"Hey, you're zoning out again. Are you alright?" Ravka poked Mika's side with her elbow as, once again, Mika was zoning out for some reason. What, it was maybe the fifth time Ravka caught Mika just zoning out. That was pretty unusual for Mika, as she was always attentive to whatever they were learning.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just nervous! hehe." Mika just merely gave out a pitiful laugh as she focused back to the center of the colosseum, where a single student, covered head to toe in heavy green armor, was easily taking down a brown ogre with their halberd. And when I say easily, I mean taking down this large, green humanoid being with hulking muscle mass and tons of fat, in only 13 swipes of their great sword.
I was honestly very impressed because with each punch the ogre threw out, you could physically see the wind bursting outward. I knew for a FACT that a single punch is definitely not gonna end well for me. Sure, I may be tough, but I'm not ogre tough… yet. Also, that dude who was fighting the ogre was moving around crazy fast for someone in heavy armor, basically, he was not even taking the fight seriously as he easily dodged and moved around the ogre.
From what I overheard from Ravka, who was quietly explaining things to Mika, her voice filled with that usual mix of excitement and admiration. The group of students clad in heavy armor were part of a new class program, one only available to the very best.
The top students of Eldervale Academy. Basically, a class for elites.
Apparently, getting in wasn't just about strength. You had to have the brains to match it, battle awareness, mana control, and adaptability. The whole package. And to top it off, the class was personally taught by an old man who used to be an S-Class adventurer before retiring. Which, honestly, explained a lot.
[Yeah… no wonder they're built different.]
From what Ravka was saying, the class focused heavily on physical enhancement, using mana as a way to reinforce the body beyond its limits massively. Strength, speed, endurance, everything pushed beyond normal limits through precise mana control and something else. Apparently, this class is using a specialized technique developed by the teacher himself; probably, he found his own path to using enhancement-type magic and wanted to pass it on.
And the heavy armor? That wasn't just for protection. It was a god damn platform for a whole bunch of cool stuff… allegedly. Though it was kinda hard to see, those with sharper eyes could see that each inch of their armor was covered in runes and enchantments. From what the rumors say, the armor helps with mana absorption, dampens shocks, and heals the wearer. There's definitely a lot more, but these are the ones that have been figured out.
Though this class is pretty secretive about its curriculum, and no one really knows who wears the armor. So, I'm not really in a position to judge whether that's true or not. So… only time will tell if any of those rumors are actually true.
Anyway, after that little "mock" battle, the other classes stepped forward to take their turns. With one person at a time doing a 1v1 with an ogre or whatever creatures their teachers decided they should battle with. Once that person finished, the next class would choose a student of theirs to fight and showcase their skills.
One of them was the summoner class, which was pretty cool to watch. A random elf girl was chosen, and she summoned a beautiful white owl. It took to the air and began launching white beams that burned through the ogre's fat and muscle, leaving its body full of holes. The owl's final attack was a charged beam that it fired straight into the ogre's skull, burning clean through it and leaving nothing above its shoulders. It took some time as the ogre regeneration was pretty strong, but other than the girl looking pretty tired and drained, it wasn't too bad of a fight.
The other class was archery.
From the very first moment the battle started, a cat demi-human completely turned the ogre into a massive pincushion. He was also scarily accurate, landing arrows directly through the ogre's eyes whenever they regenerated, and targeting joints to disable its limbs with a single shot. It honestly looked effortless for him. He easily outran the ogre, constantly keeping his distance and even using magic to create illusions and smokescreens to confuse the ogre.
I'm pretty sure he was showing off, too, because he kept glancing toward Mika's direction, almost like he was trying to get her attention. Though, too bad as Mika wasn't even focused on him, instead, she was reading through some notes about ogres.
And lo and behold, in the final 10 minutes of the class, it was our class turn to choose a student. And it was very easy to guess who our teacher wanted to go.
"Mika, get down there. I want to see how well you fare. Even if you have little to no experience in actual combat, the best way to fix that weakness is to get your hands dirty and step onto the field." The goddamn teacher didn't even glance at Mika as he gave the order, his tone calm and casual like he wasn't throwing her into a fight against a giant monster.
And just like that, every eye in the colosseum landed on her.
Whispers immediately spread through the crowd, mixed with excitement and curiosity. Students leaned forward in their seats, some practically vibrating with anticipation. After all, Mika was supposed to be the hero of this generation. With demons beginning to pour into their lands, many believed she would become one of the key figures leading the fight to push them back to wherever they came from.
Unfortunately for them, the so called 'hero' was currently very, very nervous. Mika could physically feel the weight of everyone's expectations pressing down on her shoulders. Her hands tightened slightly, and her heartbeat thumped loudly in her ears as dozens upon dozens of eyes stared her down. The only thing keeping her from completely freezing up was Emi's voice cheering her on inside her head.
[You can do it, Mama!] And honestly… that tiny bit of encouragement was the only thing giving her any confidence right now.
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Yo, imma try to get to posting, sorry for being gone for so long.