Tragedy of the Greatest Heroes

Chapter 12: So Begins the Second Selection

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Violet struggled to focus on the Principal walking up to the podium as she felt herself being jostled by the applicants around her. The room was far too small, AGH should be able to have a far larger room than this.

AGH had an insane amount of funds, just the salary of an SS-Rank like Principal Sever alone was potentially over a billion dollars a year from the government. He alone would be able to pay for the operations of AGH and have millions left over to himself.

“Now I’m sure you’re all excited for the upcoming se- and that y-”

The constant movement of the people around her prevented Violet from hearing anything the Principal said. However, she soon felt the movement around her fade away. She turned around and found Roland had blocked off most of the crowd behind Violet, giving her some much-needed space.

Violet gave Roland a polite smile, which he gladly reciprocated, before returning her attention to the Principal.

“Now allow me to explain how the Second Selection shall work.”

The Principal clapped his hands and a bright projection shined on the wall behind the Principal to provide a visual for the applicants to read along with.

“As a result of applicants doing surprisingly well this year, we’ve decided to change things a bit. Every individual who does not make the top 100 applicants will lose a total of 100 points.”

There was an immediate uproar from the applicants all over the room and Roland was nearly thrown into Violet as everyone surged towards the stage.

“That’s so harsh!”

“Most of us are still in the negatives!”

“We might get kicked out!”

“This isn’t fair!”

Violet began to feel once more crushed as her fellow applicants continued to approach the stage until…

The Principal let out an incredible increase in psychic aura and the stage beneath him, made of concrete, cracked under the immense power it was suddenly put under. As the Principal raised his hand the pressure began to spread around the building.

Applicants who were closest to the Principal were affected the most, the majority of them collapsing completely onto the ground and only a few able to remain on their knees.

The pressure soon extended throughout the entire room and Violet felt herself begin to suffocate. The air became thick like syrup and her head felt heavy. Violet began to lose her balance and nearly fell. The Principal meanwhile stood in front of them, completely casual as though this weren’t even an action that required effort from him.

Looking around, Violet tried to keep an eye out for individuals who might be dealing with the pressure better than others, they might be the High B-Ranks. However, she saw no such individuals.

After a few more seconds the Principal lowered his psychic aura, returning it to a small glow around his body, yet wriggling around this time, as though it were ecstatic that it had been used offensively to such effect.

No applicant dared move towards the stage again, instead Violet felt herself once more get squeezed as all the applicants moved away from the Principal apprehensively.

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The Principal meanwhile gave a hearty laugh and looked at the applicants like they were adorable children.

“Future stars, you may be all geniuses, but you are at best 10 years too young to even think about challenging me. Next time, I’ll let the proctors get involved, I’m sure that they’d love to teach a few lessons.”

The Principal's words and actions shut the mouths of all the applicants as they stared at the Principal apprehensively. He was moderately insane, as most of the SS-Ranks were.

“Now, I heard a future star out there scream out “This isn’t fair”.”

The Principal began to shake his head like he was reprimanding a small child.

“When you fight a group of villains, do you think you will get to play fair? NO!”

The Principal began to speak with passion in his voice, as he taught the 200 genius children the nature of combat.

“When you battle a villain, it’s a battle until incapacitation and often times, death. The villains don’t play fair in these battles, they will team up on you, they will use hostages, they will use any available method to force you into an unfavorable position. And you, who will be bound by laws, can’t do the same back to them.”

Every applicant in the room stared in a silent fear and awe as the usually moderately insane, but cheerful Principal, began to talk seriously.

‘This must be something he’s learned from all his years of experience. What types of mistakes did he make?’ Violet thought to herself.

“Statistics show that 50% of rescuers that enter into battlefields are killed on their escape outwards from attacks by villains. We’ve decided to penalize you similarly. If you still think that this is unfair, then I suggest that you leave.”

While the applicants turned towards each other, to see if anyone would actually leave the application process, nobody did. The Principal had taught them very well.

With a sigh, the Principal regained his usually cheerful complexion as he smiled at the applicants once more.

“Now, as for the rest of the second selection, it will be a free-for-all obstacle course race. You are allowed to team up but points earned will only count towards the individual. First place will earn 100 points and each following place will earn one less point than the higher ranked one.”

Violet nodded her head to herself in understanding. This was a massive opportunity for her to make a huge advancement forward in the rankings. Of course, it was equally dangerous that she would instead lower her ranking so much that she would be kicked out of the application process.

“Now before we let you out, a few rules.”

The Principal clapped his hands together, likely excited at having finally gotten the applicants to listen to him.

“The first is that you may not directly attack any other applicant for any reason. Any applicants caught doing so intentionally will be removed from the application process immediately. Any applicant that does it unintentionally will lose 10 points.”

“The second is that you must stay within course boundaries at all times, in other words, between the two walls. If you leave at any time of your own free will then you will be removed from the premises. If you force an applicant out of the boundaries then you will give up 15 points to the applicant you forced outside.”

“The third rule. You are allowed to use psychic powers in any way. This course will be 10 kilometers long, so prepare yourselves.”

“That should be everything important regarding the rules. I’m sure that you can all figure out the rest. But now it’s time for a disclaimer.”

‘There’s still more after this?’ Violet thought to herself, somewhat annoyed at the length of the speech. Her anxiety was reaching a breaking point very quickly now that her counter had moved past the 50% mark. She was itching to begin the section.

Violet saw the Principal's already wide grin expand across his face even further to the point of almost being unnatural. She felt uncomfortable, she didn’t trust that his enjoyment implied her enjoyment.

“This obstacle course isn’t filled with walls, rope climbs, ground crawls, or small things like that. I warn you, this course, from its very start, is extremely dangerous.”

