Chapter 5 : Entrance exams (2)

The test applicants had been introduced in a big ceremony where they took a round of the stadium and there was a famous singer in the middle who was also the host. She sang her top new song during this run of applicants.

The names and the ranks of each applicants were now posted online so people were looking out for the A ranks in the whole procession. It was not easy to make it to step 2 as one believed to be. Theoretical exams were a cut throat competition independent of rank, So even an A rank could be disqualified.

Even after 5 years of study experience Anika was not on the top of the list, there is only so much one can do with constant repetition. Every year only a class of 300 students made it to step 2 from the thousands of applicants from which 200 would be chosen and divided into three classes A, B and C according to their scores and the top 3 would be given a free scholarship.

Now came the time for event 1 which was to be held in three rounds with 100 students in each round. When they got inside after the whole introduction run they were given their slots and the host announced the first event. It was a race with simple rules.

With every lap the one at the last position would be out of the race. Anika had slot three which gave her enough time to prepare but being last in a competition only ramps up the tension.

Ganesh checked on his phone Anika's rank and slot and said "looks like she barely made it with C rank." Krishna on the other hand had no interest in checking the rankings. When the procession came he could sense out the good crops. Those that were different compared to the others.

Reema was in slot 2, she wished best of luck to her new found friend as they got to know their slots. Rajdeep was in slot 1 and was already warming up his huge body which mostly likely took a long time to warm up Anika thought.

Ashish was in Anika's slot who was still grinning as ever. She looked around but she could not find the kid who bumped into her in the morning. She was really looking forward to kick his ass but it looked like he failed before or in step 1.

Slot 1 race started and Rajdeep sprinted his way to the top. Audience was thrilled and shocked by the endurance of this man. He was barely breaking a sweat after such an intense run.

In slot 2 a certain rank A came at the top but Reema came in at a respectable rank 5. Now it was slot 3, Anika's turn. She was doing jumping jacks to warm herself up and release some of the anxiety after seeing such intense runs.

She was impressed with the agility and stamina of Rajdeep, it did put some pressure on her and also looking at Reema who was very consistent in her running made her worry if she would be able to make it.

She closed her eyes and remembered that she had trained a lot for this moment and it was her only chance to prove herself. She loved a good challenge anyway. Ashish came from the back as the gate started to open, the lights and screams of the spectators followed. He tapped on Anika's shoulders "Just don't get in my way. You can pass and join the C class like your other C rank friends."

That was enough to set her off and the competition would be the best way to level things, she thought.

As the applicants got to their positions host announced the rules again for the audience and the runners. And with a bang of a magnum the race began. Ashish was confident of his stamina as he ran past everyone to maintain a constant 1st rank. Anika on the other hand was second last. Also constant in her speed.

"Why isn't she running faster, she can get eliminated like this." Said Ganesh in a worrisome tone.

"Don't worry old man she has no intention of losing. Being second last gives a constant challenge to her and also this isn't your normal 100-200 meter race. It's a marathon. There is no point in rushing right away and she knows this."

As the race went on many applicants who were sprinting right away started collapsing reducing the effective 99 laps intended. Ashish maintained his first position with ease and so did Anika maintain her second last position.

In her mind her competition was only with one person at a time, she only had to outrun the last one. Ashish could see that she was deliberately being at the last but he was too confident in his physique of an A rank.

Even an E rank could be inhuman in physical abilities and he was an A rank that would give him a massive advantage over a C rank as with every rank the aura gap increased exponentially.

The race was coming close to the end and only 5 people were remaining all in atleast B rank except for Anika who was a C and still she maintained her second last position. This development was creating a certain dread in Ashish though it may not be visible. It was like death slowly and steadily creeping up to him.

He even tried to increase his speed but at this point he was a lot ahead of anyone and everyone was giving their all as it was as close to the final sprint as it could get. These were those who understood it was just as much of a test of their Endurance as it was of their speed.

Only 3 remained now counting himself ashish thought and Anika was right behind her. She was like clockwork, stead in pace, and always moving forward. One wrong step and he would lose to her.

The final lap was coming and it was obvious she would be facing him in it. It was his pride vs her determination. Krishna was sitting in the booth with a faint smile on his face

"didn't I tell you old man, her endurance is unparalleled. I can say that nobody here can go on for 10 hour straight let alone do that for a whole week with only 2 hours of rest."

And just like that the race was finished with Anika coming at the top, Ashish tried desperately but he had exhausted himself and collapsed on his knees at the end of the race. Anika came to him and said, "How about not holding back next time?"

She walked away from the breathless Ashish who could not even reply to his opponent. When she was walking away Rajdeep entered the frame and stood in front of her.

"That was a good performance but you should not hold back like that, It is disrespectful to your opponent."

Anika looked up calmly with confidence wiping the sweat on her forehead "don't worry, I won't hold back when I am against you."

"You better not, otherwise that will be the moment you lose." Anika walked past him after this small talk.

This time 4 people stood in front of her. She had shown potential of defeating an A rank even though she was a C rank and that certainly turned some heads towards her. They say strength attracts strength and indeed it did here. These were the top 4 of slot 2. They were all A ranks of top order.

It seemed like they were from the same training class as they wore the same blue tracksuit with the crest of their class on it. Training classes were pretty common for a rich kids having high ranks. If there was a certain event where they could team up they would not hold back.

They would try to keep their comrades in the leaderboards as much as possible and the university allowed this because in a real life scenario in a battle teaming up is considered as an asset. They all just stood there with intimidating aura oozing out of them.

Reema came from the side and pulled Anika out of it. "You should stay away from them. They are not good people."

"Do you know them?"

