In front of the fourth cage Peter stood for a while, resting his finger against the cold surface of the glass. "These used to be things that ate grass in a field," he said in a low voice, in a tone that for the first time wasn't taking a jab at me. "And now they stand here in this state."
When we came in front of the largest cage at the end of the corridor, everyone in the group involuntarily slowed their steps. This one was reserved for the highest-level specimen in this section of the laboratory:
G− Level Mutated Badger.
Inside the cage stood a creature many times larger than a normal badger, having reached the dimensions of a good-sized wolf. The hair on its skin had fallen out in places, and pitch-black cancerous tissues and bony plates had taken the place of its fur. Its elongated front claws gleamed like razors. On its chest, because of the high Chi and contaminated Mana it had absorbed, purplish veins had burst outward like an enormous web.
The creature suddenly lunged toward the cage glass with an agile, explosive step. *BOOM!* The glass trembled slightly. I pulled back for a moment and, without letting anyone see that I was afraid, quietly looked at the other students. Peter involuntarily took a step back. Elena squeezed the hilt of her sword.
Mr. Rodolf stopped behind us. He pointed at the cage with his enormous hand, then suddenly turned to me. "You! What do you see?"
"The Chi it has taken into its body isn't distributed homogeneously," I said calmly, watching the purple veins on the badger's chest. "The Chi of the other creatures it ate has accumulated in the mutated tissue in its right hind leg. It can't make that explosive move without shifting its weight to the right rear and channeling that accumulated Chi into that leg."
Mr. Rodolf grinned. "Good observation! This is exactly why, even when the System doesn't give you creatures' stats, you have to read where that mutated tissue is knotted with your own Control ability and your own observation!"
While the students gathered around the cage and went on examining the creature's cellular structure, I stood back and yawned. The class was proceeding on its routine course, but being at such close range to a creature, seeing live how Chi could turn into a destructive cancer, had reminded me once again of the merciless rule of the outside world: consume, or be consumed. While waiting my turn, my eye caught on the large screen at the edge of the hall — the System displayed every student's real-time Chi consumption there, a kind of general monitoring panel. I found my own name and looked. There was nothing abnormal.
But there was something inside me. After that touch of Master Ren's, my senses had suddenly changed. Every time I came home, ever since that first incident, he would sit me down, touch my shoulder, and make me do a strange exercise; he said it would have an effect on my Chi control, and it really did. But I had never seen that exercise in any book. In fact, even when I asked the System, it told me no such technique existed.
While I was sunk in these thoughts, Mr. Rodolf blew his whistle hard enough to make the steel walls ring. "All right, observation's over, brats!" he roared. "It's easy to look from behind glass and produce theories in your head. Now we'll see whether those theories can save your backsides. Everyone pack up, we're moving to Arena number 2!"
As we walked toward the arena, Elena sidled up beside me, her voice full of curiosity. "Kai, how did you see that Chi accumulation so clearly just now? I was looking too, but I only saw a bruised leg."
"I told you, my Control stat is high," I repeated, but Elena didn't seem satisfied.
"Maybe I really do need to work on Chi control; though I'm not that bad at Chi control, but..."
Peter must have heard our conversation from behind us, because he cut in with a mocking tone. "Or maybe it was just a lucky guess. Everyone guesses right sometimes."
"Maybe," I said, not wanting to dwell on it. My Chi control being this high was entirely an innate factor, just like Elena's speed and Peter's defense. Normally most people go along in a balanced way, so they don't give an opening anywhere; but exceptionally, some people find one stat develops very easily, and even though they train to the same degree, that stat always stays on top.
When we reached the arena, the other students had already begun to gather. Dex came over beside me, his voice calm as always, but this time with a faint curiosity inside it.
"Kai," he said, without taking his eyes off me. "At that cage, your eyes flashed strangely for a moment. Did you notice?"
"What do you mean?" I said, a little uneasy.
"I don't know exactly," said Dex, shrugging, but the curiosity in his eyes hadn't disappeared. "Maybe it's from fatigue. Anyway, never mind." Then he turned around and walked off, leaving me plunged in thought.