The applicants looked at each other in fear. They did not doubt that the course would prove to be difficult but dangerous as well? It was an undesired reality.

“Now, none of you will die, we have medics on hand to ensure that. However, not all of you will finish, those who don’t will be removed. And many of you will be injured. So, I’d suggest being careful out there. Good luck, future stars.”

Violet saw the Principal vanish before her very eyes, leaving nothing behind but a deep fear in the minds of most of the applicants. They understood that even if all of them attacked an S-Rank at once, they would almost certainly lose. That was even more true for an SS-Rank. Yet even then, they couldn’t imagine that the Principal would so easily overwhelm them.

As Violet looked around she noticed many applicants visibly shaken by the unimaginable force displayed by the Principal. Luckily, her roommates were faring better than most. Mark supported Vivian as she shakingly straightened her back and quickly calmed down while Roland appeared completely fine afterwards.

Violet herself was able to recover fairly quickly, the abuse she received at her family's hand had trained her to deal with such terrifying events.

‘Still though, to think that the top of this world is so unimaginably strong.’

Unfortunately, none of the applicants would receive much of a break as the speaker system rang out.

“Applicants, prepare yourselves for the second section. It will start in 30 seconds. The first obstacle is in this very room.”

‘It’s in here?’

Violet looked around, hoping to find whatever was supposed to stop their journey so soon. Yet all she found were applicants and walls.

“Guys, look at the stage!” Mark exclaimed.

Looking towards it, Violet noticed it had begun to sink into the floor. The four friends all had the same thought and began rushing over there. Unfortunately, all the other applicants did as well. Based on the location of the path they had seen from the bus and the orientation of the building, the wall next to the stage would be where the course would start.

Sure enough, the walls opened up for them… by exploding. Immediately tens of applicants were thrown into the air backward, landing in the middle of the crowd.

Panic began to spread among many of the applicants and they surged toward the entrance of the course as the Principal's voice rang out over the speaker system.

“Explosions from the outside kill several heroes a year who are performing in building rescues, learn to keep your body reinforced and an energy-projected shield up at all times until you leave the building.”

Applicants began to crush each other as they swarmed towards the entrance. As Violet was crushed she realized something.

‘The first obstacle wasn’t the wall explosion, it was us.’

The bodies of the applicants became a blockade as they shoved against each other in a mad panic to pierce through the door. Violet saw several applicants fall and end up completely trampled under the feet of their peers. It was a fate that surely awaited Violet if she didn’t escape this situation.

Looking around Violet saw several applicants jump to the ceiling and begin moving towards the wall unobstructed. Violet quickly searched for and found Roland, calling out to him immediately.

“ROLAND! JUMP TO THE CEILING”

While usually Violet would have been mentally crumpled from this situation as a result of her lack of social skills, she had built up a friendly trust with Roland recently and this was a situation where social interactions weren’t a large priority for her.

She saw Roland immediately leap to the ceiling, far above many of the other applicants, something Violet soon replicated. At the top she saw Mark and Vivian do the same, landing next to her and Roland.

Violet used energy projections to stab the ceiling with spikes coming out from her shoes and keep herself connected from her feet. She unbent her legs and allowed herself to hang, feeling herself remain attached to the walls. Energy projections were the power to create constructs of pure energy that could be formed in any way the user wanted, the variety, power, and overall usefulness of the constructs would increase with time skill, and experience.

“Everyone move towards the wall! Based off of that jump they must have stopped draining our powers while we were here!” Roland yelled out to be heard above the applicants on the floor.

Violet looked back at the applicants on the floor, the vast majority of them were too blinded by their fear to realize the safer area. Numerous unconscious and mangled bodies were on the floor, already being healed by volunteers for AGH. From her vantage point of about 40 feet off the ground, Violet could see all of this with ease as she walked towards the wall.

When they got there she saw that many other applicants had already broken through the wall and had begun to run on the course. Unfortunately, the walls seemed to be repatching themselves quickly, not allowing any other applicants to enter. Most though, were slowly moving through a corridor that led outside, still blinded by the panic that had ensued from the explosion.

Violet immediately stepped forward, as an all-rounder and a Mid-B-Rank she was the one who could break through the wall the fastest. Violet felt her left arm flood with incredible strength as psychic power flowed through her muscles. She felt her arm become warm and begin to twitch slightly, as though it begged to be used. As Violet pulled back her arm her teammates stepped away from her.

Violet swung and upon impact shot psychic energy out of her arm and through the wall, causing a cylindrical hold to explode outwards to the other side. She and her teammates immediately began to run through the tunnel she just made.

When they reached the other side they saw it in person at last, the path of the obstacle course. It was asphalt like a road but on the sides, there was white concrete shaped for a sidewalk. There were lines on the road and lanes marked bike lanes, and on the sides, there were even buildings, cut off at the top to not go above the walls.

‘AGH… they’re testing us like it’s a real scenario we could encounter as heroes.’

For less than a second the quartet took in the view of what they were seeing, then they leaped out, landing far away from most of the contestants exiting through the small door. Landing, they rolled on the ground to reduce impact and then immediately broke into a full sprint. Violet heard the voice of the Principal echo throughout the course from hidden speakers all across the area.

“When performing rescues, the common and obvious exits will be swarmed and likely even trapped by more intelligent and malicious villains. But if you’re smart, you would leave through a back exit. Or even better, make your own.”

With that, the quartet ran, through the testing area, steeling themselves for the trials ahead. As they looked forward, they saw a group in front of them, waiting, all in combat-ready stances.

‘So it begins.’ Violet realized. This was the second section.

End of Chapter 12