Chapter 122: A Test of Experience

"...Okay, girls, I want to do a different kind of training today! I’ve been training you for quite some time now, so I thought it would be good to test you in a fight today. This will probably be the last fight we’ll have before you graduate, since that’s not too far away," I tell them with a smile as we stand inside the simulator.

"Since we’re close to graduation and you now have proper weapons, even though you still don’t know how to use them correctly, I thought it would be good to have a practical fight. Since we’re in the simulator, each of you can fight seriously," I say with a smile on my face, looking forward to a difficult fight.

"I couldn’t have duels with you before because the simulator had trouble simulating my new prosthetics, so it took quite a while." They seem pretty excited.

’They’re much stronger, more strategic, and more skilled than they were in the past. It’s not going to be that easy for me, even if I can use my powers...’ I take a deep breath as our arena forms. It will be a city in ruins, a common environment.

"Let’s get this started already, Professor!" Tanya says impatiently as the simulator starts a ten-minute timer.

"The whole fight ends when you defeat me, when I defeat all of you, or when the time runs out. Killing is allowed since this is only a simulator, so come at me with everything you’ve got." They’ll have to hold back because of their allies, while I’ll have complete freedom.

"..." The timer begins a ten-second countdown, and they all move away from one another, forming a more suitable formation for teamwork.

When the timer reaches 0, Eirwen is the first to act, throwing an ice grenade into a crack Charlotte opens. The grenade appears beneath my feet, but I drag the sky, sending the grenade flying away.

Tanya fires a beam of heat at me, but I reflect it as Charlotte teleports Rouge through a crack to get close to me. She delivers a kick with a concentrated burst of wind, but my tail grabs her arm and spins her around while Ashlyn fires a shot from the rifle that I catch with my hand.

"...!!?" Somehow, Eirwen manages to freeze my foot to the ground while Charlotte and Ashlyn fire at me together. I drag the sky in front of me like a wall and catch Rouge’s punch with my left hand. I break the ice with a kick and sweep Rouge’s legs out from under her, but she spins in the air using her power and tries to kick me in the face.

I let her go and use the sky I had turned into a wall to jump upward, dodging an atmospheric slash. But Rouge uses her power to create a staircase for Eirwen, who approaches and throws a grenade at me. I catch it and throw it back, but Charlotte teleports it in midair to a position behind me.

"!!" My tail catches it, and since there won’t be enough time to throw it away, my tail coils around it. It explodes, freezing the entire area around my tail, but since my tail is the Cube and can restructure itself, I’m not too worried, although this destroys my balance, which depends on my tail.

"Tsk." Ashlyn creates one of those shadows that look like me, but instead of attacking, it wraps its arms around my waist, keeping me immobilized.

’I see. They don’t think they can beat me in a direct fight, so they’re trying to pressure me and keep me from using everything I have. What a great strategy.’ I raise my hand to drag the sky down and crush them all, but I hear a knife strike my arm.

"!!!?" I look up and see a small crack Charlotte opened so Rouge could land her knife. Before I can drag the sky, Rouge activates the knife’s trigger.

The compressed-air explosion forces my arm to twist so violently that it completely dislocates my shoulder, making me let out a faint sound of pain. Eirwen throws another grenade at me, and Ashlyn lands her rifle’s last shot on the grenade. Now she’ll have to reload the weapon, something she still doesn’t know how to do properly.

"..." Since I won’t actually be injured regardless of how much force I use, I use my mind to drag the sky without using my hands as a catalyst. It hurts my head a little, but it protects me from the freezing wave released by the grenade.

Tanya fires three beams of heat at me, which I dodge, but the shots hit one of Charlotte’s cracks and barely miss my body when they come back toward me.

’Charlotte...’ I look at Charlotte, realizing that she’s the team’s link. She’s providing far too much support. I recover by destroying the shadow Ashlyn created and use the sky as a platform to move over all of them.

But when I land near Charlotte, she flees, reappearing behind Edith on the opposite side.

’I see Edith is preparing medicine for them...’ Edith hands Rouge some medicine, probably to help with the pain caused by the knife after she was thrown away.

