In the central camp arena, 5 figures could be seen divided into two groups. On one side, a couple of students were completely dirty and bruised, their uniforms torn in several places. On the other side, in the opposite corner, a group of 3 girls silently watched the situation with a smile; they were Javiera, Camila, and Emilia, members of the mortal squadron.

A man around 40 years old, wearing a military uniform with a couple of medals on his chest, looked between the two groups, nodding to himself.

- "Begin!" - a solemn shout echoed in the arena.

Kaller lunged forward, powered by Lina who gave him an extra boost with her wind powers.

Swoosh.

Like an arrow, Kaller covered the 10-meter distance that separated them in 2 seconds. The trio of girls was surprised by this wild charge and prepared to defend themselves. Camila, the fire mage, raised a barrier of flames and, together with the priestess Javiera, applied a debuff of exhaustion to the barrier.

Emilia, the assassin, sneaked to the side and stealthily approached Lina to ambush her.

BAM.

A loud crash reverberated throughout the arena; Kaller had crashed into the wall of flames, shattering it instantly. With Lina's help, he was protected from burns thanks to a protective layer. However, the exhaustion debuff fell upon him, making his movements slow and heavy.

- "Now!" - the priestess Javiera quickly said to her ally, the mage Camila.

Camila clasped her hands together while murmuring something.

"Sun, source of life, your flames illuminate the Earth, bless me with your fire and your word will be spread."

A fireball appeared in front of Camila's outstretched hands, its size comparable to a golf ball. However, the heat it emitted was immense, spinning rapidly and condensing the solar energy of the area at that point.

Followers of the path of the wizard specialized in the control and emission of ether; most could use their etheric abilities without problems, but as they increased the power and range of their abilities, the difficulty increased in parallel.

Conjuring and casting a fireball was basic for mages with fire abilities; they could do it in a short period without much thought in the process. However, when trying to conjure a more powerful ability, they had to understand the process involved step by step and recreate it in their minds, a process that was quite difficult to perform, so most wizards chose to use chants or pray to entities that could simplify this process. In this case, Camila was a believer in the god "Sun."

"Damn it, don't fail me now, Lina," thought Kaller as he felt the heat making him sweat profusely, glancing sideways at his companion, he continued forward with slow and heavy steps, intending to engage in close combat with the priestess Javiera.

BOOM.

A highly concentrated fire ray shot out from the rotating fireball. Although not lethal, it would leave Kaller incapacitated and with severe injuries instantly.

- "WHAT IS THAT!"

- "WHAT IS KALLER DOING!"

- "THEY'RE MONSTERS!"

- "DAMN GENIUS LINA!"

A sphere of wind appeared in front of Kaller, compact and spinning rapidly, the incoming fire ray was being divided in two as it collided with this sphere.

Kaller was affected by the exhaustion debuff, but being a fighter his physique was strong, able to withstand it and move at a normal speed to initiate the counterattack.

- "Emilia!" - shouted the priestess Javiera while ignoring the mage.

Camila was channeling the fire spell so she couldn't provide support. Moreover, the young Camila was dismayed by what had happened, her eyes widened as she watched how that girl named Lina could perform a similar spell, but without any chanting or preparation, she had conjured it in a blink.

"The difference between a true blessed and one who begs for blessings," Camila said to herself as she noticed that the tall dark-haired boy had no scratches.

Only 5 seconds had passed and Kaller had pierced through the enemy defenses, the priestess moved backward trying to put distance between them.

- "Goddess of truth! Guardian of veracity! Your humble servant seeks your blessing! I beseech for the eyes that see through all!" - Javiera prayed for the blessings of the goddess and a sacred aura began to emanate from her figure, her eyes turned golden.

Priests were a special type of wizard, most of them came from having contact with gods or high-level beings. Ether strengthened the spiritual body that is related to the mind and psyche of the individual, humanity's spirituality increased to such an extent, that it allowed humans to vaguely perceive the existence of beings outside this world.

Thus were born some unconventional specializations that were based on the concepts that the gods spread, they also used a different form of ether called sacred. Ether is the neutral state in which this element is found, however, when subjected to favorable conditions and influenced by a perpetual state of well-being, its purity increases obtaining new properties such as purification, healing, etc.

Therefore, priests used "sacred" as the source of their powers, but since there were minimal amounts on Earth, they depended on the benevolence of these "gods" for their growth.

Javiera looked at Kaller for any weakness or flaw in his technique to escape this situation, but the figure before him was completely dark, she couldn't see any trace of his spiritual body. Anxiety invaded her whole body and she opened her mouth in disbelief, her eyes widened greatly, no living being could lack a soul, it was completely impossible.

Anxiety became evident on the priestess's face and she focused even more sacred power in her eyes to try to perceive something. A faint blue color began to appear before her eyes, but moments later she was hit by an unprecedented reaction.

- "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" - a scream of agony could be heard throughout the central camp.

