Aiden looked at the group of puppets, his face showing confusion before a sudden light flashed in his amber eyes. Aiden looked at the group of puppets once again and burst into laughter.
"So that's it. We were never supposed to reach the cliff from the start; we weren't even expected to get close."
When Oliver heard this, he almost slipped over.
"Damn it! These vicious instructors are heartless enough to screw over their own trainees."
Oliver, now realizing what was going on, looked towards Aiden.
"That means that we're totally fucked, right?" asked Oliver.
"Completely fucked, my friend," responded Aiden.
Just after Aiden responded, a wooden puppet suddenly rushed over, but although the puppet was quick, Oliver was even quicker. He stepped forward and raised his fist, covered in glowing divine light, and smashed it into its head.
"Bang!"
A cracking sound emanated from beneath Oliver's fist as the puppet was flung back, crashing against the dirt. Looking at the puppet, Oliver scowled as he shook his now slightly pained hand. "Even if it's a trap, I'm not going down without a fight!"
The puppets seemed to respond at the same time another wooden puppet tried to sneak up on Oliver. Fortunately, Oliver wasn't fighting alone.
Stepping forward, Aiden pulled back his hand and used his willpower to mobilize the slithering sense of divinity he had recently become familiar with and punched forward.
"Bang!"
Aiden felt his hand sting and even felt a sense of recoil rush back along his arm. Fortunately, at the same time, the divinity in Aiden's body rushed along, strengthening his arm. It was poor, simple, and rather crude, but Aiden was now capable of fighting with divinity!
Aiden and Oliver quickly got up and fought fiercely against the approaching wooden puppets.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Their fists glowed like rockets as they smashed down into the mob of attackers. The two boys didn't back down, and their determination was impressive to see, but it was just that—only impressive to the eyes.
The two young boys clearly weren't trained fighters, and without a proper mastery of their own divine power, their weaknesses were eventually revealed. Eventually, the defenses of the two friends were quickly breached, and each was struck with a hard blow to the head, knocking them out cleanly.
....
An unknown time later...
"Urgghh..." A pained groan escaped Aiden's mouth as sharp pain was ringing in his mind.
"Where am I?"
Aiden's eyes opened as he looked up at a completely unfamiliar ceiling. The last thing Aiden could remember was being swarmed by the attacking wooden puppets before suddenly waking up here in this strange new location.
Fortunately, Aiden's nervousness only lasted for a short while before he quickly calmed down. That was because he realized he wasn't on a battlefield or any other dangerous location. Aiden's current location was an infirmary room!
Breathing a sigh of relief, Aiden slowly sat up and looked around. The infirmary room was filled with countless groaning trainees; some unlucky ones were even bleeding and bandaged. Aiden looked at the carnage and secretly shook his head.
"Tch! They really didn't spare anyone. Everyone got hit pretty bad."
As Aiden was having these thoughts, he felt himself being tapped on the shoulder. Looking up, Aiden found himself looking at a pretty nurse checking on him.
"Trainee Aiden, you've been diagnosed as fine and not deemed to be suffering from any major injuries. As such, you've been instructed to head to the grounds to gather with other trainees."
Hearing this, Aiden was left speechless. Didn't he just wake up from being knocked out? He didn't stay silent and made his confusion heard.
"I have to go right now? I just woke up. How does that make sense?"
The nurse looked at him helplessly and said, "It's the instructions we've received from the chief instructor. If the trainee can walk, he should head to the grounds."
Aiden could only groan and hide his displeasure. A body with awakened divine blood was truly superhuman, so although Aiden was feeling some displeasure, he could still move without any major trouble. Slowly but surely, Aiden headed towards the gathering hall...
...
A short while later, Aiden was sitting among other trainees. Aiden could hear the uncomfortable groans of a few trainees, or even in some cases, curses flying at the lunatics that led them to go on such a mad run.
Soon, Inspector Kyros walked in.
His walk was the same as ever: a calm and commanding posture with a steady gait.
But that was just Inspector Kyros. Although the trainees maintained basic respect and didn't cross the line, there was still a subtle level of anger or even hatred in their eyes as they watched Inspector Kyros walk in.
It was only natural.
This time they had been completely played.
Being sent on a wild run they were never destined to complete, only to be brutally ambushed and knocked out before they even made it a fraction of the distance along.
When Aiden thought about it, even his teeth would ache with anger. Much didn't need to be said for the tired descendants of the divine families that had lived prideful lives knowing that they were descendants of gods. They had never been so humiliated in their lives.
Instructor Kyros didn't seem to care about any discontent and casually laughed it off. "Hahaha! I can see you guys were having fun. The newbies always leave their first run with a memorable experience!"
Although Instructor Kyros was laughing, only other instructors joined in on his light chuckle. Where the new trainees were, it was only filled with deathly silence. Anyone watching on could see the glares at Inspector Kyros get more ugly and even slightly murderous.
But the second Inspector Kyros' eyes swept over them, they quickly awakened to their senses, and the murderous intent disappeared even faster than it appeared. A few were even left shaking.