Chapter 16: Infiltration

ASHER’S POV 

We anxiously waited as the Head walked onto the podium.

We were currently awaiting our matchups that would get chosen via spinning the wheel.

The group that would get chosen this time would go against a team of decently strong people.

Top rankers. But the lower ones.

She spun the wheel.

The whole grade held their breaths once again.

“Phew-” Elijah slouched, upon the spinner landing on a different team, missing our team by a fairly large margin.

The unfortunately chosen group groaned as they steeled themselves to face the rankers, even though they all knew that their powers were too drastic of a difference.

The threat of getting bad grades can do wonders, I guess.

Felicity and the Head locked eyes and the latter nodded.

The grade instantly became alarmed as the necromancy professor took hold of the wheel again.

“Actually that’s kind of boring- whoops!” Professor Felicity dramatically gasped as she “accidentally” spun it again and this time gained so much momentum that the wheel twirled around so fast, none of the group names could be seen.

Everyone’s panic doubled as Felicity cackled.

The team facing this group was for sure going to be eliminated, with ease.

Because it was filled with compatible top rankers.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the wheel slowed down and was about to land on another weak group.

As if on cue, professor Kyle walked onto the podium and said sarcastically, “Oh boy! The wheel looks broken, let’s give it a good kick!”

BAM

The wheel spun again, this time landing on another group.

Everyone stopped screaming their heads off to turn to the group name chosen on the wheel.

It was ours.

They all knew the professors were purposely aiming for a specific group within a similar power range every time they spun the wheel.

The professors weren’t even trying to hide it, obviously using magic to manipulate the outcome after a few ‘failed’ attempts at spinning the wheel.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO- MMMPH!” Julian hit the back of Elijah’s head while Lacey covered his mouth.

Normally everyone would be sure that we would win, but this time they were unsure when they heard Elijah was going to be on the team.

‘The weakest link of Xira.’ they called him.

I clenched my fists trying to calm myself as the crowd surrounding us' eyes began to flicker from Elijah to the others, apparently disappointed that we were friendly with ‘trash’.

Elijah… was always there for me when we were younger.

He was the one that was popular, smart and strong.

Things were quite different back then.

Elijah was the one who everyone thought had a bright future, one as a pillar of society.

On the other hand, I was the one who had a similar upbringing (as the son of mercenaries), yet was nothing in comparison to Elijah who had an outstanding talent for hand to hand combat.

This was highlighted further by the fact that I was often seen around with him. 

His talent was often seen as one that was comparable to that of top ranking heroes when they were his age, pre-awakened.

It probably would have been still comparable if he had a stronger awakening but even without that he would have undoubtedly shined, though maybe not amongst the students of Xira.

Yet despite this, Elijah had chosen to forsake his natural talent for the sake of entering Xira, though the means of a healer’s scholarship (even though he greatly disliked this art) where he was looked down on by at least every second person and their dog.

While I, the ‘weakling’ , awakened my powers and hidden natural talent after my parents death due to my strong emotions.

I, armed with a light affinity (which was very rare) and excellent swordsmanship had been recruited to Xira as a priority student, flourishing and rising through the ranks faster than I would have ever imagined, both status and strength wise.

In a way, once Elijah’s terrible talent for healing was revealed, our roles had reversed.

I stopped reminiscing at the sound of a projected voice, presumably belonging to a professor of some sort.

Munch. Munch.

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“O-” Professor Felicity continued to chew (and pop her bubblegum bubble) before resuming, “-kay~!”

“The offensive team is-” She spun a smaller wheel and when it stopped, she read, “Asher’s team! 

Now you all know the rules, the offensive team will infiltrate a foriegn building to kidnap a volunteer victim, the catch? The defensive team is the one guarding them!

The defensive team will have a twenty minutes head start, to analyse the building and come up with a suitable tactic! During that time, the other group are only allowed to be within thirty metres radius.

Once a team wins, they will be matched up against another team, with their roles switched.

The teams are eliminated, remember- not from a loss, but through their overall performances! Now good luck everyone!”

***

“STOP IT YOU TWO!”

Amber huffed, probably for the eleventh time.

The situation would probably be enjoyable to her if we were in a different scenario but alas, we were on a high rise building, about to take one of our assessment tasks.

Normally she would be the one brawling- with Julian.

But now, it was no other than Elijah and Stacy…

Truthfully I was quite shocked when I learnt of Stacy’s true nature.

I thought that she was a cold woman, taking refuge within her seemingly unmeltable walls, scaring off people willing to take advantage of her. 

Of all people, I, of course, knew that being influential was hard. 

I also had some sort of front when facing the public's eyes.

But it didn’t stray far from my personal one, unlike that of Stacy’s genuine personality was not like her current one- at all, which the group had learnt after ’that’ particular incident.

Childish and sort of arrogant, is what we’ve figured out so far.

Surprisingly, Elijah was already aware of this.

And he was the reason for discovering so because it all started when a fight broke out between them during training, apparently one of the many that had happened so far.

I admit it kind of hurt having my two close friends hide this from me, but I knew it was not something they had a choice about.

One of the rare times, Julian agreed with Amber, “Bicker when the assessment task is over.”

“BZZT- 20 minutes is over, this is your cue, get ready.”

Professor Kyle voiced over everyone’s walkie talkies.

“You can enter the building in 5-”

Everyone tensed and repositioned as planned.

“-4, 3, 2, 1- … GO!”

“Lucas to Asher, can you hear me?”

I confirmed this in a low murmur, as I scanned the ‘town’ that lay below me.

Cars were honking in a traffic jam, countless high rise apartments surrounded me while the street lights casted shadows on pedestrians bustling on the streets.

“Elijah tells me that this building is a business corporation headquarters, so high chance we will be kidnapping a businessman.”

“Thanks for the notice, Lucas. I’m heading in okay?”

“Tell me when you arrive so I can disable the cameras around you. 

When you enter, remember to speak only when needed in short and precise, yet vague sentences. They might be watching.” 

The breeze whipped my hair into my face, somehow not obscuring my field of vision. 

Sometimes I question how this is possible, but these thoughts don’t linger for long.

I took a deep breath.

Remember Asher, you’ll need to eventually get used to this stuff.

Without further hesitation, I stepped off the edge of the skyscraper.

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