An instructor covered his ears and stomped hard on the ground again. The scarred recruit, his hands still in his pockets, quickly leaped back to dodge.
A second after he moved, the spot where he had been standing exploded.
"Tch!" the scarred recruit said.
As the distance between the scarred recruit and the instructor grew, the piercing noise in his ears finally disappeared.
The instructor from before reacted swiftly, sweeping his hand through the air. A string of explosions rang out in midair, racing straight toward the scarred recruit.
The scarred recruit refused to back down. He pulled his hand from his pocket and thrust it open in front of him.
A sound wave burst from his hand, colliding with the explosions in the air and canceling them out.
"That recruit's name is Yan Wusheng. His ability is [Ten Thousand Sounds], one of only two powerful abilities among this batch of recruits.
"But he looks like a bit of a troublemaker." Chief Instructor Li Hu rubbed his ears and looked coldly at Yan Wusheng, who was trading attacks with another instructor.
"[Ten Thousand Sounds]..." The instructor standing at the very edge, with two blades on his back, lowered his head and murmured to himself. Then he silently drew the blade at his waist.
Yan Wusheng retreated, dodging another explosion on the ground, then opened one hand and unleashed another sound wave.
But just then, he keenly sensed a cold flash speeding toward him.
He quickly twisted around, dodging a straight blade that nearly grazed his clothes.
"Missed..." The instructor wielding the straight blade had a grim look in his eyes. With a thought, he turned the flying blade around and sent it stabbing at Yan Wusheng again.
Yan Wusheng dodged again, but immediately afterward, a string of explosions came at him, growing larger and larger in his furious eyes.
"Fuck!" he cursed, firing another sound wave to cancel them out before running back at full speed.
Seeing him flee, the explosion instructor, whose temper had flared from the fight, threw caution to the wind and chased after him.
"Huh? You're just going to let him chase him?" Chuan Cheng couldn't help asking as he watched Li Hu, who showed no intention of stopping him.
Li Huzi kicked him in the backside again. "Do you think Hong Wei has no brains? He just wants to take some pressure off the other recruits.
"There aren't many strong ones in this batch. It's not like you don't know that."
Chuan Cheng scratched his head. On second thought, that made sense.
"All right! All instructors, move out!" Deputy Chief Instructor Li's voice boomed like a bell.
"Yes, sir!" the other instructors answered loudly.
Keke ran behind Hela, panting. Listening to the explosions and piercing sound waves ringing out behind her, she felt a chill run down her back.
She looked at Hela with even greater admiration.
"He... Hela, you're amazing! If I hadn't run with you, I think I'd already have been eliminated."
"Mm-hmm." Hela nodded.
"Hela, so are we going to wait until the instructors are exhausted, then find a way to fight them?!"
"Mm-hmm."
Keke looked at Hela as though she were a god. At that moment, she silently swore that she would cling to Hela's thigh for the whole year.
As the sounds behind them grew fainter, Keke couldn't resist looking back, but she couldn't see anything. They had run a long way, after all.
"Come to think of it, who was that? They could actually fight an instructor. Even with the instructors' realms suppressed, they're still a whole realm above us," Keke murmured to herself.
Hela, meanwhile, kept running without a word.
Seeing that Hela hadn't responded, Keke scratched her cheek, a little embarrassed. Then, as if something had occurred to her, she asked Hela a question.
"Hela, what are we going to do now?"
Running ahead, Hela recalled the strategy Xing Lan had told her earlier.
"Next, we're going to the armory to get weapons."
"Oh, I see. I don't really need a weapon, though. My ability is enough for me, since I don't know how to use any other weapons anyway." Keke kept talking to Hela awkwardly.
Hela nodded, then stopped at the armory entrance.
Keke stopped too, braced her hands on her knees, and gasped for breath. Then she looked up at the armory doors.
"Huh? Why are the doors locked? How are we supposed to get weapons now?"
Keke straightened up, walked to the doors, and gave them an experimental push.
They didn't budge.
"What do we do, Hela...?" Keke raised her brows slightly and looked at Hela, her body trembling a little. She was afraid Hela would say she was useless.
Hela walked straight over, placed a hand on the iron doors, and examined them.
Keke tactfully stepped aside so she wouldn't disturb Hela.
Just as Xing Lan had said, the iron doors appeared to have no lock, so they couldn't be opened by breaking one.
But...
Hela had heard the strategy, after all, so she naturally knew how to open the doors.
Hela felt around a little longer. Finally, she found the right spot, slowly backed away, and raised her long leg.
She kicked hard at the doors.
A dent instantly appeared in the sturdy metal doors, and the sound of metal breaking came from that spot.
Hela lowered her foot and gave the doors a gentle push with both hands. The doors that had been firmly locked swung open easily.
Keke stared blankly at everything that had happened. Her lips parted and moved as if she wanted to say something, but she couldn't get a word out. Only her wide black eyes showed how stunned she was.
Hela turned to glance at Keke, then walked into the armory and began taking weapons.
After standing in a daze for a while, Keke finally came to her senses and hurried inside to get weapons with Hela.
There were a great many weapons in the armory, with a very comprehensive selection.
There were all kinds of melee weapons, including straight blades, spears, and tachi, as well as firearms of every sort, such as pistols, submachine guns, and rocket launchers.
Keke looked at the dazzling array of weapons, unsure where to start. She wanted to take something, but didn't know what.
Compared with Keke, who kept agonizing over her choice, Hela was much more decisive. She went straight for a straight blade, the only weapon she knew how to use.
Seeing that Hela had taken a weapon, Keke grabbed a small dagger at random in her haste and held it in her hand.
Hela held the straight blade and glanced at Keke, who had also chosen her weapon, then resumed thinking back over what to do next.
Seeing Hela standing there in a daze, Keke felt somewhat at a loss. She was just about to say something when she caught sight of someone else entering through the doorway.
The newcomer was a girl a little shorter than Keke, seemingly only around 1.6 meters tall.
And, surprisingly, there was nothing where her right arm should have been. Only a sleeve tied in a knot swayed in the air.
Keke covered her little mouth in surprise, hardly able to believe that someone missing an arm had come to the recruit training camp.
The one-armed girl ignored Keke's shocked gaze entirely and walked straight to the weapons rack, where she drew a straight blade with her remaining left hand.
Then she walked out without looking back.
From the moment she entered to the moment she left, she didn't so much as glance at Hela or Keke.