"Simulate battle with the Plated Rhinoceros."
Particles moved to form the Abomination, Plated Rhinoceros. It had hard skin as though it was plated metal and two intimidating horns. Despite its scary appearance, it was easy to survive for thirty minutes. Its attack pattern consisted of charge, charge, stomp, and charge. Very basic, good for warming up.
As if on cue, the Abomination charged at Sean right after it formed. Sean evaded with dodging to the side. The Abomination couldn't stop its charge and went past Sean, giving him ample time to ready himself for the next. The Abomination turned around to charge again, but opted to stomp him this time. Sean dodged this attack too, by rolling backwards. He had made the mistake of rolling forward when he first faced this creature. When he was under the Abomination, it had simply let itself fall and crushed Sean to death. Thirty minutes went with Sean dodging the Abomination's charges and stomps, but Sean didn't forget to counterattack sometimes. Even if the attacks don't do anything, getting used to just evading was not healthy, it would form bad habits.
"Simulate battle with the Bladed Crab."
After thirty minutes of riding the crab on its back;
Before he could, however, his time was up. Five abominations survived today, four survived tomorrow, and 29 beaten throughout the week. After he stepped out the capsule, he went to the cafeteria with the other trainees. They had more flexible schedule for their breakfast after the recon mission. He and the rest of the group met at their usual table at the cafeteria.
"Man, why are there so many Abominations with armour evolutions, I can't use a Wand yet." Jayden complained. The Wand he was talking about was a special Ether based gun. It had the name "Wand" because many people likened how it functions to a magical wand.
"Every Abomination listed in the assignment has only the most basic evolutions, it doesn't surprise me that many of them have defensive ones instead of the flashy ones like mind-hex," Tyson said.
"Yeah, I'm just surviving all those ones too. Have you tried to beat any?" Sean asked to the group.
"I made the crab wish it was never born." Latoya answered. "Just slash its joints, and it's done."
"That I agree." Tyson agreed, he too had beaten the crab.
"I mashed up the Beetle." Samantha joined. "It wasn't a pretty sight."
"Just took out the flying ones, I can't really beat the armoured ones too." Klein said.
"Haah... In times like this I wonder if choosing a bladed weapon would've been better. These gauntlets don't pack a punch without enhanced strength."
"Ha! I see what you did there. You are coming around, my boy Sean!" Jayden was excited for some reason.
"Come on! I'm not such a bore that this pun makes a difference. You should say that to Klein, only blades come out of his mouth."
"I'm here you know?"
"But was it false?"
"Kuh!" It seemed Klein was holding back from saying something. He had just made a normal comment just before but if he lashed out with saying that he felt that he would be proving their point, so he stayed silent.
Rest of the day went with them discussing about how they were going to beat which Abomination, and training after the lessons. Sean was on the brink of forming his first string, this week he would, surely.
Tomorrow morning they were first to use EVRST gear again. He would survive four other Abominations and try to beat as many as he could in the remaining time. He hoped he could beat three in the remaining time. He wanted to finish the assignment as fast as he could. Many of the trainees realised that the battle times were not set, if they achieved a shorter time it would be the one that was recorded. So they too, would try to finish as fast as they could first and then do reruns to get better times for some of the Abominations as Sean would do. Not many was trying to beat as many as Sean though. Most of the close ranged trainees would forego the airborne Abominations, and some of the armoured ones depending on their weapon. Unlike them, Sean planned to beat all of the airborne Abominations. He had his hands free or rather, his hands were the weapon. So when the Abominations would dive to attack, he would try to catch them and beat them while riding them. He would make them crash the ground and use them as cushions to slow down his fall.
Despite that, they were not the first Abomination he would try to beat. The first one was a mole lookalike.
"Simulate battle with the Clawed Mole."
Particles moved to form the mole. It was a small Abomination, barely a meter in length. Sean had analysed its movements when he first fought it. The mole would dig underground, but since the virtual world was full white the disturbance on the ground was very noticeable. He had always wanted to play Whack-A-Mole as a child, now he had the opportunity.
He followed the mole with his eyes and slammed his fists to the ground when it went up right below him. He had directly hit its head, sending the Abomination straight down. He moved from his inital location and waited for Abomination to dig right below him and go up again. He pummeled the creature everytime it tried to come up and attack him, so after a while the Abomination started to run instead. This time he was the one following it. Everytime it burrowed into the ground, it would have to go up a little later to breathe. Sean capitalized on those times. After whacking it a total of 13 times in eight minutes, the Abomination's skull cracked and it couldn't move. Sean wanted to kill it but before he could, the Abomination dissolved into shiny particles.
"This was possible?" Sean was surprised. He hadn't beat the Abomination yet, nor had thirty minutes passed. "Because it was incapable of moving, it counted me as I survived?" Then he facepalmed himself.
'Of course it would... The Captain said had given us a scenerio, survive until your teammates arrive. Since it could no longer pose a danger to me, the system counted it as I survived.'
"Simulate battle with Bloated Boar."
He would make some changes to his strategies tonight, but he still couldn't waste time. He didn't know how many of the trainees knew about this, so he couldn't leave it to luck. He would also share this with his team at night. If everyone in their team had personal capsules, their performance would surely rise. Being top performer here meant better positions at the Arctic Frontier, and more merit of course.
His fight with the boar was rather simple, but it had more tenacity than the mole, so it took him slightly more than 11 minutes to take it down. He would punch the Abomination in the face very time it charged at him, something he had practiced earlier.
"Simulate battle with the Silent Chameleon."
Another abomination formed from the particles, but it wasn't visible this time. Sean couldn't detect where it was after it was materialised, so waited for its attack. This one was a bit tricky to fight, but that's also why he was fighting it know. He would also do a rerun on this later on, but he first wanted to try what happened with the mole. He would punch it until it was incapacitated. But first, he focused on his surroundings. The chameleon had an evolution that muffled any noise it would make when it was camouflaged, but the same couldn't be said about the ground. Although full white and not exactly a material, it worked just as the real one. Mole had proven it as it could dig through. So Sean trashed his near vicinity. Cracks and debris surrounded him. He focused on any movement that could affect his surroundings, but there were none he could see.
'Then behind!'
He sharply turned back and punched out, and although it looked like there was nothing his punch connected with the head of the Abomination. Due to force behind it, the Abomination's camouflage had come off.
"Let me see how you hide now."