After hard training, we decided to have dinner together. I made some pizzas.

"Hey! It's really good! It is from your home?" - Firio asked me with a full mouth.

"Yes, kinda. I don't have ingredients from Earth here, but I managed to do something similar." - I replied to him.

"Can you make more?" - girls asked me.

"Yes, sure, give me some time."

And so, for most of the break, I was making pizza for these gluttons. Fortunately, they were interested in how I do it, so soon I wasn't doing it alone.

In the end, everyone was full and satisfied. There were also bets on how much Sunny would be able to eat. Of course, thanks to cheering, she ate a record amount of pizza...

"Next time, you guys will prepare something for me." - I announced.

They laughed nervously.

"It's true, today you had a lot of work because of us... Thank you." - Crimson.

"Yes, you can expect something great soon!" - Suri promised.

It was nice.

They invited me to a card game. It was called "Find the Cheater." Of course, magic cards. One person was drawn at random who got cards from the box that could change the pattern. You had to guess who the cheater was, and the cheater had to hide well.

The winner is the one who finds the cheater or the one who collects the most points at the end.

Unfortunately, the first time I played, I was the cheater. I lost very fast.

"Don't worry, next time will be better!" - Kazo tried to cheer me up.

I nodded and we continued playing until the bell signaled the assembly.

The trainer was waiting for us at the gate, next to him stood Exceed with rather small ears, and a long and strong tail. His fur was long and quite hanging, not fluffy like the others.

"Good evening. I am Derax. I will lead your jungle training today. We will work on cooperation and I will evaluate the contribution of each of you. I have the title of earth master and am also a specialist in protective spells. However, I will try to interfere as little as possible, as long as no one's life is in danger." - he explained to us.

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It sounded very serious... But also exciting! Besides, I finally got a chance to meet the master. I mean... He didn't even pay attention to me, but I didn't mind. I wonder if we'll see at least some of its capabilities.

"Any questions?" - he asked, but it looked like no one dared to ask.

After a while, we headed into the jungle. We weren't even running along the road, it was just running through real wilderness. Our coach was not with us this time.

So, apart from running and watching out for dangers, another necessity was removing vegetation standing in our way or avoiding it. Sunny, just like yesterday, was sitting in my bag and curiously watching what was going on.

"Climbing ones are close!" - she announced.

"Monsters are coming!" - I alarmed others.

"So get to work, get set up, and get organized!" - Derax said and sat quietly in the center of our group.

We formed two lines in a tight circle. We didn't know who would be in front and who would be behind, so it was a bit chaotic.

We didn't have to wait long for the monsters to appear. They came down from the higher parts of the trees and hissed ominously when they realized that we already knew about their presence.

The monsters didn't wait a moment and started moving incredibly fast, and when they closed the distance, they jumped on us as a whole group. Each attacked with his strongest attack.

Instinctively, the Exeeds with the gift of water placed themselves elsewhere than the Exceeds with the gift of fire. These were some of the most troublesome elements to work with each other.

I decided to use my shadow gift and threw shadow blades at the nearest monster. I aimed at his stomach and managed to seriously injure him! I should think about increasing the size of the blades I throw. Maybe even a spear made of shadow?

Someone shouted, the monster managed to get into formation behind us! I turned quickly and jumped at the monster, and my friends quickly closed the circle behind me.

A shadow covered my hand and it elongated into a blade. I had an idea... Why do I need to hold a shadow when I can treat it as an extension of my arm in certain situations.

I gave the monster a cut where I learned the brain should be hidden. Of course, that was a pretty hard spot on his back, and I had difficulty piercing its skin and bone, but I managed to do this until monster reacted. I killed it!

"Thank you, Will." - Suri got up quickly.

She had a bite mark on her arm, but because of the adrenaline she didn't care too much about this. I didn't have time to force her to rest either.

There were 8 monsters, and 2 were killed. The remaining 6 attacked us fiercely and tried to get to us. The death of their kinsmen did not discourage them. Fiery magic effectively forced them to keep their distance, but they stubbornly looked for an opportunity.

"What's wrong with them that they don't give up!" - someone growled in annoyance.

"Water, can you pour water on them?" - I asked. - "Electric?" - I didn't need to say more.

All the beasts got a huge shock, unfortunately, a few of us also felt the lightning effect slightly. Ground is wet here!

However, this did not stop us from further action. We stubbornly attacked and took advantage of the creatures' temporary stupor.

I killed another monster with my shadow blades. The next one was immobilized by cutting his paws.

The whole fight took us 5 minutes, but it felt like an hour. We killed 5 monsters, 3 fled in panic, seeing no chance of prey. It was a win!

"You managed to kill most of them without my interference. That's something optimistic." - he said to us. - "You, human. You really seem to be a promising case. To be honest, I doubted your results... But maybe you'll be something." - I heard something unfriendly in his voice.

In fact, there was something familiar about him. Someone I ran into at begin of my magical journey? No, it's not him... But I think he had a similar build.