Entering the room, he was quite surprised with what he saw. This wasn’t just an ensuite – this was a studio!
At the far end of this open plan room, there was a kitchen with a small island, and large, glass windows that peered out into the neighbouring city of Lapra.
Along with that, you could see the surrounding verdant hills and lush greenery in between these urban settlements.
The orange sunlight gave this room a golden appearance, along with illuminating Cael’s skin to give him an angelic appearance. There was a wall-mounted TV and a large, warm brown sofa that was situated just ahead of it.
This was far more impressive than even his own apartment. There was slightly less space, but the infrastructure of this building just looked more modern.
Along the wall was a projector that showed a special interface. This GUI showed the several controls that the user had over the room here. There was a control for the temperature, along with details of the humidity, amongst other less important parameters.
Cael wanted to spend more time reading and engaging with that interface, but he could feel his brain just slowing. Therefore, he decided to move away and just collapse in the king bed of this dormitory’s bedroom.
For the following day, Cael was woke up rather early by a loud announcement in this studio’s bedroom.
“Good morning students. Please head to the main canteen within 45 minutes for your breakfast.”
Cael just grunted in annoyance, slowly wiping his face, fatigued. After such a long flight, could he not even be gifted the chance of a proper sleep? To be totally honest, he had slept for nearly 11 hours but somehow, he just didn’t feel like that was enough.
Nevertheless, Cael couldn’t do a thing but follow their commands. This was a military institute to be honest. Cael was blessed with the structure of his airbus which meant that if he missed it, he just wouldn’t even make it to school on time. No matter how tired he was, he had to get ready to catch that bus.
In about 40 or so minutes, he arrived at the canteen where about a hundred students were situated, receiving their first meal of the day.
Cael just sluggishly arrived at one of the grey tray stands to his left. Upon grabbing a tray, he was met by Vanessa.
“Oh, hi Cael. We’re sitting over there, just to let you know.” Vanessa said, pointing to Blaine and the others.
None of them were caring enough to give him a wave back or even a glance longer than half a second for that matter. Cael was more than used to this treatment, and actually felt more concerned with the kindness that Vanessa was showing toward him.
Is this really how strong people treated themselves? It felt quite odd for them to be so kind to others like them, but then so contemptuous to those that they deemed as below them.
Cael just threw those thoughts into the back of his mind and continued his journey on to the several places on display, with different types of food. There was a meat and sandwich section with several types of breakfast meats like sliced ham, sausages, black pudding and sausage patties.
After choosing a somewhat light meal to begin his day, Cael moved himself toward the other fighters from Carlo City.
The five warriors pretty much sat in silence here. Their meal was quite awkward, since they weren’t exactly friends.
Others of the lower classes of strength banded together to associate with others of the same status. However, for stronger individuals, they were in deep competition with each other.
Friendship for them felt almost unnatural.
While Cael was eating, his mind was drawn to the current quest that he had, waiting to be completed. He had to find the system’s second file.
The chances that this file was going to be in this colony was very low, but he didn’t really have any other place to look for it in.
Being within this military institute as well, he was sure that it would only be the weekend where he’d have the time and freedom to search for it.
Along with that, going across an entire planet didn’t seem like a plausible cause of action; he had to find a way to narrow the places down somehow.
After this breakfast meal, these thoughts still occupied his mind, but several soldiers and a few other colonial officers arrived and stood firmly.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Good morning students!”
“Good morning, Sir Agramonte!”
“Follow us to the training grounds. Your morning session will begin with spars for today.”
Following just as was instructed, they arrived at a vast grass field, with several gridded platforms designed for spars.
Along with that, there was a collection of special types of exosuits that were referred to as exoskeletons or just skeletons. These represented the basic framework of the exosuit, providing very little defence but providing most of the offensive capabilities of any ordinary exosuit.
It was used principally by militaries to train up their cadets but wasn’t really seen with C-grade institutes. The skeletons were just an extra cost and could be easily broken down which required them to be routinely repaired.
Along with these weapons were just some basic weaponry, like weakly powered gauntlets and daggers that didn’t have any super-heating properties. This allowed for students to really focus on their hand-to-hand combat so that they wouldn’t just rely on armour to take attacks.
“Today, we’re going to be doing some spars between you. After all this time, and with our amazing exchange students that are with us today, we want to record your strength to see how much you’ve grown since our last progress check-up. Now, to begin with, we’ll give the exchange students a shot against some of you.” A soldier stated, stepping back to hold his arms up to the skeleton.
