Return of Chaos

OLD THREATS — ACTION ABROAD

Chapter 41: Coordinated Training

The Next Day

— Firdia, Colyath 26, 8054 —

“Alright, guys! Welcome to day one of training!”

“Did we really need to be up so early…?” Conrad groggily questioned.

“Getting used to rising early is part of training!” Christeané declared, his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out proudly. He looked over the four standing in front of him: Conrad and Austin to one side, both of them squinting in tiredness through the post-sunrise light, and Pierce and Spike to the other side, both fully prepared for a day of training. The fact that Christeané stood two inches shorter than even Conrad, the shortest of the Earthian men at 5’11”, was lost amongst the Dean’s confident demeanor — as well as Conrad and Austin’s groggy morning slouching.

The five currently stood within the foothills south of the Nayasis settlement, having just arrived for the beginning of their training. Both Davídrius and Mark were conspicuously absent, having parted ways from the group before they reached their destination — thus leaving Christeané to lead the way.

“Anyways!” Christeané clapped his hands to draw the attention of the Earthians. “Before we get to warming up, I’d like to start with a little lesson. As I’m sure Davídrius has explained, the four of you are here today because…?”

“Because we’re training?” Austin suggested.

“Yeah, no shit,” Christeané remarked. “I’m asking why the four of you are here, together, and not some other combination of you and your girlfriends.”

“What? I— I’m not—!“

“Of you and your friends that are girls,” Christeané amended with a roll of his eyes. “That’s not the important part.”

“We’re here ‘cause we’re ‘single-target’ Chaotics, or somethin’, right?” Spike said.

“Exactly!” The Dean pointed and smiled at Spike before placing his hands back on his hips. “Two of you are Introtechnics. One of you is an Imperator Psychotechnic. And one of you is a Visitechnic. That means, for three of you, you have to touch your opponent — or throw things at them — in order to do anything to them. More importantly, it means that each of you can only target one, maybe two opponents at a time.”

“Or no targets,” Conrad deadpanned.

“You still have that weapon of yours, right?” Christeané replied. “Being able to turn yourself invisible is massive when you have an Ayas Weapon. Those things can cut through literally anything, except for energy shields, so you’re well-equipped for landing finishing blows!”

“Figures that Conrad would get the kill-steal powers,” Pierce snarked. “Besides, dude, you can do more than just turn yourself invisible, right? You can turn things invisible from range, and you can mute sounds, too.”

Christeané passed Conrad a glance. “Really?”

“Uh… yeah,” Conrad admitted.

“Huh. Davídrius didn’t tell me that part. If you’re an Audiotechnic, though, then you’re not really a ‘single-target’ Chaotic.”

“…I don’t get it.”

“If you can manipulate sounds, then you should be able to make loud sounds. Really loud ones. And loud sounds are the kind of thing that affect an area — that can even destroy an area, if they’re loud enough. Or I guess, more technically, if they have enough decibels.”

“So you’re saying that Conrad can do even more with his powers than he had realized himself?” Pierce smirked at his friend. “Wow, what a surprise.”

“Oh, shut up…” Conrad muttered.

“Having said that, making sounds loud enough to destroy things is both difficult and dangerous to train for…” Christeané mused. “We’ll stick with the planned single-target training, for now. It doesn’t sound like you have much practice with making loud sounds, anyways, so there’s little point in focusing on it right now.”

“At least there’s lots of space to practice ‘round here, right?” Spike pointed out.

“True!” Christeané responded with a grin. “But, we’re getting off track. What was I talking about…? Right, the whole single-target thing. So!” He swept his gaze across the four Earthian Chaotics. “Before I hear any more objections, I’m aware that some of you can technically attack from range. I’ve heard about you fabricating shields and throwing them around, Spike, and Austin, I know you’ve been trying out your Imperator powers on that sword of yours. Not to mention how both of you, along with Pierce, could just grab stuff from your surroundings and chuck them at your enemies. But what I’m about to ask still applies to you in those situations. Namely: imagine that you find yourself in a fight with several other combatants. You can only target one of them at a time. What do you think is the best way to handle that fight?”

