CHAPTER 372: TELEPORTATION COMPLETE

The days flew by faster than ever with the group all preparing to their best abilities for the biggest challenge they have faced yet.

Besides training their abilities and skills to make sure they would be at their highest and strongest level, each person in the group also took additional martial arts and survival classes to ensure that they would be prepared for anything that could come their way.

Mako made sure to daily check his shop for anything that could potentially help me. Still, they were mostly useless skill and ability books as Mako either didn’t possess the ability to use the skill or low mentality to learn it.

Other than that, there were the regular pills and beast crystals that could be put on display, but Mako already had a good stock of pills stored in his inventory. The crystals served no purpose to him at the moment as he couldn’t break them down to absorb more energy and ability percentage as he had capped his energy reserves, and his mentality prevented him from increasing the percentage of any ability.

The only thing that Mako was looking for was another strong power weapon or armor that could further help diversify his attack potential.

Unfortunately, Mako wasn’t able to find anything good and decided to save his coins for the future.

Instead, Mako decided to keep on improving the old-fashioned way and that was through sparring with Alexi and Erin.

Erin’s ice abilities allowed the group to emulate conditions of the dark side of Infernis while Mako’s fire did the same to best emulate the bright side of Infernis.

Being able to mentally and physically prepare themselves to survive in the incredibly harsh conditions of another planet was crucial as the first day would be the hardest and the most important day of them all.

*******************

Leon and Nathan partnered up as usual and this time invited Isabella as well to spar with each other in order to learn each other’s moves and fighting preferences which was crucial so that they didn’t get in each other way during a real fight and instead help support each other by covering their flanks and performing combinational skills.

Mako had shared the story of how he and Bill created a super powerful combinational move by combining their Fire and Wind abilities to defeat Rhino.

Using this as inspiration, Nathan’s group also decided to create some unique combinational skills of their own.

First up it was Leon and Nathan, at first it was hard for them to come up with anything together since they had such varying abilities; however, after a couple of attempts over several hours they started to make some headway but it still wasn’t perfect.

The basic idea was to use Leon’s speed to enhance one of Nathan’s existing projectile attacks.

The one they landed on was the Blood Claw attack. Leon would first build up speed and momentum by circling around while Nathan charged his blood aura while partially transforming his hand into the blood wolf claw.

Once Nathan was charged, Leon would run straight at Nathan giving him a huge push that launched him forward at high speed, and during that time, Nathan would release the blood claw to effectively create a combinational skill called the "Super Blood Claw".

The resulting blood claw was 4 times larger in size and multiple times faster as well as capable of creating mass amounts of damage and destruction; however, the power was still wild and uncontrollable as Nathan couldn’t adjust to Leon’s instant speed boost and the super blood claws created would begin to change direction and divert from another after they were launched making their paths unpredictable and unsafe.

The group did make some other basic combinational skills using the basic abilities but the super blood claw showed the greatest promise, unfortunately, they weren’t able to perfect it in time.

******************

Besides training with one another, Nathan also took the time to hack a bunch of public cameras and servers all around the military complex and create a special tablet for Bill who was finally starting to recover after Mako’s poison started making its way out of his system.

The tablet was able to keep tabs on almost every single security camera and sensor within the whole complex. If a door would open, he would know. If a light switch would be turned on, he would know.

The tablet’s software was designed to instantly display any unusual movement, giving Bill full visibility over the whole complex. With Nathan’s Hack ability, he managed to bypass some of the lower-level encrypted systems, enabling him to gain access to some of the restricted areas in the complex and provide a constant feed from those restricted areas that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Bill’s recovery had been slow but steady, and he was finally able to sit up and stay alert for extended periods. It really broke Mako to see Bill’s condition worsen after he had successfully injected him with his poison. Knowing that it was his hands that were causing Bill some much pain, Mako couldn’t honestly bring himself to visit him in the hospital.

However, finally, on the last day before their departure, Mako went to visit Bill to personally deliver the tablet. Seeing Bill in a far better state than last time put Mako at a little bit of ease as they shared a quiet evening talking over their plans for the special exam and their training.

Bill was determined that he wouldn’t let this drag him down even though he would be missing out on some very important experiences as he would continue to train as well as work on making sure their mission isn’t compromised and the traitor isn’t able to make any moves to steal the pyronite in the absence of most of the important staff.

Leaving the clinic, Mako felt like a weight had been lifted off his body seeing now as Bill had mostly recovered and would be contributing greatly towards their mission in their absence, something he had initially overlooked.

However, the weight hadn’t been completely lifted as there was still the whole Erin-Andrew situation. Even though Erin was now able to mask it quite well, thanks to Mako’s blessing of love, he could easily detect the disdain and anger welling up deep inside her and he knew that she wouldn’t be able to bottle it up forever.

Mako had tried to see if he could find and talk to Andrew alone before Erin so that he could really understand what actually happened and clear up the misunderstanding from its root; however, ever since the day that he broke up with Erin, Andrew was nowhere to be seen.

He didn’t take any additional classes during the preparation period given to them by their teachers before the special exam and Mako wasn’t able to spot him during the military display either.

Mako didn’t know Andrew’s dorm room number and wasn’t going to just ask Erin for that information either so there was no way for Mako to get in contact with Andrew. Seeing this, Mako definitely knew something was up and made a promise to get to the bottom of this as soon as the special exam was over, for Erin’s sake.

Despite this, Mako could still feel that he had more weight on his shoulders. Not only because he was the leader of their group for the second time now which was a big deal for him considering how their first mission went but there was something deeper, not a responsibility but a feeling.

Mako didn’t know how to explain it but a dark intuition was pressing down on his shoulders, one that he wasn’t able to shake off for some reason. He didn’t understand why but somehow he kept getting this strange feeling that he would be facing something very powerful and sinister yet familiar very soon.

*****************

The next day soon came to pass and one by one each team was called to the teleportation room via their student cards to begin the special exam. After some time, Mako’s group was called in and they quickly made their way to their designated teleportation room.

All the gear that they had purchased during the military display was ready and neatly displayed in front of them.

Mako did a quick scan of their supplies, ensuring everything they’d chosen was accounted for. There were specialized environmental suits to endure the extremes of Infernis, their re-deployable shelter, power generator, food supplies, water containers, and of course, the camper van that would allow them to cover great distances and recycle their water.

Alongside these, there were all the different armor pieces that they had purchased as well as Erin’s new bow, Alexi’s Sypher Wing Twin Blades, and Mako’s Energy Condensed Hand Cannon and Advanced Tier Silver Tiger Katana.

"Alright, guys," Mako said, addressing his group. "Let’s do a final check. Make sure your gear is secured, and remember, we only get one shot at this."

"That’s right..." Angela stated who was also inside the room.

"This exam will test in more ways than one so stick together and watch each other’s backs," Angela said as she gave them a few words of advice. "You’ve got 5 minutes before the teleporter is powered up, so suit up!"

The group nodded at Angela with a knowing smile as they didn’t waste any time. They quickly adorned their protective suits before equipping their armor and strapping on their new power weapons.

After that they quickly loaded all of their supplies into the capmer van and drove it onto the teleportation pad to be teleported with them.

Soon after, a low hum quickly turned into a high-pitched whine as the teleportation sequence initiated.

"Good luck," Angela said, her voice barely audible over the rising noise.

The world around them blurred as the teleportation process began. A sensation of weightlessness overtook them, their bodies feeling as though they were being stretched and compressed at the same time.

In an instant, the light around them faded, and they were no longer in the teleportation room.