Rise of the Crusader

74 Midterm Assessment

Cock-a-doddle-do!

The rooster gave it early morning crow as the artistic sun emerged and painted the dark black sky into a blue, bright sky. The blue sky was dotted with fluffy white clouds that drifted lazily in the gentle breeze.

In one of the corridors of the first-year elite division building, twenty-one students stood in front of the door with different expressions on each of their faces.

A couple of them had their heads buried in the book in their hand, scrolling through pages, at a frantic pace. While some were chatting with their classmates with a rather relaxed smile on their faces.

Suddenly, three figures appeared in the corridor. One was a middle-aged woman wearing a black blazer, white shirt, and black pantsuit. The person on the middle-aged woman’s left was a fairly tall, pale-skinned woman with wavy lower back-black hair.

And on the right side of the middle-aged woman was a man of average height. He had brown eyes, black hair, long bushy sideburns, and a thin ponytail reaching his upper back.

Seeing the middle-aged woman, the students glanced at one another, and one of them muttered, “Nora.”

The students, of course, knew Nora as she was the one taking the business course. As for the two other figures beside her, they had no idea who they were.

Nora walked at a steady pace and after a few seconds, she arrived at the door. She pressed her palm on the lock which was at that side of the door, and followed by a creak sound, she pushed the door open.

.....

As Nora stepped into the room, the two figures beside her moved in as well.

“Should I beg you all to come in or what are you still waiting for!!!” It wasn’t even up to ten seconds after Nora entered the room, and her loud voice rang out.

And one after the other, the students outside walked into the room. The room they were in was, in fact, similar to their other classrooms, the whiteboard, TV screens, lockers, and fixed 21 student tables, it was all the same.

“Pick a paper from that bowl, and whichever number you see in it, is the seat you should head to,” Nora said with her hands folded across her chest.

As the students heard Nora, a frown appeared on the faces of a couple of them. Because before the tests, they had created a sitting arrangement, but Nora had ruined it by having them pick a seat through the bowl.

Nora turned towards the woman beside her and then raised an eyebrow at her.

The woman immediately understood what Nora was implying and without wasting time, she moved quickly. She hurried towards one of the tables in front of her, and then placed a bag on it.

She took the papers which were in the bag out and passed them to the person in the front seat. “Pass it to the back.” The woman said, and after giving the person on the first row the papers, she did the same to the other three rows.

“Don’t open it yet!!!!” Seeing that the students were about to look into the content in the paper handed to them, the woman’s loud voice sounded.

They paused when they heard the woman, and then stared at her with a confused look.

“You should count yourself lucky for not opening the paper.” Nora blurted as she took a step forward, “If any of you had opened that paper without being told to, that would have as well been the end of your journey in this academy.”

“You’d be expelled immediately,” Nora stated.

The three students who were about to open the paper gulped and then flashed a rough smile when they heard Nora.

“Anyway, since you didn’t, there’s nothing to worry about. At least for now.” Nora said.

“This is Mackenzie and this is Paul.” Nora pointed her hand respectively at the woman in front of the table and the man who was behind her. “The two of them will be the invigilator for this midterm assessment.”

“The papers in front of you contain two different sections. The objective section which carries forty marks, and the theory section which holds sixty marks. Altogether, that’s a hundred marks.”

“The academy expects a score of sixty and above, anything less than sixty, means you have failed these tests.” Nora paused, “And failure to pass this test means you would be coming back the next year for it.”

“I wish you all good luck, you may now begin the assessment.”

As the students were about to open the sheet, Nora’s voice rang out. “I almost forget. I should tell you that failure is better than cheating in this assessment. If any of you is caught cheating, you will be given a strike.”

“They are the three strikes, by the way. The first strike is a thirty-point deduction, the second strike is expulsion, the third strike is death.” Nora said, “The assessment was supposed to hold for one hour, but we have wasted time, so now you have forty minutes.”

“Good luck!”

