BXBX NOVEL Chapter 97: They had to
Beside him, his teammates wore expressions of determination tinged with apprehension. It was clear that everyone wanted to perform well in this training—after all, points from instructors played a crucial role in their advancement to the second year.
Levi\'s gaze drifted to Lysandra. He had hoped she would recognize him, but it seemed his face wasn\'t as memorable as he\'d thought. She stood at a distance, her silver hair gleaming in the eerie light emanating from the portal, her eyes narrowed in concentration. She appeared incredibly serious, considering this was a simulation.
His eyes then moved to Toby, who was nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot. Ryn\'s hands were clenched into tight fists at his sides, while Alex stood slightly apart, his gaze darting between the portal and the simulated civilians cowering nearby.
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The tension in the air was palpable, growing with each passing second. Levi could feel the essence within him responding to the charged atmosphere, coursing through his veins like liquid fire.
Without warning, the portal\'s pulsing intensified. The air around it shimmered and distorted, reality itself seeming to bend and warp. Then, with a sound like tearing fabric magnified a thousandfold, the portal burst open.
\'Wow, technology is so amazing,\' Levi marveled.
From the gaping maw of the interdimensional tear, a horde of creatures surged forth. They were unlike anything Levi had ever seen or imagined. Each monster was roughly the size of a large dog, but that\'s where any similarity to earthly creatures ended.
Their bodies seemed to be composed of shifting shadows and gleaming, obsidian-like surfaces. Multiple limbs, somewhere between tentacles and insectoid appendages, propelled them forward with frightening speed. What passed for their heads was a cluster of glowing, multifaceted eyes that darted in all directions independently.
"Scatter!" Lysandra\'s command cut through the chaos, spurring the team into action.
Levi leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the first wave of monsters. He summoned his essence, feeling it coalesce around his hands in a glow. With a sharp gesture, he sent a bolt of energy towards the nearest creature. The monster shrieked as the essence struck it, its form wavering before dissolving into wisps of shadow.
The dormant monsters were too weak to withstand Levi\'s power, even though he wasn\'t using the full extent of it. He simply infused a bit of his essence into his hands and punched at the monsters. Levi realized he was the only one in the group not using any kind of weapon, yet that didn\'t make him inferior. He cleanly dispatched the monsters with single punches while moving to the next.
However, for every monster Levi managed to dispatch, three more seemed to take its place. The sheer number of creatures pouring from the portal was overwhelming.
\'Is this many supposed to come out of the portal?\' Levi wondered momentarily as his eyes scanned the simulated battlefield. His teammates were faring no better.
Toby had taken a defensive stance, creating barriers of solidified essence to funnel the monsters away from the civilians. But the creatures were unpredictable, some phasing through the barriers as if they weren\'t there.
Alex was a whirlwind of motion, his agility allowing him to dance between the monsters with his heavy sword, striking with precision. Yet even he was being slowly overwhelmed by the relentless tide.
Ryn had climbed atop a nearby vehicle—how did he do that? Were the vehicles even real? Levi didn\'t have time to ponder these questions as he concentrated on the matter at hand. Ryn was raining down essence projectiles on the swarm below. His accuracy was impressive, but the monsters\' erratic movements made them difficult targets.
Lysandra, for all her confidence earlier, was now visibly struggling. Her powerful essence attacks were effective, but the constant barrage of monsters was clearly taking its toll. It wasn\'t that she was weak—her attacks were too powerful! Each of Lysandra\'s strikes was incredibly potent, but they weren\'t meant to face many opponents at once.
She killed each monster with no more than a single attack, which seemed excessive, but these powerful strikes were draining her quickly.
\'Isn\'t this too hard?\' Levi thought as another wave of monsters surged towards him. He realized that no amount of training could have truly prepared them for the chaos of a real portal breach—maybe that was why the instructor was putting them through this.
Their movements felt clumsy and uncoordinated compared to the fluid grace of the monsters. Each time they managed to take down one creature, they\'d lose track of three others in the melee. The team\'s lack of coordination was glaringly apparent – they were fighting as individuals, not as a cohesive unit.
While none of the members had used any of their special abilities, saving them for later, the situation was clearly not in their favor.
Suddenly, a piercing scream cut through the cacophony of battle, causing Levi\'s blood to run cold. Time seemed to slow as he turned towards the source of the sound.
In their struggle to contain the main surge of monsters, they had left a gap in their defenses. A single creature, sleeker and faster than its brethren, had slipped through unnoticed. It had reached a cluster of civilians who hadn\'t managed to evacuate in time.
The team, in their inexperience, had completely ignored the fact that they were supposed to help the civilians escape!
Before anyone could react, the monster lashed out with razor-sharp appendages. A simulated civilian, a middle-aged man in a business suit, fell to the ground. Even knowing it wasn\'t real, the sight of the man\'s lifeless body hit them like a physical blow.
"No!" Lysandra\'s anguished cry echoed across the battlefield. The momentary distraction cost her, as a monster slipped past her guard, scoring a hit across her arm.
The team\'s focus faltered, the reality of what they were facing finally sinking in. This wasn\'t just an exercise or a game. In a real situation, that civilian would have been someone\'s father, someone\'s friend, someone\'s colleague. And they had failed to protect him.
At that moment, they felt a surge of something – anger, determination, fear, they couldn\'t quite name it – rise within them.
The most agitated among them was definitely Lysandra. Levi didn\'t know why, but she was exuding a terrifying aura. It seemed like the essence responded to her emotions as it flared brighter, momentarily pushing back the nearest monsters around her.
But the reprieve was short-lived. The portal continued to pulse, disgorging more creatures into the simulated city. The pressure intensified, and Levi realized with a sinking feeling that they were nowhere near prepared for this.
As another wave of monsters advanced, Levi exchanged a look with Lysandra. Her silver eyes, usually so confident, now held a glimmer of uncertainty. They needed to regroup, to find a way to work together, or this simulation would end in total failure.
The weight of responsibility pressed down on their shoulders. They had to do better. They had to find a way. Because in the real world, outside this simulation, failure would mean more than just a bad grade. It would mean lives lost, cities destroyed, and humanity pushed to the brink.
With renewed determination, they readied themselves for the next onslaught. They might be struggling now, but they would learn.
They had to.
***
Professor Vale stood atop the observation platform, his keen eyes surveying the chaos unfolding below. The simulation was progressing exactly as he had designed it – challenging, overwhelming, and brutally eye-opening for the young trainees.
He watched as the teams struggled against the tide of shadow creatures pouring from the simulated portal.
And while watching those teams - a particular team caught his eyes.
It was a team let by a silver-haired girl.
Professor Vale squinted his eyes as he observed.
Their individual skills were impressive, he had to admit. The black-haired kid\'s raw power, the silver-haired girl\'s precision, and the muscular boy\'s agility – all showed promise.
But as a team? They were a disjointed mess.
Vale\'s lips tightened into a thin line as he observed their lack of coordination. This was the crucible that would either forge them into a cohesive unit or break them apart. The real test wasn\'t about individual prowess, it was about learning to work together in the face of overwhelming odds.
He noted with interest the varying approaches of each student. The black-haired kid\'s direct, essence-infused attacks were effective but lacked finesse.
The silver-haired girl\'s sword strikes were impressive but clearly unsustainable. The others were each fighting their own battles, failing to support one another or cover the gaps in their defense.
When the first civilian \'casualty\' occurred, Vale felt a pang of sympathy for the shocked expressions on the trainees\' faces. It was a harsh lesson, but a necessary one. In real combat, there were no do-overs, no reset buttons. Every mistake could cost a life.
He shook his head at them and just them, another team caught his attention!
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