38 Training 21

"Did you hear that?" A toughed guy named Ray suddenly asked a question while they are venturing the mountain.

"Yeah, it came on the other side of this location." Shiori answered his question while gazing around the field.

"I can actually feel a lot of tense and mana accumulation in that place. What could've happened there?" He followed.

"I have two individual choices. One, they are dead because they have encountered an enemy that is pretty unbeatable and dangerous. And two, they have killed the enemy using high-powered elemental magic and that's where the noises came out." She blatantly pointed out all possibilities without any problem.

"Uh... yeah... Probably." Ray gave a weird expression as he heard the answer.

"What? Do you have a problem? I answered it correctly, right?" She glared at him noticing that he's literally not into her opinion at all.

"Oh, I uh... Nothing..." Ray laughed it off and continued to walk through the path.

(That's pretty damn straightforward, how can she even act like it is nothing when she mentioned that maybe those Astrochist over there are already dead. Thinking about, it actually scares me and I might bail out of this situation if things are bad.) Ray shrugged his feelings by shaking himself. Everyone noticed this but they didn't really call out to him.

"Adara, are you okay?" Shiori didn't mind Ray at all and she just proceeded to look after Adara who's been feeling ill for quite a while now.

"Not really... I'm feeling dizzy as we walk. Is there a place that we can rest for a while?" She murmured in a weak yet uninterested voice.

"I'm not really sure, we're currently in the southwest of this mountain. Our trial will be commenced near the waterfall so I doubt that there will be some flat landscape that we can use to rest." Shiori said.

"I see... That's really unfortunate then." Adara continued to walk while facing her palm. All of the fire elemental users are situated in the southwest area of the mountain where a big part of the water resources can be found. The trial is bound to happen if they reached the center field, and that area mostly has a lot of caves and trees.

Aside from that, they need to be aware of what kind of creatures they might encounter while venturing the stream. One would think that a waterfall and a cave is not really a perilous place but that impression would've tampered if all of them have experienced what Nile experienced back in the cave Deidre.

Even so, they continued to and follow the path in a group of 8 as well. Each group is divided based on their abilities as suggested by Pier and Lars who's been leading and training them. Dividing them up is pretty essential because teamwork will play a big part in a role in their fighting strategies. That is also the case for the other Astrochist but the thing is, fire elemental users are mainly for the front line because they have the most destructive power in the elemental history. If one group has all the strongest members, then there is a chance that the other group may fell and die because of their lack of firepower.

Considering that most of them are pretty new, there's no guarantee that they may survive the trial if there's no teamwork. That's why dividing them up is the most optimal solution they could ever do based on their levels.

One group should have at least one strong member and one good at tactics and a supporter. Even though they are all the same, it is pretty understandable that not all of them can handle all the roles that are assigned to them. For example, some fire elemental mages are not really good at fighting so they used their fire for saving people or healing them. And they could pretty much say the same for the opposite side, if a fire elemental user is not capable of defending the front line, they are assigned as a supporter for the team as they fight.

"Are we there yet?" Ray and the others are exhausted as they climb the steep rocky mountain.

"Yeah, this is the place..." Shiori responded.

As soon as they reached the peak of the cliff, they saw a massive stream of the river coming from the edges of the mountain down to the bottom where they can find a lot of caves and dark trees that are strange.

"I'm not gonna lie, this place is nothing like what they have been telling us, I mean..." Ray smiled as he walked closer to the stream.

"Hey, no, watch where you are going!" Shiori warned him but after a few seconds, Ray suddenly fell down into the stream and he was captured by the fall.

"AAAAA!" He screamed.

"Damn it!" Shiori boosted herself using her fire elemental skills and followed the stream. She immediately rides the water even though it is pretty dangerous.

"Adara! I'm leaving everything to you!" Before she lost sight of her teammates, Shiori was able to shout pretty clear to let Adara know that she is going to be handling the rest.

"Oh come on..." She nagged.

"What should we do?" Everyone has been asking the same question. They were all panicking as they saw what happened to Ray.

"Everyone!" Suddenly, a loud voice resonated around them and they all turned back to see who shouted it.

It was a mysterious guy who hasn't been able to interact with them for quite a while now. His name is Akai.

"Akai?" Adara mentioned his name in a perplexed expression.

"As you guys might have known, the stream is going down from the top to the bottom. We're not here to stay, we need to follow those two who has been caught by the water in order for us to star the trial. That's the whole purpose of this if you guys don't want to die, follow me and let's get this over with." Akai suddenly burst into the air and he quickly rode the stream below to catch up with them.

Everyone was dumbfounded by his persona but they all think it is best to have someone in the lead. Adara was surprised by this and wasn't able to comprehend what just happened. And after a few moments, everyone has started sliding down to catch up with three and they didn't worry about anything else.

