Chapter 16: Training

Aurora looked at the gigantic building in front of her.

It was a rather tall building with a novel architectural design.

“Is this it?” Alice asked, eating her chips.

Aurora looked at the words engraved in the center of the building.

Taranis Enterprise.

One of the tallest buildings in Atlantis City was the headquarters of the multinational Taranis Company, responsible for producing and designing many weapons of war.

Focused on technological advancement, along with the help of mechanics and other important technological development companies, the Taranis Company became one of the most important companies today.

“Leslie’s last name is Haillet?” Alice asked curiously.

“Yes, I think so,” Aurora replied after remembering a bit.

“The owner of the Taranis company has the last name Haillet,” Alice stated, and then they both looked at the company again.

Since they were in a group, they had met outside of school hours to practice together, and Leslie had mentioned that she had a ‘decent’ place to train, so they had agreed to meet here... And it ended up being the home of a great company.

They were surprised, but they weren’t acting coy about coming in, but their main reason was...

“Where are we going to train?” Alice asked, eating some chips slowly.

Workers were constantly coming in and out of the building; it seemed like the whole place was focused on office work.

It was hard to imagine a place like this having a training facility.

“I guess in the basement,” Aurora commented randomly.

That was the first place that came to her mind to put a training place.

They both kept looking, and it didn’t take her long to notice Clémentine walking up next to Nicole.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Clémentine said after greeting the duo.

“It was my fault. I’m new in the city and I don’t know my way around.” Commented Nicole with a shy and slightly embarrassed smile.

“It doesn’t matter. We just got here,” Aurora replied without being upset, as they had been waiting for them.

Clémentine and Nicole nodded gratefully, then the four of them went inside.

“Leslie was tidying up the living room. She said she’d send someone,” Clémentine reported, and just as she had indicated when they entered, a secretary stepped forward.

After a cordial greeting, the secretary led them to the elevator, and when they entered, there was no need to press a button as it descended.

Aurora could see that Nicole was nervous, perhaps because she realized what kind of partner she had.

Entering an impressive building, being greeted by a secretary, and then entering the elevator and descending several floors lower than a ‘typical’ basement was beyond what the average person would expect.

Of course, Alice was still eating her chips as if she didn’t care that the elevator was still descending, which made Nicole feel better.

After descending what seemed like several floors, the door opened, and Leslie was at the front, waiting.

“I’m sorry for not coming to greet you!” Leslie exclaimed with a raised tone of apology.

“Never mind,” Clémentine said, and looking around the training room, she commented. “Apparently you were busy.”

Just as Clémentine had said, Leslie had been busy.

This place was a rather tall and large training room, much like the training room at the academy, but here it was more crowded.

Mannequins of all kinds stood ready on one side; some seemed to be able to cast spells and others to perform psionic attacks.

Some were using different weapons, and among them were some burly dummies that seemed to withstand the blows.

“Is it okay to train here?” asked Nicole timidly.

Anyone who saw it would realize that this training room was too expensive.

Just looking at the dummies that seemed to be able to cast powerful spells left the value of every part of this place.

“Sure, sure that’s why I’ve been preparing it,” Leslie replied with an excited tone that differed greatly from her typical performance.

She touched a few buttons on her holographic clock, and the surroundings changed.

The ground turned green, and the ceiling transformed into a limitless sky; some trees started to appear while mannequins took human shapes as if they were crooks and others took the forms of beasts.

A small, lush green plain revealed itself to all.

“This is the latest technology the company has designed. An immersive training room!” declared Leslie excitedly, and using her holographic watch, she explained. “It uses space magic to extend the area, and hologram technology to change the appearance of things, the rest is created from a material that can change shape at will and other technological and magical devices.”

When she finished her words, the green environment disappeared but left in sight the trees and the small plain, only this time it was not green, but a grayish color.

“How do you like it?” asked Leslie in an expectant tone.

“Yes, quite nice... And it’s quite realistic,” Alice replied without putting down her bag of chips.

A smile appeared on Leslie’s face, and then she coughed to signal to the table next to the elevator.

“I also brought what you asked for...” Leslie pointed out, and Clémentine nodded, giving her a thumbs up.

This time, Alice was the one smiling like a hungry predator who had been on a diet for years.

Aurora felt they were over-indulging her friend... But she couldn’t say anything, as she liked to eat too.

******

“To the right!” shouted Clémentine, and Nicole moved.

Reinforcing her body with magical energy, she hit a wolf, jumping out of the bushes on the right side.

Even though the wolf looked ferocious, Nicole could hold her nerve and be able to hit her blow without losing strength.

“GRhhh...”

The wolf growled in pain as it was defeated by Nicole’s blow, and she breathed a sigh of relief, happy to see that her move hadn’t failed.

“Don’t get distracted in combat.”

Alice’s voice sounded at her back, and before she could react, another wolf suddenly attacked Nicole.

That wolf jumped from Nicole’s blind spot, trying to attack her with its claws, but before it could move, a black arm caught it by its tail and then threw it against a tree.

The blow broke the holographic effects and shattered the material from which the wolf had been created.

*Bang*

*Bang*

From ahead of the group, gunshots and animal growls could be heard.

Leslie was firing a gun that glowed with a faint golden light.

Her shots were accurate and quick, but the wolves were smaller than the ones Nicole faced and outnumbered her.

Each time she finished her load, Leslie nimbly reloaded and fired again.

“Grrr...”

When a wolf came close, sacrificing its companion in the process, Leslie didn’t panic and reloaded her weapon.

Before the wolf could touch her, the combat armor Leslie was wearing emitted a glow, and an electric shock was fired at the wolf, paralyzing it completely.

