Survivor's Gacha; Endless Improvisation

Day 3 of Training…

It was already a few days since the elite training of the 20 Awakened of Operation Winterfang secretly started in a heavily secured yard of the quarantine zone.

Of course, not everyone knew of Operation Winterfang.

After the first C Rank encounter that Fort Aegis had, it was safe to say that the quarantine zone was traumatized. The civilians would not take kindly to news of another C Rank monster already emerging this fast.

At best, it would lead to wide-scale panic around the quarantine zone, and at worst, Fort Aegis may even fracture internally and fall long before the C Rank monster ever approaches to devour it and its inhabitants.

This was why the Supreme Commandant put a tight leash on Operation Winterfang, making sure that only those who absolutely should know knew of it.

It was a new day of training, and as dawn came, the yard breathed steam.

Frost generators purred along the perimeter of the training field like sleeping beasts, their bellies glowing blue as technicians bled coolant through coiled ribs.

In the middle, the training field had been carved into lanes and kill boxes with chalk and collapsed barricades.

In some corners, heat lamps stuttered overhead, and stubby mortars on tripods coughed puffs of powdered ice into the air to mimic the white death simulation of what the Frost Wolf left in its wake.

With input from Holt, one of the few who have had first-hand experience with the beast, the Supreme Commandant organized specific training drills to train for frost-countermeasures.

Turret mockups tracked lazily on rails, their barrels capped with blanks to mark angles of fire, and when they pivoted in unison, the yard felt like the throat of a machine.

Twenty Awakened fanned out across the training field.

No one stretched, no one joked. This was not a drill you warmed into, rather, it was a rehearsal for living.

Going out there, against the Frost Wolf would be a race against survival itself.

Ethan stood where Holt had told him in the ad-hoc lane beside a woman with an ember glow curling up her forearms like living tattoos and a man in grease-stained rigging strapped to his chest.

The woman cracked her neck and rolled a flame across her palms as if testing a coin, while the man tuned a nest of wires with a pocket screwdriver and never looked up.

Both of them were his pair. Pyra was a Fire Elementalist, while Keal was an Engineer whose specialty was being put to the test for frost counters.

"Pyra," the woman said without looking at Ethan as she introduced herself.

Her hair was cut close on one side, the other falling in a braid over her shoulder. She spoke like every word had to push through smoke.

"Kael," the man added, still working on a piece of machinery that he brought with him.

His voice was distracted as he spoke, seemingly more affectionate toward circuitry. "I'm an Engineer, thermal," he introduced.

"Ethan," Ethan simply said.

As soon as she heard his name, Pyra's eyes flicked to him, assessing him. She seemed unimpressed, but she was not hostile, just impatient.

All of them had heard of him, the civilian who somehow wriggled his way to become part of the taskforce. They didn't doubt the decision making of the higher-ups, but they would only trust him after seeing for themselves.

And the basic training of the past 3 days before today's pairs have not really gave them a true glimpse of his ability.

"Holt says you stabilize," she said, still eyeing him. "We'll see."

She nodded at the frost generators. "Our job's simple. I hold heat, he keeps the lane above freezing level with his toys, while you… you make our bad ideas work, whatever that is",

At that moment, Kael finally snapped a capacitor into place as his rig gave a contented WHUMP sound.

He patted it like a pet as he smiled. "She's a heat redirection coil. If her arc slumps under frost load, she bounces excess output into the slush".

"She's not elegant, but she will scorch your eyebrows if you stand wrong." He grinned as he finally looked at Ethan. "Try not to stand wrong".

At that moment, a whistle sound reverberated followed by Holt's voice cutting across the yard. "Lane One, Counter-Frost Barrier".

"Simulate pulse two. Go!"

As soon as he ordered, the frost generators shivered to life as white fog rolled in low and swift, wrapping their boots.

In the same breath, Pyra flung her hands outward and fire blossomed in a curved pattern, licking along an invisible wall. The heat stung Ethan's cheeks.