"That guys is really mysterious..." Adara said to herself as she joined the ride.

"AAAAAA! HELP ME!" Ray kept on struggling while he is sliding down.

"Hold on to me!" With quick reflexes, Shiori has managed to derail the stream as she grabbed Ray's hand and they all fell down in a safe landing point. The burst of the waves exploded and the stream was bombarded with their physical bodies. Shiori stood up and grabbed Ray, they were wet and injured.

"Phew! Thanks for helping me!" Ray bowed down but without even realizing, Shiori kicked him in the chest and he fell down.

"AWW! Why would you do that?" He nagged.

"You're so clumsy that you got us all in trouble?" She said as she glared at him.

"Wha do you mean us? We're the only ones here!" After saying that, Adara and the rest of their teammates have fallen down into the stream causing more destruction and explosion of water.

"AHH!" Ray once again fell down and lost his foundation.

"yo..." Adara greeted him with a nonchalant expression.

"You shouldn't do that, man." Akai followed her.

"Damn it, I caused some trouble again." With all that nuisance and murmurings, a girl with a short hair held her hand. Ray gazed at her and he grabbed this to help him stand up again.

"T-Thank you..." The girl didn't respond and she is not really doing any interactions as well. Ray was confused by this but he didn't really ask her or anything. He just continued to follow where everyone else is going.

"Where are we and what is this place?" Adara asked.

"Most likely, we're in the grand entrance of the cave. I'm not so sure, but I feel like we are inside the mountain now considering that the stream took us below." Akai answered.

"What!? We're inside now!" Ray exclaimed.

"Yeah..." Shiori responded.

"If that's the case then why do we need to climb up to reach that peak if we're just going to venture a strange cave?" He asked in a raspy voice and dumb expression.

"The reason why is because the only entrance to this cave is by going in on that top of the hill where the waterfall originated. We didn't actually find any shortcuts or secondary path that leads to this cave. Not to mention, if there is any path at all, we should've already seen it just by taking the main path. You can tell that there's a lot of weird entrances just by looking at the shape of the compound." Akai explained it.

"Wow, you sure knew a lot considering that you were invisible for the rest of the training session," Adara responded.

"I'm not sure how to respond to that but I have a feeling that what you are saying is true." He said. Adara raised her eyebrow as she heard the response.

"Still though, there is a lot of minerals here. What do you think about the things you might see at the end of this long hallway like a cave?" Ray asked while walking.

"Probably some dangerous infernals..." Shiori stopped her momentum and everyone twitched.

"Woah hey, what happened?" Ray asked.

"SHH!" Shiori abruptly stopped him.

Upon reaching the end of the long cave hallway. A rocky creature that is made our of minerals and has a burning head appeared on the long end. There are at least forty of them waiting to attack the Astrochist.

"This is bad news to all of us." Akai said.

"You don't have to tell us that! Fire Magick Skill: Triple fireball!" Adara started attacking the infernals but as soon as the fireball reached their armor, it didn't do anything. It was a complete resistance from fire elemental skills.

"Oh god, you have gotta be kidding me. So our enemies are just like us but more complex and scary!" Ray exclaimed.

"That is pretty much how you describe it but I think we still have a chance to beat this thing if we are working together instead of complaining." Shiori boosted herself while roasting Ray. She suddenly engaged in a combat position and tried to punch the infernals but even after hitting them with her full firepower, it didn't do much of a damage.

"Adara!" She called Adara.

"On it! Fire Magic Skill: Firebolt!" Adara used a little bit of imbued mana and she created a massive wave of fire that has a combination of electricity. The whole cave shook because of the intense firepower and the heat gradually reached the end of the hallway. And without any dispute, the infernal was destroyed in one hit.

"So we need to kick their ass first before hitting them with a maximum fire spell? That's a lot of work man!" Ray continued to brag and complain about the strategy.

"Shut up, Ray. Just help us here, and if you don't want to do this, just think of a way or a new strategy to help us." Adara scolded him.

"Alright alright! I'll help you guys now." Ray stood up and stepped back for a bit to gain some control. He grabbed his PEWC and started to boost it using the synchronization release method. After that, his wand has sprouted a spear that is made out of copper. It has a bit of metallic coordination but overall it is pretty nice to use.

Ray engaged the infernals and tried to hold them off by quickly swinging his spear around and it made so much mess.

"God, you really suck at fighting." Shiori just stared at him while he holds them off.

"I know that!" Ray responded as he forces himself to defeat one infernal.

Everyone started engaging them as well with their own personal wand control weapon and with the ability of the synchronized release, they have managed to attack the infernal without any trouble.

"This is so much harder than I thought!" Ray shouted.