Unlike the general masses, the disappearance of Saylin’s hologram and the timers reset caused a minimal reaction from Cynrik and company. Instead, all around them, the sounds of chaos ensued as kids collapsed to the ground crying for their mommies, or others rushed to try and claim a good dorm room. Even a handful of kids outright quit the exam after hearing the next phase’s contents.
To the ordinary masses, this wasn’t a game. Even the weakest of Spatial Egresses had a baseline level of Tier-1, and in a crowd of children who mainly consisted of those who had yet to complete their first evolution, it was nearly the same as handing down a death sentence.
For nearly an hour after the announcement of Phase:2, it became a scene of incompetence and overconfidence. But, in the eyes of Cynrik and Brance, they were able to spot a clear difference between those who would pass and those who would fail. The ones who had even remotely any training or came from well-known families seemed as if their passing was just a matter of fact. While those who didn’t were panic-stricken as if the world was ending for them.
Gabby and Benny were outliers in the chaos. They seemed to be utterly unaffected by their surroundings and the announcement of having to dive into Spatial Egresses to continue with the exams. Their lack of reaction came from their faith in the two brothers walking ahead of them, cutting a path through the frantic crowd and making their way towards the nearest dorm entrance.
Everything stemmed from five years ago; the effects of the kidnapping incident had built a neigh unbreakable level of trust that borders fanaticism towards Cynrik and Brance. In the deepest parts of Gabby and Benny’s minds, they had absolute faith that no matter the situation, the Jetlensr brothers would find a way through, and all they had to do was follow them and do what they were told.
After that horror-filled event, Gabby and Benny had been molded into fighters by Cynrik and Brance, and even though they weren’t even remotely close to being able to last more than 20 seconds against the brothers, they would have no trouble against normal kids their age. So even faced with the daunting challenge of completing their first Egress Dive, they felt nothing but confidence.
Peeking at the Sanford siblings out the corner of his eye, Cynrik couldn’t help but chuckle. How could he not know that these two kids were absolutely reliant on him and Brance? He had talked it over with Brance several times, and eventually, it was Brance who had changed his view on the situation. Originally, Cynrik wanted nothing to do with the Sanford siblings, but after hearing the logic Brance spoke, which consisted of a “We can’t do everything alone” speech, Cynrik eventually caved and started planning out a guiding path to turn these two kids into helpful teammates in the future. As the saying went, pig-headed teammates get you killed, so Cynrik went about developing a training regiment explicitly tailored for the two kids.
This was another reason he had started the candy rewards for Gabby. Brance’s praise would only keep her attention for so long, but so long as she would get a piece of candy from Cynrik, she would actively try to complete the tasks he put before her.
The group of four slowly made their way towards a line that had formed at the left-most entrance into the dorms, and Cynrik checked the timer one last time before diverting his attention to the frantic kids who were trying to force their way into the building.
[Tobs, set a timer that mirrors the one on the building.]
-Timer set for 47 hours 22 minutes-
A small notification window appeared in both the brother’s peripheral vision, and they quickly chose to ignore it for now.
Standing on the right-hand side of his brother, Brance looked around at the surging tide of kids and was at a loss.
[This is going to take a while, if we had sped up sooner, we wouldn’t be stuck like this.] Sighing in disappointment, Brance filed in behind a few kids and started waiting in line.
[Tsk, Nah, that’s not happening.] Cynrik, on the other hand, wasn’t having this whole line experience.
“Yall got three seconds to get the fuck out of my way.” His voice boomed slightly as he added a small amount of Killing Intent to it, causing several kids to whip their heads in his direction and sneer.
“Oh fuck off, kid, who the hell do you think you are?” A tall boy who looked to be at the limit of the age requirements for the exam shouted back, challenging Cynrik, which was the ABSOLUTE wrong decision.
With his eyes meeting Cynrik’s, a sudden force bore down on his body, causing him to drop to his knees instantly, and his heart was gripped with fear as he tried to break contact with the chilling icy eyes of the hooded boy.
