Hot Mess
Eventually, the meeting times ended, and the Sergeant called all the squads closer.
"Alright, first of all, allow me to formally introduce myself," She smiled at them. "You may call me Sergeant Alya, and I will be your Sergeant for the foreseeable future."
The Sergeant system in Avoma was a bit interesting, because it wasn't like Alya would stop being their Sergeant when they became second years. Instead, she would keep being the Sergeant until the graduated, then she would go and be the sergeant of first years again, essentially repeating the cycle over and over.
"Different Sergeants have different styles of teaching and drills, though they largely follow a similar system due to the emphasis Avoma places on teamwork." Alya paced slowly as she explained.
"Now, I have my own style of drills as well. But before we get into that, I want to see what you lot are capable of. So here is what's gonna happen." She snapped her fingers, and throughout the field, 5 colorful magic circles appeared on the ground, each a sizeable distance away from each other to avoid interference with one another.
'Chantless casting.' Xander gulped.
"Each squad will fight against the creatures summoned from a magic circle respectfully. Try your best to take it down, it would be even better if you could do it together, but if not, oh well." At this, one of the students asked nervously.
"Uh, Sergeant Alya. Don't we get time to plan?" She faced them and smiled sweetly.
"Oh hun, what do you think those 10 minutes were for?"
Shiver
'Yeah, no, this lady has a screw loose.' Xander shuddered and glanced at his teammates, each of them showing different reactions. Aubrey adjusted her glasses again, but her grip on her book had tightened, Falael rolled their eyes, but they kept rubbing the handle of their wand. Curtis kept wiping his palms against his trousers, looking slightly flustered. And Mia....
Was being Mia.
Xander pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Alright, each of you go to a circle and I'll tell you when to start." Alya continued in that sweet tone of hers, but it seemed like the others were finally beginning to realize that there was something off with her.
Still, they obeyed.
All except for one, that is...
"Mia, we need to move." Xander spoke to the sleeping girl, but she just mumbled something incoherent and lay on her side, completely oblivious to her surroundings.
He blinked slowly, then he leaned down and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt before lifting her up.
'She's light.' He noted. More importantly, the girl didn't even try to resist, just snored as she was carried like a puppy held up by its scruff.
The other students watched with odd expression, and Xander showed no outward reaction despite the fact that he was dying inside.
When he reached the circle where the others in his squad were waiting at and dropped Mia, Alya hummed.
"Good luck. Oh, and try not to die." She said and snapped her fingers again.
'Wait, what?' Before Xander could dwell on the ominous advice, the mana from the magic circle suddenly spiked, and without hesitation, he drew his sword while looking at the others.
Curtis' eyes were wide like he'd seen a ghost, and Aubrey had moved to the back with a tense expression. The only other person who seemed to be capable of reacting was Falael who had drawn their wand and aimed it at the circle.
'Okay, at least one person seems decent—"
"Ensure that you do not burden me, swordsman," Falael said with a derisive snort. "Then again, you might make a good meat shield with that body of yours, so why not go stand and take the first attack or me?"
'...'
A few veins bulged on Xander's neck.
'Oh, this bastard...' He smiled, but it was sharp.
"You have a loud mouth for a half-breed."
"!!!"
Falael paled before their face went red with anger.
"How DARE you—"
WHOOSH
Before they could finish their sentence, mana pulsed from the circle with physical force, forcing everyone in the squad—besides Mia—to defend themselves.
Xander put the hateful half-elf out of his mind and frowned.
'Isn't this mana a bit much for people at our level?' As he had that thought, something began to emerge from the circle, and Xander immediately entered a stance.
"Brutish weapon users that only know how to use their muscles. Watch what it means to actually fight!" Falael suddenly said and aimed their wand at the circle.
"I call upon—" Before they could even get half their chant off.
Something blurred, and there was a powerful air pressure that forced Xander to closed his eyes as something moved past him.
Then there was the sound of an impact, then something exploded in the distance.
Xander blinked before slowly turning his head.
Where Falael had been, a small white creature with fluffy fur and a single horn on its head could be seen.
'... a horned rabbit?' Xander blinked again and turned his head again.
At the edge of the field, in the side of a nearby building, Falael's figure could be seen, half-buried in a pile of rubble, their eyes rolled back.
Xander gulped and looked back at the rabbit that was now looking at him.
It moved, and Xander swung his sword.
His blade collided with its small foot, and to his utter shock, sparks flew as metal and fur collided.
'What the—' The rabbit suddenly, pushed its leg forward, and Xander was horrified as he felt the irresistible force press down on him.