“Take out the weakest link, of course,” Pierce declared.

“Not a bad idea,” Christeané replied, “but think bigger. When you say ‘take out the weakest link’, what are you really doing?”

“Focusing on takin’ down one opponent before movin’ on to another,” Spike answered.

“Exactly!” Christeané pointed at Spike again. “Generally, when you can only attack one target at a time, the best thing to do is to pick one target and go after them until they’re down before you try going after someone else. After all, if you spread your focus across the entire enemy group, then they’ll all be able to fight back for the whole fight. But by taking them down one-by-one, you gradually reduce their numbers over time, and make things easier for yourself.”

“Assuming they aren’t doing the same to you and your friends…” Conrad muttered.

“It’s definitely something to watch out for, and we’ll get to that,” Christeané replied. “But these are just warm-up questions, and it’s time for question two: imagine that, as a single-target Chaotic, you’re fighting a group of enemies alongside an ally who can do area attacks. What do you think is the best way for the two of you to handle that fight?”

“Dividing the enemy into two groups…?” Austin questioned.

“And what good would that accomplish?” Pierce replied with a scoff. “If your buddy can cover an entire area, then why tell him to only cover half of the group when he could hit the entire group?”

“What’s your suggestion, then?” Christeané prodded.

“I’d go after whichever opponent looks the biggest and most dangerous, of course,” Pierce declared. “My AOE pal can take care of keeping the trash off my back.”

“That’s certainly one way of doing it — and a popular one, too,” the Dean responded. “Siion tactics in particular prefer that style. There’s one other tactical style that’s popular in this situation, though. Can anyone think of it?”

“Well, if the guy with the area attack can hit the whole group… then why not just let him handle the whole group?” Conrad suggested. “Then you can just hang back, and, uh… take care of anyone left.”

“Ha! That’s one way to put it!” Christeané remarked with a grin. “But, on the whole, you’re right. The guy who can hit an area takes charge, while the single-target guy guards him, and takes care of any stragglers. The Dra’kis and Syraus prefer that style.”

“What about the Nimalians?” Austin questioned.

“We Nimalians, along with the Citans, are a bit more flexible with how we approach things. Both of those tactical styles work great, but there are some situations where one will do better than the other. For example, if you’re fighting an army of guys, and only one or two of them are Chaotics, then it can be more effective to have your single-target Chaotic charge in and fight the enemy Chaotics while your area-target Chaotic deals with the army. Alternatively, there are some situations where getting in close to an enemy is… inadvisable.”

“Like against the Nanocreatures?”

“…Yeah, you could say that. In that situation, it’s better to let the area-target guy take the lead, while the single-target guy watches his back. Ultimately, it all comes down to who you’re up against, and where you’re fighting them, which brings me to the next thing I wanted to point out today: the value of always being aware of your surroundings.” Christeané paused for a second to look at each of the Earthians before continuing, “as single-target Chaotics, we’ve gone over how it’s usually more important for you to focus on one opponent at a time. If you aren’t careful, however, then you can get tunnel vision, and forget about any other enemies. One thing you have to remember is that, while you might be focusing on one opponent, they can’t be the only opponent you focus on. You always need to be aware of the entire battlefield, at all times, as much as you can.”

“That sounds like a pain…” Conrad grumbled.

“I won’t say that it’s easy, but it’s necessary if you want to come out of fights alive,” Christeané insisted.

“Question,” Spike spoke up, and then continued once the Dean looked at him. “It sounds like a lot of what we’re learnin’ about here is how to work together with Chaotics who can hit an entire area at once. But, you split us up from the girls, so we can’t really train for that, here. Why’s that?”

“Because y’all still need basic trainin’.”

“Ah, you’re finally here,” Christeané remarked as Davídrius approached from the side.

“Where the hell did you go?” Pierce questioned.

“Just had to take care of some shit with the locals,” Davídrius grumbled. “But back to Spike’s question — the answer is that y’all still need to train some of the basics that Christeané is teachin’ y’all. Once you’ve got that down, especially the battlefield awareness part, then we can start actively workin’ on your teamwork with the others.”

