The afternoon session was still a practical combat class.
Cecilia Windwalker stood on the training ground. Her hands were empty, and her gaze swept across every face in front of her.
“Starting this week, our Class A will be doing a two-week team cooperation course.” Her voice was not loud.
“You’ll be divided into groups of five for three exercises: team combat, coordinated operations, and tactical drills. The group assignments have been prepared by the academy based on your assessment performance and attribute alignment. No adjustments will be accepted.”
A low murmur rippled through the room.
Five people. Teamwork.
No adjustments allowed.
That meant who you ended up with wasn’t up to you—you might be stuck with people you didn’t like, forcing you to learn how to cooperate with strangers.
“Quiet.” Cecilia raised her hand, and the murmur died instantly.
“The group list is posted on the bulletin board. Check it during the break. Also,” she paused, “each group must include at least three different elemental attributes. This is to train your synergy under a multi-element configuration. A single-attribute team can be countered specifically in real combat. That’s the iron law.”
When the bell rang, the bulletin board was crowded.
Xuan Xi stood at the edge of the crowd. She didn’t need to push her way in. She already knew the result—or rather, she had already guessed it.
“Xuan Xi! We’re in the same group!” Elsa squeezed out of the crowd, her short brown hair a mess, clutching a copied list in her hand.
“You, me, Reggie, Sigrdrífa—all four of us are together!”
She paused when she got to the fourth name, glanced down at the last name on the list, and her smile shifted into something tinged with confusion—a hint of “really?”
“There’s one more.” Elsa looked up, her dark green eyes carrying a subtle awkwardness. “Viralis Frostmark.”
Xuan Xi’s expression didn’t change. She had already guessed. Five people per group, and they only had four. So the academy had to fill the spot.
Who else could it be? To satisfy the requirements—no repeated attributes, decent synergy, and a high enough bloodline—the only option was Viralis Frostmark, the top-five-in-the-grade with an A-level ice bloodline.
It was the optimal solution.
“Viralis?” Reggie walked over from behind the crowd, his brow slightly furrowed. “She’s ice. Ice and water…” He didn’t finish, but Xuan Xi knew what he meant.
Ice and water came from the same source but went different ways. If they worked well together, an ice-water combo could create strong control effects.
If not, they’d just interfere with each other and both lose.
“I know,” Xuan Xi said.
“But she’s joined us now. She’s one of us.”
After the break ended, it was time for class.
When Xuan Xi arrived, Sigrdrífa was already standing in the center of the field.
Her silver-white hair was tied up high, she wore the academy’s black training uniform, and a dark gray pouch embroidered with the Edelstein family crest hung at her waist.
Elsa and Reggie stood at the other side of the field, warming up.
Elsa was swinging her arms, Reggie was stretching his legs. There was a noticeable gap between them—because Elsa was sulking.
“Why isn’t she here yet?” Elsa muttered while swinging her arms. “First training session and she’s late. What kind of attitude is that?”
“Still three minutes left.” Reggie glanced at the timer in the corner of the training ground. “Technically, it’s not late.”
Elsa snorted and kept swinging her arms.
Two and a half minutes later, a light golden figure appeared at the entrance of the training ground.
When Viralis Frostmark walked in, her pace matched her personality—neither fast nor slow. Her light golden hair hung over her shoulders, shimmering softly in the sunlight.
She wore a pale blue training uniform that suited her ice element perfectly. She walked to the center of the field and stopped in front of Xuan Xi.
“Half a minute left. I’m not late, am I?” That was her first sentence.
“No, of course not,” Xuan Xi said.
Viralis nodded, then turned to Elsa.
“I heard everything you said. I wasn’t late. You were early.”
Elsa’s face turned red instantly.
Her mouth opened as if to say something, but nothing came out. Reggie cleared his throat softly beside her.
He had already told Elsa not to talk about people behind their backs.
“Since everyone’s here,” Sigrdrífa’s voice came from the inner side of the field, cold, calm, and unquestionable, “let’s start training.”
The five of them took their positions in the center of the field. Viralis stood at the far left, her ice-blue training uniform glinting coldly in the sunlight.
Elsa stood next to her, her dark green eyes still stealing glances at this new teammate, her mouth slightly downturned.
She clearly hadn’t recovered from the embarrassment of being caught.
Reggie stood on the other side, silent as a stone, but his gaze swept across the five of them, as if assessing something.
Xuan Xi stood in the middle, with Sigrdrífa on the far right. The wind lifted her silver-white hair, revealing her profile.
Cecilia’s voice came from the edge of the training ground.
“Five-on-five team combat. Your opponents are—” She pointed to the five people walking in from the other side of the field.
“Viralis’s former team.”
Viralis’s expression didn’t change at all. Elsa’s face changed first.
“Former team? You mean… the one she quit?”
“Exactly.” Viralis’s tone was unnervingly calm.
The five opponents walked over.
Their leader was a fire dragon, with reddish-brown short hair and a slightly raised chin. His gaze landed directly on Viralis.
“Viralis, when you quit, you said our tactics were too amateur. Today, let’s let the teacher see who’s really amateur.”
Viralis didn’t look at him. Her gaze fell on Xuan Xi’s face.
“You come up with the tactics.”
The fire dragon’s face darkened, but Cecilia had already raised her hand.
“Both sides in position. The rules are simple: defeat all five opponents, or capture the flag in the center of the field. Time limit: 15 minutes.”
Xuan Xi’s gaze swept over the opposing configuration.
Fire, wind, earth, lightning, and an ice element. All five elements present. Their frontal firepower was extremely fierce.
She glanced sideways at her own side—ice, fire, earth, water, and thunder-fire dual affinity. In terms of configuration, they weren’t lacking, but synergy…
“This is our first battle. We don’t have time to practice.” Xuan Xi lowered her voice.
“So no complicated tactics. Viralis, you and Elsa take the front. You do ice positioning, Elsa provides fire output.”
Elsa opened her mouth, wanting to say, ‘I can’t cooperate with her,’ but Xuan Xi didn’t give her the chance.
“Reggie, you stay in the middle and support wherever needed. Sige, you and I will stick to our old coordination.”
Sigrdrífa nodded.
Viralis turned her head and glanced at Xuan Xi, a flash of surprise in her ice-blue eyes.
“This is my first team battle, and you’re putting me on the front line?”
“You’re ice. Front-line control is the best position for you,” Xuan Xi said.
“Besides, you’re top five in the grade. Your strength can’t be that bad. There’s a saying: if you trust someone, don’t doubt them.”
Viralis didn’t say anything else, but she retied her light golden hair into a clean, high ponytail.
Cecilia’s hand dropped. “Begin.”
The five opponents moved first.
Fire and lightning pressed forward from the front, flames and lightning weaving together into a red-and-white net of firepower that covered the area toward Xuan Xi’s side.
The wind element circled around from the flank, incredibly fast, leaving a faint blue-green afterimage behind.
The earth element spread a stone wall across the ground, blocking the frontal view while providing cover for their teammates.
The ice element—their ice user didn’t charge to the front. Instead, she stood in the back, both hands condensing several ice spikes, aiming at Xuan Xi.
Targeting her, because she was the team’s commander.
“Viralis.” Xuan Xi called only one name.
Viralis moved. Her speed was unlike what an ice dragon should have—ice was usually known for control, not mobility.
But Viralis seemed to be skating on ice as she slid forward. With a wave of her right hand, an ice wall rose from the ground, perfectly blocking the combined attack of the fire and lightning users.
The flames hit the ice wall, steam rising. The lightning struck the ice, cracking it, but the attack was stopped.
“Elsa!” Xuan Xi called the second name.
Elsa’s flames passed through the gap in the ice wall and struck the earth user’s newly raised stone wall with precision. The stone wall glowed red from the heat, cracks spreading from the center.
Reggie followed up immediately, slamming his right fist into the ground.
A stone spike shot up from the earth, expanding along the cracks and splitting the enemy’s stone wall in half.
Through the smoke, Xuan Xi and Sigrdrífa moved in at the same time.
Sigrdrífa’s thunder light led the way—three silver-white arcs of electricity spread out in a fan shape, forcing the enemy wind and lightning users to evade.
Xuan Xi’s water curtain followed right behind, forming a blinding patch of light under the sun, making the enemy ice user lose her target instantly.
The two worked together so naturally, as if they had rehearsed countless times—and in fact, they had.