Dear Principal Zatya.
I hope you're doing well. Just a quick note to request the use of our shiny new ASR chambers for a combat exercise I have in mind. It's going to be pretty intense—trauma-inducing, even. Some students might find it a bit rough on their mental health, But hey, better they get a taste of the horrors of war now than be caught off guard later, right? Just think of it as a tough love approach to their education.
Thanks for considering it.
Best regards,
Professor Alaric
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Aodhán arrived at the main hall exactly five minutes later, his hair still wet and crackling with tiny arcs of electricity. His appearance had a profound effect on the females and even a few of the males present.
As pleasing as he appeared, though, his looks had no effect on Ayisha, who glared at him furiously. Aodhán grimaced as he moved to stand beside her and whispered. “If looks could kill, my entrails would have been scattered across the hall by now.”
“You threatened to do this last week, but I can’t believe you actually went through with it.” She whispered back harshly.
“Look, I’m sorry. I know you hate calling attention to yourself like this, but I meant what I said earlier: I think you’re the best person to lead us.”
She glared at him for a moment longer and harrumphed. “There’s no need to apologize; I shall have my revenge.”
Aodhán grinned. “Ahh, I see you’re not the forgiving type.”
“I’m not.” She glared and took a threatening step forward. “In fact, I’m barely holding myself back from sticking you in a time loop and leaving you to rot for a century.”
Aodhán took a step back and grinned. “If only you were powerful enough to do that; alas, you’ll just have to suffer my electrifying presence for a while longer.”
Ayisha scowled. “I hate you; you know that, right?”
“Trust me, you do not bear that sentiment alone.” He muttered and glanced towards the other end of the room, where Harnoth and two of his friends stood, glaring daggers at him.
Ayisha chuckled. “You know, there are two probable futures in which he attacks you in the next fifteen seconds. He ends up thoroughly beaten, though, but the sound you make after the first punch is so satisfying.”.
Aodhán glared at her and turned to keep an eye on Harnoth, whose glare only intensified. After fifteen seconds passed and nothing happened, he glanced back at Ayisha to find her grinning. “Ah, this is going to be so much fun; how will you ever know if I’m lying about the future?”
“You were lying?” Aodhán sputtered, and Ayisha shrugged. “Like I said, I’m not the forgiving type, and I shall take my revenge.”
Aodhán sighed and turned around to see Lupin and Andrew descending into the hall. He waved them over, and Andrew lamented. “Damn, I still feel like shit.”
“Why do you swear so much?” Eren, who was standing beside Alesh, inquired with a frown.
“Because it’s satisfying. Why the fuck are you so stuck up?” Andrew shot back, and Ayisha quickly intervened.
"Okay, boys, that’s not important; we have a battle to plan.” Her gaze swept across the group, and she continued. “I think it's safe to assume that the other group went through the same test that we did and is now planning on the best way to capture our flag bearer. We need to foil those plans. If we’re attacking, we need a battle strategy, and if we’re defending, we need a fortification strategy. What are we going for?”
“I propose we defend.” Alesh spoke. “Attacking them is unwise, as they have more high rankers than we do.”
Aodhán frowned. Alesh was right. Group 1 had a lot more high-rankers than they did, but now that he thought about it, he also realized that their affinities leaned more towards offense than defense.
His gaze roamed the hall, taking in his group members as they deliberated on the best course of action to take, and that was when he noticed that aside from himself and a few others, most of the group had affinities geared towards defense or support. Aodhán pointed this out to the group, and when they realized it was true, Ayisha spoke up. “Perhaps it’s part of the test, and we’re supposed to lean into our strengths to win this exercise.”
“That makes sense.” Alesh reasoned. “But if that’s the case, then attacking is out of the question.”
“No, there’s over a dozen of us with offensive abilities; we should still be able to hold our own.” Kira Fontaine disputed, her black-ringed yellow pupils glowing faintly, but even Harnoth saw the flaw in that idea.
“Cyrus is very powerful, and with Lillith, Grendar, Daruk, and Marcellus by his side, we’ll be overwhelmed in minutes.”
