~A week later~

"Raven, it's your turn now."

Raven took a deep breath and moved to stand by the starting-point. Nightwalker had just finished his turn, and of course, as expected, he had passed the test without any difficulty whatsoever. For the past half-hour, Raven and Karzor had watched as Nightwalker gracefully put all his skills into good use, using a combination of all the elements to bypass all the obstacles. When she had been an X-Man, Raven had become accustomed to doing a number of obstacle tests, but they had been nothing like the one she was about to face. In Azarath, it seemed that all the obstacles were solids composed of pure energy hardened by the skilful monks, and could appear out of nowhere.

Don't think too hard, Nightwalker said telepathically. Just react as you always do. It's been designed to resemble a real-life fight. Good luck.

Thanks. Raven licked her lips and moved her arms and legs into a fighting stance, as Karzor had taught her to do. Karzor raised his hand and moved his fingers smoothly, and Raven felt a drastic increase in the energy around her. Translucent shapes rose around her, taking on the shapes of people with blank, empty eyes. More shapes rose after that, forming what seemed like very large, dangerous objects one might see out in the streets. Everything seemed different from what Nightwalker had faced earlier, and Raven almost smiled. Of course, Karzor wouldn't give them exactly the same test at different times, so neither of them would be at an advantage over the other.

The tallest man-shaped being extended a hand towards Raven slowly, as if deciding whether to attack her or not. Raven kept her head turned from side to side, watching and listening. As her eyes flickered to the left, she saw a box-shaped figure being levitated upwards, moving towards her.

Raven reacted immediately, using her telekinesis to halt the attack. As she did so, the other figures leaped into action in unison, lifting up the other objects and hurling them towards her. Raven's arms began to swing and move around at top speed as well, moving the objects away from her. Occupied with guarding her front and sides, she didn't appear to take not of her back.

Without warning, a large, cube-shaped object came flying towards Raven's back in complete silence. Karzor and Nightwalker said nothing, merely watched her with a critical eye as she thrust her hand outwards, stopping another object. The object came within inches of her shoulder blades…

At the very last moment, Raven spun round and ducked neatly, letting the object fly past her. Karzor nodded with approval, and Nightwalker seemed to be almost smiling. The object came back towards Raven, joined by several others, but Raven was prepared for the new onslaught, and flung up an energy shield in front of herself, before flying to her right, keeping a safe distance from the energy beings.

"She's good," Nightwalker said quietly, watching as Raven continued to fly and block of all the energy missiles, her teeth gritted with concentration.

"She's always been good," Karzor agreed.

Eventually, Raven began to relax more, and even found herself enjoying the test. It was almost like the old days, she thought, when she had to fight like this all the time against some criminal in the city. Her old instincts kicked in, and she let herself forget that she was fighting to pass a test, not to eliminate evil.

All too soon, the barrage of missiles halted. Raven breathed deeply and mentally braced herself, expecting to face the unexpected. The energy figures were somewhat still now, as if sizing up the situation. Karzor smiled secretly.

Without warning, the energy figures suddenly dissipated and vanished like mist. Raven narrowed her eyes suspiciously, knowing the test was not over yet. She could still feel the energy pulsing somewhere near.

It happened so fast that there was almost zero time to react. A burst of whitish energy erupted near Raven, assuming the shape of a huge man, and Raven instinctively fell back, arms out. The figure moved towards her, blurry arms moving, and Raven felt all her close combat techniques coming back to her. Reacting to the situation, she began a series of martial arts moves, utilizing both arms and legs. Though her opponent was made of energy, it felt surprisingly solid, as if it were a real man.

As Raven took it down at last, more human-like figures materialized, going for her before she had time to rest. Raven automatically made a sweeping motion with her hand, knocking them away with a furious blast of telekinetic energy. Their bodies seemed to melt, then reformed, slowly.

Raven took advantage of the slowness to launch her next attack, delivering a second blast of black energy. Not giving them time to recover again, Raven followed up her initial attack by levitating a bunch of energy objects towards them, putting as much force into it as she could. Their bodies kept taking back their original shape, but at least Raven had enough time to quickly think up a solution. With one hand, she sent a row of objects flying at them, and as the shapes of the figures partially dissipated again, Raven injected them all with a subtler blast of energy, letting it explode inside the figures. White and black light sprayed liberally over everyone, and Raven watched with a sense of satisfaction as the energy figures did not reform this time.

Now, to tackle the last few!

As if they had heard her thoughts, the remaining energy figures stretched out their arms and formed what seemed like guns. Raven's eyebrows arched at the sight. Talk about realistic, she thought. It did seem that Karzor was not unaware of weapons used on earth.

Energy bullets suddenly flew forth from the guns, nearly pelting Raven. Just in time, she managed to fling up an energy shield. She thought she could hear the "bullets" bouncing off her shield, as if they were real and solid, not just energy fragments.

Raven waited patiently until the hail of bullets stopped before dispelling her shield, cautiously. Not wishing to go into defence mode indefinitely, Raven made her move before they did, hacking the guns into fragments with her telekinetic energy.

The fight went on for another half an hour or so, Nightwalker and Karzor observing Raven's every move. Karzor was almost smiling, and Nightwalker often nodded whenever Raven did a particularly effective move. Raven was tireless, and moving just as gracefully as she had when the test had first begun.

"Alright. I've seen enough for today," Karzor said. "I think it's time I call it off. Raven, you can stop now!"

Raven was a little slow to react to this, and hesitated.

Karzor raised his right arm in the air, and Raven remembered that this was the sign that Karzor said he would give her when the test was ended. With a soft sigh, she cut off the attack she had been about to use, and relaxed.

"Excellent work." Karzor gave his fingers a flick and the energy figures faded away, vanishing as if they had never existed at all. "You've passed, of course."

Raven nodded, but she didn't fail to notice the expression Karzor wore on his face, the look of someone who was still mischievously waiting to say something else.

"But, there's something else I have to do first?" Raven guessed dryly.

"Correct." Karzor was smiling slightly now. "Fighting those energy figures is very different from fighting an actual person. And so, you and Nightwalker will now face each other in combat."