“I don’t really think I thought this through.”

Amanda found herself falling, and fast. Jumping from a dropship with her friends following close behind, was something she had never seen herself, ever. While she was the one who counted down their dramatic fall to the earth below, she couldn’t deny that she was shaking in her boots as she did.

Really, to think she could have the balls to willingly barrel out of a ship mid-flight, and descend hundreds of thousands of meters of dead air without a parachute, expecting to land all hunky dory on her feet. To be fair, explorers could do that with the use of core energy or their powers.

Some had a small amount of manipulation over gravity, weight, or their bodies themselves, reinforcing their bones to such an extent that a fall from a skyscraper would only leave them with a scratch.

Corebinders could commonly withstand all kinds of physical abuse, but Amanda was a Mystic. She had control over ice, and could create it. So how in the world was she supposed to land with that kind of power. Maybe making a pile of snow to soften her landing?

Yeah right! She thought.

She would need more time to enact that plan and she had only minutes before she went splat. Her breath caught and she began to scream, her arms flailing as she wept tears of fear, and lips wide from the whipping wind.

She likely looked very unlady-like, and most of all, an amateur to her peers.

“Amanda! Get a grip!”

Stella, who could hear her shrill cry over the comms, worriedly fell to her. Stella already had a landing strategy and she thought Amanda would too. Though now, she was skeptical about her friend. As intelligent as Amanda presented herself, this indeed was a challenging situation they found themselves in.

Intellect could be clouded by all kinds of emotions, and right now was a tumultuous time.

Stella made to get closer, and perhaps help her friend land by using her own method. She could produce flames from her hands or across her body. Whenever she did, these flames had a kind of recoil to them.

So if she pointed her hands down, they’d act like thrusters, and while flying wasn’t possible, it did slow her down a deal. As good as her plan sounded, Stella had never landed with anyone hanging onto her. Whoever did could get hurt from her powers.

Flames were indiscriminate, but Amanda getting burned was better than getting every bone in her body broken from the fall. Stella told herself that, trying to convince herself that it would be fine. She ducked her body and dived for Amanda. Before she could get close, a hand held her shoulder stopping her. Her head turned back and Ikki was there.

“What! She’s in trouble! I have to help.”

“I know.” Ikki said. “But take this.” He handed Stella a backpack and upon closer examination, it was a parachute. “I got these just in case before we jumped. Thought they could come in handy. Go get one of these to Amanda, they should be safer than your flames.”

What a keen guy.

Ikki could tell that Stella was worried, he seemed to be on alert about how people felt. Ikki was always so sharp and insightful of others, a trait she found attractive and a strength of his as an explorer. She nodded.

“Thanks. You always know how to look out for me.”

“You’re my roommate, it's the least I could do.”

“Hmph!”

Stella hoped he’d say they were more than roommates, best friends even, but she thought that would be too soon. It had only been a month since they met each other, though she felt an affinity with this young man.

“Heh, and you can count on me.” Stella responded, cheekily winking at Ikki, who returned it with a wide grin. Her heart skipped a beat and an uncomfortable sensation crept in.

Why? Why was it that Stella could tell there was some loneliness in that grin of his.

It was as if he had ostracized himself from her. Yes, he was an F ranked explorer in terms of ability by UN standards. Even still, he had bested her in combat, yet now he was still so humbling and thought so little of himself.

Why? Why didn’t he think himself stronger? After all he had accomplished.

It hit her. The moments before their tag team mock battle started, flashed in her eyes. The words passed and the shifting of his tone.

Well, we won’t know until we try. I’m giving it my all, so don’t count me out just because you have higher stats and talent.

Those were Ikki’s words and while they superficially sounded assured of himself that he had a chance of victory, did he really say it with such decisiveness? The answer was no. How he worded it told of how there was still the chance of failure, humbling but also showing a bit of cowardice.

Cowardice in that he’d lose, and she was right, Stella could see that and the slight terror in his brown eyes at this very moment. This Practical Training Class was getting to him, he, like herself, had never experienced such rapid change.

Maybe Ikki had in the past with Itsuki, but the look he had kept telling her there was more to it. As if he’d never get used to a disturbing truth.

“It doesn’t matter.” She mumbled, not chiming the comms to make sure that no one else heard. Refocusing, she narrowed her eyes as she dove to Stella, who was still screaming her heart out.

The sounds Amanda was making were so high pitched that Stella thought the comms automatic decibel adjuster would break. If this is what true fear sounded like, she wanted herself to never ever let out such a cry.

“Amanda! Calm down! Here! PUT! THIS! ON!” Thrusting the parachute to her, Amanda scrambled in the air with her hands, her fingers grasping at air in near miss passes, trying to get a smidge of contact.