“I think we’re being narrow-minded about this.” Azul spoke up for the first time since the meeting began. “A battle is much more than defense and offense; there’s infiltration, siege, and several other war strategies we should consider before making a move.”
There was a beat of silence as they took in her words. She was right, Aodhán admitted. He knew too little about war, and considering what his future held in store, he needed to rectify that.
It was Scarlett who broke the silence. “What if we utilize all three strategies: infiltration, defense, and offense?”
“We’ll be spreading ourselves too thin, and it’ll only make it easier for them to pick us off.” Eren countered.
Ayisha frowned and straightened. “How about we catalog our affinities first, classifying them into offense, defense, and support? That way, we’ll know exactly what we’re working with and where our strengths lie.”
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They all agreed, and she produced three sheets of paper, labeling the first as offense, the second as defense, and the last as support.
She began first, penning her name on the offensive list, before passing them to him. Aodhán hesitated for a moment before writing his name on the offensive list. His affinity could be used for defense, but aside from {Create construct}, his other skills were geared towards offense, with only a little utility.
Aodhán frowned, realizing that he also needed to work on that, and as he passed the list to Lupin, he wondered, in what other ways can storm clouds or lightning be used in defense?
The list moved quickly, and when it came back to Ayisha a few minutes later, Aodhán found that there were several overlaps, with many of the students placing their names and affinities on all three lists. Unlike Lupin, who was firmly in support, Andrew had placed his name on all three lists.
What surprised Aodhán, though, was a list of bizarre affinities, such as intangibility, aura manipulation, knowledge, connection, and even explosion, none of which he’d seen in the forge matches yet.
Ayisha smiled when she read through the list. “Azul is right; a significant portion of our group is geared towards infiltration, support, and defense. How about we lean into that?”
“And neglect our offense? That’ll be a terrible mistake.” Alesh disagreed, and Aodhán frowned as an idea began to form in his mind.
“The best way to fight a battle is to use all the resources at our disposal.” He murmured, quoting a sentence from Professor Alaric's class. “What if there’s a way to attack, defend, and infiltrate the order of black without spreading ourselves thin?”
The attention of the group fell on him, but before he could tell them his plans, Ayisha’s eyes glowed, and she grinned. “Ahh, brilliant. Group one won’t know what hit them.”
……
Fifteen minutes later, he was seated on a storm chair beside Ayisha and Alesh, reviewing the list of offensive, defensive, and support affinities they had.
There were a bizarre array of support affinities, like Scarlett’s {Enhancement} and Derek's {Shape shifting}. Those were very clearly useful, but Aodhán didn’t dismiss the seemingly useless ones like Ultrix Loracroft's {Connection}.
The affinity was obviously strong enough to get him into the top fifty of the forge list; besides, like professor Alaric had said in his first class, every affinity could be used offensively, and underestimating an affinity was the worst mistake one could ever make.
His plan had been enthusiastically accepted, and after a few more tweaks and changes, it was even better than what he’d initially come up with.
A moment later, as they assigned roles for the defense of the fort, Alesh suddenly asked. “Not to pry, but how far into the future can you actually see?”
Ayisha shrugged hesitantly. “About a minute, a minute and half I channel my willpower and seals.” She scrunched her face in distaste and said, “Maybe two if I go all out, but it's not exactly a pleasant experience.”
Aodhán grinned. “So what happens a minute from now?”
Ayisha sighed. “It doesn’t exactly work like that; as you know, the future isn’t fixed. What I see seconds into the future is almost always accurate. A minute is complex; anything more than that is a mess of possibilities and probable futures that it’s almost impossible to sort through. I’m hoping things will get better after my third seal.”
Aodhán sighed, still a little disappointed that he hadn’t gotten a seal yet, despite his fervent accumulation of information on the subject. The books he’d read said the same thing: “A person was branded with a seal whenever their ideals and nature began to align with their affinities.”
He’d spent hours meditating on the ideals and nature of the storm, trying to align himself with it, but it wasn’t something that could be forced, and he’d eventually given up.
