Across the campus, in the Headmaster’s office, Headmaster Rivia was hard at work, signing documents, when his Watcet started vibrating erratically, making him look away from the paperwork and read the chain of messages coming in faster than he could reply to them.
“Damn it; those Ragnarsson brothers are causing trouble again.”
BANG
Standing up from his desk and leaving his office, Headmaster Rivia quickly located his secretary. He informed her that four Tier-4 Professors with advanced combat abilities were required to head to the second floor of the Battle Arena for a Tier-2 Evolution Assessment.
Back in the Battle Arena, Professor Dennis’s fingers flew across the hologram keyboard as he informed the Headmaster of what was going on before moving to file all the necessary paperwork that Cynrik had failed to do.
“Cough, um, Professor Dennis, please forgive my idiot brother, he tends not to think things through, so I apologize on his behalf. But, if you will punish him, please punish me as well.” Brance said as he grabbed Cynrik by the back of his head and forced him to bow down in repentance.
“Me too; if one does something wrong, we all do.” Gabby chimed in, bowing beside Brance.
“Count us in as well,” Selene stated, dragging Benny along by the scruff of his neck and making him bow.
The actions of the other four students caused Professor Dennis to pause his fingers and look up at them. Then, noting exactly who had drastically changed in less than a week and grunting his acknowledgment, Professor Dennis allowed them to stay hunched over as he filed the applications for Cynrik, Brance, Benny, and Gabby. They now all appeared to be teenagers compared to young children during their Group battle.
DING DONG, DONG DING, DING DONG, DONG DING
Just as the Professor finished his aggressive and fast typing, the bell for the Third period chimed, and he exhaled loudly.
“Come along, you five; there isn’t a second to waste; your punishment will happen during class for everyone to see. But, let me warn you, the roster for my Year One Combatives has 63 students, including yourselves, so everyone else will be watching you.” Then, spinning on his heels, and ignoring the response of the members of MyrkLys, Professor Dennis briskly walked off to the elevators located in the center of the first floor and waited for the party to follow.
[[FUCKING LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID, CYNRIK!]] while they ran to the elevators and got squeezed in behind the Professor, Brance was letting Cynrik have it in the mind link.
[[YOU HAD ONE SIMPLE GOD DAMN JOB, DO THE FUCKING PAPERWORK SO THAT WE COULD GET THIS SHIT SQUARED AWAY!]] He yelled as he pinched Cynrik’s side hard, without drawing a reaction from his older brother.
[[I was wondering why you all weren’t called in for testing after succeeding in your Evos, hehe, it looks like Cyn really dropped the ball this time.]] Selene added in. Turning her head, she noticed the worried expressions of Gabby and Benny and quickly jumped to her roommate’s side before beginning to pet her hair tenderly to calm her down.
[[How the hell was I supposed to know they would make a big deal outta this bullshit?]] Cynrik tried defending himself, but the pinching increased.
[[For crying out loud, they literally sent someone to our house to test us before the selections, did you REALLY THINK they wouldn’t do the same thing after we achieved Tier-2. For someone so fucking brilliant, you really are fucking stupid.]] Gritting his teeth and trying to reign in his anger, Brance settled on pinching Cynrik’s back with both hands, holding it for a few seconds before moving on to another spot.
He desperately wanted to beat the hell out of his brother, but with Professor Dennis nearby, Brance knew it was impossible.
Cynrik, the target of Brance’s anger, stayed quiet and watched as the notifications rolled in, saying he was receiving 1 point of Damage per second Brance held the pinches. Yet, before the lost shoppingmodeHP could add up, it was healed by Cynrik’s regeneration.
DING
It was only when the elevator doors opened, and the Professor stepped out that Cynrik finally made a wisecrack.
[[Hm, lose 15 HP, gain back 15 HP just as fast, I guess SAO Abridged Kirito was right, When your numbers are high enough, you’re basically untouchable.]]
BAM
“OOF” Was all Cynrik was able to say as he was violently flung out of the ten-person elevator.
His wisecrack was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Brance as he lashed out by drop-kicking Cynrik full force out of the elevator and into the wide-open training grounds of the second floor.
The sudden attack caused the nearby chattering students to go wide-eyed, and even Professor Dennis was at a loss for words as he watched Cynrik fly through the air before touching down gracefully on one knee.
“Heh, superhero landing, little brother.” Standing up and massaging the spot Brance had kicked, Cynrik smirked and rolled his left arm around to loosen it up.
“Shut up, asshole; why can’t you just take a hit like a regular person instead of immediately starting your childish taunts and banter.” Stepping out of the elevator, Brance glanced around the wide-open room, which was comprised of some bleachers, a dirt terrain, and several dozen weapon racks with training equipment.
The second floor was modeled after an old, standard training field, where the ground was worn away, leaving no place for grass to grow. But none of the members of MyrkLys found this strange since they were already becoming used to the crazy place that was VSFA.
After watching the two brothers yell at each other, Professor Dennis decided that he would only need two Tier-4 Professors for the test. He had come up with an excellent idea to pit the cocky older brother against the aggravated younger brother.
This would allow him to judge their combat levels and see what kind of new abilities they had acquired through their Evolution to Tier-2, all the while burning off this animosity accumulated by the older brother’s actions.
