Seed of Titan-Chapter 200: A Devastating Ice-Breaking Session

In his bafflement, Drai looked around, and strangely, not only was everyone else unimpressed by the unfathomable result, no one even seemed to care about it. Furthermore, Frost also didn’t add a single word of praise or comment to this particular result, unlike what he had always done for the previous ones.

"He’s a special case," Frost simply said to the perplexed Drai before he started the next round.

Unlike the first two rounds, the next involved successive projection appearances. The squad had to move all around the field to touch every new projection while keeping track of which ones they had already touched.

In addition, due to their different speeds, they had to be fully aware of their squadmates’ positions and make sure not to accidentally crash into one another—except for Gramps, who didn’t bother doing this and simply trusted that the others would do the avoiding for him.

When Mandy finally arrived at the last projection while looking a bit exhausted, Frost immediately announced their times without even waiting for Gramps to finish.

The result was rather unsurprising and basically separated them into four tiers, with Ghost being the sole member of the first one. A significant time gap separated him from those of the second tier, Drai and Cubes, whose times were relatively close to each other, with Cubes being ahead.

The gap between the second and third tier was also pretty wide, likely because Danny and Beachball had to expend their stamina quite a bit, unlike Drai and Cubes.

Yet none were more tired than Mandy, whose sweaty clothes were starting to stick to her curves, drawing a few distracted glances from the observing operator.

Shortly after, all the projections disappeared, preventing Gramps from completing the course—which he obviously didn’t mind at all. And after a short rest, they repeated this again.

By the end of the next round, which was almost twice as long as the previous one, Mandy was panting hard as she sat on the ground, looking a bit pale. Next to her, Cubes had a worried look, concerned about her thinning fuel supply. Standing nearby, Danny and Beachball were also panting slightly.

"For the next session, only Drai, Daniel, and June will take part. The rest of you can take a break," Frost announced, much to Mandy’s relief. He then went to the operating area and returned shortly with a box of chilled drinks, which Mandy immediately pounced on.

After ten minutes of rest, Frost finally signaled the three participating members to follow him to the field’s center.

Arriving there, Frost suddenly hammered his right fist against his left palm, and a thick wall of ice materialized in front of them.

Drai noticed that the ice wall looked entirely different from the ones Frost had been conjuring since yesterday. Instead of being clear or foggy like ice cubes for drinks, it was vibrant blue and completely opaque. And even for the aesthetically-challenged Drai, the ice wall looked rather stunning.

"Cubes is usually our squad’s breacher," Frost began explaining to Drai. "Danny can also function as one if necessary, though he’s usually not as effective. Mandy can theoretically do this too, but since she’s the sole healer of our squad, I’d rather have her save her mana and concoctions.

"For this session, you all simply have to breach through my ice wall. Don’t hold back even the slightest—I want to see how Drai compares and whether he has what it takes to be a solid breacher."

"Will we be attacking it together?" Drai interjected.

"No, you’ll go one after another. I’ll make fresh ice walls for the next ones," Frost replied before continuing, "As per usual for this role, your breaching speed and efficiency determine your suitability. Now, any more questions?"

"Do we just have to break through the wall? Are there no other specifications for the breach?" Cubes inquired.

"For the first round, no. Just make a passage that an average person can fit in. If Drai does well here, we can move on to more specified breaches. Anyone else?"

No one asked further, so Frost ordered Cubes to go first.

As she stood right before the ice wall, Cubes took out a single cube that immediately turned into something resembling a mini missile launcher. She then pressed the large, socket-lined muzzle against the wall.

Simultaneous loud blasts soon rang across the training field. At the same time, large chunks of ice flew out from the other side of the wall. A plume of smoke also rose above Cubes after being vented by her weapon. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Is this enough?" she asked Frost, who promptly examined the fresh hole.

"Looks like it’s just wide enough for someone to squeeze through horizontally, so yes, it’s sufficient," Frost replied.

After Cubes pocketed her weapon and walked back to the group, Frost melted his ice wall with a single clap before conjuring an identical one.

"You’re next, Daniel," he said.

"Alright!" Danny exclaimed before turning to Cubes. "Yo, maces, please."

In reply, Cubes tossed him one of her dice-like cubes, which transformed midair into a pair of black, baton-like maces covered in short spikes.

