Mid-Training Assessment

"Thwack, thwack." Milla slapped the wooden sparring ring twice with force, trying to pull Han Qingyu's attention back. Sometimes the future captain felt she ought to act gentle for the time being—that way she would be more likable... But if she kept doing that, wouldn't she seem unsolid and unreliable? She was a captain; how could she have no authority?! In her memory, during the mutual selection when recruits graduated camp every year, it was always those overbearing, aggressive guys whose eyes were aimed clear at the sky who were trusted more by the recruits. "Han Qingyu!" "...Present." "Could you... pay attention, please? I'm going to explain something very important." "Sorry, Captain." "...Actually, it's fine. Just zoning out." After saying that, Milla turned her head and cleared her throat. She hardened her face before turning back, sweeping her sharp gaze across the wounded soldiers of Dormitory 11, who had spent the whole day as living targets, and said: "Ahem. Are you wondering why recruit combat training starts with a chaotic brawl like today's? Do you wonder why this ring is so small... when in fact, the battlefield where we confront Great Spikes is far more open?" From an instructor's perspective, these two questions obviously required no answer. Wen Jifei's habit made him sorely tempted to chime in with *Actually, not really*, but out of respect for the captain, he managed to hold back. "The answer to the first question is simple: because the warriors who wear the armor in the future are human first, and human instinct is the most precious thing of all. "People with mature tactical routines and techniques become far duller at capturing instinct. That is Azure's experience. "So now, we must first strengthen your combat instinctive reactions, letting your bodies memorize them... In battles that are often decided by millimeters between life and death, this is frequently decisive." This presumably meant that when confronting Great Spikes, reactions at the brink of life and death were rarely provided by technique, but rather by the body's instinctive response. Seeing the recruits being serious for once, Milla gradually began finding her stride as captain. "As for how small the wooden ring is, that's also intentional. It's to train two decisive senses for your future combat: initiation and braking." Milla paused, then said with somewhat diminished confidence, "Braking... is basically stopping." "Understood." "Good. Although our duels with Great Spikes might seem unrestricted by terrain, in reality, the true engagement range between both sides is extremely narrow and tight—so narrow it's beyond your imagination... Therefore, every choice of when to initiate movement, and how fast or slow that initiation is, means grasping or losing an opportunity. And every brake, how strongly or weakly you control your body, determines whether you get hit... Millimeters mean the difference between life and death." Milla stopped here, waiting for the squad members to start murmuring among themselves. Then she suddenly barked, "Wen Jifei!" "Ah..." The "Present" that was meant to follow "Ah" never made it out. As Wen Jifei turned his head, he saw Milla's fist already swinging toward his cheek... Yet inertia caused him to continue turning his head anyway, perhaps for just half a second. *Thump.* Milla had naturally pulled her punch. Even so, Wen Jifei crashed to the ground at the blow. "You're already dead. The column sword struck your head; zero chance of survival," Milla said coldly, doing her best to overcome the sudden awkwardness welling up inside her. Wen Jifei: "..." "Actually, if you could have braked against your inertia even 0.1 seconds earlier, my fist would have only passed in front of your face," Milla explained. "This situation will be magnified many times over once you put on the three-dimensional apparatus, and it will be magnified even further when you face a Great Spike." After speaking, she couldn't help looking at Wen Jifei as he struggled up from the ground, nor could she resist pulling a tube of ointment from her pocket and tossing it to him, before adding as coldly as she could, "Apply it yourself." At this moment, Han Qingyu seemed to understand why Milla had forever been a vice-captain. Milla herself probably realized this too. She grew anxious to win back her momentum... "You saw I brought my gun today," she said. "Because I... plan to demonstrate something for you." Then, she turned around. A hard iron can, no thicker than a fist and the length of a palm, was hurled forcefully into the air. Milla didn't look after tossing it; she lowered her head and propped up her Milla 11. The iron can in the air reached its apex and began to spin downward... *Bang... clang.* The latter sound wasn't sharp, but somewhat muffled. The bullet was so fast that no one could see it clearly. Yet the iron can in the air tumbled and, along an ascending parabolic arc, flew high into the sky. Deducing from this, the bullet must have struck at an upward angle precisely grazing the bottom rim of the iron can at some point in its tilted rotation... If it had directly hit the body of the can, it would never have followed this trajectory. "The Milla 11 is my custom machine gun. These aren't standard rounds today. Standard rounds are... very thick." When a beauty said "very thick," it inexplicably felt a bit strange. But no one had leisure to dwell on it. *Bang.