Throughout the lesson, Yoel had found it hard to focus. He was mostly going through a mental battle between his own thoughts, his ideas, and the devil's retorts and complaints.
After a while, he managed to calm himself down. At least that's what he believed.
The reality of the situation never changed; he knew that, no matter how differently Yoel thought about it.
He had been brought into this group against his will; yes, but that did not necessarily mean bad things.
First of all, he was pretty sure that if he had not been forced into this group, he was going to be alone while his friends were going to be practicing in groups.
Another factor was also Connor's range of compatibility with enigmas. He was sure he could find numerous uses for his enigma; whether it be to channel his own ability or to attack physically.
The only problem, if it even was a problem, was the fact that he was not sure what kind of enigmas Selene and Evan possessed.
While he had talked to Selene a few times after that initial incident, he had never dwelled too deep into a conversation to ask those questions, he was also unsure if that would be a normal question to ask.
It sounds sketchy as hell. Hey Selene, if you don't mind me asking, what is your enigma? Yeah, right.
Yoel quickly shook his head, even the thought was embarrassing. He didn't even really know her that well. Between her and Lilith, he knew almost nothing about any of them.
But either way, to him it didn't really matter. All that mattered was reaching his goal, no matter what path he needed to take.
'You have to stop this boring edgy monologue you always have when thinking about your memories. Yeah, they're important, but don't be so quick to decide what to do.'
As if a silent and invisible wall had appeared out of nowhere, Consequence's voice blocked his thoughts and sent the avon he was trying to extract from within him flying into the bowl of water that was next to him.
The water lurched and did all it could to open the way for the avon, as it had done before, but this time the avon wasn't targetted at any specific point, aiming to encompass the entire bowl.
So once again, as if it had been a living organism, the water flowed out of the bowl as if it had been the most ordinary thing to do.
The avon knocked away the bowl, and before he even knew it, the water was all over Yoel.
The water had been cold, colder than usual. It stung Yoel's skin as if a bunch of needles were injected into him at once. The coldness of the water had caught him off guard.
You just had to go and speak, didn't you?
With a sigh, Yoel stood up and left for the backdoor of the arena, there had been a spare change of clothes just in case something exactly like this had happened, and Yoel was eager to change into something more warm.
As he headed for the locker room past the backdoor, he clenched his shoulders and rubbed them.
It's a bit too cold.
The weather wasn't helping Yoel's case, on top of the cold water, a somewhat cold wind seeped from the open windows of the building, reinforcing the awful feeling.
Shivering a bit, he was once again surprised at the resistance of his new body. He had found out a lot about himself the past week, while training himself. He gained some form of resistance to the cold and whatever was hot for unawakened people was lukewarm for him.
The shower in his dorm was not going to be able to accommodate him forever. This caused Yoel to wonder, how do the more powerful people shower?
Do they just not shower…? Or maybe they clean their body in some other way…
Yoel tried to force these weird thoughts out of his mind as he quickly changed and exited out of the locker room.
He quickly resumed his current task, grabbing a bowl filled with water and working on his avon control again.
He was slowly progressing, and with progress came enlightenment. He was far behind everyone, but progress was still evident.
He simply couldn't match his classmates' control, much less an actual experienced Blessed's control with avon.
He had a couple of ideas as to why that was happening, so he had not lost all hope yet.
He continued his task diligently, practicing his control as he always had. Most students had moved on to the next subjects, with only a few remaining who were still getting a handle on controlling their avon.
He was sure that in a few days time the mats that were placed close to him would soon disappear, and they too would move on.
No matter, no matter. Focus on your task.
He closed his eyes, and with that he also attempted to close off his thoughts, holding only a single one at the center of his mind.
***
Yoel walked with haste to the previously mentioned location their group would meet up in.
After that last class, his day had been pretty uneventful. He had trained as he usually would, tried to reinforce his core like any other day, and in doing so he had almost forgotten that they even organized this meetup.
In reality, he was a few minutes late to the time previously discussed so this was why Yoel was keeping up this fast walk.
I really hope I'm not the only one late. I don't think I'll be able to live this moment down if I'm the last to arrive.
As Yoel approached the vicinity of the park, he realized nobody was there. He looked around for any familiar faces he might spot, but there was nobody he knew.
He walked over to an unoccupied bench and checked the time on his cube.
I'm four minutes late. Not that bad, right? Besides, everyone else is late too.
Those words caught on the tip of his lips, as he saw Evan approaching him with a leisurely smile, with not even as much of a hint of hurrying.
Before he could start up a conversation, he saw Connor running after him in full sprint, labored breath and his short hair glued to his forehead due to the amount of sweat.
What did he have to get through to join this meeting?
After the three of them were close enough, Connor slowed down until he stopped running entirely, at the end of it, he slowly walked over to the bench and sat down on it with his full weight.
"Guys!"
Before anyone could say anything or question Connor, they heard Selene's voice. She was running with a spring to her step and holding a pink box in her hands.
Once they had all gathered on the bench Yoel originally sat on, the conversation Yoel was preparing for all day began.
As if Evan became a different person, his expression changed, and so did the mood of the atmosphere. Everything adopted a more serious look now, prompting Yoel to break into a cold sweat.
"So, as you heard before from Professor Cassiel, you three have now become a team. And I am going to act as your supervisor."
He paused for just a bit, his tongue rolling over his teeth as he carefully decided his next words.
"Although he did not give these "groups" any proper names, after a small meeting with him and the rest of the class assistants, we have decided to name these groups Fireteams."
A fireteam? Aren't those units in the military?
As if he had read his mind, Evan continued by answering the question he had in his mind.
"While yes, fireteams are used by the military, for Blessed like us they have a different meaning entirely. In a fireteam made of Blessed, at least on the most basic level, there will always be someone who focuses on defense, attack, support, and the leader of it."
"This idea of fireteams can be expanded, as enigmas are never basic. For one, there are fireteams specializing in espionage, ranged attacks, and even overall versatility. The list goes on and on, but we would be wasting time listing off all the roles a fireteam composed of Blessed can be."
He paused again to catch his breath, looking at them one by one, holding their gaze for at least a few seconds.
"Water Gateway. An enigma that lets you open portals connecting two locations as long as there is water. Seismokinesis, an enigma that lets you generate and manipulate vibrations. Shadow Sight, an enigma which can utilize another shadow as its own eyes, and allowing it to see the fluctuations of avon on top of that. And then finally, my enigma. Ice Manipulation is capable of creating ice and shooting it over large distances or freezing large bodies of water. All of our enigmas, when paired up, form a powerful synergy of espionage and ranged spellcasting, which if utilized and refined can evolve to be one of the academy's greatest assets."