"So hum... nice to meet you guys, I guess?" Kye said to his teammates with an awkward smile.
After Madison gave them their week off and let them do whatever they wanted to do, the group decided to reserve a training room to first get to know each other, and second to train as much as they could. Those rooms were far tinier than the big training room they were using during their fighting classes, but it was more than enough for only four people.
However, the atmosphere in the group was... awkward, to say the least. For example, when they were heading toward the training room, only Kye and Ven talked to each other. As for Elisa and Leo, both of them seemed to keep their distance.
Ven didn't see it since he wasn't paying attention, but since Kye was aware of their presence everywhere he was going now, he could naturally see that both of them were as far from each other as they could. They weren't even to talk with him or Ven either. It was as if they didn't care about the exam in the first place.
So after seeing no response from Leo and Elisa, Kye decided to continue talking. "Let's begin with the presentation, shall we?" He asked as they all nodded. "So let me go first. My name is Kye, I'm pretty decent with a sword, so I'll fight in the front lines. As for my ability, I don't think it will be of much use since I still don't know how to use it properly."
Everyone nodded at his introduction.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"My name is Ven, I'm using a katana and my ability is gravity. Nice to meet you all."
'Seriously, that's all?' Kye's eyebrows twitched a little at his friend's behavior but just turned toward the other two.
"I guess I'll go next," Leo said nonchalantly. "My name's Leo. I don't use any weapon. As for my ability, let's say that I specialized in illusion."
Not long after, it was the last person in the group who introduced herself, but at least with a smile. "As for me, I'm Elisa. I don't use a weapon either, and I can control the weather to some extent."
"Great!" Kye clapped his hands. "Now let's try to see how we can fight alongside each other to win this competition and get good marks on the exam."
"Do we seriously have to train? Can't we just go there next week and fight alone?" Leo asked.
"No, we can't." Kye shook his head. "The last exam was pretty clear. The teams that worked together were on the top, while the team where only the strong were fighting were positioned last. The warning she gave at the end of her speech was very clear as well. Only by training together for a certain period will we be able to win and get good marks."
"I guess you're right," Leo said with a sigh. 'I guess if I want to know what humans are hiding, I'll need to score high.'
If people were to know what he was thinking, they will surely be alarmed by his choice of words. But thankfully for him, no one could do such a thing in the group.
Though, he wasn't the only one thinking that since Elisa thought the same as him.
The group then decided to brainstorm their ideas. They were all saying what they had in mind to find good ideas they could use during their training.
And in the end, after one hour of brainstorming, they found three important points.
First, the exam was indeed like a team competition, but Madison never said that they will necessarily fight in a team. So they had to train in groups of two, and one against the other as well just in case. It would add more work to their training, but it was necessary.
Second, since they had two close-range fighters and two long-range fighters, they decided that Ven and Kye would fight in the front, while Leo will support them with his illusion from the middle, and Elisa will support everyone from the back by striking at the right moment.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThird, since Leo's ability was pretty useful, he will also be in charge of distracting the long-range fighter of the opposite team. It didn't matter how. As long as they couldn't help their friends, Kye, Ven, and Elisa will surely be able to win against their enemies.
And since it was still pretty early in the morning, they decided to train together until noon. However, they never expected it to be so hard to fight alongside someone else.
They were all strong enough to fight alone. That's why they didn't meet this difficulty when they were on Supi against monsters during their first exams. The monsters were all pretty weak, so it was easy fighting them alone.
However now that they needed to coordinate their moves, and above all, not hinder one another, they felt as if it was impossible.
Leo and Elisa were always fighting against each other because both of them seemed to want to annoy each other. And even Kye and Ven were starting a staring contest but quickly sighed and shook their heads at their behavior after that.
Since they were friends, none of them wanted to fight the other for a petty reason.
And that is how went their first day of training. Needless to say that it was awful.
Kye and Ven decided to go to a nearby cafe to rest while trying to identify what went wrong. Though, they always got the same conclusion.
"It was quite hard at the beginning, but we both quickly managed to work together," Ven said. "But those two bastards just seemed like they wanted to make our lives hard."
"Don't say that, Ven. I know that they were irritating, but they are still our teammates. And even though we couldn't do anything with them, we at least managed to work well together, so that's better than nothing."
"*Sigh* I guess you're right."