The Legendary Ghost Hunter

After lunch was over, Elder Hua came back to pick up Finn and the others. Together, they headed for a different part of the squadron grounds. On the way, Elder Hua explained how their schedules were going to go.

"Listen up, you brats. For this next week up until the mission starts, you won't have any free time at all," she said as she walked. "In the mornings, starting at 6 AM, you will have stealth training. Then, after an one-hour lunch break at 11, the afternoon will be spent on combat training — which is what we're going to do right now.

"Dinner will be at 6 PM, and after that, you have some alone time to hone your Angelicas. There are plenty of books here to read, covering pretty much any Angelica. I'll show you the library later today. Now then… do you have any questions? If you do, keep them, because you shouldn't."

'If she wasn't planning on answering anyway, why bother asking…?' Finn thought, slightly confused.

"Combat training…" Octane scratched his head. "Will we be fighting you, Elder Hua?"

"Hah! You wish," Elder Hua snorted in response. "If you perform well, maybe I'll let you try fighting me. But I'll say this right now — I don't have high expectations of you lot."

"If we aren't fighting you… then who are we fighting?" Iris asked curiously.

Elder Hua scoffed. "I said keep your questions, didn't I? You'll see in a second."

Soon, the six arrived at a large training dojo of some sort. Like the rest of the buildings in this squadron's base, it had a traditional Eastern feel to it — on the outside, at least. The inside was decorated with electronic lights which kind of ruined the feel, but they do work a lot better than candles and whatnot.

After entering the building, Elder Hua went up to a young woman who seemed like the receptionist there.

"Greetings, Elder Hua," she said, bowing politely. "Anything I can do for you today?"

"Mhm. Any free rooms? I have a few brats to train," Elder Hua replied impatiently.

"Allow me to check…"

"If there aren't, don't worry about it. I'll just train them outside."

"No no, there are," the receptionist hurriedly replied. "Dojos 2A and 3C are open, whichever one you would like."

"We'll take 2A, since it's closer. Thanks," Elder Hua responded briskly before heading inside. But after seeing her students frozen in place, at a loss for what to do next, she stopped and spun around in frustration.

"What are you waiting for, you brats?!" She barked in annoyance. "Follow me!"

"Ahaha… good luck," the receptionist whispered quietly with a warm smile as she recorded Dojo 2A being taken.

*****

After some struggling, the six managed to arrive on the second floor. Since there was no elevator, they were forced to take the stairs. As a result, Octane ended up carrying the wheelchair up while Finn carried Iris.

On the way, they passed by several rooms, each with a label on them. It was almost like a school, with every classroom having their own designated room number. The '2' in 2A obviously meant the room they were supposed to go to was on the second floor, which was where they were right now.

"In here," Elder Hua said as she slid open a door to reveal a large, empty room behind it with oak wood flooring and velvet-colored walls and ceiling. "Don't worry about taking off your shoes. There's an automatic cleaning Enchantment on this door."

'Cleaning Enchantment…?' Finn thought in his head. 'Interesting…'

The five students walked in after Elder Hua. Luckily, the doorway was just wide enough to fit Iris's wheelchair through. When they did so, they felt a pure feeling wash over their body, as if they had taken a shower without even getting wet. It was difficult to describe, but their entire body felt 'cleaner', like a bath and laundry cycle combined into one single instant.

Across from the door in the dojo, a set of mirrors were attached to the wall, reflecting everything that happens within this room. Mirrors are essential for combat training as they allow you to see your own mistakes and weaknesses, which is a lot better than having someone else point them out. In addition, if you were learning a technique from someone and wanted to match their movements, a mirror made this process easy.

"Close the door," Elder Hua ordered. Reaper, who had been last to enter, did as told.

"Now then… where are the iFrames…" She went over to a set of wooden storage boxes on the other side of the room and opened them up. "Ah, here they are."

Without any warning, she suddenly began throwing various objects out of the box — more specifically, life-size humanoid wooden mannequins. Finn and the others hurriedly backed off to avoid getting crushed, somewhat impressed by this seemingly little girl's muscle strength to be able to toss something like this behind her with only one hand.

"Alright… that's five," Elder Hua finally closed the storage box once more and turned around to face her students. "All of you, pick one of those up. It doesn't matter which, just pick one each."

Iris picked up two; one for herself, one that she handed to Finn, who was standing behind her. Octane, Reaper, and Fanatic each picked up one of the remaining three on the floor, setting them upright so that they were standing facing them.

"Now, spread out a bit and try pouring some mana into your chosen iFrame," Elder Hua ordered, folding her arms. "You don't need too much… and if you don't have an Angelica, just place your hand on the Frame's forehead."

Finn moved from behind Iris to beside her so that he could do this properly, then gently felt around the air with his hand for a while before finally finding his iFrame. Lightly placing his palm on the mannequin's forehead, he chose the Stormbringer Angelica's mana to use after some debate.

After all, Storm had already betrayed the squadron. It was only a matter of time before knowledge of Finn's powers became public, so he figured there was no point hiding them any longer. Besides… he remembered asking Archon one time about what Angelica Lei Feng had, and the answer he received was 'Stormbringer', which seemed to be a pretty common one.

Now that Storm couldn't teach him anymore, Finn was in need of a new teacher for the Stormbringer Angelica. He knew how to activate it, but that was about it. No idea how to use Abilities or anything.

If possible, Finn didn't want to resort to using books since that was far less efficient than having a strong, experienced Hunter like Lei teach him. Therefore, he was planning on showing his affinity for the Stormbringer Angelica anyway — this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

A thunderous blue aura immediately shrouded Finn, sparks of electricity crackling dangerously around him as he began pouring mana into the doll before him.

As he did so, Elder Hua's eyes widened a bit at the intensity of the sparks.

'The Stormbringer Angelica? But such intense electricity sparks… there's no way he's from a D-Class Squadron. I've only ever seen one other person produce such a powerful Stormbringer aura, and…

This boy… he's on par with Patriarch Lei.'