"Yes I do." said Reema sighing "Their master once used to be a friend of my master but their master betrayed mine for money and took over the training classes they started for training worthy people. They also got him into a situation whereby my master can't start any opposing class."

Anika looked with confusion and asked, "isn't he training you?"

"Yes but that he can because I am his daughter." she looked sadly at her black belt and said "he has lost so much since my mother died, I want to join RUA and prove that his art is not wasted, I think that would make him happy." there was this silence in the noise of stadium between these two as they walked, suddenly Reema tripped and fell on her face. Anika started laughing hard, she gave her a hand and said, "Your first lesson, how to walk."

_____

Ram heard them discuss about Anika and after she won it attracted his attention to the talk,

"do you know her?"

Ganesh budged in and replied, "oh yes they are close, quite close…" Krishna put his hand around Ganesh and gave him a terrifying smile, "wel...uh...she is his student." said Ganesh forming sweat over his neck.

"Oh so she is also interested in physiology, I guess that's the reason for her great control over her output."

Ganesh looked confused as the vice president of RUA gave his opinion, he wanted to avoid another terrifying moment with Krishna so he asked, "why would she be interested in physiology?"

"That's because I am an F ranked Physiology teacher at RUA." said Krishna whispering in Ganesh's direction. He was dumbfounded by this and shouted out "you are clearly not an F ran…" Krishna kept his hand over at Ganesh's mouth now giving even more terrifying and broader smile enough for Ganesh to know the volume was wrong. Ram did catch some and it reminded him of their first meeting. 'Could it be?' he thought to himself before dismissing the thought as their beautiful singer host came back to the centre stage to announce the second event.

______

The second event even more simpler and straightforward than the first one. What better way of displaying strength than by hitting something, there was a machine which was brought in by four helicopters from the top of the stadium.

An inhumanly heavy machine was needed to take the inhumanly hit coming from these Raiders. It had a padding where they were supposed to hit and the machine would give reading according to which points would be decided. Not every fighter was strength based hence and some can be technique based too but most of the top tier line up of the world had amazing strength stats. Even the weaker ones were monsters in terms of their strengths.

Anika was at a tie in the top 3 of the leaderboards. The next event was not going to be divided into slots and points would not be allocated in comparison to the performance by others but it sure helped to score better in case of a tie. The applicants were chosen for the test from a list created by software scrambling.

The top four of the A ranks of slot 2 had already given their test and their numbers were astonishing. But there was also a fact that she had never tested herself against others after training with Krishna.

It was Rajdeep's turn after that, He removed his shirt showing the impressive pecks of muscle he had built. For him it was to reduce the intrusion by cloths but for the audience it was surely a good show. Rajdeep was already building up a fanbase among this opposite sex.

He was freeing up his joints as he was walking towards the machine. He made a long arc, took his arm behind getting ready and swung with massive force using his body enhancement with the already inhuman strength among the in-humans. His force was enough to move the machine by a centimetre.

The whole crowd that was shouting fell silent as the shock wave even touched a sleepy spectator in the backseats and woke him up. The glass box where Krishna and Ganesh were seated could also feel the tremors and it made Ganesh worried if the contraption breaking down by such force. Just as someone had pressed the play button on a paused video the crowds screaming restarted even louder that they were before.

The operator on the machine wasn't expecting for the machine to be moved by the blow from a student but now he had to account for the movement so Rajdeep's score was delayed till the calculation were to be completed and until then a few of the applicants went ahead and even gave their tests. When the scores came they were nothing short of impressive. They dwarfed the numbers of those A ranked students from slot 2. Anika thought to herself on seeing those numbers 'that brings my chance of topping this one nearly to zero.'

It was now Anika's chance. Her strength was surely nothing to be joked about but it wasn't a competition among the normal, so her best punch would not suffice and she would have to create a new best. She had already made a plan of sorts but it wasn't tested before, so the chance of successfully executing it were 50/50.

She stood in front of the machine and tried to concentrate doing jumping jacks to also simultaneous free herself up. Ram's eyes were particularly set on her because of her amusing performance in the first event and also a certain doubt related to Krishna in the back of his mind. Anika pulled back her arm and created a gauntlet from shield and then after a few seconds made a fiery arc to hit the pad for recording.

"Interesting," said Ganesh rubbing his chin "didn't she use my shield to create a pocket of air then heated it to expand the gasses in them and used that force created from opening up the pockets to enhance her punch?"

Krishna nodded in agreement with a smile on his face as if he himself had achieved some success. When the scores came they were in between those A ranked raiders but still nothing compared to what Rajdeep had done and somehow that did disappoint her a hair's worth.

Unluckily for Reema she was the last one and there was a plethora of unimpressive candidates in between. After the magnificent show before the other things became bland for them. Other candidates were also moreover chattering about Anika and how a C rank was showing so much promise. When Reema was about to leave Anika came up to her and said, "You give your best out there."

Reema smiled broadly and said, "I sure will." It made Anika wonder in retrospect when Reema reached halfway to the centre as to how happy she can be in the middle of everything. She also stumbled a bit before reaching the centre but as soon as she reached there she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She reached out her fist and kept in the contact of the padding and stayed like that for a minute.

The audience was starting to wonder what was taking so long, some were even standing up and going for the stalls to restock on food for the next event. Reema opened her eyes and gave a loud shout, "Haiyaa!"

What happened next shocked everyone, Anika, Rajdeep, Ashish who had also scored decently, were standing with their eyes wide open. The heavy machine that took 4 high load bearing helicopters to get there, that moved only a centimetre from the strongest hit by Rajdeep was broken and embedded into the wall of the stadium opposite to the direction of Reema's punch.