I'm gonna start to answer reviews here.
Havalt300: I intend for her to own way more than an airship eventually.
There wasn't a lot of reviews recently so that's all for today.
This chapter is a lot more light hearted than the last one, don't take it too seriously.
A figure watched, silently, as beneath it a thousand souls were being fred, a golden wave could be seen in the air, and for the first time, the stench had gone away. This day was the beginning, the beginning of the war, but not any war, a war righteous war, the last war against the soulless, for this time, for the first time in a thousand years, they would be equally matched. Matched one for one, their number lost any meaning, and the dust spoke to them. The dark tide had met an earthquake, an it was falling into the depths, never to be seen again.
"For it is with sacrifice that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of strength to beat back darkness. Infinite in determination and bound by duty, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, embrace thee."
As her Aura was awakened, Griza felt power flowing through her veins, her pain dissipated, and for the first time in a very long time, she was almost feeling... good.
Griza watched as under her eye, her burned flesh started healing, and after only a few minutes, it looked as if those burns were several years old. But to her greatest disappointment, her right eye remained sealed close
Next to her James and Laura were being similarly awakened, and once they were done, the instructor addressed to them.
"You will be shown to your quarters, in wich you will stay for a few days, for the exam to end and the participants to recover."
A few minutes later, the three of them entered their dormitories. While most rooms here were built to support as much as six persons, the specialists in training were able to choose their own room, and thus they took a dozen minutes to examine the different bedrooms.
As Griza found a fitting room for her, she started pondering, should she propose to James to settle in the same bedroom ?
It would be so awkward if he refused, but maybe he would accept just to be polite and end up having a very bad time. He seemed to hold privacy very dear, but he was already looking to be interested in another room, she had to hurry up if she wanted to ask.
Griza took a deep breath, and threw herself into the fray.
"Heyjimmydoyouwanttolivewithme ?"
"What ?"
Taking another deep breath, she tried again, slower.
"Would you like to be in the same bedroom as me ?" She said while crossing her fingers behind her back.
"I'm not sure if it's a good idea, if there's only the two of us sleeping in the same bedroom, people are gonna start asking questions."
"Please, I have trouble sleeping alone." It was a lie of course, but at this point she was in too deep to back down. She tried puppy eying him, wich strangely didn't work, probably because she only had one eye or something like that.
"Couldn't you ask Laura to sleep with you then."
"Let remind you that I don't know her, at all, we literally met today."
"I see, I think I could manage to keep an eye on you for a time." He answered, somewhat chuckling at the end.
Griza timidly laughed before realizing, "Wait, you're talking about my eye, that's rude ! I miss him ! And it was a terrible pun."
So after having skillfully convinced Jimmy to sleep with her, they started unpacking their stuff in their bedroom. They both didn't have many belongings, but Griza's situation was really abysmal, the only personal possessions she had left were her watch, her pistol, her standard issue knife, and for one reason she still had this whip on her.
She really missed her hunting rifle, it was the only thing left from her village, but she had to get rid of it when she joined the army.
Once they had somewhat finished unpacking their stuff, they both fell in their respective beds, it was four in the morning, and both of them were tired to death.
As the evening came, Griza, James and Laura started scouting the academy, it didn't take long for them to end completely lost in this labyrinth of corridors, stairs, elevators and bridges.
After almost an hour of aimlessly wandering, they started to become desperate, the sun was setting and it was beginning to get dark.
Thankfully, at the end of a corridor they found someone, a young man visibly around their age. He was rapidly walking in their direction while fumbling with a pile of papers in his hands.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but could you please show us the way to the specialist in training's dormitories ?" James politely asked.
"You must be the new ones, actually I was heading there myself. I'm a military specialist in training you see."
As they started following him he continued speaking:
"I suppose you've gone through the field exam ? I heard that it can get pretty deadly."
"What do you mean, didn't you go through this too ?" Asked Laura.
"Ah you must have confused the two, you see I'm a military specialist, not a specialist, as such I don't have to risk my life like you but my aura don't get unlocked before a long time you see."
"I see, I always thought that military specialist training was decentralized, how comes you are here ?" Asked James.
"Well you see the brightest of us are selected by Atlas to continue whatever research they were doing, but with more autonomy, more budget, and access to Atlas's facilities. "
"And if I may ask, how did you catch the eyes of the government ?" Continued Griza.
"It's very simple actually, you see for one reason I'm one the few to be interested in chemistry, and even rarer, I'm the only one that managed to obtain possibly useful results, but I can't really tell you more about it, classified you see."
Meanwhile they had approached their bedrooms, and as they were going to part ways, James had one last thing to say.
"I almost forgot, but I'm James Ironwood, this is Griza Weisstein, and the other is Laura Braun, pleased to meet you."
"My name is Fritz Haber, and the pleasure is all mine."
The next morning Fritz accompanied them to the cafeteria for breakfast. As they were eating, the door suddenly opened to let in half a dozen people, all being injured to varying degrees. Only two of them sat down to eat, the others leaving through another door, in direction of the infirmary. Those were the last survivors of the exam.
Following this grim spectacle, the group quickly finished eating, and again followed Fritz. It would still be at least another day before all the examinee had recovered, so they had some free time before them.
Fritz decided to lead them to the armory and training room, for them to choose a weapon more fitting of a specialist. When they got there, you could say that their expectations were positively subverted. As the armory alone was bigger than their old training camp, being divided in different rooms, and filled to the brim with carefully sorted weapons, ammunition, explosives, and all the training equipment they could possibly imagine.
They started rummaging through the rooms, starting with the rifles with which they were familiar. Fritz was next to them, regularly giving them some advices.