The mouth of the students in the classroom opened slightly, and a dazed and stunned expression appeared on their faces when they heard Nora. They wanted to retort to her words, but doing so would only waste more time, so they all chose to bury their heads in the paper instead.

“What the hell!” A few minutes after they took hold of the papers, one of them exclaimed in an appalled tone. It was Xavier, and as he held the papers, his hands shook and his eyes twitched.

Xavier wasn’t the only person who reacted when he opened the papers, it was all the students. The others didn’t just voice out their concerns.

“Miss Nora, I think there’s a mistake somewhere.” A second after Xavier spoke, Bane abruptly stood from his seat with the papers in his hand.

Nora frowned deeply when she heard Bane. “First it’s not Miss, it’s Mrs,” Nora said, “And what is the mistake you speak of.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were married, since there isn’t a ring on your hand.” Bane’s response made the hairs on his body stood on end, as Nora glared at him furiously.

Bane then drew a deep breath, before saying,” The papers. Both the objective section and the theory section are ridiculous. The objectives contain four hundred questions, and the theory entails twelve, of which eleven are compulsory.”

“Merely glancing at the questions, they are already quite absurd, and how do you expect us to answer all the questions within forty minutes? I mean, look at it, this sheet contains four hundred questions.” Bane couldn’t help but raise his voice a little as he spoke.

A few of the students had eyes on Nora, with a rather optimistic look on their faces.

Nora, however, suddenly pointed her finger toward the students seating in the third row, “If he can do it, without complaining then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be too.” Nora said.

And as Bane’s eyes shifted to the person on the third row, his eyebrows furrowed, and he clenched his hand into a tight fist. “Damn you, Devon,” Bane muttered.

“Rather than complaining, you should focus on the papers in front of you because you have thirty-five minutes left,” Nora spoke as she stared at the clock in the room.

Bane scratched his head and then sat on the chair. He stared hard at the questions, scrolling through pages of the paper, and regardless of how deep he thought, he didn’t have a clue about any of the questions.

Bane turned towards Aiden who was sitting beside him, chewing the cover of his pen and he heaved a deep breath.

“This assessment requires you all to perform two tasks. Thinking and articulation of that thinking.” Nora said, “Those questions shouldn’t take you less than twenty minutes to answer because you have been taught.”

Nora turned towards the two who was beside her, “It best you do your jobs well, or else don’t even bother submitting that emergency request to the academy because it will be rejected.” With that said, and Nora walked out of the room.

As for Mackenzie and Paul, they instantly broke into sweats when they heard Nora, and the expression on their faces changed quickly. A fierce look appeared on both of them as they stared at the students.

Meanwhile, Bane continued to choose the option of his choice when suddenly a dramatic changed occurred beside him and glimpsing upon it, Bane’s body shook.

Bane had been glad when he saw Sylvia, seating beside him, but he was soon left disappointed as Sylvia didn’t write a single word on the paper. She only kept scrolling through pages, and after a while, she stopped.

So, when Bane saw Sylvia opening through the pages of the paper ticking answers at a frantic pace, he couldn’t help but be surprised. However, it wasn’t the sight of seeing her writing that caused his body to tremble, instead, it was the new sheet that had just emerged on her table.

“What the...” Bane was certain that those papers had just gotten there. He raised his head, wondering who it was that owned the paper on Sylvia’s table, and a few seconds after he got the answer.

The papers belonged to Devon. There was no paper on Devon’s table, and even Devon himself seemed to be searching for where his papers were, as he kept looking around.

Bane’s eyes bulged, and as he began to stare at his classmates one after the other, his mouth opened slightly. “Y-You...” Bane stuttered.

Whether it was Mason who had transformed into a titan, staring at the papers in the classroom, before then returning to his original form. Or the tiny papers that were moving from Becky’s table to Elisa’s table back and forth, the classroom was in a wide state.

And by the time he stared at Aiden, who had a small dark portal under his table, Bane realized what an idiot he was.

“How did I not realize it,” Bane mumbled as he recalled what Nora said earlier.