Chapter 3 - Purple Lightning
May 1203
Towa sat alone in the cafeteria reading her book. Her first few classes that day had gone smoothly, and now she was resting up the only way she knew how: by reading a good book.
Unfortunately for Towa, her peaceful morning would quickly be interrupted.
"What's a lovely lady such as yourself doing at a table all by herself?" Angelica greeted as she sat in the seat next to Towa.
"Angelica, I told you to quit it. Don't make me file a complaint with the school." Towa warned.
"Relax, will ya? We just want to make conversation." Crow joked as he took the seat directly in front of Towa.
"We are supposed to be a group after all. Best we stick together. For better, or for worse." George greeted as he took the last remaining seat at the table.
"Oh, so now we're a group? I really could've used my group's help during the field study last month. I was so tired after doing all the requests by myself that I almost fell asleep in class the day after we came back from Raquel." Towa ranted.
"Don't worry, as far as the school's concerned it was a complete success." Angelica pointed out.
"Plus, that only leaves three more field studies for this trial run. I recommend getting some more sleep before we head off to our next location." Crow teased.
"We are not repeating what happened last time!" Towa yelled.
"Jeez, take it easy. As the leader of Class VII, you have my word that I'll keep a close eye on everyone, especially you." Angelica declared before winking at Towa.
Towa was ready to get up from her seat and march all the way to Principal Vandyck's office and inform him about what really happened in Raquel.
After what happened during their field study, Towa was ready to stay away from the other members of Class VII until they were sent off on their next field study. Unfortunately for her, they did their best to bug her every day. Be it one of Crow's pranks with assistance from George, or Angelica's constant flirting. She was tired of it and was ready to step down from her position in Class VII if it continued any longer.
"Please Aidios, get me out of this situation." Towa prayed silently as Crow and Angelica got into an argument over whether a horse could beat an orbal vehicle in a race.
"Attention, Angelica Rogner of Class I, George Nome of Class III, Towa Herschel of Class IV, and Crow Armbrust of Class V. Please see me at the academy field." Vandyck announced via an orbal speaker.
Towa quickly shrunk in her seat as everyone else in the cafeteria stared at her and the rest of Class VII as if they had done something wrong. Which, knowing their track record, they probably did.
Class VII silently made their way to the academy field where Principal Vandyck was waiting for them. They were sure that he must have gotten word about how much of a train wreck their field study in Raquel had truly been.
"Good morning, everyone. I'm glad that you were all able to make it." Vandyck greeted as Class VII made their way to him in the middle of the academy field.
"G-Good morning, Principal Vandyck." Towa nervously greeted as she noticed a machine laying on the ground next to Vandyck.
"So uh, why were we called out here? Is this related to this whole trial run thing?" Crow casually questioned.
"Correct Armbrust. Today your advisor and I will be conducting a practical exam." Vandyck answered.
"Our advisor?" George questioned. The only people at the academy field were the five of them.
"She's running late, but she should be here any minute now. I doubt she'll mind if we start the practical exam without her." Vandyck explained.
"So, what exactly are we getting tested on?" Angelica asked.
"Class VII, you are to prove the power of your combat links by defeating this combat shell!" Vandyck ordered before walking to the sidelines of the academy field.
Class VII watched as the machine turned on and began to float.
"What the hell is a combat shell!?" Crow questioned as he pulled out his twin guns.
"No time to ask questions! Class VII link up!" Angelica ordered as he equipped her gauntlets.
"Roger!" George replied as he pulled out his hammer.
"Everyone, get into the standard formation!" Towa shouted as she pulled out her ARCUS. Unlike the rest of her group, she still lacked a proper weapon.
Class VII went into the same formation they always did. Towa stood in the back with healing arts at the ready, Angelica stood directly in front of the combat shell with George to her left, and Crow stood in the middle so he could get close if the situation called for it.
"One teeny tiny robot against us four, this shouldn't take too long." Crow smugly commented as he began shooting at the combat shell.
Much to everyone's surprise, Crow's orbal bullets did little to harm the combat shell.
"What the!?" Crow yelled. He began to question if he should just load his twin guns with actual bullets.
"It's no use. Maybe only physical attacks can damage it." George advised.
