Alex scratched her belly while laying on her bed. She inwardly groaned, as she didn’t want to get up because of her aching body. Only... time doesn't wait for anyone, she had to get started on today's training.

Dragging her body out of bed, she began the painful process of walking to the shower and taking an ice-cold bath. She really wanted to squeal at this point, but she had to get stronger, so this little bit of pain wasn't much to deal with.

Drying herself off, she rebandaged her body, and got dressed in her workout clothes. She walked past her bed, deciding not to wake up her bedmate, and instead made her way to the servant's quarters.

She found Sial sitting outside the door, dressed and ready for her. She had him wait for her instead of going to her, since she knew how Magical Girls acted thanks to Loka’s shameless play.

“Come on, let's get working out.”

With a nod from Sial, they headed down the stairs to the workout room.

When they got to the bottom of the building, Alex turned to Sial, “Today you are going to teach me your combat style and training regiment.”

Sial eyes opened wide, before turning stern. Turning to his notepad, he began writing. “Are you sure? The training style can kill you.”

Inwardly, Alex took a sigh of relief, after thinking her servant would refuse. “Humph, I’m a magical girl. I don’t die that easily.”

“Then we’ll start by having you follow my movements.”

And so, the two began to move in a strange pattern of movements, one making its way into the next. The moves were simple, but each movement caused intense pain all throughout her body. Her veins started popping along her skin, feeling like they were about to blow and burst.

It was at this time Sial stopped her. Drenched in sweat, some of her wounds opened up, causing her to bleed in pain. She dropped to the ground, gasping for air, “What the fuck was that!?”

Straight-faced, Siad wrote in his notebook and held it for her to see, “The sixteen basic movements of the fire style. As I expected, you could only get to the third stance with your body's condition.”

“There are sixteen of those stances!? Are you trying to kill me?”

Flipping through the pages of his notepad Sial replied.

“No.”

With a moment of thought, he turned to a blank page and began to write.

“I needed to see how physically strong you are, as expected, you couldn’t even reach level four. Now I know where to begin the training. Let’s begin.”

Sial’s eyes were pointed to the paper, making the heavily breathing Alex shudder in newfound fear.

...

Hours later, Alex dragged her wet noodle-body up the stairs with the help of Sial, who was practically beaming. When she got back to her room, she took another cold shower and endured the coldness soaking into her body.

Getting dressed, she walked out with Fei, who was nice and refreshed after a good sleep and headed out the door to their next class. They were told the day before to head to the target range outside the town.

The group of girls entered a large field, where a teacher stood, arms behind her, waiting for them. When they got closer, Alex was able to make out her features. Bleach-blond hair, ruby-like eyes, a piercing on her lip and a thousand-yard stare. She wore an old-fashioned military uniform from Russia. Looking at it, Alex wondered if she was hot in her clothing.

She also looked around to see that, since the days they've been here, they had all seen how the E-rank girls were treated. In that little amount of time, the E girls started to feel off. Their eyes, that were once full of life and expectation, were slowly turning hollow. And the wounds they saw inflicted on the rank E girls terrified them. If Alex thought she was in bad shape, then those girls must have been on death's door.

When that last blank entered the field, the teacher shouted, “Get in line, shoulder to shoulder!”

The magical girls picked up their pace and formed a line, getting beaten or worse, getting deranked. The teacher stood stoically, not showing a hint of emotion. When they were in the position, it was then that she began to speak.

“Good, I see everyone is accounted for! Everyone, stand on a white marker, one per blank.”

Looking down, Alex could see that she was already standing on a mark, and decided to not move. The girls around her made hurried steps, but got into position without much difficulty.

With them all in place, now the Russian woman snapped her fingers, and the Earth around the blanks started to change.

Metal lanes were created between the girls, separating them from each other. Touching the metal walls, Alex felt its cool touch. Then, surprising her, the grass in front of her slid off, to reveal a silver-colored table. Next, the tabletop opened, to slowly reveal a rifle, a pistol, and a whole bunch of ammo.

That wasn’t all, as the walls opened up to reveal throwing knives, throwing axes, a bow, and even more guns. Alex subconsciously reached out for a rifle that looked like it had seen some wear, but its craftsmanship was a work of art, despite how simple it was.

The numbers started to flow out and analyze the rifle in an orderly manner. She didn’t even notice the table sealing up, and replacing its contents with a row of magazines, fit for the rifle. She was taking in the information of the rifle in her hands.

A finely made SKS

Attachments: Scope, Grip, Sideways Red-dot, and Extended Mag

Condition: Serviceable

Ammo:30/30

As the numbers showed her how to handle the rifle, bracing the rifle to her shoulder, and how to look out of the scope, she pulled on the bolt handle to load a round. The crisp sound of the bullet entering the barrel sounded like music to her ears as if it all felt right.

