“This is the place.” A young girl with sharp eyes looked at the opening but failed to see anything.

“I can’t detect anyone in this place.” A teen said as he closed his eyes. “Did they forfeit or lose already?”

“It is not possible.” The sharp-eyed girl said as she touched the ground. “They are not under the ground either.”

“I should be able to feel anyone fifty kilometers from me, but I can’t detect any life form at all.” The teen said. “Could it be that they dig deeper than that?”

“The ground in this mountain range is too hard. There must be some other explanation. Let’s return for now.” The girl said and turned around. The teen followed right after them.

While all of these were happening, Miles and his people were watching from the air. Unlike what those people guessed, they built their base in the air. After all, the rules stated that the base must be in the designated area. Underground or the air, they were part of the area as well.

One of the students Miles elected, Olivia West could use the Reverse-Gravity element masterfully. By reducing a piece of rock, they had it float in the air. Olivia could use Reverse-Gravity to such an extent to have a massive rock float like a feather. Of course, removing the gravity from the rock didn’t make people and other equipment weightless, but the charm of her power was that it was working like a domain. So long as she had enough time, she could create a sphere where laws of gravity were void.

Of course, a floating base would be too conspicuous. They had to hide the base from the eyes of others. Although Mind Branch powers were effective when it came to hiding stuff, they wouldn’t work without a target to effect. A higher-ranked energy master could leave behind energy traps to influence whoever walked into the area, but it was nigh impossible to use in Form-Rank.

That was where Ben Galler came in. He had the superpower, Bent Light, which allowed him to alter the lights and create illusions. On its own, the ability was quite weak. It was similar to Porseila’s powers yet much worse, and Rinus Bolt, the reporter who defamed Marooner when he first appeared, but much better than his. After advancing to Form-Rank, Ben advanced his abilities to new heights, learned the mystical abilities of Light Element, and mixed them with Mind Branch techniques.

Although the island was floating in the air, no one could see it because of the lights being reflected. After all, if lights didn’t reflect from the surface, people couldn’t see the colors. So when Ben used his abilities, people could only see the vast sky behind the island. And the two scouts from before failed to feel them, because the piece of rock was so high in the air, it was out of their scope.

“Sir, should we follow them?” One of the boys said near Miles after the duo left.

“No, they are just scouts.” Miles shook his head. “All academies should have some kind of stress signal. Alerting them now would be unwise.”

At this time, the token he was holding started to heat up and a voice reverberated in his mind. “Captain, we found the base.”

“How many enemies?” Miles asked.

“Three,” Matt answered. The teen approached him while they were on the jet. His ability was quite peculiar, which made him quite important to the team. To Miles's surprise, Matt could ‘sense’ heat. Although it sounded simple, it was not.

Humans have several senses, such as seeing, hearing, and feeling… Matt could use his ability on any of these senses. He could see, hear, feel, taste, and smell the heat. Of course, these were the only basic senses all humans have. Then what about the non-basic senses? For example, Proprioception, also known as, Sense of Space. It allows humans to know where they are in space. Such as touching the tip of the nose with one's finger.

In Matt’s ability, this sense worked a bit differently. He could sense the location of heat in a certain space. Somehow similar to seeing any source of heat in a virtual environment. In his domain, he could feel despite the obstacles in between. He could also differentiate between heats, thus allowing him to scout enemy bases without any trouble.

Although there are other senses, Matt wasn’t proficient in all of them yet, but even with several few, he was unstoppable.

“Do we hit?” Matt asked. With him, there were two others. They were mostly there to protect him and if the opportunity presented itself, to hit and take down some enemies. With Matt there, no one could sneak on them or surround them, thus Miles wasn’t worried.

Two of the most powerful hitters were there. One of them was Madeline Mcclure. She was one hell of a fighter. Although Miles didn’t hear of her before, he learned quite a bit in the week he was recuperating. Her superpower was Firethunder Explosion. Even when at the peak of Grace Rank, she could one hit a fighter in Form-Rank. Her powers were so explosive, that she could destroy a mountain with her bare fists. Now advancing to Form-Rank only enchanted her abilities. She could use both fire and lightning elements in tandem and could even freely mix them to create powerful explosive attacks. Although always flashy and loud, her powers were one to reckon with.

The other was Safire, the previous Number 7 and the current Number 3. She could use Fire and Darkness elements and her main element was Hellfire. Even against Alex, she could give him hard times. That alone was proof of her strength. After spending several more months in the academy, she improved her prowess a several notches, giving her more edge.

With both of them and Matt, they could take down the base easily. Miles sent them towards Lares Academy, as that was the only place he wanted to destroy. Since Mother AI was targeting them and he had a feud with her before, he wanted to ‘anger’ her to see the reaction. The two scouts who just left were also from Lares Academy, which left five others.

“Hit and run. If you cannot take them down in three minutes, leave immediately.” Miles gave the order after pondering for a while longer. Lares Academy chose to construct its base under the ground, and there were several illusions placed in place. But with Matt, it wasn’t hard to find their base.

Also, any base constructed under the ground was like a walk in the park to Safire. She could swim in shadows to travel, which allowed her to appear and disappear like a ghost. All of these together increased their success several folds.

“Yes, sir.” Matt excitedly reported then got into action. Miles sighed and took another stone. It heated up not long ago while he was pondering, but after making sure it wasn’t urgent, he kept the person on hold.

“What is it?” Miles asked.

“Sir, Mae, and Carl from Cross Academy want to have a word with you.”