Overwhelming Firepower

After a while, Alexander’s group finally arrived. The same with Catherine, they first observed the situation, studied the other students’ mistakes, and then performed much better than the others.

In the end, when Lucen passed Alexander’s group alongside Catherine, he said that there were enough students for the class.

The other students who hadn’t tried yet started complaining, but Lucen did not care. He was given the privilege to choose who wanted to teach, and he had already made his choice.

”Sir Lucen, this is unfair!”

”We have not even tried yet!”

”How can you decide before seeing everyone?”

Lucen looked at the complaining students with a calm expression. ”Because this is my class, and I decided who I want to teach, and how many that is. Still, if you really want to join my class, despite my saying no. Then prove that you are worthy with your strength!”

Lucen emitted killing intent directed at the noisy students. Many of the students present had no real combat experience and were greatly affected by Lucen’s killing intent. But even those with experience could not handle the intensity and knelt on the ground.

The training ground became silent. The students who had been complaining a moment ago could no longer speak.

Some of them felt as though their throats had closed shut. Others felt cold sweat running down their backs.

One of the mage department students instinctively stumbled backward and nearly fell to the ground. Another tightly clenched his teeth just to stop them from shaking.

Their faces had turned pale, and some of them were trembling, as if they had been thrown into the middle of a battlefield.

To them, Lucen was no longer the calm instructor who had been casually testing students. For a brief moment, he felt like a monster staring down at prey.

”If any of you have problems with who I choose, then speak up now and show me your worth.”

No one could speak, much less stand. It was as if a heavy hand was pressing down on them. Normally, Lucen would have dealt with this calmly and allowed each one their turn before rejecting them, but he was too excited at the moment.

A hidden piece had appeared before him, someone he had never noticed in the game. A blind girl who was able to shoot with such accuracy means she has other ways to see.

’She might be like those characters who are able to see the world much more clearly because of her blindness. I wonder what type she is. Is she the type like that guy in comics and that guy in manga who uses his other senses to do echolocation? Or is she perhaps using her supernatural abilities and sensing things through mana or some sort of spirit? Or perhaps she’s using both.’

While Lucen was excitedly thinking about the possibilities of the new character he had seen, he also stopped emitting his killing intent, waiting for the students to answer him.

No one did, no one would dare speak at this point. The students who had been complaining could only lower their heads. Others were trying to stand, but their legs refused to obey them.

”Good. Then I will take that as there being no more complaints.”

Lucen then waved his hand. ”Those who failed may leave. Those who were not tested may also leave. If you are dissatisfied, train harder and come back when I open another selection.”

A few students looked frustrated, but none dared to speak again. It was obvious they could not change Lucen’s mind without showing real skill.

If they forced themselves to show Lucen something and he was unsatisfied, not only would they be ridiculed, but they would be remembered by the Ruby-Eyed monster as some idiot.

The students who had excitedly come to learn from Lucen left dejectedly. Alexander, who was among the few who passed, was surprised to see Lucen act this way.

Based on the few times he had seen Lucen, he thought that this person was someone who liked to teach others, and based on the stories he heard about him, Lucen was known to be quite a good commander.

Yet the Lucen right now was also different from those. It’s like Lucen changes his way of doing things depending on his mood, or some other sort of thing.

”Now that the others have left, let’s begin the lesson. My class is simple; I will be teaching you how to fight using different kinds of guns and at different ranges.”

Ryan then raised his hand. ”So, will you be giving us our own personal revolver to train with?”

Lucen shook his head and, for a brief second, showed a smile. ”No, you can only use the revolvers here and under my supervision. But for now, we won’t be doing any shooting. We need to start training by dodging.”

’Dodging?’ Alexander and the others had the same question pop into their heads, but before Lucen explained anything, he used gun creation and bullet creation.

He created two Colt M1900s and loaded them with rubber bullets. With their superhuman endurance, getting hit by the rubber bullets would hurt quite a bit, but not cause that much damage to them.

”Now, I won’t move from my spot, and all you guys need to do is dodge.”

Before any of them could ask what Lucen meant, he started shooting. The sound of gunfire immediately filled the training ground.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Lucen aimed at different parts of their bodies and fired without hesitation. The first few shots immediately caused chaos.

Ryan, who had raised his hand earlier, tried to dodge to the side, only for a rubber bullet to strike his shoulder.

”Ow!”

Mina let out a small yelp as she barely avoided a shot aimed toward her leg. Nina moved more calmly, but even she was forced to take several quick steps back when Lucen suddenly changed targets.

Alexander reacted by instinct and ducked under one shot, and slipped past a few more, but one almost struck his arm. Still, he evaded all the bullets aimed at him with his intuition, powerful physique, and a bit of luck.

Cael moved with great efficiency, as this kind of training was something he was already doing before with the members of Thornefang.

Elion also reacted quite well. His movements were not as sharp as Cael’s, but he did not panic. He watched Lucen’s hands, shoulders, and eyes, trying to understand where the next shot would go.

He had been training hard for the past few years to get the approval of Lucen, who inspired him to do better.

Yet the one who truly impressed Lucen was none other than the blind mage Catherine. She did not have the kind of talent Alexander had, nor the training Cael and Elion had, but she was able to dodge all the bullets with the least amount of movement.

Catherine simply stepped aside at the right moment. Sometimes it was only half a step. Sometimes it was a slight turn of her shoulder.

Sometimes she merely tilted her head, and the rubber bullet passed through the space where her forehead had been a moment ago.

She was reacting, she was predicting, and she was doing it quite easily. It was as if she could truly see through the future.

’Well, I guess she is one year above the hero party, but this is truly impressive... I wonder why she doesn’t appear in other routes?...’

While Lucen was thinking about other stuff, he continued firing his semi-automatic gun at the students.

Slowly but surely, they were getting used to the speed and timing of each rubber bullet as they were getting better at dodging.

Seeing how fast they were improving made Lucen smile a rather ferocious-looking smile. ’As expected of the party of the protagonist, these guys are truly talented. I guess this proves I can push them harder than I initially imagined.’

Unaware of Lucen’s thoughts, Alexader felt a sudden chill, but quickly dismissed it as he dodged another rubber bullet.

After several minutes, Lucen finally stopped firing. The training ground was filled with heavy breathing.

Ryan was holding his shoulder with a pained expression. Mina was leaning forward, trying to catch her breath. Nina’s eyes were sharper than before, as if she was already analyzing every shot Lucen had fired.

Alexander’s heart was pounding, but his eyes were bright. Cael remained calm, though even he had sweat on his forehead. Elion quietly adjusted his breathing, his gaze still fixed on Lucen’s hands.

As for Catherine, she stood silently, at some point she got hold of a cane and was now holding it in one hand with her head slightly tilted, as if she was still listening to the bullets that had already stopped flying.

Lucen looked at them and smiled. ”Not bad. You all did better than expected. Now that we’re done with the warm-up, it’s time to finally start shooting practice.”

When they heard what Lucen said, the group became excited. Despite being tired, they perked up hearing they’ll be able to start shooting.

”The target you’ll be shooting at is these.” Lucen took out something from his pocket, which was a handful of stones the size of a pea.

Lucen tossed one of the tiny stones into the air and raised one of his guns. Before the students could even wonder what he intended to do, a gunshot rang out, and the falling stone shattered into dust.

Lucen smiled at them. ”For your first shooting practice, all you need to do is hit one.”