Maple High School Academy Hidden Year 1
The Vision from the Sky - Surprise

Surprise

NOT HALF A YEAR, Shalima felt this year was not the year. Successive misadventures had happened to him since the beginning of the year and he had never felt this bad. The Dragons of Porsche were not the worst.

Speaking of that spiritual dragon, he reappeared in Shal's dream last night. Shal was on the back of one of the Dragon Porsesa's children, while the dragon mother and her other two sons flew in front of her. They flew over a golden castle in the desert. From a height, Shal could see that there was a battle going on in the palace courtyard. The dragon master then shouted, like giving a warning. After that they all flew higher and higher and an explosion was heard from the direction of the palace.

“Energy is used for training, not daydreaming!”

Shalima once admitted that the bass sound is very good to his ears, but if he was scorned by the on mode, the sound became like a rombeng can. Instead of turning to the origin of the voice that spoke to him, Shal turned his face to look at the trees.

“In addition to being dumb and mute, are you deaf too?”

Ah, it turns out that the trees in the Battle Arena are pretty-beautiful as well.

Shal tries to shift his mind with positive things.

“Don’t provoke, me, Shal!” Thann pulled Shal's arm so that now the girl was facing him. Shal stared at Thann sharply, without taking out a word.

“We need to talk,” says Thann firmly. An attitude that does not help if you want to talk to an angry girl.

“Hai!” Suddenly Amara appears beside Shal. Shalima was relieved to feel Amara could save her. However, his face returned grim when he saw the Elf girl coming with Zovras.

“I can talk to Shalima for a second, right?” Thann asked for permission, but it sounded more like giving an order.

 “It seems that it can't be because Shal and I want to train together now,” replied Amara flatly. Here's what's exciting, fellow haughty people insist on each other's wishes.

“Alright,” Thann relented, “Then I will wait for you guys to finish training.”

“Oh, how about you come practice with us? The more, the merrier, right?”

Amara clearly ignored Shalima's thoughts saying that her words were not true at all!

 “I don't mind, anyway. Don't know if the others,” said Thann.

“They don't mind either! Come!”

Amara pulls Shal's hand towards one of the Battle Arena's practice rooms. Obviously he ignored Shalima's thoughts that said he was drunk with hallucinogens.

 It had been an hour since they had trained, but Shalima was still sulking at Amara. Bringing Zovras into their training alone is already annoying, let alone taking Thann!

“Practicing with the two of them isn't that bad either. You get to live a boxing session with bear” Amara commenting on Shal's warm-up session.

“If that's because my jab ability is getting better,” said Shal.

“You also got more daring to hit the weak points of the enemies during the Fighting Practice Mode earlier,” continued Amara relaxed, while busy setting the Level Two Asteroid Exercise Mode – Easy for the four students on the virtual screen.

After seeing Thann cripple the mother pig in the Ginggo Forest, Shal became inspired to study the weak points of various creatures. A strong enough punch at certain points can indeed be disabling. Now Shal is trying to practice kempo, one of the martial techniques where the final level is seiho or totokan. In medicine, totok technique can facilitate blood circulation, but can also be used to block blood circulation.

The target for this exercise is more punches and kicks. Practicing also makes for a stronger barrier.

Shal almost smothered the mouth of the Mentor, Shalima's coach at the Battle Arena. Free as well, after all his mentor was just a figure of artificial intelligence projected from the machine. Shal glanced at Thann. It seemed that the man was busy talking to his mentor as well so did not have time to listen to mentor Shalima's speech. Good thing, at least the man had no new ingredients to mock him.

“Training student Amara Leowyns from Fantasy Dormitory starts!” Amara exclaimed as she moved away from Shalima and prepared to occupy her space. Outside Amara looks graceful, but inside the Battle Arena, she is a barbarian Elf who likes “collecting” the souls of enemies.

Zovras and Thann followed in Amara's footsteps. Inevitably, Shal also occupied his space and exclaimed, “Shero Shalima student training from Fantasy Dormitory begins!”

The room faded for a moment. When the light returned, they were already in a vast wilderness. Now they are in a simulation of a student battle vs. proasteroid minions.  Zovras replicates himself against the proasteroid forces, while Thann launches an air raid.

In the previous Asteroid Exercise Mode, Shal saw the figure of Zovras in a simulated form. However, between simulated and real figures it turns out that it is more amazing that real. Shal saw the two Wizard men flexibly using earth and fire control to fight the enemy. This was also the first time Shal had seen Thann being able to let out a burst of light that paralyzed the opponent from his fingertips. Is this what got him accepted into Maple Academy? Talent absorbs energy and fires a crippling light? Why didn't time at Ginkgo Forest Thann pull out that streak to fight the mother pig?