"If you say so!" Angelica replied as she ran up to the combat shell and punched it.
George quickly copied Angelica's attack, running up to the combat shell and hitting it with his hammer.
Once the dust cleared Class VII saw that the combat shell had only sustained a few dents.
Towa watched as the combat shell counter attacked the rest of the group, launching them into the air briefly before they all fell back down. She turned around and noticed Vandyck sternly watching them fight. Judging by his expression she felt as if they were going about this practical exam all wrong. All she could do was heal her group as they struggled to stand back up.
"H-How the hell are we supposed to fight this thing when we can't even get any good hits in!?" Crow shouted as he stood back up.
Suddenly a cerise haired woman appeared out of nowhere.
"Sorry I'm late, overslept. Permission to take care of this combat shell for the kiddos?" the woman greeted as she winked at Vandyck.
"Permission granted." Vandyck replied.
Before Class VII could respond, the woman dashed towards the combat shell as she shot at it multiple times with her orbal pistol. Once she got into a close enough range, she pulled out a sword and sliced it in half. Defeating it in less than a minute.
"See, that wasn't too hard." the woman joked as she stood before Class VII.
"Who are you?" Angelica asked as the woman helped her stand back up.
"Her name is Sara Valestein, although some refer to her as the Purple Lightning. She's an A-rank bracer scouted by Prince Olivert to work at Thors. And starting today, she'll be your advisor." Vandyck revealed as he walked over to the group.
"Our advisor?" Towa questioned.
"His Highness had intended for me to become a full-time instructor, but there wasn't much time for me to go through the whole process to get certified before the school year started. So I'll just be your group's advisor while I work on getting the right certification to become a full-time instructor by next year." Sara clarified.
"Now that I think about it, Prince Olivert did mention that he had an advisor lined up to watch over us starting this month." George noted.
"But the school year started a few months ago, what caused the delay?" Towa asked.
"I had trouble finding someone to watch over this kid I was entrusted to keep an eye on. Luckily some of my friends at the Bracer Guild agreed to watch over her while I stay here in Trista for a few months." Sara answered.
"So are we all done now? Good, I think I might go grab a bite before heading off to class." Crow commented as he started walking away.
"Not so fast, Armbrust. Your practical exam still isn't over." Vandyck informed Crow.
"Seriously? Purple Lightning over there already took care of it for us. Plus there was no way we would've been able to even defeat that thing. Angelica and George were only able to do chip damage, plus my orbal bullets didn't do anything, oh and Towa didn't do any fighting." Crow pointed out.
Vandyck snapped his fingers, and another combat shell took the place of the one Sara had sliced in half.
"What the!?" Angelica shouted.
"I think it's best if we don't question these sorts of things." George advised.
"Let me tell you four what you all did wrong. This practical exam was supposed to test you guys on your combat links. The problem was that none of you activated them. Sure you guys had a formation, but besides that it was as if you were all fighting independently." Sara explained.
Class VII stood silent as they realized their mistake.
Towa questioned if she was even capable of forming a combat link with anyone. She already didn't get along with anyone. Plus she had no weapon to fight alongside them with.
"Why the long faces? Don't worry, I'll show you guys how to establish combat links." Sara commented upon noticing the mood shift.
"Best of luck with Class VII, Ms. Valestein. I'll be in my office if anything happens." Vandyck informed Sara before leaving the academy field.
"W-Wait, are we going to be spending the rest of the school day out here? I have a test in one of my afternoon classes today." Towa questioned.
"Don't worry, this shouldn't take too long." Sara assured Towa.
After a few hours, Class VII finally showed some signs of progress.
"Good work, Angelica and George. I think I saw a faint blue light linking you two together… briefly." Sara commented.
They were all tired. Unfortunately, they all knew they wouldn't be able to leave until at least two of them were able to link up.
"C'mon guys, don't any of you have the slightest bit of team spirit?" Sara complained.
"It's not my fault my partner is little miss bookworm over here. Seriously, I can't work with her." Crow argued.
"What was that? I'm not that small!" Towa responded.
"You sure about that? Have you ever looked in a mirror?" Crow teased.
"That's enough you two. Like I said, all two of you need to do is have even the slightest bit of comradery." Sara advised.
