Mr. Greyson's speed when he demonstrated the moves the recruits were supposed to follow surprised everyone. Yet, no one started attacking the target. Since the teacher was so fast, the recruits couldn't understand what they were supposed to do.

  "Mr. Greyson, I couldn't see the moves very well. Could you do them again? Maybe even a bit slower?" Alex asked the teacher.

  At her words, a few recruits stared with wide eyes. They also wanted a better look at the attacks, but none was willing to become a possible target for the teacher's wrath.

  However, to their surprise, Mr. Greyson only nodded. "Aye, let me slow down. Everyone, pay attention."

  He walked towards the silver dummy that all the recruits could see and proceeded to show the attacks. Once again he was holding the dagger with the tip pointing down. Not like a sword, with the blade going parallel to his forearm. Stepping forward, the teacher attacked with a slash, essentially punching the air close to the target. He followed that up with a stab and then pulled back.

  Twirling the knife in his hand, he was now holding it like a small one handed sword. With an upward thrust, he slammed the chin of the dummy with the blade. A loud clang echoed in the training hall. With his hand still high, the teacher spun the dagger again, going back to the initial grip and went back for another stab.

  Mr. Greyson seemed to realize he was getting ahead of himself and pulled back. Slowing down his movements even more. This time, he maintained the idea of punching the air around the dummy, making the dagger hit the target. The various slashes came from all angles, with the older warrior flowing one attack into the next flawlessly.

  After a few minutes, the teacher stopped and turned around to his students. "Ye might think daggers are a bad way to do this. Yer wrong. Being this close will force ye to be careful not to punch yer target and hurt yerself. Also, ignore some of the flourish from the first set. Ah got a bit too into this. Now, Ah'm attacking as Ah did before. But instead of moving slowly, Ah'll increase my speed as time goes by. See how long ye can keep up."

  Mr. Greyson began attacking the dummy, doing small variations on the same moves he had just shown the class. Little by little, his attacks began to speed up. The display was so impressive that even a few graduated explorers started to watch.

  As the warrior speed up, it became harder to follow his movements. Slowly at first, people stopped paying attention as they couldn't keep up. Yet, some still had their eyes glued to the teacher.

  Hera did her best to focus as much as she could on his movements. She tried to pay attention to not only his arm and hand, but his hips and legs as well. She had started to realize that each attack required more than just an arm swing. The moves were, in reality, an intricate connection of small twitches across the whole body. Something that movies and books said, but it was very different to experience that herself.

  As she concentrated on watching the teacher, the time around her seemed to slow down. Mr. Greyson's movements were clearer and more distinct. She could see his arm moving and how he used the back leg to give him some impulse while moving forward. Making his attacks not only faster but also giving them more weight.

  That lasted for ten seconds, and as soon as the movements regained their speed, Hera felt a sharp pain in behind eyes. The pain was so intense that she stumbled back and fell on her knees, small droplets of blood falling from her nose. Blue, the only person who noticed Hera's fall, rushed towards her.

  "Hera, what's wrong?" She went to the floor beside Hera and reached out with one hand, trying to help the woman to have some footing.

  "I'm fine. I just got a sharp pain in my eyes," Hera blinked a couple of times and tried to open her eyes again. Everything was blurry, everything besides a small blue box in front of her.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  [All In] effects deactivated, the cooldown will now start

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "What?" Hera stared at the notification, while the rest of the world was coming back into focus. She never tried to use her skill, did she?

  "What, what Hera? Talk to me. You are really freaking me out here." Blue spoke at a louder volume without even realizing it.

  That made a few of the recruits, and the explorers, move closer to the girls. They all looked curious about what happened.

  "I... I think I used a skill, and for some reason, the skill hurt me." Blue stared at her, not knowing what to say.

  Mr. Greyson noticed what was going on and approached the two of them. The girls didn't even realize he was approaching until he spoke up.

  "What's wrong, Hera?"

  "Sorry, Mr. Greyson. I'm not sure. I was watching you, and then I felt a sharp pain behind my eye."

  He took a knee and looked into her eyes. "Is that all? Did something happen before ye felt the pain?"

  Hera shakes her head "No, I was watching your movements when you slowed down, but when you sped up again, the pain hit me."

  Blue leaned her head to the side. "But... he never slowed down, not after he began to move faster."

  "She's right, lassie. Did something else happen? Or Ah just seemed slow to you?"

  Hera looked at the teacher a bit panicked. "No, I never said you were slow. You just showed the moves slower at one point. Then the pain came, and a notification about a skill that I have showed up. "

  The teacher raised one eyebrow. "A skill ye have? Ye mean the all in one?"