Every time she reached out, her fingers would miss the fluttering strap by just a second.

It was irritating, and it was the same for Stella.

“Stella! Amanda! Hurry up!” Richard called over the comms. “The ground is coming in quick! Put the chute on and pull, or else you’ll turn into a pancake!”

“I concur.” Shisuki added, her regal tone showed that she didn’t have much concern for either of them, but a slight annoyance instead. “I would prefer if Stella became flat chested from this, it would be a cure to her fat chest, but I’d not like to see any pancakes today.” She scoffed. “So please, the two of you, stop dilly dallying and get the chute on her already.

“You son of a. AH! Never mind!” Stella grumbled. “Hold still Amanda!”

“Wait! What!”

Amanda croaked, before she could have any say in the matter, she found herself being man handled by Stella. Hands crept around her waist, securing strap after strap to her, clicking the metal buckles into place.

“Oh~ AH~ Wait~ Stella~ Ah~~”

Ikki and Richard blushed over the comms, unable to stop themselves from imagining how sensually Stella was touching Amanda, trying to get the parachute on her.

The pack was cumbersome, with an assortment of straps that were in some very touchy places. To summarize it themselves, from a male perspective, they were tight around the chest and especially around the groin.

For a woman, these were some, “risque” places.

“There we go! You’re all set!”

Securing the last strap, Stella nodded as if it was a job well done. Amanda would say otherwise by how violated she felt, but at least it was a girl who touched her rather than a boy.

“HERE WE GO!”

“What!”

Again, Amanda had no time to react as Stella did her own thing. She felt something tug on her back and suddenly something unfurled above her. The lost momentum hit Amanda all at once, and it was a good thing she didn’t speak much. If she did, she might have bitten her tongue.

The chute opened, its brown and gray fabric shading her as it slowed her descent. Though not enough.

“KYAAAAAAAAA!”

Still screaming at the top of her lungs, the ground was coming in fast. With how late they had pulled the chute, there wasn’t enough time to slow down, so Amanda braced. She funneled as much core energy into her body, trying to make it strong enough to withstand the impact. A dull thud ran through her, making a dry cough come out.

“Ow.” She weakly groaned and the chute draped over her, as if to hide her shameful landing.

“Amanda!”

She had been hearing her name shouted a lot today. The reason was simple, they were worried about her.

Slowing herself with a spout of flame and then a hard impact as she landed, cracking the ground underfoot, Stella dashed over.

Tugging and pulling the parachute away, she sighed in relief to find Amanda still in one piece. Her face was caked in a bit of brown and dry dirt, but what was pronounce were her red eyes and streaming tears.

“Waaaaaa!”

Amanda threw herself at Stella, burying her face in two mounds of bountiful motherly love. It was ungodly soft, even through Stella’s uniform and blazer. She didn’t care if this looked childish, Amanda only wanted someone to cry on.

Stella giggled and shot Amanda a warm smile.

“I guess we can both cross skydiving off our bucket lists.” Patting Amanda’s head of blue hair, like how Stella’s mother did for her when she was young, Stella’s attention was then drawn up.

“Coming in hot!” Richard declared, his feet out and bracing as his own parachute slowed his fall. Unlike Amanda, Richard had also gotten a chute for himself like Ikki. The first to pull his chute, he had ample distance to descend and slow down.

He didn’t have to reinforce himself with core energy, and landed with less dramatics. Unbuckling the parachute bag from his back, he discarded it and made his way to Stella.

Ikki landed close by as well. Before he took a step to join them, Shisuki came barreling nearby, kicking up a haze as she landed on her own two feet. With a hand, she carefully patted her black skirt down as she made her way to his side through the flung up dust.

“Oh? Oh my.”

As if realizing where she had landed by “accident”, Shisuki gave Ikki a smile.

“I apologize if I got any dirt on you little brother. Here, let me help you.”

Giving herself an excuse, Shisuki began patting Ikki down, rather closely at that. Her hands snaked around, helping to straighten out his uniform while also getting a few cheeky tugs in.

Is she teasing me? Ikki asked himself and paralleled how Shisuki had interacted with him in the past. She usually wasn’t this intrusive, but she still had her eye for detail and did act like a surrogate mother of sorts. Her fingers brushed aside any small dirt off of him, like she was getting him ready to look his best.

He was glad that this part of Shisuki didn’t seem all that different, always so loving to her brother and upright. He soon regretted thinking that. She immediately clung onto his left arm, snuggling it as he laughed wryly at her so-called display of, “sibling love”.

