Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 9 | Day 7

We end up spending the rest of the day touring around the base with Maria until nightfall, where we’re sent to the mess hall for dinner. Which turns out to be a pretty big disappointment if you ask me.

“Stop sulking already,” Aidan says while sending me an odd glance as we make our way towards our suite of rooms with the girls, “so they didn’t have mint ice cream. It’s not the end of the world.”

I glare at him for his comment, only to keep silent at the realization that he’s baiting me.

He clicks his tongue at that, proving me right.

Not even a second after that though, Cyria frowns at me and asks, “Why do you like mint ice cream so much anyways?”

My lips twitch slightly at the question, but I continue walking and simply answer with, “Because it reminds me of good memories.”

Good memories that were the only things that let me keep my sanity during some of the doctor’s experiments… although I’m still a little surprised that he even let me have mint ice cream during them. Maybe it’s to keep me sane?

After all, it’s easier to order around a sane person than an insane one.

Plus an insane person would probably find it difficult to advance as a magician.

My comment seems to leave the others feeling slightly awkward considering the strange silence that fills the hall as we walk, but it ends the second we enter our suite and Aidan lets out a loud groan while stretching.

I raise an eyebrow at him before starting towards our room and waving my hand at the others, “Night.”

Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 9 | Day 9

Two days later

“Three.” I whisper quietly through the miniaturized communication card plastered behind my ear to the others as I watch the battlefield from a nearby plateau through my sniper rifle’s scope. The battlefield itself is consistent of several different plateaus dropping down into various different narrow canyons, each with a powerful river at the bottom of the canyons and rope bridges leading across the canyons between plateaus.

“Two.” I continue right when the enemy magician begins to cross the bridge with his light element barrier protecting his body. Meanwhile, the rest of my team are all scattered across different plateaus in two different groups.

I glance at Rebecca, who is wounded by Cyria’s side at the end of the bridge that the enemy magician is crossing, whereas the other three, Sophia, Aidan, and Amelia – who had apparently decided to join our team officially at the school at some point despite not being in the same class as us – are all rushing across a different plateau finishing off the other surviving member of the enemy magicians’ team.

“One.” I finish right as I infuse mana into one of the gems on my rifle and pull the trigger, sending a flaming bullet straight for the wooden, rope bridge.

The instant the bullet hits it, it explodes, setting the bridge on fire just a few meters ahead of the enemy wind magician, who is already at the center of the bridge and seems to be quickly regretting his decision.

Without taking my eye off of the scope, I watch with a frown on my face as the bridge quickly snaps, leading to the magician to fall to his death below in the canyon.

After a few seconds of silence, I turn my scope to the other three, just to find them already tying up the magician with anti-magic cuffs – which were a rather convenient item mass produced by the Chairman that blocks a magician whose wearing them from using any magic externally.

It’s also a rather new addition to our little nation – and to be honest, a new addition to the world itself, since he’s the first Class S anti-magic magician.

Makes me wonder if death might become just slightly less common place since people can finally begin taking magicians prisoner.

After all, we’re all taught to off ourselves with as many soldiers as possible instead of getting captured. So death amongst magicians is basically a guarantee if you don’t win.

“The water magician is secured,” I hear Aidan say through the comms before another voice – that of our current supervising officer, Captain Nichols – to come over it right afterwards, “Affirmative. Please meet up with your team leader and head back to base.”

“Roger that,” I respond before getting up from my spot near the edge of the cliff. I then drape my rifle’s strap around my shoulder and begin making my way towards the rendezvous point. However, not even ten seconds later, I feel a burst of pain coming from my back, making me fall down to my knees just for the pain to quickly fade away as the bullet wound heals itself and forces the bullet straight out.

“Sniper confirmed!” I shout into the comms while dropping to the ground and pulling my sniper right back out of the case again. “Damned bastard waited for me to put up my rifle right before revealing themself!”

None of the others ask how I’m doing, since at this point they’re just used to me shrugging off any attack thanks to my ‘fire regeneration spell’.

Considering how the sniper doesn’t shoot for over a dozen seconds, I’m guessing whoever they are, they’re shocked at the end result of their shot that would’ve killed a normal person.

I grimace as I pull my rifle back around my shoulder and quickly look through the scope in the direction of the shot, just to find the sniper standing on a cliff over a kilometer away, right next to some sort of cave.

So they hid in the cave until everything settled?

I can’t really tell if they’re stupid or smart. They abandoned their team, leaving them to die or get captured, but ended up coming out to pick off our team’s sniper, which would also allow them to pick off the rest of us without being found thanks to this terrain.

Terrain that really is a sniper or other ranged attacker’s dream. At least when it comes to lower Class magicians who can’t simply fly or jump across the canyons.

The sniper themself looks rather panicked, and also just as young as us despite the average age of his team being a couple of years older.

I narrow my eyes while taking aim, meanwhile he finally begins to regain his situational awareness and takes aim at me as well. But before he can do anything, I take my shot using another infused bullet, putting a piercing bullet straight through his chest from my slightly higher vantage point.

“Damnit,” I mutter while watching him lose his grip on the gun.

I meant to shoot him between the eyes for a quick kill…

Guess that means more practice for me.

“Opposing sniper is eliminated,” I state through the comms before getting up again and adding, “let’s continue to the rendezvous point. But make sure to keep a barrier up in case of any snipers.”

Something I probably should have said before, but my ‘regeneration’ got me a little too confident to the point of forgetting… which I’m sure Captain Nichols will likely lecture me about later.