The flawless execution and teamwork of Fuuka and Satoshi impressed everyone. Even Kuroe and Shiroi who were confident that they'd be able to ace the test now seemed a little doubtful. There was no way anyone could top Fuuka and Satoshi's performance. It was perfect.
"NEXT! Midori, Hiroshi, please step forward." Knighthawk announced, directing everyone's attention to the gigantic live-stream television at the top of the Arena.
An animation of a roulette appeared, and it began spinning before stopping at a certain word. Knighthawk and everyone nodded their heads in confirmation before the word was announced. "Bank theft it is. As for the roles... let's flip the coin!"
The coin was flipped, and Knighthawk grabbed it in mid-air before putting it on top of his palm. "It's heads. This time, Hiroshi and Midori will be the villains, and Bishop and Lufine will be the heroes."
Bishop and Lufine still hadn't recovered from the emotional damage they received during the first round. They fell for the trickeries of two teenagers and it was a pretty severe blow to their pride as undercover heroes. While they prided themselves as shadow-like heroes, two teenagers managed to sneak past them without them knowing. It was a reality check, to say the least.
"We're not going to fail this time, Lufine. We're going to go all out even if it meant injuring these two." Bishop said under his breath. Of course, injuries are a part of the exercise, but this time, they were going to pull out all stops.
"You said it. We cannot lose on this next round no matter what. Otherwise, I'll really retire as a professional superhero." Lufine muttered to herself, dejected by their loss.
They weren't the only ones with the same sentiment though. Meanwhile, Hiroshi and Midori were also trying to figure out how they'd win against Dark Matter and Light Wing. Based on their determined expressions alone, they knew that they were pretty serious this time around, and they weren't going to take it easy despite it being a lowly heroes versus villains exercise.
"Don't worry. We'll just have to work together. Win or lose, as long as we performed well, we're going to get a passing grade." Hiroshi said, giving Midori a bit of consolation since they were fairly certain that they'd lose.
"Let's go, Hiroshi, you can do it. Midori, break a leg... or two." Jonathan called out as if they were already close friends. Apparently, he felt a bit awkward with the silence so he decided to cheer the two of them on.
In response, Hiroshi and Midori nodded their heads, giving Jonathan a thumbs up before they headed inside the arena. Just like before, they were directed to a certain location where the heroes versus villains would take place.
At first, they expected the place to be a laughable replica of a bank. But as it turned out, it actually looked like a legitimate bank. Hiroshi and Midori were impressed, and they stepped forward, thinking that the exercise wouldn't start any time soon.
Before they could take another step, however, Knighthawk gave them a signal to stop. Hiroshi and Midori froze right on their step, and they turned around.
"The moment you enter the bank, the exercise will commence. Also, you'll be given two minutes before the heroes will arive on the scene. That's it for the instructions and may the odds be ever in your favor, Hiroshi, Midori." Knighthawk announced. His voice alone indicated that he was having fun.
And indeed he was. This was one of the very few times where he could watch his students get defeated and he won't have to worry about legal repercussions. That's why he chose this exercise out of all the other exercises available.
Hiroshi and Midori did a double take as they nervously swallowed their dry saliva. They almost made a mistake before the exercise even commenced. Fortunately, Knighthawk was lenient enough to warn them before they did something wrong. They heaved a sigh of relief.
"Are you ready, Hiroshi? What's the plan?" Midori pursed his lips as he asked. He felt rather nervous since all of their classmates were watching. One mistake and they were aware that everyone would tease them about it in the near future. Just like Fuuka and Satoshi, the two of them were determined to flawlessly achieve victory.
"We're going to go in, grab the money, and then we go back. We need to get to the group and not get caught... so we have to think about that as well." Hiroshi responded, putting a thumb on his chin as he tried to figure out what to do.
'What would Satoshi do in this situation?' Hiroshi pondered, and then he started shaking his head. Right now, he shouldn't think about what Satoshi would do, but rather think about what he should do.
"And what can you do? You can go berserk, right? And you also have some sort of healing superpower?" Hiroshi asked.
"Yep, that's about it. And you can control fire and rock, right? I wonder how that would be useful..." Midori said to himself.
Currently, Dark Matter and Light Wing waited for Knighthawk's signal. They were still unsure whether they should stay right where the group was, or go where Hiroshi and Midori were as soon as they entered the bank. Either way, there were a lot of openings, and the villains could easily slip past them if they spread themselves around too thin.
"Why is this harder than I thought... I don't remember the heroes versus villains being this hard in the past." Dark Matter commented.
"It wasn't... also, you're just overthinking things. Remember, we're fourth-year high school students. One of us could easily take on two of them. Don't think about defending one spot or the other, we're capable enough to defend both." Light Wing calmly returned as he patted Dark Matter on the shoulder.
"Then... since you have better mobility, you can go and chase after them. I'll create a dark matter barrier here and prevent them from ever stepping near the group. We can do this... and this time, we're going to win." Dark Matter firmly declared under his breath.
...
"I have a plan." Midori finally said. "Do you know that famous movie... the one where they stole gold from underground?"
"You mean... we're not going to steal gold from the entrance? Of course, this would also not alert anyone since they wouldn't see any theft occurring. What a great idea." Hiroshi said, and then his face shifted into a troubled expression. "But how do we escape? It wouldn't take long before the heroes find out about what we did, and then they'd come running at us."
"Then... we'll just bulldoze our way through the ground. I can do at least that much... you've got to help me out with your fire and earth manipulation though... or better yet..."
From the live stream, Hiroshi and Midori could be seen going to another location. They then started digging on the ground. Thanks to Midori's super strength and Hiroshi's control over earth, they were able to do quick work on a tunnel. They then jumped into the tunnel and headed towards the underground part of the bank.
Meanwhile, Dark Matter and Light Wing were already ushered inside the arena. They had no idea that Hiroshi and Midori were currently digging a tunnel. However, they were confident that they could find the thieves in no time using their superpowers, that's why they weren't the least bit worried.
In a split second, Dark Matter already pinpointed where Hiroshi and Midori were. He was surprised to detect them underground, but that didn't matter.
"Let's go." Dark Matter signaled as Light Wing nodded in response.
Together, the two of them started sprinting toward the mouth of the tunnel. Aside from Light Wing's above-average human capabilities, the only thing she could do with her superpower is to detect people around her and shine a blinding light at someone. As for Dark Matter, he could use every single shadow to jump from one place to another, and this gave him the edge whenever he had to cross long distances. freewe(b)novel.com
Then again, he couldn't breathe nor see while he was teleporting through one shadow and another, that's why Dark Matter was heavily reliant on his senses and his built-in, geo-positional system chip in his brain. He could also use dark matter as his superpower, but its too destructive so he always resorted to not using it.
"We got them." Dark Matter called out as he jumped inside the tunnel. Light Wing followed suit, lighting up the way with her glow.
It didn't take long before the heroes and villains met. Hiroshi and Midori hadn't even gotten a single bill from the bank, and they were already caught red-handed.
"Put your hands up on the ground, surrender now, and receive a lighter sentence." Dark Matter announced. This was a new experience for him since he was used to jumping the gun and pinning down a criminal before he could defend himself.
"Now!" Hiroshi screamed as Midori bulked up in size.
There was no way the villains were going down without a fight!
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om