‘Duck, roll, punch, block, roll, block, dodge, punch, roll, roll dodge, roll’ Alan wasn’t getting any time to think at all, solely relying on his instincts. Anything he attacked his opponent with had been turned against him, trying to press in close just resulted in him being hard pressed like he was now, trying to stay further back only left him open and at a disadvantage.

“Your relying too much on reactions, try to anticipate more, think where to strike before you do it”

Alan knew that! God, he knew that! His old instructor used to say the same thing, but right now he wasn’t getting anything to take advantage of, he physically had no time to strike with. His opponent felt like a towering monstrosity to him right now. The worst part of this whole scenario was that he couldn’t even faze him! That guy! There wasn’t even a speck of dirt on his uniform, and he didn’t even look tired.

“Ok! That’s enough everyone! We’re moving on to the next half!” the Instructor suddenly shouted. The 2 or 3 students watching Alan and Key’s fight turned towards the stands surrounding the sandy arena they had all been practicing in. Only a few machines could be out on the field at a time so practice was generally kept to one-on-ones.

“Alan, Daniel! You two are up first!” The class instructor again shouted.

Alan watched Key simply walk over to the stands sit down and pull out his book and look as if nothing happened, before shrugging off his past half-hour of failure and start towards their combat teacher. Key was a monster so he should expect no less from this ‘Daniel’ persona.

“Today we’ll have you and Daniel practice ok? I know you're a new student so we’ll see how you do for about 10 minutes then we’ll switch you with Kiri over there, got it?”

Nodding, Alan leaped into the giant robot that had popped up behind him. He didn’t even look at his opponent for fear of what it might do to enrage his emotional state, like with Key. Flicking on the controls and proper switches the robot he was occupying roared to life and he could hear a deep annoying hum start to permeate the air.

“A mark-II, Training class Praes hm?” Alan muttered to himself.

Alan went over the design schematics and proceeded to carefully watch his opponent as his

praes also powered up and released it’s drone like noise.

“When I say go, start the fight and don’t stop ‘till I say so!” Shouted the instructor before running off to the stands.

“Go!”

Within seconds Alan had launched himself at his opponent with speed that wasn’t normal for a slow and dull praes like the training one they normally used, and Daniel was caught off guard. Throwing up his robot-hands, he quickly brought up his shield just in time to receive the sudden blow thrown at him.

‘tch~, I wanted to end this quickly’ Alan thought to himself, before pulling the training blade from his back.

“Too close!” shouted his opponent, before he too pulled out an overly large blade that perfectly fit for the size of their machines. Both combatants stood stock still measuring each other before their blades suddenly lit up with power. This was the true value of fighting in the praes, they were able to take what people normally used as magic and expand it into indestructible fighting tanks. The two fighters began gliding across the field firing spells at each other and striking with magically enhanced weapons before Alan finally took his opponent down.

With that the Instructor called an end to their match, saying something like “Winner stays on” before Key stepped onto the field and swapped machines with Daniel.

“The first guy was too easy, does that mean they were saving worst for last?” Alan muttered to himself again, before beginning his fight

____________________________________________________________________________

The answer to his question was no. Key could barely keep up the shield to a level that could block his attacks, let alone fight back with anything more than physical blows. When he the fight ended he was surrounded by the cheers of his classmates, saying stuff like “Wow! You really beat Dan! He’s the best in our year!” and “Can you tutor me or something? You’re really good!”. In the end he couldn’t comprehend what had happened, his goal was to remain low-key and off the radar as much as possible! Key was at such a ridiculous level in combat that he estimated that the Praes fighters were just as dangerous. Now not only was everyone aware of his skill level, but he had basically shown off to his whole class.

When the commotion had finally died down and everyone began streaming back to class Alan watched Key as he strolled to the exit while reading his book.

“Confused right? I don’t blame you,” the instructor said, coming up behind Alan “He’s a ridiculously high level fighter, hell he could probably fight most of the teacher head on - all at once.”

Sighing now, the combat teacher continued “Unfortunately for him we don’t need fighters, his ability to use magic, and even how much mana he has, is pitiful in comparison to the rest of the school. It’s like he was born Right-handed, in a place that only wants people Left-handed.”

Alan listened to the words as he watched his teacher look back at the two machines.

“If this was a decades ago, he would have been priceless! Hell he could probably kill mages with his bare hands, but...” trailed off the tired instructor, looking at the machines and walking away.

There was no need for him to finish, Alan understood perfectly. Even with Key’s level of talent, it was useless, the machines in front of him were mass-murdering vehicles of steel that trumped everything but high level magic. Nothing outside of Ilad could beat it and fighters, no matter their ability levels, were useless. Key could kill a hundred magicians but he’d never be able to get the one inside the lunks of metal.

Alan turned to watch Key as he was exiting, watched him as he brought up his arm to scratch the back of his neck. Watched as he briefly pushed down his collar to rub what ever bothered him, and for a millisecond, Alan watched as something revealed itself - grinning it’s ugly head off. Did he really see it? Was it his imagination?

‘A barcode?’

___________________________________________________________________________

“I’m off it? Why!”

“We don’t need him under surveillance anymore, the case has been cleared”

Two men were standing behind a tree, near a school.

“It’s only been a day! I’ve barely even started!”

“Regardless you don’t need to investigate any longer, look I’m just telling you what came down from the top.”

There were two distinct voices, one younger and one older.

“Don’t you think that’s a little fishy! I mean—”

“Don’t you think I know that!? I agree, but I can’t do anything here! I’m tied to a leash now...”

“What?”

“Something strange is going on here, and something big is happening east that has the upper brass concerned. Look here, they said you were off the case and you’re not supposed to be investigating any more, but they haven’t given you a new case yet *wink*. For now, just stay here and ‘take care of yourself’ ok? Don’t bring attention to yourself either!”

One of the men, wearing a black coat and clearly looking out of place, started to walk away into the forest before-

“Wait!”

“What is it? I can’t stay much longer...”

“He had numbers, a barcode I think.” the younger one said.

“Like yours?”

“No, right here” the younger man responded, pointing to the base of his neck.

Nodding the older man raised his hand to his chin, “I understand, I’ve never heard of one like that either, I look into it...” and with that he left, melting into the forests’ shadows.

Stepping out of the shade the younger man began his trek back to the school, before a male voice called out and began walking with him.

“Hey Alan! What were you doing over there?”

“Nothing I just wanted some fresh air.”

“Ah I see, that’s cool, so did you hear...”

(A/N): Dun dun dun, the plot is real! Hopefully my writing has remained nice and grammatically proper and doesn’t sound horrible. IDK I’m glad to take any advice I can get that’s what this series is for, (maybe ‘The Group’ will do a review eventually? who knows :P that would be nice) after all. I did release a little earlier then I said just because I didn’t feel like waiting longer in case I forgot.

P.S. Sorry if there are spacing problems my bad