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Chapter 19 - Revamp (II)

  Revamp (II)

  The elevator came to a gentle rest after several minutes of descension. Upon its arrival, principal Dawkins stepped out first. Their surroundings resembled a metal tunnel, with high, arching walls and a ceiling that stretched several meters in width and height. A series of evenly spaced fluorescent lights lined the path ahead, their glow guiding the way forward. It felt as if there was no choice but to continue toward the imposing metal door at the end of the tunnel-like corridor.

  “This place is...?”

  “Its one of the private training rooms available to high-ranking hunters here at the association’s main branch. Normal hunters don’t have this kind of luxury you know, they can only enter this place if a high-ranker invites them in.” Olivia explained in a tone haughty enough to make him raise a brow.

  “Principal, are you bragging about having your own private training room?” Cyril quipped, tailing a few steps behind her.

  “Hardly, my dear. I’m well past the stage of bragging about anything in this line of work. Besides, it's been years since I’ve officially done any actual hunter work, I’m basically retired.”

  “I’m sure you could rise to the occasion if there was ever the need for it. With your level of experience, I think you’d even show up a lot of the younger members among the S-ranks.”

  “Hah.” Olivia waved away the thought. “You sound convinced. How would you know anything about my experience as an S-rank?” Smirking shrewdly, she tailored the question to her gaze and sent them both behind her.

  “Hm? Didn’t you know? All the first years at school are required to do a history course centered on our principals' days as an active S-rank hunter, and that includes everything from the 137 dungeon raids you’ve participated in here in Babylon, to the other nine overseas raids you volunteered for.” he finished, his tone carrying a hint of amusement.

  The subtle traces of that emotion deepened once he heard his principal let out a startled grunt. Clearly, she hadn’t been aware that such a thing existed at the school, and from her perspective, there had to be a better way to find out about it. By now, Olivia’s initial sarcasm was working against her.

  “By the way, I got an A minus in that course.” Cyril added knowingly.

  “Ahem, w-well you are a top student, so I suppose there’s nothing strange there but...” Olivia’s voice grew stern, rumbling vigorously from her tamed fury. “...it seems I’ve been too passive about letting your instructors have free reign in dictating your lesson plans. I’m curious to know who implemented such a course into the curriculum? Newgate academy isn’t an institution for biographies.”

  Her fierce tone alone made Cyril want to stop in his tracks; he fervently prayed she wouldn’t ask him that question directly. The boys' worries were unfounded—something he couldn’t be more thankful for — because the large metal doors parted horizontally as soon as the S-rank got close enough.

  Its a good thing we were already close. Cyril thought, appreciating the sudden calm that accompanied their arrival at their destination. Once the metal doors parted, their surroundings expanded enough to fit two full-sized basketball courts. The space no longer resembled a narrow corridor; instead, it opened up into what could only be described as an enclosed arena.

  A fitting design, given that the room was intended for live combat training.

  The smooth white flooring was lined with small grooves that pulsed with a low energy, tracing intricate patterns throughout the room. Overhead, a single luminescent light source bathed everything—the stark white walls, the expansive floor, and the large observation glass panel on the upper end of the room—in its radiant glow.

  Even with their footsteps in sync, the impact of human presence entering inside the large oval space was heard before it was felt. The echoes bounced off the walls rhythmically, as if programmed to do so.

  “Well, how is it, Cyril?” Olivia asked expectantly as she strolled along to gain some distance on him.

  The trainee took a moment to look around before responding.

  “Hm, well its impressive of course. With this much space it should give even S-ranks enough room to throw their weight around. I guess being underground helps keep sound pollution and damage control to a minimum too, right?”

  “Yes, exactly.” Olivia answered, clapping her hands slowly.

  “The walls are made of a special polymer that's twice as light as steel but also twice as durable, making it perfect for absorbing impacts. Also, these grooves here, the ones lining the floor and ceiling are what doctor Miller calls ‘microsensors’ or something of the sort. They’ll allow him to make certain inferences about any deviant by analyzing the mana fluctuations in this room.”

  Hearing that made the young trainee chuckle and nod compliantly. Olivia’s explanation was certainly concise and to the point, but there was only one real reason she would ever need to provide Cyril with those details.

  “I see what’s going on here. This setup...we’re about to spar, aren’t we?” his question wasn’t only directed at her, he had turned to face the large observation panel stuck to the upper end of an adjacent wall.

  “Yes, that’s correct Cyril.” Chairman Wilhelm's voice quickly filled the room from all directions. The high-frequency boost in his voice made it sound clearer and more commanding.

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  “Oh? Did you sense him up there?” Olivia probed, appearing somewhat impressed.

  “No I didn’t. I just had a feeling he was up there—he and Doctor Miller have a habit of observing these things from a distance. Right, doctor?”

  “Your evaluation of us isn’t exactly correct, but yes, we’re going to observe how your spar with miss Olivia plays out. Since the entire point of this exercise is to gauge what exactly you’re capable of now, please take it seriously. You are free to begin whenever you’re ready.”

  The doctor’s voice disappeared after a sharp click, leaving the room to fill with nothing but the odd silence they were slowly beginning to adjust to.

