"I am still completely taken back to believe you thought it a good idea to, one, separate from your group in unknown territory. Two, fighting a creature without taking adequate precautions.You're looking at some serious deduction of points from your final score," the head Proctor reprimanded.
'Why are we berating these, young hunters for defeating two Anomaly Classed (D) Behemoths at such a young age and rank?They should be getting more points, not a deduction. But I suppose the Boss has his reasons for making me, the giver of bad news.'
The slight smirk from the Head Proctor gave mixed signals to those who caught it. He seemed almost proud of them while staying stern and commanding.
'I am given some leway in this test, so I won't go over board. However, I will not tolerate anymore deviant behavior.'
"If I were you, I would start thinking about the team and less about your individual egos. That being said, congratulations on your success. Other cadets could barely get through the castle gates before you dispatched the two creatures that sealed the lever. Now, the gate is permanently opened for future hunters."
"Sir!, did we pass or fail? You're giving me two extremely different emotional spectrums," Max chimed, wanting a clear answer and not wanting to waste anymore of his time. His leg tapped impatiently, hinting his growing annoyance.
Max had conversed with the head Proctor for far to long while everyone was off discovering. He did not enjoy his teacher like dotting. Especially, since he had more intelligence in his little toe, than the head Proctor had in his entire body.
The head Proctor took his role incredibly seriously, but he went overboard on exceptional students with talent.
"We will continue the trial. An exemption will be noted for the skill and accomplishment your team showed today, and the association thanks you." He bowed slightly, accuring gasps from the other proctors. "Be careful, we will be scoring you closely. Show us your talents. I am expecting great things from you all."
"You heard him team," Max turned towards the wide open gate they had accomplished. Leading the team to his pre-made base he spent time constructing while he ignored the head Proctors questions.
"Scouts, prepare to head out with the drones. Fan out to location two and return. Melee fighters, get some rest and eat something. I'll set up a base. Just like home drils."
'Ugh. Here comes Mr. Drill Sergent.'
'If he calls me Foxtrot one more time, my fist and his contacts are going to make contact.'
When on missions, Max Greene had a deadly tendency to compartmentalize every aspect of his battlefield. Tests were no different than war to him, and a Hunters trial was the closest thing to modern war.
His parents, Victoria and Julius Greene, encouraged him to learn everything from corporate strategies, advanced physics, to war movements as young as four. Giving him quite the knowledge base and twice the amount of trauma.
His confidence made him a stickler to his teammates. Though they would have no one else be in charge of planning strategies and keeping them safe.
'Remind me to thank Max for distracting the head Proctor while we took our time.'
"Scouts are, Kalani, Alexander, and Nakamura. The Melee team will be Kahawai, Fox, and Kai. Keep uour eyes open and stay alert out there. I want each of you to give check ins on time, move out!"
The scouts went out first, one followed the west wall, one towards the castle, and Alexander following the east wall. They each left in a flash of mana, energized to get points back from their failure and kicking a glurry of dust on the way out.
Max's plans generally worked out for the better, now would be no different. The team moved with confidence with theirbrain in charge.
Alexander felt the sharp dry wind rush past him as his legs carried him as fast as a speeding animal.
'I'm so much faster, it's insane. My body stat increase has made my entire body stronger. The power is tingling up my spine, like lightning.
The drone following above Alexander Alexanders sent back information to Max, who would plan according to the information.
The scouts were usually not to engage in combat, but noted the whereabouts of any dangers to the team or mission.
Max never liked redundancy. When it came to progress, he was pragmatic, so those trivial safety methods he thought could be bypassed.
If the scouts could handle a fight, then he encouraged them to take the enemy out and keep mapping the area. This mindset helped the Melee members get the most amount of rest and offered, the Scout members, more freedom to decerne the strength of the enemy.
Alexander dashed towards what looked to be a small workers' village. "Intresting." He suddenly stopped at the entrance, noticing the dilapidated roofs, and rotten boards gave a ghost town vibe to the entire area. The closer he got to the town the more abandoned it looked. Scanning it gave no more details than what he could see, except for a small thin Anomaly that made his skin crawl with caution.
'I see now, this entire place is set up as a giant trap. A web of mana strung around every house and every post in a network to trap someone. If I had walked farther in, I would never been able to get free without help. To bad the fly you tried to catch was also a Hunter.'
The webs that crisscrossed the rundown village turned a light silver color, as tens of thousands of nanites spread out along the threads, the perfect infiltration tool.
'Found, ya!' Alexander passed through the webs of mana with help from Lunaris, their sticky fibers latched and realsed from him without sending vibrations back to its creator. Thanks to the nanites control of the webs and their extremely light bodies, making it far to easy to manipulate the vibrations and fibers of the web, he moved without being hendered.
'The mana webs in this area are under our control. We are effectively invisible to senses through the webs,' Lunaris relayed.
Stepping into through the small town, it's buildings barely reconizable as buildings, a tall human shaped suit of armor dark stary armor was found in its center. It stood sternly in the center of the village with its hands gripped tightly over a hilt of its dark sword stabbing it into the ground.
"I don't suppose that's just a statue for some Gothic Renaissance hotel? What's the analysis, Lu? I'm seeing nothing pop up on the system."
Alexanders senses focused at an above human level when Lunaris activated the nanites to augment his senses.
Activating all his Hunters senses, his mind took in everything around in a detailed reality, giving him some information about the area no one else could see. The familiar electricity running through his nervous system gave him a clearer vision and even stronger senses.
However, the area around the black sentinel was barren, either from refusal or something else, life ignored that area with even the dense magical webs dimming around its blade. The over grown weeds and botanical growth around the armor made such a contrast to the barren area that Alexander wondered why this was not in the information he retrieved from the Basecamp.
'We still know nothing except it has no readings and theassociation might not know about this thing. You would think something like this would be guarded by a legion of guards. What could the association be thinking, letting such a masterpiece of armor armored collect rust.' Alexander thought while moving forward