  Hera nodded.

  Mr. Greyson got up and turned to the rest of the class "Ye all just watched how to move, now get yer daggers and start practicing." He then turned back to Hera. "Come with me."

  Being helped by both the teacher and Blue made Hera feel uncomfortable. She didn't want to bother anyone or get in the way of the training. Still, she followed Mr. Greyson to the water cooler in the back of the training room. He filled a cup with water and gave it to her.

  "To respect recruits' privacy, we only have the name of the skill and some general idea of how it works. Could you tell me exactly the description of yer skill? Ah promise this will only be between the two of us."

  Not sure of what is happening, Hera just nodded and pulled her status and went straight for the skill.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  All In - Rank 1:

  The user can increase one of its attributes to perform a single action, as if all the available bonus points were allocated in the relevant attribute.

  The attribute will have bonus increments and, at the same time, reduce all other attributes to 11 (10 + level - 1) for 5 hours.

  Value of attribute when the skill is used: 14.5

  Cooldown: 36 hours

  Remaining (35:56:22)

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Hera read the description out loud to the teacher. She had read the description so many times by now that she knew it by heart. However, since Mr. Greyson had such a serious expression, it seemed like a better idea to read the description instead of just quoting it.

  After hearing what the skill really did, the teacher got silent for a few moments. "Ah get the gist of it. How many times have ye used this skill?"

  "Only once, I guess twice now."

  He nodded, "Aye, tell me. What do you think yer skill does?"

  Hera looked at the man with a confused expression and started to quote the description.

  "Well... it can increase one of its attributes to perform a single action, as if all the available bonus points were allocated in the relevant attribute."

  Before she could continue, Mr. Greyson raised one hand, signaling her to stop, "No, lassie, not what the skill says it does. What do ye think it does?"

  Hera took a while to understand the question, and even longer to come up with an answer, "It makes me able to do things that I normally can't."

  "Give me some examples."

  Hera thought for a moment, "Like lifting a heavy box, or running faster than I can. Or maybe even making sure I don't hurt myself so much if I fall from a high place."

  Mr. Greyson just stared at the girl, "Then why did ye use the skill now?"

  Hera looked at the teacher, "Because I couldn't see you." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, her eyes widened.

  "Aye, it never said that this only works with big things. Ye might even use it if ye want to have an extra slice of cake but yer stomach can't take it," the teacher snorted.

  Hera couldn't help but smile at that. It sounded so stupid to have a skill just to eat more cake. At the same time, it meant she might be able to use this one for everything.

  "Now, ye need to be careful, lassie. If ye try to use the skill with something that ye can't handle without it, ye might have some problems."

  Hera nodded, that thought had crossed her mind a few times. If she were carrying something too heavy and the skill turned off, she could hurt herself very badly.

  Seeing the girl seemed to be understanding what he meant, the teacher nodded, "Good, now let's get back. Even if yer attributes are lower, ye still need to train."

  Both of them walked back to the small arenas where the rest of the recruits were. Blue gave Hera a concerned look, and she just replied with a smile and a thumbs up.

  "Ye all had some time to get used to things. Now ye are going for the actual exercise," Mr. Greyson told his students while Hera walked towards the empty dummy near Alex. He picked his tablet and started to tap. It took him a couple of minutes and many grunts, but he finally managed to activate the arenas.

  A soft blue glow appeared at the edge of each arena where the recruits were, and the dummies were sucked into the ground. Shortly after, a few white spheres appeared in the air inside the arenas.

  "First step, hit the spheres. They are all far apart, ye have to move to get them all. Also, if ye take too long to hit them all, they turn red. If they turn red, ye failed the attack."

  Mark raised his hand before asking, "Sorry, Mr. Greyson, but I'm not sure I've understood. We need to hit them quickly the moment they show up?"

  "No, laddie. When ye hit the first one, a timer starts. If ye take too long to hit them all, they turn red. If not, they just vanish and another set shows up."

  Hearing what the teacher said, Hera started to move around the arena. Thinking about the way she should attack. She counted how many steps the spheres were from one another, trying to figure out what would be the best route to take.

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  While she was still planning her move, Mr. Greyson said, "What yer all waiting for? Go hit the damn things!"

  Even then, Hera didn't start right away. She went with a more methodical approach. Trying to see what would happen once she struck one of the orbs. After several minutes, she came up with a few conclusions. First, the next sphere would always appear in her field of view. Even if she changed the angle she was looking at. Second, after hitting the first orb, she had two seconds to spare before it turned red. And when the third appeared, it would only wait for a second before turning red.

