The headmaster leaned over the railing, his eyes narrowing at the boy who shouldn't have survived. "Your score hasn't changed, boy. It’s still a 2.9."
At the finish line, the proctors stared at their chronometers in silence. Leo had finished in record time, not by being the fastest, but by being the most "absent." 2.9 / 10 Act...
Leo entered the maze to the sound of jeers. Almost immediately, the walls began to close in at a blurring speed. To his left, a girl with a 3.1 score panicked, her Act-Surge triggering a frantic, messy burst of energy that shattered a section of the wall, allowing her to scramble through. Leo didn't surge. He couldn't. The headmaster leaned over the railing, his eyes
He wasn't a warrior or a leader. He was something the Academy hadn't seen in centuries: a . In a world obsessed with the power of action, Leo had discovered the absolute sovereignty of standing still. Leo had finished in record time, not by