“Then when are we going to start training, huh?” Pierce pressed. “We’ve just been talking this whole time! Let’s actually do something!”

“Wow, you really do take after Davídrius, huh?” Christeané observed with a smirk.

“Oi, oi, don’t encourage him,” Davídrius responded.

“Well, still, you aren’t wrong,” Christeané continued. “Alright! Pierce, Spike, the two of you are the actual athletic ones here, right? Why don’t you lead the warm-ups with your pals. Davídrius and I will be over here.”

“And if I catch you eavesdroppin’, then I’m gonna kick your ass,” Davídrius declared while staring down Conrad.

“Alright, alright, sheesh…” Conrad muttered in response, watching the two Deans retreat to a short distance away from the group.

Austin eyed them uneasily; once they were out of earshot, he turned to the others and lowered his voice. “Something’s totally suspicious here, right? Where the hell did Davídrius go?”

“There’s one of us here who can figure that out,” Pierce stated while side-eying Conrad.

“…Hey, no thanks,” Conrad responded flatly. “If I tell you what they’re talking about right now, and that gets back to them, then where does that put me, huh?”

“It won’t get back to them, duh.”

“I’d sooner believe that pigs could fly than you would keep quiet about any of this.”

“There ain’t much we can do about it right now, anyways,” Spike cut in. “I agree that somethin’s up, but for now, let’s just get warmed-up, yeah? If nothin’ else, it’ll help us be ready for if somethin’ happens.”

“Aw man, don’t say that,” Austin complained. “Now something’s gonna happen for sure!”

“Yeah, whatever, dweeb,” Pierce retorted. “But Spike has a point. Alright, Conrad, dweeb, it’s time to put your lazy asses into gear! Let’s start with some jumping jacks!”

“Can we not, and say that we did?” Conrad replied.

“It’s your own body, your own muscles,” Spike pointed out. “If you refuse to warm-up and pull a muscle durin’ trainin’, then you’ll have no one else to blame but yourself!”

“Ugh… fine…” Conrad muttered, he and Austin reluctantly joining Spike and Pierce in warming up for the day’s training.

*

Bright morning sun shone down on the verdant foothills of Nayasis, blocked only by the occasional fluffy white cloud drifting slowly through the sky. Towering, majestic mountains stood in the far distance, forming a snow-capped wall of sorts along the north and eastern horizons. Amidst the natural, untamed beauty of his surroundings, however, Mark paid most of it little attention — for he had another matter to attend to.

After an hour of brisk walking, Mark now found himself approaching Nayasis’s Interstellar Gate. The royal blue ring, wreathed in silver and white geometric designs, stood tall and dormant over the hills. The rocky base into which it was mounted appeared chipped and heavily weathered, though the Gate itself looked almost immaculate. Tentatively, Mark approached the eleven-meter ring, stepping up to the control panel on its side. Once there, he looked around himself — though quickly determined that he was alone. The Gate was a several kilometer hike away from the settlement, after all, and the villagers seemed to receive goods through the Gate only once a week.

Alright… let’s get this done with, then, Mark thought to himself as he pulled a small note out of his pocket — the note that Saito had passed to him before they all left Compound Tresnon. Mark carefully unfolded the piece of paper and took a quick look over what the Colonel had written down: a Gate coordinate, featuring only two digits for each dimension of the coordinate, as well as special instructions for dialing it. I still don’t understand what this is supposed to be… Mark mused, staring at the written coordinate in consternation. Gate coordinates are always much longer than this, aren’t they? I know Earth’s coordinate has six digits in each dimension, at least. And the Colonel wants me to dial this, as well as Earth, and see what happens…? …Well, here we go, I suppose. Let’s start with Earth…

Wordlessly, Mark began to input Earth’s Gate coordinate into the dialing panel of the Gate before him. While doing so, he made careful note of the time. Earth’s Gate wasn’t yet part of the galactic Interstellar Gate Network — none of SERRCom’s Gates were, in fact — and as such, Earth didn’t yet have an established timetable. Thus, there was a good chance that Mark would be able to establish a connection with Earth.

