Damion's face turned sour as soon as he saw that man.
He had a chiseled and sharp edged face that seemed more like a cube than a human head, thick and sharp eyebrows resembling swords, a body built for war with large hands and feets to go, and a toned thick skin looking like natural armor.
Damion watched the 8ft tall man walk gallantly into the class, his mere presence commanding respect and attention.
His piercing orange eyes made anyone who dared make eye contact shiver in fear, but Damion sized him up briefly and without care, looking at his head carrying a familiar Orange hair, and the massive war axe strapped to his back.
Teacher Raymond Doctron, the teacher of the Advanced Exosuit Prototyping class, wore the complete MCU set, giving off the aura of a true veteran soldier.
His gaze rolled over the students slowly, and when he caught sight of Damion, deep lines appeared on his forehead, a frown finding its way up to his face.
After what seemed like a minute, the frown slowly receded, replaced by a dark smirk.
"On your feets, Now!" he hollered suddenly, and everyone jumped up to their feets, standing straight.
Raymond left the spot he stood and walked through the rows of students around the class, giving them short glances and ridiculing stares. He didn't pause when he reached Damion, but moved past him without batting an eye.
After going round the class and successfully checking everyone, he stood before them again and spoke in a loud rumbling voice.
"Today will be for Mech Suit practice. Each one of you would be handed a Mech Suit to pilot, and your skills and management expertise will be recorded."
"You have learnt enough for the past few weeks, now's the time to put what you've learnt into practice."
"But know this, if you destroy anything due to lack of proper control, or a dumb excuse, you'll pay." he said, looking straight at Damion while saying the last part.
Damion met his gaze, unperturbed by the low-key jab taken at him. He hadn't been in the class for a very long time, so he didn't know how to use a Mech Suit properly.
This was Raymond's way of telling him to piss off, or he will only incur unnecessary debts on his head. However, Damion had no such ideas. He was going to be a part of the test, and no one was going to stop him.
"With me!" Raymond said, turning around and opening a door to his back, before disappearing behind it.
The students followed, forming a straight line and matching in sync.
Naturally Damion was forced to stay at the back, but he didn't complain, he had no time to have a word exchange with those monkeys.
He followed the line, lagging behind a little.
They entered a hall much bigger than the class, and arranged by the two sides of the hall was a line of silver Mechs.
The Mechs all had the same size, and proportions, the only thing differentiating them being the number on their heads.
The cockpits were open, and from his position to the nearest Mech, he could see several levers within.
Damion looked at the Mech carefully as Raymond began to explain the rules.
First, they were all going to turn on the Mechs by themselves, find a way to bring their weapons online, and then shoot at a target a few hundred meters away.
All this was quite easy for the students who had been attending the class for a while, but Damion was clueless. Still, he maintained his composure.
Their second task was to transport some prepared crates from one position to another at their fastest speed, without damaging its content or the crate as a whole.
And last but not least… battle. They were all going to clash with their Mechs, but this was where the problem lay.
If they were to get their Mechs damaged, they would have to repair them with their own credits. Although Raymond added this rule just to make Damion back out, it didn't seem to have worked, causing the other students to be dragged along with him and suffer.
If Damion had decided to not participate, the rule would have been scratched out one way or another, but since he refused to back down, all the students smart enough to realize this began to stare at him angrily.
Damion lowered his head, looking at his feets and smiling. This was going great, and he was enjoying every second of it.
Raymond began to call out names, assigning a Mech to a student each. It was efficient and quick, and in no time, they were all seated in a cockpit… except Damion, it seemed like the Mechs were one short.
"You will have to wait for a participant to finish their test first," Raymond said. "Or you can decide not to take the test, it's not compulsory anyw…"
"I'll wait," Damion cut him off sharply, sitting down on the ground immediately after and ignoring Raymond to watch the students begin to play around with their gears.
Raymond's eyes twitched as he watched this. He wanted nothing more than to grab Damion by the hair and yeet him through the ceiling.
"Nicole and Gertrude, Move!" He barked out, and two mechs moved immediately, leaving the line and running to their positions.
Damion watched with interest. Truthfully, he didn't know jackshit about Mechs, the only experience he had with them being the first time he attended this class, and had a chance to touch one, apart from that, he didn't know anything.
His only hope was the system. It appeared to have complex abilities, and he had yet to explore everything.
If it knew about a beast he had met and told him its name, then that meant it could do much more.
The Green Rose Poison Heart could only be killed by cutting off connection with its core, and the system had told him to overrule its will. It was the same as the system knowing exactly what he could use to kill it.
He believed that it would help him when he eventually piloted his own Mech, so he was calm.
He smiled subconsciously, and at that same time, Nicole and Gertrude began to fire rapidly.