With the teams made, we all get ready to go out, which means, every cadet is now looking for their teammates. I look around for Rachel, after all, while I don’t know the other two, they sure know who Rachel is, so I just have to go to where she is and problem solved.

“And there she is.”-I think as I find Rachel almost out of the entire group of cadets.

I slowly start walking to where she is, and just before I get close enough to say hi, she turns around to face me.

“…”

No words huh, well, we don’t really know each other.

“Hi, the name’s Cristopher. Your teammate for the time being.”- I said to her, shrugging while saying the last part.

“*nods* I’m Rachel, but I guess you already knew that.”- Answers her without almost any expression.

“Yup, being honest, is not that hard to know who you are, and I’m really thankful for that.”

“Why would you be thankful for that?”-She asks while furrowing her brows and slightly tilting her head.

“Because that way, I won’t have to look for the other two who I don’t know. See?”- I said, while turning to my right to look at the two guys coming this way.

Rachel does the same and finally seems to understand what I’m talking about, as she relaxes her expression.

“Yo! I’m Park Min-Ho, sharpshooter. My main weapon is a crossbow. It’s nice to meet you, princess, hope we can work well together”-Said a mean looking guy, with dyed hair and a row of piercings on his left ear. I don’t know why, but he doesn’t inspire me anything good, even feels like the kind of guy I would love to punch on the face.

“Name’s Mark. Support. I use a Chain Sickle.”-Said the brown-haired guy after hastily glancing at my hair and then turning his eyes to Rachel. He at least gave me a glance, not like the other guy. Oh well, at least he is someone who barely speaks. I prefer that type of people. Though, with that scar on the right of his chin and the uncared facial hair he gives the impression of some kind of veteran of war. Even when he should be around his 17 years.

“Name’s Cristopher. Warrior. Longsword.”- I said, following the veteran-looking guy with the introductions.

“I’m Rachel, I use a rapier.”- Did Rachel immediately after.

Well, guess we’re finally ready to go.

“There’s no time for chitchat. You should have gotten the coordinate and information of the monster you’ll need to kill on your smartwatch. Get going!”- And right on time Kim Soohyuk shout rang out.

Immediately after, Rachel raised her smartwatch and projected and image of the creature we would be hunting. Nice. Insect types. Love them. Pretty easy to burn to ashes.

“We’re hunting a Shielded Mantis. It will be difficult, but not impossible if we work as a team.”-Said Rachel after looking at the information of the monster we are hunting.

“Ok, so what are we waiting for? Other teams are already moving, and we have to worry for the other classes too.”-Said Park Min-Ho, hurrying us to move. And we indeed start to move.

As Min-Ho said, we are not the only class participating in this training, we have three other classes joining, so that makes a hundred teams, with 25 per class.

---

We have been running for at least 5 minutes, and while I and Mark have barely talk, Park Min-Ho has been constantly trying to start a conversation with Rachel. To which she’s barely answering.

“The monster is in front of us now, get in formation.”-Said Rachel as soon as we see the Shielded Mantis.

What can I say about it? It’s basically a big mantis, the same size as a truly big bull. But its size is not the only thing to notice. It has a shield. Well, almost. Each one of its forearms has the form of half a straight tower shield, so when it joins them, he can get a great defense to his front. Its arms are also really long, so it basically covers everything but its eyes and antennae.

Also, surrounding it wouldn’t do anything, as his back is protected by a really tough carapace, as strong as the shield on his front legs, though that leaves it without wings. To attack, it has two reverse scythes at the end of the shield of his arms, and it is structured so that he can quickly thrust his arms up, cutting whatever is in front of it. It is basically a tank, waiting for you to fail your attack to cut you.

By the way, this is not a true monster, it’s just a magic puppet that has the characteristics and power of the monster it copies, but with less power, so it isn’t dangerous at all. All cadets should be safe in this training.

While thinking so, I move myself to the front, passing by Park Min-Ho who is quickly going to the rear of the formation. Just as I’m passing by, he whispers “You better not fuck up dude.”. Seems like he is indeed the kind of guy I would love to punch on the face.

“Worry about yourself, dude.”-I answer him without even turning my eyes.

Mark, on the other hand, quickly puts himself between Park Min-Ho and Rachel and I. Being a middle range attacker, the middle of the formation is truly the best spot. And for this monster, his help would be fairly necessary, as he needs to catch one of the mantis’ shielded arms to make as many openings as possible.

“Get ready, our job is to make him distracted enough for Mark to catch its arm.”-Said Rachel.

“Roger.”-I answered as I quickly activated the Eyes of the Dragon God to its fully, though limited, potential. I hope nobody sees the reptilian eyes I probably have right now.

Thanks to that I could perfectly grasp every weakness of the Shielded Mantis, should probably thanks the mix of Observation and Reading and my own authority for that though.

“I’m taking his attention first.”-I said, while drawing the longsword from its scabbard as I get into the starting form of Dragon’s Fangs Dance.

Crossing both arms and putting the longsword horizontally in front of me with my left hand, I kick the ground and rush to the Shielded Mantis, emulating a horizontal reverse swing.

“Wait!”-Said Rachel as soon as she sees me going straight towards the Mantis.

Just when I’m getting close to the Mantis, the monster puts both shields in front, twisting them a little for an easy parry of my horizontal cut, which leaves a little crevice between both shields.

“So nice of you”- I thought. Just when I get at a sword thrust away from the body behind the shield, I quickly let go of the sword with my left hand, grabbing it again with the right hand that was waiting all the time just downside it in a reverse grip. Giving it a small turn and reinforcing it with mana, while reinforcing my legs with a bit of natural energy, I kick the floor again, jumping straight to the small crevice that formed between the shields at an even faster speed than before.

