[ System Notification – Tier 4 promotion test starting in 5…4…3….2…1! Good luck adventurer ]

Max stood with his legs wide open anticipating a lightning strike of terrifying might, however, when the attack finally struck he was unable to even process that it was incoming as from start to finish all that he saw was a blinding flash of light.

*RUMBLE, CRACKLE, THUNDER*

-15,000

Max had just taken on the first lightning strike as he felt a tingling burning sensation all over his body while losing 15,000 HP.

The thunder this time was extremely tame and while it did sting and hurt, Max could feel the same current flowing through his mana veins and muscles as they instantly felt sore as if he had been intensely training them for hours.

It was a sweet pain, the sort that only happened when a torn muscle starts to recover and itches for more training.

Max noticed that the lightning was indeed special in this place, as it was not completely imbued with destructive qualities but rather had a balance between creation and destruction.

[ System Notification – Successfully survived 1/10 lightning strikes, survive 5 more to pass this stage and 9 more to get a perfect score.]

‘ 10? I have to take 10? I suppose I can manage ten if they don’t hur- ‘

*Kaboom-Thunder*

-35,000

” FUCKING HELL- FUCKKKKK ” Max screamed on top of his lungs as a lightning strike much stronger than the one that had struck him a few seconds ago shaved off a significant portion of his HP bar.

Just as Max thought he could take these lightning strikes if their power did not increase, he got an emphatically powerful lightning strike in response from the heavens that made his body go numb from head to toe.

Max felt his heartbeat increase rapidly, as he activated his flame armour and summoned his skill [ Flame Shield ] to cover his body from lightning strikes from the heavens.

Max was scared.

Scared to let yet another lightning strike hit his body and disintegrate him to ashes as he stared towards the skies with conviction.

*Kaboom-Thunder*

The lightning strike hit Max’s shield head-on and forced Max to buckle to one knee as the flame shield held strong and blocked all but a small chunk of -700 damage.

[ System Notification – Successfully survived 3/10 strikes, survive 3 more to pass this stage and 7 more to get a perfect score ]

Max observed that the strength increase between each subsequent lightning strike was about twice the strength of the previous one.

At this rate the later stage lightning strikes were going to be unfathomably powerful, giving Max near to none chances of having a perfect promotion.

Information about how his brother ascended to tier4 in the tutorial Omega was always hazy, however, Max did hear him casually mention once that he got a perfect evaluation on the lightning test, as only now did Max realise what it truly meant.

His brother had most likely faced a simulation of the real lightning fields within Omega and had somehow walked away having survived all ten lightning strikes.

*Kaboom-Thunder*

As Max was recalling the details of his brother’s promotion the fourth lightning strike hit Max, and this time it was so powerful the soil on which Max stood on began vibrating uncontrollably under the iozning effect of the thunder.

-32,000

Max’s flame shield tried to put up it’s best possible defence, however, it quickly crumpled like a piece of paper trying to stop a flow of a raging river.

Luckily for Max, his flame armour was able to absorb a huge portion of the elemental damage, giving only some bearable shocks to Max’s body.

‘ At Least 4 times stronger than the previous one ‘ Max thought as he spat a mouthful of blood and felt his insides turn into a thermal heater, as he felt like he was literally burning from the inside out.

[ System Notification – You have successfully survived 4/10 strikes, survive 2 more to pass this stage and 6 more to get a perfect score ]

While the first three strikes only had an X2 strength multiple, the fourth one was atleast 4 times stronger than the third one.

This spelt immense trouble for Max as suddenly reaching even the 6 strikes mark seemed to be impossible with his already halved HP bar.

Being in no condition to take an even stronger strike, Max realised that he was quickly running out of options and needed to become creative to tackle this problem.

***********

( Meanwhile Severus )

Severus had managed to infiltrate the Kingsman army as a support staff incharge of cleaning.

Inside the army, Severus managed to blend in completely with the high ranking officials and managed to get a lot of important information from them.

He obtained a list of the exact equipment orders that the military had made in the last 3 months as he tried to gain a rough understanding about the Kingsman clans preparedness for the coming war.

Apparently Farid Kingsman was now the biggest player in the Kingsman military as his word had become law.

Farid was preparing the Kingsman for an all or nothing war, and Severus could see it from the morale and psyche of the Kingsman warriors that they were highly motivated and in anticipation of war.

Each small unit in the Kingsman army performed regular combat drills and high level training drills to keep soldiers sharp and at peak performance.

However, amongst all this, Severus noticed a big flaw within the Kingsman military which was that because of the war, they had opened the gates to Military recruitment for all.

Their recruitment process was flawed and did not involve signing a system contract unless one became the rank of a Captain or higher.

This meant that low level troops could join their ranks unchecked and unsuppressed.

If Max used the opportunity to plant enough sleeper cells within their ranks, he could create mayhem inside the battlefield when men wearing the same colour jersey turned on one another.

/// A/N – This bonus chapter is sponsored by longtime patron Zippo2019, please thank him in the comments for the same ///