A strong wind blew from the side as Scythe ended his speech, all eyes on him widened exponentially as they felt goosebumps on every part of their body.
"W- What?.." Zayn said, his voice sounded afraid.
"— He's insane, heh.." Said Orbeth, forming a little smile to show his confusion and awe.
"So i'm gonna be fighting with a scythe starting today.. Fuck! this is interesting, i might not want to hold a sword ever again after this!" Vedra proclaimed, he also smiled upon hearing Scythe's words, however instead of being scared, he's more like thrilled with the path that will be carved for him in the future.
"This thing is really heavy, i wonder how to use this as a weapon.." Said Kalios.
"Do we really have to kill the instructor to be able to escape? So they're that cocky, i'll be using that to my advantages, and..." Seir said as he tighten his grip on the wooden scythe, he looked around to see the others, glancing at them for a brief moment before returning to face Scythe.
It was rather an unexpected reaction, atleast for Calea, she didn't think that everyone around her would be excited for this so called training when Scythe clearly said that everyone is an enemy and not a friend.
'W- what should i do.. I never practiced a sword in my whole life, i was born as a mage! You're telling me now i have to train to fight using a damn scythe!?' Calea thought, her sweats dripping continuously from her cheeks. 'Also, didn't he said that there's no friend and everyone around me is my enemy? Does that mean we'll have to fight to the death at some point!? If that happened, then my life will be over!'
'Aaghh!! what should i do.. I don't wanna die, i don't wanna die i don't wanna die.. I'm scared, this is bad, my heart is pounding really fast, i can't control my breath..'
Calea's mind was racing fast, too fast, and that made her breath became erratic, the thought of fighting against another human being at a close combat terrifies her, for her who never had any experience with actual close combat, since using magic would activates the collar device on her neck, she doesn't have any other option, it was like a dead end with no way out.
'Ah...' Just then, Calea remembered her parents, recalling the moment where she was with her father, back then, a banquet was held inside the castle, nobles from various places came to the banquet and everyone was having fun with drinks and foods, at that time, Calea was dancing among the noble crowds and saw his parents smiling towards her and her brothers, not only that, she also saw Arken waving his hand from the distance with a wide smile, it was an unforgettable memory for her.
After remembering that moment, Calea's mind began showing her a memory of when she was still a child, presumably 7 years old, Arken was companying her with her magic training.
"Agh!! this is too hard! i can't hit that dummy!!" Said Calea at the time, she was complaining because her water cannon always land on the ground right before hitting the target dummy.
"Haha, you're just not using enough power, Princess.. Let's try again!" Arken said, cheering her up with his hand gesture.
"Ughh, i don't know if i want to do this anymore!"
Seeing Calea's frustration, Arken decided to grab Calea by her shoulders and force her to look at him in the eyes, Arken's face was something that Calea didn't expect to see from close, so when she saw Arken that time, she felt a little embarrassed.
"AH—
"Princess, that won't do, if you give up now, you'll miss all of the opportunities you will encounter in the future, just imagine this, what if.. In this next shot, your water cannon will hit the dummy?" Arken said sternly.
"...But im tired already— Can we continue this tomo—
"No, no! Try it one last time, and this time, i want you to gather all of your focus and channel your mana as precise as possible, let your imagination run wild, throw away the basic of magic that you learned from books and change it to however you fit in your mind."
"Ugh!! Arken you stupid!! Fine!" Calea shouted at Arken's face.
She reluctantly agree to fire one last water cannon, first she closed her eyes, imagined a magic circle forming infront of her hands, and then navigate the mana inside of her body to the magic circle, while at the same time forming an image of a water shooting as a small point within her subconsciousness.
Calea tried to be focused as hard as she can, her face showed some wrinkles from how hard she is focusing, her mind was filled with nothing but an instruction on how to make her cannon stronger and brighter, after a grueling 30 seconds, she managed to form a perfect image of a water cannon on her head, that water was gurgling in chaos like the raging waves and Calea opened her eyes to see a beam of water being launched infront of her at an insane speed.
BOOM!
At that moment, Calea couldn't believe her eyes, there was silence in the training ground, nothing but the splashing sound from the wet and broken training dummy.
"I.. I did it..." Calea said.
"See? Princess Calea, if you just tried your best, if you never give up, someday anything you dream about, it will come true."
"Y- You're right.. Arken, Y- YOU'RE RIGHT!!"
***
It was a long memory, but it didn't even took more than 5 seconds for Calea to recall all of it, that memories managed to calm her down, and Calea's heart rate was back to normal, although there's still a lot of sweats on her body, the feeling of dread that previously dwelled inside of her mind, has now gone.
"Well, i don't know if this is an opportunity or not, but i'll gladly take it, bring it on.. I will kill you all." Said Carsel, boasting his confidence.
Calea took a short glance at Carsel, and thought..
'If i want to survive, i will have to beat that guy!'
Just then, something inside her snapped, it's as if something began to crack, and no one knows how long it will be before that crack completely shattered.
"Goddamn, you're making it hard for me to not grin.." Said Scythe, his voice was low, but it can still be heard by everyone. "Right, that's why we created this place anyway, you're not scared of death aren't you?"
"Haaahh.. Okay, now.. LISTEN!– As i have said earlier, we will use this scythe as our weapon.. However, i have to ask you guys this question..."
Everyone including Calea prepared their ears to hear Scythe's question, from his face alone, they expect it would be something unhinged or confusing, but when everyone was at the edge of their seat, Scythe then calmly said..
"Just, what is a Scythe?.."