Their leader pushed forward. He was all easy charm and quiet arrogance tall, sun-bronzed, a crooked smile that disarmed and an air of entitlement that announced old money and old talent.
He introduced himself with practiced respect, bowing just enough to be charming.
"Kaito Ren," he said, and his lackeys echoed the name with subordinate courtesy.
Kaito's eyes found Sofie. A flirtatious half-bow, a breathy compliment fell from him like silk.
"Miss Ignar, I hope we'll see a graceful performance today."
Sofie's face registered nothing but polite boredom.
Her lips twitched not with the blush he expected.
Instead she deadpanned "Flattery doesn't score points. Try something actually useful."
Then, without waiting for Kaito's reaction, she gave Klaus a tight nod. "We better get to that physical exam."
Kaito, unused to being dismissed, moved with a smooth grin and in a move he probably thought reached for Sofie's hand to hold it a beat longer.
His fingers closed.
They blackened.
First came a hiss like cloth on hot iron.
Kaito jerked back as if burned by a brand.
Little blisters rose along his palm, then split, and a dark, hot blood wept from the seams of skin.
The color was wrong almost as if the burn had eaten through to something beneath.
He cried out, stumbling back, the sound raw and hysterical.
The lackeys around him stared in stunned silence… then panic.
Sofie's eyes went flat, the cold blade of her will surfacing.
Every breath she took carried that single clear danger note.
Her voice dropped like a guillotine."Come anywhere near me like that again," she said not a whisper, not even a threat. It was a promise. "And it will be the last time you breathe."
Kaito's scream cut off into a gagging, choking noise as the pain stole the breath from him.
He collapsed to the cobblestones, clutching the ruined hand and crying out while his companions stumbled forward to help their leader.
Two of them stepped up, drawing a stance a reflexive move to save their pride and threaten the girl who'd humiliatingly scalded their boss.
Klaus's face did not change. He moved half a breath, and then something in the air tightened like a noose.
He released Ryōki only a sliver of it, precise and cold, aimed at the aggressors.
The effect was immediate and brutal.
The nearest lackeys' faces drained their eyes widened foam bubbled faintly at one corner of a mouth.
One staggered, took a pair of gasping steps, and fell face-first into the dust.
Another managed a choking scream before the knees gave out and he collapsed, convulsing softly.
Patches of white foam and shaking breath betrayed how utterly their wills had been crushed.
Students around them scattered away, eyes wide, whispers turning into terrified murmurs.
Security officers, alerted by the commotion, hurried over with measured strides, then froze at the sight; the academy's protocols were legendary, and many students dared not interfere with them. Especially rule no.1 being
"NO FIGHTING IN THE CAMPUS PREMISES, IF FOUND IMMEDIATE EXPULSION"
Sofie didn't gloat. She didn't even breathe hard. She simply looked at the ruined hand, then at the downed group, then at Klaus with a small, grim set to her jaw.
Klaus released the last tension in the air. He let the Ryōki fade.
The world sighed like a released breath noisy, stunned, and utterly changed.
"Come on," Sofie said quietly. "We're late."
Klaus nodded. The two threaded between the scattered students and security, leaving
Kaito writhing and his lackeys humbled in the dust.
As they hurried onward, a chorus of whispers followed them fear, awe, and the beginnings of a story that would spread across the campus faster than the bell for the next trial.
They reached the North Arena gate with the echo of that story trailing in their wake.
The physical exam waited and so did whatever else the Eryndor had planned for them today.
The North Arena loomed like a coliseum of steel and stone.
Students poured in by the dozens, each group split by gender.
A sharp call from the examiners echoed through the courtyard:
"Ladies to the left wing. Gentlemen to the right."
Klaus glanced at Sofie. For a second her nervousness flickered again, but she masked it with a quick smile.
"All the best," he said, voice steady.
Sofie straightened, lips curving with warmth. "You too. Don't go breaking anything…" she teased.
Klaus only smirked faintly. "No promises."
---
Inside the boys' wing, the air smelled of metal and mana a strange mix of sweat and machine oil.
Rows of intricate machines lined the room, each glowing faintly with embedded runes:
The Force Gauntlet: a massive steel pillar with impact sensors glowing in pale blue.