The seals would come at their own time. But as much as he craved them, he dreaded the Twisted effect and how it might affect him, especially with his control over Varéc still being so new.
He couldn’t afford to lose control of Varéc, especially in the state the twisted effect would put him in. Unlike Daruk, whose affinity was cold, detached, and unfeeling, the storm was violent, a rumbling force of nature intent on raining destruction on the earth below.
With his track record, he feared that the Twisted effect might turn him into a monster intent on displaying his supremacy over others and raining destruction down on them.
A gasp from Ayisha pulled him out of his spiraling thoughts, and he shook his head. The seals were a problem for the future, and he would deal with it whenever it came. Now, though, they had an exercise to win.
“I just got a message that we’ve been granted access to the vault.” She stood up immediately, shouting to the group members as she moved in the vault's direction. “Please make your way to the vault immediately; we need to equip ourselves and our soldiers with as many weapons as we can find.”
Aodhán and Alesh rushed after her, along with over a dozen others, and when they reached the vault, the heavy metal doors slid open soundlessly to reveal a large oval chamber fully stocked with weapons.
Hundreds of swords, spears, hammers, and daggers filled an entire half of the room, but what surprised Aodhán was the fact that every single one of them was covered in glowing red runes.
The students gasped in amazement as they took in the array of weapons. The left part of the chamber was filled with a trio of war machines, standing almost 7 feet tall, and on the floor beside them were dozens of runic-covered balls of explosives.
The vault was completely swarmed the next moment as the students rushed to pick their preferred weapons, Ayisha said.
“Okay, pick whatever you need.” Ayisha voiced out a moment later. “We also have an entire company of soldiers to outfit; can someone get the commander and a few soldiers in here to carry the weapons and machines?”
“I’ll do it.” Scarlett smirked as she grabbed a long black spear almost twice her height and used her concept on it.
Aodhán’s eyes widened as the spear suddenly hummed, and the runes flared, casting the vault in a reddish glow.
An aura of bloodlust burst out of the weapon, and Scarlett smiled. “That’s more like it.”
She stepped out of the vault a moment later, and Ayisha muttered. “In what world is such sorcery classified as a support affinity?”
Lupin chuckled. “She uses it mostly to enhance her physical looks and give herself that bewitching aura she’s well known for.”
“Ahh, that would explain it then.” Ayisha mumbled and picked out a sword covered in runic markings. Aodhán picked out a spear, but when he tried to study the runes, his mind ached and twisted, unwilling or unable to understand them.
He concluded that the runes were obviously far above what his mind could currently handle and moved on to a shelf at the corner. There he found a large metallic box filled with rune-scripted earpods and trackers.
Aodhán grinned. Communication had been the only flaw left in their plans, but their worries had been solved with these. He showed the box to Ayisha, who began distributing the earpods and trackers to each person. The earpods were fortunately easy to utilize, containing an off/on switch and a mute switch.
After some initial testing, he equipped his earpod and tracker, strapped the spear to his back, and began gathering weapons for the soldiers.
Ten minutes later, Aodhán, Ayisha, and Alesh stood on the balcony, overlooking a now-alert and heavily armed company of soldiers.
“Do you think our plan will work?” Alesh asked, and Aodhán shrugged. “It either works or it doesn’t. It’s only an exercise; we can learn from it.”
As nonchalant as his reply seemed, Aodhán wanted to win. Seeing the look on Cyrus’s face when they eventually did was simply a bonus.
There was a slight tension in the air as the group moved around, each person carrying out their own duties with excitement.
“It is time.” Ayisha muttered a moment later, and Aodhán turned to Lupin and Cameron—the intangibility awakened who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here at the moment. “The first task will be up to the both of you; do not hesitate.”
They nodded, and the next moment, Dylan Ezarith, an earth awakened with a {Geoteleportation} skill, grabbed them and geoteleported? Geoported?
Aodhán shook his head and turned his gaze to the gate to see Lupin and Cameron emerge shakily from the ground before disappearing once again.
When they finally disappeared from his line of sight, Aodhán turned to Ayisha and smiled. “They won't know what hit them.”
….