Air Hero

Second stage

Before even Elrisa finished with her explanation, the people around are already in a mess trying to find someone they know to make a group. Of course, the center of attention will be Iki, and Heinrich since Giovanni seemed to be surrounded by his retainers and nobody could get near him and Hyacinth seemed to be nowhere to be found.

It still amazes Max at how Hyacinth seemed to be able to make her invisible by creating a barrier around her.

“Do you think we should go and defeat the special robot?”

Max as the only one who is interacting with Hyacinth asked her because he didn’t remember Kalina explaining this to him. Max looked at Hyacinth but she shook her head.

“Don’t you feel that it is suspicious? Not to mention that the robot is a C-rank. It seems more like a trap rather than a bonus opponent.”

The more Max thinks about it, the more agreeable Hyacinth’s answer is. Meanwhile, the people around soon enough got themselves into a group of 5. There are some that decide to do it alone but most of them are thinking of having a go at the C-rank robot.

After most of them finding their teammates, Elrisa continues with her explanation.

“Alright, since you guys are so impatient and already got into teams, I need to remind you again. This examination is an individual competition. Although you can group up to go against the C-rank robot, the points you got from defeating a D-rank robot or rescuing a hostage will belong to the one that lands the last hit or brought the person to the safety area.”

Although Elrisa said that, the people around who have gotten themselves into team doesn’t think of disbanding.

“The setting for today’s test is the seaside village. This map never shows up before so there’s not much information. Well, to prepare for the unexpected is one of the traits that needed by a hero so fret not. Without further ado, let’s start the second stage!”

The wall of the seemingly empty hall suddenly fell off and the surroundings transformed into a sunny seaside village. Where the seagulls can be heard and the smell of the sea is floating in the air. It seemed that the hall that they are in earlier is being moved while Elrisa is doing her explanation without anyone realizing it.

“Everyone, you can see the safety area from here. The hostages and the villain’s robot have been released randomly on the map. You can now try to get your points to get your hero license. Ah, I almost forgot. The total point you needed to get your hero license is 10 points. Okay, what are you waiting for? Go and gather your points!”

With Elrisa giving them the starting speech, everyone immediately runs off from the starting point. Max who looked at Hyacinth that doesn’t show any intention of working together then sets off by himself after waving his hand and gets a nod in return.

The first thing that Max does is finding a tall building in the village to look around and examine the situation. He can see that the seaside village isn’t small at all. It is equivalent to a small city although they call it a village. There is plenty of space to fit thousands of participants, hostages, and villains.

Surely, the festive mood of the hero examination second stage started as fire, explosions, wind, thunders, and waters appeared all around the seaside village.

“Wow, it hasn’t even been five minutes since we started and it's already in full throttle. I better find a target and start getting points before it’s too late.”

Max looked around and he didn’t need to search for long before he found his first target. It was a hostage being kept in a room with a villain robot guarding it.

“Okay, you shall be my first target.”

Max jumped down the building and immediately goes toward the building. He entered it directly through the front door and the villain noticed him immediately.

“Who’s there?”

Because the voice is cold and robotic, Max couldn’t feel any threat from it. he also looked at the hostages that is basically balloon dolls. Suddenly, the test feels more like a playground.

Max comes out to face the villain head-on but something unexpected happened.

“Don’t come near or I will kill her.”

The villain robot suddenly hoisted the hostage with one hand and the other hand on the hostage. This situation immediately makes Max baffled since it is immediately going out of hand. He has never faced a real villain out in the real world but he even doubted that they will be acting like this.

“Please calm down!”

Max didn’t really understand what is happening right now but he knows that he needs to do something to secure his points. Max gives the villain’s robot and the hostage a closer look.

The villain’s robot arm is changing into a red one as Max could feel something gathering on it. Max didn’t know what it was but he clearly has a bad feeling about it.

“I better stop it.”

Max then tried to do something to stop whatever the villain robot is doing. Throughout the years of training, he isn’t only improving his ability for the hero examination test. he is also training his signature moves and other useful ability.

One of them is the move that Max is going to use right now. Suddenly, around the villain robot hand that is turning red, a strong gust of wind managed to force the hand that is directed at the hostage to be directed at his head instead.

Soon after, there is a flame coming out of the villain robot's hand and it destroyed its own face instead. Max was left speechless by what he is seeing in front of him. If the robot’s hand is aimed at him, he will suffer great damage instead.

Not to mention if the attack hits the hostage doll, the doll will immediately blow up into pieces.