The hall remained silent now.
Not because everyone had suddenly beco comfortable with Liam's rank, but because the footage gave them no room to dismiss what was being said. So students who had felt satisfied monts earlier now found themselves watching with reluctant tension as the screen displayed the kind of first day most of them would not have survived.
Regulus continued, "You also accomplished sothing no other student managed during this assessnt. You restored part of your Myst reserves within a heavily unstable zone. Even if the amount was small, the act itself required focus, control, and an understanding of Myst flow that many students here still lack. The environnt was working against you, and yet you adapted."
The screen showed Liam seated in deep stillness inside the hollow chamber of the outcrop, restoring Myst slowly through the night, his body unmoving while the chamber remained dark around him. Then it shifted forward to his movents through the forest with Charlotte, the signs of Berserker activity, the corpses with missing cores, the damaged clearings, and the growing pressure within the eastern region.
Regulus's eyes remained fixed on Liam. "Beyond that, you did what no one else dared to do."
The screen darkened slightly as the footage shifted.
The Berserker appeared.
Several students reacted despite themselves.
So stiffened at the sight of the eight-foot-tall grotesque humanoid demon stepping through the smoke, dark red lightning crackling across its body. Others looked confused at first, as though hoping the image was not what they thought it was. But when the footage showed the demon speaking, even brokenly, and when Regulus said the na aloud, the hall's silence beca sothing heavier.
"You engaged a Berserker demon directly," Regulus said. "And you won."
This ti, the students reacted again.
A few whispers broke out instantly, though they were much quieter than before. So stared at the screen, visibly unwilling to believe what they were hearing. Others looked toward Liam as if seeing him differently, even if they did not want to.
A Berserker demon was not just another threat. Everyone in their year rembered the first-year exam and the terror of facing a Berserker under controlled conditions. They rembered how much effort it had taken to deal with even that version, and now the screen was showing Liam fighting one alone.
The footage left no room for denial.
It showed Liam saving Charlotte from the Berserker's strike. It showed the first exchange, the devastating blow that sent him tearing through the forest, his return, the hybrid javelins, the explosive clashes, the river, the aquatic demon, and the second phase where Liam's entire presence seed to sharpen beyond what many students could understand.
It showed the final exchange, the Umbra Star entering the Berserker's maw and the resulting devastation erasing nearly a hundred ters of forest.
Several students stood frozen.
The ones who hated Liam had no words now.
The ones who feared him had been given a new reason to keep doing so.
"The fact that you were able to kill the aquatic Advanced Horror while still engaged in the larger conflict is also noteworthy," Regulus added. "Many students would have died the mont that demon attacked beneath the river. You not only survived, you eliminated it and returned to the main engagent."
The screen replayed the underwater explosion briefly, the brown river erupting upward before chunks of the aquatic demon fell across the bank. A few students who had been assigned near rivers in Nalim visibly paled, perhaps realizing exactly what kind of creature had been lurking beneath similar waters.
Regulus's tone remained controlled, but the praise was unmistakable. "Your destructive power was extraordinary. Your combat fluidity during the latter portion of the fight was beyond what we have seen from you in previous assessnts. Injured as you were, your movents beca cleaner, not sloppier. You adapted to the Berserker's speed, regeneration, plasma attack, and explosive physicality. That level of composure under pressure deserves acknowledgnt."
For a brief mont, the footage showed Liam in the latter part of the fight, moving through fla bursts with the hybrid javelin in hand, his glowing left arm firing miniature suns between exchanges, his body seemingly guided by sothing deeper than simple reaction.
The hall watched as Liam flowed around the Berserker's attacks, not untouched, not invincible, but frighteningly precise.
Then the screen showed the aftermath.
Liam lying at the edge of destruction.
Liam trying to heal himself with nd.
Liam crawling.
Liam staggering through the forest.
Liam collapsing.
And then, finally, Charlotte finding him.
Regulus allowed the screen to linger there for a mont before continuing.
"Everything you accomplished from the first day until nearly the fourth day of the assessnt was more than enough to keep you in the first rank."
That statent struck the hall with a different kind of weight.
Students who had been confused by his drop imdiately beca more attentive. Even Liam's gaze sharpened slightly, not because he disagreed, but because he knew where this was going.
Regulus did not hesitate.
"However," he said, "all of that ans very little if, after achieving those feats, you are left unconscious and entirely dependent on a comrade for your safety and survival."
The hall remained silent.
Charlotte's expression shifted faintly.
Liam remained still.
"On a real battlefield," Regulus continued, "there are circumstances where a comrade protecting a fallen ally is expected. No one with actual combat experience would pretend otherwise. But this assessnt was individual-based. It was designed to evaluate each student's ability to survive independently within Nalim. Being unconscious in a hostile realm for nearly thirty-six hours, unable to defend yourself, unable to move yourself, and unable to sustain yourself without another student's intervention is, for the purposes of this assessnt, no different from triggering a Forced Extraction."
A few students looked toward Liam again.
This ti, the surprise was quieter.
More understanding.
Regulus's eyes did not leave him. "If you are powerful enough to destroy an enemy, strong enough to level a district by yourself, but you are left in a state where enemies far weaker than the one you defeated could kill you without resistance, then your victory has lost much of its value."
The words were harsh, but they were not unfair.
Liam knew that better than anyone.
Regulus continued, "Your encounter with the Berserker was avoidable. You went looking for it."
The hall stirred faintly at that.
Liam's face did not change, though his thoughts moved imdiately.
"You had a reason," Regulus said. "That much is clear. Since that reason remains unknown to the academy, you will be expected to explain yourself to the Headmaster later."
Liam's gaze remained on Regulus, calm but sharp.
That statent told him what he needed to know. The academy was not simply criticizing recklessness. They were trying to confirm sothing. They wanted to know whether he had gone looking for the Berserker because he understood what Berserkers truly were before the academy revealed that information more openly. They wanted to know whether he had discovered sothing they had not intentionally taught, and whether his actions in the eastern forest had been curiosity, instinct, or deliberate investigation.
Regulus gave him one final look before speaking again.
"You are dangerous, Hunter. That is obvious. But danger without consideration for what cos after the battle is not strength. It is waste. Learn to survive your victories, not rely win them."
The words settled over the hall.
Then Regulus stepped back.
For a mont, Liam said nothing. He stood exactly where he was, calm as always, his expression unreadable to most of the students around him. But inwardly, he accepted the evaluation more than he rejected it. He had already reached the sa conclusion himself in the cave before Charlotte pulled him out of his thoughts.
Then, very quietly, with the faintest trace of sothing like a smirk, Liam muttered, "This might actually be perfect for ."
Charlotte, who was close enough to hear him, leaned slightly toward him with imdiate interest. "Oh? Dropping to third is perfect for you?"
Liam did not answer.
Charlotte's smile turned wicked. She edged closer, her voice dropping into that teasing tone he had co to know far too well. "Well, now I'm beneath you, bae," she whispered. "I hope you plan to be rough with ."
Liam closed his eyes for a brief mont and released a quiet sigh.
He did not dignify that with a response.
Instead, he looked toward the stage and silently wished, with increasing sincerity, for the ranking announcent to end as soon as possible.
The hall remained in a strange silence after Regulus's evaluation, not because there was nothing to say, but because too much had just been said. Students were still processing the fact that Liam had fought and erased a Berserker demon. Others were processing the fact that such a feat still had not been enough to keep him first. So looked at him with unease. So with reluctant respect. So with bitterness. So with questions they would never dare ask aloud.
Lucia waited until the atmosphere settled enough to continue.
Then she tapped the enchanted clipboard again.
The magical screen shifted, Liam's image fading away as a new figure appeared within the display. Blue flas roared across the screen, lighting up a burning clearing in Nalim where a white-haired boy stood surrounded by demonic corpses, his expression sharp, irritated, and fiercely alive despite exhaustion.
Lucia lifted her gaze toward the students.
"Rank two, Asher Hawthorne."
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