Chapter Thirty-Eight

Boot Camp

"Alright scumbags," Baobhan said as the students and Pseudo Servants were in line as the fairy knight walked by them wearing a gym uniform. "We have about five days before we begin our assault against the king of this place. During this time, we're going to mold you all into…decent fighters where you can at least hold your own against a servant." She said before stopping in front of the group. "You all will be divided into different groups. Those who focus on long-range attacks will be with me, close-range attackers will be with Britomart, and Shoto will be training under Surtr and Fenrir. Any questions?"

"I have one?" Shoto said as Baobhan raised an eyebrow at him. "Is there a reason why you're having me train with two servants?"

"Because you're the heavy hitter of the team given how you can shoot fire and ice. If you were to use both, that would cause a lot of damage to a non-divine servant. So you will be training on using fire and ice."

"...I'm not using my fire," Shoto said as the fairy knight deadpanned at him.

"Is there a reason why?"

"I have my reasons…I'll use my ice, but not his fire." He said, which caused Baobhan to roll her eyes in annoyance.

"I don't care about your daddy issues kid, right now you have more important matters standing in front of you. Like it or not, you will be training in using both your fire and ice. Once this is over, you can do whatever you want. But for now, you're going to use them both."

"I said I-"

"I could just kill you now and we can be done with this conversation?" She said which caused Shoto to glare at her. "Thought so. Now listen up everyone. This isn't some kind of game that you can slack off in, or think you're some hot shit because you think you're better than anyone. You need to give it everything you have in this life-or-death fight coming up in three to five days. During which you will be training to have a better chance at winning."

"She's not wrong about that," Aizawa said before moving in front of the class. "This is sadly what heroes have to go through, though a bit different considering this…is something I was not expecting to happen. Nevertheless, you will listen to what they have to say and take everything they say seriously, got it?" He asked as some of the students nodded in agreement.

"Good, now then," Gawain said before looking at the grand servants. "You five will be training under me in combat training. "

"You're going to train us?" Momo asked. "I'm not against the offer, but is there a reason why?"

"You five along with the king are the grand servants. You are the key figures that have to survive not only this singularity but also the beast that plagues the world you're from. Should you all fall, then this world is doomed. Hence I alone will be training you personally, while your partners will train you on how a servant is supposed to fight." He said before motioning them to follow him to an open sports field off to the side of the school.

"You sure you can take us all on by yourself?" Kaminari asked as she and the others followed after the knight of the sun. "I mean, we are pretty strong given who we are."

"Yeah, but we barely have control over our powers," Mina added as Mineta nodded in agreement.

"Not to mention Uraraka and Momo are new to the whole grand servant thing," Mineta said while pointing a thumb at Uraraka and Momo. "Plus we've been lucky so far, I don't think that kind of luck will last forever."

"Indeed, luck can only get you far. Hence I'll be training you personally on the physical aspect. As the King's subjects, it would be obvious that you would like to demonstrate to her how strong you've become during her slumber." Gawain said as the group made it to said location within a matter of minutes. Once there, the knight of the sun took a few steps away from the grand servants as he implanted his sword into the ground. "Before we begin, I would like to get a good feel as to how strong you all are. So for today, I would like for you to attack me with everything you got."

"Again, are you sure you can fight against all five of us? Seems unfair if I'm being honest." Kaminari asked as the knight nodded.

"From what I remember from the information I gathered from the pan-human history. Out of all the knights of the Round Table, Gawain is the second strongest out of the group." U-Olga said as she appeared as a smaller version of herself on Urarka's shoulder.

"Who is the first strongest?" Mineta asked as U-Olga placed a hand on her chin.

"If my memory is correct, then I believe Lancelot would be the strongest. Shame the girl couldn't summon him here. Might make things a lot easier for us to manage, but it can't be helped." She said before looking over at Gawain. "You heard the handsome man, don't hold anything back. Use whatever you have to knock him down off his feet…or try to."

"If we're going to fight him, then we'll need to come up with a strategy to gauge how strong he is," Momo said before noticing Kaminari charging at Gawain, which took her by surprise by her sudden boldness to attack first. "Kaminari, what are you doing!?"

"Hey, he asked us to attack him. So I'm giving him what he wants." Kaminari said before summoning Mjolnir into her hand. Once she was a few feet close to him, sparks of electricity started to envelop her body as a cocky grin appeared on her face. "Indiscriminate shock, one point three million volts!" She yelled before unleashing a wave of electricity toward Gawain, but surprisingly didn't hit Mina, Momo, Uraraka, and Mineta who were standing behind her.

