As the sound of glass shattering left Bellona's ears and the sun no longer blinded her, Bellona saw fifty students and at least triple that in blood fiends on a two-hundred-meter armored train car.
Everyone was currently dazed, even the blood fiends, but Teacher Brutus and a few other figures were already leaping upwards into the sky. Bellona didn't pay attention to him after he leaped into the air, rather, she continued to examine her surroundings.
The top of the train car was set up for rooftop battle, considering the grit on the ground, the floor was made to grip shoes, and that was amazing for Bellona's current situation.
There was also a small railing keeping everyone inside, and several stacks of sandbags to use as temporary protection or as a tool in battle. Bellona found herself at one end of the roof of the train car.
The train was currently riding a giant concrete wall, inside was the supermetropolis of New York, and outside was the wilderness.
Flying far above the train was an adult dragon and the champion of a celestial body. Brother Brayden was still admiring himself, as if he had ascended to champion as Teacher Brutus beat his skull in.
The dragon, however, was flying far above the train and looked to be trying to pick out some targets on the cloud-runner layer.
In front of Bellona's car were four other train cars in a similar situation, other teenagers fighting hordes of blood fiends. After thinking for a moment, she realized something.
'Those were the other instructors.'
Bellona rested the tip of her sword on the ground as she sighed, lambasting herself.
'Sparring was a stupid idea.'
Bellona felt her hair flow behind her as she felt a slight struggle to keep her ground on the train, seeing as she had been fighting for going on ten minutes straight. Considering the fact that she had also overused her Abilities as well, she was especially drained.
But, she still had her sword, and there were enemies wanting her life. Those reasons in and of themselves were enough for Bellona to re-enter the fray.
Bellona appeared behind a clueless and dazed blood fiend before digging her sword into the back of its heart. It fell to the ground with a groan, painting the ground slightly red, and made the ground surprisingly slick.
'The Hive can take you.'
Bellona kicked the corpse with enough force to allow it temporary flight. However, that kick took more out of her than what she believed should be normal.
Her breathing was laborious, and her heartbeat was abnormally high, even higher than it was during normal combat or sparring.
'Idiot.'
Bellona found it foolish that she would waste energy on excess operations.
But now, with her being low on stamina, she'd need a partner or group of other people to help out. Based on the amount of blood fiends directly next to her, Bellona didn't believe she had the strength to single-handedly remove each threat on her life.
Bellona thought to herself as she pulled her sword with strain out of another blood fiend, choosing not to kick it off of the train.
'Maybe Torm? Actually, anybody will do.'
She wiped the sweat off of her brow as she found a small group of about five other students fighting a larger group of blood fiends. Bellona lightly jogged to join them, seeing as neither side was truly winning.
Bellona quickly removed the life of two from their blood-fiend bodies with a wide arc, severing their spines from behind. Upon looking at some of the students, most of which were using basic Abilities of strength and speed, Bellona recognized one of them as a student that she helped while inside the Mind space.
Bellona asked the group after gathering their attention through a swift slaughter.
"Got room for one more?"
All of them realized the help that Bellona could grant them and agreed quickly.
"Yeah, we're trying to meet up with another group just ahead."
Bellona looked just past the surrounding blood fiends and found another group, but they had many more fighters available.
'Just my luck.'
Not only did she get out of the Mind space completely drained of stamina, but also at the end of the car and with a small group of other students.
"How are all of you feeling?"
One of the students, a thinner male student wielding a gun spoke up after reloading.
"I'm feeling great!"
Most of the other students had similar opinions, Bellona was truly the most burned-out person in the group. After a moment, she asked her second question as she retrieved her sword from the eye socket of a blood fiend.
"Do any of you know how to lead?"
Another student, a taller, bulkier female student wielding a great axe replied.
"I'm already leading, just join the formation."
With a nod, Bellona wordlessly joined the left wing of this now-six-man ragtag fireteam. The taller student then started leading the group through enemy lines with large, sweeping attacks with her great axe.
If it weren't for the fact that these were people previously human, they would go down much easier. In fact, the tall, bulky girl was already almost fully cleaving enemies in a single go.
Bellona was doing her best to keep up, but the sheer stamina drain of the usage of her Abilities was unexpected.
As Bellona finished cutting down one more blood fiend, she lampooned.
'I should have tested them out when I got them...'
Bellona heard screaming coming from further up, the screams being carried by the howling winds.
'What?'
Bellona shook her head and listened with intent.
The screams grew plentiful and plenty loud, she then heard the sounds of sizzling flesh.
"Dragon breath! Scatter!"
The voice of the leading student echoed into the air, the others started diving to the sides, but Bellona had long been holding on to the guard rail on the edge of the car.
Flames erupted downwards, bellowing towards the sides, but falling short enough to not burn the students. However, that didn't stop the painful head from flashing.
Bellona looked up towards the dragon and saw that someone was swinging from the side of a nearby building in pursuit of the winged monster. It didn't take long for the figure to reach the dragon, and after the two met, Bellona heard a gargantuan roar.
Windows shattered nearby, and Bellona had to cover her ears, the blood fiends nearby fell and stumbled at the noise. After avoiding a char-broiled death, Bellona uncovered her ears and readied her sword against the fiends that were still standing.