On the farm, her father had taught her how to use a rifle to hunt down a deer one fall. This gun in her hands felt heavier, though, mainly from the extra amount of bullets in the magazine.

She was so entranced in the rifle that she almost didn’t hear the Russian woman speak. “You have thirty seconds to pick your gear and start shooting the targets.”

Feeling that this rifle was good enough, she decided to stick with it. With her remaining time, she set up the table for easy access to mags. After she finished setting up, Alex didn’t have to wait long before targets started popping out of the ground. Not hesitating, she took a breath, and started firing. The first shot was a miss. The numbers floated in her eye and told her where to readjust.

Another bullet cocked into the chamber. Another pull on the trigger let the bullet fly and hit its mark on the bullseye. The hit caused adrenaline to start coursing through her veins. It was like the first time she shot with her old man and the thought made her almost cry.

Almost.

She held her emotions in, moving to the next target and firing once more, hitting another bullseye. Looking at the target falling back, Alex felt another emotion coming up. For the first time in a long time, she felt in control. No magical girl was trying to mug her, no dissecting a life target, and no one threatening to beat her up.

It was just her, the gun, and the targets.

She was so focused on firing that she didn’t notice that she soon ran out of ammo with the numbers telling her to reload. Following their instructions, she quickly reloaded, and kept on firing into the targets, mowing down the last one before a sound rang to reveal the timer floating above.

Unexpectedly, a virtual scoreboard appeared in front of the girls shooting. Raising an eyebrow, Alex could see that her name was first, which kind of surprised her. She scrolled down to see that Fei had the 12th position so she wasn’t half bad with a gun.

As the girls were checking their ranks a voice boomed attracting all their attention.

“I see some of you aren’t half bad, but some of you need punishment. Lowest rankings ten slaps on the back, middle rankings five slaps! Twenty and above no punishment!”

Alex was bewildered as to what the Russian girl meant, when she heard the loud sounds of wet skin on skin contact, with screams filling the air. It made her body shiver at the sound, as the girls were ruthlessly beaten.

When the beating was over, Alex could hear girls crying and sobbing over the intense pain. Yet, she couldn’t bother with them, she had to focus on herself, and keep doing the best she could with her new weapon.

It was at this time that a shadow descended on her, that made her look up in curiosity. Their Russian teacher floated down next to Alex and started to inspect her.

“Hmm... using an SKS to get those results… Not bad, most girls go for the rifle or pistol on the table. I see that what I planned won’t work on you, that’s it. I’ve decided to bump you up another level. Good luck and try not to fall below twentieth place.”

And with that, the teacher floated away from Alex and left her, bewildered.

‘Just because I did so well I’m being moved up a level? That bitch! Whatever, I’ll take on anything she throws at me.”

The targets came once again, but this time they were moving in and out of the walls. They were moving at a fast pace that made her brain hurt trying to track them all. She decided to focus on the closest target first, then move her way up.

Reloading her gun she fired and missed.

And Missed, and missed again.

After missing the fifth time, Alex knew something was off. The numbers told her that she should have gotten the timing down for the shot. Only every time she was about to pull the trigger, the target would duck inside and not come on out.

When she moved to another target, that one hid and the previous target came out which annoyed her.

If you wanna play the games like this then fuck it!’

Turning the numbers over time, her nose started to bleed, and her head felt like someone was hitting it with a hammer. Her eyes bloodshot, she aimed at the wall and shot. The bullet bounced off the wall and smashed into the target.

Time seemed to slow down for her, as she bounced bullets off the wall to hit the target. After the five misses, it could be seen that all of her shots were now hitting their bullseye once again. In fact, it was a little faster than before, when she was dealing with stationary targets.

As soon as she ran out of bullets, she dropped her mag, put another in, cocked the bolt back and kept firing. And for a moment, something seemed to snap inside her brain. as if some clarity descended upon her.

She was shooting faster now, moving her eyes around the targets and shooting in quick succession. Faster and faster, she shot, processed by the sound and smoke around her, only stopping to reload.

From above, the Russian teacher eyed her carefully with a smile. What a natural… She might be worth nurturing as a gunner for the alliance. Let’s kick it up a notch.

Waving her hands, Alex’s targets sped up, and actually started floating in the air, darting around at double the speed. But she wasn’t fazed by the challenge. With the numbers guiding her and her mind in the zone, she destroyed the challenge. Bouncing bullets off walls and other targets, she was unstoppable. It was only when there were no more targets on the field that she stopped.

And sucked in a full breath of air. She then felt dizzy, and decided to throw up on the ground, as her head was pounding something fierce. Despite feeling like shit, she smiled, feeling the triumph of conquering she yelled to the sky.

“AAHHHHHHHHHHH!”