a massive balancing act.

This round might be a lot more interesting than I first imagined…