the split (1)

"We're splitting up? Why?" a student yelled, which caused a bunch of others to ask the same.

"Please settle down. The principal was the one who made this decision. If you want to put up a complaint about this, go to him after the outing," Mr. Sable said, which in turn caused everyone to go silent.

They all felt the power of the principal, and none of them wanted to feel it again.

"OK, good. I will be calling off groups. They'll be called Team A, Team B, Team C, and Team D. Each group will have around 275 students and 40 teachers. Now, this is how the groups will be split up: either by class, or if your teacher gave you a recommendation, you will be switched to a certain group. Now, I'll be calling off both names and classes if they have no recommendation." After saying that, Mr. Sable began to say names, either groups or individual persons.

"Oh God, oh God," Joey said in his mind, but since the telepathic skill was still active, everyone heard him.

"What's up?" Harkel questioned as he saw Joey tightly gripping his wand.

"I know that name he just called. It's a healer."

This is when everyone realized every good party needs at least one healer, and since Joey had a healing class—

"Joey Cross, you'll be in Team A," Mr. Sable said. Everyone could see the fear in Joey's eyes; he didn't want to go alone without any of his friends.

Joey began walking over to Team A, sliding his feet as he went, at least until Mr. Sable said,

"Harkel Voss, Team A."

Harkel walked over to Joey with a hardened look and patted him on the head.

"You're not going alone," Harkel said those words with a big smile, and Joey returned it with one of his own. They fist-bumped each other and walked over to the group.

"That is all for Team A," Mr. Sable shouted.

"Joey, I'm glad you're not going through it alone," Riven thought, so Joey could hear him.

"Me too," Joey said back as he and Harkel joined their group.

"Now for Team B," Sable shouted.

It was mostly classes for Team B, but one of those stunned Tessa and Leo.

"Guys, that class he just called is me and Leo's," Tessa said softly.

Everyone sucked their teeth in when they saw the two walking away—now only three members from the group is left.

"That is it for Team B."

Mr. Sable was beginning to call out Team C when he was calling out the names of students and classes. Everyone's heart kept beating harder and harder. They all knew that if it wasn't their homeroom class, all three of them would be split up. Then a particular name was said:

"Riven Harlow, Team C. And that is it for Team C," Mr. Sable announced.

Riven, with his blackish-green gauntlet, held out his fist. Jordan realized what he was trying to do and gave his brother a fist bump as he walked away.

"And the rest of you are with Team D. I myself will be going with Team B, so let's get a move on," Mr. Sable said as he hopped down from the podium. Teachers started to go into a black portal. Before any of the groups went into the portal, they all spoke telepathically.

"Luckily, the telepathic skill should keep us in contact with each other for however long this might take," Riven said as all of them came up to their separate portals.

"I'll hear you guys on the other side," Harkel said.

"W'll be able to hear each other yes but still be safe OK," Wren said.

"One last thing before we go in: stay alive," Riven said as all of them entered the portal. Riven didn't like how the portal felt, but he didn't like what he saw even more in front of his eyes.

[Party members are too far. Parties being forced disbanded.]

Everyone in their minds yelled "What?!" as they faded from each other's heads.

Now, in a dark forest-looking place with the sky being dark gray, Riven stood there looking distraught. He didn't have to throw up like the other students thanks to him being awakened.

"Jordan, Joey, Harkel, Wren, Tessa, Leo," Riven thought to himself, trying to use the telepathic skill, but there was no response. Riven then pulled up the system, trying to invite all his party members back, but couldn't.

[System: That person is too far; cannot be invited to the party.]

This prompted both scared and angered Riven. He didn't know what to do except follow the person in charge and try to reunite with the people he saw as his second family.

Meanwhile, days from where Riven was, there were two boys who looked as stressed as Riven.

"What happened, Joey?" Harkel whispered in stress.

"I don't know," Joey responded. "Riven would've added us back by now, but just like the system said, we're too far from each other now." Joey started shaking.

