The Effort of Group B

Three days have passed since the attack. Jin is doing a little better, but he still hasn't been discharged from the hospital. Quira, for her part, is no longer in the hospital; her injuries were not as serious as Jin's. Despite that, they have been meeting to talk about what happened.

Quira—"Jin, how do you plan to face this? Angela could come back, and you might end up worse..."

Jin—"Don't worry about me, I was just an obstacle. Don't forget she's not here for me. Maybe it was resentment in the moment, knowing I was here."

Quira—"It's true, maybe her mother forced her to look for something… again..."

Jin—"The thing, ouch, is who or what she's looking for. We have to tell the superiors."

After that chat, Quira leaves and heads to the academy. She missed three days of training, and the tournament is only 11 days away. When she arrives at her classroom, she meets with the rest of her team: Frida, Mikaela, and Melania. While waiting for their tutor, they discuss how to catch up. Frida, worried, approaches Quira and asks if her arm is in good enough condition to train.

Quira—"Yes, in fact, I think it's better than before. I could easily say it evolved."

Frida—"That's impossible. You know that abilities don't evolve on their own. It takes a lot of training."

Mikaela—"Alright, girls. I'd like to improve my abilities too. Let's just hope our whole group improves so we can win the tournament."

Melania—"I'm curious to see how this slime changes."

While they were talking, the classroom door opened. It was their tutor, Emma, who looked tired and slightly frustrated. She told them that her brother, who also studied there, hadn't let her watch his training. After complaining for a while, she told the girls to change.

Emma—"Today I want to see if you've at least put in some effort in your own training."

They head to the special training room. While they are preparing, Quira gets lost for a moment in her thoughts, reliving Angela's attack. At that very instant, Frida brings her back to reality by touching her shoulder.

Frida—"Are you okay, Quira?"

Quira—"Yes, I'm fine. I'll go first."

Quira asks her tutor to deploy three drones. Her CraCandy ability is similar to Jin's: she uses a kind of combination with sweet spices to create forms to attack with. She reaches into one of the pockets on her waist and takes out a spicy spice.

With an explosive speed, Quira throws the spice. It bursts into a cloud of reddish, sparkling dust, taking down the first drone in a puff of smoke. The explosion forces her to move from side to side to evade the attacks of the other two drones. Suddenly, she feels a slight sharp pain in the arm where Angela injured her, which distracts her for an instant. A drone takes advantage of the moment and pounces on her, ready to attack.

Quira—"I won't let you!"

She takes a sweet spice from her pocket. With a quick, acrobatic move, she slides under the drone's attack and, with a precise cut, dismantles it. The second drone falls on top of her. Quira, with agility, grabs one of the parts and uses it as a shield. The last drone prepares to attack. Quira throws a combination of spices that pushes it against the wall. The drone prepares to counterattack, but its target is no longer there. Quira, with surprising speed, reappears behind it and pierces it with a candy spear, winning the combat.

Emma—"Impressive, Quira. It's incredible how your perception is still the same even while recovering."

Now it's Melania's turn. Emma decides to send four drones. Melania's ability, Mermer, allows her to expel a slime from her arms, which she can use to shoot or as a whip.

The four drones lunge at her. With a face that shows deep tiredness and her short, completely black hair, Melania performs a spin while holding her slime whips, taking down the drones but not destroying them. They immediately get back up.

Melania—"Boring..."

Melania performs attacks as if she were dancing. One by one, she takes them down with the grace of a ballet dancer until none are left.

Melania—"Can I go now, Master…"

Emma—"No, come up here. Good job."

Mikaela, happy that it was finally her turn, enters the field. She asks her tutor to deploy ten drones. Emma, without a second thought, does so. But what she didn't realize was that she had accidentally activated the button to deploy the 2.0 drones. Emma's face fills with panic. She prefers to stay quiet while sweating profusely.

Mikaela—"These drones are weird..."

The ten drones, well-synchronized, begin to attack Mikaela in different ways. She manages to take down three with her fists alone. In the middle of the fight, she sends a message while looking at the window with a wide grin.

Mikaela—"Don't worry, Master, this is something I can handle."

With a radiant smile, Mikaela activates her Ansas ability, which generates two gauntlets made of her own hair, now reinforced as armor. She begins to defend herself and crush the drones one by one, as if they were toys. With all of them destroyed, she strikes a victory pose, making a peace sign with her fingers while sticking out her tongue.

Emma—"Ah, um... I'm sorry, Mikaela… but you were amazing."

Guilt washes over her for a moment, but the relief that nothing serious had happened is overwhelming. She announces that it's Frida's turn, and she heads to the field.

Frida—"I can handle three drones."

Emma deploys the three drones, carefully checking the buttons again to avoid another mix-up. The drones begin a strategy to get closer to Frida. She activates her Cryotasis ability to make an ice shield. To everyone's surprise, it is bigger than usual. Frida, despite being busy investigating with Kleif without anyone else knowing, had not neglected her training.

Frida—"Okay, they're not attacking yet… I know what to do."

She begins to fire bursts of ice spikes to keep her distance. The drones use themselves as shields to withstand the attack. One has its arm torn off, and another grabs it and throws it toward Frida. She dodges it, but in doing so, she stops attacking, giving the drones the opportunity to quickly close in to end the fight.

Frida—"Great!"

With the drones closer, Frida generates an ice scythe, her most unexpected form of attack. With a single motion, she makes a clean, horizontal cut that destroys all three drones at the same time. The combat ends. Her tutor and teammates are amazed, as Frida had never been able to sustain ice for so long, and her strength wasn't that noticeable. This showed a great advance in her abilities.

Kleif—"Incredible how this girl learns. And to think she used the scythe."

After the training, they stay for a while longer in the control room, talking about the fights and how they should improve. Then, they say their goodbyes and leave. As the others are leaving, Frida stays behind to go near the windows where Angela had attacked.

Frida—"You know, Kleif, thanks so much for helping me train those attacks. I feel like my stamina has improved a lot."

Kleif—"Obviously, I'm the best teacher in the world. Mwahahaha!"

As they get closer to the area, they see a silhouette in the hallway. It's Morfeo, who is looking at the affected area and taking pictures. Frida approaches slowly, but he immediately notices her presence.

Morfeo—"I'm just taking photos. I like this kind of thing. My best friend, Jin, is still recovering. I have to go see him. See you later."

With those words, he disappears around a corner. This leaves Frida somewhat disconcerted.

Frida—"Kleif, I think he's also looking for the Pillars."

Kleif—"I doubt it. He has other intentions. I can see it in his eyes."

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