Runes A Tale Of The Abyss - 80 Chapter 71

“He beat her?!”

Kato’s eyes were wide open contrasted to how they were almost always closed. He was in shock, but he was smiling.

Lance was looking back at where he had saw the black flames with amazement.

“He… actually beat Ellen. I don’t know whose scarier now.”

Jewels just huffed in boredom.

“That was nice I guess.”

Just then the entire labyrinth and its surroundings crumbled down, creating a flat surface, and Julius’s voice echoed.

“Alright, both teams make your way outside. The next fight will start soon.”

-A hour later-

The entire class was standing in front of Julius.

“Its a good thing we were finally able to finish the squad training. It was a bad thing that we are already behind the other classes in terms of theory of magic, but also squad formation. You all most likely know that we normally have this exercise at the start of the year, but we didn’t have an even number of teams of 4.”

Julius cleared his throat and fixed his glasses.

“From now on the teams you were in today will be your teams, or squads as the military calls them, for the rest of your first year here.”

Slowly the students started whispering.

“I made these teams totally on random, as are most situations in war, and life: random. You might be against my ideas, and I know that the other classes allow their students to pick their own teammates, but that is simply not how I plan to mold you all.”

‘He’s uh…. a little too into this, isn’t he?’

[Scholars are more dangerous than fighters, trust me.]

“Alright, now let’s not waste time going up the stairs again.”

Julius snapped his fingers and a small portion of the arena that they were standing on started to rise up fast.

“We’re gonna die!”

Shouted a scared lad as the ceiling got closer by the second, but instead of colliding, the ceiling crumbled into the shape of the portion of the arena they were on.

A couple seconds later, the class was standing outside once more, and the circular pillar they were on previously had disappeared… well, it assimilated into the “ceiling,” which was actually the surface of the school.

“Okay, that does it for today. I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow kids.”

And with that Julius turned around and started walking away.

The class stood there kind of shocked at what just happened as Julius walked away.

-A couple hours later at the dorms-

Kato, Griff, Lande and Jewels were sitting in the cafeteria.

“So, it seems that we’ll be stuck together. Anyone got any problems?”

Kato asked with slight anxiety. Teams that were formed hastily were usually prone to have problems.

“Nope. I’m cool with it. Actually… I think that this is a great team!”

Griff exclaimed with excitement.

Lance practically shouted with energy.

Jewels, being the simple man he is, simply shrugged.

“This is the best team I’ve seen. I’m not complaining.”

Kato’s smile brightened at that.

“Then I guess we better find a name, as do most good squads have!”

Just then, footsteps were heard behind them. They had chosen to talk at the cafeteria because it was empty today, so it was odd hearing footsteps other than theirs.

Someone cleared their throat.

“Ahem… Can I talk to Griff?”

Lance turned around with his usual energetic smile.

“Ah sure why no-”

He swallowed his words as he saw who it was and started to slightly sweat.

“Ehm… Griff…”

Griff simply nodded at Lance and put his hand on his shoulder as he gave him a bright smile.

“Stop being a wuss with that build man, you’re supposed to be our tank!”

Kato chuckled at that and even Jewels held his mouth with his hand as he tried not to let a chuckle out.

Lance’s face lost all its blood as he stood in shock with a confused pikachu face, staring at nothing.

“Well… do you wanna talk here or somewhere else, Ellen?”

The red haired girl spoke up confidently.

“Let’s talk outside.”

As they started to walk, Griff could feel the piercing gaze of Kato concentrated on Ellen’s back, trying to gauge her goal.

-A few awkward minutes of walking later-

“Look I’ll make this quick…”

She slightly bit her lower lip in anxiousness.

“You… you weren’t as bad as I thought.”

Griff grinned at that.

“So… that’s it? You asked me to come outside to say this? Well, this is a bit underwhelming.”

“Wait-what?! No! I’m not done yet!”

She said as she squeezed both her fists and pouted. Griff was pretty sure no one had seen the teased version of Ellen to this day.

[Wow you’re such a tease~]

‘I learnt from the best.’

She folded her arms as she looked to the right.

“I wouldn’t mind considering you as my rival, that’s what I wanted to say…”

“Well then… I guess this means we’re not on bad terms anymore?”

“Hey hey listen here! You’re not my friend, you’re my rival! Rival~.”

She poked his chest as she said so.

Griff shrugged.

“That doesn’t mean I’ll stay your rival though. Anyways… I gotta go back, we’re going to decide a team name. Oh, also! Say hi to Sylvie for me.”

Griff waved his hand off as he walked back into thr cafeteria. Unbeknownst to him, Ellen had a red timge on her face, looking at the ground, after he had spoke.

-Back in the Cafeteria-

“I’m telling you guys! Super Bro Smashers is a great team name!”

“And I’m telling you that it’s total nonsense!”

“Uh… you guys seem in a pinch.”

Kato and Lance turned to Griff and slammed both their hands on the table. Jewels, who was trying o sleep, woke up because of the sound and huffed in annoyance as he drifted back to sleep.

“Yes, we are! Listen Griff, you gotta tell me my naming sense is better!”

Both of them shouted at the same time.

“Yo yo guys my head is spinning quiet down for a second!”

Griff facepalmed as he saw the two continue to go back and forth. This was going to be a long year.