At that moment, the scene was nothing but fire…
Was it the Mess Hall getting assaulted by a Dragon? Well, that was happening in the background, but the real inferno was…. Ajax, still on fucking fire!
"Drop the crystals already, you idiot!"
"You can't train if you're dead!"
"M-Must Persist!"
Gray's students had barely been in the cave for 5 minutes, and Ajax already looked like a severe burn victim. Even a monster would have looked twice in fright.
Then again, that was expected. The fuel he had been carrying all along? Smoldering Crystals, rare minerals born of fiery energy contained in Heaven and Earth.
As for carrying them with one's hands….
"Ajax, stop! That's not even why Teacher sent us here!"
"Ah?! You mean we're not supposed to carry them?"
"No, Teacher Gale wants us to endure!"
Endure?! She pointed at the Smoldering Crystals. Even when in a corner, they still emitted a shitload of heat. Just being in this room was enough to make them sweat like bacon!
But that wasn't all either. The temperature even seemed to be increasing?! By now, Fatty Zhang already looked more like a blob than a human…
"E-Endure?! How long do we have to resist this heat?!"
"D-Don't worry, I got it right here!"
Lizzy eagerly grabbed a note…
— Sizzle! BURN! —
"…"
"…"
"…"
As they watched the note spontaneously combust, they couldn't help but gulp. Wasn't the temperature rising a little bit too fast?! They had to do something, and fast!
Focusing their Mana, they all lit up one after the other:
Lizzy → Lively pink
Ajax → Regal Gold
Zhang → Orange
This was them using their Mana to resist the heat!
Yet, even that was merely a band-aid. By the second, they could feel their energy reserves dwindling, the air already a searing madness.
— Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! —
Even with the Mana, their clothes were sizzling.
The logical thing to do would have been to retreat, right? The cave's exit was right there! All they had to do was run a few meters, and they'd be free…
Yet, at this moment, Lizzy couldn't.
As she glanced at Ajax, her blood boiled even hotter than the surroundings. She had already lost once, and she wouldn't lose again! Lightning even crackled inside her eyes!
That's when an incredibly deadly game of chicken began!
Had Teacher Eagleye been here, he probably wouldn't have believed this sight.
Shy Lizzy → Negotiating Training Access Across the Academy?
Sweet Lizzy → Gleefully Slaughtering Innocent Chickens!
Bookworm Lizzy → Braving Death in a Volcano?!
How could one change so much so quickly?! She had barely become Teacher Gale's student, after all! He had simply reminded her of who she had once been.
And this Lizzy was now coming back in force!
"Damn Ajax, I won't lose!"
"I won't give up either!"
"You're both MAD!"
Fatty Zhang felt like crying. Why was it that all his juniors were crazies?! How was he supposed to be Boss Zhang if they kept going on like that?!
Seconds turned into minutes.
Second-degree burns turned into third-degree ones.
And one student passing by almost had a heart attack
"Y-You three. What are you doing there?!" It seemed to be a young blacksmith, the latter rushing inside… only to run out instantly. So fucking HOT!
But then he screamed at them:
"H-Hurry and come out! You'll bloody die if you stay there! The Bellows are about to roar!" His voice was so urgent.
"Can't be helped! We gotta leave, C'mon guys!"
"B-But… our training?! I can still keep—"
"Ajax, enough, or I'll tell Teacher!"
Just like that, the three escaped the room, just as…
— FWWWOOOHHHH! —
They had barely left that a column of fire licked the stone behind them, turning the place into a life-size oven. Seeing this, an ashen blacksmith angrily faced them.
"Are you all insane?! You could have died in there! Also, how did you even get in?! This room should have been closed for… wait, did you see a dragon? THAT BASTARD!"
In a matter of seconds, the Blacksmith went from angry at them to angry at a bastard and finally to incredibly compassionate.
Turns out they had been in the wrong room. This one would flare with intense and deadly heat every so often, aka the Bellows' Roar!
Foul play? Misunderstanding? Either way, they could have died in there for sure, the man extremely apologetic:
"This shouldn't have happened. Let me apologize for the way you were treated. You can be sure I'll hunt that villain and bring him to justice for— Yes?"
"That Roar thing… can we get back to training once it's over?"
A man, more charcoal than human, asking if he could go back in for more?! At this moment, the poor Blacksmith questioned this student's sanity.
Yet, the man's colleagues… didn't seem surprised in the least?!
Were the three of them insane?! The poor student found himself shivering, especially when stared down by those golden eyes full of fighting spirit. It was—
"Tch— Ajax, can't you see he's uncomfortable? Besides, do you really think now is the time for that? There's only one place to go right now!"
As Lizzy reproached, the Blacksmith student felt so much better. The world hadn't turned completely mad after all! "Yes, listen to your friend! Go to the hospital right now!"
"Hospital? We're heading to the Training Grounds first!"
"C'mon Ajax, it's time for a different Training!"
"UNDERSTOOD!"
Just like that, they were going?! In their wake, they left a shellshocked Blacksmith… but then he suddenly shook himself awake.
"T-This is bad! What if they underestimate their injuries? What if they train and die because of us Blacksmiths?! We'll never hear the end of it!"
Hurrying, he rushed toward the Blacksmith dormitories. He himself was merely a lowly first-year student, but he quickly managed to find a second-year senior.
It took even less time to explain the situation.
"Hehe, don't worry. I got this. I'll find them and make sure they're fine!" The senior smiled so confidently that the poor Blacksmith's worries faded away.
This was so comforting: with this, everything would be fine! But, as he relaxed by the Bellows' Main Entrance, he couldn't help but wonder to himself.
Was this really a coincidence or an assassination attempt? Then again, students weren't important enough to be targeted. No, he was probably overthinking it all.
"Still, they got lucky I found them, or else they would have been fried chicken!"
But after a while of waiting, he suddenly saw a terrified man appear on the horizon. What was up with his luck today? But as the man came closer…
A reliable, smiling, and powerful senior? That man was gone. A shellshocked, crazed, and terrified senior now stood in his place.
"S-Senior, what happened?! D-Did you manage to tail them?!"
The man seemed soulless as he started enumerating:
"Headed out, leaving a trail of charred skin. Grabbed a bite at the Mess Hall, waving at THAT guy. Went to a house and got Rampaging Bear. Then, at the Training Grounds, they— "
That's when the man choked.
What the hell had happened then?!
What could be worse than charred skin, a dragon freak, and a Rampaging Bear?!
"T-They grabbed the Training Dummies, threw them to the side, and…"
"And what?! What did they do with all those dummies?!"
"With them? Nothing. They BECAME the dummies…"
That's when the shivering mess of a Senior suddenly fished something from his pockets. It was a note that an angel of a girl with a demon inside her had given him.
"Pain? Why should I fear an old friend…" — Teacher Gale, Still as handsome
W-What kind of hellish training was this?!
Crazy. Far too crazy. But there was something even crazier. The incident before? What if it wasn't a coincidence? What if it was someone trying to hurt this Gale?
"No, Teachers are sacred. No one would dare attack them!" With this conviction, the youngster returned to his quarters, sighing at his own active imagination.
Little did he know, a crowd was LITERALLY burning a Teacher's house at that very moment.
A very Handsome Teacher's house….