The Legendary Ghost Hunter

The four lines of people began moving all at once. The person in front of each line stepped up to the obelisk, and prepared their attack. They only had one shot, so they had to make it count. Commander Lionel had it made it clear no retakes or second chances will be given, with the reasoning being 'the Ghosts won't just give you a second chance'.

Of course, to make things fair for those who specialized in weak but rapid attacks in quick succession, everyone was given a total of three seconds to attack the obelisk. That number was enough for those rapid attack users to use their art properly, while also short enough to prevent those who use one powerful attack from attacking twice.

The first four to go were nothing too admirable. Their attacks managed to get the black obelisk to light up in bars from the bottom up all the way to green, which was the fourth rank by the looks of it. Following the pattern, the order of the colors from the bottom up was black, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and white. Naturally, the closer to the bottom a color was, that meant the attacker's power was weaker.

Occasionally, there would be a yellow or even orange color, but none were able to reach the red, pink, or white levels.

At least, until  her.

A familiar face, born anew. That chilly aura, the presence of being too perfect to approach, was unique to her and her only. She was no stranger to Finn and Iris, and thanks to Finn's attention-attracting question earlier, she now knew the two were here.

But of course,  she  of all people was not one to get distracted. She could meet up with Finn and Iris later—that is, if she passed this exam. She had no doubt Finn and Iris would, so if she wanted to truly be with them, then she must first overcome this trial in the form of an exam.

Calmly yet dauntlessly, the girl stepped right in front of her obelisk, holding a silver scepter with a blue gem on top in her hand. She had an aura of silent, cold confidence to her, like the frozen steel that made up her weapon.

Holding her scepter out in front of her diagonally, she closed her eyes and channeled all of her energy, mustering up as much power as she could. She was not holding back—partly because this was an important exam, but more so because she had something to prove, to a certain person.

If fate has truly let us meet again, then... allow me to show you—I will not hold you back.

The beautiful girl's crimson eyes snapped back open, and from the gem on her scepter, a single, extremely concentrated laser of frost energy shot out. It struck the obelisk directly in its heart, and the black stone began being painted light blue as it started freezing over.

In fact, the cold aura around the girl had grown so strong since this attack that ice began forming at her feet, and the people behind her in line backed away a bit to avoid getting caught.

As the obelisk was frozen, there was no way to tell exactly what rank the girl got. But the three seconds were not over just yet.

Raising her scepter high into the air, the girl narrowed her eyes slightly, then whispered a single word under her breath.

<strong>"Shatter."</strong>

Suddenly, she brought her scepter down and struck the ground with its sharp bottom end, unleashing a devastating wave of bitter and raw frost energy. The ice on the obelisk and the frozen floor both shattered like glass, beautiful crystalline shapes filling and dissolving into the air.

And the obelisk...

"W-White...?!" People in the crowd began gasping in shock, staring slack-jawed at the fully-colored obelisk.

Indeed—the girl had reached the topmost, white rank of the obelisk with her power.

In other words, she had far exceeded the passing mark, which was designated as yellow. That was already incredibly high standards, so to exceed them by this much was... unbelievable, to say the least.

Still, the girl acted as if nothing had happened, and turned around gracefully before walking off the stage—but not before briefly glancing in the direction of Finn and Iris.

"That's... Qi Ling," Iris murmured in awe. "I can't believe she's here too..."

"... Qi Ling? Who's that?" Finn asked, genuinely confused.

"W-What? How could you say that?!" Iris cried, whispering sharply. "She fought with us side by side during our first Temple Raid! Remember?"

"... Oh, right."

Finn had truly forgotten about her, after being apart for so long. Iris gave a sigh.

"... If she finds out you really forgot about her like that, she'll be upset, y'know."

"I suppose."

"You sound like you don't care at all..."

"Because I don't."

Iris sighed once more and smiled sadly. "I swear... you're hopeless, Finn."

After a few more people had their turn, there turned out to be eight people who managed to reach the white rank, over a dozen in the pink rank, and about thirty who reached the red rank. The rest were all just barely passing or failed, with the majority being the latter. That was how difficult this test was.

Now, only a few people had yet to go. Finn, Iris, and that blonde guy from earlier were all part of that group. The blonde guy, however, was in a different line, and went first.

Unlike everyone else, however, he didn't appear to be nervous at all. Hell, he walked as if he was waltzing through a ballroom, without a care in the world. Boldly and with a wry smile on his face, he strode up to the obelisk of his line, and...

"Boop."

... Lightly tapped it.

The obelisk showed no reaction whatsoever, but the man didn't seem to care at all and instead simply turned back around and headed away, hands crossed behind his head.

"..."

Now this, was shocking. The entire crowd dropped their jaws at what they just witnessed, even more so than Qi Ling's incredible performance from earlier. The man, of course, seemed completely unbothered and carried on walking as gauntly as ever, even going as far as to pull out a small mirror from his pocket and admire his own reflection in it as he fiddled with his hair.

"Next," Lionel called out from up front, and it was then that Iris realized it was her turn.

"Well... wish me luck," she said with a deep breath, smiling wryly.

Finn gave a brisk nod.

"Good luck."

*****

[A/N]

As a result of school getting busy and exams nearing for me, I have decided to put this novel on hiatus. It isn't getting the traction I hoped it would, and I have two other novels to keep writing.

Judging from support via power stones, my other two books (The Mage of Primordial Chaos and Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse) beat this one by alot, so I will be putting this novel on pause for now.

I apologize to those who were looking forward for more chapters, but this is not completely dropped. When school lightens up a bit more, I will pick this back up. In the meantime, you can check out my two other novels, The Mage of Primordial Chaos and Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse (especially the latter).

Thank you for understanding!