8 Malinda Ray

Malinda Ray, Aswan High's No.1 Guide and a member of Leon Barnard's 5 person Team, she can be described as a beautiful and slender young woman. she seems to have a flawless body with one of the noticeable aspect of her body being her breasts which can be described as D-cup, but due to her disability She is a wheelchair-bound teenage girl. She alway's wears Aswan High outfit with Maxi skirt, In order to cover her legs. Even with her disability she is a kind and strong-willed person who does all she can to be independent.

Malinda Ray doesn't like being pitied for her disability, insisting that it no way inhibits her ability to do her job and getting angry whenever people try to help her. However, this trait ultimately helped her gain recognition from many of her classmates, espaceally Leon Barnard who later asked her to be a part of his 5 member team, as a guide.

Not much is known about her life pior to transfering into Aswan High during 7th grade but it is known that sometime after the Awakening Ritual, In an accident she had lost the feeling below her waist and was forced to a wheelchair, according to the city laws a person born with or with serious disabilities can not attend Awakening Ritual.

Malinda likes to spend most of her time in Library. Her normal day routine is to visit library to brush upon on all the case study of different movies, fictions etc, which played a great contribution in her becoming a 3rd Tier Guide at such a young age, many people envying her think it is thanks to her Passive ability but realistic people know it was her dedication and hardwork which earned her the title No.1 Guide in the school.

But today Malinda was in the library to visit the new member of the team, James Alpucci Known for his Linguistics achivements. Malinda was waiting while reading the case study of a popular horror movie of 90's, when her smart watch alerted her of a incoming call, the caller was one of her team members Mira. She did not have good impression of Mira cause whenever she talk's to her she gets a feeling that for some Mari is hostile to her, even though she repeatedly tried to confront Mira, she was answered with a cold snort!, Malinda guessed that it may be because of the attention she gets from Leon for being a weakest team member with a disability.

" Hello, Mira what is it? "

" come to the Training grounds, Stumilation Ring no.16. do not be late! " before Malinda could ask why, Mira hung up the call.

' that bitch ' thought Malinda, as she slammed the book on the table.

.....

In front of Stimulation room no.16,

" Malinda what are you doing here ? " asked Leon as he saw the figure of a girl in motorized wheel chair. didn't he ask her to stay in library he will meet her their then why is she here.

" uh? ... I was bored waiting at library and when I heard that you guys were near the Stumilation ring no.16, I decided to come here. " when Leon questioned her Malinda knew what was going on here, but still she choose to be the better person.

Hearing Malinda, Mira Just snorted and exclaimed" Look Look James actually cleared Level 21, OMG! "

" I am not seeing things right " asked Justin.

" no, he really did clear level 21. I really did underestimate him " said Janet, to which Leon replied " not just you every one underestimated him. "

he was really happy that James was able to clear level 21 not just because he would win the wager but cause with the strength shown by James the overall strenght of his 5 person team will increase drastically.

" you guys may have underestimated him but I always knew he had hidden potential, tell them Ava " said Trisha with a all knowing pose.

" yes, captain always thought James had a hidden potential, potential to be a good aggro[1] that is. " said Ava with a expressionless face.

" Just answer in Yes or no, why are you adding extra nonsense, but now that you have brought it up, James does indeed has a potential to be a good aggro because of his whiny nature. " said Trisha, " but, James hid his actual strength from me, is he looking down on me. "

" I do not think he hid his strength " said Malinda

Hearing Malinda, everyone turned to look at her for an explanation. Mira sneered and said," what does a book worm like you know about combat "

Malinda choose to Ignore Mira and said, " the stimulation of Terror Minions are Just simple A.I with set partterned instructions for combat, If one can identify the parttern and decipher it he/she can easily guess each moves of the stimulation. this only helps in escape and evasion, if he/she wants to defeat the stimulation even if they do not have the corresponding strength to face the stimulation they need be proficient in many combat skills. that is to defeat brute strength with near prefect level skills. but this can only help still 19 level.

As in order to over come this bug, the stimulation of Terror Minions from level 20 have advanced AI, with advanced combat softwares. so from level 20 not only the strength of the stimulation increase every level but even its intelligence increases every level.

The reason why James able to win is also the solution for you guys to clear the level 21.

you guys are indeed strong, some even strong enough to compare with level 25 terror minion in brute strength, but you guys can use 100 precent of your strength with good mastery of skills.

take James for example he only has strength enought to fight, level 11 Terror minion, but he is very close prefection in his combat skills, allowing him to utilize almost 150 precent of his total strength. allowing him to clear even level 21."

" what are telling me that my Captain is not skill enogh with sword " asked Mira with anger.