'Sh-Shift it...' He growled and shifted his weight before flicking the blade to the side. The result was the sheer force of the rabbit's attack smashing into the ground behind him. Not the mana, just the force alone.
He tried to retreat, but the rabbit was already on him.
The two of the exchanged about a dozen blows, all of them resulting in the rabbit coming out on top, as even small grazes were ripping Xander's skin.
Another attack sent him flying back, his sword having just barely blocked it. It trembled in his grasp as he struggled to hold it, his arms numb
'What... the hell is that thing?!' He thought in disbelief as the small creature began to approach.
"... Frigid Permafrost." The end of a chant blast of cold air washed over Xander, and he half closed his eyes to resist it.
When he looked again, he saw that the rabbit was now encased in an ice pillar several meters tall, the surrounding dirt frozen solid.
Surprised, he looked to the side and saw Curtis with his wand raised, his face covered in sweat. Behind him, Aubrey peaked out, her face pale.
'I guess he isn't half bad.' Xander thought before wincing, then he looked at the pillow again and frowned.
'Is that...!' His pupils shrunk.
Within the pillar, the horn on the rabbit's head suddenly started to give off an ominous red glow, its eyes having shifted to Curtis, filled with malice.
"MOVE!" Xander yelled and dashed in their direction.
Curtis seemed confused, but realized too late as a spot in the ice pillar shattered, and a beam of red light fired out at an impossibly fast speed.
Xander—who already knew he wasn't going to cross that distance in time—thrust his sword forward.
'Solar-Edge Thrust!' A condensed beam of heat shot from the tip of his blade, moving in a perpendicular line to cut off the red blast.
In terms of output, Solar-Edge Thrust simply could not compare to the red beam. However...
'I just need to deflect it!' Xander poured his mana into the attack, and just before Curtis and Aubrey got hit, Solar-Edge Thrust smashed into the side of the red beam and pushed it to the side. It's power quickly dissipated, but it did its job as the red beam got pushed away from the two, flying past them and exploding dozens of meters away.
Before Xander could celebrate, he saw something move from the corner of his eye, and he reacted immediately.
'Crescent Moon!' He swung his sword in a vertical arc towards the approaching rabbit, having predicted its course and speed.
And yet...
'No way...'
Before the rabbit could run right into the attack, it somehow, impossibly, canceled its own momentum, causing he slash to stop just short of it, so Xander missed entirely...
And was left wide open.
He tried to raise his sword to defend, but the rabbit had already moved.
An impact to the side of his head made him see stars, and he flew away like a broken kite before rolling in the dirt numerous times and stopping just at the edge of the field.
'Ugh...' His ears rang. He tried to stand but his legs gave out. He noticed his blood dripping to the ground, and couldn't help but notice just how stark the difference between red and brown was...
'What... am I thinking about?' He tried to stand again, but everything was so foggy, his own thoughts feeling muffled in his brain.
'... Concussion...?' He wondered as he pushed himself to his feet and looked forward, it was then he noticed that the vision in one eye was red.
'Ah... my blood...' he turned his head slightly, and the motion alone made his grit his teeth in pain.
He looked up, though, just in time to see Aubrey's glasses getting shattered as she was hit square in the face. As for Curtis, his headband been smashed into the ground, his body unmoving.
'... Mages... have weak bodies... That's probably why they passed out so fast...But I can't blame them... that thing packs a punch...' He started walking, each step shaky.
The rabbit seemed to notice that one of its targets was still standing, and it prepared to rush at him, but Xander raised his sword at that moment.
'I wonder... if it's as durable as it is small... But it's so fast... I can't hit it.' He locked eyes with the thing, and past the haze in his gaze, there was something almost mad within his eyes.
'... What if I just blow everything away? Can it dodge that?' He raised his sword high above his head, and he took a deep breath.
Suddenly, the mana in his body surged as he used Mana Breathing to its fullest capacity.
Tendrils of wind crept along the edge of his sword before turning into a full-blown gale.
'Tempest—' But before he could complete the motion, blood spurted from his nose. He swayed a little, then fell to his side, the wind surrounding his sword dissipating.
The last thing he saw was a pair of boots approaching him before he lost consciousness.
***
SPLASH
"Blegh!" Xander sat up abruptly as a bucket of cold water drenched his face.
He held up his sword and looked around frantically, only to see Sergeant Alya looking down at him with her sweet smile, a wooden bucket in her hands.