* Another shot. Further in the distance, the gradually falling iron can was sent soaring toward the distant sky once more along the same trajectory. "The Milla 11 usually fires from all five barrels simultaneously." Milla tilted her chin toward the barrels. *Bang.* "Keeping the iron can intact is harder than hitting it." *Bang.* "At full fire, the Milla 11 cannot be handled by soldiers of ordinary armed forces." *Bang.* *Bang... bang... bang...* At this moment on the training ground, almost everyone had their heads craned, staring high above, gazing into the distance, watching Milla launch the iron can into the sky again and again. She had probably sent the iron can more than a thousand meters away this way. *Bang.* With the final bullet, the hard iron can—now tiny in their vision—was struck directly in midair and blew apart. Milla stood up, carrying her machine gun with the muzzle pointing up. "Machine guns are useless in battles against Great Spikes... but I am the only soldier in the Azure Coalition, Huaxia Front, Ninth Army, who is permitted and approved to use firearms in combat on the sighting frontline... I am Milla Joe, and this is my custom machine gun, the five-barreled super-heavy autocannon, Milla 11." The moment she finished speaking, silence fell across the entire ground... The next moment, cheers erupted. To the recruits, the performance Milla had just put on was simply staggering. ... "Just as you know, my gun and I still cannot harm Great Spikes." Once the scene finally quieted down, a slightly uncomfortable Milla began explaining to her squad members, "However, I can accomplish something special. Think of it like this: imagine right now, a Great Spike is turning clockwise and sweeping its column sword across in a horizontal strike..." Everyone conjured the image in their minds. "The point of impact for the Milla 11 would be its left shoulder... It won't cause damage, but in a certain instant, at a very slight angle, I have a 0.1-second window to use my bullet to add a bit of force in that same direction onto its left shoulder. That bit of force will slightly sway its center of gravity, causing its swing to lag or veer slightly off course. That's something ordinary machine guns cannot do... Can you understand? It's like someone turning clockwise, and you give their left shoulder a shove." Milla finished explaining her role on the battlefield. This seemingly minor effect could save a life, or perhaps stall Great Spikes from regrouping after being separated... Yet she showed not the slightest trace of pride. "I don't want you to become me," she said. "If possible, I would much rather you take that same opportunity to charge up and slash the Great Spike with a blade... "I only demonstrated all this because I wanted to share my understanding of fighting Great Spikes. "If the day comes when all of you can don the three-dimensional apparatus... on the first page of the *Source Energy Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear Combat Manual* that you receive when training begins, the very first line printed in bold red letters will be: *Do not leap, do not leap, do not leap...* "Because of the gap in individual strength between us and Great Spikes, once airborne, both our initiation and braking will experience a slight delay, and then we become targets. "This is something you'll learn in the future, but the key point I want to tell you right now is," Milla paused and said, stressing each word, "Angle. Angle. Angle." After explaining this, Milla stepped onto the ring and fought a round with every squad member. She didn't use force—only fists appearing from all sorts of angles aimed at every joint of their bodies. ... "You're not bad. You made my lipstick come off." When the squad members were resting and getting ready to eat, Milla came over and spoke to Han Qingyu first. If she hadn't said so, no one would have noticed that the captain was actually wearing lipstick. "The mid-training graduation is coming up soon," Milla said, turning to explain to everyone that before the degree of fusion test at the recruit training midpoint, there would be a combat assessment. At that time, standing on the other side of the ring would be second-year veterans wearing simplified source energy apparatuses. "They will only defend, not attack. You will hold ordinary iron blades and attack freely. You have two minutes, and landing a hit counts as a win..." Milla clapped her hands and told everyone, "I hope you all perform well." "Win it for me, all right?" Milla suddenly said to Han Qingyu after stepping away from the crowd. Han Qingyu: "What's the prize?" "A banner... and extra assessment points." Milla explained with a hint of bashfulness. She remembered the promise she made back then, but they had agreed on first place in total score... Even if he won this, his score was still far off. Han Qingyu: "No money? None of that either... Then I'm not interested." What did he mean, not interested? Milla stood frozen for a moment until she noticed Han Qingyu was already walking away, muttering to himself. "Win it for me!" Milla caught up from behind and grabbed Han Qingyu's arm. Once he turned around and their eyes met, looking slightly embarrassed but earnest, she said, "Win it for me, all right? ...Let everyone know I'm actually pretty good."