" In a way yes, Captain Leon's sword skills may be top notch in high school level, but its still less compared to the Mastery of AI's sword skills. " answered Malinda, Mira wanted to retort but seeing Leon nodded in agreement with Malinda's explination, she choose not to.

" In case of Trisha, Even though your physical strength exceeds level 25, your wild fighting stlye has no concept of techinque or skills to it, and you never consider retreat or evasion you just take the attacks head on, if I continuce there are too many flaws in you style of fighting but you make up for it with your wild instict and experience, which is still dull compared to the perfect level skill mastery of the stimulation. all in all your combat style is too dependent on your passive ability.

it is similar to how a iron ingot cannot be used to cut, but a well smelted kinfe from it can be used to cut. similarly mastery of different skills can increase the overall efficiancy of your raw strength." Malinda adviced Trisha.

"Come to think of it, My old man also says the same thing but for some reason when you say it, it suddenly made sense to me. haha guess I will need to start learning some skills " laughed Trisha, scratching the back of her head innocently. While other's were looking at her as if seeing a monster, 'how strong is her passive ability to be able to give her raw strength exceeding level 25 terror minion, just in its Intial stage' they thought.

" so what your saying is that James's physical strenght is still avarage but his skill proficiency has reached perfection, so he is able to exhert 150 precent of his strenght, that is 1.5 times higher then his regular strength. but this strenght is still not enough to defeat level 21 terror monster. " asked Ava.

" yes indeeded the math doesn't add up " supported Janet.

" what if the skills he is using are the one's which speafically uses opponents strength against them, Advanced Judo, Advanced jujutsu. then James 1.5 times strenght boost is more than enough for him till level 22, because at certain point when the difference in the strenght becomes absolute no kind of trickary works." suggested Malinda.

" even if what you say is true, I have never seen James spend so much time practicing skills. " said Ava.

" Oh! how do you know what James does during his free time or night hours? " Asked Mira with one brow raised.

" point taken " said Ava.

" to think James was hidden so deep, if it wasn't for the wager with Trisha we would not know about this till the garduation exam. " sighed Luca.

" If someone like James was hidden so deep than what about the strong players from other high schools, it seems we can't underestimate others, looks like we will have to try harder for our seats in top universities. " sighed Leon, the seats in top universities are limited and it seems that it is going to be harder then he thought.

...

Milinda's Calculation was correct, James was indeed having a hard time clearing the 22nd level, the strength and agility of the stimulated Terror Minion was far grater than him, he could follow its speed with his eyes.

This doesn't mean that James was sitting ducks, if he used his soul organ, then he could easily hack the Stimulated Terror Minions codes and delay it for seconds enough for him to defeat the Terror Minion but this would rise a flag in school systems, revealing James's Soul Organ, which James does not want to happen for now atleast.

Since his purpose was meet James did not try hard to clear lv 22 and choose to give up and existed the ring.

As James exited the room, he was greated by a punch, in response he laughed while evading the punch and said," are trying to renege on your word O'Hara. "

" No! Just want to clean the smug look from your face. " said Trisha, " you how can you get stronger without me. "

" In actuality I am not stronger than you just skilled than you" said James, he was really happy about his choice to learn different self defence combat skills yesterday night, if he had chosen other combat skills which focus on attack, he would not be able to get the current result.

" ha ha James you really gave us a huge suprise, you have really hidden too deep, even I was decived. with your strength we have extra assurance during graduation exam. " said Leon, with a bright smile.

" huh! " snorted Trisha, seeing dissatisfied Trisha James wanted to laugh, but did not. not wanting to rub salt on her wound's. If James doesn't want to then it doesn't mean rest feel the same. Mira sneered at Trisha when ever their eyes meet.

" James meet Malinda Ray, No.1 Guide and member of our team and Malinda meet James Alpucci, Aswan High's Polyglot and Final member of team. " Leon introduced James and Malinda to each other.

" It's my pleasure to finally meet the famous, No.1 Guide, Miss Malinda Ray. " greeted James Politely.

" Mr James is being too polite, plessure to meet you too. I will trouble you in future " said Malinda.

" any time miss Malinda. " said James, then he turned to Trisha and said," Pay Up"

" Okay, what do you want? " asked Trisha.

" do not act dumb, go to Teacher Lin and ask to asign a 5th member for your team. " said James with a stern face.

Hearing James's demand, Trisha's face turned cold, she bit hard on her lips and her eyes teared up," you really want to force me to replace you. "

seeing Trisha's exaggerated reaction, as if James was asking her to do something really naughty. James said " this is for your own good. " as he shook his head.

" why don't you just stab me in the heart Instead. " shouted Trisha as tear's flowed from her eyes. this is the second time he has ever seen her cry, first time was when they were 6 year old. Trisha was not the type to carry easily.

Ava looked at James with cold eyes.

WTF is happening, am I missing something, why do I feel like a villain.