"You had just been crowned Champion right before the ambush. You were far and away the strongest in this arena. And you did not step up to lead. You have failed to use the resources available to you effectively, and thus, you have failed as a leader." Bruce Pang said seriously as he looked me in the eye.
I gulped and nodded weakly.
A soft murmur rippled through the crowd as they adjusted their viewpoints.
Many probably thought I did an incredible job. But Bruce's words shed light on the real situation.
I had failed to live up to my potential, and to the responsibilities that my power had given me.
It was a sobering revelation for me.
He shifted his finger to point at Sheera Lin.
"You are a genius. But you limited your genius to only leading the Lins, the Wangs and the Longs. You have betrayed your countrymen, and left them to die. You have failed to use the resources available to you effectively, and thus, you have failed as a leader." Bruce Pang announced Sheera Lin's failure solemnly.
A look of surprise flashed on Sheera Lin's face for a moment before she nodded solemnly as well.
"I will put your lesson to heart, Principal." Sheera Lin replied calmly.
Bruce Pang nodded in approval even as yet another murmur spread through the crowd.
Sheera Lin' performance was incredibly... incredible.
But damn, by Bruce Pang's standard, she was a failure too!
The crows struggled to accept it, but eventually they had to. Bruce was right.
As insane as it sounds, Sheera Lin could have and should have done more.
"Lesson number two. In any battle, all effort must be spent to do two main things. Achieve mission objectives, and to save the lives of your brothers and sisters." Bruce Pang said seriously.
I could already hear the sighs of all the first years.
Chronos shifted his finger to point at me again.
"You were one of the few to bother to help your friends before the ambush. You did well as a team mate. However, you merely moved to save your friends, and not the others. You have failed as a soldier of the Federation. You could have used your influence to rally more people to do as you did, but you did not. You have failed as a leader of this generation." Bruce Pang said mercilessly.
By then, I had understood where Bruce Pang was coming from and his world view.
I nodded solemnly.
But he was not done.
"In the battle, you were completely useless. You were rendered ineffective by a mere 100 enemy units. You have allowed your desire to save your 3 immobile friends to limit your impact to the main battle. You have sacrificed your main mission objective to save your friends, which you failed to do as well. You have failed as a soldier."
I nodded solemnly again.
His finger shifted to Sherry Lin.
"You have the skills that most pilots can only dream of having. But you did not use those skills to defend or protect any of your countrymen, even those of your clan. You allowed them to die despite having the power to save them. Although you fought well to complete your mission objectives, you have failed completely as a team mate."
Sherry Lin nodden sullenly. She knew he was right.
"Wangs. You two have the most relations in this arena. You did not utilize them."
"Longs. You have the largest group. But you contributed nothing."
"Rushbloods. You are the sharpshooters of the generation. You did not identify and shoot down the enemy leader."
One by one, Bruce Pang leveled the single result of our performance thus far.
Utter. Failure.
A near depressed atmosphere had fallen on the arena as many ten year old kids started to tremble and fight back their tears.
They had fought so hard! In two particularly insane battles!
And they had failed spectacularly! And in public!!
It was a vicious lesson indeed, and one that none would forget for the rest of their lives.
Bruce Pang finished his grand analysis, and allowed the silence to fester for a few minutes, and for the lessons he had taught to completely take root in our hearts.
And then as the master teacher that he was, he deftly led us all out of the valley of darkness, and into glorious light.
"This is my final analysis." Bruce Pang said quietly.
"All of you are the biggest failures this academy had ever seen."
A few sobs and whimpers could be heard breaking the silence of the crowd which thundered ominously.
"But all of you are also the best and the strongest generation I have ever seen in my entire life. I did not mean for you all to win the ambush, but you did. Not only did you win the ambush, you won with thousands still alive.
If you can learn from your mistakes, you will grow to be the strong pillars that will carry the heavy responsibility of defending this country, and killing those who seek to harm us.
For your future service and sacrifices for our country, I, Bruce Pang, thank you from the very bottom of my heart."
And with that, Bruce Pang bowed deeply to us.
And if Bruce Pang was bowing, how could his staff do any less?
As one, every single teacher stood up wherever they were, and bowed to us.
The dams that were holding back the tears of the ten year olds exploded at that moment, and every single one of us bawled our hearts out.
As I had said before.
Bruce Pang is a master teacher.
His main weapon wasn't teaching technique. It was his sincere and earnest heart.
He truly believed that we were the strongest.
He truly believed that we would become the nation's pillars.
And he truly was grateful for our future services and sacrifices, especially with the war looming in the distance.
And you know what?
We were the strongest.
We were the nation's pillars.
And we did sacrifice ourselves for the country.
Yes.
That, we did.
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