The Headmaster quickly approved the idea, who struggled to find four Tier-4 staff members for the test in such a short amount of time. Two Professors were much more manageable. He, too, believed it was an excellent idea to let the brothers duke it out, so he informed Professor Dennis and sat back down at his desk before opening a holo-monitor with a view of the second-floor battlefield in the Arena.
CLAP CLAP
“HEY, YOU TWO, KNOCK IT OFF AND GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE; I want the rest of the class to go over to the bleachers and take a seat!” Then, clapping his hands loud enough to grab all 63 students’ attention, Cynrik and Brance included, Professor Dennis organized the small clusters of bodies into a whole group and had them move across the field to the seating arrangements.
Clicking his tongue, Cynrik adjusted his blazer and calmly walked towards the Professor; however, seeing how Cynrik wasn’t taking their situation seriously, this only served to piss him off further, so Brance dashed over alongside Cynrik and smacked him upside the head.
Watching the bigger brother hit the clearly smaller one, Professor Dennis’s eye twitched several times, yet somehow he could contain himself and wait for the two to reach his side.
“Gabriella and Benjamin Sanford, you two get over here as well.”
“Yes, Sir.” Benny replied before jogging over to stand behind the brothers while casting a glance at them as if to say, “Why must you two always cause trouble?”
“Coming, Professor Dennis.” On the other hand, Gabby responded politely and flashed over, landing next to Brance, making the students in the bleachers gasp at her speed.
With their arrival, Professor Dennis rolled his eyes at Cynrik and Brance, who were in the process of smacking each other’s hands away, and cleared his throat, forcing the two to stand up straight at attention.
“Welcome to Year One Combatives; I am your Combat Instructor Callan Dennis; you will refer to me as either Instructor or Professor Dennis. Do I make myself clear?”
“YES, SIR!” Everyone in the class, including Cynrik and Brance, shouted, with the two brothers feeling like they had returned to basic training for Cynrik or Bootcamp for Brance.
“Before you are four of the….” Turning around, Professor Dennis noticed that at some point, Selene had joined the other members of the party and was standing to the left of Cynrik quietly.
“Let me rephrase before you is the S-Rank Year One Faction known as MyrkLys. Unfortunately, four of the party members have broken one of the most important rules here at VSFA, which is explicitly meant to keep each of you SAFE. Gabriella, Benjamin, Ivar, and Björn all underwent their Tier-2 Evolutions without informing either myself or the Academy Staff. As such, not only have they put their own lives in danger but also the life of the nearby students at the time.”
“If not for the fact that all four were successful, and there was no damage to Academy Property, this would have easily been grounds for Expulsion. That is how serious the situation is.”
Hearing this, Brance glared at Cynrik and clenched his fists tight enough to crack his knuckles.
“HOWEVER, their reckless actions have allowed me to present you a valuable opportunity since most of you are Tier-1 and will hopefully attempt your Evolutions in the future. In a few minutes, two Tier-4 Professors, who typically teach the Year Five and Year Six students, will be arriving at administering the reassessment evaluation test.”
At this announcement, the students all began talking amongst themselves excitedly; in contrast, the members of MyrkLys grew solemn.
“Before the other Professors arrive, let me give you some background information on the differences between Tier-1 and Tier-2, starting with the qualitative change in how your bodies will handle Mana.” When Professor Dennis started speaking again, the students fell silent since this was new information.
As opposed to the students on the bleachers, the members of MyrkLys frowned since they already knew this so-called “new information,” the result of their experiments over the previous few days.
[[Hey, Cyn, and Brancie, do you guys find it weird that they are only sending two Professors to test y’all. Won’t they get tired after only fighting one of you?]] Finding something wrong with the Professor’s words, Selene spoke up.
[[No, it makes sense; they only need two people to test Gabby and Benny. Sigh, you are so slow, Selene; it makes me sad. Brance and I already pretty much instantly realized that he was going to force us to do the combat assessment evaluation in front of an audience. So I started sowing the seeds in the Professors mind that he only needed someone to test Gabby and Benny. So the test my brother and I will face will be a fight between us.]] Cynrik said, giving Selene an eye roll in the meantime.
[[Why do you think I did something so flashy as drop-kicking Cynrik across the field, I needed to put on the act that I was so pissed off that I would hit him, and honestly, it wasn’t that difficult because I am pissed off. It’s just I would never hit him like that in public.]] Brance snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.
“So that you all know what to expect for your evaluations after Evolution, I will have the four of them conduct their test here, today, right now.” As the Professor began speaking, the elevator doors opened, and two prominent, battle-worn men, one bulky and the other more trim and athletic wearing staff uniforms walked out and over to the Professor’s side.
“Now, some of you may wonder why I only called over Instructor Alistar and Garrison to test Gabriella and Benjamin Sanford; as for the two idiots, Ivar and Björn Ragnarsson, they will have a battle among themselves. A brotherly contest to see who is stronger will double as a bonding exercise and a test.” Feeling pleased with himself upon seeing the excitement growing in his new students, Professor Dennis turned and glanced at the members of MyrkLys, only to find Cynrik with his hood down and a cocky, shit-eating grin strewn across his face.
[[Fucking nailed it, hehe; let’s get this shit over with, Brancie.]]
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg