Academy days (Book 2 of IA)

[12] The gap is real

We were once again walking underneath the protective shades of the forest, with me and Veritas walking side by side. Apparently she couldn't perform flight magic at the time, due to her recent mana expenditure in the previous battle.

"Kard." She said my name.

"Yes?" I replied casually.

"What do you usually do for hobbies?"

I thought for a moment, then went with the most straight forward honest answer:

"I ride my bike, read books, write books, play some Leacue, and watch anime..."

"What's leacue and anime?"

"Leacue is short for Leacue of Lecends. It's an online multiplayer MOBA type game." I looked to Veritas whose face spelled absolutely clueless, so I quickly added: "Or you can just think of it as a video game."

"Oh, I see." She clasped her hand together, pretending to know.

"And yeah, Anime is just a type of eastern animated cartoon. And don't even make me go through my 'recommended to watch list'." I said casually.

"I wouldn't mind to hear it." She smiled innocently at me.

My mind stumbled for a moment, and after a brief recovery, my mind went straight diving for the list.

"You don't have to force yourself." She smiled meekly.

"Oh-ok." I said, relieved for the break.
"I am curious to ask, and if it is too personal I won't ask..."

"It's fine." I replied. Then I kind of gave her a whole run down of the whole terrorist event, with the exception of leaving out a few minor details...and during the whole time explained, Veritas tentatively listened and didn't say a single word.

"I see, then what happened to your other limbs?"

Of course, the sleeve of my uniform is ripped open so it's obvious too see my robotic right arm as well. And since I left my shoes behind, my robotic feet was in bare view as well.

"Long story, I guess it all started when I joined the Iron Angel division."

"Iron Angel?"

"Yes, sorry I can't talk about the details of the program, but just think of it special military training."

"Interesting." She waited for me to continue.

"Yeah, when I first joined, it was just me and my commander Isa."

"Isa..." she weighed the name on her tongue for a moment, "that sounds like a women's name."

"Yeah, but she acts more like a demon then an actual human."

"Did she hurt you?" there was a slight edge of concern in her voice.

"Well, she did knock me out several times, but I honestly deserved it. I mean, she's a great commander, and really she's just disciplining us."

Veritas went silent for so long, I could have mistaken her for a walking statue before she finally spoke up again:

"That's fine then...I suppose." She said, her voice betraying no emotion.

"Oh, yeah and now we have 5 people in the team, me, Isa, Rumble, Kuro and Biggy who's a pingu! Can you believe it?"

She paused for a moment, and just as I thought I screwed up again, she replied:

"A pingu? You mean those round buoyant birds?"

"Yep."

She covered her lips with her hand and giggled, and I laughed along.

"Inconceivable. You're not making this up are you?"

"Nope, not at all."

"Your team is quite the interesting batch."

"Indeed." I found myself nodding.
Veritas looked as if she was about to say something, but was then interrupted by a shriek of cry from afar.
After a quick silent exchange, we ran straight towards the source. While I ran, Veritas managed to keep equal pace with me by gliding several inches above ground. By the time we arrived what appears to be a forest clearing, a dozen students were already there, and fighting what appears to be. For all the years in my life, I had never seen creatures as such before. They walked on all 4 fours, with a slim build from tail to head. It had green scales like a lizard, glowing red eyes, knife like teeth and it's most distinctive feature being its ridiculously long finger nails that were the same length as my forearm. And if these things stood upright, they could easily stand at the same height of a grown man. I am no animal expert, but a gut feeling told me these cursed creatures were anything but natural. If not, then what I am seeing before me may just be the products of abomination let loose from hell. I watch with horrid as one of those monsters managed to piggy back on the students, and attempted to bite his head off. Another student made an ill attempt to run, only to draw the attention of several more monster, who all at once dived on him like vulture to a carcass.

"What are those things?" I said with stricken horror.

Veritas lips only twitched at the question, then instead of answering my question, she raised her hand and gestured for me to back:

"Stand back." She said with a deep authoritative voice that I didn't think it was possible from her, it was as if some sort of ancient powerful being possessed her or something. Nonetheless I instinctively obeyed her and backed away.

"Yager tamis lucario..."

As she chanted, I feel the air around us began to get sucked in. Breathing became more difficult, and when I looked to Veritas, I began to see vague outline of what appears to be the wind, wrapping its self around her like protective cocoon.

"ESTEA!" the moment she releases her spell, I felt a wave of great gale surging forward. The force being so great, that even though I was behind the spell cast, I was almost thrown off my feet by the sheer force of it.

The ones at the front were the unluckiest, as the monsters harassing the students were thrown so far out, drawing a star at the point where they disappeared only felt appropriate. And as far as I can see out of the chaos using my naked eye, any small trees within 50 meters of her spell range were knocked flat to the ground. The student on the other hand appeared to be unharmed, and seemed just as puzzled as I am.

With my jaw hanging open to the point of unhinging I turned to Veritas once again, who turned and responded me with a simple smile.

Veritas S. Aeolus. 4th year higher institute student, school rank 10, threat level S. Specializes in advanced wind incantation magic.

Later on, I came to learn what I witnessed that day was only a glimpse of what the top students of IIMT are capable of. Truly and with no way of denying:

The gap is real.

Q: What are your hobbies?