"Good luck." Alice whispered into Vanders ear.
"I'll try my best." Vander responded before walking towards the platform. Vander got up on top of the platform and made it to the center.
"I'm ready." Giving the thumbs up to Sarah.
On Vanders cue, Sarah activated the platform.
Once the cage started to glow blue, Vander looked around, trying to find the first bow that was about to materialize.
The first bow appeared to his left and was about to be drawn. Vander was ready to dodge the moment he noticed any movement from the bow.
Fwoom.
Dodging to the side, he heard the arrow fly past him. Vander started to look around again, looking for the new bow and arrow.
The first bow was now in front of him, and the new bow was right behind him. Vander moved a couple feet back quickly to get a better view of both bows being drawn. Being able to see both bows helped him dodge easier. Jumping back to evade the first arrow, then moving his body to the side to dodge the next.
'This is where it really starts.' Now being surrounded by four bows, Vander had weak spots. He couldn't just jump back to see all four bows at once like the last time. Instead he looked around, and stayed in place. Using all his focus on hearing the arrows.
Hearing the first arrow already flying towards him, Vander didn't even have a full second to react. Jumping to his right, he dodged the first arrow that was flying directly in front of him. Right after he rolled straight ahead, dodging the arrow behind him and the arrows to his side.
Getting to his feet, Vander was already prepared for the next volley, focusing on his hearing once again. Onced the first arrow started flying, Vander turned his body and ran towards it. When the arrow was about to hit Vander, he moved his body slightly to the side, dodging the arrow by a sliver.
While continuing just past the missed arrow, he was about ten feet from the side of the cage. Vander turned around, spotting all the arrows heading towards him. Jumping side to side, Vander dodged most arrows. Then he jumped up into a front flip to dodge the last one.
Landing on his feet, he immediately ran towards the center. He didn't want to try and dodge the bows that were extremely close to him.
While running to the center, he heard the first bow being fired, the bow directly in front of him shot. Trying the same strategy as before, Vander rushed towards the arrow. But he stopped on a dime and an arrow flying from his right barely missed him. Instead of hitting Vanders head, it went past his eyes, blocking his sight for a split second.
Because of the arrow, Vander took his chances and randomly dodge rolled to his right side. Luckily he didn't get hit by any arrows. Continuing, Vander rolled forward onto his feet, then he bursted into a sprint to dodge more arrows.
While running, an arrow was flying towards his leg. Vander raised his leg to the side to dodge the arrow, but lost his balance because of that. With his momentum when falling, Vander began to roll when he hit the ground. Coincidentally, the last two arrows missed, while he was rolling.
'Nice I dodged the sixteen bows and arrows. Now I need to dodge this revolver.' Excited that he finished the bow stage, Vander looked around for the revolver.
'Perfect.' The revolver appeared floating on the opposite side of the platform from where Vander was, giving him the most time to react to the bullet.
Bang.
Vander saw the revolver fire, trying his best to move to the side. Seeing the bullet close in on him, Vander knew it would be a close one. But he was too slow, his dexterity failed him. The cage turned red, and the revolver disappeared.
"Vander Hall. Grade D-." Sarah magically got her tablet and wrote down Vanders results, while he was walking down the platform towards Alice.
'Damn… I guess I can't complain though, I luckily managed to dodge the sixteen bows and arrows' Standing right next to Alice, Vander thought he was pretty lucky getting a Grade D-. If he dodged the wrong way when his vision was blocked, he most likely would have gotten hit by an arrow.
"Who's next?"
"I'll go." Alice raised her hand.
Vander contemplating on his result was surprised that Alice volunteered, so he didn't have a chance to give her some pointers that he learned from his test.
"Good luck." Vander could only say this to encourage her.
"I'll be fine, I know I'll get a good score." She flashed a smile at Vander showing she was confident. Getting to the center of the platform, Alice gave up thumbs up and told Sarah she was ready.
Alice moved fast and fluidly on the platform. She dodged all the arrows by a thread, but made it look easily. Moving her head to the side to shifting her hips to dodge all the arrows around her.
Before Vander knew it, she passed the bow and arrow stage, making it to the revolver stage.
'Please let her dodge it. Please let her dodge it.' Vander knowing how fast Alice was in high school, didn't think she could dodge it, but he still hoped for it to happen.
Bang.
Hearing the revolver, Alice leaned back heavily, dodging the bullet. Standing up straight again, the bullets were fired. Alice then side stepped, two times in a row to dodge the two bullets.
'What? When did she get faster than me? Maybe she could do better than Bella with that speed.' Vander was always slightly faster than Alice back in highschool, so this shocked him for a second. He was also disappointed, not because he was slower than her now, but because she didn't tell him of her dexterity progress.
The four revolvers surrounding Alice started to go off one by one. Not moving as fluidly as before, she managed to barely dodge all the bullets. When the eight revolvers shot, she looked even more clumsy, almost getting hit by one of the bullets.
Trying her hardest to evade the sixteen revolver volley, Alice willed her way to move just a tiny bit faster than before. But this didn't help her dodge all the bullets. The second to last bullet grazed her shoulder ending the test.
"Alice Scar. Grade C. Good job." Sarah marked Alice's score on her tablet before moving on, asking if someone else wanted to go next. This time no one wanted to volunteer.
When Alice reached Vanders side, Vander questioned her. "Why didn't you tell me you improved? I was worried about you."
"Well, I wanted to surprise you. And didn't I tell you that I was confident. You should've believed me." Alice pouted while replying to Vander.
"I'm sorry, I thought you just didn't trust me." Vander lowered his head while explaining to Alice.
"It's ok." Alice gave Vander a kiss on the cheek to cheer him up.
…
All the students took their test but no one else got a Grade B. Most people got D's and E's. This made Alice one of the top students in their group, while Vander was only average.
"Alright, let's head over to the next arena and start a new test. We'll be testing your strength next." Sarah told her group while leading them outside.