Danny caught the pair of weapons with each hand and immediately ran toward the ice wall. Shortly after, harsh scratching and grinding noises filled the training area.

As Drai watched Danny swing his maces wildly as if possessed and steadily dig through the ice wall, he couldn’t help but agree with Frost’s earlier comment regarding Danny’s inefficiency.

’I don’t think he cares at all about his performance—he just seems to be enjoying himself,’ Drai amusedly thought. Danny’s impulsiveness sort of reminded him of Jian, causing him to wonder whether the two would get along well or end up butting heads.

Almost half a minute later, Danny finally emerged from the other side of the wall.

"How did I do, Frost?" he cheerfully asked upon returning.

"Worse than Cubes, obviously. Did you really not take this seriously despite my instructions?" Frost asked.

"Even if I did, wouldn’t I still perform worse than Cubes? I might as well use this chance to vent my stress," Danny replied with a carefree shrug.

Unwilling to indulge his subordinate’s silly antics, Frost proceeded to replace the partially devastated ice wall once more before beckoning Drai forward.

"Do this seriously," Frost ordered, slightly worried that Drai would follow Danny’s example.

Drai simply nodded as he walked to the center of the wall.

Frost didn’t realize that his concern was unfounded—never once in his entire life had Drai taken training lightly, though this particular session was more like a test.

With all eyes on him, Drai activated Nova Flux and readied his fist. A split second later, he struck the ice wall with a maxed out Nexus Punch.

Aside from Frost, everyone’s jaw instantly dropped, for what looked like a casual strike in their eyes turned out to be a conduit of overwhelming force that instantly obliterated the wall, hardly leaving any ice behind.

A series of loud clangs followed as the metal walls and ceiling encasing the field were barraged by a vibrant blue hail.

A momentary silence ensued before it was broken by Beachball, who inadvertently squeaked, "M-monster..."

Sitting beside him, Gramps murmured, "No wonder he managed to destroy all those testing machines..."

At the same time, unbeknownst to anyone beside himself, the corners of Ghost’s mouth slightly curved upward.

Just then, Danny erupted in maniacal laughter, grabbing everyone’s attention.

As his laughs subsided, he quivered excitedly before abruptly pouncing at Drai, who had already deactivated all his skills.

"Fight me!" he bellowed mid-leap.

Sadly, before Danny managed to reach his target, his entire figure was suddenly encased in a thick layer of ice.

Thud!

Looking at his squadmate lying frozen near his feet, Drai asked, "Won’t he run out of breath?"

"Don’t worry. I left him a pair of holes for breathing," Frost replied.

Drai looked closer at Danny’s bellowing face and spotted two tiny openings on the ice’s surface that led to his nostrils.

"What about hypothermia?" Drai asked again.

"He’ll manage. Consider it his punishment for attacking a fellow soldier, his own squadmate, even," Frost said without an ounce of pity in his voice.

"I guess we have a new breacher," Cubes weakly remarked from the side.

"Likely so, though I still want to see the extent of Drai’s capabilities," Frost mentioned before conjuring a huge block of ice nearby.

"Again?" Drai asked Frost as he eyed the giant ice cube.

"Yes. This one is way sturdier than the wall. But regardless of your next result, you’ve performed quite remarkably as a breacher."

Drai nodded back in acknowledgment before approaching the cube. Once again, he released his white aura, launched a grab-punch, and activated Nexus Augmentation to the max for a split second right at the last moment.

And just like before, a vibrant-blue salvo blanketed half of the training field. If not for the surrounding barriers, the facility’s residents would’ve experienced an unprecedented local hail shower.

Glancing at his destroyed ice cube, Frost asked, "Why don’t your test results reflect your actual strength?"

"Uhm... Because the testing machines already reached their limits way before I reached mine. Then Captain Ailem told Mr. Richie to assign the highest possible scores for my strength and constitution tests," Drai answered.

"Highest possible basic scores, you mean?" Frost swiftly corrected, his brows slightly narrowing.

"Maybe," Drai shrugged. He didn’t even see his own test results, let alone know much of the specifics. The only result he was aware of was his load index, since it was mentioned by Ailem during his first test.

After a moment of contemplation, Frost eventually sighed.

’Looks like we’ll be staying here longer than planned, thanks to the Captain...’

***