Even more time passed with no major events happening. There were no attacks and even Ream seemed to have slowed his endless pursuit of vengeance.

Dale shifted slightly on the cafeteria chair and took a mouthful of the delicious steak in front of him. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

As people passed one another, they occasionally waved or tried to make small talk.

Ever since the news of what had happened to the recruit spread, everyone made an effort to ensure they held no grudges against anyone.

’Even though it isn’t explicitly mentioned, I’m sure that they have eyes watching us.’ Dale reasoned as he noticed the same teacher pass by the entrance of the cafeteria for the fifth time in half an hour.

Austin sat with his tray of food. He stared at Dale.

"Why are you thinking so much?"

The latter turned to his redheaded roommate, "What makes you feel that I’m thinking?"

Austin paused and replied slowly. "That scowl on your face — nasty thing! Only appears when you’re deep in thought. With how often you make that face, other people would think you’re actively trying to get wrinkles early."

Before he could reply to the absurd claim, Sarah, Trevor, and Gary sat beside Dale with Sarah being the closest to him.

Her arm tried to wrap around his but he twisted it, evading it with ease. He did all this without breaking eye contact with his food.

Trevor noticed the interaction but kept silent, eating his food slowly. Gary, on the other hand, seemed to lack knowledge of social awareness.

He cleared his throat and spoke. "Well after lunch, I believe — no, I know — that we are ALL free. So why don’t we finally have that group-wide spar?"

It had been months since Sarah had brought the idea up but they had never gotten to it due to one reason or another.

Dale glanced at him through the corner of his eye. It wasn’t a bad idea all things considered.

Plus, there were a couple of things he needed to test against people other than Austin.

Training with the same person was nice but it quickly got boring. The roommates had sparred so much that they could predict each other’s moves.

Needless to say, it was infuriating and killed progress.

"But you’re Awakened, I’m sure you can easily handle Dale and me," Austin argued, bringing up the major issue with a potential spar.

The whole point of one was mutual training and both parties being pushed to their limits. Now, both purposes failed if their partner was significantly stronger than them.

This time, it was Sarah who spoke. "Well then, a compromise. We’ll use only our abilities while you can use your Blessed weapons... at the very least, it can even out the scale a bit."

Trevor shrugged, "Fine."

Despite his performative nonchalance, one could easily tell he was eager to see how they’d fare against each other.

Dale ran his hand through his hair and chewed the inside of his cheek, ’This wasn’t how I imagined my first five-way.’ He stifled his laugh.

***

The five of them stood in a circle. They were currently in a sparring room.

Even as there were four people on either side of him, Dale didn’t look up at any of them. If anything, he made sure to keep his head down.

’Defend. Disorient. Disarm. Devour.’ He repeated the mantra and finally raised his eyes just as Sarah charged towards him — her hair turning blue.

A cold mist quickly seeped out of her skin and hardened into a solid ice spear. Without hesitation, she gripped it and planted her foot firmly into the ground.

She leaned back a little and threw her body forward, launching the spear with a ferocious speed.

Dale leaned to the side dodging the sub-zero projectile.

Sarah tried to resume her assault when she suddenly flew to the side, the wind visibly knocked out of her lungs.

Austin stood by the side with a wide smile on his face.

Trevor and Gary were currently engaged in a close-range battle.

The former closed in the distance between him and the forcefield protecting the latter. Once he was within range, he issued a command: shatter.

Gary’s skin visibly paled as many pentagons lost their cohesion. Trevor delivered a roundhouse kick, shattering it and rendering Gary defenseless.

Austin and Dale surrounded Sarah, slowly walking around her.

She smiled softly as her hair gained red streaks until it became a mix of red and blue.

Ice crystals formed in the air and melted, creating a small pool of water around her.

In turn, some of the water boiled, filling the air with steam.

Dale remembered one of the lessons Lord Byron had given him; ’The essence of combat... it’s very core is victory.’

Thus, he wasn’t going to be a fool and let his opponent build up their next attack.

Austin’s muscles clenched and a clearing formed amidst the steam cloud. Sarah promptly adjusted, dodging.

’She is adapting.’ He realized.

On top of that, she seemed to be going out of her way to ensure that Dale stayed as far away from her as possible.

In hindsight, it was logical. If someone you were sparring with didn’t use their ability skill then it was one of two things: you were cocky enough to believe you didn’t need it.

Or there was some kind of condition.

Dale was obviously weaker so it wasn’t the first, leaving on the second, and naturally, a close-range ability skill was considered a conditional one.

He smiled. ’I didn’t think I’d use this.’

His hands tightened around the grips of Decay and Blight.

[Energy Pulse] activated and a wave of energy coursed through the cool metal of the blade.

Surprisingly, the blades suddenly seemed more menacing — radiating the aura of a far more powerful being.

Sarah’s eyes bulged as she stared at the twin sabers in his hands.

Dale took on his battle stance and swung out both blades.

Decay and Blight vibrated in his hands as he forced them to hold the energy he had poured into them.

As they traced wide arcs, two crescent slashes made of energy left the tips of the sabers. One was as pure as light and the other was as oppressive as darkness.

They quickly closed in on Sarah and she raised a wall of ice to save herself, but that still wasn’t enough.

The slashes phased through the cool structure. It was only logical, ice couldn’t stop light or darkness.

Before it could land, however, a green forcefield suddenly shielded her, taking the brunt of the attack.

Naturally, Gary’s forcefield shattered instantly but at the cost of the power of the attack.

It vanished a few centimeters after.