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Richard gave the two of them a wide berth, letting whatever was going to happen play out. Already, he saw Stella fuming, her face turning red and fiery hot anger forming in her eyes. If not for Amanda holding her, Richard knew Stella would come over and start a fight with Shisuki.

He sighed in his mind, exasperated. They had just been in such a serious situation and were so afraid in their hearts as they tried to decide if they should jump or not. Now, they were messing around like they did in school.

In a way, they were like kids who were dropped off and left to wait until their parents picked them up.

I really wonder if we’ll become explorers, but we all start somewhere. He thought and shrugged. In the next second, something caught his attention. Richard scanned the surroundings, his head on a swivel.

By how sturdy the ground was underneath his shoes, and the smell of grass in the air, Richard could tell that they had landed in a patch of flat plains. Some small areas were somewhat patchy with dried spaces of dirt, while others flourished with green grass.

The color of where they were hadn’t caught his attention, it was better than the gray confines of the drop, but of more concerning import was what was moving in the distance. It looked human and as it got closer, Richard skewed the target with further interest.

Were they the CDU or CAU, or were they not? If not, then what?

Richard touched his earpiece and everyone heard him chime the team comms.

“Guys. We have a problem.”

Stella cocked a brow in his direction, so did Ikki and Shisuki, but their eyes immediately went blade-like. Sharply, they scanned the surroundings and noticed how some of their smaller hairs were standing on end.

“Sniff, Sniff. Hmmm.” Amanda released herself from Stella and looked around as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Just as she got the last of it out, her whole head shuddered and she froze.

Stella could see her eyes go the same as everyone else. Out of the frying pan and into the fryer.

Jumping to her feet, Amanda manifested her weapon and armor. Everyone else followed her example and readied themselves for danger.

“Amanda, what can you sense?” Richard asked, knowing of her sensory abilities. “Is it the training division?”

He hoped he was right. He didn’t want to engage in any battles until they got a bearing of where they were. For a few free moments as he waited for Amanda to respond, he glanced at the tactical map in the corner of his HUD.

To his unfortunate realization, the approaching human figures were marked as red, and that meant only one thing.

“We have enemies.” Amanda said. “And there are a lot of them. Get ready, we have a fight on our hands.”

“Are you kidding me!” Stella griped in shocked surprise. “I thought this was the drop zone, shouldn’t we be far from the front lines?”

“Did you really think it was that simple?” Shisuki snapped at her. Of all people, Shisuki knew that a noble of the European Bloc would understand that combat was not that simple. Her father, the Flaming King, was known to be both a great strategist and fighter during the war.

Had the brilliance of the father skipped his daughter’s generation?

“I..I’ve never really, “took” to my academic and royal studies. I was more interested in the stories, you know, the .. movies?”

“Oh my goodness.” Shisuki held her temple in contempt. They had a fan girl instead of a well educated noble, a somewhat demoralizing realization that was further pressed deeper like a knife into a wound, since this fan girl was her little brother’s roommate.

She didn’t want whatever loose common sense from Stella to rub off on her beloved Ikki, tainting him with her naïve and lewd minded outlooks.

“Look!” Stella exclaimed indignantly. “I at least studied some of the related material about tactics and warfare, I just.” Stella paused, looking embarrassed as she fiddled with her switch axe. “Skimmed, I skimmed, OKAY!?”

“That’s going to have to do.” Richard told her. “We have incoming and they’re not friendly.”

“We’ll have to move and fight as we go. If not, we might not make it to the rendezvous in time.” Amanda said, and then motioned with her left hand. “Ikki! Shisuki! Get in front! Richard! Keep a lookout! Stella! Me and you will get our ranged attacks ready. Let’s go guys!”

“Right!” Everyone said.

They all moved and gave their acknowledgements. At the rate the enemy was advancing, they had minutes left to react. Gathering themselves as quickly as they could, the team attempted to get into formation but the approaching enemies seemed to sense their disorganization.

Falling from the sky had thrown their minds into a spin and the enemy took advantage of that. By Richard’s count there were maybe a hundred or more, and as they approached, he and the team heard the clicking of wood against wood approach in the distance.

Whatever was approaching was hollow and when it came into view, they saw that it was. Standing in the shape of a human, figures made of porcelain white material stepped close.

They definitely looked human, but the spherical joints and clattering wooden mouths, inlaid with an imitation of teeth, gave it away that these were the constructs the scarred man had talked about.

Ikki took stock of the puppet’s characteristics and his eyes glowed for a second. He was seeing with his core energy enhancing his eyes and he saw familiar strands of strings entwining the puppets joints, though they weren’t really physical strings. They stretched off, so far into the horizon that he had no clue as to how far they went.

