“Don't be too rash now Maddison. Ren is dead and it's a myth, it can't be him.” Mason says, trying to calm her down.

  “They're probably a group of kai manipulators that just want to fight or kill,”

  a tall white guy with hazel eyes and short black hair wearing a blue hoodie and some brown baggy pants interjects.

  “However even if it's not Ren we should still call off the capture the flag game. We have all we need to know anyway for rankings. I'll go down and get each of them.” He says in a worried tone of voice.

  He scratches near the scar wrapping around his throat. Those kids better not be hurt.

  “Isola. Get me in the forest.”

  She waves her hand over him and the shadows swallow him whole. He is now in the middle of the forest. Gotta find all of them now and get them back. His body splits off, creating another equal version of him, then another clone sprouts, and another. He stops at six Clones. I'll find them faster this way. One clone heads towards the third year base for the rest of the third year students, the other heads towards the first year's base to a certain point. The rest split off in different directions.

  “Looks like the top three will stay the same. Sirius, Tien, and Luna. Sirius is still undoubtedly number one. Tien is still number two and Luna three. Sirius is just leagues above everyone else in the school. Including most teachers, except Draken-”

  Mason gets interrupted.

  “Alright, alright Mason we get Sirius is the undisputed number one. But can we talk about the fourth year students and how well they fought? My students were excellent until those kai manipulators showed up. Better than most can do.”

  “They did quite well Dave, you're right.” Maddison states.

  “So the order so far is Sirius at one, Tien at two, Luna at three. Who's number four?” She asks.

  “I feel like Josh still deserves it.” Mrs. M says.

  They each go on figuring out where everyone places until they decide the ranking.

  “Mrs. Isola? Bring me back along with the students please.”

  Mrs. Isola waves her hand and each one of them emerge from the shadows.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Thank you. I'm sure you have the ranking figured out by now, right?” He asks.

  “Yes Mr. Durakai.”

  The principal says as she grabs a box. She opens it.

  “Each of you will get handed a ring. If you pour some kai into it no matter how small, it will reveal your ranking in the school as well as your overall rank.”

  Each student gets a ring handed to them. I didn't perform well. I wonder what rank I got. Leo thinks to himself. He pours a trickle of kai into the ring, the ring flickers reflecting the kai then shows a number and a letter. 19. D. 19/20? I'm fodder. Jason pours some kai into his and it shows his number and three letters. 18. TBD. Hm. I assume it's this low because I can't show my kai craft yet. The fact I'm inexperienced plays a part in it as well. I'm assuming Leo also got lower, as well as everyone else in our class.

  “Leo what rank did you get?” He asks.

  “19. What about you?” Leo responds.

  “18. What about you Felix?”

  Felix is just putting his ring on as he asks. The ring glows slightly.

  “20.”

  “Mia and Andrew, your rank?” Jason asks.

  “14, probably higher than every other first year.” Andrew gloats.

  “11.” Mia says as she grins slightly.

  “I figured out about kai by myself at 11 years old and sought out kai academy whereas you got recruited and only found out about your kai craft when you were 16. Frankly I'm superior and the only few reasons I'm not number 1 are because the people above me naturally have better things to me and number 2 are professional trained.”

  Leo and Jason look aghast while Andrew just looks annoyed.

  “Well since everyone is ranked now, I'm going to take them for It now.” Mr. Smite says.

  “Everyone in class 1 follow me.” Leo whispers to Jason.

  “What are we doing?” Jason responds.

  “Beats me.”

  Mia intrudes the conversation.

  “It's obviously our first mission. We got ranked for both the school and a general kai rank. You learned the basics. All they need to do is see how well we function against a kai bane that isn't Rave. It also has the benefit of being a better learning experience. Fighting with intent to kill and sparring are completely different. While sparring is a very good way to train, fighting to kill is leagues above it as a way to learn.”

  Leo looks in confusion.

  “Why is it so much better?” He asks.

  “Kai is in the adrenal glands and because of how long humans have had kai, the body has learned to release adrenaline way sooner than it would before kai existed. When you feel someone's intent to kill, kai is often released instead of adrenaline and it rushes throughout the body with adrenaline properties from being in such close proximity to it for so long. When it reaches the brain it heightens how you understand kai.

  When you are near death instead of just entering battle, you learn exceptionally fast because actual adrenaline is released. Mixing real adrenaline with kai that already has the properties will cause your brain to ascend in comparison to beforehand. It is logical that they want us to progress quicker. That and our teacher is lazy and hopes to have us learn quicker so he can skip over some stuff.”

  They all advance towards the city near an abandoned building by a graveyard.

  Kai first came into existence from the gods giving the world about fifty years into earth's lifespan. Kai can be found anywhere on earth, even animals, plants, and the terrain. Kai comes from the soul for humans and the same thing is true for animals, plants and the environment however, their kai come from the leftovers of humans using their kai. It originally came from gods but it stopped flowing into the environment after humans came into play so now the environment has kai from humans