Why are you dumbass? Have you seen energy shots for the first time?

The rebuke of the Mentor made Shal immediately advance to attack the opponent. Shal incapacitated some of them with a blow to the back of the head and a kick to the chest. While fighting, he observed the simulated friends around him.

Lily-Simulation looks helpless on the desert sand. Cih, why can this simulation know she's somewhat sentimental with Lily? Shal immediately ran towards Lily's figure. After making the barrier, the girl's hand was touched. Shal tries to trace her body and before long she finds out that Lily-Simulation has a not-so-deep incision wound in her right arm and a broken rib.

Lily-Simulation was very polite, so did not complain of any sort. If it was the real Lily, maybe Shal would have been completely cursed for not being able to do anything to heal the wound.

“Tratarvis!” exclaims Shal. Nothing happened. Never mind, just accept that you are not a Wizard and have no talent for spells!

Shal made a healing rune symbol on Lily-Simulation's arm. The result is still disappointment. He stared at Lily-Simulation's arm with a haggard look. Always like this. Shal is getting better at diagnosing the creature's body, but it's just getting there. He still could not do anything to the wounded creatures.

The barrier is torn and Shal doesn't care. A sword managed to scratch his back and the girl only gave a peck of annoyance. He now had no fear because he knew the wounds only gave temporary pain and then healed on their own.

Originally, slashed swords left a pain that could not be explained with words. However, after Shal got used to scraping the sword every practice, he got used to the pain. In addition, the pain did not last long because then the wound was healed and tightly closed. Shalima plans to familiarize herself with a prick or slash, which she recovers for longer. The pain is overwhelming, but Shal's madness enjoys the process as his body's cells regenerate after being slashed.

Shal swiftly struck the chest of the enemy slashing his back so that the figure collapsed and then vanished. The figure of Lily-Simulation also disappeared. Shal accidentally glued to the figure of Thann. The man stood on the sand and pointed his hands to the sky. He had seen something similar in Ginkgo Forest, when Thann absorbed the energy of a piglet. The difference is, this time Thann seemed to be trying to absorb the energy of the asteroid from a distance.

Shal subconsciously stepped out of his space and headed towards Space Thann. He paid no heed to the Mentor who warned that it was not advised during the joint exercises.

Shal touched the back of Thann's left ear, one of the parts of the body that was not covered in a training uniform. Shal traced the body once more, just like when they were in the cave. Shal knew the vortex that absorbed the energy was still inside Thann's body, but it was already very stable now. The vortex continued to absorb energy, like there was no end.

Thann looked back and looked at Shalima deeply.

“I just want to check your energy hole. Apparently, now it's no longer dangerous, huh?” shal said nervously as he pulled his hand. Suddenly Thann smirked cynically. His left hand moved, taking Shalima's hand and grasping it.

 “You want until when does naive continue? If you want to be good, you better be picky. From now on, you'd better open your eyes wide because not everything will end all the way in Ginkgo Forest.”

Time passed by for a long time as the two stared at each other. It was like in Ginkgo Forest, when the girl touched Thann's forehead and realized that the energy in her body was being sucked in. However, in contrast to that time where his body ordered Shal to immediately release his touch with Thann, this time Shal's body was very calm. Her body seemed to know she would not lose energy, as much as it was absorbed by Thann, as the girl's energy was constantly being produced like a spring.

Thann also seemed to realize something and said softly, “You never stop surprising me, Shal.” The grin on her lips faded and she looked at Shal with a gentle gaze.

However, Thann's face slowly stiffened as soon as he felt something else happening within his body. Shal also felt that the invisible hole in Thann's body was now trying to absorb something other than his energy. This time, Shal's body signals danger.

“Do not always believe what you think. Open your mind to other possibilities.” Thann stared at Shal intensely. He was trying to control whatever was going on in his body.

Suddenly their grip came off as someone punched Thann in the cheek until the man fell on the floor of the Battle Arena practice room. The desert atmosphere has disappeared, replaced by a mirror wall.

“You're crazy!” Zovras yelled at Thann for being angry. Amara swiftly memapah Shal whose legs are limp due to shock.

“Thann, we really need to talk about this! Find the time!” Amara looked at Thann with an unpredictable look and went to get Shal out of the room.