"Team seventeen, step up."
That was the cue for Arsha's team to make their way to the teachers.
There was Mr. Allen a tall man with dark hair, blue eyes, and a nice athletic body who happened to be the homeroom teacher for class A and a new addition.
Additionally , there was lady who seemed to be in her early twenties, she had short dark hair, green eyes, and a slender fit body, compared to the other two teachers she appeared to be a bit odd as she was in a black gym wear with a pink jacket covering her top.
As anyone would have already guessed, the beast hunt was just about to kick off and she was there to give the male teacher a hand in making sure nothing happened to the students in this exercise, Mrs. Nesta wasn't a fighter so she was necessary.
"Alright, who's your leader?" Mrs Nesta inquired as soon as the three of them stepped up.
"Arsha, I think," Jayden responded.
"What do you mean you think? Give me a direct answer." She snapped.
"Don't mind him ma, am, Arsha's our leader, he's the strongest after all." Maya clarified.
"Alright, if you say so." She said before turning her gaze to Arsha. "I hope none of you dies." She said before handing him some sort of circular device with a button in the middle.
"I suppose this is a help button," Arsha remarked as soon as he got his hand on the device.
"Yes, and you're only allowed to press it when you're in dire need of help and these two will come rushing to your rescue. But keep in mind, if you use it to prank them, your next call will be ignored." She explained.
"Don't worry ma'am, we won't ever do anything like that," Maya assured her.
"I'll hold you to that, now you can get out of my sight."
"Alright."
"For someone who appears timid, you sure know how to handle rude people, Maya," Jayden said as they made their way out of the area toward the other players who had already been handed a help call button.
"Well, I just tried to be as polite and straightforward as possible but I don't think she was rude." She replied.
"Trust me, you wouldn't be saying that if you were in our class."
While the two were talking, Arsha suddenly felt someone tap him on the back and he slowly turned at that moment to see a dark-haired girl with brown eyes, he could obviously tell she was his classmate from her uniform.
"Amy?"
Arsha and Jayden had no idea who she was but Maya recognized her, maybe that had something to do with the fact that she was in.
"Do you need something, Amy?" She inquired.
"No, I'm just here to do something necessary," Amy responded with her gaze on Arsha. "Hey, can I talk to you?"
Arsha agreed to hear her out and now the two of them were standing by the side away from their classmates.
"I want you to listen very carefully." She started with a very serious look on her face. "Maya is my roommate and best friend and for some reason, she seems to look up to you and while I think you're dangerous, I can't go out of my way to stop her from doing what she wants to do. She seems to like you a lot which is why she went out of her way to be in your team so that you don't get left out, I told her it was a bad idea but she didn't listen to me, and she never does when it comes to you."
She had to pause for a while and catch her breath because she seemed to have been talking faster than normal.
"I heard the story about how you saved Claudia from Elsa and her girls so I want to believe that you're not all bad as we've come to know but if anything happens to Maya during this exercise, I'll make you pay."
That was a direct threat and she made sure to look the part with the death glare but Arsha didn't seem phased in the slightest.
"Can I go now?"
That question came out with quite the nonchalant tone and it sure rubbed her the wrong way but there was nothing she could do besides glare at him more furiously.
"I've told you what I wanted to tell you, I'll be leaving now." She declared before she began to walk back to her team.
'What do they even think I am? A maniac who kills people for fun, the last thing I want in this exercise is something like that to happen.'
Just as that thought went through his mind, a very familiar scene flashed in his mind, a scene from ten years ago.
Twenty minutes later and all the teams were cleared for the beast hunt exercise, the teams were all lined up according to their designated numbers and now they were waiting for the last words from the male teacher Mr Allen.
"I know we already went through this back inside the gymnasium but I'm going to repeat it once again, now that you've all formed your groups, the only rule in this exercise is not attacking anyone from the other teams or your teammates or stealing crystal cores from another team. Other than these two things, you can do whatever you want and that includes stealing kills, that's right as long as you're the one that lands the last kill, the crystal core belongs to your team.
"Remember, the team with the highest total point value before the hour mark wins, you get a point for basic tier crystals, two for intermediary tier, four for unique tier, and six for master. If your team is weak and you encounter a master tier beast, it would be safe to not confront it and if you see a Lord tier beast, turn the other way and run. Now, let the beast hunt begin."
That was the cue to start the exercise and since this was a race to see which team could gather the most crystals, a lot of the teams started running toward the forest.
Just like a few of the other teams, Arsha wasn't in a hurry to move, he already knows the layout of the forest quite well and knows the traits of every beast in there including a dual elemental beast that might show up.
"Um….aren't we supposed to get moving now?" Maya inquired as she turned to the teams already hurrying ahead with a worried expression on her face.
"Don't worry about that," Arsha remarked.
She quickly turned to him at that moment to see that he had his hand stretched toward her with the help call device in it.
"Hold onto this, if we ever get ourselves cornered somewhere, don't forget to press it." He instructed.
"Okay." She responded with a nod as she took it from him.
"I guess we should get going now," Jayden said as he slowly picked up the backpack beside him on the floor revealing the number twenty-nine displayed on his watch.
On the roof of the academic block, Ariel could be seen looking down at the second-year students making their way to the forest.
She was always with Noelle but the person standing beside her today was Lena who also seemed interested in what was going on.
"So, which team do you think is going to come out on top?" Lena asked before turning to her.
"Umm….I can't really say for now."
"Really? I thought you would instantly know since you came out on top with your team last year."
"If that's the criteria then you should instantly know too since you were on that team." She turned to her with a smirk.
"Okay, you got me, I have a serious question though."
"Shoot."
"How far do you think your brother will get?"
"Well..." She slurred as she turned her gaze back to the second-year students entering the forest. "I'm not sure he'll come out on top but he'll definitely be in the top three."
"Certainly, I see, you seem to be quite confident with that statement."
"Of course, I am, Arsha has a natural talent for hunting down beasts after all."
Just at that moment, she spotted Arsha making his way into the forest with his teammates and her face curved up in a smile.
'Try not to overdo it.'