Erin took Commander Sable's advice to heart and focused on improving herself from the ground up.
It was true that ever since she had accidentally resonated her water and wind abilities together to obtain her ice powers, she had become a bit too confident and reliant on them. She used her ice abilities any chance she got and completely disregarded her other two abilities.
Even though Ice was much stronger than Wind and Water, it required more energy to use too, and given that she had an average energy pool, this combination was just not sustainable as she was the first one to tire out and lose all her energy during the training match.
She focused on practicing several different close combat fighting techniques and upgrading her base attributes such as strength and speed. She also dedicated some time to mastering the art of ice manipulation, creating complex ice structures, and learning to maintain them for extended periods without exerting too much energy.
By the end of the week, there wasn't a drastic change in Erin's attributes or abilities, but she had definitely learned to control her Ice ability better and to incorporate her other abilities into her fighting style as well.
She always preferred close combat and now with the combat knife that Mako gave her, she was able to get a lot of practice in with it so that she could use it efficiently and quickly in battle.
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Iris needed to overcome her emotional instability and reliance on others during combat. Iris worked on building mental fortitude and emotional resilience. She participated in rigorous mental training exercises, where she had to face and overcome her fears and anxieties.
Iris also worked on her mental resilience, practicing meditation and visualization techniques to stay focused and calm during combat.
She faced simulated battles where she encountered scenarios that could trigger her emotions and practiced maintaining her composure and decision-making under pressure.
Unlike Mako who was using the scenarios to train his sense of reasoning and calculation under pressure, Iris was training her ability to remain calm, collected, and focused during an intense battle.
The scenarios that Mako was training in were all based around attacking or being the aggressor which would help him to think on the go and make the best decisions under pressure, whereas Iris participated in primarily defending scenarios, where she wasn't the aggressor and was instead protecting others or an area from the enemies.
In these scenarios, Iris was faced with many different challenges in which she had to keep watch of several locations in order to not let the enemies pass through and the very first time that Iris played this scenario, it devastated her as she was too slow and couldn't keep watch of every entry point, allowing the enemies to sneak and kill all the town people.
The scenarios were so realistic that even though they weren't real, Iris felt she had real blood on her for not being good enough and that really rocked her to her core, setting her back even more than where she started.
On the following day, Iris was still so shaken up from the experience in the scenario room yesterday that she couldn't even take a step into the training room.
Her nerves were worse than ever and she felt like a complete and total failure.
Observing from the glass window in his office, Commander Sable noticed Iris' odd behavior and called her to help resolve the issue.
"Tell me, dear... What seems to be troubling you? We don't have much time until the mission starts, why aren't you training like the rest of them?" Commander Sable asked.
Unable to hold back anymore, Iris broke down in tears right in front of Commander Sable, telling him every that had happened yesterday and how she felt it was a grave mistake to think she was even close to being ready.
The commander understood what Iris was going through, he had seen countless young soldiers react the same way when they first got into this and experienced death around them for the first time.
Others would say these people are weak and unworthy to be in the military but Sable would argue that these are the people that still have some part of their humanity left intact.
The commander consoled her and told her that what she was experiencing was quite normal at this stage as she was just starting out and that she shouldn't let that get to her.
He explained to her a couple of stories from his past during the time when he was still in military school and that he used to be just like her, someone who was completely broken after learning that there were people who died just because of his mistakes.
Iris was shocked to learn about the commander's history as nobody would have guessed the strict commander Sable to be such a softie during his cadet years, but it was indeed the truth.
"Trust me, Iris, it becomes easier with time as you get more and more exposed to this kind of stuff. You have to learn this key important lesson and that is that you can't save everyone, you will never be able to save everyone, and there will always be casualties, no matter the scale of battle. The best thing that you can do in this case is to remain as calm and collected as possible during the fight in order to keep the number as low as possible," The commander taught Iris.
"Um... Sir... I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I would ever be able to live with myself knowing that there is blood on my hands." Iris said on the verge of crying again.
ραΠdαsΝοvεl.cοm Commander Sable sighed as he looked toward Iris with empathy and slight envy," Don't worry dear. You will make it through it. Believe in yourself and believe in the purpose for which you accepted to be a part of this in the first place. Remember that there are good people and friends counting on you to do your best, and you will let them down by giving up before even beginning."
Iris wiped the tears from her eyes and took on a serious expression as she reflected on what the commander had just said.
What was she fighting for? Why was she here? What purpose did she want to strive in life for?
Suddenly, Iris thought back to memory during the recruitment test, when she was fighting the giant Puffclaw.
'Jackie!' Iris suddenly shouted in her thoughts as she remembered why she wanted to join the military and become a fighter in the first place.
A look of determination and confidence appeared on Iris' face as she was ready to start training again.
Commander Sable didn't know what had switched inside Iris, but he could read from her aura that she was no longer afraid, as if she had found her purpose again.
Iris bowed her head toward Commander Sable to show her respect and thanked him for everything before moving towards the door to leave and resume her training.
"Oh, and Iris... one more thing..." Commander Sable said to stop Iris before she completely left the room," Whatever you do don't stop caring. Always remember to care for the less fortunate and weak,"
Iris was a little taken aback by the sudden drop of wisdom that Commander Sable had given her and she did know why he would say something like that to her, but she knew it had to have a deeper meaning., so she just smiled and nodded 'yes' before exiting his office and making her way back to the training area.
Over the course of the next few days, Iris definitely improved a lot more. She was more concentrated and calm during the scenarios, she always played them out in which the least amount of people had to die.
Other than that she trained her combat skills as well because she was definitely lacking in that department as well. She trained with Erin and had many sparring sessions and she also trained her archery skills so that she could use her bow to the best of her abilities.
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Leon also took Commander Sable's advice about communication seriously and made a conscious effort to keep his teammates informed during combat.
He was pretty well versed in all aspects so he did general training to improve everything, his speed, his strength, his fighting style, etc.
He developed a system of simple hand signals and gestures to convey simple messages to his team without disrupting their concentration. He practiced with different people and was glad to see how quickly they all were able to catch on and act accordingly to his signals.
Leon also practiced team-oriented movements, ensuring that he stayed close to his teammates and responded quickly to their actions.
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The whole team was levelling up as they spent as much time as possible to improve their flaws and become as strong as possible to defeat the water sentinel and hopefully impress the commander enough so that he would let them take on their very first mission.
However, Mako and his team weren't the only ones training hard and becoming strong as there were other people with different agendas who also wanted to achieve their goals and one of them was currently fighting against ten ability users at the same time back in Emerald City.
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