(Kalahari Desert, South Africa, March 2133)
"NUMBER 42!" yelled Nanami, not as a reprimand, but as worry. "Leave the ring! You are in no shape to continue."
Louis panted, shaking his head, his sparring gear charred at some parts and frozen at other parts. "I can do this all day," he said stubbornly, summoning a pair of ice blades, them materialising in his hands.
In this latest sparring exercise using Cosmic Energy magic, the cadets are pitted against the instructors, who is teaching them how to use magic better. Maia is the one in charge of this section, her being an Artemis makes her a formidable opponent thanks to her genetic augmentations.
Sean feels that it's lucky that it's her, not Artemis 6 "Liu Zhong". Liu Zhong would floor everyone here, not just because of him being Artemis, but because of his expert knowledge and expertise in Chinese martial arts. Not the performance arts version, the real killing versions.
Maia sneered, "do you not know when to give up?"
Louis ignored her, charging at Maia, ignoring Nanami's pleas. He swung, Maia dodged, then he threw his second ice blade at her, she quickly incinerated it with a fireball. Louis then swapped hands by dropping the ice dagger and grabbing it with his other hand. He attacked, the ice blade mere inches away from Maia's armoured chest.
"Your movements are too big!" chided Maia, dodging his swing, uppercutting him with a powerful wind punch, Louis is literally blasted out of the ring and onto the sand.
Nanami sighed, telling Phineas to check on Louis. She turned to Maia, still smiling, but with obvious displeasure.
"Now, now sweetie, aren't you having a little bit too much fun?" she asked, with a faux teasing voice. Maia shrugged, saying that she needs to be tough on them if they want to survive as operators.
"You don't skip dinner by breaking the plate," said Nanami, using subtext to signal that she knows what Maia is doing. "Number 31!" she called.
Ariel stepped into the ring. She donned her sparring gear and conjured fireballs. She lunged.
"C'mon, hit me like you mean it!" instructed Maia. "You are not winning any magic brawls this way! Your attacks are too flimsy, see how easily I parried it?"
Ariel paused momentarily. Suddenly her whole body glowed.
Before Maia can react, a huge blast of Cosmic Energy is emitted as Ariel's hand contacted her, blasting her out back, through the sparring ring barrier, breaking it, and face first into the sand, her sparring gear cracked and falling apart.
"OH NO, I AM SO SORRY!!" apologised Ariel, running to her in panic.
(2 hours later)
"Next exercise!" announced Maia. The cadets held their laughs, trying their best not to laugh at her bandaged face. "Collect your gear and trek through the desert! Objective is to remain hidden and evade capture! You will be parachuted into randomised starting positions! If you get taken out by us, you are eliminated! If you don't reach back here by 9pm, aka 7 hours from now, you are eliminated too! Now you are free to use magic to condense water and form ice, but I wonder if you all will still have energy left to walk…"
As if on cue, the cadets' stomachs grumbled. They all had only eaten one meal in the morning which is meant to last one whole day.
Sean and the cadets are in full light combat gear. Then out of nowhere, the water flasks of the cadets flew into the air, and three-fifths of the contents are emptied out.
Maia calmly used her magic to push the flasks back to them, then gesturing to the airbase. "If any of you can't take the burning sun of the desert, or the freezing cold at night, feel free to be a pussy and pull the emergency yellow smoke dispenser. UNSSD helicopters and drones are on a 24h standby and will bring you home in no time!" sneered Maia.
"Now, to save UNSSD the maintenance costs, anyone backing out?" asked Maia.
"NEVER QUIT!" roared Clara.
"Good spirit!" commended Nanami. "Move out!"
Soon the cadets are on the plane, parachuting out one by one. It was not long before Sean got his turn.
"Ready comrade?" asked the crew of the plane checking their parachutes, an Arabian human. Sean gave a thumbs up.
Sean jumped out of the cabin, opening his parachute once he reached terminal velocity, landing down on a sand dune. He immediately tidied up his parachute, compressing it into a small 4 by 4 cm square and fastening it onto his assault backpack. This is to ensure that he does not leave behind visible clues to his whereabouts. Sean checked his coordinates on his smartwatch and the compass, climbing up to a taller sand dune to scout his route. Just then, the sound of a jeep followed by gunshots caught his attention, he immediately went down from the sand dune, hiding behind it while peeking out, turning the LPVO optic on his SCAR-H to 6x magnification, finding to his dismay that a cadet is already caught and eliminated by the instructors.