Taking his mind off that, Instead, he recalled the thread of core energy Headmaster Joel had used to subdue Stella and Shisuki in the past. It took him a couple seconds and he soon realized as one of the headmaster’s many nicknames he was given popped into his head.

Explorers, especially the famous ones, had always been named with eccentric titles by the public. His grandfather was once called the corebinder progenitor or the Great Sword Master.

In Headmaster Joel’s case, puppeteer came to mind and it made sense now.

“Were these created by the Headmaster?”

“That’s the most probable line of thinking.” Richard answered Ikki. “I’m more concerned about why the headmaster of all people would bring out his creations. If we’re fighting him, then I think our chances of winning are plummeting.”

That made Ikki shiver. If they were to fight these puppets and Joel was the one controlling them, they’d be thrashed in minutes. And how many of them could Joel control? Or Create?

“Hey wait! Didn’t that scarred guy say they’d go easy on us?” Stella postured and it seemed to shine some hope on the situation.

“Then let’s give it a try!” Amanda shouted. Already, she had bolts of ice and ice arrows at the ready. They hovered upright all around her, as if they were a wall of lances protecting their queen.

“Yeah! Let's hit them with everything we got!” Stella cheered and shot forth a large ball of fire from her hands. It arced with Amanda’s volley of arrows and bolts, and hammered down on the approaching puppets dead on.

A distance of 100 meters remained between them and the enemy, and now, the area ahead was turned to black and frosting ash. For a moment, everyone thought that that was it.

Until. They again heard the click and clacking of wood on wood. The puppets continued their approach, callously walking over the ashes of their comrades. This time, with a faster hustle than before. Dashing, they sprinted like Olympic runners, their arms swinging and their upper bodies leaning forward, almost parallel to the ground.

“Incoming!”

Richard’s warning came in time, and a returning volley of white arrows fell upon the group.

“I got it!”

Stella changed her weapon into its sword form and let loose a horizontal slash that kicked up the air. Their trajectories forcibly thrown off, most of the arrows missed and Amanda conjured ice shields to make it certain that no one was hurt.

“Huh? What the? Are these things even arrows?” Startling Amanda, the recoiling effect she experienced from taking the hits on her conjured ice shields were more than expected.

For puppets that seemed like pieces for a play, they sure were strong. They themselves looked unarmed from the outset and that was a clever ruse. Hidden within their hollow frames, some surviving puppets formed a firing line a distance away.

Their arms folded opened and the porcelain-like material of their frames morphed into mechanisms. Sitting attached on the outstretched limb was a crossbow-like weapon, their white bolts flew with uncanny speed and hit with devastating force.

Amanda’s answer as to how strong these puppets were, was answered when another volley was thrown off by Stella and landed wide. Combined, they cratered the ground with sizable pot holes, thunking like heavy unexploded ordnance.

“Jesus Christ! I thought they said they were going easy on us.” Said Amanda. “This is overkill.”

“They are going easy on us!” Ikki said, ducking behind a shield of her’s. “I can see the amount of energy they're getting from the headmaster, their core energy is only just above my own.”

“Are you serious! That much power with so little energy?”

“This must be what Itsuki showed us. Joel’s probably using a higher technique of core energy manipulation.”

If what Ikki said was true, the team would have a difficult path ahead.

Diving in, Shisuki to the initiated and rushed headlong into combat. She was quick on her feet and maneuvered to close in on the enemy. After attacking, she then dipped out of danger, showing the evident agility she had. Even as she retreated, she conjured and threw water dagger after water dagger.

They all found their way into the joints, and exposed the hollow opening of the puppets. A couple swung at her, their arms morphing into white porcelain straight blades. Glinting in the air, that's all that they slashed. Shisuki was gone before the puppets knew it.

Taking advantage of their moment of vulnerability mid slash, Ikki swooped in, his black katana coming in on the two while his white tachi blocked a third strike from a supporting puppet. As strong as their ranged attacks were, these puppets seemed quite susceptible to close range combat.

Picking up on the advantage, Amanda ordered everyone else forward. She was rushing to finish the fight. Stella came jumping in, hammering the ground with a crash of her switch axe. The ground quaked and cracked, and flames bursted forth, engulfing puppet after puppet from under their feet.

“Bwahahahah! Eat this and This! Take that!” Stella swung, taking more puppets down with glee.

“Hey Fatty!” Shisuki complained. “Stop messing around and get behind us.”

“Hmph! I can handle these small fry, just sit there and watch!”

Stella swung again and Shisuki frowned in exasperated anger. She opened her mouth to berate her unruly teammate, but suddenly stopped and dashed over.

