NOVEL NEXT Chapter 83: My, my
At precisely 06:00, the sky above Pearl Institute split open.
The sky thundered as thirty massive dropships hovered like iron whales above the southern training zone. The morning sky was still painted in shades of dawn, golden streaks barely cutting through the heavy clouds.
Inside the craft, over three hundred first years stood in neat formations, groggy, tense, and bracing for whatever fresh madness the instructors had planned for them today.
Professor Kong Hu's voice boomed across all ships through the mana channel.
"Today's training is simple."
That word again. The cursed word.
Several students flinched on instinct.
Professor Kong Hu continued without mercy.
"You will skydive to the southern ridge. No teleportation. No rescue. No outside help. Survive the descent. That's it."
Murmurs erupted.
"Descent?"
"Wait, skydiving?!"
Fatty grinned like a maniac. "Ha! Finally! My element!"
He stood at the edge of the drop hatch, goggles crooked, glider pack strapped to his back, and an oversized grin plastered across his round face.
"The sky is my home!" he declared. "The wind is my heritage! This, THIS is my moment to shine!"
Damien Bloodbane stood behind him, arms folded, unmoved.
"I bet I ace this better than you, Boss!" Fatty added with bravado. "I'm built for air superiority! I'm basically a blimp with vengeance!"
Damien said nothing.
His eyes were scanning the clouds. The wind. The subtle shimmer in the sky above.
He'd trained for this.
Super Soldier Basic Training—Simulation 03: Aerial Ambush Response Protocol.
The signs were all here.
They were walking into a trap.
And then…
WHIRRRRRRRRRRRR-CLANG.
The hatches opened beneath them.
Dozens of students screamed as they plummeted, mana-gliders activating a few seconds later with a snap-hiss and unfolding into glowing wings.
The wind roared.
Below, the southern ridge rolled like a sea of treetops and rocky slopes.
And then…
BOOM!
The sky exploded.
From above the clouds, sleek black mechas dropped like predators—thirty of them in total, armed with shoulder-mounted mana cannons and arm-wrapped launchers.
Each one was piloted with expert precision.
They were here to hunt.
Each mecha needed only ten students to be taken out. That's all it would take to wipe the entire first-year class.
And they had full permission to do so.
BOOM.
The first shots rang out.
Mana cocoon rounds, pellet-like projectiles that exploded mid-air and wrapped targets in shimmering, impact-resistant cocoons, rendering them "dead" for the session.
Fatty was the first to get hit.
"THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT BY MY MOMENT TO SHI—"
WHUMP.
He spiraled downward in a giant magical silk pod, flailing like a potato in a sack.
Chaos exploded in every direction.
The sky turned into a battlefield.
Students scattered in panic, dodging and shrieking as the mechas rained down fire with terrifying precision. Magical shields flickered. Mana trails ignited. At least twenty students were cocooned within the first minute.
But then…
The elites struck back.
Ji Chen darted sideways with clean wind boosts, launching slicing gales that disrupted one mecha's targeting systems. His every movement was deliberate, efficient, and fast.
Next to him, Jennifer Aquafrost used layered frost barriers to deflect incoming fire, while simultaneously forming icy spears that arced through the air, smashing into a mecha with impressive power.
The mecha didn't fall, but it retreated briefly, systems clearly rattled.
And off to the right, near the edge of the drop zone, the Americans moved as a unit.
Athena took the lead, directing her six teammates with rapid hand signals. Their gliders synced into formation, moving like a school of sharks beneath a wounded ship. The moment a mecha dipped too close, the American team unleashed hell.
"NOW!" Athena shouted.
Three magical volleys, fire, water, and lightning disruption, struck the mecha at once, followed by a combined binding spell from Felix and Jason that twisted around its thrusters. The mecha stalled mid-air, and Zoe and Zara drove piercing lances of concentrated energy through its side.
BOOM.
One mecha down.
The Americans cheered. Briefly.
Then two more mechas converged on them.
But amidst all the coordinated struggle and beautiful chaos, one figure wasn't scrambling.
Damien Bloodbane.
He wasn't defending, nor was he attacking.
While others dove to avoid fire, Damien fired his auxiliary thrusters, kicking off his glider's emergency reserve and soaring upward into the danger zone.
One mecha turned toward him.
Mistake.
He flipped sideways, using the air current to spin above its line of fire. A mana round flew past his boot by millimeters.
The mecha realigned. Too slow.
Damien twisted, flipped, and slammed his palm down on its shoulder housing. Mana surged from his core to his fingertips, tracing a sequence he'd only just learned in the Living Library the night before.
Darkness + Water + Metal.
The spell bound the mecha's shoulder joint in place for exactly 1.4 seconds. Long enough.
He yanked the emergency hatch, twisted the manual override, and ripped it open.
The pilot blinked at him.
Damien didn't blink back.
"Out."
He grabbed the pilot and hurled him into a soft capture bubble. The moment the cockpit was empty, he slid inside.
The mecha interface recognized his core signature. Lights turned red.
Weapons unlocked.
And Damien Bloodbane, calm, calculating, and impossibly fast, turned the mecha around.
The instructors were watching from a high-altitude sky platform, using a cloaked observation array.
Someone gasped.
"He just hijacked a mecha mid-skydive."
"Mid-air. While dodging."
"That's… freaking awesome!!"
Damien fired. Two precision cocoon rounds burst forward, catching two enemy mechas from behind before they could react.
Two more kills.
The battlefield shifted.
Students below who were panicking a moment ago cheered as the friendly mecha suddenly began defending them.
"Oh of course it's him." Athena looked up and laughed.
Zhao Rui scoffed. "Show-off."
In the observation room, the instructors were watching the Damien Show in awestruck wonder.
Professor Orange tilted her head slightly. Her amber braid glowed faintly in the light of the sunrise.
And then she smiled.
Wide. Brilliant. Like a child seeing fireworks.
"My, my," she said softly. "This is going to be an interesting week."