“Tsk, two seconds.” Smiling evilly under the shadow of his hood, Cynrik slowly started applying his Killing Intent onto the line of children, causing dozens of them to drop immediately.
Brance, Benny, and Gabby were stunned by Cynrik’s sudden and aggressive actions but kept quiet, as they knew not to interfere. But, if they did, and this monster’s gaze fell on them, they knew it would be a bad time.
“One, second.” Cynrik’s chilling voice got louder as he applied 2g worth of Killing Intent on the surrounding area. The smarter kids took off and scattered in different directions, while the idiots who thought they were more important chose to stand in place defiantly.
The line quickly dispersed except for a handful of kids with some kind of background and a self-entitled disposition.
“Stop this madness. Can’t you see some people can’t fight back? You think you’re the only one with Killing Intent.” A boy with long neat, blue hair spoke out and tried exerting his own pressure on Cynrik.
“Hehe, the balls on this guy.” Giggling sadistically, Cynrik tilted his head towards Brance and waved dismissively at the blue-haired kid before exerting 3g of Killing Intent on him, which not only shattered the weak efforts presented by the blue-haired boy but also forced him to spit up blood.
Tapping his foot lightly on the ground, Cynrik then disappeared from his spot, showed up right beside the blue-haired boy, and placed his hand on the kid’s shoulder. “You know, it’s funny, the last guy that stood in my way was pissing blood for a month, yet, you, some no-name girly-boy….” Cynrik paused his monologue and lightly ran his fingers through the boy’s long, smooth hair.
“have the gall, to try and fight back, when I, Ivar the Boneless, say to make way. Tsk, it’s quite the shame too.” Then, talking with a light-hearted yet cynical tone, Cynrik forcefully gripped the boy’s hair and forced him to look directly into his eyes, causing fear to grip his heart.
“Andlát munu eigi munu fastr fyrir þú, young girly boy.” Finishing his statement, which he once again spoke in Norse, Cynrik head-butted the boy, causing blood to spurt from his nose, and effortlessly flung his body several feet away before motioning to his group to follow him into the dorms.
Gabby and Benny followed Cynrik obediently, but Brance stood in place for a second, watching the blue-haired boy struggle to get back to his feet before eventually choosing to walk over and help him up.
Seeing the boy dressed in silver walk over, the blue-haired boy quivered in fear and tried to get up faster, but he was too slow, and he forcefully closed his eyes tightly, expecting to be hit again.
“I’m sorry, my brother is in a bad mood; he shouldn’t have done that to you.” Then, picking up the boy who was older than himself, Brance pulled out a small pill and put it into the boy’s hand, which he was using to shield his face in fear.
The boy’s eyes opened, and he blinked in confusion; instead of the demon-like child he was expecting, he saw a young boy smiling warmly at him.
“I hope this healing capsule will be enough, Cy…Ivar is a bit unruly and has a short temper.” Brance nearly slipped up and used Cynrik’s real name and, with a frown, corrected himself to using the name his brother had spoken in public.
“It…it…It’s fine. I should have kept my mouth shut, but seeing how he was treating even those too weak to move, I had to step up. My father always told us that as members of the Dane family, it’s our job to help those too weak to defend themselves.” The boy looked at the pill in his hand for a second before tossing it into his mouth. The instant it hit his stomach, he felt a warm feeling spread through his body, and his nose realigned itself. Cynrik had broken it with his head-butt, but now it was healed and as good as new.
“My name is Vinsaint Dane; thank you for the pill.” Vinsaint extended his hand to Brance awkwardly and introduced himself.
Brance looked down at Vinsaint’s hand for a moment, speechlessly, before gripping it firmly and shaking it while smiling at the boy. Then, against his better judgment, Brance picked the first name that came to mind that went along with Cynrik’s Ivar.
” Björn, Björn Ironside.”
Cynrik, who had already entered the dorm’s hallway, cackled loudly in response to his brother’s use of a Viking name. He laughed even harder at the choice. What he found funny was in history, Björn was actually the older brother of Ivar, but now it seemed that these two brothers would have their roles reversed.