"Kind of hard to have a sense of comradery when we have very little in common." George pointed out.
"Oh c'mon, I'm sure you four have lots in common. Oh I know, let's play a game!" Sara suggested.
"Are we seriously going to be playing games to get to know each other?" Angelica questioned.
"I'm going to name a subject matter, and you four tell me if you like it or not." Sara instructed.
"Is this really how we're spending an entire afternoon?" Towa asked.
"Don't act like you had anything better to do. All you do is read a bunch of books from the library." Crow argued.
"Okay, let's start! What do you guys think about math?" Sara asked.
Class VII stared silently at Sara as they realized that she would be as vague as possible to try to get at least two of them to find common ground.
Sara struggled to figure out subject matters to name after a few minutes. Usually she would name something, like astronomy, and only one person would say that they like that. Only for another person to complain about it. She was at the end of her rope. A part of her questioned if she would be able to become an instructor if she couldn't even do this simple game. At this point, she was ready to say whatever thing came to her mind.
"Women." Sara blurted out.
"I really like them." Angelica and Crow commented at the same time.
The two stared at each other silently. Crow knew of Angelica's reputation, especially since she had hooked up with some of the girls that he tried flirting with a few weeks ago. In turn, Angelica knew about Crow's shadier habits. Mainly how he took the train straight to Heimdallr first thing in the morning on Sundays to bet on horse races.
"There we go. Finally making some progress… I think. Now that we've established some common ground between you two, let's test out forming a combat link." Sara noted.
"You seriously expect me to form a combat link with a flirt like her?" Crow questioned as he pulled out his ARCUS.
"You're only jealous. Plus, I'm not the one sneaking off to gamble." Angelica argued as she pulled out her ARCUS.
"Hey I don't gamble! I make strategic guesses that just so happen to either make me gain or lose money!" Crow responded.
"That's enough! Just try to link up." Sara ordered.
With that, Angelica and Crow used their ARCUS units to form a combat link. It wasn't as bright as the one that formed around all four of them back during their orientation, but at the very least it was more noticeable than the one made by Angelica and George earlier.
"Good, good. Now, I want one of you two to attack the combat shell. If you successfully land a critical hit on it then the other should be able to do a follow-up attack." Sara instructed.
Angelica and Crow nodded at each other before making their way closer to the combat shell.
"Ladies first." Crow noted as he moved slightly to give Angelica more space.
"If you insist." Angelica replied as she got into a fighting stance.
Towa, George, and Sara watched as Angelica landed a critical hit on the combat shell, which left it open to a follow-up attack by Crow.
"Good work you two, now repeat that until you defeat it!" Sara ordered.
Crow quickly landed a critical hit on the combat shell, which Angelica used to perform a follow-up attack. After a few more hits, the combat shell was successfully defeated.
"Good job out there, Angelica." Crow commented.
"Thanks Crow, your aim's quite sharp." Angelica replied.
The two suddenly looked down and noticed that the light blue light linking them together had begun to glow brighter.
"Haha, looks like you two leveled up." Sara joked.
"Does this mean we can leave now?" Angelica asked.
"Yup. I'm going to go tell Principal Vandyck that you guys were able to pass the practical exam. Although since Towa wasn't able to link up with anyone, you guys don't get full points." Sara answered.
"Sweet, see ya around!" Crow responded before running off.
"What is it that he's in such a hurry for?" George questioned.
"Probably doesn't want to be late for his favorite radio program." Angelica joked.
"I can't believe we missed out on the second half of the school day." Towa commented.
"What the? I think you're the first person I've seen to ever complain about missing school." Sara joked as she turned to Towa.
Sara soon waved off Angelica, George, and Towa as they made their way to their respective dormitories, before heading off to the main building to meet with Vandyck to let him know how the practical exam went.
"After I finish this meeting, I should call Toval and Miles and ask them how Fie's doing. Knowing her, she's probably sleeping somewhere inside the Bracer Guild building in Legram. Oh, I should also stop by and get myself a beer to celebrate my first day on the job." Sara thought to herself as she walked down the hallway.
Author's Note
I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter!
Had a lot of fun writing Proto Class VII bicker so much. One day they'll start showing shades of become the close friends they are during their second year at Thors.