After explaining the reason why he was late to his companions, Yule munched on the food served at their table. The restaurant prepared various cuisine for them.
While everyone was still busy finishing their food, Professor Fields tapped his wineglass to get their attention.
"This is to officially welcome, my nephew," the professor winked at Yule. "Yule Azul to my class, Class Everstorm!"
Yule almost choked from his food when he heard the name of the class. "There's a name for your class?"
"Of course!" Professor Fields beckoned everyone to raise their glasses. Since the professor was the only allowed to drink the red wine, the three students raised their glasses filled with mango juice.
"Cheers!" They all shouted.
They spent the hour enjoying the food and company of each other.
*****
The next day, everyone reconvened back to the classroom in preparation for the early morning briefing of their mission.
Sanna and Yule arrived early followed by Ranger and Professor Fields.
"Glad that we're already complete. I hope your body and soul is prepared for our mission today." The professor started. "As mentioned yesterday, we will have an extermination mission issued by the Slayers Council. Just to give you a brief background while waiting for our Intel Officer, hordes of aswang are starting to appear in various areas of the archipelago. We don't know yet what was the reason for this sudden outburst of the hordes. But in the meantime, all students of Neo Archipelago Slayers Academy will be helping on extermination missions. So this will be a busy week for all of us."
Everyone was looking grim after hearing the report from their professor. Even Ranger who always had this playful attitude got into serious mode.
Then the door slid open and a familiar figure entered the classroom disrupting their serious atmosphere.
"Ah, you're here! Good morning!" Professor Fields greeted.
The visitor tried to comb her messy blue hair before facing the three students.
"Good morning, class! I think your professor briefed you already about the agenda for today." She looked expectantly at Professor Fields to confirm.
The professor nodded in reply to her. "Class, as you are already familiar with our visitor, let me reintroduce her again. This is Avatara and starting from now on she will be assigned to our class as our resident Intel Officer for all sanctioned missions by the Council."
Avatara pulled something from her white lab coat and raised it. The object was like a remote control with only two buttons embedded in the body. She pressed the button and six hologram screens started popping out of thin air.
She grabbed one screen and expanded it, so everyone could see the content.
"So for today, Class Everstorm is assigned for an extermination mission." Then the screen zoomed in to a map of a certain area. "The class will be sent to coordinate number 55127. This area is used to be the capital city of Region Six from before. According to yesterday's report, a group of level 1 aswang started to appear in the area in which the council quickly dispatched two licensed slayers to exterminate the monsters. The two slayers were able to accomplish the task but," Avatara paused then she tapped something on the screen and multiple red dots appeared around the area.
"This happened." She let the students guessed what was the multiple red dots signify.
"Each red dots signifies a single level 1 aswang?" Sanna guessed.
"We hoped that was the case, but each of the red dots signifies a group of level 1 aswang. So collectively, they are already technically a horde now."
This made Sanna gasped. She could not imagine a massive number of level 1 aswang congregated in one area.
"So what happened to the two slayers?" Yule asked.
"They tried to lessen their numbers, unfortunately, one got injured while the other one had his magic depletion. Thankfully, both of them escaped from the horde and rescued by our team."
Yule heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the good news but -
Ranger suddenly rose from his seat, looking furious. "Don't you think it's a suicide mission for us, students? How could we exterminate those hordes if those two licensed slayers can't?!"
Avatara was about to answer him when Professor Fields raised his hand, telling her that he will answer him instead.
"That was also my initial reaction after reading the full details. But in this mission, I, a licensed slayer also, will be there as a backup just in case this went south. To add, our numbers are already spread thin since this horde appearance. All slayers and students were already dispatched to various coordinates. Even though we don't want the students to be involved in this dangerous mission, our hands are forced to do this."
With frustration plastered on his face, Ranger just shook his head and returned to his seat.
"We don't have to finish the mission within the day. We can always return once we generated enough power to resume our attacks." Professor Fields added.
Avatara pretended to cough and looked at the class. "So any further questions?" Then she looked at Ranger. "Violent reactions?"
The three of them shook their heads. Yule, Sanna, and Ranger understood how dangerous the mission was.
"Avatara will be staying here in the academy to provide intel support." Professor Fields approached his students and gave an earpiece device to each of them. "This will serve as our communication device, so start wearing it now."
After their preparations, the team headed to the hangar area of the academy.
*****
The hangar area was located on the underground level of the classroom building. They rode an elevator where Professor Fields flashed a badge on the elevator's scanner before giving them access to the hangar area.
When the elevator arrived on the bottom level, the door slid open leading to a wide metal bridge extending forward.
As they stepped on the bridge, they could hear the various hiss of aircraft below them.
All of the aircraft were as big as trailer trucks. They also spotted some students and professors entering unmanned aircraft. Some looked excited while some looked grim for their upcoming mission.
As they were walking to their designated aircraft, Yule tapped Sanna's shoulder. She looked at him quizzically.