Taking the Shielded Mantis by surprise, I slide my sword between its shields and right into its long and unprotected thorax, making it screech in pain while moving one of its arm to the side and the other in position to cut me up.

“NOW!”- I scream as I jump back evading the scythe cutting up.

*swiiiiiish*

Right when I was mid-jump, I see a chained sickle passing right beside me and onto the left arm of the monster, quickly entangling it with the chain.

 “Nicely done!”- I say to mark, who could react fast enough to catch the monster’s arm.

“You too!”-Said Rachel as she quickly passes by my side to attack the Mantis and keep it distracted. After all, we don’t want it attacking the sickle entangling its left arm.

Once I’m on the rear again, I change my form to a more defensive one, going straight ahead into the fight to switch places with Rachel as the main distractor. But before all that, I remember to say something else to my other teammate.

“Don’t stay there and start shooting.”

To which I faintly hear an “I know!!!”, before magic reinforced bolts start going to the monster. And he is on the upper side of the rankings…

I quickly switch with Rachel, leaving her the main close attacker position while I take care of the free right arm of the Shielded Mantis.

---

With that set up, we quickly killed it attacking its unprotected body until Rachel finally cut its head off after 8 minutes of fight. It could have been less if I used a fire attribute attack on the first cut, leaving a deep burn, but why risk it being first?

We then went back to the field, right to the instructor Kim Soohyuk, who quickly saw us.

“You did well, 12 minutes, 35 seconds. You’re the third team to finish the training. Seems like your ranking is well justified, cadet Rachel”-Said the instructor after touching a few things on the smartwatch, and before turning to leave somewhere else. To where other cadets where coming from, specifically Chae Nayun and her team.

“Thanks, instructor.”-With those parting words, Rachel also leaved on her own.

Park Min-Ho glanced at me for a second before going after Rachel. It seems like he doesn’t give up on striking a chat up with her huh…

“How did you do that?”- Suddenly asked Mark who weirdly stayed behind. I thought he would be the first one to leave. Appreciate

“Did what?”

“Don’t play games with me dude. How did you pass through the Shielded Mantis defense?”-Asked him, genuinely confused.

“Is a monster who basically depends on its defense to survive. Instinct is a great thing; it leads you to move faster than what your brain can process. But it sometimes is dangerous against an intelligent specie.”- I vaguely answered his question.

“Wait… Are you telling me you deceived its instincts?”

“Yeah. Pretty much just made it think it would be a horizontal slash, and he moved to parry that. Sadly for it, I know how to change attacks at the last moment, even more if it’s a fake attack, and with a little acceleration, it becomes basically impossible for it to cover the openings that appeared in its defense. My sword just went by a little crevice made between its shields.”

“Wow… I’ve known that monster from before, but never thought about fighting it like that. Not even knew there were blank spaces on its shields, thought they were perfect”

“So you indeed know how to talk… I thought you were some kind of mute.”-I said, while looking blankly at him. “But yeah, is pretty much the easy way, though you would probably need to fight it a few times or watch some videos to notice the little changes in the way it defends itself. And also not; no shield has a perfect defense, even less if you take two separated shields and put them together, depending on how you do it, there will always be some kind of space between them to insert a sword. Does that answer your questions?”- I ask, starting to get a little irritated by this one-sidedly interrogation, or maybe it’s because the one interrogating me is the guy I assume didn’t talk unless necessary.

“I’m not a mute. I just don’t talk more than necessary, especially when there are higher ranking guys around, they can be a bunch of assholes sometimes, so better be safe than sorry, right?”

He has a point. Some guys here have a really big ego. So big, that it’s better to avoid getting in their bad side. Nor that I would be bothered by it.

“Guess you’re right.”

“I’m Mark Miller, from North Carolina, US.”

“What’s getting into you all of a sudden?”

“You’re not a high ranker, and seems like a nice guy to me, so seeing that we will be teammates, I thought it would be better to do a more complete introduction, what you say?”

“Mmmm… Yeah, maybe you’re right. My name is Cristopher D. Lamas, just call me Cristopher or Cris, and I’m from here, Korea.”

“Wait, what? Korean? With your name I thought you were from some place in America”-Said with a genuinely surprised face.

“Don’t remember almost anything from my past, but somehow ended here as an orphan with only a name to myself.”- I said a half truth, I’m indeed an orphan from Korea, giving I attended the Agent Military Academy from Korea, but I don’t know if I was born here, got dropped here from somewhere else or even if I already had a name or some kind of letter with me. And I also don’t remember any kind of past in this world.

“Sorry dude, didn’t meant to touch any sensitive spot.”- Answered Mark with an apologetic face.

“Don’t worry, no offense taken. Well, I guess I’ll be waiting somewhere else to classes to be dismissed.”-I said to him, strongly sending the “I want to be alone” vibes.

“All right, I’ll be on my way to wait for my friend too. It was nice to meet you and teaming up with you man.”

“I also think the same, I look for our future trainings, mate.”- I said while starting to walk to a close tree. The sun is up and I prefer to be under a nice tree’s shadow.

“I guess I’ll have to wait until Hajin’s team gets here. If my memory doesn’t fail me, he finished his hunt in almost 60 minutes…”

While thinking about the time I would need to wait, I turn to see Park Min-Ho looking down sorrowfully, and the motive a few meters away from him.

Sitting with her golden hair covering her face, Rachel was reading what I assume must be some kind of theory book. She really tries hard when it comes to studying. Which is why she could keep her position as the third ranked on all novice’s classes. Though, this drives a lot of cadets away from her, leaving her practically alone.

“I know your academy results in Cube define your future… But maybe she should take some time to rest… Well, I guess a princess has her own problems to carry. Good luck with that, girl.”- I think as I lean on the tree behind me and close my eyes to wait for Hajin to finish the combat training.