Chapter 191: 191 | The End of Invisibility

They started pulling. Most had decent form, though a few struggled from the start. Charles knocked out repetitions with mechanical precision, his face barely showing strain.

"Twenty for Franklin!" Garrett called at the one-minute mark.

Charles kept going, finishing with thirty-two total. The next highest was twenty-five.

My group was called third. I stepped up to the bar alongside three other Obsidian students I didn’t know well. Blair watched from the sidelines, her eyes locked on me.

"Ready... begin!"

I gripped the bar and pulled. My body rose smoothly, chin clearing the bar with ease. Down, up. Down, up. The movement felt natural, almost effortless compared to three weeks ago when I’d struggled to do five.

""Fifteen for Monroe!" Garrett’s voice cut through my focus.

I kept pulling. Steady rhythm. My shoulders started burning somewhere around twenty, but it wasn’t the screaming agony I’d felt three weeks ago. Just discomfort I could work through.

"Thirty seconds!"

I pushed harder. Each rep got uglier, form degrading as fatigue set in, but my chin kept clearing the bar.

"Time! Monroe, thirty-one!"

I dropped and stepped back, rolling my shoulders. One short of Charles’s count. The guild kid’s face had gone from smug satisfaction to confusion. Blair’s too. I caught her staring, that calculating look she got when something didn’t make sense.

Jordan managed sixteen and seemed genuinely happy about it. Naomi hit twenty-two. Belle surprised everyone with twenty-six, her lean muscle showing through despite the curves.

"Final test!" Garrett’s shout made everyone straighten. "Combat obstacle course!"

The one I’d been dreading. San Nicolas’s infamous hell run. Walls, tunnels, rope swings, balance beams, all culminating in a hundred-meter sprint while carrying a weighted dummy. Faculty loved it because it separated the dedicated from the desperate.

"One at a time," Garrett said. "Fastest wins. Fail an obstacle and you start the whole damn thing over."

We lined up alphabetically, which put me somewhere in the middle. I watched the first few students tackle the course. Most struggled with the rope swing or the wall climb. Times ranged from three minutes to nearly seven.

Blair went before me, moving through the course with practiced efficiency. Her time: three minutes twelve seconds, the fastest so far.

"Monroe! You’re up!"

I stepped to the starting line, sizing up the first obstacle – a six-foot wall with a rope.

"Begin!"

I exploded forward, reaching the wall in seconds. Grabbed the rope, pulled myself up and over without even using my feet. Dropped to the other side and sprinted to the tunnels.

The tunnels were tight – designed to simulate gate crawlspaces. I forced myself through quickly, ignoring the claustrophobic press of walls against my shoulders.

Next came the balance beam over a mud pit. Three weeks ago I would have fallen face-first into the mud. Now I ran across it like it was solid ground.

The rope swing loomed ahead – a gap too wide to jump, requiring you to grab a hanging rope and swing across. I timed my approach, leapt, and caught the rope mid-air. The swing carried me cleanly to the other side.

Finally, the dummy carry – 150 pounds of dead weight that needed to be carried 100 yards to the finish line. I hoisted it in a fireman’s carry and took off running. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Move your ass, Monroe!" Garrett’s bellow cut across the field. "My grandmother moves faster than that!"

I pushed harder. My legs burned as I accelerated toward the finish line. The dummy bounced against my back, its weight considerable but not overwhelming thanks to the strength I’d gained over the past weeks.

I crossed the line and let the dummy drop, breathing hard but not winded.

Garrett checked his stopwatch.

His eyebrows shot up.

"Three minutes forty-seven seconds."

My squad erupted. Belle jumped up and down, pointing at Blair’s face and cackling. Jordan slow-clapped with genuine appreciation. Naomi beamed. Misato simply nodded, as if she’d expected nothing less.

I walked back to them, trying to look casual while my heart hammered from exertion and unexpected victory.

Belle latched onto my arm before the crowd could process what they’d just witnessed. "Holy fuck. You just destroyed the ice queen’s record."

"That wasn’t the plan."

"Makes it even better!" She bounced on her toes. "Twenty-five seconds faster than Blair Davenport. Do you understand what you just did?"

Naomi appeared at my other side, offering a water bottle. Her pink eyes were wide with admiration. "That was... I didn’t know anyone could move that fast."

"Appreciate it." I downed half the bottle, very aware that half the class was staring at me like I’d just sprouted wings. The other half looked confused about whether they should be impressed or angry on Blair’s behalf.

The crowd parted. Blair marched straight toward me, perfect posture radiating controlled fury. Her gaze swept over me in a slow assessment that felt almost clinical. Taking inventory. Measuring. Cataloging every change she could see.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Each word came out crisp and precise.

"Trained."

"People don’t transform like this in three weeks." She stepped closer. "Nobody."

I met her stare without flinching. "Guess I’m an outlier."

Pink crept into her pale cheeks. Could’ve been rage. Could’ve been something else. Hard to tell with her.

"This isn’t finished, Monroe."

"It’s one benchmark, Davenport. Don’t have a meltdown over it."

"I wasn’t talking about the test." She stepped closer, voice dropping. "I’m going to figure out what you’re hiding."

"Good luck with that."

She turned and stalked away, Hikaru following in her wake. Charles lingered long enough to shoot me a murderous glare before trailing after them.

Belle slipped her arm through mine. "Congrats on making an enemy for life."

"Pretty sure she already hated me."

"Oh no, this is different." Her eyes gleamed with mischief. "She hated you before because you were beneath her notice. Now she hates you because you’re a threat. There’s a difference."

"Fantastic. Just what I needed."

She patted my arm. "Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it. Being feared is better than being invisible."

I glanced at the doorway where Blair had disappeared. The anger on her face had been real, but underneath it I’d caught something else. Curiosity, maybe. Or calculation.