Chapter 8

Esper once again found himself inside of the gymnasium, this time surrounded by other awakens. He stood within a small group of students who were newbies just like him. They observed the room filled with combat mats and watched the upper class students who were more experienced, battle it out. One at a time each student would stand up and approach the mat then engage in battle that wouldn't last past 4 to 15 exchanging moves. This, was mostly do to one particular student who was unmoving from his spot, each fight he encountered by his classmates he won them all. Resulting in the losing opponent to step down and have another take a go at it.

His actions were quick and decisive, all offence moves. He had pale white hair with an pitch black under cut, deep brown eyes that were aloof and cold. Ears pierced with silver pairing with his tanned skin that stood out against his all black attire. Wearing a simple black shirt and sweats. He seemed to stand out from the rest, not just because of his feminine looks but also because of his frosty demeanor. He carried a detached expression of calmness, looking down on all his opponents.

From his first fight till now he hadn't used his ability yet, but now entering his 6th fight and fighting against 3 opponents his eyes transitioned, changing from brown to a shade of blue the same color as that of the sky. Taking a stance, a frosty smoke emerged from his right hand creating an ice blade, that he quickly started to rotate. Suddenly his arm moved, and the ice blade drew a few shining traces in the air. One of his opponents was a female who easily dodged the attack with a quick leap backward and a small twist of her waste. She looked at her attacker with a small smile on her face. "Even now you dare to play with us knull?" Her eyes showed slight anger. "You'll soon regret it."

She charged forward with quick speed and threw out her left hand filled with claws sharp as a razor, thrashing towards Knull with ill intent. The others followed suite, joining her in her attack by using each of their own powerful moves.

Seeing this, the edge of Knull's lips tilted up and he too dashed out, skilfully and swiftly creating dual swords he raised them high up and mercilessly swung them down with a destructive curve.

*BOOM!*

A big explosion echoed within the area sending out small rounds of shock waves inside the gym.

Cold air blew all over the place, accompanied with a couple of glaciers. Steel fists howled in the wind, and fangs growled with fury.

Kory's {Pronounced, [Core - I] face was dim as water, her forehead dripped with cold sweat as she clutched her side that was penetrated by a sherd of ice, that flew out from the explosion. While her partners were thrown out colliding with the walls of the room, knocking themselves unconscious. She slowly pulled out the large sherd of ice not wanting to hit any vital points. But soon enough her expression grew dimmer as she threw the weapon now tainted with her blood, onto the ground.

She wasn't healing!

With her aura she could quickly heal herself in her Werebeast form yet no matter how many times she tried her wound wouldn't close and stayed frost bitten. Observing closely she noticed the frost around her wound began to expand at a past where the naked eye could see. Moving quite steadily throughout the side of her torso it made it hard for her to move from side to side. Jerking her gaze upward she glared at knull menacingly wanting to rip him apart with her claws and shred him into pieces. But what she got as a response was a small condescending smile from the other as he soon disappeared from his spot only to reappear in front of her his right leg descending down like a huge hammer, slashing towards her face.

With quick reflexes she quickly braced herself, throwing up both hands to block the attack.

*Bam!*

She was sent tumbling backward off the stage and onto the ground mats, she jammed her claws into the floor causing a loud screeching sound to enter both the instructors and students ears as she pulled herself to a stop. Both her arms throbbed with pain along with the left side of her cat ears. It caused a bubbling anger to stir within her.. She wanted to stand up and retaliate but couldn't as a sharp coldness pressed against her throat. A dull voice entering her ears. "You, lose."

Her gaze trembled. 'H..how, when?' Just when did he approach her. She could of sworn he was still standing on the platform, just how?.... She closed her eyes as her head dropped down in helplessness. "I-I... lost." She didn't want too, but she did. She had already been thrown out of bounds and rules were rules. And to add on she was bleeding out and quickly needed to be healed, the sooner the better. With this the battle had concluded shortly once again and Knull had won 6 fights consecutively. Without going all out and using full power.

All students came down from the balcony and gathered into a huge circle including Esper. They sat down putting their whole focus onto their instructors, one particular that he became familiar with early on. Was Lieutenant Razha. She stood in the middle of everyone her gaze travelling over every student. She began to speak. "From today on you upper, middle, and lower class-men will work together." She looked over at the newly awakens and pointed to them. "You rookies are considered lower class-men until further accomplishments. You will be put in groups with your more experience class-men. You will live in the same dorms with each other, you will become a team with one another, you will practice together, and you will go on missions together." Her cold and stern gaze switched over to the other side of the room. "There are 30 of you in total here. We each 5 instructures will pair you up in your group of 6 and we will be in charge of you for a certain time period. Do you understand?" She left no era for questioning as all students excluding the new awakens answered in loud voices.

"Understood, Lieutenant Razha."

The lieutenant nodded. "When we call you stand up and approach your instructor. Each group will include a number of 2 to 3 lower class-men."

They all nodded. So she continued. "I will go first." She began to call out names of six students one by one:

1) Mei Rin - [lower class-men]

2)Esper - [lower class-men]

3)Knull - [middle class-men]

4)Bai Bing - [middle class-men]

5) Kai - [upper class-men]

6) Eliot - [upper class-men]

The students who weren't called seem to catch on to what Lieutenant Razha was doing. She had called on students who were top tier in each 3 categories. Everyone knew knull and Bai Bing were the top of their class for middle students so was kai and Eliot for upper students. But they also knew all four didn't get along at all. The group was like a ticking time bomb that would self destruct at anytime. And if the students could tell this then the instructures also knew this as well. And that was the whole point as to why Razha picked these students in the first place. Amongst other reasons.

As time passed each instructor was soon set with their own group. Noting that everyone was settled she dropped the bomb on all of the students causing an uproar. "The class-men you all are paired up with will be your team mates for the next 3 months."

It was as if a loud thunder clap had descended down from heaven. Almost every awakened their had went into turmoil. Shouting their opinions, yelling and pouting. They couldn't believe what they heard. None of them could. Esper watched as the gymnasium went up into a huge uproar. He gazed at Razha to see a big smirk on her lips with an uncaring attitude towards the matter. She obviously couldn't careless about what any of them felt. "You all will learn to get along with one another even if it kills you. Werebeast, human, and Elite alike." She smiled and waved at everyone as if she didn't just announce any bad news. "Dismissed."