Chapter 304: Diagnostic

In a broad, expansive dome-like area, a massive door automatically opened from a tunnel, and from that tunnel emerged an entire group of young adults not in their usual uniform, led at the head by a tall, tanned, smiling man. 

As they entered, they were dazzled by the blinding light, before the entire room came into view… 

They all felt utterly dwarfed. The dome itself was the size of dozens of football fields and spanned hundreds of meters in height. The walls were black with purple tinges, matching the entire aesthetic of the school, rows and rows of benches were seen all around them protected by a green energy dome keeping off any possible attack at bay, of course completely empty.

Most people in the class, including Moby, looked absolutely stunned, while others seemingly could not care any less or were too nervous to react. To Moby, it seemed like the room was similar to that of his future father-in-law's arena, only on a far, far larger and grander scale. 

"Okay class! Welcome to Arena D2 of elite school!" Professor Zave motioned wide with his hands, a slight echo being heard from his voice. "You all have chosen to do the training first and skip the lecture, which is actually quite surprising… Every year, people chose the lecture to save face, but it seems like all of you are quite eager to show me what you're made of!"

The entire class simply stared firmly back at him with determined eyes, even the nervous ones immediately shifted at his words and mannerisms.

"Good! Now, first off, I need to get a good grasp of where you all are! One by one, show me all of your spirit modes!" 

And just like that, the entire class stared wide-eyed once more, yet they did not want to talk back out of fear of losing points, which seemed to not surprise the professor at all.

"Like I said, spirit mode is no secret, you will be forced to use it all the time anyways! This is no time for such childish ideals! Now, once I call your name, you will demonstrate your spirit mode to me! Understood!?"

"..." The class remained deathly silent, trying to take in everything before they somewhat hesitantly responded all at once. 

"YES SIR!"

"First! Irilim, it's your turn, show us your spirit mode. Don't worry, this is not a test, but a diagnostic. You have nothing to lose, now show me what you got!"

"YES SIR!"

She walked out of the crowd with her back straight, now standing between the teacher and all the students who were keenly looking in her direction.

She soon after closed her eyes and calmly took a deep breath, hints of red mana flowing all around her before it all exploded into a brilliant shine. 

She completely changed, her previously pitch-black hair now had a rosy shimmer and undertone, masked by the light of her flapping, butterfly-like crimson wings. On her face, there were adornments and decorations of red aura, along with two antennas sprouting out. She finished her demonstration by flying around closely towards the ground before softly landing back on the arena floor, reverting to her base form. 

"Hmmm," Professor Zave nodded. "Beautifully done Irilim! You can go back to your spot now!" He smiled at her. 

"Thank you so much for your kind words professor," She bowed deeply with a smile, her voice sounding slightly high pitched, raising her head and returning to her spot. 

"Okay! Next! Rashford! You're up!"

"Yes sir!"

For the next ten minutes, students went by one by one, and Moby analyzed every single one of them. Indeed, he found them to be quite impressive, but only a few managed to really catch his eyes. 

"Next! Moby Kane! You're up!"

That was when it was finally his turn. He hoped he would have been before everyone else, especially Artorias but he simply had to deal with it. 

"Yes sir! Right away!" He shouted with passion, walking up to centre stage with all eyes keenly on him.

Just like everyone else, he closed his eyes and focused his energy. And, not too long after, energy began pouring and flowing all around him, one ominous, pitch black, and dark in nature. 

The ground underneath him started trembling as the aura began to encircle his body, forming scaly armour, one both sharp and soft in nature.

Sharp black scales slowly crawled up his face and stopped sitting firmly under his eyes in a jagged state. The shoulder pads were not at all symmetrical, the right one being far more spiked than the other that looked very lacking in comparison. 

The gauntlets were almost claw-like in nature, and were protected by pointed, layered metal rerebraces which sat loosely under the shoulder plates, entire chunks missing from the right side. On the chest was a massive, scaly chest plate that slightly protruded forward in an odd manner, far different in all areas, the non-symmetrical nature making it seem rather badly made.

His leggings fully matched his upper body, both in colour but also in its scaly, unpolished design. It was to the point that the left leg was completely missing a knee guard, and the right leg was missing vital areas in joints.

Taking a deep breath, Moby once again opened his eyes. And, the first thing he witnessed was the rather approving look of his professor who gawked at him with nearly star-like eyes, the most of any student so far. So, he couldn't help but smile. 

But, that was when he turned around to face his class, and unsurprisingly, some of their faces were red, trying to hold something in. 

That was when one of the boys completely broke…

"... … AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What the hell is this shit!" 

That initial outburst caused many other people to follow in his footsteps.

"His spirit mode looks like it's straight out of the ghetto!"

"PFFF! No! not even! It's so scuffed! I doubt that it's complete!"

"Well, no shit it's not complete! I don't think this has ever happened before!"

"How the hell did a guy like this ever enter this school!?"

"It's probably from all that media and military attention! If they praised him like a hero and he didn't even get to this point, they would have all seemed like idiots!"

"Mister Zave! Please kick this imposter out of our school! This is more than enough proof! He doesn't belong here!"