The Agility Grid: hundreds of glowing tiles stretching like a dance floor, each flashing at impossible speeds.
The Mana Resonator: a sphere of crystalline glass that pulsed with unstable energy, testing one's mana output and control.
The Endurance Vault: thick bindings that sealed a student inside while weighing them down with conjured gravity.
The Vitality Chamber: filled with piercing needles of light, designed to measure regeneration and bodily resilience.
Each participant was handed a number, then told to wait until called.
When Klaus's number echoed through the speaker, a hush followed.
The instructors eyed him as he stepped forward, mutters rising in their throats.
His height towered above most.
His torso shirtless under the testing vest carried scars etched deep into flesh, the kind of marks only battles could write.
For a heartbeat, the examiners simply stared.
Klaus ignored them. He wasn't here for admiration.
He was here to make a statement.
A middle-aged man in a black coat stepped forward, his voice sharp and practiced.
"I'm Instructor Rydan. I'll be monitoring you personally.
Don't hold back these machines are built to withstand Monarch-level testing."
Klaus's eyes flickered, unreadable. "Noted."
First test: The Force Gauntlet.
Klaus planted his feet. He exhaled slowly. Then boom. His fist drove forward like a thunderclap.
The entire gauntlet screamed in protest, the runes flashing red.
A crack split down its pillar before the numbers even finished tallying.
Then, with one final shriek, the machine collapsed sideways in a ruin of sparks and groaning metal.
The instructors froze.
The record counter on the wall blinked once… then sputtered out, the screen shattered by its own overload.
"...he broke it," one whispered.
Second test: The Agility Grid.
The tiles lit in impossible patterns. To most, they were a blur.
To Klaus, they were pathways of lightning.
He moved faster than sight, his body flickering across the field, every light touched perfectly in sequence.
The observers barely kept up the tiles behind him exploding in sparks as his speed overclocked the system.
The Agility Grid stuttered… then fried itself, the lights going black one by one.
Gasps rippled from the sidelines.
Third test: Mana Resonator.
Klaus pressed his palm against the crystal sphere. Purple lightning crackled instantly, wild arcs filling the chamber.
The Resonator screeched, its core distorting like glass in fire.
With a deafening crack, it burst apart into shards of molten energy, spraying across the containment field.
Instructors shielded themselves, eyes wide.
"Impossible…!"
Fourth test: Endurance Vault.
The bindings clasped around Klaus, runes glowing with crushing gravity.
The average student collapsed within seconds.
Klaus stood like a statue.
He endured the pull, muscles tense, then snapped the bindings outward with a single flex, shattering the vault into twisted scrap.
The crowd outside, waiting for their turn, gawked through the glass walls jaws dropping, whispers flooding the chamber.
"Is he even human?"
"Those scars… what the hell has he fought?"
"He's breaking everything—"
Final test: Vitality Chamber.
The needles of light pierced his skin. Blood beaded, then sizzled away as his body adapted.
Regeneration values climbed, then exceeded the chart entirely.
The machine beeped furiously, alarms flaring.
Klaus stepped out without a word, crimson streaks closing before their eyes.
The instructors erupted in disbelief.
"Unreal!"
"Every record… shattered!"
"This data..this… this exceeds even the Paragon candidates!"
The head instructor from earlier approached him, voice reverent.
"You've shattered centuries of records, boy."
Klaus only stared back, expression unreadable. "…Good."
He hadn't come to hide. He wanted the world to know he wasn't someone to trample over.
His dominance would be remembered today.
When the exam wrapped and new machines were hauled in for the next unfortunate students, Klaus slipped out.
Outside, he found Sofie leaning against a wall, munching happily on a chicken roll she'd bought from one of the academy stalls.
Her cheeks puffed out adorably as she chewed, grease smudging her lips.
She glanced up at him, eyes twinkling. "Your punches rattled the girls' wing, you know. Practically every head turned."
Klaus blinked. "…Huh?"
Sofie grinned, mimicking in a dramatic falsetto:"Ohhh, who's that strong man over there?"
Klaus stared, deadpan.
Sofie stuffed another bite in her mouth, smirking smugly. "See? You've got fans already."
Klaus broke into a low laugh, shaking his head.
But Sofie only leaned closer, flashing a playful smile.