Javiera fell backwards to the ground as she rubbed her eyes forcefully, blood started to flow from her eyes, ears, and nose, she writhed uncontrollably screaming in pain.

The students fell silent at the unexpected development, some were horrified by the situation that was taking place in the arena. The supervisor moved quickly and approached the girl.

Kaller, who was inches away from the priestess, stood watching the situation, Camila, on the other hand, had finished channeling the fire attack and looked at her friend lying on the ground. On the other side of the arena, Lina was throwing wind blades at Emilia who had appeared meters away from her, but upon hearing the agonizing scream, both stopped and looked towards the young student being attended to by the combat supervisor.

- "It's over! Team star wins!" another supervisor quickly shouted, arriving at the scene, he pushed away the onlookers and took control of the situation while the previous supervisor took the girl to the infirmary.

The battle had lasted about 10 seconds and ended, both Lina and Kaller looked confused, no one understood what had happened. Tania, after the initial shock, began to scream with joy celebrating the victory, on the other hand, Luis along with Bruno fist bumped the pair of young people who had won the fight.

- "Well done guys," Bruno said with a smile on his face.

"That was awesome Lina, but you almost lost to the assassin," Luis added teasingly.

"In your dreams, dwarf, I had everything under control," the young blonde-haired girl replied seriously as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at the opposing team.

"I hope she'll be okay, won't she?" Kaller said in a doubtful tone, looking at his teammates.

"I hope so," Tania replied, clasping her hands in prayer.

The evening continued without incident and the star squadron scored two victories, Luis, Bruno, and Tania's group performed quite well against the onslaught of the Rodriguez brothers. Bruno acted as the vanguard and protected the young Tania from the onslaughts, while Luis operated in the rearguard and covered the group at all times.

The Rodriguez brothers had an unmatched synergy and teamwork, making it quite challenging for the trio of young people, their techniques and unleashed powers had an alarming offensive power, but with Tania providing the right benefits, they withstood the initial offensive, managing to find an opening in the midst of the battle through which they landed a lethal counterattack, defeating the duo of brothers.

Night descended upon the camp and points of light appeared throughout it, thousands of students were chatting and munching happily as they strengthened their bonds and teamwork.

Javiera had been discharged, but she wore a bandage with healing properties over her eyes, she was forbidden to use her powers for the next few days. The official statement was that it was a negative reaction to using her power recklessly, the young priestess remembered almost nothing of what had happened, but she had the slight impression that the situation hid something, due to the sudden silence of her goddess, who used to respond frequently to her prayers.

"Greetings, soldiers," holographic screens appeared around the entire camp.

Kaller and company silently watched the screens, all the higher-ups were standing behind Commander Stevenson.

"I'm glad to see the progress you've shown over these days, there haven't even been any punishments in the last two days, you're an amazing group," Commander Stevenson said.

Subcommander Sofia glanced sideways at her superior, she had returned during the midday and informed about the situation, she had been ambushed by a group of extraterrestrials that left her badly injured, however, she managed to escape along with a handful of soldiers.

They tried to make contact, but the signals were blocked which prevented communication, finding themselves without ideas they decided to venture into the Central American territory that was frequently affected by gravity waves and managed to ambush the extraterrestrials, being able to flee and establish contact with one of the generals who was in the area. The Central American region was completely destroyed and uninhabitable due to the aftermath of the battle at the beginning of the war, one of these being the unstable gravity of the area that sporadically increased or decreased.

"In the following days, your final exam will come, so prepare yourselves and give your best, soldiers," concluding his speech, Commander Stevenson bid farewell with a malicious smile which was accentuated even more by his well-groomed and long elegant mustache. The military were well known for being sadistic and malicious with the new recruits.

"Good job, everyone, this exam won't be stopped by some minor inconveniences, these damn extraterrestrials will suffer under our power, the reaper will come in the next few days with an elite squadron to sweep the area and establish a foothold," with a solemn tone and eyes full of rage, Commander Stevenson turned around and walked away towards his office.

Subcommander Sofia Escalante stood silently watching her superior's back, the commander's return relieved her greatly and she was glad that the exam had not been canceled. She had always looked out for the personal growth and development of the younger generations so this opportunity could not be wasted.

However, the subcommander's eyes continued to stare fixedly in the direction where Commander Stevenson had been standing, she had been staring into nothingness while an inexplicable feeling invaded her, seconds passed and General Riskgood was by her side.

- "Subcommander! Subcommander! Escalante! Hey, Sofia!" General Riskgood was constantly calling out to Subcommander Sofia with a concerned tone.

Sofia snapped out of it and saw General Riskgood's face inches away from hers.

- "Don't call me that, Riskgood, we're not in school anymore," she replied angrily as she looked around noticing that no one was there.

- "I thought you were ignoring me as usual."

- "You've always been loud and annoying, it's normal to be ignored..."

- "Did something happen?" General Riskgood asked with a confused look, looking at his old friend with concern.

- "It's nothing, let's go eat," Sofia replied as she led the way to the dining hall.