The shade choke the speed girl out, leaving the area in front of the elevator clear, so Ren got out of their hiding spot.
"Wow, that fight was intense," Rex exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know. The fighting was intense. I wasn't sure I could defeat the speedster girl if she was still able to move after the fight. I'm not sure how I would have fought the tornado girl myself. Thank goodness everything worked out," Ren said.
After taking a moment to look at the aftermath of the battle, they moved toward the elevator. It was basically like a carriage. There weren't any windows or anything. The top of the elevator was very much exposed.
When they got inside, they found two things: a button that would start the elevator, and a compartment with an energy rifle meant to stun, not kill.
Ren went to push the button, and Rex went to check out the energy rifle. After that, the carriage started moving.
Ren and Rex just stood there watching what was happening, both on guard. But after a while of the elevator moving without anything happening, they both sighed and sat on the floor of the elevator.
They were quiet for a moment.
"Hey, do you think the rifle has something to do with the final area next to the light pillar?" Ren asked.
"Well, obviously. Why would they give us a gun otherwise?"
Ren just chuckled.
"Can you believe we've been through all of this? The fighting in the rain maze, the jungle, the fire city, and the fight from earlier… and we're only in the first test."
Rex just groaned.
"Why did you have to remind me? This test already has been a headache. All I want to do after this is take a shower and relax. But we still have to do two more tests that are probably gonna be more difficult than this."
"Hey, what are you planning on doing once we finish the exam?" Ren asked.
"Well, I'll hang out with my friends, obviously. After I relax and take a shower like I said earlier. How about you?" Rex asked.
"Well, the same. I'll hang out with my friends after this. You're welcome to join us if you want to."
Rex just looked at him.
"Are you planning for us to hang out and be friends?" he bluntly asked.
Ren just chuckled.
"Yeah. Is that a problem?"
Rex just looked up so he could look down on him.
"Sorry, bud, but I don't make friends with pretty boys."
There was silence for a moment until—
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
Both of them burst out laughing.
They kept laughing until—Bang—something hit the elevator, making it shake a little and shocking both of them.
They quickly got up and saw what the hell was happening.
There were a bunch of weird-looking birds. They looked like hawks, but they were pure black, and they seemed a lot more powerful, like their wings could be used for attack, not just flight.
Ren and Rex gave each other a quick second of eye contact, knowing exactly what was happening.
This is what the gun is for. This is the final challenge of the test.
Rex quickly started using the gun.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
He shot at the hawks, each shot landing and destroying them. He was taking them down one by one. It was great, but it was too slow. After all, there were a lot of them, and they were trying to attack the elevator.
Ren, even though he lacked the capability of fighting from long range, still created shades to strike down whatever hawk got close enough to them. He even released a couple of shade jabs. They hit a couple of hawks, but a lot of his jabs missed, unlike Rex, who again had all his shots land.
Note to self: improve aim.
Anyways, they continued the fight for a while, and it was kind of fun. The whole process of trying to take down birds midair was like a mobile game in real life.
But soon enough, it wasn't fun anymore.
Because the birds started moving differently.
One second they were moving like normal, then they started flying up and down and began moving in complex ways. One of them even did a barrel roll.
The birds started to adapt to them, and now they began dodging their attacks more easily, making their movement a lot harder to predict.
Bang. Bang.
In fact, their complex movements didn't only help them dodge attacks. Now it helped them hit the elevator even harder.
Bang. Bang.
Ren tried to keep his footing, but the shaking elevator didn't help him at all.
"Dammit, let's try this."
He summoned all his shades and made them widen to function as a net to capture the hawks inside them.
He captured a lot of hawks inside the shade net and immediately closed it. The hawks struggled inside, trying to break the shades, but Ren didn't allow that. He tightened the net. They kept struggling, but he continued tightening it until crack, crack, crack—he heard the birds' bones break, and then suddenly he felt that he was no longer holding birds, but sand.
He dissolved the shades, and sand poured out.
Well, that was great, Ren thought to himself. If I do this one or two more times, this might be over.
Look out! Rex yelled from behind, making Ren turn. Earlier, when he used all his shades to create the net, that left the majority of the defense to Rex. While Rex was trying to take down the other birds, even though Ren had captured a lot in his net, the hawks were adapting. They quickly took advantage of the opening, dodged Rex's energy bullets, and all dived at the elevator at once.
BANG.
The hit was so hard the hawks turned into sand on impact, and the elevator started shaking. No—not shaking. It started tilting left to right.
Oh, what the hell—
Ren and Rex grabbed the edges, trying not to fall out, but the elevator was collapsing. The piece holding it to the wire was slipping.
Ren noticed and cursed. Oh shit.
Click. Click. Clack.
The elevator fell.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA—! Rex yelled as he dropped, squeezing his eyes shut. He kept yelling until he realized something. He wasn't falling.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Ren holding him with a shade, while another shade was gripping the elevator wire.
What the hell? Why didn't I take my phone? I wanted to record your reaction.
Rex's face turned red from embarrassment. If you tell anyone, I will shoot your face off, he threatened, pointing his rifle at Ren.
Oh good, you still have the gun. You still need it. Because the hawks are still around.
That reminded Rex of the situation. He looked around—some hawks were still there, and more were coming at them right now. He ignored what happened earlier and started shooting again.
Ren summoned all his shades. One was holding Rex, five were defending both of them from the birds, and the last two he used like arms to move along the wire. Thankfully, the elevator had already carried them most of the distance.
They were close to the light pillar.
(P.S. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but Ren changing the size of the shades doesn't increase their power. If they become bigger, they aren't heavier or more powerful. And the opposite is also true — if they become smaller, they still have the same amount of power. Changing the size only affects their surface area.)