A second later, Mark input the final digit of the coordinate and then pressed the button to activate the Gate. As soon as he did, a translucent black film manifested in the ring’s interior, before shimmering slightly and darkening, all while golden lines all around the Gate began to softly glow.

Okay, connection established. Mark nodded to himself as he observed the active Gate, and then glanced down at the control panel. …It looks like Earth’s Gate currently has its block activated. That makes sense. I should probably activate the block on this Gate while I’m doing these tests, now that I think about it. Don’t want any unknown hostiles coming through… With a sheepish smile, Mark quickly pressed the button to activate the blocking mechanism on Nayasis’s Gate. Now, any incoming matter or transmissions wouldn’t actually reach Nayasis; instead, they would be returned to sender. Such a mechanism was an important security aspect of the Interstellar Gates, and most Gates throughout the galaxy would leave the block activated at all times to prevent surprise incursions. Whether or not a Gate was currently blocked was information that any connecting Gate could see, though, and such information was indicated on the control panel.

However smaller colonies, such as Tier 5 Worlds like Nayasis, would intentionally leave the block deactivated — the settlements simply weren’t large enough to coordinate timetables with the rest of the galaxy, and didn’t have the manpower to constantly watch the Gate for inbound connections. They had to be prepared to accept connections at any time of day; a significant security risk to be sure, and something that made many Tier 5 Worlds the subject of raids by small pirate or bandit groups. The idea that Nayasis could potentially be raided at any moment put Mark a little on edge, but he knew that he would have to deactivate the Gate’s block once his tests were done — otherwise, the settlement might miss important shipments.

…Alright, let’s shut the Gate down, Mark mused after making a note of the time that it was on Earth. He then pressed the control button to sever the Gate connection, causing the black film inside the ring to disappear like an old tube television turning off, and the gold lines around the ring to dim. Earth keeps a log of every single activation of the Gate in New York, so I’m sure they’ll log an “unrecognized inbound connection” at this time. The Colonel will be able to verify that. I’m not really sure what the use is, but he asked me to do this, so it must be important, somehow. Anyways… on to this weird… mystery coordinate.

Mark again looked down at the note in his hands. He couldn’t help but feel uneasy each time he read the coordinate written down on the note, like a combination of sensing an unsettling “wrongness” from the coordinate, with the discomforting sensation one has when a word is on the tip of their tongue, without being able to think of the word itself. …Ah, it’s just a Gate coordinate… Mark eventually thought, pushing the unsettling feeling out of his mind as he went to input the written coordinate. This time, before he pushed the button to activate the Gate, he double-checked to make sure that the Gate’s blocking mechanism was active; he didn’t know where this coordinate would connect to, after all, if it even connected to anything at all. And there was always the risk of encountering something unpleasant when connecting to an unknown Gate.

Once he determined that the block was still active, Mark finally pressed the button to activate the connection. Unlike when he had dialed Earth, this time, the Gate didn’t respond immediately… but a second later, the translucent black film that was the Gate’s event horizon slowly filled the ring’s interior, as though nothing was wrong at all. Mark looked up at the giant ring in surprise, noting that the glowing golden lines all around the ring were shining slightly brighter than he was used to.

What…? Is something wrong with the Gate? he thought uneasily. It’s… subtle, but it’s definitely shining a little brighter than usual, right? Or am I imagining things…? Well, I suppose it’s worth writing down. I should also check — ah, okay, it looks like whatever Gate I’ve connected to right now also has its block active. I do wonder, though… where did the Colonel find this coordinate? And where did I connect to?

Mark paused for a second to ponder the question before quickly jotting down the rest of his notes, including the time (on Earth) that he had established this connection. Once he had done that, he readily shut down the Gate connection, watching the event horizon quickly disappear and the golden lines dim back into silver.