Many of the students in the class bore an entertained expression, but only a few of them went absolutely wild and voiced their disapproval. But still, there were people with the decency to stay calm and indifferent, some even impressed.

Moby fully expected something like this, but, he would be lying if he said that he didn't think this reaction was over the top. He thought they would have stayed more tame considering the teacher was there, but he didn't realize that getting into the school with an incomplete spirit mode was unheard of. No wonder they went wild, they thought that they were in the unquestionable right.

Indeed, his spirit mode was still incomplete. As he trained, his mana core that was leaking a dark aura slowly began to crack and shed even more than before. In many ways, it reminded him of an egg, but he could not see any other correlation. Now, it was to the point that it was mostly broken but not completely. It did not take him very long to figure out that it was linked to his spirit mode, and that it would most likely be completed once it fully cracked. 

Moby once again took a gander at the class, with cold, deadly eyes, softening up slightly seeing that Hikari, Artorias, and Rigrit did not follow the crowd, Rigrit especially, bearing a serious gaze that nearly matched his own, catching him completely off guard since he did not see anything like it from him prior. 

He took a deep breath and prepared to retaliate to the laughing crowd, saying something like "If you think I'm a fraud, why don't you fight me?"

Yet, before he could even speak, the voice of a pure demon rang from directly behind him. 

"SILENCE!"

The entire arena shook, and the force field surrounding them began to crack from it alone. It was surreal, and it made everyone go quiet in an instant, most of their faces going pail. Some nearly even fainted, like they took a gander at the deepest depths of the abyss of terror. 

Indeed, it was non-other than an outraged professor Zave, his killing intent and purple aura rushing from his body spreading to every corner of the arena, even Moby had to take a step back from his display, his heart heavily beating faster.

"Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable! Have you no manners?! I get that an incomplete spirit mode had never even been seen in this building, but that doesn't justify this! Do you all truly think his admission here was a mistake, accident, or some sort of conspiracy!? You think he's a fraud? Fine! One of you! One of you step up and fight him! If you're so confident then do it! What's stopping you!? This is your chance to do it! I allow it!" He yelled once more, his aura subsiding when he noticed some students were nearly unable to breathe, and others too overtaken to think. 

Everyone was taken back, even Moby did not expect such a thing to happen. The professor finished his speech, and Moby expected there to be a full silence. Of course, he did expect there to be some students willing to do it, but after a good amount of thinking. No one would be confiden-

"I'll do it sir! Pick me!"

Not even a full second later, a hand immediately and enthusiastically shot up, proving him wrong. And, when Moby focused on the voice, it was non-other than his own roommate, Rigrit. In hindsight, he should have expected it, but he still could not understand why he was trying so hard.

"Sir! Please pick me! I'll fight him!" He continued to enthusiastically wave his hand in the air, catching not only Moby's surprise.

"Rigrit, you weren't even laughing or being demeaning to him, why do you want to fight him? What do you have to prove?" Professor Zave asked with an eyebrow raised. 

"O-oh! I-I was just keeping my opinions hidden of course! I will show this FRAUD the true meaning of being an Elite school student! He doesn't deserve to be here and I'm gonna prove it," He laughed heartily with his chest puffed out.

"Rigrit, you're not fooling anyone, all staff has been informed about this. All you want is an excuse to fight Kane legally."

"N-no-no-no-no-no! Of course not!" He waved his hands vigorously before he inwardly scoffed and sighed, took a deep breath and bolted straight at the teacher with a serious gaze, which left everyone's jaws on the ground, but what happened next made them sink even further. 

"Please sir! I beg of you!" Regrit immediately slid down into a bowing position right under the teacher's feet, his head firmly planted on the ground. "Please let me fight him! I truly hate his guts for having the gull to cheat the system. Let me put this fraud in his place." 

Professor Zave let out an audible sigh of annoyance, which was then followed up by a slight smile as he prepared to speak. 

That was when another voice suddenly sprung out of the crowd. 

"Professor! Allow me to do it!" A rather sophisticated-looking light-pink-haired man walked out of the masses, with a confident look in his eyes. 

"Oh… You seem sure of yourself,"

"Yes, of course, sir. I am going against a man who had not even done the meagre task of completing his spirit mode, this should be rather quick and simple…" He bowed elegantly, his right hand on his chest.

"Hmmm… very well, let's see how you fare. And as a bonus, Kane, if you win I'll give you 50 points, and Lisvern, if you win, I'll give you your 250 points  back from failing the test." 

As soon as Zave spoke, everyone's eyes immediately flared with envy— they should have been the ones to volunteer and step up. However, their opinions were quick to change with the next

"Lose conditions are simple! loser gets expelled, are both of you up for the challenge?"

Those conditions caught them, along with the entire class completely off guard. How did things escalate to such an extent!? Both sides were clearly dumbfounded, staring wide at the professor with hints of sweat running down their faces, deep in thought. 

"But sir! I came here first! I should have been the one to fight!"

"*Sight* Rigrit, go back to your spot and quietly wait and watch, I won't be repeating myself, is that clear?"

"Yes sir…" He slothfully stood up with immense disappointment, slowly walking past Moby and Lisvern, not even looking at their faces as he gazed at the ground, dazedly kicking at invisible rocks.