The group of five walked into the empty square room. On the other end stood a gate and the left wall had a window to peer through.
The five took their positions. Emile and Roman stood in the back, Violet ahead of them, and Emma and Brie were the vanguard.
Emile held his hands behind his head in a leisurely manner. Having seen hordes of the Arachnids move, he didn't think fighting one of them was going to be particularly challenging. The plan they had discussed didn't even include Emile and Roman since they were labeled as supporters and Brie said she didn't need any support.
A loud bell reverberated through the training room and the gate opened. One, two, three seconds passed and nothing happened. Frustrated, Brie sprinted towards the door with the hopes of ending this farce.
But when she was five feet away from the dark corridor that preceded the gateway, an unbelievably large and masterfully woven web erupted from the darkness. Caught by surprise, the web wrapped around Brie and sent her tumbling to the ground.
Moments later, the Arachnid burst through the gateway and threw another web into the air. Shocked at Brie's unexpected failure, Emma was late to react and caught in the spiraling mass of spider silk.
The silk tightened and compressed Emma's body and the adhesive slightly stung her skin as it stuck to her.
Emile finally put his hands down and started considering what options they had.
"Violet! Run at the thing and stick yourself to the ground when it gets you!" Emile yelled.
"Are you crazy! It'll kill me!" Violet screamed back as the three of them all started running in random directions.
"It won't kill you! I'm sure someone will step in before that!"
"I'm not doing it!"
Their bickering continued for more than a minute as they all ran circles around the Arachnid. It had shot its sticky webs to multiple parts of the floor. It was quickly becoming a game of 'the floor is lava'.
Eventually, Violet made a mistake and stepped right in the spider silk. Her body snapped back like a rubber band as she was pulled to the ground by the sheer force of her momentum.
Emile and Roman both simultaneously looked at one another, both knowing there was realistically nothing they could do. Emile threw his head over to the Arachnid and Roman nodded in response. Emile held his hand out and counted down from three.
On three, Emile and Roman both charged towards the Arachnid from polar ends. The Arachnid could only face one of them at a time, so chose to rush towards Roman instead of staying still.
Roman chuckled and shook his head then put every last ounce of energy into his charge. With his head tucked low, Roman resembled a bull ferociously charging at a red cloth. Then, they collided.
Roman's nails dug into the skin of the Arachnid, his shoulders pushed into the Arachnids chest, but he wasn't strong enough. That Arachnid's three-fingered hand gripped around Roman's skull and squeezed. Intense pressure assaulted Roman's senses, his eyes burned, his ears rang.
Emile was quickly approaching the Arachnids slim back, he straightened his fingers and angled them together. Emile knew hitting the Arachnid wasn't going to do anything, he had to pierce it, he had to kill it.
Emile's uncut fingernails ripped past skin and broke straight through to its chest. His other hand pulled the long hair and kept him up while he repeatedly clawed the inside of the creature. Emile felt an intense warmth near his finger, then felt a powerful pulse. He gripped the Arachnids heart and crushed it.
Green blood dripped from the Arachnids mouth onto Roman as his grip loosened, but Roman had already passed out from the pressure. The two fell to the floor together and Emiles arm slid out of its back. His white sleeves were soaked in blood and his pinky was snapped backwards.
Suddenly, Emile felt a rising heat in his hand and a soft tug was pulling his pinky back into place. Emile grit his teeth and pulled his pinky back down into place.
The door opened to the training room and Colonel Leo stepped in.
"Unbelievable—" he shook his head, "not a single one of you used your gift, three of you were eliminated by sheer idiocy, and you only survived because both of your supports actually filled their role."
"Um—Colonel? I used my gift." Emile said while waving.
The Colonel squinted his eyes and stared at Emile.
"Name." He asked.
"Emile…. The new guy."
"Emile… Emile…" the Colonel mumbled.
"Gift?"
"Healing."
"Emile the healer—" The Colonel repeated to help him remember, "wait a healer? Emile, report to my office after today's training."
"Should have kept my mouth shut," Emile thought to himself.
Colonel Leo left and other people came in to dispose of the Arachnids body and collect the fallen young adults. Roman was the only one who had to go to medical while everyone else went to watch the rest of the battles.
Sitting in the stands facing the window, Emile watched four other teams compete against the Arachnid and only one other team was able to kill it. The team that slayed it had four members, all of whom were given some kind of offensive gift. The person who took down the Arachnid was probably able to manipulate his weight or velocity. Sometimes he would jump up and touch the ceiling only to be barreling down onto the Arachnid a moment later.
But that team was an oddity. Two of the other groups only had two offensive types and the last group had one. If anything, the most helpful part of this makeshift battle was just seeing how much gifts can differ. Not everybody can produce waves of flames or walk through walls, most people had a terrible gift, terrible in the sense that it couldn't be used for battle.
One of the participants from a defeated group could mold the shape of their hands into anything. That might have sounded great on paper, but molding it doesn't sharpen it or make it any harder. He just had a sword shaped arm and probably hit just as hard as a fist would have.
The combat ended and the twenty-two trainees were released for lunch. Emile followed behind Colonel Leo as they headed to his office. Emile's nerves grew tenser with each step.