The knight of the sun tanked the oncoming attack as he was unphased by the lightning unleashed upon him. The moment the lightning attack faded, he noticed Mjolnir heading towards his face due to Kaminari throwing it at him after unleashing her volt attack. Gawain simply moved his head to the side to avoid the flying hammer, but soon noticed Kaminari closing the distance and delivering an earth-shattering punch to the knight's face. There was a moment of silence hanging in the area as a shocked expression dawned on the berserker's face upon realizing that Gawain was unfazed by the punch.

"Impressive, but not that effective," Gawain said before bringing his fist back. "If you want to deliver more damage, then you'll need to have the mindset of killing your opponent. Not just trying to knock them out." He said before delivering a powerful punch to Kaminari's stomach. Her eyes widened from the pain she felt as she was soon sent flying past the group and into a nearby shed that housed the gym equipment.

"...Okay I was not expecting that to happen," Mineta said before hearing Kama speak up as she appeared on Mina's head.

"I did…but I wanted to see how it turned out before suggesting anything." She said which caused Mineta and Mina to deadpan her. "What? Not my fault the idiot charged in head first before thinking of a plan or something."

"You're not very good at being supportive, aren't you?"

"I can be when the moment is right." She said before noticing a burst of lightning from where Kaminari was as she charged at Gawain once again. Once she was close, she would summon her hammer into her hand in an attempt to strike him with a haymaker-style attack. The white knight saw the attack coming as he effortlessly parried the haymaker to the side and countered with another punch, only this time it was delivered to her chin. There was a pause in Kaminari's assault as she touched her chin.

"Ha! That didn't work on me!" She yelled before charging at Gawain but soon lost her footing as she fell face-first onto the ground. Mina, Mineta, Momo, and Uraraka were taken by surprise by their friend falling to the ground as Mina spoke up.

"What just happened? Kaminari was okay for one second, then she fell like a ton of bricks."

"It's because she was hit on the chin," Musashi said as she appeared on Momo's head. "You all have to keep in mind that just because you have the souls of divine spirits inside of you, you all still have the anatomy of humans for the most part. A solid hit to the chin will cause your brain to rattle around inside your head, which in turn causes your motor functions to scramble up. Hence why Kaminari fell to the ground."

"So that means she can't move while the brain is still shaking in her head?" Uraraka asked as Momo nodded.

"It's not a bad way to end a fight especially if you're fighting against someone bigger than you are." She said before looking over at Kaminari who was still trying to stand up but flops back onto the ground.

"While I admire your determination, you can't just charge at your opponent with no plan. Especially with someone with years of combat experience." Gawain said as he picked Kaminari up by the collar of her shirt. "You need to be more cautious and not reckless!" He yelled before quickly tossing the pseudo-servant over at Momo, who in turn ducked out of the way along with the others. They heard the sound of trees snapping behind them as they quickly pulled themselves up to see a straight line of trees destroyed due to Karminari being thrown through them. Off at the end of the path of broken trees, Kaminari was knocked out and stuck in the trunk of a tree.

"...Okay…so I'm having second thoughts about having this guy be our teacher for the next couple of days," Mineta said before looking at Momo. "What do we do? There's no way we can beat this guy."

"We're not trying to beat him, he's testing us to see how far we are as…grand servants…still weird saying that." She said before drawing her katana from the sash wrapped around her hip. "Mineta, provide long-range support. Mina, try and find an opening while I keep him distracted. Uraraka, try and use your quirk to lift heavy objects into the air above us. When I give you the signal, drop them."

"W-Wait, you're going to fight him head-on!?" Uraraka asked as she was about to say something else, only for Musashi to disappear inside the class rep as they darted off towards Gawain. She quickly extended a hand in front of her as the combination of her quirk and magic circuits activated as a katana appeared from out of her glove-covered hand. Once she was close, the class rep brought her sword up in an attempt to attack him. A smile could be seen on the saber servant's face as he met her attack with his own as he blocked it with his sword.

"Are you sure it was wise to attack me by yourself?" Gawain asked as Momo could feel her feet buckle from the weight behind Gawain's strength. "While you are in the saber class, there's a huge difference between us." He asked before seeing an arrow heading for his head. He quickly backed away from Momo and deflected the second arrow heading for him.

"That may be true, but it's not like we're trying to win this fight." She said before charging at Gawain with her sword raised in a thrusting manner. The white knight smirked at her determination. He soon noticed broken remains of trees and pieces of the ground floating above him and Momo. Uraraka soon deactivated her quirk as they came crashing down upon Gawain. The white knight quickly kicked Momo out of the way before delivering a powerful gust of wind with a swing of his sword as the falling objects headed toward him. Upon making contact with the gust of wind, the debris was sent flying off or shattered into smaller pieces. The sound of arrows brought his attention to his right as Mineta was standing off to the right of him and had fired five arrows at his legs and right arm.

