"Silence, I don't want to hear any questions until I've finished speaking. You must all listen carefully."

  Gutaru silenced the class that had suddenly burst into chatter after hearing of their next assignment. Leox decided that he would let the man continue before coming to any conclusion.

  "The grade-three demons, also known as Death Beasts, are similar in strength to the Fallen Saints. What differs between them most is their location of arrival, and their physical forms. These demons will only appear in the wild, and under specific circumstances. As of now, the empire has only encountered a few of these demonic beasts, and they all appeared due to professors around the world assigning this task to their class one students, just as I will do today. In the future, these beasts will appear in numbers and at random, so it's important to familiarise yourself with them whilst we're still in the early stages of the apocalypse."

  So we aren't the only ones that have been tasked with taking down a Death Beast? I guess Gutaru isn't the only insane professor in the Fourth World...

  "Whilst a Fallen Saint resembles the perfect form of a human, the Death Beasts do the opposite, taking on the perfect form of a land animal. Think of a regular tiger, but three times larger, with teeth and claws the length of swords. These beasts aren't awakened, so they cannot wield skills. However, their physical prowess is far greater than any demon you would have seen so far."

  The students burst into mumbles after hearing about the potential size of the demons, but were swiftly silenced. Professor Gutaru could sense the nerves of the weaker-formed teams. However, he wouldn't have set them this task if he thought they couldn't complete it.

  "In order to force one of these demons to appear, a sacrifice is needed. Pile enough corpses inside of a forest, just like the demons do, and one will appear and devour them."

  This time, the noise that came from the students was uncontrollable.

  Corpses? Human corpses?

  They muttered to each other in disbelief, questioning what it was that their professor planned for them to do.

  Gutaru simply stood there, waiting for the room to come to silence. The only group that wasn't expressing their complaints was Leox's group, and a few select students from some of the others.

  Eventually, the classroom reached a volume that Professor Gutaru found acceptable enough to talk over.

  "Fools." He spat. "You'll be travelling with trusted awakened from the empire, who will bring the corpses of humans that have died from execution due to their crimes. The men will then head out to the outskirts of the location, and wait for your battle. If you do not return, they will enter, get rid of the beast, and bring your corpse back with them."

  The explanation made much more sense, yet still, the casual tone that he used when speaking about death did nothing to help the nerves of the less confident students. Leox was neither fearful, nor confident. He was more focused on something else that Gutaru had mentioned. He raised his hand, and the professor eventually nodded at him.

  "Who will be the men that travel with us to the forest, bringing the corpses?" He asked.

  Gutaru paused for a moment, eyeing Leox carefully. He knew why this particular student was asking this question. It was his job as a professor to research the backgrounds of the students in his class after all.

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  "The Hawkings family." He replied, before swiftly moving on from the topic.

  For the rest of the lesson, Leox was unable to focus on what was being taught. His only thoughts were on that specific family, who had done him much wrong in the past, and even had his best friend in their captivity as they spoke.

  The Hawkings... What are you up to?

  ---

  After the lesson finished, and Leox and the others left the class, there was a lot for them to think about. In just seven days, they would be sent to hunt down a beast that none of them had seen before, and only heard rumours of.

  Naturally, the team joined each other in the cafeteria. They were mostly silent, even as they sat around the table eating their meals. None of them besides Leox and Laughter knew each other, and even those two were newly acquainted.

  It was the Jester who broke the silence. "So, perhaps we should start by introducing ourselves?" He suggested, before spooning a piece of potato into his mouth.

  Eventually, the team of six shrugged their shoulders and gave the smallest details about themselves.

  Leox Lether, a farmer from Everhurst with the power to control the four elements.

  Laughter, a noble son of the Glorieux family, with a strange class called Jester, which he swears he must keep secret.

  Astra Helios, the son of the famous Astrologer, Nostra Helios, with the Astrologer class, linking him to the stars.

  Samson, from a family of knights residing in Pentagon, with orders to protect Emperor Alom with their lives. He has many classes connecting him to the concept of knighthood, yet keeps the reasoning behind his crown tattoo secret.

  Marybetha Olive, the daughter of a famous Holy Knight, "Theresa Olive", who is the only woman who has reached the highest rank within the holy order. Marybetha didn't shy away from naming all of her classes, ranging from Paladin, to Swordsman, to Light Mage.

  Trinity Benevine, the daughter of a politician within the Varadna Council. Her classes seemed lacking, with the most impressive being Archer.

  Leox, Astra, Samson and Marybetha were stage two awakened, whilst the others were stage one.

  ...

  After all six of the students had introduced themselves, Leox couldn't help but notice something. Although they had all spoken confidently, it was clear that they were all hesitant to reveal the true secrets behind their classes.

  He couldn't blame them. He too had hidden his most important classes. The Monk, and the Immortal class. Most of them had grown up in Preparation School, which would teach them the importance of hiding their class from those they didn't trust. To break that rule felt taboo. Still, Leox had to try to bring them together. If they couldn't trust each other to some extent, they would fail when taking down the Death Beast.

  "For the rest of the week, we should spend our free time training with each other. Even if it's just basic weapons training, it's important to know how we all fight." He suggested, earning himself nods from the majority of the team.

  However, there was one who hummed to herself dubiously. Trinity Benevine.

  "Unfortunately, I'm quite a busy girl. I'll probably be able to make it to some of the training sessions, but most times I will be with my father, studying politics." She explained in a prideful manner.

  Leox's fists clenched. Just like that, he had started to regret accepting this woman into her team. He planned to hold his tongue, but Samson didn't have the same intentions.

  "Are you a fool? Fine, study politics if you want to die to the beast. Five will probably be enough anyway, considering we are all strong."

  The man seemed to be very attracted to the concept of strength.

  Leox almost laughed, but held it in. He watched as Trinity's cheeks blushed and her anger became clear.

  "Oh, I'm sorry. Not everyone is a meathead like you. Some of us have parents who actually care about our futures. What do yours want you to do, spend your whole life risking your safety to the demons?"

  Samson rose to his feet. His hands reached for his hip, but there was nothing there. It seemed to be a habit.

  "You dare speak about my life?" He roared, earning the attention of the entire cafeteria. "Why are you in the academy, if you do not want to risk yourself in battle?"

  The argument started getting out of hand, and the Leox and Astra had to help calm them both down. Eventually, Samson stormed off, and Trinity did too, though in the opposite directions, both leaving their plates behind with them. Laughter helped himself to their portions.

  That left Leox sitting with the remaining three students in his team. Astra kept his kind smile on his face, and Laughter couldn't remove his, unless he cleaned his face of the clown paint. Marybetha didn't seem bothered by the situation at all.

  "So," Leox scratched at his head. "We'll meet in the field at sundown, then?"

  His partners nodded their heads in agreement.

  He could only hope that Samson and Trinity would be there too.