The rest of the trainings went by fairly smoothly, Kael's skills were going more recognisable as he continued to stop Lyra's attempts at hurting him, the last training of the day, even though it was now around 8pm and they still hadn't had dinner yet, was gun practice, which was the most unusual training of all as they were required to practice blindfolded, this was due to how thick the gas was–its almost impossible to see any of the Withered until they were close so soldiers were trained to fight based on instinct, this was nothing new to the platoon members due to the fact they did this in the academy, Kael obviously excelled due to how much he used to practice, plus he also had 2 years extra in the academy waiting for Silas to pass the written exam.
To ensure students safety, these training sessions were done in special rooms. These rooms were about the size of a small bedroom and there were around 15 on the sight of the Platoon, each person would be on their own and observed by Thorn through a reinforced window. Metal plated walls would make sure there was minimal damage to the actual room, between some of the plates were slits in which targets could pop out from when the button was pressed by a member of the training staff–usually veterans who didn't fight anymore–and the goal was for the blindfolded cadet to shoot and hit the target as fast as possible, this would repeat for 5 rounds, each round containing 10 targets to hit, creating a total of 50 targets, speed is also important as you only have 5 seconds to hit a target which adds an extra ounce of pressure on the trainee. The test takers are then ranked on how well they did by how many–out of 50–targets they hit. Kael almost aced the training, but as usual, he hesitated on number 6–it was always number 6–causing him to always get 49 out of 50 points, which was still top of the class as Lyra–who came second–got 47.
The scores were released at the end of the training:
1. Kael Ranz : 49/50
2. Lyra Venn : 47/50
3. Tallis Wren : 43/50
4. Eryn Kaas : 41/50
5. Silas Korr : 40/50
6. Taryn Velk : 39/50
7. Vex Alin : 37/50
8. Kess Drehl : 37/50
9. Nira Halden : 36/50
10. Seran Mark : 35/50
Seran Mark was one who apparently consistently came last, however its known that he's been improving, likely due to his unwavering determination, Nira Halden on the other hand has been stuck at 36 for quite a while, and coincidentally enough, she hits the same targets every time even though the cadets aren't allowed to look at the target order.
Lyra looked disappointed in her score despite it being the highest score she'd ever achieved, it's likely that she wanted to prove she was better than Kael, and yet, she failed again.
Silas was doing pretty average for himself, he always did fairly well but could never catch up to Kael, though Taryn surprised him when he was only 1 point behind him on the leaderboard.
Kael stood in the centre of the room where the scores were released onto a chalkboard, being the barracks he had first met everyone in, staring at the board. Everyone looked at him with slight awe, some with fear, but Kael had a look of disappointment on his face.
Kael's mind was only focused on one thing at that moment.
Why do I always miss number 6?
Kael's Thoughts were suddenly cut off by a friendly smack on the back, he turned to see Silas with Taryn beside him.
"49 again huh? *sigh* you truly are skilled aren't you."
Silas spoke with a slightly defeated tone, likely due to Kael always being ahead of him.
"That Lyra girl scored more than I expected though, she's a lot closer to Kael in skill than I expected her to be."
"That's actually the highest she's ever scored, at least since i've been here"
Taryn points this out, Kael listens but is so beat up on missing the sixth target repeatedly that he doesn't respond.
Silas notices this and gives him a slightly concerned look before he gives some words of comfort.
"Hey come on man, lighten up! Something tells me everyone is gonna be a lot more interested in you from now on."
He then leans in to whisper.
"You'll hit the sixth eventually, trust me."
Kael gives a quiet and short response.
"Alright."
Thorn raises his voice so the whole room can hear him.
"Attention! The clock has just struck 9pm, your dinner has been prepared late due to the extra training, please make your way to the dining hall!"
The room nods at him as he exits, all standing up and rushing to the cafeteria in an almost identical fashion as before.
Kael feels as if a weight has been lifted due to not having all eyes on him, he and the other two begin to make their way to the cafeteria as Lyra leaves after them. Seemingly the only difference than this morning, she seems to be analysing Kael, likely to figure out a way to beat him hand to hand as a way of revenge for earlier.
Kael, Taryn and Silas sit at the same table they did for breakfast, Kael still slightly disappointed and the weight of everyone's eyes had returned, he even felt as if he was being watched from above, even though that was impossible.
As he ate, Kael had been drowning out the noises around him aside from the voices of Silas and Taryn until he heard a chair scrape across the table from him
He looked up to see it was Tallis Wren.
Tallis spoke with a very upbeat, kind of clown-like manner.
"Hey Kael! It's me! Tallis Wren, I saw you did pretty well on the test today."
Kael silently looked at him, noticing his notebook wasn't in sight.
He nodded, Kael simply nodded.