"Shall we go again?!" Astrid asked
Still struggling to catch his breath, Oliver raised an eyebrow as he assessed Astrid. She was clearly ier shape than he was. Her matches must have ended so quickly that she hadn't tired out. Oliver shook his head slightly in response, and the girl widened her eyes and pouted.
"Ah! I should've stretched out this match more," she muttered softly as she prepared to leave the arena.
The boy began to stand, brushing off the little dust that had g to his uniform. However, sihere would be no more rounds, he decided to remaied. Oliver tried to wipe the sweat off his face while gng at the ongoing battles.
In one of the distant rings was Katherine. Uhe other matches, hers was still ongoing, which was surprising given that she usually finished all her bouts in under a minute.
Oliver reized her oppo. He was one of the other standouts from the first battalion. He was one of the few boys from the first battalion who was also bald, but no oiced that when they saw the mountain of muscles, he was.
Those muscles greatly influenced his battle style. Every move he made carried tremendous force, shaking the arena. His Ranger on was a heavy mace, which caused minor fractures in the ground when it struck the ptform.
Oher hand, Katherine was quid agile enough to keep this from being a problem. However, in the limited space of the arena, she had to use her maximum speed to avoid being pinned down, which was taking a toll oamina. She was already breathing heavily, and her face was flushed red. Despite her precise attacks targeting the oints of the boy's armor, they didn’t seem to cause much damage. Every thrust seemed to reach his skin but failed to pee.
Oliver tried to put himself in Katherine’s shoes and gauge whether he stood a ce against the boy. Not likely. He khat if Katherine’s sword couldn’t do any real damage, his ons wouldn't fare aer. To make matters worse, he wasn’t fident he could evade every attack. The mome hit, the match would be over.
The arm rang before Oliver could analyze the fight further, signaling the end of the round. All the studeed the ptforms auro stahe captain.
"This was just the first of many lessoo e. Uand that there is a clear differen performaweewo battalions, but bat will be the best way for you all to learn.” Musk spoke.
The old captain walked until he was close to the recruits.
"Don't get stu the Status Quo. At this moment, other recruits may be your oppos, and know that eae is striving to surpass you. Every sed, they get oep closer to evolving. Oep closer to mastering bat teiques." Musk sed each recruit as he spoke.
The captain paused briefly, his expression shifting to a more somber tone before tinuing.
"But don't fet, when you leave the Academy and face the front lihings won't ge. The Orks may seem barbaric, but above all, they are ing and ruthless. They are always lurking, waiting for a mistake to seize the advantage." As he finished speaking about the Orks, his voice carried a ured, the kind that only someone who had fought through tless Waves could uand.
The css absorbed as much as they could from Musk’s teag. After the ret fights, many of them already felt they were improving. Whether due to gaining more bat experience or their bodies developing, the students felt the difference. Oliver was no exception. Looking at his status, he noticed the clear distin between physical and bat training.
| Status Page| User: Oliver [Nameless]| Level: 1 [Pawn]| Experience: [45/100]
“For today, you are dismissed! I look forward to seeing you in the raining session,” Musk cluded, slowly walking toward the gym's exit. Alongside the students’ versations, the sound of his prosthetics made small whirs and scratches as he moved.
Like at the beginning of the css, several groups formed as the recruits left the gymnasium. Some discussed the battles, while others talked about their following csses. Meanwhile, Oliver was distracted, w what would be for lunch. As his stomach reminded him it was ready for the meal, the boy headed for the gym's exit.
Just before he crossed the door, a red blur zipped past him. The boy blirying to make sense of what had happened. In front of him stood Astrid, staring at him ily.
"Great fight. I want to spar with you again. In the css, e straight to my arena," she said eically, fshing a crooked smile.
"Okay," Oliver answered.
After receiving his firmation, the girl quickly resumed walking, leaving him behind.
‘Was she friendly or just a bit insane?’ Oliver pohe question lingering in his mind.
---
---
Quickly, Oliver and An grew used to the Academy’s pace. Although the first few days were full of surprises, things started to get normal as time passed.
In the blink of awo weeks had gone by.
Oliver was impressed by everything he had learned. Finally, the bat lessons weren’t as overwhelming. heless, victories were still rare, especially against the trio from the first battalion.
However, the most signifit ge in the past two weeks was one he had kept secret from everyone, even An.
At st, he could evolve.
| Status Page| User: Oliver [Nameless]| Level: 1 [Pawn]| Experience: [143/100] [Click to Evolve]
Three days ago, he had finally gained enough experieo level up. While his curiosity urged him to click the buttoill remembered the bleeding and pain he experienced when using the Boon without proper preparation. The boy feared that evolving might have a simir effect, so he waited until they covered the topic of evolutions in the css with Captain e.
However, there were still a few things Oliver wao improve in the ing days that he hadn’t been successful with so far in his time at the Academy.
The first was his ck of tact with the first battalion. He rarely got to talk with Isabe, mainly because there were no csses with her, and every barrack was assigo a specific battalion. Although they had chatted while walking from oraining session to ahey hardly ever had time. Moreover, the gap between the csses also made it hard to get closer to Katherine, although he figured it wouldn’t happen even if they shared more csses.
His sed goal was to defeat the trio from the first battalion. Every day, he honed his skills, but they improved along with him, making the gap between them remain the same.
Oliver and An tinued being the two students who arrived early for every css, not out of enthusiasm but because both boys liked getting to the cafeteria earlier to avoid the long lihis left plenty of time for them to be the first ones in the . Sitting in the chair he had grown aced to, Oliver noticed a few ges.
"Hey! What's that?" Oliver blurted out without thinking.
An looked at his friend, fused.
"You're not bald anymore?!" Oliver remarked.
"Screw you," An replied, resting his head ba the table in front of him.
Still, it wasn’t the long, shiny hair the boy used to have before joining the Academy, but it no longer reflected light like it had before. Ahing was that Oliver could finally say that An was his friend. The two had gohrough so mu these two weeks that he had never felt so close to anyone else, perhaps only his parents.
An could still feel Oliver's gaze, even with his head resting oable.
"What is it?!" An asked.
"Nothing, I was just cheg if you could still reflect light..." Oliver spoke.
"Hahaha, very funny. Let’s not fet I wasn’t the only one bald." An jabbed.
"But mine didn’t turn into a giant reflector," Oliver replied while using his hands to illustrate the size of An's head.
The exge of friendly insults had bee normal betweewo, and for anyone who uood the art of male diplomacy, it was one of the main signs of friendship.
After a few more stabs, they finally began to talk normally, discussing what they expected from the css. e had earhe respect of the css, making every student eager for his lesson. So much so that, despite being early, just minutes after the boys arrived, other waves of recruits began filling the room.
At st, the instructor arrived.
“I see...” e paused slightly, notig the sarcastic smirks on some students' faces.
Many of the students still believed that e was blind because of the special gsses he wore. However, the captain chose not to dispel this misuanding among his students.
"I see that you're all eager for today's lesson. Well, you have a great reason to be excited," the captain expined.
“Today, we’ll finally talk about Evolutions. The key aspect that saved humanity against the Orks.”
GCLopes