"A gun is nice, but should also invest in a melee weapon, they can be surprisingly effective, and most duels are fought and won with them."
"If you struggle with a weapon, don't hesitate to try another."
It's also at this time that Griza noticed that she really struggled to aim with only one eye, a shame really, she had gotten very familiar with a lot of ranged weapons during the time in which Jimmy was bedridden.
James had taken a long sword, with which he was doing clumsy swings and thrusts. Laura already had her loyal flamer, and for the moment was only taking all the ammo and explosives she could get her hands on.
As Griza was looking at the different weapons on the wall, something caught her attention, hanging on the wall was a slightly hidden steel whip. Griza took another look around, and suspiciously she didn't find any other of those.
Most things here were a least in triple, to see one alone was... disturbing. Still, Griza took the whip from the wall and observed it closely.
What would have been a rope for its normal equivalent, was there more akin to a chain, being composed of many small metal parts locked together. The handle had a small blue button on it's surface, as she held the handle, her index finger found itself ready to push the button, and she pushed it.
With a loud metallic sound, the chain-like rope retracted itself into the handle, each metallic composant being smaller than the previous one, by encasing themselves in each other, they managed to fit into the handle despite being originally around thirty feets long.
She pressed the button a second time, this time the chain leaved the handle, but only for around four feets, and more importantly the chain stood straight and solid. With the pointy end of the chain being on top, she effectively held a rapier in her hands.
While she had been fumbling with the whip, Fritz had been trying to teach James some basic sword moves, apparently it wasn't going too well, and after a few minutes Fritz said to Ironwood:
"This isn't going to do it, you are way to rough for this kind of weapon, and you lack flexibility. I would suggest you to try another weapon, something... how to say... less subtle if you see what I mean."
As Jimmy leaved the sparring ground, Fritz noticed Griza's presence and signaled her to come.
"So what did you choose ? Mmm... I see, a whip, that's problematic, not only am I lacking any knowledge of how to use a whip in combat, but I don't think that anyone in Atlas also use one. I would advise against it, because you will have to learn by yourself, which isn't a easy thing you see."
"But I know that I can use it, it's hard to describe it, but I kinda feel as if this was right under my nose all my life, and I've only noticed it now. I have to at least give it a try."
"Very well, I will prepare the simulation, stay here, it shouldn't take long."
He headed out of the training area, and she saw him using a control board, turning a few switch and pushing a button.
"Get ready !" He yelled at her.
She readied her weapon, in its rapier form for now. Not a second later a bird made out of light suddenly materialized in front of her and charged her. As by reflex, she raised her rapier defensively, holding the handle with her right hand and the tip with her left hand.
The hardlight creature dissolved after impacting the steel rod, but she didn't had time to breathe as a Bear now lunged at her, muscle memory took over and she jumped slightly to the left before thrusting the sword into the beast's throat.
Now a human was raising a rifle behind her, as she turned to face him she pressed the button, extending the whip, and hit the man with her movement's momentum, throwing him against a wall twenty feets away where he dissolved.
She heard the sound of a magazine being inserted, and with a glimpse noticed another enemy, this one too far away for her whip. Griza threw herself behind a nearby box just as the enemy started firing, a few bullets hit her but her aura absorbed the damages, still hurt like a bitch though.
As the shower of bullets stopped, Griza got up and seized her pistol, and one second later her last enemy disintegrated.
Griza turned around at the sound of clapping hands, to see Fritz, James and Laura, the latter having apparently found a pair of shortswords.
When leaving the training zone she noticed that James too had found another weapon, it seemed to be a two handed steel axe that was half as tall as him. And as she leaved, he entered.
This simulation began with a boarbatusk charging Ironwood, and as if following textbook instructions, he sidestepped and let the Grimm crash itself against the wall behind him. It didn't have time to recover though, as James quickly followed with a heavy swing that crushed the beast to pieces.
Then appeared a giant spider similar to the ones Griza had fought during the exam. And to the spectators surprise, James simply rushed against the creature, and with a precisely aimed blow, separated its head in two.
After a few more fights, each with similar outcome, he stepped out of the ring.
"I think I should merge this axe with my rifle, I don't feel comfortable lacking any good ranged weapon."
Laura remplaced him on the ring, and she was by far the most enthusiastic one, she barely used her swords at all, and most of her targets died under different types of flames and explosives. By the end of it, the floor alone held more than a dozen big holes and most of the room was charred black.
They quickly ran away before anyone noticed the amount of damage they had done. When they reached the dorms they wished each other goodnight, and they got to sleep.
Tomorrow their lives in Atlas academy would finally begin.
I have like an entire folder full of weapon concepts, and I intend to use most them.Griza's weapon will eventually evolve and become more deadly, same for the others of course, if they survive long enough that is.Aura doesn't wake wounds disappear, it only accelerate their natural healing, which is why Griza still has scars and some wounds that wouldn't have healed naturally like her eye, weren't completely healed.This fic's main focus won't be on huntsman fights, there already a lot of those out there and it wouldn't mix well with this fic's tone if I transformed my characters in knight in shining armor.The bedroom part isn't really important, I just wanted write something more casual, as I think that this story is advancing too fast, you can see it as a filler episode.As I've shown in the last chapter, Griza and James will often have adventures separately, they won't stay with each other all the time.I assumed that most of my readers live in the US and that's why I use the imperial system, if I'm wrong tell me please.My holiday is almost over, there will probably be less updates, but I will try to keep it at 2 chapters per week.I often forget to say it but please review, and if you're feeling especially amazing today, you could also favorite and follow this fic.Thank you for your support everyone, you have no idea how much it means for me, I was expecting this story to be completely bypassed by everyone, but now more and more people are joining me, it really feels amazing.