Hunter Academy: Revenge of the Weakest-Chapter 944 - 216.4 - Overachievers

"I accept it, okay."

Eleanor's hands came together with a crisp clap that echoed through the wide, empty chamber.

The sound wasn't loud-but new.

I was final. Like a door closing. Or the start of something

"Good," she said, voice firm now, shedding the softness from moments before. "Then let's begin.

She stepped past them with ease, making her way to the center of the facility. The mana in the room stirred faintly around her, reacting not to any spell, but to her presence. It always did.

Ethan and Astron followed in silence, the air around them shifting from quiet conversation to something heavier, Familiar, Dangerous.

Eleanor turned to face them, her expression composed, all traces of amusement and challenge now gone. In its place-professional, precise focus.

"In the past two sessions," she began, "I pushed your bodies to their limits. Gravity, pressure, adaptation, endurance. I wanted to see how your bodies reacted. How your instincts compensated. And more importantly-how you think under stress."

Ethan's shoulders tensed slightly at the reminder. His muscles still remembered. His bones probably did too.

Astron said nothing, his posture straight, his focus sharpened.

Eleanor clasped her hands behind her back.

"That stage," she continued, "was foundational. Understanding how far you can be pushed physically is important-but it's only one side of the equation."

She let the weight of that settle for a moment.

"Now," she said, her voice taking on a cool edge, "we shift."

Ethan blinked. "Shift... how?"

Eleanor's eyes gleamed. "To control."

She took a step forward. "I've seen how your bodies react. But I haven't yet seen how you direct that reaction. From this point onward, I'll be evaluating how well you command your own mana under stress-not just letting I act as instinctual reinforcement."

Her gaze flicked to Astron. "You flow around pressure."

Then to Ethan. "You try to crush through it."

She tilted her head. "Neither is wrong. But both are incomplete."

Ethan frowned slightly. Astron simply waited.

"This next phase," Eleanor said, gesturing to the floor as intricate mana patterns began to light up beneath them, "will require refinement. Focus. You've adapted to external pressure. Now, I want to see how you shape your own."

The floor beneath their feet split into two wide sections-mirrored chambers, shimmering with thin veils of mana.

"You'll each enter a zone calibrated to match your resonance patterns," she said. "Inside, you'll have full access to your mana-but the environment will amplify feedback. Loss of control, overexertion, emotional turbulence... every mistake you make will rebound tenfold."

Ethan stared at the chamber forming beside him. "So... a punishment room?"

Eleanor raised an eyebrow. "A mirror."

She looked between them. "Step in. From now on, your enemy is not the room, or the weight, or even each other."

She smiled faintly, a quiet, knowing thing.

"It's you."

******

The chambers pulsed once with faint light-an almost imperceptible hum of mana resonance as they stabilized.

Ethan and Astron stepped forward without hesitation.

The moment they crossed the veil, the world shifted.

Inside, the air felt alive. Not heavier, not denser-just... aware. Like every inch of the chamber was watching. Waiting. Ready to respond to their every movement.

Ethan exhaled sharply, already feeling the slight tug at his mana veins, as if the room were reading him, challenging him. His instinct flared, and he immediately pushed back-force met force.

Astron, by contrast, didn't react. Not outwardly. He let the sensation sweep through him, registering the subtle push and pull without resistance. He simply adjusted, letting the environment inform his next move.

Outside the chambers, Eleanor stood in silence, her blue eyes watching intently-but her mind was already sharpening into something more. Something deeper.

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This is why they call her the Invoker.

Not just because of power.

But because of command.

Her mana didn't just obey her. It answered her. It listened.

She closed her eyes briefly, and when they reopened, her perception shifted. The world bled into layers-temperature fluctuations, mana density, pulse rhythms, spiritual dissonance. Every breath they took inside those chambers resonated within her like ripples in still water.

Ethan's chamber lit first-wild sparks flickering along the boundary, his mana surging too suddenly, too forcefully.

"Ethan," she called, her voice clear, unwavering. "You're overcompensating again."

From inside, Ethan grunted. "I'm trying to stabilize it."

"Then stop forcing it."

Her tone never rose, but the weight of her words pressed in just the same.

"You treat mana like a river to dam," she said. "But it's not. It's a current-one you have to shape, not contain. Feel it. Guide it. Stop trying to win against your own power."

In the other chamber, Astron had begun weaving his mana in quiet rotations-precise, efficient. But too passive.

"Astron." Eleanor said smoothly, her eyes narrowing, "you're letting the room dictate the rhythm. That may work against pressure, but not here."

Astron glanced up, his expression composed.

"You're trying to become invisible to your own force," she continued. "And in doing so, you're muting the one thing that should be responding-your will."

The feedback pulse in Astron's chamber shimmered faintly-his mana tried to adjust without drawing attention, but the room amplified the hesitation. The result was a sharp distortion across his flow.

"You're not adapting," Eleanor said. "You're avoiding. Be deliberate. You have control.

Use it."

Her voice wasn't cruel. It wasn't condescending. It was cutting-surgical.

This was the hallmark of the Invoker.

Hunters revered her not just for the sheer power of her mana, but for her ability to read it. Shape it. Mold it as though it were language itself. Where others struggled to command their force, Eleanor conversed with hers.

Now, she was demanding the same from them.

The chambers pulsed again-one wild and erratic, the other smooth but soft. Still imperfect. Still too tied to old habits.

Eleanor folded her arms behind her back, her expression cool, but not unkind.

"Again," she said.

And the rooms reacted.

Inside, mana warped. The pulse cycles shifted, the amplification doubled. Every weakness now became pain. Every mistake now became clarity.

And Eleanor watched.

Not with curiosity.

But with expectation.

*****

The chambers thrummed softly, like hearts beating in tandem with their occupants.

Inside, Ethan's body glistened with sweat, his breaths sharp and rhythmic, his mana now less a flood and more a storm reined in-a force with a direction. Not perfect. Not smooth. But guided.

Astron, on the other hand, stood at the eye of his own controlled tempest, the lines of his mana flowing outward in silent currents, still too subtle, too quiet. But now, they responded to him with more clarity-with intent. He wasn't just adapting anymore.

He was steering.

Outside, Eleanor watched.

She hadn't moved from her spot near the console, but her fingers had danced across a slim mana tablet, drawing observations with precise keystrokes as she tracked their rhythms, measured their stress points, catalogued every slip, surge, and delay.

She didn't need monitors. Her senses were sharper than anything a camera could provide. Ethan Hartley - Shows improvement under resistance. Still too reactive. Heavy reliance on muscular reinforcement. Emotional response spikes mana efficiency for brief periods. Dangerous long-term. Needs rhythm discipline.

Astron Natusalune - Control is refined but lacks force application. Overprioritizes discretion. Hesitates at breaking points. Avoids confrontation with instability. Likely due to overexposure to adaptive training environments. Push assertiveness. Introduce volatility under feedback stress.

Her notes were not judgment. They were architecture-foundations for what came next.

But even for her, there were limits to what this environment could demand in one sitting.

She tapped a command into the console.

The chambers dimmed, their mana signatures flickering, then gradually stabilizing to a neutral state. The feedback pulses dispersed, releasing the tension in the air like a held breath finally exhaled.

Eleanor's voice carried into the chambers, cool and final.

"That's enough for today"