Chapter 007

THIRD PERSON'S P.O.V

"Hey, do you think we have the slightest chance of winning?"

Zero faces Casa, curiosity and doubt clouding her head for what might happen to all of them is transparent to her glistened eyes.

"Honestly? I don't know. But now we do really need to polish your individual abilities."

He answers without sugar coating his words and even the distance he put himself in between them, his eyes still didn't fail to see the instant arch of Lods' eyebrow.

He never wanted to shave someone's eyebrow this much—just for once for his peace of mind.

"And didn't you specifically emphasizes that our individual fighting is faulty before? Now you're spitting about polishing our own different abilities. You sure you ain't here to make fun out of us?"

Zero conjured his patience from the deep well where it fell, exhaling through his nose so rough he looked like a bull ready to fight but not moving a single muscle from where he stand.

This insufferable man really have some guts, testing his thinning resolve that no one had ever manage to do so before.

"Yes and no"

He replied calmly as he can, a very contrasting image on what he is doing to the other inside his mind.

"We need to enhance your individual abilities so that it will make OUR team to fight with ease—to come back alive. I'm not a hundred percent convinced that we will win because I don't know who the enemies will be and what skills they have. Besides, doing what I am suggesting can make the team get more acquainted and knowledgeable about on what, how, and when are you going to respond to each other."

Again, to Zero's delight, Lods bit his tongue in silence and sharply tear his gaze away at him.

"Do you think that's what we seriously need to do?"

With a smirk of triumph wanting to break out off his lips from the view of the other being rendered speechless, Zero faces Casa with only a fresh, lighthearted smile and briskly nodded.

"We can definitely reduce casualty if we were to fight as a team and not as any other solos. But we need to sharpen and strengthen your own skills for the sake of our team mates—especially me considering I'll act as your doctor and I can't possibly stitch your skins every damn time, that'll eat my stamina and small amount of mana. And I hope you do know the difference between the individual and team work is there's no 'i' in the latter."

"What's a doctor?"

Zero never wanted to strangle himself other than Lods.

For all the explanation he said, that's the only thing that got struck interest. He looked at Tanus with his face void of any emotion. Calculating his choices of answer to the man who looks up at him with eyes glimmering with excitement of probably learning a new word. To say the least, he really looked like a kid not with the wide smile and pleading eyes for him to start speaking.

"Oh? Indeed what is that. You must of have heard it wrong, I perfectly pronounced 'healer' and not that word"

Zero saved himself of explaining that he lives to another world and got unexpectedly stab there by his oddly jealous of a co-worker and just thankfully got reincarnated here to rebuild his life that suddenly got taken to him that will surely follows after he introduce the unknown word to them.

Yes, he most definitely will erase that life of his before.

A beat of silence and curious gaze after his dumb retort comes a question from Rox, who pulled herself back together, that Zero quickly answered to stir away the conversation from the mysterious word.

"All agreed then. When will the practice begins?"

"Tomorrow—the sooner the better. Each of you has their own practice regime so prepare yourself and make sure you are at your best lest you all drain my mana from every healing I would do. One at a time therefore the rest can watch your practice and imprint it to their minds."

"Tss. As if. Then what are you going to do?"

A question is all he needed and not some more of it.

Why, of all people, is he being acquainted with someone who held a grudge to him for no apparent reason at all?

"/I/ am also going to practice in which cases /you/ got yourself hurt and preferably in /silence/. Healing is what I can do hence I need no audience to where I can gloat my skill. Nonetheless, I can assure you that everytime you need me I am there to offer my help."

He bit back with his bulging eyes pinning Lods to where he stands and scoffs from another hole of speechless-ness the other had fall in.

"Tch."

The only reply he get. Not even a single glance of disdain from the other.

"So it's settled. Tomorrow, after the sun's rays reached the whole capital, all of us will be back here for practice. We will wait at the front part of the forest until everyone is present before we start"

Casa immediately fills in after the annoyed cluck of tongue Lods answered to him. Announcing the final talk they had all agreed on.

Zero heave a big spent sigh after Casa dismissed them all for today.

••••

Zero agreed upon himself on going home early since he has tons of works at hand. Just the time he swings his bag off him and toss it on the floor, he drops his weight on his bed and tortured his brain on thinking how to best unleash the limit of the abilities of his /now/ comrades. He can't think of any ways on making all his teammates survive after the big event, BigBang, but to make them fit into a proper team fight and pray to the heavens to give them mercy.

The word alone already caught him off guard seeing this is a different world meaning they may or may not stuck it on how this planet got construsted on its own. Yet this BigBang thingy unbelievably—undeniably is also at its wake on this place albeit a whole bit different.

After what information he had gathered about this, he hope they will come out alive and unscratched—he can heal, that can be dealt with. He surely wish that this regime will help them all. As for him, he can undoubtedly walk out with limbs intact and breathing calm although he isn't positively sure if he'll get the taste of victory.

After what he had learn, BigBang has something fishy going around. A suspicious system that he will soon about to unravel before everyone's eyes;

From the past competitors in BigBang, only those who didn't lift a single weapon got the liberty to turn back.

; or not, maybe he'll just be quiet about it until someone notices it too. After all he wants no attention focused to him.

Zero owlishly blinks at the scarred wall of his small room. Drowned in his thoughts that he didn't notice the spreading darkness on his surroundings.

"Well, it's time to go to sleep. Let's see...tomorrow will just be another day to survive. Here's me hoping my day would turn around and people leave me alone."

He heave out, again, a one last deep breath, perhaps exhaustion paired with irritation, and went to give himself the sleep he needed most.

••••

When Zero fell asleep he found himself again in the same place from yesterday.

White surroundings, voices afloat that he can't recognize, and a body that not a single limb he can move.

This is the second time around!

'I can't fucking move any muscle!'

Zero had already screamed in his thought all the profanities he knows all while furiously forcing his body to move. But, with luck not siding him, he can't.

After what felt like years of struggling from the invisible binds that's restricting him, Zero closes his lids to block the blinding lights. Tiring himself of the futile thing he was doing that by the time he let his body be defeated by the binds, an unknown force pulled him out.

•••

Morning.

Zero unceremoniously wake up with a jolt, the sun halfway on waking all the residents of the place. He gave a hard glare to the ceiling as he think through about it.

'What in the world is that? Have I successfully been bewitch?'

His brows furrows on the ludicrous thought that he may be got bewitched by someone but it's the closest one he got.

'Who though?'

Without any real reason for the short list of names he have, Lods' smirking-punchable face pops out in his mind.

Zero blinks, taken aback despite himself.

Lods doesn't like him—he made sure Zero knew that in every possible way—at all but it doesn't make sense. He's a /guy!/ Is it rightfully of him to think that a guy like him would use some witchcraft to get revenge? Because it's really unlikely for Lods to be this low seeing how prideful of a man he is—wait...

'Impossible. Clearly out of logic. I know Lods later that day after the first dream'

Clearing his mind out of all this stupidity, Zero releases a long breath to calm himself and to ebb away the foregoing headache behind his head.

It's still a mystery to him and Lods' hatred to him is another.

Zero eventually forced himself to get up and do his morning rituals. Packing his things later for the practice and after that went to jog to their one-sided agreed waiting area.

Before the burning rays of the sun begin to roast him, one by one, his team mates arrived, hopefully, in their best shapes.

Of course the last one to show up having all his fun walking like a goddamn model is Lods—the eye-sore.

"Alright, a bright morning everyone!"

Casa beamed before Zero had the chance to spit fire on how long they have to wait because he was so /late/ on the face of the other, having herself in her high-pitch of a behavior again.

"Let's go!"