The battle raged on, but as the dust settled, to no one’s surprise, the Class Zero graduate students managed to eke out a victory. Though tired from a forced workout with Angelica, and though suffering from a numbers disadvantage, their superior skills and power manipulation did end up shining through...

The losing team though, they couldn’t help but still feel a little disappointed. One in particular, Nyssa, stood by the sideline with a crestfallen expression. “How did I get hit?”

“They had really good aim, I guess... You did well though, have confidence. I think you played a good role on our team,” Celeste comforted while giving Nyssa a few pats on the back. Seeing the atmosphere fit it, she pulled Nyssa into a hug, and the two ended up standing in their hug for a couple minutes as the others engaged in their own conversation.

“UNBELIEVABLE!” Conrad shook his head. “How did we choke our lead? I FUMBLED! Sorry about that, Albion.”

“No, you’re fine,” Albion breathed out a faint cloud of mist. He stared off into the distance where Isolde now high-fived Orion. “It’s my bad too, she totally outmaneuvered me. One play and it was over.”

“Yeah, it really wasn’t easy,” Titus sat on the ground, leaning back while using his hands to prop himself up. “Orion’s crazy. I had a perfect counter to him, a spear with a dusk aspect, but he just brute forced me.”

“It’s understandable, he’s a strong fire user,” Albion stretched as he looked over towards Ryker. “At least we did better than him, so I don’t think we have anything to really worry about.”

“Those psychological scars sure are deep huh...” Conrad murmured as Electra patted Ryker on the back.

Meanwhile, Ryker held his face in his hands. “She’s a devil, a devil in human skin... no, not even, that’d be slander against the devils. I’m sure they’d be disgusted to be associated with her. To the devil Olivia’s contracted to, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lump you in with my older sister...”

“I mean... she didn’t do anything really,” Electra pointed out the facts. “She never even threw a dodgeball, how did you get out so many times?”

“I just kinda froze up, you know?” Ryker pulled his eyelids down. “That does remind me though, we really should invite Olivia sometime. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind hanging out with us. It’s been a while since we’ve hosted a party in the Class Zero building hasn’t it? She always complains that the Class One students are too stuck-up.”

“Some of them certainly are,” Electra laughed as a spark of electricity ran down her hair. “We’ve beaten them up so many times by now, and they still think they’re the hot stuff.”

Before Ryker could continue speaking though, Angelica silenced everyone with a few claps. Looking around to make sure she had everyone's attention, she paused and pursed her lips as her gaze landed on Nyssa. Celeste, still hugging Nyssa, just shrugged. “She fell asleep on her own, I didn’t do anything but give her a hug.”

“... You’re too warm, that’s the problem,” Angelica sighed and shook her head. “Let’s just continue on, she slept through the last match anyway. The next game is capture the flag. You’ll see how it's relevant in a second, but I’d like to expand on the announcement I made to the students earlier.”

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“That’s everyone here,” Ashe countered as the five graduate students struck a pose. “Redundancy! We’ve caught you slacking!”

Just as the rest of the graduate division students were going to pile on with their own comments, Angelica tapped her chin. “You’re right, let me adjust that then, I’d like to make an announcement to my current students. Because on a technical note, all of you graduate students are now considered the headmaster’s students.”

“Ack-”

“It hurts...”

“We take it back...”

“Angelica doesn’t love us anymore...”

Wiping a fake tear, Scarlet did her best delicate noblewoman gasp. She then put a hand to her forehead and did a fake faint backward into Thalia’s arms. “M-My goodness!”

Angelica, unfazed, turned to her seven current students in Class Zero. “So, as I mentioned this morning, we’ll be doing some field exercises soon. There’s been a new mission posted on the website for hunter’s, and I think it’d be some good actual hands-on training for you all.”

“Are we leaving before or after Roxanne’s guest seminar?” Electra raised her hand.

Ryker hopped in right after her, raising his own hand. “Or are we missing it entirely? Please don’t make us miss it. It’d be a real shame.”

“Don’t worry I’m not going to make you all miss it, we’ll be leaving after her seminar since it's next week after all,” Angelica shook her head, a smile with a faint air of mystery dancing across her face. “I’m quite looking forward to it too after all. Roxanne’s a good friend of mine, we were, in fact, students together here at the institute many years ago.”

Pausing for a second as the seven students in front of her—along with the five graduate students behind her—let out their “oohs” and “ahh”s, she could only laugh while glancing at Nyssa. “Alright, for the details of the mission though, we’ll just be doing some investigation in the wild north. Expect to run into some beasts because we’ll be venturing further north than any territory currently claimed by any country. The travel time won’t be too long either.”

As she talked, she chose to ignore the five graduate division students who had snuck around and taken a seat in the back beside Celeste and Nyssa. “Now, we’ll have an entire class meeting where we debrief the route we’ll take and more, so I’ll leave it at that. The reason I mention it right now though, is because I’d like you all to work on your teamwork during this capture the flag event. Thus, I’m making a rule that any move you make must be in tandem with one or more other people on your team. Get creative, got it? I know several of you have established group attacks, so feel free to fall back on those, but don’t be afraid to try something new as well.”

A second later, she also added. “Tell her when she wakes up, but Nyssa has to actually participate this time. She must do a pair attack with at least four other people. If not everyone.”

“Damn the difficulty just spiked,” Ryker cracked a joke only to tap his chin. “Well, actually with her it opens up the options a lot.”

“Chop, chop, now, let’s get going!” Angelica clapped her hands. As everyone got to their feet, she spun on her heel and kicked up a small cloud of dust before spreading her arms to draw attention to the grandness of Class Zero’s private gymnasium. “I’ve decided the entire training field will be the pitch we’ll use as well. Unlike this small area marked out for dodgeball.”

She pulled out the two flags she had stuck into the ground and threw one to each group and then shooed them all off to their respective sides. Everyone wandered off, setting up a small little camp on opposite ends by the gleaming metal walls. Cupping her hands to her mouth, Angelica called out one last time. “You have a fifteen minute grace period to prepare and make your fortifications! Time starts... Now!”