Ethan watched as the fog recoiled, then thickened, pressing in harder like weight in the air, but then the Flame shield faltered.

"F*ck!" Kael cursed softly as he cranked a dial, the copper coils along his clothes flaring orange.

The heat wall steadied with a subtle vibration, then the fog swooped again. Ethan felt the temperature knuckle down despite the flame, and that was when the Wheel nudged him.

He didn't hesitate.

He slammed his palm down with a breath that was almost a prayer.

The spin was there instantly, eager to show him what it had for him this time. Ethan didn't have to beg it, he simply aimed it toward the shape of the problem like throwing a hook, then…

DING!

~----~

[Improvised Gear: Thermal Coil Net]

>A collapsible mesh seeded with phase-change filaments. On deployment, radiates pulsed warmth to disrupt surface ice formation and stabilize adjacent heat fields. Single use.

~----~

Ethan smiled. He snapped the canister open and a web unfurled, metal threads winking dull red.

"Above the seam!" Kael shouted without being told.

Having been briefed of the nature of his ability, though they were yet to see it in action, Kael called for him nonetheless.

This was also a test.

Knowing this, Ethan did not hesitate. He hurled the net across the space where Pyra's flame drooped. It caught nothing and yet it hung, shimmering like heat off asphalt and then, there was a reaction.

Bzzz!

The flame lapped into it and flattened as the heat pooled and spread in a thin pane, concentrating and increasing its output.

Immediately, the fog retreated.

Pyra glanced sideways, surprise evident in her face as she stared at Ethan "That's surprisingly useful," she said as she flared the shield taller.

"Hold the lane!" Holt called from somewhere to their right. "Pulse three, walk it forward now, slow and steady".

And so, they moved as a three-piece machine, Pyra holding the arc, Kael feathering output as frost hammered in invisible waves, with Ethan jogging with the coil net's shadow between them, shifting the mesh as their wall inched ahead.

As they moved, the pressure built in Ethan's jaw as the frost crawled along his hair. He could feel the Wolf's lesson inside the simulation, the way cold could be a terrain feature, not just a temperature.

At twenty meters, Pyra's breath hitched.

The heat trembled.

"Coolant breach, left!" Kael snapped, seeing something Ethan couldn't.

The Engineer took two steps and slammed a palm against a valve. In response, steam screamed and the heat pane blushed a deeper red.

"Lane stabilized," Holt finally said as he looked at his wrist watch. "Five second hold."

Pyra finally cut the flame, and the fog fell back.

Ethan exhaled and felt ice at the corners of his vision crack.

Holt looked at his time again. "Impressive, but again!" He bellowed. "This time, move like you're being hunted!"

Ethan's mouth twitched. It was already 3 days in, and yet he still could not get used to the feeling of Holt bossing him around like some subordinate.

'F*cker!' He silently cursed in his mind, but he didn't lag behind as jointed the 2 others and once again started the drill.

…

By midmorning, the yard shook with overlapping drills.

On the far side, Demolitionists planted charges with little orange flags, then sprinted out as frost simulators belched and a Lieutenant with a voice like a whip counted down. "Three… two… one…!"

KRUMP!

Ice sheets shattered into glittering hail that skittered across the concrete like a million insects.

On another side, a broad man with a grin carved into scars, Dane whooped and pumped a fist, then immediately started swearing at an engineer about fuse timing and how they needed to get it perfectly to survive out there.

"Can't you guys see? If these go off two seconds late when the Frost Wolf sprints, we're soup in a cold bowl!" He bellowed.

Holt stalked between the lanes, keeping his eyes everywhere at once as he did the bulk instructor work, repositioning people with hand signs that looked like he was plucking notes from the air.

His gaze cut to the tracker lane, where two of his men flitted over chalked paw prints and frozen ruts.

"Again," he said, gentler than his reputation. "You don't chase its feet. Always remember, you chase its choices."

He tapped the map on a board. "The Frost Wolf wants high ground to blast at prey, it wants shade to keep ice alive".

"To survive, strive to deny it both."