  That last bit of information came from Alex's arena. Hera herself never managed to get that far during this trial period. As a matter of fact, the black-haired woman was able to get to the third sphere once every three attempts. Hera smiled seeing that. It was nice to know that all of her friends had an area of expertise. This meant that if they formed a party in the future, it would be somewhat balanced.

  Hera herself still stayed a few more moments thinking before starting to attack. Thanks to all of her preparation, she started hitting the second orb somewhat constantly right away. Yet, the third was still a distant dream.

  For the next hour she tried, and failed to hit the third sphere until the teacher spoke up.

  "All right, everybody rest." Mr. Greyson turned off the projections, making a few recruits swing at the air. Even though they were not hitting something solid, the sudden disappearance made a few stumble and fall.

  The recruits were panting, even Alex and Hera with a more contained approach were already drenched in sweat. Leo was in his usual starfish position looking at the ceiling, while Blue was lying face down on the ground. Hera, one of the few who were still moving, grabbed her water bottle. She needed a refill.

  "Anyone else need it?" She was too tired to form any more words.

  Almost all recruits raised her hands, with hopes of not needing to get up.

  Knowing she wouldn't rest if she picked all the bottles, Hera just sighed. "Sorry, two hands." And then walked over and grabbed the closest bottle she could see. It was Blue's, the girl also looked worse than most of them.

  As soon as her bottle was full, Hera stepped to the side of the cooler, gulped the entire thing down before going for another refill. After that, she started to get some for Blue.

  "Leave some for the rest of us." A honeyed voice sang from behind her.

  Hera stopped filling the bottle and looked back. The dark-haired woman with chestnut skin and a red bindi between her eyes stood behind Hera, holding four bottles by the strap.

  "Oh, sorry, please go ahead," Hera stepped aside.

  She placed one of the bottles under the tap and started to fill it up.

  "I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Anaya," she said with a soft smile.

  Hera felt weird. That smile wasn't natural. Not that she herself didn't have something like that. The smile she used to deal with customers was very specific. Still, this woman, who looked barely 18, was giving her a strange feeling.

  Pushing those thoughts to the side, she replied, "I'm Hera, a pleasure to meet you. Sorry for not introducing myself sooner."

  Anaya kept filling up the bottles without looking towards Hera, "Don't worry, special people rarely have time for us common folk."

  Hera blinked slowly. Unable to understand what Anaya was talking about. The idea that Hera was special was so far removed from her own mind that it didn't even register.

  With another weirdly natural fake smile, Anaya continued speaking, "There are some cute ones here," she gestured to the explorers and the recruits, "but if I'm guessing right, the one in the back is more your type. The one wearing a golden chain."

  Looking to where Anaya was pointing, Hera saw a man wearing gold chains, a brand set of clothes and so many rings that it screamed 'showing off.' Still, he seemed to be practicing something with a shield, and having a tank in the party wasn't a bad idea, "I don't know. Maybe, but I'm not thinking about that right now."

  Anaya finished filling up the last bottle and walked back toward the recruits while saying. "Oh, don't worry. I'm just messing with you. I know you already have the teacher."

  Hera stared at the woman and mumbled, "the fuck was that?" before taking another sip and walking towards Blue.

  "What took you so long? I was dying here, dying!" Blue said before gulping down most of the water.

  "Sorry, Anaya wanted to fill her bottles too." Hera explained as she sat down near the girl.

  "Oh," Blue looked toward Anaya and her group. "I don't like her."

  "Why?" Hera didn't understand the reason. As far as she knew, the two of them never talked.

  "She's just snobby. Her introduction was so 'I'm better than all of you' that made me sick. Also, she has that 'Queen Bee' vibe. You know? Like everyone did everything for her in high school, and she has yet to realize this is the real world," seeing Hera's confused expression, Blue simplified, "She just has a face I want to punch."

  Hera shrugged. Now that it was put into words, she agreed that Anaya had the energy of someone who was popular in school. Still, after dealing with a crappy boss, and five years of working retail during Christmas, that kind of attitude was mildly amusing. Like a child playing pretend. It was funny to think how that used to bother her. And maybe even a week ago it would be a problem, but now, the MAZE was waiting for her. Nothing else mattered.

  Before she could continue that train of thought. Mr. Greyson clapped his hands.

  "All rested? Good, now back to yer arenas." In a few moments, all the recruits were in position.

  Tapping on the tablet, a sphere appeared in front of the students. But before the teacher said anything, the target moved towards the recruits at a fast speed. Some tried to dodge them while others just stood still. The glowing orbs seemed to bounce off them and change direction when they got to the edge of the arenas.

