Mrs. Ruth made her way through the crowd of students, feeling delighted as she saw the enthusiasm on their faces. She walked in with a helper carrying a little bowl and setting it on a table beside her.

“Good day class F,” She greeted. “I’m impressed to see how eager you are about this exercise. But I wouldn’t want to keep you here longer than I have to, so we’ll just go straight to the point.” Her introduction made everyone feel even more delighted and eager. “I've divided the class into two; the first half and the second half. The first half consists of the first 18 according to the class list, while the second half is the second 18. In the bowl beside me are 18 names of the students in the second half of the class list. In other words, those whose names fall within 19-36 in the class list have their names written down here. But the ones choosing will be those of the first half of the class; the first 18 students according to the class records…”

Although she said she would be going straight to the point, Mrs. Ruth couldn’t help but elaborate a little on how the choosing system was. In simpler terms, she divided the class into two; one group has their names written down while the other group will be choosing from those names, and whoever is chosen will be their opponent.

“The rules of the simulation are simple; you have two minutes to defeat your opponent. And the use of abilities, no matter how little or insignificant it is, is prohibited. With no further ado, can the first 18 students step forward to choose their opponents?”

Just as she had said, the rules were simple and similar to the rules of the actual first segment of the Combat Trials. In the first segment, the use of any asides raw combat prowess involving fist against fist was prohibited. At the stage the students are now, it was still difficult to know what their abilities would be. But records of the areas they excelled in made it easy to make some predictions as to what their abilities could grant them. A typical example was a boy named Caesar Kroft. He was a member of class F, and his records show that he excels in strength tests on a scale slightly higher than an average Cyph. However, his body’s defense was on a terrifyingly higher scale than most people on his level. In fact, when compared to others, his bodily defense was among the highest. Based on his records of high bodily defense, it was predicted that the ability he would gain would grant him immeasurable bodily defense. And for that reason, he was viewed as one of the prodigy students of Ravenwood High school.

Another example was a student named Benji Sherman. He was in class C and had a record of one with undisputed strength among the first years. Based on his records, the prediction was that his ability would grant him strength on a much larger scale than anyone else. Nevertheless, none of that was required in the first segment.

The 18 students stepped forward and picked a piece of wrinkled paper one after the other. When they were done choosing, Mrs. Ruth gave word to open the paper to see who their opponents were. The first match was between a girl named Louis and a boy named Kaycee. In appearance alone, these two were slender with the boy being only a few inches taller. According to their records, they both are proficient in agility but differ a bit in terms of strength.

The stage was set already and the match commenced. With a two minutes deadline to take down your opponent, the two didn’t hold back from displaying all they knew in raw combat. The only exception was that they wouldn’t go overboard to gravely hurt one another and whoever did so would not only lose the simulation but will face the wrath of a Senior Commissioner. As the match went on, it was discovered that even though the boy had an advantage in regards to strength, using it on an opponent as slippery as this one was immensely difficult. But at the tail end, he finally won with just a few more seconds to spare. And from the way he breathed heavily, it seemed he had used quite a lot of strength to achieve his victory.

Everyone was surprised at this. And although it was the boy who won, there was a possibility that if they were allowed to use even a bit of their ability that the girl would be the victor. And sadly, no one knew this more than Kaycee himself. So even though the victory was his in the end, it wasn’t with the style and fanfare he had envisioned. But a winner was a winner so it didn’t stop him from putting on airs, displaying his aura of dominance to garner the attention of the opposite sex. But the stubborn ones refused to accept him as a decent opponent and shunned him instead.

With the shunning slowly turning into a riot, Mrs. Ruth had to step in to remind the students that the match was based on luck and it would be like that during the first segment. Moreover, it was the girl who had picked the name in the first place so it was her luck for picking her opponent. After all, if she had faced someone like Caesar Kroft, she would have no other option but to lose no matter how hard she tried to change it. The riot died down and the second contenders stepped on stage.

They were both girls with thick busty physiques. The boys went mad when these two went on stage, but what they didn’t know, or rather expect, was that these girls displayed terrifying levels of raw strength. According to their records, their strengths and everything else were almost identical, and if not for appearances, one would think that they were twins, as their names were Emma and Ella respectively.