"Have you been in here?" he asked.
"Yeah! Every time we were dispatched for a mission, we always use the hangar to ride an aircraft going down to the Ground."
Yule nodded at her and remained to roam his eyes around the hangar."So I take this extermination mission is not the usual mission you had received before?"
"Actually most of our missions before were for extermination. But we only faced a single pack of level 1 aswang or lone level 2 aswang. This time we will be facing a horde of level 1. Remember what Professor Fields told you a pack of level 1 is very dangerous, but to face a horde, even I would agree on Ranger's reaction. I'd rather take an escort mission everyday than this."
This made Yule's heart beat faster. If Sanna and Ranger, two of the fiercest warriors he encountered in this world, feared the horde, what can he contribute during the fight?
Professor Fields and Avatara turned to another corner which led to a metal stair going downward. They descended and found their designated aircraft.
Their aircraft had the same appearance as all the aircraft found in the hangar. The vehicle was painted blue all over while the wings had some printed numbers for identification.
Professor Fields tapped something on the nose of the vehicle and a door slid open on the side.
"Shall we?"
The professor entered the aircraft and went to the pilot's seat. The three students found their seats on the back and strapped themselves.
Professor Fields pressed a button on his hologram screen and the door started to close, leaving Avatara alone in the docking bay.
The professor began pressing some button on his screens, and the aircraft released steam outside. After releasing that, the aircraft started to hover above the ground.
Once the vehicle was hovering, the ground split open which led to the airspace below.
Avatara held on to the pipes when strong air currents entered the area.
The aircraft began descending and flew straight toward their destination.
*****
After thirty minutes of flying in the air, the aircraft started to lower its altitude when they were near to the designated coordinates.
They could see from the windows that the area was another barren land. It was almost identical to the area where Yule first arrived in this world.
Once the aircraft landed on the ground, they immediately unstrapped themselves and rose from their seats. They waited for their Professor to finish some adjustments on their vehicle and after that, he faced them.
"So before you head out," the professor started.
This catch the attention of Ranger. "What do you mean by 'you'? Aren't you coming with us?"
"Yes, I've mentioned that I will be your back up. But the Slayers Council issued an order to us, professors that we will remain behind inside the vehicle while the students will face the aswang."
The three of them were about to protest when Professor Fields held his hand before them.
"As per the council, this will serve as your examination and evaluation for the term also. I will only interfere if I think your lives are in peril."
Yule, Sanna, and Ranger were all in disbelief after hearing his explanation.
"Forgot to add also," the professor smiled at them.
"Go on dump more bad news to us! I won't be surprised anymore!" Ranger shouted.
"You, Ranger, will be field commander for this mission," Professor Fields announced.
"What?!" Sanna was shocked at the announcement.
"I stand corrected. This is the baddest news of them all." Ranger said.
After composing themselves, the students reluctantly exited the aircraft and met the harsh wind of the barren land.
"You may summon now your weapons," The professor's voice was coming from the earpiece they wore.
The three of them nodded and shouted in unison - "Weaponize!"
A violet spear appeared on Yule's hand.
A white bow appeared on Sanna's.
And two yellow bladed swords appeared on Ranger's hand.
"You still have to walk thirty miles before you reach the first wave of the horde."
They all nodded and headed quickly to their targets.
Once they were near to the target location, they could already hear the roar of the monsters from afar.
Ranger signaled them to take cover. Sanna and Yule hid behind a huge rubble while Ranger was within their sight, hiding behind a leftover wall.
"What's your order, commander?" Yule asked.
Ranger scanned the area and found hundreds of packs of the black wolf-like level 1 aswang just roaming vicinity and howling at each other.
"Let's go wild!" Ranger ordered.
They could hear Professor Fields laughing in the earpiece while Sanna and Yule just chuckled at the order.
"What kind of order is that?" Avatara complained at Ranger, joining the communication line.
Ranger ignored the Engkanto and stepped out from his hiding place. A lone black wolf-like aswang noticed the figure of Ranger and started howling, telling his pack of the incoming intruder.
And all red eyes greeted Ranger, baring their deadly fangs at him.
Ignoring them, Ranger leaped off the ground and shouted, " Eight Blade Swords!"
After issuing the magic spell, eight yellow bladed swords appeared behind him extending like wings.
"Full Charge!"
The eight swords scattered around and formed a straight line before him. And balls of light started emitting from the tip of the swords and launched eight electrical pillars to the ground.
The pillars started zapping the monsters and obliterating them from their existence.
There were some aswang who were able to dodge the attack, but the swords trailed them. The aswang whined in pain after being hit by the electrical pillars.
Ranger quickly landed on the ground and sprint toward the aswang who was continuously dodging the pillars.
Unaware that another attack was coming from Ranger, the aswang winced in pain when Ranger slashed its head off.
"Yule! Sanna! Unleash your attacks now!" Ranger shouted.