  "Fucking dammit," The teacher grunted.

  Then the spheres started to multiply filling up the arenas completely. Their light was almost blinding to the recruits inside.

  "For fuck's sake." Mr. Greyson's voice was angrier.

  Hera did her best to hold her laughter. In her mind, there was an image of the teacher as an old man having trouble turning on his computer.

  A few moments later, he had finally managed to return the arenas to normal. With a single bright sphere in the middle of each of them.

  "Ok, this will be different. When ye attack. The sphere will disappear, and the next one will show up around you. That's the same, but the second sphere will be moving. Ye have to attack and react quickly to get the next one. Ready? Begin."

  As if trying not to give any chance for any jokes, Mr. Greyson said the instructions in a single breath. Before anyone could even enjoy his clumsiness, they were already in a new exercise.

  Hera went with the same approach. First, she analyzed things to see if there were any differences. And that didn't seem to be the case. The pattern was the same. The second sphere would always show up in her field of view, only to then start moving. Even the timing was the same. The only difference was the movement itself.

  In the end, she just decided to continue attacking with everything she had. Half an hour later, Hera stepped away from the arena to drink some water. Even with her best efforts, she was only able to hit the second sphere once.

  Looking around, Hera noticed that Alex was doing much better. She still was able to hit the third orb every five attempts.

  She left her arena and walked over where Alex was. There, Hera waited for a good moment to talk, so she wouldn't disturb the girl's attempt, "Alex, sorry to bother you, but can I ask a question?"

  Alex turned around, her hair stuck to her face and most of her shirt covered in a dark wet shadow.

  "Sure, what's up?" Alex skipped towards Hera.

  "How are you doing so well? Is it just instinct or is there a trick to it?"

  "Well... I wouldn't call it a trick. And honestly, I'm not sure if it's actually a thing. After a few tries, I realized that before even finishing my attack, I looked around to see where the next one was. I thought about how would that work in a real fight. Mr. Greyson said that we should never take our eyes off the enemy. So I tried that."

  Alex took a sip of her water and continued.

  "I'm not sure if I'm crazy, or if the exercise is making me see things, but right when I'm about to hit the sphere, there is a flicker where the next one is showing up. Then, I kind of do a leap of faith. Moving before the target even appears. I miss more often than not, but I think I'm getting the hang of things."

  Trying to follow that idea, Hera was doing her best to keep her eyes on the glowing sphere. Still, it was harder than she anticipated. During the first part of the training, she would hit the target, and before finishing her attack, move her eyes to the next one. That felt natural. It came easily with the movement and the flow of the attacks.

  Now, having to make a conscious decision of looking at the sphere until it vanished, the rest of the attack felt strange and unnatural. It was a feeling close to wearing someone else's clothes. Even if the way she moved hadn't changed.

  She stopped and walked to the edge of the arena, where her water bottle was. Taking a few sips, Hera thought about how Alex explained the concept. Maybe she was overthinking. Maybe she should trust her body more.

  Moving back to the middle of the arena, Hera focused on the sphere. She remembered how Mr. Greyson started his attacks. They could hardly be called slashes. It was more of a fistfight where you focused on missing by a hair. With that, the teacher's face would be really close to his target. Maybe that was the secret, seeing it up close.

  Hera believed this was a bad idea. If this were a real fight, positioning her head so close to the enemy would be suicidal. Then again, as Mr. Greyson had said. This wasn't a real fight.

  She looked at the sphere and locked her eyes on it. Hera even moved around a bit to make sure she could keep looking at the target while attacking. Feeling she was ready, she lunged.

  In the next few minutes, the times her eyes left the target became almost nonexistent. Her body started to be comfortable moving like this. Repeating the same attack over and over, Hera even tried to hold the dagger as Mr. Greyson had shown.

  During one of those attempts, a few moments before the attack hit, Hera felt an odd heat passing near her. Getting distracted, she looked in the direction the warmth was coming from. To her surprise, the second the dagger hit the sphere, a new one appeared right where she was looking.

  Shocked by the feeling, Hera just stared at the target until it glowed red and vanished.

  Taking a step back, Hera prepared another attack, but this time focusing on that warmth. It took her a few tries, but after a while, that feeling returned. This time, Hera was ready, and before even finishing the attack, she positioned herself for the follow-up. Hitting the first sphere, she didn't even look at the position of the next one. Slashing with her dagger where she could feel the heat.

  For the first time since starting this exercise, she was able to predict where the sphere would appear. Sadly, she was too excited. Not even trying to hit the third sphere before it disappeared.

  With renewed drive, Hera tackled the exercise with all she got.

