"Nineteen."
"Twenty."
"Twenty-one."
"Twenty-two."
"Twenty-three."
"Twenty-four."
"Twenty-five."
"Hah, was that the final set?"
"Yo, Sean! You are at it again today." Jayden approached Sean as he finished his last set of pull-ups. "Just looking at you work is tiring man. Why try so hard, trying to beat a world record or something?"
"Something like that. Well, actually not. I thought if I had a better placement, I could get some perks to my personal capsule. You know, like a cushier bedding inside. Or maybe a bigger downloaded set of Abominations."
"Right! Damn, I could use better bedding in those. Standing up all the time is also bothersome. I will definitely add an air conditioner inside. So, are you done with your exercises? Tyson and Latoya thought that having a last exchange before tomorrow would be good, like last-minute crams. You in?"
"You bet I am. Will be there after a quick shower."
Tomorrow was the last day of the assignment, and all of the Group A-2 had likely made it to the first hundred. They had spent the fifth and the sixth-day doing reruns and returned with great results. Tyson had solidified his position as the first place, with most of his battles being barely above two minutes now. He didn't pull any punches when it came to the Abominations as he did in the spar against Sean a month ago.
Second place was trickier to find out. There was Group A-1 team leader Sherryl Anderson, Latoya, and a guy named Ren Sandlers. They had all shared the same amount of wins and survivals against the Abominations, with even the times being close. Sean, a guy named Larry Fellington, and a girl named Yvonne Kwon were right behind them, still sharing the same amounts of wins and survivals, but had a tad bit longer fights.
Sean wanted to place in the first five. He knew it was a pipe dream to place first, Tyson had deserved it. The guy had worked as hard, maybe even harder than anyone else despite being ahead of the curve already. Except for the little issue of sparring against other people, he aced everything.
There was some prejudice against him with the other trainees at the start. They thought he would boss around, make things hard for them and so on. As time went on, people realised he wasn't like those third-generation young masters, who only caused trouble wherever they went. He eventually became 'the guy' everyone liked. If you didn't understand something, you could ask Tyson! If he saw you struggling with something, he would reach out and help. There was just one thing he didn't help with, Ether Control.
Tyson didn't help anyone who came to him with that was related to Ether Control. It was solely for his team and future cohort. Everyone had caught on that he wanted to recruit them. They too wanted to catch his attention and be recruited to Nitefall guild. They were fine not being in his main cohort, but to their dismay, Tyson had no intention to recruit anyone else. He had already found himself a cohort, and wouldn't go around just to recruit some trainees that still hadn't proven themselves.
Sean left the training ground and washed himself up in the barrack. When he went to his group's room, everyone was already there. They discussed how they could kill some Abominations faster, some weaknesses they could capitalise on and so forth. They went to sleep after they thought they had covered everything. One of the things they discussed about was how to kill the ones they previously survived for 30 minutes. At this point, doing any more reruns was inefficient and would only make them a minute faster in total at best, so they decided they would try to beat the ones they had just survived before. They had only five chances, but if they could beat one of them just a few minutes shorter, it would be enough to make their team dominate the top 5.
Tomorrow morning, they were in front of the building they used capsules all week. They were awaiting the arrival of Captain Henry. He did not leave the trainees waiting for long, as he arrived shortly after. Only this time, he had six other people with him the trainees had not seen before.
"Yoo, would you look at that. Do you guys still do this? It sure brings back memories." The one with red, long hair suddenly asked Captain Henry. "Man, I still remember how that Llama spat on me. Every Thursday I take an extra shower because of that. Acidic vomit is so disgusting."
"It is a Camel, not a Llama." The woman next to him corrected him. She had blue short hair and had a rather stoic expression on her face. "And you don't shower."
The trainees were bewildered. Who were these people and why were they talking about such private matters in front of them!
"Just minor details..."
{SLAP}
A loud slap echoed. It was Captain Henry, he had facepalmed so hard that dust came off from the ground.
"Morning to everyone. These people here have a mission near the Southern Evolutionary Camp, so they will be staying with us for the foreseeable future. Be sure to have your proper conduct however casual they may have seem, they are your seniors. Today they are here to watch your last day in EVRST training, make sure to impress them."
""YES SIR!""
"Alright, now divide."
The trainees were divided into two groups as always, and Sean went on inside with the one-half. He didn't know how to feel at the moment, as he would first challenge that Camel...
'Whatever... Let's get it done with it.
He stood in front of a capsule, and the lid opened with a {FSHH} sound. He had gotten used to it now. He stepped in and the lid closed. The headgear came down and fit on his head.
"Just simulate battle with the Acidic Camel."
Sean cut the assistant as it was greeting him. If there was one thing he didn't like about this military edition, it would be this greeting/promotion of EVEREST. He understood they had business with the military, but wasn't that excessive?
Particles moved to materialise a shape Sean was familiar with. This damned thing had given him one of the most gruesome deaths. Now it was time to pay off.
The Camel was passive for the most part, and unless irritated, it wouldn't spit acid. He had to beware of its hump, it was filled with acid instead of water.
Sean got to work by dashing below its neck and punching its long neck with all his strength. He had to make sure it spat all of the acid inside its mouth first when it still wasn't irritated by Sean.
Sean's punch swayed the Abomination's head to the other side, and acidic liquid spewed out of its mouth. Sean moved quickly and hugged its neck. He was choking the Abomination with his legs and tried to blind it by spiking his fingers to its eyes, but its eyelids were too thick to be fazed by that.
Sean struggled to stay around its neck as the Abomination trashed, he was still trying to beat it. Making it blind was essential to his plan, he wouldn't let go even if some spit fell on him during the process.
"JUST SINK IN ALREADY!"
Sean took a risk by kicking the Abomination at its neck, prompting it to open its eyes due to the sudden impact. Sean didn't let the chance go and sunk his fingers inside its eyes.
{SQUELCH!}
Although he blinded the Abomination, it still had its strength. Sean was flung away as a result of his move.
"Kuagh!"
Sean hit the ground head-first. Was quite the nasty fall. He slowly stood up holding his neck and looked at the blinded Camel. It was trashing around, spitting acidic vomit everywhere in its vicinity.
This was the plan Sean came up with. It was in his head since the moment he died to acid stored in its humps. If he somehow managed to make it waste all of its acid, wouldn't be able to beat it if he were just a bit stronger? He was stronger now, and making it waste all of its acid by making it think it was constantly under threat. The only problem was he didn't know if he could manage all of this shorter than thirty minutes.
---
[IN THE CONTROL ROOM]
"Youths are sure energetic. Look at them go." Said a stout-looking man. He had a large frame and a bald head, so he would quickly catch attention wherever he went. "There is also one that is beating your trauma, what do you think Zane?"
"Dunno. It looks like he wants to learn how to rodeo to me." Zane, the red-haired man replied.
"Hmm, he is trying to make it waste its acid. Sensible thing to do, but does he have the firepower to bring it down after that? Gauntlets are not the best choice for early stages where we lack strength." The blue-haired woman added.
"He has formed a string, so he should be fine." Captain Henry assured them.
"Oh? Is he up for the grabs?" Said the other woman with waist-length hair, she had a quite seductive tone.
"Already taken."
"Tch!"
Meanwhile a puddle of acidic liquid formed around the Abomination. And it now hardly spewed any after twenty minutes. Sean decided it was time to bring it down for good.