"Where the hell is he?"
Sammy was pacing back and forth like a caged animal, his fingers pulling at his own hair in frustration. "It's been three days, man. Three days since he locked himself in his room and we haven't heard a peep from him."
"Maybe he's sick," Talia offered, though she didn't sound like she believed it.
Amanda leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, her expression unreadable. "He knows about the evaluation today. He's not the type to just bail on something important."
"Isn't he?" Sammy shot back. "I mean, come on, this is Rudra we're talking about. For all we know, he could be literally losing his mind in there and "
"He's not," Amanda cut him off, her voice quiet but firm. "He wouldn't just give up."
Talia glanced between them. "Well, we're about to find out because we're going to be late if we don't head to the evaluation hall right now."
Sammy groaned but grabbed his bag
-----
The evaluation hall was packed. Students milled around in nervous clusters, comparing notes and stress-eating snacks. The written exam papers were already laid out on the desks in neat rows.
Sophie stood at the front of the room with Adam beside her, both of them looking remarkably composed for people about to inflict academic torture on dozens of teenagers.
"Listen up, everyone," Sophie called out, raising her voice above the chatter. She waited for the noise to die down before continuing. "Today is your second evaluation. We've got two parts. First is the written exam it's going to be tough, don't say I didn't warn you. Then we move straight into the battle simulation using the VR rigs. You'll be fighting other students one-on-one. The Winners get access to the restricted section of the library, plus first pick of any weapons from the academy's arsenal. Losers get to watch and take notes. Sound good?"
A few nervous laughs rippled through the crowd.
"" Mam do you know where rudra has been ? "" Talia asked
Listening to this few people giggled while other made fun of him.
"Rudra's going straight to battle sim," Sophie said, checking her clipboard. "He already did his written exam three days back, so he'll be starting against the winner of the first bracket. Everyone else, take your seats. You've got two hours and yes, you can use the bathroom but no, you can't ask other people how to do their problems."
As everyone shuffled to find their seats, Sammy leaned over to Talia. "Did she just say Rudra already did his written exam? When the hell did that happen?"
Talia shrugged, looking just as confused.
Amanda said nothing, but her jaw was clenched tight.
The exam was brutal.
It wasn't just about regurgitating facts like the first one. This time, Sophie had gone out of her way to make them think. Questions like: "If you have fire element and you're fighting in a water-based environment, explain three ways you could adapt your fighting style to overcome the disadvantage" and "Describe what happens molecularly when you apply ice element to an object moving at high velocity and how this differs from static applications of the same element."
Sammy was already sweating through his second page, muttering curse words under his breath.
Amanda breezed through it. She'd always been good at understanding the theoretical side of elemental manipulation, and it showed in how quickly her pen moved across the paper.
Talia was working through it methodically, stopping to think before she wrote, her brow furrowed in concentration.
By the time the two hours were up, about half the students looked shell-shocked.
"Well," Sammy said, putting his pen down with the defeated air of a man who'd just walked through a war zone, "that was absolutely brutal. I think I just failed so hard that it created a new standard for what failing looks like."
"You did fine," Talia said, though she didn't sound entirely convinced.
Amanda gathered her papers without comment, her expression thoughtful.
That's when the whispering started.
It was subtle at first just a low buzz from one of the corners of the room. But it spread quickly, like wildfire jumping from group to group. Words like "afraid" and "coward" and "mana less" started bouncing around the room.
Amanda's head turned sharply at the sound of her own name mentioned.
A group of students was clustered together, led by a guy who had the kind of confidence that came from winning at everything effortlessly. He had sharp features, slicked-back dark hair, and the kind of smile that made Amanda's skin crawl. Kevin Hart. Ranked fifth in the first evaluation and apparently harboring some kind of grudge.
When he noticed Amanda making her way over, his smile widened.
"Well, well," he said, loud enough for his whole group to hear. "If it isn't Amanda herself. I was just thinking about you, actually."
Amanda stopped directly in front of him, her fists clenching. "What's your problem?"
"My problem?" Kevin laughed, the sound sharp and mocking. "You want to know my problem? It's that thing you're defending. Rudra or whatever his name is. That guy's a waste of space. He doesn't have any mana like, literally none and yet somehow he's supposed to be here taking spots away from actually talented people. And you helped him cheat his way through the first evaluation."
Amanda's hand started to move before her brain could catch up.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
The voice came from behind her . Amanda froze with her fist half-raised.
Rudra stepped out from between two rows of desks like he'd been there the whole time, which was impossible because Amanda had just checked that entire area and it was empty. His expression was neutral, almost bored, but there was something in his eyes that made Kevin's confident smirk falter.
Kevin recovered quickly, puffing out his chest. "What are you going to do about it, mana less boy? Bore me to death?"
Rudra didn't respond to the provocation. Instead, he looked at Amanda, and something unreadable crossed his face. He reached out and gently took her raised hand, his fingers lingering on her wrist for a moment longer than necessary. His touch was cold, she noticed. Colder than it should be.
He looked down at her hand like it was the most fragile thing he'd ever seen.
When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet, meant for only her to hear. "Don't waste energy on people like him. You're better than that."
Then, without waiting for a response, he turned back to Kevin. "Let's settle this in the simulator. Right now."
Kevin's face flushed with a mixture of anger and excitement. "Oh, you want to fight me? Finally going to show everyone that you're not completely useless?"
Rudra was already walking away, heading toward the battle simulation chamber. "We'll see."
Kevin scrambled after him, his friends cheering him on, the promise of a spectacle pulling most of the other students along behind them like metal drawn to a magnet.
The entire class stood frozen by the turning of events.
Sammy stared after them, his mouth hanging open. "Did Rudra just challenge Kevin Hart? Did that actually just happen?"
Talia looked equally shocked.
Amanda stood frozen, staring at the spot where Rudra had taken her hand. His touch was still cold against her skin, but not unpleasantly so. There was something about it that felt... protective. Dangerous. Like holding onto the edge of a cliff.
She'd never seen him look at her like that before.
Whatever had been happening in that locked room for the past three days, something had changed.
And as she watched him disappear into the simulation chamber, Amanda realized with a cold certainty that she'd just watched Rudra cross some kind of threshold.
He wasn't the same person who'd walked in three days ago.
And in the depths of her gut, where instinct lived, Amanda realized with a spike of fear that she didn't know whether that was a good thing or a very, very dangerous one.