“Watch out!”

“Huh?”

From her flank and in her blind spot, a puppet charged Stella, its arm formed into a lancing needle. Unable to react in time, Stella braced and tried to put up her defensive aura. It failed to form in time. The heat of the battle had distracted her and the price of her arrogance was showing.

“Stella!” Ikki noticed she was in danger and sprinted over to her as well. Shisuki was closer, but even with how fast she was, she wasn’t explosively fast like Stella and neither was Ikki.

A blow found its mark on Ikki’s back, and then another and another.

“Argh! AHH!”

“NO! Brother!”

Hearing Ikki’s anguished cries, Shisuki faltered in her next steps. Puppets swarmed her, subsequently cutting her off from Stella who screamed as she was blown towards her.

Sent flying in Shisuki’s direction, Stella put a hand to her flank and found that a sizable dent was in her armor. Good thing her armor was tough, if not, she would’ve taken a grievous injury.

“You all right!” Shisuki pulled the fallen girl up, who looked more annoyed than angry.

“Yeah, thanks, and I’m sorry.”

“No mind. Pay me back by helping me get to Ikki.”

That wasn’t going to be easy. More puppets had approached on the short range radar in their HUDs and the number was startling. The ground trembled, perhaps a thousand had come to join the fight.

Things were going wrong very fast. Amanda had wanted to try and end the encounter with close quarters. The puppet’s range attacks were of higher concern a few moments ago so it seemed better to deny them the option by getting in close, but now that point seemed moot.

The enemy had a numbers advantage and everyone was too high on either adrenaline or anxiety to fight right. She also found her performance lacking as well. It was as if there was a layer of hesitation and uncertainty in her actions.

Richard too seemed shaken, even though he wasn’t exhausted, fatigued showed on his scrunched up lips as he fended off a puppet’s blade with his armor’s white arm guard. He stabbed the puppet with his thin blade and then another puppet took its first place.

Headmaster Joel was likely living up to his puppeteer alias. Richard found it strange how the puppet’s coordination in close range seemed to increase when Amanda switched to an upfront attack. Had the earlier events of Shisuki’s easy evasion around them been an act.

He didn’t know, Richard was too concerned by his own lack of ability. Amanda could hear him cursing under his breath.

“Shit, this is bad!”

Amanda could attest to that as she slew another two puppets and 4 took their place. No matter how many times she swung, they kept coming and Amanda was fatiguing faster than she did in their sparring session.

This was combat, real combat. Even though in the back of her mind that she knew this was training, new sensations overwhelmed her, this was all too real.

Maybe she and Stella should have fired another volley of range attacks, it was the standard tactic for explorers, so why did she decide for them to charge? Hubris. It was hubris. Amanda had thought the puppets were weak, found their ranged attacks troublesome, and their numbers few enough to fight head on.

In comparison to the video simulations she watched, at first, a group of a little over a 100 puppets didn’t seem all that threatening when compared to thousands of drone class creatures.

That was a blunder, and if she didn’t do something soon they’d be overwhelmed and defeated. For a couple of seconds, her mind raced for an answer. Ikki was being pulled to safety, and they regrouped.

In doing so, they were easily surrounded. Puppets to the left, puppets to the right, and puppets dead ahead.

“CHARGE!”

With no time to recognize who had screamed that, Amanda could only confirm that the voice was that of a man, who was then followed by a chorus of other young spirited folk.

“Enemy rounding on Explorers! Come around in the jeep and lay covering fire!”

“Understood! Come get some you freaks!”

Thunderous cracks that Amanda knew were from guns echoed, and the revving of an engine confirmed that a vehicle had found its way into the fray. Standing up on the back of the two seater, the gunner held the trigger down on his mounted machine gun.

His line of fire swept across Amanda’s right view and just as quickly, a rumbling of metallic treads came into view on her left.

Bullets flew on either side of her flank and mowed down the swarming puppets.

“Ma’am!”

A young man came up to salute her, other young men following past him as they laid into the puppets with their core rifles.

“Are you? Talking to? M-me?” Amanda pointed at herself in confusion and the young man nodded, his camo uniform rustling as he adjusted his brown cap,

“Yes Ma’am. If I am not mistaken, you are one of the in-training explorers. We caught your FOF ID signal on our radars. We saw you were getting surrounded so we came to help. CDU Training Division 067, reporting. You should regroup and let us handle this.”

“S-sure.” Amanda hesitated if she should answer. By how the young man talked to her, he likely thought her to be the leader. He wasn’t wrong, but it felt surreal to be addressed with such military bearing.

I’m not sure how to feel about this.