  After one hour, Mr. Greyson couldn't help but feel annoyed. To him, this training was just a way to show off the technology to the recruits. There was no real value in it. They should be using the mobile dummies, trying to hit them would give the recruits a good feeling for combat. However, to his unfortunate surprise, all of his students were doing well above his expectations.

  He figured the good warriors, like Leo and Tiffany, would be able to hit the second target, maybe the third, but never the fourth. And yet, both of them hit the third sphere at least half the time. Hitting the fourth once every five tries or so. Some students, like Mark and Bonnie, were supposed to barely hit the second target. But somehow, both of them only missed the second attack once in a while. There were even a couple of times they hit the third one.

  Blue still had some trouble. Thankfully, one of his predictions was right, he wasn't completely out of touch just yet. The girl was struggling to hit the second target, but that was normal for a tank. Her strength would only show in other types of training.

  His biggest surprises were Alex and Anaya. Both girls were hitting almost all the targets. He even made a fifth appear for them, and they got it. The rest of the class was just slightly above his evaluation. At least until Hera went to talk to Alex. When the girl came back to her arena, her progress became much faster.

  "Why the hell is training with dancing lights so goddamn effective?" Mr. Greyson mumbled while looking at the clock. He still had the recruits for another two hours, "Fine, let's see if ye all can deal with today's challenge."

  The teacher then deactivated the arena, most students slashed the air where their target was. But this time, no one lost their balance.

  "Ten-minute break, then ye all will have the challenge for the day."

  The recruits once again collapsed on the floor. This time, no one even tried to get up. Not only they were tired from the exercise. It was also really mentally taxing to look for new targets all the time.

  Mr. Greyson proceeded to pick all the student's water bottles and refill them. He even had put aside two spare bottles for each. All recruits well received this unexpected kindness. Almost all of them.

  "Leo? What's wrong?" Hera asked. The man's face was pale and his eyes wide.

  "He is being nice. Too nice. That's not good."

  Blue and Alex stared at him, confused.

  "Leo, stop being paranoid." Bonnie said while she stretched her arms.

  "No, no, no, you guys don't understand. My master is a beast with our training. Every time he did something nice for us, it was followed by hell. And Mr. Greyson is even worse."

  Blue just waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, don't try to pull us into your PTSD, the teacher is a nice guy. He recognizes our hard work."

  Leo didn't answer, but he was shaking his head.

  "The time to rest is over. Now for today's challenge."

  Mr. Greyson gave a soft smile that made the hair on Hera's neck stand up.

  "Ye will do the same thing ye were just doing. Each target ye hit will give ye points. This time, there won't be an ending, each time ye hit a target, a new one will show up. The more ye hit, the more points ye get. If a target blinks red, ye lose a few points. But don't worry, the bigger the chain, the less point ye will lose."

  The recruits got up, excited about the challenge. The exercise was doable, and everyone was confident about their chances. Mr. Greyson tapped a few keys on the tablet and the spheres appeared in the middle of the arenas. This time without a limit on how many could appear.

  Hera felt this was too easy. Yesterday, he made a full combat simulation as the challenge. Why would this time be the same as the exercise? She looked around and saw Mark going to attack his target. The first hit got him a single point, while the second sphere gave two. He even managed to hit the third sphere, that one gave him four points. Giving him a total of seven points. Each successful hit gave double the points of the last one.

  When the fourth sphere appeared, he wasn't fast enough, and the target blinked red before vanishing. At the same time, a red minus 5 showed up on the screen in front of his arena.

  Hera's eyes widened. Twenty points. Missing the fourth sphere took out 5 points from his score. Meaning that they would need to hit at least 5 targets to get a positive score. Maybe 4, if the reduction was significant.

  "Right, Ah forgot one last thing." Mr. Greyson said before tapping a button on his tablet. In response to his command, all the spheres started to move erratically. They would glide around for a few seconds and then dart to the other side of the arena, moving up, down and in every direction.

  The development shocked all of the recruits, and Leo was shaking his head. "I knew it. I knew it."

  "And remember, if ye can't beat the score, ye will be running laps after class." Mr. Greyson said in a playful tone.

  Hera looked at the screen in front of her arena.

  Target Score

  5000

  That was too much! How was she supposed to reach 5000 points?

  Even if she hit the fourth target, she would lose five points. Hitting the fifth would give her eleven points. But that was just a pipe dream. She was already having trouble hitting the third sphere, much less the fifth one.

  "Don't worry, Ah know it seems hard. But this time, ye all have half an hour extra to reach the goal." Mr. Greyson was clearly taunting them.

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