Well, that’s all the Colonel wanted me to do… Mark mused, at first beginning to turn away from the Gate — only to stop and look back at it. Hmm… while I’m here, I’ve always wondered… Gate coordinates in the galaxy are usually six digits in each dimension, but it’s said that it’s possible to connect to the zero, zero, zero coordinate — also known as the origin coordinate. I’ve never actually seen it, myself, though…

Quickly, Mark took another look around himself before punching in the (0,0,0) coordinate and activating the Gate a third time. Sure enough, the black event horizon appeared once more, and golden lines again began to glow on the Gate’s ring, indicating a successful connection. A quick look at the control panel revealed that whatever Gate Mark had connected to didn’t have its block activated, so anything that was sent through the Gate would successfully reach the other side. According to the stories, though, Mark thought to himself, it’s impossible to communicate with the origin coordinate, and anything or anyone you send through never returns. I don’t know how true that is, but I don’t have any drones or anything with me to test… and I’m sure not stepping through, myself. Still, the origin coordinate really is a valid destination, then? …Is it possible that any random combination of numbers will be a valid coordinate that the Gate recognizes? That can’t be true, can it? The Gate Network isn’t THAT dense…

Deciding to put his question to the test, Mark shutdown the Gate connection and input a random sequence of numbers into the dialing pad before attempting to activate the Gate once more. This time, no black event horizon appeared, and neither did the lines on the ring glow gold; only a small purple light lit up on the control panel, indicating that the coordinate Mark had just dialed was an invalid destination. Alright, so the Gates really do only connect to valid coordinates. I thought so, but I just wanted to check… That must mean that both the origin coordinate and Saito’s coordinate are valid destinations, then, right? But why do they seem to behave differently from standard Gate coordinates?

Mark’s gaze drifted up to the giant royal blue ring standing before him, just as silent and inactive as it was when he had first approached. After a couple seconds of that, he shook his head and turned away — the workings of the Interstellar Gates were hardly his area of expertise, and simply staring at one wouldn’t uncover any insights.

With his testing done, Mark deactivated the Gate’s block, so as to leave the massive device in the same state that he had found it. He carefully folded up the small paper note and slotted it into his pocket before jogging off down the trail leading away from the Gate, ready to rejoin everyone else on Nayasis.

*

“Okay… go!”

As soon as the words were uttered, Sky swept her arms forward, generating a massive plume of swirling flames that washed over the ice platform in front of her. Seven spires of ice stood tall over the platform — six arranged in a circle, and one more in the center — though under Sky’s fire, all seven spires rapidly melted away.

“Alright, stop!” Rebehka shouted, prompting Sky to cease her flames and step back. The Dean looked out over the results of Sky’s attack: a half-melted ice platform a couple dozen meters across, gently floating on the ocean waters off the coast of Karania’s Kani city. Adjacent to that half-melted platform was another large ice platform floating on the water on which Rebehka, Kaoné, Twy, Sky, Phoenix, Kestrel, and Danielle all stood, with the Earthians actively training under the watchful eye of the Deans.

“Amazing. You melted all the spires,” Twy commented flatly.

“I know! Isn’t it great?!” Sky exclaimed.

“It would be… if that was what you were supposed to do,” Rebehka countered before turning to look Sky right in the eye.

“Ah ha ha…!” Sky responded with an uneasy laugh. “Hey, c’mon, I’m trying! But destroying just six of the seven is surprisingly hard!”

“I feel like I’ve seen you do fire tornadoes, before…” Phoenix pointed out. “So you can definitely control where your flames go. Just do that.”

“’Just do that’,” Sky echoed in a mocking tone. “Look, if the spire I’m supposed to leave alone was the one in the center, then you’d be right! That’s easy! But instead, I’m supposed to destroy the one in the center, while leaving one of the outer ones intact! That’s really hard!”

“Kestrel could do it,” Danielle said.

“Yeah, well…” Sky glanced back at Kestrel before heaving her shoulders in a sigh. “…Meh.”

