Yoel and the rest stared at the field of corpses and blood with a terrified expression.
As clueless as Yoel had been, he couldn't help but feel fear slither into his heart.
He was unable to fathom such bloodshed merely on the first exam. Wasn't this too brutal? Are their instructors doing this on purpose?
His train of thought could only continue for a few moments, before a boney projectile pierced the sky, targeting his head.
"Huh?" were the last words Yoel could utter before the projectile reached its destination.
He immediately felt a spear of wind hit his face, making his hair move wildly.
However, Yoel did not feel any immense pain after that. Instead, he heard the voice from earlier scream out once again.
"Barrier!"
Immediately after, a hexagon-like wall of energy- or rather avon manifested in front of Yoel, successfully blocking the projectile mere millimeters away from his face.
Yoel felt a wave of realization crash into him.
This was a battlefield, he couldn't simply stand and stare. Who knows for how long this man and women had been fighting for.
He gave a quick, stern look to his companions.
Not even a moment later, he brandished his spear and charged forward, his intentions clear.
The rest of the cohort followed after, assuming the positions they knew best.
Yoel with Vasil in the vanguard, Lilith in the rear, while Loki focused on guarding them from any stray attacks, while also covering for any holes in their attack patterns.
Yoel felt the support of his comrades on the field, forcing him to make out a small, satisfied smile.
There had been about 50 abominations left, the rest killed in a violent clash with the humans.
Each resembled some kind of mutated animal; with a few exceptions. None of them were of the kind Yoel had fought earlier, however.
He swung his spear at the first enemy. A monster with a small body, green skin, and a creepily long nose.
It was similar to a goblin, a monster Yoel had read about during his stay at the Academy but not the same.
This one did not have pointy ears but a long, pointy nose instead. Yoel didn't know what that would entail.
He swung at it once, feeling the resistance of the opponent's worn shortsword meet his spear.
Surprisingly, it felt as if he had hit a rock. The little gremlin simply parried away his spear and leaped to close the distance.
At that moment, however, before it leaped.. He heard the boy with that unusual enigma ability speak again.
"Fall!"
And not a second later, a bright bolt of light followed. The creature couldn't even look at it, before the light hit its target, burning the skin crisp, while simultaneously blinding the poor creature.
In response to such an intense display of force, Yoel tried to follow up by clumsily picking up his spear, delivering a final blow to the creature writhing in agony.
He had to focus. If he didn't how could he hold his own as the vanguard of this team?
Yoel took a long sigh and concentrated. He tried to call upon the void that his refinement style spoke about.
The void is a technique that helps remove all unnecessary thoughts and distractions. He would have no chance to reprimand himself if he couldn't make it out of here alive.
The void the Silhouette Arts handbook spoke about, would switch the gears of Yoel's brain, allowing him to plan ahead of time, but only being able to follow up with skills that have been ingrained into his body.
Yoel did not practice with the spear for a month straight without stopping for no reason. Even if he only had a month's experience, he could still execute the moves and stances his manual spoke about, although not perfectly.
As he did so, his movements to any outside observers slowed down, and those who could tap into the power of avon could see faint traces of it swirling around his spear and around certain parts of his body.
Specifically on parts that would increase his flexibility and ability to lash out with his spear.
Yoel easily located his next opponent, a four-legged abomination with bird feathers as its fur, it looked quite unsightly and terrifying, but Yoel could not afford to care.
Yoel swung once more, but this time.. the swing seemed not nearly as powered as his earlier one.
The creature looked down at Yoel, standing tall and proud in front of the inferior human trying to challenge it.
It held up its claw, with the intent to knock the spear from Yoel's hands.
The creature successfully parried away the spear, and Yoel's body bent backward, the force of it being too much to contend with the creature against the spear.
But what the creature did not know, was that he was aiming for just that to happen.
Using the force and power he received from the feathered beast, he let himself be bent backward as much as his bones allowed, then used the beast's force, including some of his own, to counterattack.
Before the creature could perceive it, it saw the weak human it knocked the spear away from still standing, and then soon after it felt a writhing pain in its abdomen.
