Dreli's eyes widened for a split second. He felt a surge of rage flow through him. During the entire exam thus far, he was on the brink of crashing out and attempting to kill Sin.
In fact, he had failed to control himself several times, but all of his attempts to attack Sin had been interrupted. This time again, he felt that urge to attack Sin.
"What the hell did you say?" He said, deeply offended and angry, "God... I have never met someone as infuriating as you." He crushed his new square card.
The shouting that Dreli had spouted at Magnus' Fangirl a few seconds ago had drawn some attention from people in other groups.
They glanced over at the young noble as he stared furiously at Sin:
"You just wait until our match. I'll make you a goddamn cripple. I swear it." He had true conviction behind his words, fueled with an aggressively irritating rage.
The people who were observing Dreli couldn't help but feel some type of way.
"Jeez..." They whispered.
"I would hate to be that weakling right now..."
"Yeah, pfft! I know right."
"He's got him super mad for some reason."
"Poor bloke..."
Sin didn't take Dreli's words lightly, responding with a serious expression on his face, "And you think I'll let you do that?" He responded, which was a slight surprise for a few people.
Sin was seen as being very weak. After all, he had gotten the lowest score out of everyone in the entire exam so far. So, seeing him talk back as if he was on equal standing with Dreli was a bit of a shock.
"You're probably used to throwing around all the threats you want without any consequence, but I'm not just gonna stand around and take your shit." Sin's gaze was piercing. He spoke in a low tone: "Don't ask to be spared, now that you've gone this far."
Dreli felt slightly threatened for the first time due to Sin. Before, Sin was only a lucky idiot who got away after attacking him.
Now, however, there was a slight air of confidence coming from Sin that felt seriously lethal. Still, this was nowhere near enough to actually scare Dreli.
"Spared huh? We will see who asks to be spared." He turned, facing Bao.
Sin did the same, the tension almost palpable in the air between the two.
"Now that your opponents are secured, get ready for the test next. This will be the strength portion of the exam." Bao Huxin raised his voice, allowing it to travel to the ears of everyone present.
People began to focus again. Throughout this exam, there wasn't a single second where they had felt no pressure on them. But every time a test loomed above their heads, they felt far more excessive stress.
This strength testing was especially scary, since it was going to confirm the full power of everyone's opponents. Of course, everyone already had an idea of how strong their opponents were from the Spirit testing.
But the strength testing portion would add another layer to that, potentially making opponents seem even more fearsome than before.
Then again, the opposite effect could happen too. So, it was natural that the anticipation was through the roof.
Just like the other times, groups beginning from Team 100% went up to the golems.
"This time," Bao began to give more detailed directions, "You will be asked to give a punch, and also a kick. This is to not only see your upper body strength, but also your relative lower body strength. The median of the two scores will be taken as your final independent score."
It made sense. With these rules, full-body capability of the Hunter was ensured.
The first team began their testing on the Spirit Golems.
The first person unleashed a punch that seemed quite powerful.
"Punch score: 5/10." The golem responded, "Now do your kick."
The person unleashed a roundhouse kick from the side, slamming it into the upper side torso of the golem. The impact from the kick was far superior to that of the punch.
Yet, the score was only a 4/10 from the Spirit Golem, ultimately giving that person a 4.5/10 score--which was a fail.
'Hmm...' Sin mused on seeing this, 'Despite the kick being much stronger, the golems are taking into account the fact that the lower body is on average always much stronger than the upper body. So even if one produces much more impact from the lower body in general, if it isn't relatively much stronger than what a normal human's maximum capacity should be, it will still get a lower score.'
He was making sure to take as many notes on this portion of the test as possible. After all, this was where he needed to excel the most.
His eyes glanced over at Dreli, who was currently preoccupied with the testing that was going on.
'He's annoying, but his Spirit is very strong. I don't know how I'll match up against his cricket or grasshopper Spirit, whatever the fuck it is. It got an 8.2 score from the golem, so I'll have to count on my physical strength to be at least on par with that if not better... since I don't know how strong I am compared to the normal person, I don't really have a clue where I'll land in terms of my score. But, I've trained my body to its limit for as long as I can remember... I should have a decent chance to get a high score...'
Bao announced the scores of each team as the testing promptly continued.
"'Team 100%' overall strength grading: 4.0
"'Fortune' overall strength grading: 4.5!"
"'Searchers Of Wonderland' overall strength grading: 5.2!"
"'Divinity' overall strength grading: 6.3!"
"'Monstrous' overall strength grading: 4.7!"
"'BTD: Blood Thirsty Demons' overall strength grading: 3.9!"
"'Maximum Velocity' overall strength grading: 3.9!"
"'Victory' overall strength grading: 6.3!"
"'Passing Is The Only Option' overall strength grading: 5.7!"
Everyone's scores were fairly similar to their Spirit scores. Some, however, were drastically different--but not by more than 4 or so points.
After everyone's testing concluded, Sin's team finally crossed over to the other side of the arena for their testing.
This time, the fat woman from before went first. She didn't seem to need much of a warm-up. First, she punched the golem as hard as she could--her arm fat jiggling with impact.
"Punch score: 6/10. Kick me now..."
She followed the Spirit Golem's instructions and lifted her leg for a teep-like front kick, which was all that she could muster.
You weren't allowed to use any Spirit in this section, so her physical ability-increasing Spirit wouldn't help her here at all.
Due to this, she only got a measly score of 3/10 for her kick.
"Your final score is 4.5/10."
Sighing with disappointment, she went back to the line.
Magnus' fangirl got a punch score of 2, and a kick score of 4. Quite pathetic in general. But since she was a small girl, it was to be expected.
Only about 10 seconds had passed since Sin's team had made it to the testing area. Sin had spent this time stretching his limbs.
He didn't do static, long-duration stretches, as he knew those would only worsen his ability to push out as much power as possible.
Instead, his stretches were fast and powerful. Arm rotations, leg circles, neck cracks, and side lunges.
After feeling his body had warmed up sufficiently, he walked up to the golem.
At that same moment, Dreli decided to walk forward as well, 'Hmph... I know he is a bit stronger physically. But I don't want anyone to think that he's actually some hot shit. Even if he gets a 6, or maybe a 7, I'll block out that score by getting an even higher one at the same time.' He smuggishly smirked, following Sin's strut.
They both faced the golem at the same time.
Sin wasn't paying attention to Dreli. He was concentrated, his mind fixated on utterly destroying this Spirit Golem in front of him with the force of his entire body.
It didn't matter if he broke his hand or shattered his entire arm. He was going to drill through this piece of rock if it was the last thing he did.
With his mind firmed on an iron will, he clenched his fist tightly, drew back his hand, and unleashed a punch with the strength of his entire body.
Dreli did the same, both of their punches landing at the same time with a resounding boom.
Everyone in the crowd looked forward with shock, especially at Sin's seemingly powerful punch. But they wouldn't know until they actually heard the real score.
Dreli's Spirit Golem spoke first: "Punch score of 7/10. Very good."
And then, Sin's Golem announced his answer:
"Your punch score is..."