“It’s alright, this is what training is for: to get better,” Kaoné declared as Rebehka recreated the melted ice platform and replaced the ice spires. “You do have some things going for you, Sky,” Kaoné continued, “namely, your flames are pretty hot, and you can already manage to hit a wide area. A lot of Pyrotechnics have trouble with those things. All you need to do is work out your fine control, and you’ll be set!”

“’Fine control’ and ‘Sky’ go together about as well as ice and fire,” Twy retorted.

“Oh yeah? Well why don’t you try what I’m doing?” Sky challenged.

“…Ugh…” Rebehka sighed and massaged her temples. “…Alright, fine. Sky, step back. Twy, let’s see if you can manage this.”

“It was only a matter of time before I had to try, I guess…” Twy muttered as she stepped up past her sister.

“You know the drill by now,” Rebehka said. “First, take out every spire. Second, take out every spire except the center one. Third, take out every spire except the back left. I’ll recreate the spires after each round. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Alright then, on my go. …Go!”

A second after the word left Rebehka’s mouth, Twy seized control of the ocean waters all around them to force a massive swell to wash over the platform with the ice spires. Deftly, she manipulated the waters to turn the swell into a giant wave that forcefully crashed against the spires, breaking off each and every one of them and washing them out to sea. There was only a brief lull before Rebehka instantly recreated the platform and the spires, at which point Twy carefully forced another wave to cross — only this time, the wave gracefully parted around the center spire, crushing only the spires all around it. Once the waters subsided, Rebehka recreated the ice spires once more, and Twy moved to crush them with a wave once again. As she guided the waters across the platform, making sure to avoid the one spire in the back left, her control faltered for a second; manipulating so much water, so quickly, was rather difficult. With her faltering control, her wave of water began to spill to the side, splashing the one ice spire meant to be left intact — but before the wave could deteriorate any further, Twy was able to assert control again and force it to crush only the spires she desired.

“…Oh, c’mon!” Sky exclaimed in disbelief as the waters washed off of the ice platform, leaving only the back left spire standing. “Of course sis is gonna do well here, there’s water all around us!”

“Taking advantage of your surroundings is an important part of using your abilities,” Kaoné declared, only to pass Twy a wary glance. “That said, try not to get too carried away. Just because there’s an ocean here doesn’t mean that you need to control an entire ocean’s worth of water to do what you need.”

“Fair…” Twy responded sheepishly. “This isn’t the first time I’ve practiced with a body of water, but I guess I really underestimated how much water there is off the coast…”

“This is an ocean,” Phoenix pointed out.

“Your performance here was still fairly impressive,” Rebehka said while looking at Twy. “Kaoné covered your main weakness; most everything else was fine. Your parting of the wave around the center pillar was very well done, and even in the third wave, you managed to keep it together.”

“…But?” Twy prompted uneasily.

“Ha. You sensed that coming, did you?” Rebehka responded with a smirk, and then glanced between Twy and Sky. “What I’m about to say applies to all of you, but mostly the two of you, since your abilities can actually obscure line of sight. When you’re taking on multiple targets — or, hell, even just the one — you need to be careful about when and how you break line of sight. A skilled opponent can use your own massive attacks as cover against you.”

“Aw, this is so much to keep track of!” Sky exclaimed in frustration. “Earlier, you told us to be careful about watching our surroundings! And then you wanted us to be careful about what we target! And now you want us to be careful about how we do it all?!”

“Of course,” Rebehka replied, her arms crossed as she fixed Sky with a stare. “These are all things you need to keep in mind while in a fight. Anything less, and you either open yourself up to attack, or risk attacking your allies.”

“That said, today we can focus just on your fine control,” Kaoné quickly added. “The other two are very important, to be sure, but we need to make sure you have the basics down before we start trying to combine them.”

“And all of this isn’t even getting into your weapons,” Rebehka said.

“But that’s so much to do…” Sky whined.

“And for most of us, I’m not sure how effective our weapons even are,” Phoenix said. “Twy has her bow, sure, and the range on it is pretty impressive. And I suppose Kestrel could use her spear from range with her winds. But Sky has a staff, and I have these… chakrams?” She momentarily summoned one of her chakrams into her right hand, looking over its silver and deep crimson designs, as well as the four sharp, dagger-length blades extending perpendicular out of the weapon’s outer rim. “…I don’t see how I could effectively use these things at all.”