With sweat against her brow, and with a few of the other students who avoided incapacitating damage, Bellona started making progress on eradicating the fiends. After a moment, the crowd started clearing, and Bellona made out a few other students also fighting.
In a few more moments, the remaining blood fiends were eradicated, and Bellona could make out the other group of students.
Bellona sighed at the sight of their sheer numbers.
'Lucky.'
Bellona thought that she could hear some groaning nearby, closer to the edge of the train car.
After a moment, Bellona heard that there were indeed groans coming from the edge. Turning around, she saw that there was a duo struggling to keep consciousness, the two seemed to have light burns, but burns nonetheless.
The second group had about eight students, and all were ecstatic to see more allies. Some of the students began to take a short respite as their teammates continued to hold their makeshift line.
Bellona was one such student who sat down on a sandbag with a deep exhale. The action burnt her lungs, sweat dripped from her brow.
'Great Lady above.'
She hadn't been prepared for the sheer exhaustion of overstraining her body through mystical means. In any case, she wouldn't be in fighting condition for at least another minute or two.
Bellona realized that she felt parched, but didn't think she'd get the chance to drink any until the surprise battle ended.
Torm's voice drew Bellona's attention, he seemed to be leading the rest of the students while pushing back groups of two and three blood fiends in single swings. He had a stern look on his face as he was covered in two auras, one was slightly aquamarine with deeper red undertones.
'Red... strength. But what's that green one?'
The tall, great axe-using girl was close to Torm and they both seemed to be inviting courage and willpower within the other nearby students. After about a minute of the group pushing forward, carefully battling over the bloody corpses of the blood fiends, Bellona felt just a bit recovered.
She stood up and found a spot nearby to fight, with her help, they left two students with the injured and started carving another path to more students.
After avoiding several more dragons' breath attacks, the larger group assimilated with even more. Hilia was healing the injured and weak in the middle of a large group fighting off blood fiends in a circle.
Strella was beside Hilia with her bow drawn, letting loose several arrows at a time, all hitting their marks without failure.
They weren't doing bad at all, each student seemed to be in tip-top shape and was making solid progress further up ahead.
Bellona and Torm's larger group started supporting the encircled group with their ordeal. Within the minute, the blood fiends around the group were eliminated, and thus, a third of the remaining blood fiends on the rooftop.
After the new group was properly adjusted to the formation, which at this point started to look like a line slowly combing over the corpses of the unfaithful with an iron grip on steel weapons.
Bellona sat down and watched Hilia tend to the wounds of those who had gotten bitten or otherwise injured. She was quick, diligent, and effective with her work, only taking thirty or so seconds to patch a student up.
Bellona took this small, yet restful moment of respite to observe Hilia.
'Were they raised as a team of fighters?'
Bellona pieced together that the four were specialized in very unique but helpful roles. Hilia was like a cleric, healing and granting everyone else support. Pyralis and Strella could take long and medium ranges while Michael would be on the front line.
Not only that, each of the four Eriksons specialized in what they did, Michael had superior swordsmanship while Pyralis was likely in a similar boat. Bellona had enough evidence to see that both Strella and Hilia were experts in their roles.
The evidence was there, but Bellona felt that it'd be awkward to ask such a question.
'I'll just watch them for a while, I guess.'
Hilia headed towards Bellona after she had finished patching everyone else up and started healing wounds that Bellona hadn't even noticed that she had received. Bellona spoke up above the wind, finding it hard to do so.
"I'm good, you don't need to worry."
Hilia looked up at Bellona as she wrapped a bandage around a large gash in Bellona's shin.
"You're not good, I actually don't know how you shrug things like that off. Hell, you look like you were barely standing earlier."
Bellona wiped off a bit of sweat from her brow before replying, taking an extra moment to think.
"I'm just that strong, my parents gave me a strong body, after all."
Hilia shrugged before continuing, her gaze fixed on the several wounds that Bellona slowly became aware of. It was probably adrenaline and shock keeping her from feeling the wounds, but dull aches started spreading across her body.
"You don't need to waste the energy, I'll be fine."
Hilia then looked back up with a stern look.
"You are not well, from a single look, it's extremely clear that you overused your abilities and are going through expenditure."
Bellona shook her head.
"Nuh-uh."
Hilia didn't seem to register Bellona's words, but if she did, she certainly showed an expression of not caring.
"You probably feel unnaturally heavy, like your legs can't entirely carry your body, right? You can barely swing your sword, you're feeling extremely hot, and slightly nauseous, right?"
Bellona found herself unable to reply as the dull ache started growing into harsher pains.
"That's right, you are, aren't you? Be careful next time. You're going under, doctor's orders."
Hilia stood up and tapped Bellona's forehead with a finger, with the hidden sound of a bell chiming, Bellona felt weary.
'What... was... that?'
Bellona's eyes slowly became heavy and she found herself unable to fight the urge to close them.
Before she fell asleep, she heard Hilia say to a nearby student:
"Watch over her, she's gonna be out for a little bit."
After, her world plunged into darkness, and she fell into slumber