Training Exercise IV

Having exchanged a series of blows with the group of humans, Bunbun rapidly reduced his size as he fled.

Yuki held out his hand to stop Rosabel from chasing after the creature. "Stop. There's something fishy about this."

Rosabel raised a brow, but she trusted Yuki's instincts. She was more surprised that Dominique had not given chase as well.

When she turned to look at him, she saw that he was staring behind them.

Turning her head, she made a startled sound.

"Yuki, Hayden's gone!"

"What?"

Hayden was indeed gone, and there was no trace of a fight, or any sort of struggle at all. While other's first thoughts might have been that Hayden had 'betrayed' them, the three remaining Spectres knew better.

Yuki immediately used his magic, stifling the curse that wanted to leave his mouth. "It was boss!" he said, his voice disgruntled.

"As expected," Rosabel said dryly. She always knew that their boss wasn't as clean as he looked! Just look at what he did to Dominique after taking advantage of him those few times in solitary confinement.

If Alec knew that she still thought Alec had some sort of fling with Dominique, he really wouldn't know whether to laugh or to cry. They were thinking too much! What could possibly happen between an eight-year-old child and a teenager? Not to mention, they thought that Dominique was on the bottom.

Tracing the tracks, Yuki's eyes slid across, only to feel grudging respect and admiration for their boss' tactics.

Yuki was frustrated. "He's been giving us the run-around. Let's go!"

The three didn't exchange more words, picking up their pace to a quick dash.

Alec's smile curved when he saw that they'd changed tactics.

Reaching a particular section of the forest, Alec silently hid in the shadow of a tree, waiting for the three to arrive.

Within a minute, they appeared. Two pairs of determined eyes, and a pair of fanatical eyes locked onto his form.

Alec was faced away from them, and the three didn't even hesitate when they split into three.

The teamwork between the three Spectres was commendable, especially when Alec considered that with Dominique's personality, he was the type that preferred to work alone without any teamwork whatsoever.

That he had managed to so seamlessly insert himself into their pair took more intelligence and effort than one knew they needed and spoke of his martial prowess.

He had not wrested control from Yuki but instead silently followed along, doing his part flawlessly.

Alec hadn't originally been planning to knock Hayden out, but since he'd been presented with the chance, he didn't waste it. While he would have liked to take out either Rosabel or Dominique, the two were already advanced rank, and his sneak attack might not necessarily have worked.

Since he had the chance, then he would have been a fool not to weaken them. Alec had never been the type that would allow his enemy to remain unscathed and untouched throughout.

In any case, he would rather not alert or face them in a situation that they would be able to instantly counterattack and gain the upper hand.

Yuki was now approaching him from the front while Rosabel and Dominique were commencing a pincer attack on him.

Alec smiled.

Good plan, but not good enough.

There was a reason why he was waiting here for them.

The three Spectres approached him in a manner that reflected the perfect speed and tactical planning, as if they'd discussed it before splitting up.

"Boss," Yuki greeted.

While his stance was casual, Yuki knew that their boss knew that he was putting on an act of casualness in his stance.

"Yuki."

Without warning, Yuki attacked, exchanging a series of quick blows from Alec without any pause. However, the help that he was anticipating coming from Rosabel and Dominique did not come.

Yuki leapt back, dodging the light punch from Alec, his eyes narrowing. Something had gone wrong, but he didn't feel as bitter as he thought he would. Their boss had been giving all of them the run around since the beginning, after all.

Still, he could see that this 'training exercise' that the boss had proposed was rather stacked in the Spectre's favour instead of his own.

Sure enough, when Dominique appeared, there were tears and cuts on him, whereas Rosabel did not make a sound.

A bad feeling crept up on him. Rosabel had likely been knocked out by whatever trap that the boss had set.

It finally clicked that it wasn't Yuki and the rest that had led their boss into a trap, but rather that their boss was the one who had led them into a trap. He'd been too careless, not realizing that for the boss to stop somewhere, there had to be something else to it!

Yuki sighed, raising his hands in surrender. He walked to the side, still keeping an eye on the red flag that peeked out from their boss' belt.

Dominique's eyes could have lit up a dark room had they not been concealed under the cloth. There was a grin forming on his face as he attacked.

They exchanged a series of pure martial technique and no magic.

Though it wasn't anything flashy, Yuki admired the work that the two had put in. The two moved together, exchanging moves that looked as elegant as a dance.

Their combat instincts were something to be admired by all. There was a flexibility and unpredictability in Dominique's moves that were countered by Alec's rigid style.

Though Alec's style might appear rigid at first glance, he was able to accurately use it in a split second to meet Dominique head on, choosing the most suitable form to meet him head on.

The longer the fight went on, the more Dominique's eyes glittered, feeling like his boss was really his boss. He hadn't been wrong choosing those few years ago.

Still, he didn't use his magic because he subconsciously thought that it wasn't any fun for him to use his vastly higher magic rank to bully his boss.

"Use it," Alec said instead, causing Dominique's grin to grow.

Throwing aside whatever thoughts he had about holding back, Dominique used his offensive magic.

Every time his body moved, there was the feeling of flames in the air. Dominique's presence changed sharply, growing, threatening to consume and burn everyone to cinders.

Alec felt a shiver run up his spine as the adrenaline spiked through him, his heart pumping blood throughout every part of his body.

There was a part of him that had been longing for combat and violence that he could no longer wrestle into submission.

Inwardly, Alec was grinning just as savagely as Dominique was.

Dominique slammed his fist forward, where Alec quickly dodged backwards, retreating a good distance as he felt the surge of magic from the man.

Sure enough, the punch that missed connected with the ground, causing a surge of blue fire to spread out in an area attack.

Dominique laughed; the joy thick evident in his voice, stunning Yuki, who then grinned. After all, they were all Sins who loved battle unconditionally.

Dominique and Alec continued exchanging earth-shaking blows, only for Dominique's magic reserves to start running dry. This caused him to stumble when the correlation between his magic and fighting style manifested itself.

Alec's eyes sharpened, taking advantage of this.

Using a single step, he approached Dominique's space where he could not smoothly use his moves, knocking him out with an ample amount of force.

Dominique's last thought was that his boss was too cool!

He then kicked off against the ground again, dodging Yuki's hands.

Yuki smiled wryly. In the end, he'd still failed to take the flag from Alec's hands. Now, it was too late. The three-hour interval was up.

"Good job," Alec said warmly to them.

Yuki looked at Alec, stunned, then flushed slightly.