“I admit, I’m not certain, either…” Kaoné mused. “…But, they are Ayas Weapons. I’m sure there’s some way even a Chaostechnic like you could find a use for them.” She then glanced toward Rebehka. “Let’s save the weapons for a later day — tomorrow, perhaps. Let’s keep working on fine control for now.”

“Well, Phoenix, you’re next,” Rebehka said as the ice spires on the platform beside them seemed to reform themselves.

“…What, am I just supposed to use Massive Impact a lot?” Phoenix questioned, though stepped forward nonetheless.

“That’s one thing you could use, sure,” Rebehka replied. “Naturally, with the limitations of your abilities, I don’t expect you to wipe out all of the spires all at once. But there’s still a way for you to take out each round with, say… only three Chaos abilities, each. Let’s see if you can manage that.”

“Only three…?” Phoenix muttered as she turned to look at the ice spires. The outer six were evenly spaced from each other, forming a hexagon. The front and back spire lined up with the one in the middle respective to Phoenix’s position — while there were two more on the left, and another two to the right. “…Alright, I think I have it,” Phoenix commented after a second of inspection.

“Good,” Rebehka replied with a nod. “As with everyone else, I’ll recreate the spires as we go, so don’t stop until you’ve finished round three. Start on my go. …Go!”

“Chaos Massive Impact! Chaos Massive Impact! Chaos Massive Impact!” Phoenix repeatedly shouted, generating large planes of nigh-invisible force that swept through the left two spires, the center three, and then the right two, snapping each of them off of the ice platform through incredible blunt force. With round one destroyed, Rebehka crafted the ice spires again — as she did, Phoenix quickly dashed to the right, offsetting her position relative to the ice spires so that the three “center” spires no longer appeared to line up. There, she fired off only two Massive Impacts: one towards the three spires that were now on the left, and one towards the three on the right. As the planes of translucent force blasted across the ice and knocked the outer spires into the surrounding waters, small chunks of the center spire were blown off as well — but the spire otherwise remained standing. Nodding in approval, Rebehka then recreated the ice spires once more, while Phoenix rushed back to her starting position; as soon as she arrived, she again called out two Massive Impacts, crushing the right two spires and the center three. Then, to take out the front left spire while keeping the back left intact, Phoenix extended her right hand toward it and uttered, “Chaos Cannon.” A small purple projectile rocketed out of her hand, instantly obliterating the front left spire and careening off into the distance — while leaving only the back left spire still standing.

“Alright! That was good!” Rebehka remarked.

“But she moved!” Sky exclaimed.

“I never said you couldn’t,” the Dean replied. “Sometimes, in order to get a good shot on your opponent, you have to reposition. And Phoenix figured that out without me having to tell her — that’s good.”

“Uh, thanks,” Phoenix responded. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out, though…”

“You’d be surprised just how many people never think of that solution during this exercise,” Rebehka said. “Now, you still need to work on being careful with Massive Impact, of course, but you still did pretty well.”

“What do we do now, though?” Twy questioned. “We’ve all done your trial, now…”

“One of you still needs to complete it successfully,” the Dean replied while side-eying Sky. “And we’ll be doing more of this training this afternoon, among other things. Right now, though, I’ll be adding a twist…” With scarcely a single movement of her body, Rebehka instantly recreated the seven-spire arrangement — only now, the six outer spires were rotating in a circle around the center spire. “…Target movement!”

“Aw…!” Sky groaned, “the first one was hard enough!”

“I could do with more of a challenge, personally,” Phoenix remarked as she eagerly cracked her knuckles.

“This is kinda fun to watch, too!” Danielle exclaimed from her position behind the group. “Can I try hitting the targets, too?!”

“Uh… maybe later,” Rebehka responded. “But for now, everyone, let’s keep up the good work! We still have a full day of training ahead of us, after all!”