*Bang*

Leslie then shot it in the head and immediately looked at the other wolves that were starting to surround her.

“I’m coming!” Aurora shouted and fell on another wolf, knocking it entirely over.

Her entire body was reinforced with magical energy, which made her extremely heavy and strong.

Still, she kept her speed and started attacking the approaching wolves.

Her fighting style was not only focused on fists like some fighters who were boxers, but it was a fast style that used her legs and feet to take down her enemies.

Sometimes she would use the terrain to her advantage to dodge or defeat her foes; other times, she would use the wolves themselves; it was a varied and undefined style.

Her opponents were many, but they would all be classified as C-Rank creatures, which made them relatively weak creatures for a B-Rank like her.

Unfortunately, it was a lot of weak wolves that were charging her group, and Aurora was only a fighter.

“I’m going to start!” shouted Clémentine, and Aurora immediately retreated.

Clémentine, who was in the center of the group, opened her arms and felt her surroundings.

The ‘branches’ creaked, and the earth moved at her will, transforming into sharp arrows.

Her ability to control objects was exceptional, and it showed.

When all the arrows were fired, she hit most of the wolves that were surrounding the group.

Some could flee, but Clémentine’s arrows pursued them, having detected their presence.

That was one of her skills that she had developed on her own.

When it was all over, Clémentine began to wheeze.

“This is awesome!” Clémentine exclaimed with a tone full of excitement, and when she calmed down, she commented. “I felt like I could control the trees, the land, and the surroundings at will as if it were all real.”

The surroundings began to lose their green hue, and when the gray trees came into view, they fell to the ground and back to a flat training room.

The same thing happened to the ‘wolves’.

Leslie only laughed gleefully at Clémentine’s exclamation.

“I’ll ask my father to buy me one of these rooms,” Clémentine commented excitedly and, glancing around, muttered. “I have the model of the academy, but this is a great evolution from the previous one.”

“Yes, my father wanted to offer it to the academy for when the tournament started at the end of the year... He says it will popularize it,” Leslie said, nodding excitedly.

Hearing that conversation, Alice looked at Aurora with an expectant look, but... Aurora completely ignored her.

Alice was already spending too much money on her meals; adding a training room that she would never use was not high on the priority list.

Seeing that she was turned down, Alice put her head down and went to the table of chips and other snacks as if she wanted to drown her ‘sorrows’ in food.

“I think it’s been a very good workout,” Clémentine commented, wiping her sweat.

Aurora and the others nodded.

They had started out having some teamwork problems, but other teammates covered these up.

Usually, Alice was the one who was in charge of protecting the entire group and acted as support; that was because she was too strong, and the group didn’t want to totally depend on her.

With Professor Miller’s training, Nicole could overcome the difficulty of getting too nervous when fighting, but she still had some problems when the nervousness built up in long-lasting battles.

Which caused her to let her guard down when defeating an opponent.

On the other hand, Leslie was a skilled mechanic and attacked with rapid-fire weapons enhanced by her skill, and in case of danger, her armor could attack or defend her.

She had also had the same experience as Clémentine, so she didn’t make as many mistakes, and they coordinated well.

As for Aurora, she did her best to help with her skills, supporting and covering the others.

This was the seventh training today, and the group had synchronized with each other thanks to their personal experience.

—As one would expect from the hero academy, each of them are exceptional student.

Aurora couldn’t help but agree with her system’s words.

Hero academy students were not only fast learners; they were fast improvers.

The complicated enrollment process that only let in capable and skilled students made it possible for all of them to be individuals with an excellent capacity for improvement.

There was only one hero academy in the entire world, but in the teenage period where students would find themselves in high school before the Great Cataclysm, they were currently within different academies that could train their skills.

In this world, there were all kinds of academies, be it mages, psionics, swordsmen, and fighters, that helped their students to improve and, in passing, taught them what they needed for their normal education.

Among them, there were even academies specializing in one type of magic or one type of sword style.

The hero academy supported capable individuals coming out of those academies with scholarships and allowed them to enter the hero academy after passing the academy’s regulations.

Even students from public schools could enter the hero academy if they tried hard enough.

That was the reason why it was customary to encounter individuals who progressed quickly.

Dedication and arduous training were something Aurora had been impressed to see in the students.

“I’m going to go rest for a moment,” Nicole muttered, and Leslie followed her, just as exhausted.

They both entered a door that led to a lounge, whose pleasant chairs healed the ‘soul’.

Aurora just sipped a cool drink as she watched Alice eat her chips and wash them down with all sorts of dips that were available.

There was no doubt that Leslie had gone out of her way, bringing all kinds of food and sauces, indeed knowing Alice’s gluttony that everyone at the academy already knew about.

Alice was the only one who hardly moved because it was unnecessary to do so... Either because of her strength or because there weren’t that many mistakes.

“An impressive performance,” Clémentine commented to Aurora, and when she looked at her, she explained. “No one would think that the student known for running away and hiding in fear in a closet would be so skilled and so daring.”

Aurora smiled slightly, and wanting to change the subject, asked. “Why did you invite me? I thought after abandoning the group, you might have a bit of a grudge against me.”

She had changed the subject because it was her mistake to have left that illusion to hide, ruining her own image... But she was still curious about Clémentine, who had invited her to join in her group.

“It was simple... Because even if you were ‘blocked’ again and couldn’t react, it wouldn’t affect the group,” Clémentine said sincerely and looking at Alice, who was still eating, without hesitation she muttered. “Even I wonder if I’m necessary for the group.”

Aurora didn’t know how to answer.