"Get it together," Harkel told him. "At least we've got each other." Harkel patted Joey on his shoulder.

"Right, right," Joey responded back.

Both boys went to their places since the person in charge started to make an announcement. When they seemed to be done, the teachers got on guard, including Joey and Harkel. Most of the students were confused since none of them had awakened—they couldn't hear as well as Joey and Harkel.

"Be on guard. There's a beast near us," the head teacher said.

When he said that, all the students got on guard, most of them nervously pulling out their weapons. Harkel made sure he always stayed near Joey while clutching his longsword. A student couldn't help but bring out their device and scanned a part of the forest. The student was shocked when they didn't see just one ping, but several—all level 3 beasts. The student was too close to the edge of the forest, and thanks to that, without anybody able to react, the boy's head was on the ground as his body soon fell right after.

A girl near the boy started to screamed, but a teacher quickly covered her mouth.

"Do you want to attract more beasts? Keep your mouth shut and get ready for a fight," the teacher hissed.

As they could now see what killed the boy, a giant praying mantis came out of the woods with several others following it.

"Everyone, I need you to stay calm and be ready. This is a battle for your life, not for those crystals," the leading teacher said.

But everyone saw something that made them want to fall to their knees—one of the praying mantises stepped on the giant device that allowed them to teleport here. This meant they had to run into one of the other teams to be led out.

One of the mantises slashed at a student but was stopped by Harkel.

"Come on, bro! Get your head in the game!" Harkel yelled as he slashed the mantis's raptorial foreleg.

"Woah, I did that," Harkel thought to himself. "I guess after the level-ups and awakening, my physical strength has grown incredibly. Thanks to the extra stats this thing has given me." Harkel then brought his sword up to the mantis's body.

Harkel was able to get to the mantis's head before it even noticed, thanks to his wind ability and the new active skill that made him pick up the sword in the first place.

"Gale Force!" Harkel yelled out as he sliced the mantis's head down the middle. Then, using his wind, he was able to slice all the way down the mantis to the point where he was back on the ground. The mantis fell, split in two.

Gale Force is the activatable skill for Harkel's longsword. It triples all wind-based attacks but can only last for 10 minutes and has a cooldown of 30 minutes.

"Ahhhhhh!" Harkel yelled as he felt a huge pain in his arm. He saw a big blotch of purple on his arm—it was poison. What a way to cut your own arm off, he thought to himself —until Joey came up with his arms glowing silver. Joey was using his Time Evolution. He didn't care who saw it in a life-or-death situation. The silver glow faded away, and Harkel looked back to normal. He thanked Joey and went out to help others. Then, in the middle of everyone, Joey slammed his staff-wand on the ground. A green glow appeared—this was Joey's staff special ability, allowing him to do an instant AOE skill without needing time to charge.

Joey then performed a mass healing skill he learned in the three weeks, helping everyone who was still in battle.

Thanks to Joey's healing, a large group of students was able to defeat one of the mantises. They cut off the mantis's head, and the group took a breath as the mantis fell.

"Ha! Take that, not so tu—" the student's sentence was cut off as the mantis sliced him down the middle and got right back up. Harkel came behind and sliced the mantis down the middle like he did the last one.

"You fools! They seemed to be somewhat related to mantises! You idiots! Meaning they can get back up even if their head is chopped off!" Harkel yelled.

"Damn it, this is bad. Sure, we're tough, but there's only so much we can do, and my Gale Force skill is about to go on cooldown," Harkel cursed to himself as he was ready to go back into the fight.

He then heard a big howl in the distance. Harkel was left confused as all of the level-three mantises suddenly ran away. Harkel then fell to his knees, breathing hard. When he saw the mantises were far enough away, he shut off his Gale Force ability. Joey started tending to the injured. Since the other healer had died, Joey was vital, but even with his help, 137 students and 4 teachers had already been lost.