Let’s see what we can do. Wyatt’s two attack cards, Quick Shot and Piercing Strike, slipped from the deck holder and began to merge in the air above him. Whistling echoed through the chamber as he pressed his hand into Malcolm’s back. Just like his attacks, Wyatt’s two defense cards merged together. All or nothing. Let’s do this.

  He held his breath as he waited for one of his merges to complete, or for anybody else in their motley crew to attempt to deal any kind of damage to the Terror Brute. They didn’t.

  Rather, Wyatt’s two defense Cards completed their merger far faster than he expected. Two orbs of yellowish light stretched and expanded to form a small shield in an exact illusory replica of Aegis. The holier-than-thou shield continued to compress and expand until dozens of illusory shields stacked on top of one another in front of Malcolm.

  That definitely wasn’t incredibly telling. Pretty much every card he’d activated had shown their potency. What was registered as basic cards somehow gaining holy aspects? If Instructor Monaya wasn’t suspicious before, she surely would be.

  Maybe I should abandon trying to delve legally? he considered, then mentally shrugged. He’d cross that bridge if things started to get too heated in the probationary academy.

  “Thanks for that,” the future Dreadnought called over his shoulder, snapping Wyatt’s attention back to the present. His enhancement properly empowered Malcolm. Enhance Durability combined with Shielding made the already sturdy man even more so.

  “Don’t mention it,” Wyatt replied, positioning himself directly behind the Aegis fortification and Malcolm.

  Still, the Terror Brute didn’t do anything more than barrel toward his shield. Many other students tried their best to assault or layer their defenses on top or in front of Wyatt’s. No matter what stood in its way, the creature simply lowered its shielded face and pumped its legs harder.

  “This thing really doesn’t like you, man,” Luka called from behind. “Did you insult its mom or something?”

  Wyatt shrugged.

  The merger of his two attack cards continued as the Terror Brute smashed into the illusory, multi-layered Aegis. Upon contact, the power behind the creature shattered more than half of the layered defense cards. The shield held for a total of three seconds before shattering into silver and gold.

  “Come get some!” Malcolm roared, laughing as his gauntleted hands smashed together with an immense concussive force. The ground had shifted around him like a suit of armor. It anchored him to the ground and clung to his legs and lower chest. As stabilized and supported as he’d ever be, he was ready to either stop the Terror Brute or get trampled trying.

  Malcolm braced for impact. Blue and green magic steamed off the gauntlets as the Terror Brute slammed face first into Malcolm. The impact jarred him and cracked the earthen foundation.

  Wyatt held his breath, waiting for the perfect moment to strike and begging his merging attack to complete in time. Piercing Strike and Quick Shot ever-so slowly formed a large javelin at the spot in which they began the merger. The fact the merger of two common attacks took so long made him hopeful the mixed effects in tandem with his Double Awakening would be able to take down the massive creature.

  Letting out a pained groan as the earth around his feet crumbled away into fine powder, Malcolm’s other cards activated. His arms grew twice as thick as earthen plates flew up from the ground and enforced his limbs once again.

  Malcolm’s own attacks completed their merge. The magic over his arms duplicated with his powerful gauntlets, forming a second pair of arms that slammed forward into the Terror Brute’s face. Dozens of attacks landed on the creature’s face and robbed any remaining momentum.

  Wailing in rage, the Terror Brute tried to shake away from Malcolm. Unfortunately for it, Luka wasn’t an idiot—most of the time.

  The requirement for the class was seven cards. Luka was the type of person to see defense Cards as “crutches used by those without overwhelming attack power”. His moniker in the future had been “Glass Cannon” and carried his one defense spell with shame, loading on his two personal enhancements and four attacks to do what he loved to do best.

  The two power-enhancing enchantments merged into a super amplifier, Multiply and Increased Attack, for his twice-merged attack cards. Wyatt didn’t know the combination of four attacks that caused what happened next, but he did know he was happy he didn’t have to fight against the possibly-suicidal nuker.

  Eyes glittering with violet power, Luka let loose. Violet bolts of destructive magic made the air smell like supercondensed Ichor as he threw both hands forward and splayed his fingers. The air around the Terror Brute darkened.

  “You better not die, Malcolm!” Luka shouted.

  Better move, too. Wyatt used Quick Step and forced almost all of his reserve of Ichor into the merging attack cards over his shoulder. For as long as they took, he highly doubted they would be even remotely close to Luka in raw, destructive power.

  “Now!” Malcolm roared.

  Luka clenched his fists closed, and a ball of black and violet no bigger than a marble sank into the Terror Brute’s back. The destructive power ate away at the Terror Brute’s mundane plating like a hot coal through butter.

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  The creature’s back half lurched in a violent jarring motion. An ear-piercing shriek echoed around the simulation chamber as the orb stopped sinking and expanded for several long seconds.

  By the time the power fizzled out, the Terror Brute couldn’t move its back end much. However, it still smashed its hardened skull forward into Malcolm and tried to drag itself through the fortified man.

  Using the last charge of Quick Step, Wyatt leapt up and over the side of the Terror Brute and gripped the combined Quick Shot and Piercing Strike’s golden javelin. With all the power he could muster, he launched it at the back of the Terror Brute’s skull.

  The attack slipped through the thinner scales and disappeared with a flash of yellowish-gold. The Terror Brute’s struggles lessened as green gunk oozed from the hole in its skull and back, but it didn’t stop.

