"Arghh..." A soft groan came from the man causing the woman beside him to cover his mouth. Both lay on the snowy floor while the woman kept her right hand on the man's lower abdomen, lessening the bleeding.
While on the floor, the woman would occasionally peek half her head up and gaze at the humanoids. The several humanoids that roamed the area had their weapons drawn, seemingly looking for something.
"Leave me... Mia." The man softly mumbled.
Mia looked back at the man and shook her head. "Even if I wanted to, I can't. If I do that, then you die, and I don't pass this..." Then gritting her teeth, she started to curse under her breath. "Those fucker said this is training? This ain't no training; it's a fucking test! The long road training is just a cover-up!"
The man weakly stared at Mia, her words muffled to his ears.
After a few long minutes, the humanoids readied themselves as they flew into the air and far into the distance.
After a few glances left and right, ensuring they all left, May got up and patted down the snow on her bare thigh. "Shit... what do we do now..."
Just as she said those words, a small-sized drone with four propellers swiftly flew down to May's head level.
Noticing the drone, May flinched as she took a step back, thinking it was to take her life. But what happened next deemed May's idea completely wrong.
A neon blue light slowly projected itself from the bottom of the drone. After a few seconds, it created a few holograph images, but this didn't please May too much. "Y-you..." She weakly muttered as she looked at the holograph image in irritation. "I thought you said this would be your regular training exercise..."
It was their instructor they had met on the first day.
"And you believed that?" The instructor scoffed as he turned his head around to examine the area. "I guess you two are the only ones left."
"..." May stared at her instructor without saying anything.
"I thought I said to protect private Lewis with your lives." The instructor spoke with disappointment.
"Protect?" May smirked and soon laughed at his words. "He was threatened to be killed or to strip on the first day despite me protecting him! Now his dead body is frozen somewhere!"
The instructor didn't bother to listen to her words, only scoffing as he gazed down at the boots and gloves on her body. "Well, I'm only here for good news." The instructor smiled while saying so. "I'm going to give you a second chance just for you and the guy behind you."
"S-second chance?" May stuttered.
"As you have guessed, private Lewis was your number one asset to passing this small test. Protect him, and you pass."
"How were we supposed to know that...?" May said with despise in her voice.
"It was an order when I said to protect, and you disobeyed the order." The instructor said, gazing down at Mia. A soldier should at least be able to follow an order, am I right?"
"But-"
"Shut up." The instructor cruelly interrupted with a slight glint in his eyes. "Do you want the second chance or not?"
"..." May gritted her teeth as she stared straight down.
"Good, it looks like you can follow simple orders now." The instructor spoke with mockery all over his face. "There's going to be someone like private Lewis, with full winter assault uniform, and your job now is to kill that person. Only then will you and the person behind you pass. Also, the guy behind you needs to be alive."
"Fair enough," May spoke after processing what he had just said. However, there was a hint of unfairness in her voice.
"It's not going to be easy..." The instructor mumbled as his holographic image flicked before completely disappearing. Then the drone quickly flew away back into the sky.
Watching the drone fly away, May then looked down at her watch after feeling a slight vibration. There showed a recommended location where she should go. Staring at her watch, she realized that it was showing where her target was.
"It's a bit far," May mumbled as she looked far into the distance, then back behind her. 'It's going to take longer with him...' If she could, she would leave him here, but because of her instructor's words, she couldn't
Walking up to the wounded man, May hoisted his arm over her shoulder. Then getting one final look at her watch, she started to walk toward her destination.
Day six of training.
Although the distance was a bit far, it wasn't considered too far; it was only about 7 miles. But with another person on her back, it took her way longer, easily because of her lack of sleep and food.
And since she was a little knowledgeable about magic, she was able to cast a little fire spell that wrapped around small portions of her body, preventing herself from getting frostbites and hypothermia.
And because of her desperate state, she didn't bother to check up on the person on her back. Instead, she kept walking, following the directions given by her watch.
While on the long walk, she had thought of just giving up. Wondered if she would have enough energy to do anything after she reached her destination. But after convincing herself that she would think of something by then, she continued to walk.