Had my eyes flashed? I hadn't noticed it, and Dex saying so felt a little unsettling. Trying to calm myself, I moved to the bench at the edge of the arena and, along with the other students, began waiting for Mr. Rodolf's instructions. But inside me there was a feeling that that small moment wasn't unimportant — as if my body were doing things I hadn't yet noticed. Could this be connected to Master Ren's touches?
When I looked at Dex again I noticed he was looking at me; it was as if he were frightened. A shiver went through me; I couldn't make sense of it.
The students pulled themselves together with a low murmur. Within a few minutes we were in a wide arena with antimetal plating. On the floor were thick plate lines made of polar steel; the ceiling, meanwhile, was woven with high-voltage barrier nets. In the middle of the arena stood the G− Level Mutated Badger we had watched behind the glass a short while ago. But this time there was no glass protection. The creature was restrained only by a high-frequency electro-collar under the instructors' control. The instant the red-zone light came on, the collar loosened and the creature was set free.
"Now watch," said Mr. Rodolf, walking to the middle of the arena with steps far more relaxed than you would expect from his hulking frame. "A third-class hunter wouldn't panic when facing a mutated G-level. Why? Because he doesn't try to guess how fast it is; he tracks which point of its body it's pumping Mana from."
Mr. Rodolf released the collar with the controller in his hand. The red light came on.
The badger, the second it was freed, lunged forward with a shrill sound from its mouth like a growl. It slid across the floor plating like a black shadow. Most of the class involuntarily held their breath.
But Rodolf didn't even raise his enormous axe. Just as the creature was about to leap onto his chest, he slid his right foot slightly to the side and turned his body at a millimetric angle. The badger passed by, missing, a few centimeters from Rodolf's left ribs. Rodolf pressed down lightly on the back of the creature — which had fallen into empty space — with only the handle of his axe, applying almost no force at all. The badger, helped along by its own momentum, slammed into the antimetal floor and slid several meters.
"Did you see that?" said Rodolf, without even turning around. "Its power or speed may be lower or higher than mine; in this case it's far weaker than me. But what matters is catching the moment it shifts its center of gravity. Now it's your turn. Groups of three. Every group will hold out for one minute. No killing — just break its rhythm and, as the task requires, stay alive."
First the groups from the middle rows went out. Most of the students panicked and spread their Chi around unconsciously. The more the creature caught the scent of Chi, the more savage it became. Rodolf had to press the electro-shock controller several times to save students from the creature's claws at the last moment. Almost every one of the groups that went out in turn was scattered by the creature's unpredictable speed. Watching from the side, I noticed that all their mistakes were the same mistake. Nobody was looking at the creature; everybody was looking at where the creature was going to go. Those two are not the same thing. One student raised his shield and waited, and the badger went around the edge of the shield. Another swung his sword far too early, and when he struck empty air his balance broke and he blocked his teammate's path. The third made the right move but made it a fraction of a second late; a fraction of a second, against a creature at this level, meant a lifetime.
"You're standing still!" Rodolf roared as the third group was laid out on the floor. "All of you are waiting to see what it will do. An anomaly doesn't wait, brats! The only thing it's thinking about while it waits for you is how delicious your Chi smells!"
As the fourth group went down into the arena, Elena muttered through her teeth beside me: "We read this in the textbook. And they're doing exactly what we read. Still it doesn't work."
"Because the book writes down what you should do," I said, without taking my eye off the creature. "It doesn't write down when to do it."
"Next group!" said Rodolf. "Alex, Dex, Natasha. Come forward!"
Class A's top-ranked names stepped into the arena. Alex silently drew his sword from its sheath; Dex, with his usual cold blood, spun his twin blades in a reverse grip between his fingers. The third member of the group was Natasha, the archer who held sixth place in the school rankings. Around 175 tall, athletically built, with red hair gathered into a ponytail and sharp-gazed amber eyes, she gave a calm but extremely focused impression. The Amethyst badge on her chest placed her in the middle ranks of the top nine. She gripped the composite bow on her back cunningly, drew her special metal arrows from their case and took position directly in the rear line.
The red light came on, the badger was released.