  Not yet.

  “Malcolm, I think we’re spent. Finish it off, or we’ll be waiting an hour for the damage to finally take it down,” Luka called as he slumped to the ground. He looked pale and shaky. “Not much else I can do, and everyone else is as good as useless.”

  Wyatt had to agree. Even from his perch on the back of the Terror Brute, he couldn’t think of anything aside from the old fashioned way to take the creature down for good. But Malcolm could do the same thing with less effort.

  “That’s enough!” Instructor Monaya called.

  The Terror Brute’s illusory form halted mid motion, then began to dissipate. Wyatt quickly leapt from the disappearing creature’s back, rolling to absorb the impact. When he stood, he dismissed his cloak and went around to collect his spent cards.

  He’d have to refill them with his Ichor Holds before he could use them again, but they didn’t take all that long to fill at Common-rank. Even if most of them appeared to have the power of an Uncommon or Rare, he honestly expected more.

  Not sure what I expected from a bunch of Angels. I suppose there’s a reason why they lost against the Devils before. He didn’t have all the details or an understanding of why the Council of Balance would sentence Gabriel to be split up into different pieces or what the hell anything else meant. At least Ambrosia tastes less awful.

  Silver linings.

  Luka couldn’t move, and Malcolm took all of five steps before falling onto his back with a hard thud. As tired as he felt, Wyatt didn’t collapse. In fact, he felt good, like he’d just gotten a good workout in. If he had twice as many Cards, then he might’ve needed to rest. But he only had the seven for now, even if he really wanted to add Wyrin and Illia to his card holder.

  “You seven,” Instructor Monaya said, pointing to each of the useless members of their group, “you’ll be going again.” She crossed her arms and looked at Wyatt, her lips curving up into an almost menacing smile. “What an interesting display.”

  Three students rushed off to a door next to the one they’d entered from. Inside, vials of low-quality Ambrosia lined the entire room. Mist hissed out as the room depressurized. The three of them gave each other grim looks, stepped into the cold, and grabbed a tray of three apiece, plus one extra.

  After they shut the door and resealed the cooled room, they rushed over and distributed the vials. Wyatt took his and grinned, pulling the cork and savoring the flavor of the crispy sweet energy flooding through his system.

  Poor Ambrosia consumed. Ichor Hold 1 restored to full. Gained +2 maximum Ichor.

  From half to full, his Ichor Hold filled and then slightly expanded. The process to expand Ichor Holds wasn’t cheap. He knew Demer had a large storage room, but seeing it again still impressed him. That much liquid wealth in addition to the simulation chamber was a testament to the school’s pedigree.

  Any other probationary academy in the region paled in comparison to Demer, and not by a small amount either. The school’s fame and prestige competed for tenth place out of the hundreds of probationary academies in all of Eyanora.

  Getting a scholarship had changed his entire life before, and he hoped his Double Awakening wouldn’t change that outcome. His family waited for him back home in Lenaris. The small bordertown at the edge of the region stood between civilization and The Snarl, a great forest he could never dream of exploring in his past life.

  Hell, nobody could.

  Like a fortress, the place was impenetrable to anything that didn’t know the ins and outs. Theorists believed The Snarl contained an active Invasion Gate from Riacore that had opened when Eyanora first connected to the otherworld.

  One of the secrets Wyatt wanted to get to the bottom of in this second-chance life was exactly that. Who connected Riacore to Eyanora? Why did they do it? How had they done it? And for what reason? What did they have to gain?

  So many questions, and I can’t go search for any of them until I get my license to delve. How annoying, he thought, arms crossed as he waited for the others to recover.

  But that time didn’t come before Instructor Monaya’s patience ran out.

  “Alright, round two. You seven,” she gestured towards the other combatants that had been as useless as lead weights in the last fight, “get ready. I won’t throw another Terror Brute at you, but if you don’t maintain your concentration, you should prepare yourselves to take a beating before you wake up in the infirmary.”

  Harsh, but they needed to learn their lessons. The instructors, even if many of their methodologies were extreme, wanted success for every student. None of them wanted to have their time wasted, nor did they want another one of their students dying inside Riacore.

  To the teaching staff, a fallen student marred their record and acted as an assessment of ability. As far as Wyatt knew, Instructor Monaya kept her employment, despite regular complaints, due to her effectiveness.

  Extreme as her methods may be, they’d taught him to stay alive. The fundamentals, the building blocks for dungeoneering, had nothing to do with fighting monsters. Rather, they were taught to stay alive.

  Returning with nothing was more valuable to all involved in the trade than returning in pieces—or not at all. The advanced simulation chamber wouldn’t kill any of the students, but the capabilities of the creatures spawned within weren’t comparable to what waited within Riacore.

  The Terror Brute he’d taken down with the help of Malcolm and Luka paled to the actual thing by many times. Fighting in the simulation chambers was akin to a handicap to get those who desired a probationary license prepared for the dangers, in which there was an unending amount in the World Dungeon’s depths.

  And the Terror Brute was only a peak D-rank monster.

  Wyatt grimaced as the Instructor Monaya released the second creature, the weakest of the lot. Less than a tenth of the Terror Brute’s size, the Stone Golem lumbered forward and wreaked havoc amongst their numbers.

  “Get them out of here!" she ordered, her voice echoing as the empowering effect resounded throughout the chamber. She turned her scowl to the rest of the class. "Is everyone ready to listen to orders now? Fall in line!”