“Will some students please help our exchange students with choosing these exoskeletons?” The same officer ordered, making a handful of students step up to the plate.
Cael was ushered toward some of the medium-sized exoskeletons.
Placing the arm frames over his own arms, the exoskeleton started to climb over his body until latching onto it and clicking itself back together.
After wearing this around his body, he could feel his increase in strength and speed from just throwing a few light combinations.
“Blaine Keaton and Viktor Holt, come up to the platform here for our opening match.”
There were some light cheers and encouragement coming from the crowd as the white-haired boy from before chose his exoskeleton and flipped onto the platform confidently.
The boys looked at him with endearment, while the girls were infatuated with his muscular physique and attractive face.
He just readjusted his hair using the glove pad of his exoskeleton, before making his battle stance. Blaine remained ready and didn’t take his eyes off Viktor’s own.
Blaine was around Cael’s height and size, and this large fighter looked to have four inches on him. If Blaine wanted to take him down, he'd have to calculate his movements and act smart.
He wielded a short dagger in his right hand, and a light powered gauntlet on his left fist. As for Blaine, he just went for two powered gauntlets, being a relentless brawler in style.
“Begin!” Another official called out, causing Viktor to charge toward Blaine.
Whipping his dagger into a reverse guard, he somehow threw down his dagger with such speed, it was as if he was 40 pounds lighter. Blaine lifted both hands in an X-formation, allowing the dagger to land just on the crossing point of his arms.
The tip of blade was left to be mere inches from stabbing into his face, and he immediately began to slide back from the immense power of Viktor. Jerking back his dagger, he viciously punched Blaine with insane speed for somebody his size.
Explosion. This was the perfect description of Viktor’s fighting style. Continuing on with a handful of dagger swipes and punches, Blaine remained behind his guard and used his elegant footwork to try and remain out of his range.
This man was much stronger than Keagan from what he could feel, and was significantly faster. Fighting this guy was going to be a problem.
Once he saw the opportunity, he dropped down into a crouched position and threw a straight punch right at the brute’s gut.
Landing the shot perfectly, the members from Carlo City cheered him on for his strike. However, before he could retract his extended fist, Viktor threw two swift punches straight to his face.
The warrior looked to be rocked by those hits and fell back a step in an unsteady stagger.
Viktor then whipped his dagger right at him again, managing to clip him on the cheek. Pulling his dagger right around for another slash in quick succession, Blaine had to use all his speed to throw himself out the way in quite the unorthodox evasion.
He applied so much force into just getting himself out the way that he threw himself right down onto his arms.
The fight continued on as almost a game of cat and mouse. The stark difference between their ability was apparent and Cael could see that Blaine was struggling to stomach it. He tried to force the style that he’d been used to fighting with, but it just didn’t work.
He almost utilised his greater strength and speed to take down his foes, but he was currently fighting a warrior that outclassed him in almost every physical category.
Blaine continued to receive haymakers, and was only managing to evade the dagger rather well with his nimble steps and footwork.
Grabbing Viktor’s arm, the dagger being held in reverse grip stopped just before his head. However, Viktor improvised his movements and just hurled his leg ahead in the form of a vicious side kick.
Curling right over from that hefty strike, Blaine looked to be struggling to breathe. The white-haired student's dagger whipped straight toward him again but he threw his torso back and out the way just in time to see the tip of the knife soar straight past his eyes.
As his right arm was moving in an anti-clockwise motion, however, he drove forward his elbow and slammed it straight into Blaine’s nose.
The collision was loud and ended in a deep crunching sound.
Ooh. The crowd simultaneously gasped upon seeing this brutal hit, but all of the officers just remained firm and didn’t even think about interfering.
Viktor then landed a knee to Blaine’s gut, knocking the wind right out of him once again.
This attack was simply too heavy, and he even dropped down to a knee and hand. Every time that he tried to breathe, it was like air wasn’t even coming in. He looked up to Viktor with eyes of rage but also defeat.
He slammed his fist back into the arena floor, while shouting. Cael could see that his mind was urging him to raise up, but his body just didn’t follow his command.
Being unable to resist the incoming attack, Viktor leaped up slightly to then kick Blaine right in his chest with an explosive jump-kick.
He was thrown straight off the ring, and didn’t even look to be getting up right away.
So, this was the true power of talent. The C-Grade cadets really had been boxed in. Vanessa’s face looked devoid of emotion as she looked at Blaine who was still on the ground.