Darius let the pen fall and looked up. "Really? What kind of deal between you and me can benefit both of us, Roy Nasser?"

  Roy sat down. "It's simple. You want to train one of the strongest teams ever, if not the strongest."

  Darius straightened his back, crossing his arms. "Get to the point."

  A week of unsupervised training means a week of cementing bad habits," Roy said. "They’ll misunderstand your intent, take shortcuts, and by the time you return, you’ll spend a month just un-teaching their mistakes. You don't have that kind of time."

  Darius’s gaze narrowed. "And your solution?"

  "I will make sure they train the way you want and solve any problem while you are not here. And I don't think I need to say why I am qualified."

  "And the invoice?" Darius asked.

  "In exchange, you will tell me everything you know about the portal and make sure that the government deletes my file. So what do you say?" Roy’s eyes began to emit a steady, white glow.

  "Eavesdropping is a very dangerous thing to do here." Small purple lightning appeared from Darius's eyes.

  Roy smirked. "Sometimes you need to take a chance to get what you want." Roy extended his hand. "So do we have a deal?"

  Darius held the stare for a beat, then gave a singular, sharp nod. "We have a deal."

  They shook. a brief, hard grip.

  As Roy turned to leave, a purple lightning bolt hit the door frame. Roy froze, his pupils dilating wide. He looked back.

  "I’ll overlook the eavesdropping this time," Darius said, his voice like grinding stone. "But there is no next time. Remember, you are not just putting your life on the line by doing that here."

  "Understood," Roy said as he left.

  The next day in Class A, everyone sat at their place waiting for the results. Omar and Marie were excited. Valeria, Roy, Jax, and Ren were calm. The twins, Marcus, and Elise were nervous.

  The door swung open. Darius entered. In his hands were ten files. He put them on the desk and then looked at the students. "The results have been decided. They aren't fixed. They could and will change every month."

  A sigh of relief came out of Marcus.

  "I will briefly explain why you got your rank, and I will say what fighting style you had during the test. If you want to have another one other than what I say, that means you did horribly, and you better speak early so I have the time to change your plan. Understood?"

  "Understood," they all said together.

  "Good. Let's begin from last to first." Darius sorted the files, then opened the one on the top and got the first paper in it. "Rank 10: Vivienne Crest."

  Vivienne, even though she could predict her rank, was about to faint.

  Darius continued. "Zero defensive utility. Despite your complete reliance on offense, you weren't even close to getting a hit. And your brother isn't any better."

  Darius put the paper on top of the first file and put it to the side, and then he got another paper from the next file.

  "Rank 9: Dorian Crest. Chronic over-reliance on defense with zero offensive capability, but unlike your sister, you actually blocked some attacks. But a wall that doesn't hit back is just a static target."

  Dorian was also close to fainting, but he took it better than his sister.

  "The style you wanted was Dorian to parry and tank attacks while Vivienne attacks from the openings Dorian makes. A very good combat style that proved its efficiency years ago."

  The twins got excited for a second before they got crushed again.

  "But not being able to fight any other way than that is a problem, so for you two, for the next month, you are not to train together ever. You understood?"

  "Sure." Vivienne's voice was barely hearable.

  A lightning bolt hit the empty space between the twins. "I didn't hear you!"

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  "We understand, sir!" the twins said together.

  Darius put this file to the side and went to the next one.

  "To the next, Rank 8: Elise Richter."

  "You are too dependent on your healing and believe in it too much to the point you take sub-optimal risks with no return."

  Elise was disappointed in her rank but understood.

  "Your style is blinding your enemy, going through their attacks using your healing, and delivering one killing strike. A terrifying style if done right. But your risk-to-reward calculus is broken. You need better threat assessment. In a simpler way you kids would understand, you need a better battle IQ. Understood?"

  "Yes, sir." Elise didn't make the twins' mistake.

  Darius opened the next file and looked at the paper for a second.

