Time flies by

And so time went on. We mostly continued to train ourselves as a group, but didn't forget about our individual selves either. I trained with Lisa on week days once we finished up as a team and in the meantime the others tried to rely on themselves.

For some reasons however, Mr. Black didn't show himself anymore to help me out. Not that I wanted to bother him about it, I was thankful for the times he had supported me so far. Also, I was kinda afraid of him so not talking to him seemed like the easy way out.

After a week, the school suddenly came up with a new training regime. Instead of letting us train on our own, they decided to help us out more again. We didn't immediately hear of the reason but the rumours said, the military needs more and stronger hybrids than ever. For what exactly, nobody knew. The gossip ranged from a plan to attack a celestial nation to subduing other humans to bring more unity in a forceful manner.

Since trusting the rumours could only be described as a horrible idea, I just ignored them for now. The training of our team went unaffected by it for the most part, since we were already only training. Taking away spare time was hardly possible anymore, only the effectiveness of the training could be optimized. Other students however took some breaks now and then to have some fun together, but we decided to do delay this until we finished the next practical exam. Our all mind set was quite alike when it came to getting stronger.

In only a couple of weeks after our first joined training, Iris and Emilia both improved in a way I couldn't catch up with anymore. I realized, I had to start to compare myself more to Julian and Lander, those two were growing at a similar pace to myself after all. By doing so I even got to know them a bit better. Until earlier I had thought them both to be like twins but in reality, they weren't.

Julian was the stronger and more hardworking one of the two, while Lander was mostly dragged along by him. If it hadn't been for Julian, he would be at the weaker end of the class. As for their looks, Julian was an angel hybrid with blue eyes, blond hair and big wings, unbefitting of his skinny frame. Lander, on the other hand, had brown hair, green eyes and looked way bulkier than Julian. If I had to guess, he was around double the weight of Julian and that wasn't all just muscle. He enjoyed eating sweets a lot, so he had built a rather unhealthy amount of fat on his body, despite all the training he did.

I also managed to get closer to Althaia, although not as close as Emilia did. Both of them started to hang around each other even outside training. Althaia began to come over to visit us in our room once the two of them couldn't get enough of each other in training. This made me talk with her a couple times and I could see that she didn't seem to worry about falling behind on Emilia like me. By her behaviour, I would guess, she had accepted the fact long ago and simply gave her all in training.

The two healers also started to dress alike, which made a stranger think they are twins. The only difference between the two was Althaia being taller by a fair margin. Everything else was alike to a great degree. The same blond hair, blue eyes, petite figure and innocent smile. Just like one would imagine a young angel to look like. Their adorable small wings definitely added more cuteness to their overall image.

In training, they also synergized well and were probably the most accustomed to each other out of the bunch of us.

Iris on the other side grew a bit distant from the rest. Even though she was our leader, she focussed more and more on training on her own. That way, she could make the most progress but our strength as a team suffered from it. Nobody dared to question her role as our leader however, she still was the most fitted for the role. She somewhat took on the attitude of having to protect all of us and the only way she could see herself doing this, was by becoming strong enough herself. Strong enough, so we could lean back and enjoy the ride. Not that any of us asked for this.

Even Lisa told me she had never seen a first year which could compare to Iris. She took an educated guess and speculated that the second years might not stand a chance against her by now.

All of this made me feel bad. I felt bad for my own weakness and for how I was stuck in place, falling behind further and further. Iris working hard to compensate also added to it. Some days this even affected my training, I just couldn't see why I kept going onwards. All the effort for vain. But despite it, I still continued so I wouldn't disappoint the people believing in me, mostly Lisa and Emilia. Lisa tried all kinds of different ways to give me ways to grow stronger but without being able to use celestial energy consciously, most of them only led to a dead end.

Lisa also told me she couldn't find anyone who would be able to help me out in that regard. By the look on the face I guessed there wasn't anyone like that around in the human nation. Lisa was one of the strongest when it came to celestial energy manipulation after all and only a handful of hybrids could compare to her. If she couldn't help me, hardly anyone could.

But enough with my depressing cultivation story, even though all these stones lie in the road ahead, I still managed to surpass Lisa's expectations for my growth. She was getting excited for the practical exam, there I would be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel; at least she told me so.

Overall, all of us improved by a lot and if we announced to be the second strongest team of the class, nobody would dare to claim first rank. After the practical exam, we would take a short break and once we were done resting, we would finally take on our first missions. Lisa promised to surprise us and take us someplace unknown, once we were done with the exam; we were all curious what she was planning.

And with that the day of the exam came closer and closer…