Getting caught by the instructors is the least of his worries though. The 2 most likely things to screw him over are dehydration and heat stroke, and both can come on in a matter of hours. Even though as a member of Squad Artemis he can take more punishment from nature, that does not make him invincible compared to a human or Sellardraxian.
He planned his route. Travelling in the heat will be painful, hence the seemingly logical step is to do most of the travelling when the sun sets. Though that is impossible, as Sean knows that there is no way he can reach the base at 9pm if he dedicates most of his movements at night.
Knowing that in the heat his head will sizzle and his body will shut down, Sean removed his helmet, wearing a makeshift Arabian headscarf to keep his head cool. He condensed some water to dampen it using magic, allowing it to cool himself down further. Wearing his helmet and putting on the goggles to shield his eyes from the sand, he began his journey.
In the desert, water is king. He will be lucky to live up to 24h in the desert without water. Despite strictly rationing his water, after 2 hours of trekking his flask is empty. The instructors have deviously designed the course such that the cadets are almost guaranteed to run out of water soon, forcing them to scourge for water, and if the cadets tried to use magic to condense water, they will run out of energy.
With no choice, Sean began searching for water. To make matters worse, he started to feel a slight headache. He is alarmed. This is an early symptom of heat stroke, if he does not find shelter soon, it's going to worsen as his body stops sweating to conserve fluids, which will then cause him fatigue and dizziness.
"Heck…" cursed Sean. His body can lose up to 1 litre of water in this heat, and he will not even notice it.
He needs to find shade, and water fast.
Fortunately for him, a shade consisting of a lone tree soon appeared. He immediately ran towards it, sitting down and fanning himself, while still staying alert. The other good news is that plants are representative of water sources.
He dug a hole about 46cm deep, lining it with palm leaves, intending to make a dew trap variant to collect moisture. He then put rocks onto the leaves to collect the moisture via condensation from heat contrast between the cool rocks and the harsh sun. But of course, there is no way that he will wait for night time to cool the rocks down. He is going to use magic to bring away heat from the rocks. Bringing heat away from objects is way less energy consuming as opposed to directly condensing water from the water vapour in the air.
After adding an extra layer of leaves to ensure the precious droplets do not evaporate, Sean extended his hand, cooling down the rocks.
"Smart..." commended Santos, observing the cadets through the cameras in their helmets.
It did not take long for moisture to form on the rocks, and Sean thirstily sucked off as much as he needs, then carefully collecting the drops into his flask, and then moving off once he no longer feel a headache.
Just as he barely walked for a few minutes, shots were fired in the distance, and he immediately took cover and got down, observing his surroundings alertly. His thumb moved to the fire selector, disengaging the safety.
Little did he notice that a cobra had coiled itself around his leg. By the time he noticed, it was already in his face.
Sean looked at the 1.2m long cobra hissing about, staying as still as possible. A cobra can strike up to half of its body length in half a second and inject its lethal venom, a situation Sean wants to avoid.
The cobra did not notice that Sean is a living being, and then coiled itself onto his gun, gradually going blocking the barrel. Sean's finger is already on the trigger, contemplating whether to shoot the cobra at the risk of exposing his position, as he does not have a suppressor.
Just then, the cobra is forcefully elevated into the air and beheaded by a quick burst of air. Sean turned, surprised to see Vera behind him, with Louis and Giorgio.
"What, did your brain get fried by the heatwaves?' joked Vera, "say something!"
"What a pleasant surprise," said Sean. "I suggest you all get down; there were gunshots around here just now."
"And that was us," replied Giorgio.
Sean is surprised, "why did you shoot?"
Vera gave a sheepish grin. "Well, you see, just after the 3 of us rendezvoused the instructors found us and we got into a brief firefight."
"And did you win?" asked Sean.
She looked at him awkwardly.
A sense of dread crept onto Sean. "You won, right?"
Before Vera can give a reply, the loud engines of a jeep answered Sean's question for him. He stared at his friends incredulously, realising that they had just drawn the instructors over to him as well.
"F***, run!" exclaimed Sean, and the 4 immediately bolted.