CHAPTER 5: A BIGGER VESSEL FOR THE ENDLESS FLOWING POWER

"Alright, all of you guys take a sit and listen, I'm only going to say this once" Artemis stood up then writes on the board with the words "Class S vs. Class A. Time of battle next week Friday." As soon as Artemis was done, she told the class, "Okay. You all are participating in the Freshman Siege happening next week, Friday. So you all need to train because the other Gods will be watching you. So today onwards until the freshman siege we'll be training none stop, the teachers gave us specialized training these include further physical training, team training, power training, and weakness compensations. I saw some of my classmates training to increase their power output, while some others getting Hand-to-hand combat lessons to compensate for their lack of short-range attacks. While me…" Artemis…what is this?" I point to a clay pot filled with burning coal. "Hmm? Oh, that well." She points to the pot, then said "you punch the coals and let your hand sit there for 5 seconds then alternate, then after that once you can handle it I'll increase the heat." I looked at her dumbfounded, but I can see she was serious, so I went with it, but after the training I had burned in my hands and Artemis said that I'm not allowed to get it healed or heal it myself, and with that the first day of training ended.

During the course of the week I've been mostly conditioning my body to keep up with the power I got from the blessing, it got to the point where I had to soak my hand in gasoline to keep my hands burning eventually when the burn was too much, they would heal it to a certain point. I just got used to it, because the fires of Hachiman burns very hot, and I think that having a good fire resistance will be key if I want to improve my power output. "Hey kid." Artemis called me, I took my hand off the fire then looked at her while my hand is still burning because of gasoline. "I think conditioning is good enough for now. Do this whenever you're training, but now we need to improve your blessing. From now on, I want you to shoot FPA as much as you can with the orange flame. Right now, you have unlocked orange flames, and now we have to focus on that." She then took me to the range, then made me shoot the fire piercing arrow nonstop. After all of that, I could handle the orange flame, and I feel like I'm lacking something. While I'm happy with my progress, something is missing, I can feel it.

The day of the battle is here, and I can feel everyone is in the edge and nervous about the fight, I'm not judging them because I'm also nervous but even so we need to be put at ease otherwise we will be defeated… I go in front of the class to say, "Well today's the day, huh? I can tell that we're all feeling the pressure and kinda nervous about this, but we all trained for this. Don't let that hard work go to waste. WE are class 1-S, let's show them why we're put here." The class took a deep breath then said "Let's show them who the best is!!" but then someone familiar stood up and was visibly pissed. "Don't tell me what to do, you forsaken bastard, because at the end of the day we know that I'm gonna be the key that will make the class win this crap." Then bumped shoulders with me, something in me ignited… it was something I never really had the chance to feel because of the constant fear of being bullied… it engulfed my soul in flames hot enough to burn anything in my path. "We'll, if you're so sure, why don't we take it to the battlefield?" Sensen looked back almost instantly with the sudden change of tone in my voice. "What?!?! Think you're better than me? I'll kick 1-A's asses, then yours after." I can feel this emotion adding fuel to the fire, making it burn even hotter. "Try me you war freak lapdog." Sensen got even angrier than said, "You're dead, you bastard." Then slams the door. I looked to the others then apologized because I didn't know what came over me…they all said "It's fine dude, let's win this as a class!" I smiled then nodded, lead them outside to the forest arena.

The class walks to the forest arena and saw sensen already there and waiting. Then the announcer came, "ALRIGHT, WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE ANNUAL FRESHMAN SIEGE!!!" the other students cheered hard. Meanwhile, the students in the arena felt the pressure. "ALRIGHT THIS IS SIEGE, HOW THIS WORKS IS THAT CLASS-1S AND CLASS-1A WILL BE ON OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ARENA AND THE ATTACKING TEAM WILL TRY TO CAPTURE THE DEFENDING TEAM'S FLAG. FIRST TO TWO POINTS WILL WIN THE FRESHMAN SIEGE. COMBATANTS GO TO YOUR SIDES! THE ATTACKING TEAM IS CLASS 1A" the announcer said as we went to our side we were given 5 minutes of prep time before the battle ensued, we had our gear ready, and it was time for tactics they were silent feeling the pressure. Once again I took the front and took their attentions "Alright guys just a few minutes left before the battle starts, and we have to plan our defense, I say that some of us can go into the forest and take out any stray enemies trying to flank. Our heavy hitters should stay here where it's more probable to launch an all-out attack as a ruse to make some room for the flankers, that means Sensen, the Nakamura twins, Watanabe, Masa, Tsuki, Megumi, and Smirnova will hold down the fort." Some of them nodded, and I saw Sensen not pleased that I'm leading the battle plan, well we have no choice It's either I speak up or we're going to crash and burn. "Sensen you'll front the defense, take out as many as you like, you are in-charge of the Primary Defense team" I looked at him directly in the eyes, and he replies with "Don't tell me what to do." Then walked out then stood at the front of the gate, I nodded signaling them to get into position. "Alright now us we are the flank defense I will take Luke and Aoi are coming with me to the west side of the arena, Reed, Onako and Yang you guys will take the east we will not be in contact with each other so Reed you're in-charge of the east side flank defense.

With that we wrapped up our 5 minutes and the announcer said "COMBATANTS AT THE READY! LET THE SEIGE BEGIN!!!" The battle has started, and the Gods have cast a soundproofing spell in the arena so that we don't hear the people outside. "I think we should advance just in case they launch a focused attack on the main defense so that we can flank" Luke said to me, I nod then point to advance "Aoi go ahead of us and recon. Any discovery is useful. Don't put yourself in danger, fall back and spread it throughout the class before going back to us." Aoi nodded then went ahead while Luke and I advanced on the ground. "How was Hand-to-hand combat training?" I asked Luke, "Well its good I know the basics, we're going to need it later." After a while of walking, Aoi came back and told us that Class 1-A had formed 2 squads, one is to attack, and 2 is for long range attack. I nodded then instructed to Aoi to inform the 2 other teams about the plan of attack, when Aoi came back it's time to move on to the next phase.