"That is true, but that doesn't change what I said before," Gawain said as he parried Momo's thrust attack and deflected the five arrows fired at Mineta who quickly deflected them with his bow. He soon looked up and locked eyes with Uraraka, who was levitating another volley of objects into the air. "Also, keep in mind. If you're going to set up a plan, you should plan it not within earshot of your opponent." He said before noticing Momo jumping backward. Gawain was about to grab Momo and toss her at Uraraka but was soon engulfed in azure-colored flame courtesy of Mina as she would be on Gawain's blind side at a good distance.

"Holy crap, that worked-'' Before Mina could finish her sentence, she noticed Gawain's sword heading toward her due to him throwing it. Her eyes widened in fear due to her mind thinking that she was about to be impaled by Galatine but was hit on the head by the flat part of the sword. A loud metal hitting something hard echoed through the area as Mina was knocked out and fell to the ground. Momo, Mineta, and Uraraka starred in surprise at this before slowly looking over to where Gawain was as the flames that were engulfing him were blown away by the knight using his strength to brush the flames away.

"A very good surprise attack, but your reflexes need a lot of work when you're caught like a rat stealing food," Gawain said before looking at the others. "We can keep going if you want, but I get the feeling that it would only hurt your pride more." Momo, Uraraka, and Mineta looked at each other for a moment before sighing in union and admitting defeat. "Good, we'll take a one-hour break before going over what happened and getting started with your training." He said before walking over to Mina and picking her up bridal style. "Would you three be willing to get Kaminari? She should be down the path of broken trees."

"Y-Yeah, we can do that," Uraraka said after landing next to Momo. The white knight smiled before heading off back into the school. The moment he left, Mineta let out an annoying groan from their humiliated defeat.

"Well, that could've gone better," Mineta said while making his way over to where Kaminari was located.

"You're telling me, and I didn't even get the chance to do anything then just levitate stuff into the air. Speaking of that." She said before looking up at the sky behind them as she deactivated her quirk, causing the objects to fall to the ground.

"While I can understand both of your frustrations in the matter. We have to remember that we're still new to the whole grand servant thing. You can't expect to be a master of something just by doing it one time." Momo said while she and Uraraka followed after Mineta. "We just need to focus a bit more on how our powers work with the help of our partners."

"She's not wrong," U-Olga said before laying on Uraraka's head. "It's like Gawain said, he'll train you in physical combat while we will train you how to use magic and stuff. This is just a test run for what to expect when facing other servants or powerful beings from beyond the cosmos."

"Yeah…but do you think we'll be ready to face that thing that brought us here?" Uraraka asked.

"Given how hesitant you all are when fighting Gawain, it would be best to let us control your body for the time being when the fighting starts," U-Olga said as Musashi appeared in front of the group and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, no offense. But you guys still have the whole "If I kill, then I'm a villain." mindset. While it is true that taking a life is wrong. It's not wrong to do so if you're trying to protect someone." Musashi said as she and U-Olga floated in front of them.

"Indeed, which is something you five will have to break out of when the time comes," U-Olga said, which caused Uraraka to speak up.

"Don't you mean the six of us?"

"No, just you five. Lily on the other hand has the mindset to kill someone that is a threat to her. I mean she is the villain killer of Japan after all~"

"Right…It just occurred to me that…we don't know much about Lily…do we?" Momo asked as she looked over at Uraraka and Mineta who nodded in agreement.

"Other than what she gave us beforehand…not so much," Uraraka said.

"I would've asked her about it, but I didn't want to tread someplace that would make sis angry at me," Mineta said, which caused them to look at each other with uncomfortable expressions on their faces. "S…Should we ask her about her life?"

"W-We could…but maybe we should wait until we're out of this place?" Momo suggested before hearing U-Olga speak up.

"Or you could ask her when she wakes up." She said which took the trio by surprise. "You are her friends, right? So it should be a problem seeing how you won't be telling anyone else."

"I…suppose…Let's run it by the others before we do anything else." Momo said before stopping at the location where Kaminari was. Upon seeing her stuck in a tree, she would look over Mineta. "Mineta, you wouldn't happen to be strong enough to cut that tree open, would you?" She said before noticing Mineta sighing as he made his way over to the knocked-out Kaminari and unsheathed his sword.

"You owe me big time for this Karminari."