  "Okay, next. I don't like the next ranking, but it was a must."

  Everyone got confused. That didn't sound like their teacher.

  "Rank 7: Marie Quinn."

  "What?" Marie held her head in shock.

  "Calm down. Remember, those ranks can change next month."

  Marie calmed down a little.

  "So now to the why. First, no matter how well you fought, you still failed the objective. You have a very good battle IQ. You have a fast reaction speed. But you are too scared to attack. You react instead of initiating. What you need to do is simple: learn how to attack and learn to use a weapon as a force multiplier, not a fashion accessory."

  Marie wanted to object but didn't find anything wrong to object to. "That's fair," she said, disappointed.

  "The first step to become better is to accept that you have flaws, and that's for all of you. You can't become better if you think you are already the best. Understood?"

  "Understood," they all answered.

  Darius went to the next file and paper.

  "Okay, next," Darius sighed. "Rank 6: Ren Link."

  "Your power, what did they call it?" He looked at the paper again. " "Association Form." God, they really can't name. Anyway, your power: to transfer things into whatever you want as long as you find a link between them. " Darius looked at Ren. "Is the surname just a coincidence?"

  "Didn't you say that powers aren't random? Maybe my name had an effect on the power I got." Ren shrugged.

  "Just run from Anton if he begins asking a lot of questions. Or don't. I don't care. Back to the point: you use it very well for a sniper. The only criticism is that you need more close combat training and that you are too calculating."

  "Too calculating?" Ren raised an eyebrow in confusion.

  "Yes. This team wasn't made to fight your typical villains. Ranks 0 and whatever else we might be fighting can be too random to calculate, so you must be ready to improvise. Understood?"

  "Yes, sir."

  Darius went to the next file and paper.

  "Rank 5: Marcus Brunt." Darius looked at the paper for a second. "Looks like your name theory is correct, Ren. Anyway, let's go back to our thing."

  Marcus had no reaction.

  "You are brave and a very good tank. You were born to be on the front lines. The way you train has no mistakes. From all the ones here, you’re the only one here who doesn’t need a babysitter to train him. The only reason you aren't up on the list is because you have a psychological glass ceiling. If you don't think you can stop something, you won't. So believe in yourself. Understood?"

  "Yes, sir." Marcus said with a small smile on his face.

  The next file.

  "Rank 4: Omar Khalil."

  Omar raised his hand.

  "You can speak."

  "Sorry, Teacher, but I was from the special three with their own rules. How could I be lower than third?"

  Omar got hit by a lightning bolt. "Why again?"

  "Because if you had waited or even listened to those rules, you would know one of the rules is that you will be treated more harshly than the others, and right now, you're failing to meet the threshold; it doesn't matter how flashy and good your fight was if you failed the test. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, I do."

  "Good, because you are not getting anything else from me today."

  Darius went to the next file.

  "Not fair," Omar said under his breath. Darius heard it but ignored him.

  "Rank 3: Jax Clay."

  Jax didn't expect to be in the top three. He was both happy and worried that he might get more work.

  "Jax, your strategy of being invisible, shooting your opponent, and controlling the bullets is a near-perfect strategy in closed quarters. But as the engagement range opens up, you become a liability, as it gives them more time to react and locate you. The fix is very easy. All you have to do is move. You are too lazy, and your training will be cardio and boring tasks to fix your laziness. Understood?"

  "Understood." A tear went down Jax's right cheek.

  "So the next. Rank 2: Valeria Stormend."

  Valeria wanted rank 1 but accepted the second.

  "Your mix of lightning and your super strength with the sword is very good, but your use of the two is quite equal. Usually, I’d tell you to master one lane. But seeing how the fight went, I’ll let you gamble on being an outlier for now; I will leave the choice for you."

  "Understood," Valeria said before Darius even asked.

  "Okay, to the last. And you did it, kid. You have no one above you to order you around. Rank 1: Roy Nasser."