Miss Anna ?

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"It's about the demon hunting expedition," Charles's voice rang through the class, carrying an air of solemnity.

"Demon hunting expedition?" Some of the students, including Damien, had never heard of this before.

"We get to fight and kill Otherworld monsters now?" someone who had an idea about the expedition said excitedly.

"Really?" Everyone perked up upon hearing this. Most of them had never seen an Otherworld Beast, let alone fought one. They all loathed the Otherworld Monsters to their core, so hearing they were finally going to do what they came here for made them incredibly excited.

Charles sighed in his heart. He really felt it was too early for these children to witness the cruelty of the Otherworld Beasts. He wondered how many of them would still be able to laugh excitedly after this training.

Nonetheless, he cleared his throat and continued:

"The Demon Hunting Expedition is exactly what you think it is. You will be hunting Otherworld Monsters in an area with a low number of Slave-ranked beasts. It will take place two weeks from now. Based on your abilities, you should be able to kill all of them if you stick together as a group."

Everyone nodded, listening attentively. Suddenly, their attention was drawn to a beautiful, charming red-haired woman who appeared in the doorway. Charles nodded at her as she entered.

"For these two weeks, Miss Anna Valehart will be teaching you. Do your best to learn as much as you can from her. I will be gone for a while," Charles said softly.

"Anna, I'll leave them in your care," he added.

"Charles..." she said, her voice a mixture of concern and something else.

"It's okay, Anna," he sighed, their eyes speaking volumes as they looked at each other.

"Getting all lovey-dovey in front of a bunch of kids," Damien heard Velina grumble under her breath. He was surprised since she almost never spoke in her seat. He wouldn't have heard her if not for his innate advanced senses.

If Damien could hear her, so could the two instructors.

Anna's cheeks turned red like a tomato while Charles coughed lightly and hurriedly left the class.

Damien smiled to himself. "These two..."

"Alright," Anna said, clearing her throat. "I'll take you through a lot of things in these two weeks. First, we'll start with weapon mastery, then survival lessons, combat lessons, and Force skill training."

"Another round of training? Come on!"

"Well, I'm glad this time it's a beautiful female instructor and not that demon Charles."

"Most of you have already chosen your weapons, right? I know your choices were mostly based on the type of Force skill you got, so outside of using your Force skill, you've barely used your weapons."

Damien agreed with her point. He had chosen a sword because of his Force skill but knew almost nothing about wielding one. If not for the first stage of his Force skill teaching him how to draw his sword, he would have been stuck at that level.

"This place is too small for our lessons. Let's move to the training field. Remember to bring your weapons," she said, walking outside.

Everyone picked up their weapons and followed suit. Damien realized almost everyone used swords as well. Velina used a crossbow.

However, the red-haired girl was quite odd as her weapon turned out to be a large scythe. The funny thing was that the scythe was almost twice her size, making it comical to watch her carry it around.

Damien saw Jason approaching him and stopped to wait.

"Hey, Damien," Jason said.

"What's up, Jason?" Damien asked, wondering what Jason wanted.

"Would you mind teaming up with me for the Demon Hunting Expedition?"

"Okay," Damien replied without hesitation.

"Wait, you agreed just like that?" Jason asked, surprised.

"Why? What did you expect?" Damien responded.

"I don't know... Forget about that."

Actually, Jason thought Damien was hard to talk to. He never spoke to anyone in class and seemed cold. Given his talent and all, everyone in class assumed Damien had a cold personality as well. But the truth was, Damien simply lacked social skills.

"Do you know who that girl is?" Damien asked, looking at Sara.

"Sara Velina? She's from the royal family. As for her exact relationship with them, I don't know, but everyone from the royal family has the Velina surname."

"What about you and that red-haired girl?"

"I'm just from a low-tier clan in the capital. As for her, she's Aylen Valehart. The Valehart clan is the strongest on the continent. And if you want to know, Instructor Anna is from that clan too. She's actually Aylen's aunt."

Damien nodded, realizing the similarities between their hair colors and mannerisms. He had intended to ask.

They arrived at the training field. Standing in the middle was Anna, with a quiver of arrows on her back and a longbow in her hand.

She looked around coolly, her gaze studying each student.

"All of you, attack me," she said in a nonchalant voice.

"What?" Everyone thought they had heard her wrong.

"I said attack. Use your weapons," she repeated. Without waiting for anyone, she pulled an arrow from her quiver, her motion elegant and precise.

"Woosh, woosh, woosh!" Before the students could process what was happening, three arrows covered in blue Force light flashed through the crowd.

Immediately, three students were sent flying, coughing blood in midair.

The three students fell but were not dead. Everyone realized the arrows were blunt, but they stared at Instructor Anna in shock.

"Who said this instructor was better than Charles? Come out, I promise I won't beat you up," they all thought.

"So violent," Damien thought. "No wonder they like each other. They indeed deserve each other," he mused while drawing his sword.

Jason was holding two blood-red curved daggers. Anna's nonchalant gaze didn't change as her hands returned to the quiver for more arrows.

"Everyone attack! I don't believe she can beat all of us!" someone shouted.

That person barely finished speaking when a blunt arrowhead magnified in his vision. He was thrown back, coughing blood.

But his "sacrifice" wasn't in vain as it reminded everyone to attack.

For a moment, the air was filled with colors as everyone launched attacks. However, because they weren't coordinated, some even destroyed others' attacks before they reached Anna.

She leaped into the air, jumping above the explosions. As she spun back down, several arrows flew out in all directions.

"Not good," Damien thought as two arrows appeared in his way. The arrows moved like beams of blue light, but he was faster, pulling his sword in time. The two arrows struck his blade, sending him several steps backward.

When he finally stopped, his face was pale and his hands shook. The arrows were that powerful.

Jason also had a hard time blocking them. Aylen fared better, cleaving an arrow in two with her massive scythe. Sara simply shot down her arrow with bolts from her crossbow.

Anna looked at the four of them, a smile playing on her lips.

"Hehehe... Charlie did say to give the four of you special attention," she thought to herself.