’How much medicine did she prepare? I didn’t see it...’

"..." I grab the sky with both hands and pull the space, dragging Charlotte and Edith toward me. This makes Tanya stop the attack she was about to launch, showing her growth because she didn’t risk hitting an ally.

"You were very clever, but I’m not a monster. I noticed your plan." I say as I grab Edith. I try to break her neck, but she drops a vial that shatters on the ground.

"!!??"

"I knew I’d be one of the first to die, but not before screwing you over, cutie." She says with a smile as she’s killed. Her body disappears from the simulation while I start feeling dizzy, my vision becoming blurry and some of my senses getting confused.

Rouge takes advantage of the moment and charges at me, using the air like a cannon to launch herself in my direction. She spins rapidly and delivers a kick that I block with my arm, the blow pushing me to the side, while Charlotte tries to land a spatial attack on me that I barely dodge.

But Tanya keeps the pressure on by firing numerous beams of heat at me. I’m forced to defend myself with my arm, and I can feel it getting absurdly hot as I can barely keep blocking.

Eirwen throws a grenade at me, but my tail, which has completely restructured itself, knocks the grenade away. However, a shadow creature created by Ashlyn bites down on the grenade and swallows it, protecting them.

Tanya manages to put far too much pressure on me with so many shots, and Charlotte helps her by creating portals so she can fire from angles that make it difficult for me to defend myself. Eirwen helps by cooling Tanya’s body and the air around her so she doesn’t overheat and become exhausted.

Rouge joins the attack, firing blades of wind that I’m also forced to defend against. I hear the sounds of my prosthetics cracking. If they were my normal prosthetics, they’d already be in pieces. They’re only holding together because they’re the Cube.

’Since when did their teamwork get this good?’ They’re well above what I expected. Yesterday, I took the day off and didn’t expect them to already be using their weapons relatively well the next day with the help of one another.

’They haven’t solved the problems, they’re just leaving them for an ally to cover, which isn’t a problem. It shows great adaptability.’ I grab the sky around me and spin my body, forming a cylindrical wall to reflect all the attacks.

"..." Soon, I crouch down and grab the ground, pulling it like a carpet. I slam it downward, making the ground ripple as if it were made of cloth. The ripples throw them off balance, but Eirwen creates an ice platform to stabilize them. However, even the platform begins to ripple.

I quickly charge forward at full speed and punch Tanya in the face, using electricity to overload her equipment. The powerful blow sends her flying into a ruin, but she manages to defend against most of the damage.

I catch Rouge’s kick, but she spins, using my hand as leverage to kick me in the face. I feel my tooth break, but I manage to crush her leg in my grip. I spin her into the ground and try to finish her off, but Charlotte protects her by firing a shot that I’m forced to catch.

Ashlyn creates dozens of shadows to fight me while retreating, taking one of Edith’s medicines and giving it to Rouge to drink.

With a dragging motion, I slice apart all the shadows Ashlyn created and charge at her as she points the rifle at me.

’It’s a bluff. She doesn’t know how to reload.’ I charge at her, but to my surprise, the rifle fires a heat shot. I realize it’s an attack from Tanya, and I narrowly dodge it, the attack burning my cheek as the ground freezes beneath my foot and knocks me down.

I spin on the ground and get back up, dodging a shot from Charlotte. She tries to use a crack to injure me, but I defensively drag the sky.

’I can’t find a good opening to kill them, and if I make a large enough move to drag the entire sky downward and crush them, they’ll stop me...’ They’ve got me. My power has this small disadvantage: it isn’t as fast to use when I have to drag something this large.

’I’m poisoned. They really have a chance to win...’ I look at the timer. Four minutes have passed in the fight. They’ve lost Edith, but Edith herself never tried to resist, sacrificing herself to poison me. I don’t know what poison it was, so I could die within a few minutes.

"..." I feel the adrenaline in my heart. This is strangely exciting, seeing how strong these students have become. Before, even all of them together didn’t stand a chance. They still lack individual experience, but they’ll gain that with time.