  “There you have it Cyril. Please feel free to go all out, I may not be in my prime anymore but its not to the extent where I can’t keep up with a teenager.” Olivia remarked, a playful glint in her eyes as she assumed a ready stance.

  Cyril gave a few twists to his joints and hip before replying: “I won’t get into any trouble for trying to hit my principal, will I?”

  “Rest assured, that won’t come to pass. In fact, you’ll get into more trouble if you even think about trying to hold back on me, so you’d better try your best child.” She had spoken no lies, but her words still managed to invoke his competitive spirit. As foolish as the idea was, he wanted to challenge her assumption.

  “You asked for it.” Cyril said simply, assuming his own leading stance.

  Olivia flicked a few fingers at him, the confident gesture meaning to convey the words ‘come on.’

  [Notice. The opponent's mana output vastly exceeds yours several times over. Under these conditions, achieving a decisive victory is highly unlikely. The most probable outcome is a stalemate, with less than a ten percent chance of success.]

  I know. She is an S-rank after all, there’s no way I can beat her in a spar, not even after everything that’s been happening to my body lately. That’s just how amazing my principal is.

  [Understood. Does that mean that there is an alternative condition for victory?]

  Cyril wanted to know the answer to that question just as much as the probing voice in his mind. He was hoping there was some kind of alternative at play here, because otherwise this situation wouldn’t make any sense. For an S-rank like Olivia, sparring with a rookie like Cyril couldn’t even be called sport.

  The principal had taken note of Cyril’s hesitance. She raised a brow in deep thought for a moment, then joyfully clapped her hands together once the lightbulb of enlightenment appeared above her head.

  “Cyril.” she said, calling out to her wary opponent.

  “It seems like you’re overthinking this, so allow me to clarify something. This won’t be an all-out spar like the ones you’re used to having where you both charge at each other with everything you’ve got—no, that would be far too cruel, even for me. Instead let’s do something a bit more practical, I’ll have you fight one of my summons in my stead. It's around C-rank so it should suffice for a simple test, how about that?”

  “Sure that works too!” he yelled, leaping back to gain some distance.

  Olivia smiled again. “Oh, did I just ruin that brilliant strategy you were so deep in thought over?”

  “I’m ready to begin whenever.” Cyril responded sharply, ignoring her verbal jab.

  “Very well then. Let’s begin. Your only win condition is to defeat the creature I'm about to summon.”

  Olivia spread her hands wide, siphoning the ambient energy around them and summoning a surge of power that went far beyond the realm of human capabilities. Her body shimmered from a brilliant hue of cyan light, crackling, snapping and swirling around her like a living tempest, tendrils of energy lashing out in erratic arcs.

  Although they were underground, the sudden release of Olivia’s aura sent brutal waves of pressure whipping about in the isolated space. Everything from Cyril’s hair to his clothes had been sent in a flurry, but the one thing that remained unwavering was his form. He remained rooted, firm as a boulder that had spent eons anchored to the ground.

  It was meant to be a simple spar but he couldn’t allow himself to treat is as such. He was someone who had long since acknowledged the limits of his potential, but upon realizing that he hadn’t even scraped the surface of what he thought was his limit, he found himself determined to push further than ever before—this time, for real.

  Olivia Dawkins—approaching her seventh decade—was one of the few hundred S-rank hunters in the world, and at this moment, she was smiling. Not because she was intending to enjoy her clash with the young rookie or anything like that, her reasoning was much simpler.

  She possessed power great enough to be called a walking calamity and yet, her opponent, a mere high school boy stood ready to face her onslaught. In human society, possessing that kind of overwhelming strength wasn’t always a good thing. It usually sparked two distinct reactions: people either praised you as something akin to a god or feared you as a monster.

  She wasn’t particularly fond of either.

  However, this was one of the few times where she felt genuine joy over being blessed with such strength. It gave her a unique opportunity, the chance to see what someone determined to overcome their own limits was capable of. Relishing the thought, Olivia steadied herself and began uttering words laced with the power to defy all logic.

  “Rising from stone and shadow’s edge, a restless force bound with iron thread pushes past the weight, the walls, and the veil, breaking the silence to let power prevail, fueled by grit and flame, as the earth embraces and awakens in this sacred space.”

  The S-rank's aura expanded viciously in one final surge, exploding throughout the room and forming what looked to be a spatial fracture at her back. Cyril swallowed nervously and narrowed his eyes, inching closer in anticipation.

  The space behind Olivia spawned branching cracks that expanded and unraveled the air like fraying threads, each one of the spatial fissures shimmering with a distorted glow as if reality itself was struggling to hold its shape.

  From afar, the distortions resembled a giant piece of glass slowly fracturing behind her.

  He found it similar to his encounter with the infernal, but this time, the approaching presence somehow felt a lot more subdued; like it had been tamed.

  Clak

  A rumbling sound came from within the spatial anomaly.

  The thin white cracks had spread far enough to cause the fragile balance maintaining the distortion to collapse, revealing a section of the hollow darkness on the other side of the anomaly. Cyril heard footsteps coming from within the breach—a sensation that triggered a sharp sense of Deja vu in his mind as the presence drew closer.

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