"Yes. It's a game," Kairo stated his demeanor was still calm yet serious making the students realized that their mentor wasn't joking.
"If that the case, that what might this 'game' be?" Cyrus, ever so logical, asked.
Kairo's gaze turn to the Imp briefly, before answering. "This will be a game of Domination.
"I've planted a total of 25 white flags across random location in this very forest…thus, you six will be split into a team of two groups; Red team—Riven, Runa and Azrael…and Blue team—Lucian, Harumi and Cyrus." Kairo said, bringing out some markers of the two colors and tossed it at them one by one.
"You can only capture a zone by marking the flags with those…Any questions?"
"Can we fight?" Lucian simply said, as Cyrus' ears twitched.
Kairo gave a tired sigh. "Yes. You can engage yourselves in combat but if it goes too far…I will step in."
Lucian grinned fiendishly, his eyes carrying a dangerous flame in them. "Finally…I can't wait to cut loose!"
"I'm going to have my hands full all day, aren't I?" Cyrus dreaded as his shoulder slumped down.
"Furthermore it's about time I introduce my own rules…" Kairo added.
"I'll be evaluating you all starting now...You'll all get a hundred points and I'll deduce them based on actions and mistakes.
"If you get the lowest score after this training session. You will be punished based on how low you score either; extra chores, extra homework, extra training time or…a sparring match with me, if you hit below ten."
That last part alone made the entire class shiver, they had only witnessed that his presence alone was overwhelming enough, so didn't even want to imagine what he could do physically.
I can't get low points. I can't ever, EVER face this guy yet…His mere presence is suffocating enough!
While Riven, Lucian laughed. "HA! That's so! Then that's even more of a reason to beat those third-rates!"
Kairo turned his head, looking at the Vampire for a brief moment. "Minus ten points for underestimating your opponent and getting over confident…" he deadpanned
The hot-headed prince felt he had been hit by a punch across the face, as he dropped on the floor, defeated by the mere sentence.
"AH-HA! Serves you right, dumbass! Now I'm way ahead of you!" Riven cackled at the fallen Vampire.
"The same goes for what you just did." Kairo said, giving the other the same look.
In a few second, Riven had also dropped to the floor, slain by the mercilessness of the penalty.
"Geez, what a pair of idiots." Harumi scoffed as she rolled her eyes.
Azrael came over to give his friend and gave a slight poke at his cheek, to if he was okay physically but not psychologically.
***
After reviving from their ridiculous shock, the two boys had gone to plan with their perceptive groups.
Kairo informed them that the game would begin immediately they heard the signal and left.
The two teams quickly ventured into the forest to gain a good starting point—who knows maybe even a flag if they're lucky.
Lucian didn't seem to care about who got chosen to play the role of captain, he merely cared about that.
Though, Riven had wanted to be the one to devise a 'perfect' plan, Azrael had been chosen to be team captain.
"Okay, so we need to prioritize getting flags and avoiding the enemy more, but I have a feeling Lucian wouldn't make it easy for us…" Azrael thought aloud, placing a hand on his chin.
"Well what do you think we should do?" Riven asked.
"Well for starters, we'll have to split up, it's dangerous but it'll also widen our reach, thus, securing more zones."
Riven blinked, a bit surprise that Azrael had come up with a good plan but it was also a risky one.
If the others decided to go in a group it might be bad if only one of us were to face the three and on top of that, we don't know each other's powers yet—heck I can't even control or know my own powers are.
The teenager tried to think of a workaround but ultimately this was the best shot they had at winning.
"Um…G-Good Luck everyone…" the boys turned their head at their short teammate. "I…I hope we win."
Azrael beamed as he held up two fingers up. "Yeah, you too, let's all bring our A-game."
The other, who was red-cheeked, seemed to be quieter than usual. "T-Thanks…"
"Huh?" the ghost snapped his head at his friend.
Normally, Riven—being the hot-head he is, would have said something more…fierce or more encouraging, at the least, but a simple 'thanks' said something was obviously off.
"Thanks? Just 'Thanks'!" Azrael raised his brow, he seemed like he had been offended. "I expected more from you man, anything wrong?"
"Nah I just, don't feel like it." Riven said avoid eye contact with the other two, as the grass suddenly became more interesting.
"What is up with him…" Azrael thought as his gaze shifted to Runa, who was also appeared a bit flushed. "Wait a sec...!"
The grey-haired looked at Riven, then Runa, and then the other again. His brain instantly turning the gears as he began to grin so wide his eyes had closed and it looked like he was about to split his mouth.
"Ahhh! I see…you two can't keep things like that secret for too long." he teased. "But seriously, if guys are going that way, be careful. Especially since Werewolves tend to get a little—"
The immediate glare from Riven shut the other before he could finish his sentence, while Runa had completely gone red.
"Joking. Joking," the boy put both hands in the air in mock surrender before sheepishly adding. "…Mostly."
Before Riven could speak there was a loud whistling heard in the air, the typical sound of one would hear when a plane took off.
The three lifted their heads to see a small sphere flying through the air, during its flight it swelled a bit before—
BOOM!
It exploded into a million glittering particles that display one word only: Begin.
Azrael smirked, doing some warm-up stretches to prepare his joints. "Ah well, guess we can discuss this another time then."
The werewolf narrowed his eyes at the other. "Do that and I'll knock your lights out."
"Hmm. Charming offer."
Riven smirked back at his friend, "Then don't lose so I can be the one to personally do it for you…on the house." Riven said playfully clenching a fist at the other.
"You too be safe, 'kay?" The wolf said, giving the girl behind him a reassuring smile.
"A-Alright." The girl said a bit of confidence starting to take over.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the forest, Team Blue had also saw the signal and were ready to move out.
The team captain, Harumi, decided to go over the plan one more time. "Okay so we split up and cover more ground. If you see an enemy, engage but restraining them would be more effective…is that clear?"
The blonde-girl had eyed Lucian who seemed to be thinking of his own personal agenda.
"Yeah. Yeah, I got your plan," he waved and he walked away from the circle. "Cover more ground and restrain…So sh*tty boring." Lucian groaned but he seemed to make another plan in his head.
He wasn't mad that he hadn't chosen to be a leader though, the thought of being told what to do by a girl, no less, was rather embarrassing.
But what else could he do? After all, he wanted to win the game too since he was already back by ten points.
"That guy's definitely going to break the rules." Harumi said as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
"It's pretty obvious…" Cyrus said as he walked in the opposite direction with Harumi. "But if there's one thing I've learned from being guy 'lackey…is that when he wants to do something…nothing stops him."
As Lucian walked deeper into the other end of the forest one thing— and one thing only was on his mind.
"Now's the perfect time to make that sh*tty mutt to finally pay."