Chapter 116 - Sneak Attack

Having found his target, Carlos was remarkably conflicted. He searched and checked every trainee during the first day but turned out nothing.

He gave up and thought of bailing out but he then got abandoned. Who would've thought that it's the most promising trainee?

It's clearly a blunder he made for not broadening his estimation. The punk who dared to record him and send it to the authorities rose to middle Stage 1 in less than a month! Although not impossible, it's a rare feat especially for someone from a Secondary City!

Even Carlos who hailed from an Energy Refiner lineage took a few months to rise from early to middle Stage 1. And the subsequent stages took even longer than that.

He was enlivened, for sure. It's his organization's order and something he went through great lengths to come and join the Training Camp as a guest Energy Refiner. However, now that they're inside a maintained-type Dimensional Rift, killing him was out of the question. That's unless he wanted to get trapped inside, never to return. There's a way where he could let it look like an accident, but with the Training Camp still underway and the punk considered the most promising trainee, he'd be in close observation.

That's why he thought of another idea. Instead of taking care of Aldrin right away, he'd get close to him. Close enough that he'd be treated as a close associate.

Once they returned from the Dimension and the Training Camp ended, that's the time he would strike and vanish completely.

And that's how the current situation unfolded.

Carlos was sporting a smirk as he led the punk through the sea of trees and arrived at a fairly wide space, only a few minutes away from the supposed campsite.

The surrounding Rift Monsters were already cleared by them earlier so there's little to no chance for them to be attacked or even risk the punk to get killed.

Even at this moment, there's someone who followed them, watching closely.

He didn't have any plan to make a move anyway so he's fairly confident at his act. He only needed to give some pointers to Aldrin and that would deepen their connection.

Carlos then turned around to face Aldrin, sporting his most amiable smile as possible. But in his mind, he's already simulating how best to kill the punk who brought him headache-inducing trouble.

He should be relaxing somewhere peaceful and waiting for his next assignment. But because of Aldrin, that was cut short.

"Here is fine. It's dangerous to venture further. We can't have the most promising trainee get into an accident, can we?" He said to Aldrin while spreading his arms, showcasing his fake benevolence towards him.

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"Here is fine. It's dangerous to venture further. We can't have the most promising trainee get into an accident, can we?"

Looking at how the middle-aged man acted like a benevolent saint in front of him, Aldrin couldn't help but feel a sense of disgust.

He's someone who wouldn't hesitate to cause a disaster and kill off witnesses. If he's a saint, no one would be a sinner in all of humanity.

Nonetheless, just like Carlos, he had to act properly.

The Dimensional Clones were further inside the sea of trees and away from the detection range of Janet and the other Instructors surrounding the place.

He had a simple but dangerous plan. It's fairly stupid even. But he had to go through with it. The sense of danger in the Lower Dimension was somewhat existent. He could feel fear and pain from dying. However, with his mind settled on the fact that he's not actually the one dying, he had no idea if those fights could be considered life-and-death situations.

He could think back to how he lost, true, but he wasn't as desperate as when he and Renissa fought the Rift Monster or when Carlos was close to killing him.

That's why even if it's a stupid request, upon seeing Aldrin's determination to go through with it, Janet gave in to allow him the chance to fight the middle-aged man despite the power gap.

And Aldrin was extremely thankful for that.

"I thank Instructor for your evaluation but really, I don't dare claim that I'm the most promising. But I certainly will aim for that number 1 spot." Aldrin scratched his head.

"Is that so? Then let's start. You're only a middle Stage 1 and those two late Stage 1 brats from the other cities were toyed by you. I must say, that's already impressive. However, your fighting style is too rough."

Carlos stretched his arms to the side, opening his Spatial Pocket. From inside, he pulled out a short sword around 40 centimeters in length and 5 centimeters in width.

Thanks to the moon illuminating the place, Aldrin could see that the blade took on a turquoise color while the hilt was a deep blue. Although Carlos was holding the sword steady, Aldrin could faintly hear a faint buzzing sound coming from it. It's as if the sword was constantly vibrating.

It's most likely a Grade 2 or above weapon. Thankfully, he prepared to use Winterthorn against him. He's certain that Janet and the others wouldn't pry about its origin. And even if they did, Aldrin could make the excuse of purchasing it with the money given by Irina.

"You're adept at using a sword, am I right?" Carlos asked while taking a stance with his short sword. In less than a second, Aldrin felt a change in the air around the middle-aged man. The sword stance he took replaced his aura from calm to a sharp one.

Upon seeing that, Aldrin couldn't help but applaud the man's commitment. He's really going to teach him something about properly wielding a sword. Not that he truly needed guidance to it. His fighting style might be rough but it already developed to the point that he only needed to polish it and make it his own unique style.

He's aware of different weapon and martial arts. However, with the existence of different destructive weapons and Metadomes, they're not as prominent as they were during the old era.

There were dojos teaching them, true. However, being a former normal civilian, those available to the public populace were too limited. Althea, Aldrin's sister, had enrolled in those dojos but Aldrin himself had no time to do so. 

That's why he believed that Carlos' demonstration this time was just to show him what he could do to improve his own style. It would be like a dance that connects every move into a set of motions.

"Yes." He answered curtly as he waited to see what Carlos would do.

However, at this point, he's already preparing to launch himself against the middle-aged man. He's only waiting for his elder sister's signal to begin.

They're going to leave the vicinity for a while. Make it look like they stopped their surveillance, when in fact, they're going to block all his paths to escape.

When Aldrin tapped out, they'd all charge at Carlos before he could even think of escaping.

That's why to give himself a bit of an edge against the man, Aldrin would employ a dishonorable tactic. A sneak attack.

As Carlos displayed a set of sword moves for Aldrin to observe, Janet's voice rang in his ears. "You may begin."

With that as a signal, Aldrin clapped and tried to mimic what Carlos did.

Sword move after sword move. He slowly inched closer to the middle-aged man.

Although he intentionally moved clumsily, Carlos only thought that it's natural. Seeing his sword move once and remembering it all was deemed impossible.

Soon enough, Carlos already put the turquoise short sword back to his Spatial Pocket to personally correct Aldrin's posture.

He slowly stepped forward towards Aldrin. However, it was at this point that Aldrin made his move.

As soon as he deemed it the perfect chance to launch his sneak attack, Aldrin didn't hesitate.

The Winterthorn swiftly made an arc, slashing towards Carlos and along with it, a question. "Instructor, how does it feel like to silence a witness?"

"—Huh?!" Carlos was dumbfounded.

Aldrin's strike didn't have any killing intent. His sneak attack wasn't aimed to kill him after all.

As Carlos looked down below, the thick clothing he's wearing broke open and a diagonal cut gradually became visible followed by the assault of extreme coldness brought about by the Winterthorn's effect.