"Welcome to the land of the living." She chuckled, and Xander looked around to see his teammates. Other than Mia who seemed to be in the exact same position that they'd left her, the rest were covered in dirt and grime with some blood here and there, but surprisingly, there were no injuries.
Blinking, Xander rubbed his head where the rabbit had kicked him, and he was surprised to feel no pain.
"I healed your wounds. Wouldn't want you guys to be disabled on the first day, right?" Alys chuckled again, and Xander stood slowly.
Falael chose that moment to snipe.
"Look at you, being the last one to regain consciousness, isn't that just pathetic?" He scoffed, and Xander's head snapped to him, his eyes narrowing.
"Says the one who got taken out first. Weren't you talking all big? Just to get no diffed by a rabbit." He bit back sharply, and Falael stood abruptly.
"That only happened because your kept distracting me with your useless insults! I could have attacked before it was fully summoned!" Xander rolled his eyes.
'This fool doesn't understand that the rabbit attacked the last person to attack it. They brought it on themselves when they attacked first.' Seeing his eye roll, Falael started getting more heated.
"H-Hey, I think you guys should–"
"Shut it you big oaf!" Falael cut Curtis off, making the bigger guy flinch, and Xander narrowed his eyes.
"Hey, hey. You're insulting the guy who actually did something? You're talking when you didn't even get a single spell off??"
"Your thick skull only knows how to swing swords mindlessly. Otherwise, you'd know I was–"
"I hate to break it to you, but Sergeant Alya is watching you two bicker while trying not to laugh." Aubrey, who had been silent thus far, suddenly spoke. As her glasses had been broken, her face seemed to be in a perpetual squint to see what was happening.
But her words hadn't the desired effect. Xander and Falael who had been getting closer to each other froze and turned to see Sergeant Alya who was in fact holding back a laugh.
"Pfft. No... No, carry on. Pretend like I'm not here." She said while turning her head away.
"We know you're laughing!" Falael threw his hands up and glared at Xander before stepping back. Xander snorted but chose not to chase the issue.
Alya soon regained her composure and cleared her throat.
"Well, anyway, congratulations," She smiled. "Your squad had the worst performance out of all the other squads. You lot got dispatched the quickest out of all of them, and not by a small amount, either. It's kinda impressive, really." Xander's heart sank.
'Damnit. That can't be right. If everyone fought the same thing then there is no way they should have been able to resist.' Alya practically read his mind and said.
"Everyone indeed fought the same thing. However, unlike you guys, they actually used those ten minutes wisely and got an idea of each other's abilities, so they were able to hold out significantly better. But you guys fought like you've never fought with anyone before. Especially you." She glanced at Xander.
"I can tell you're used to individual combat. Sadly, that's not gonna fly in this place." Hearing this, Xander gritted his teeth but said nothing.
...
That was until Falael poured gasoline on the fire.
"See? Brainless."
Xander slowly turned to them.
"I will cut your ears off." He said coldly, and Falael sneered.
"Let me see you try you brainless fool—"
"And this is a prime example of what I was talking about," Alya shook her head. "Norma people would get together to see where they went wrong and how to improve, but you two haven't exchanged a single word that isn't an insult. Are y'all 5?" She raised a brow, and the two of them looked away, chastised.
She then turned to Aubrey.
"You, similarly, were exceptionally useless. You just stood behind him," She pointed at Curtis. "And did nothing. Can't you use magic? Or are you dumb?" Aubrey stiffened, her face reddening slightly. She tried to adjust her glasses, only to remember that they were broken.
"And you," She looked at Curtis who immediately averted his gaze. "Your timing with that spell was acceptable, but your combat awareness is pathetic. Had your teammate not stepped in, that attack would have hit you." Curtis looked like he wanted to cry, but she ignored him and looked at Falael.
"You have a lot to say but nothing to show for it. Really, you got knocked out first and you still have the audacity to run your mouth. Inferiority complex or Inferiority complex?" Falael gritted their teeth and wanted to retort, but Alya just cut him off with a wave of her hand.
Then, she turned to Mia. Her expression was unreadable for a few seconds, then she shook her head. The girl didn't seem perturbed by anything that was going on in the slightest, her witch hat having slid down to cover her face as she slept.
"To put it bluntly, your team is a hot mess, dysfunctional, and downright self-destructive." She ripped into them mercilessly, each word a blow to their already fractured egos.
"With that said..." She looked up at the sun. "It's still 10 am. So here's you assignment for the rest of the day." She looked at each of them.
"All of you, sit down, and get to know each other." It sounded simple, and yet, all of them knew...
That was going to be a very, very difficult task.