Yoel had sent out an almost precise and powerful pierce with his spear. Leaving gusts of wind to shake the blood-soaked grass around them.
I did it!
Yoel allowed his mind to think thoughts once again, and those words were the first ones he thought of.
But he had to beware, this creature would not be the last of them, instead it was only the beginning. If he wanted to last, he had to be way more conservative with his energy..
From the dead feathered creature, a strange dark energy rose, dissipating into the sky.
Yoel did not pay any mind to it, however, too occupied by his victory. A mind-numbing headache followed.
Arghh!
He clutched his head, dropping his spear to the ground.
His screams were enough to gather the attention of most soldiers on the field, Lilith, the unknown Enigma caster and the other two unknown women looked at him with scowls on their faces.
They believed that Yoel was having some sort of mental breakdown, his tolerance of gore and blood being inadequate to fight in their current situation.
However, it was Vasil who spoke up this time. His voice reached Yoel's ears clearly across the battlefield, despite the waves of pain intruding into his mind.
"You talked a big game before, but now you're acting like a wuss? Get your head in the damn game, before you lose it forever."
"God damn it, worry about your own problems!"
Yoel didn't feel like answering, but he did so anyway and as he spoke, the throbbing pain in his mind dissipated, albeit slowly.
He picked up his spear once again, allowing the void state to once again swallow him.
Soon enough, he had been swept up by an unfamiliar trance.
At first, cutting through the bodies of the abominations was unpleasant and he could only do so after putting a lot of strength behind his strikes, most of the time having to use the abomination's own strength against it.
However, soon enough.. his mastery over the spear had improved. At first, he would need at least a few seconds between each slash to decide between which strike was more effective.
Now, it had become simple muscle memory for Yoel. With the occasional obstacle the casters created for the monsters, Yoel fought with ease.
Not once did his life come close to danger as it had at the start of the fight. Not only did he have the experience from beforehand, fighting those parasite abominations but now he also remembered to use the refinement technique he spent so much DP on.
For just a moment, Yoel stopped slashing and piercing with his spear. Instead, he took a few moments to look around himself.
The battlefield.. had become even more bloodied. It had also become even more littered with corpses.
These corpses, however.. were not of humans. But of the monsters they had slain.
He took a deep breath, trying to locate his fellow humans. As his eyes brushed over the location of the casters, he noticed that Cole had also been with them, panting and holding his leg.
It seems that Loki had left him with the long-ranged specialists. A smart and logical decision.
He smiled as he looked at Lilith, and then at the other caster boy who had now been sitting down, barely even moving.
It seems that he really expended all his Avon. He trusts others way too much, although I would probably do the same in this situation..
The current formation was somewhat like a semi-circle. Their backs had been against the same hill where they found the other group.
The casters and Cole were at the back, or in the middle.
Loki and the female warriors of the other group had been sitting in the middle semi-circle, covering for any mistakes the frontliners made.
By no means does this make Loki or the female warriors less strong than Yoel or Vasil but their fatigue was simply too overwhelming to take on the front again.
Vasil possessed an explosive style that left the opponent with no room to counter-attack, and while maintaining such a style required incredible stamina it appeared that Vasil had it, and even more than required.
As the last monster had been cut down, a new feeling had sprung from Yoel, a feeling of true companionship. He barely knew these people, yet he trusted them with his life as he marched into battle.
As the last wisps of battle faded, Yoel wished he could have seen Vasil's battle. He was aware of his own strengths and weaknesses and wished to do nothing more than observe the others.
The more he knew about battle, the more he could cover for his lack of an Enigma or Avon.
However, he didn't continue that same old depressing thought process, because this time.. he had simply been too tired.
It felt like he had been fighting for days. The blade of the spear had now been chipped, the same fate befalling the rest of the group's weapons.
Only Lilith's weapon didn't show any deterioration, as she used her Enigma without channeling Avon through any catalyst.
As the other, unfamiliar group now collapsed from exhaustion, one of the female warriors spoke up, her voice only slightly loud and quite hoarse due to the immense burning sensation in her lungs.
"That was.. incredible.. say, why don't you join us at camp? There's a lot of things we need to talk about concerning this.. exam."