Chris had no time to think of those questions. He had to quickly take advantage of Anna's reload. He shot up from his cover and peeked around the cover with his rifle held in front of him.
He dashed to the other side. Before he could react, Anna grabbed the barrel of his rifle and pointed it away from her. Chris instinctively pulled the trigger, no shots connected.
Like a professional, Anna used the disarming technique taught in Mr.Grey's class and yanked the rifle out of Chris's hand and pointed it at his head.
The crowd was silent. Chris stared into Anna's eyes, which, unlike the usual warm and happy look, had this coldness in them, like a panther that cornered its prey. The person standing in front of him reminded him of the Battle Queen in stories he read. "Beautiful as she is deadly".
Completely stunned by this turn of events and having no way out of the situation, Chris raised his hands in defeat.
"OUT! Match over! Team Hastings wins!" Following Mr.Grey's announcement was a thunderous cheer from the crowd.
"That was absolutely incredible!" Will said.
The class was over. Nothing out of the ordinary happened after Anna's skirmish. In fact, everything was just plain boring compared to her match with Chris.
"You've already said that many times. But thank you." Anna was back to her normal self.
After being praised by almost everyone in her and the other class, including the two teachers, excluding Chris, who was still a little shaken up, Anna was exhausted.
"You guys helped a lot, too," Anna said to Will and Leah. The other two, Ava and Luke, went to the infirmary for A check-up.
"Maybe, but I don't know if that's enough to get into the top 500, though." Hearing Will's concern, Leah nodded in agreement.
"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you. Student council members get a free pass!" Anna told them.
"Really! That's good, I didn't want to leave you and Chris alone for…" Will realized what he was saying and stopped himself before he could finish.
Anna smiled and tilted her head, pretending to not understand.
At the mention of Chris, Anna looked over to him, who was now surrounded by girls from both their classes giving him compliments. Even though he had lost, his performance was still outstanding.
Anna told Leah and Will to go on ahead and walked over to Chris. In the presence of Anna, the girls became quiet and made a path for her. Chris looked up at Anna and smiled.
"It was a good game," Chris said with a smile.
"Yeah, you did well," Anna replied.
"Still, that trick you pulled was amazing. I admit I completely fell for it."
"I had no idea whether it was going to work or not, I just kind of bet everything on it."
"You were pretty scary back there, too. You had this killing intent in your eyes."
"How can you call a girl scary?" Anna teased.
"N-No no, that's not what I meant."
Anna chuckled at Chris, who was frantically trying to explain himself.
"I'm joking. I know when I get serious, I just kind of lose sight of everything except for my goal. I think I got it from my mother."
"The Battle Queen…" A girl beside Anna muttered.
Anna's parents' achievements were so many and grand that their tales were turned into books, songs, and plays. There was almost no one in the capital who hadn't heard of the Battle Queen and the Silent Devil.
"Is that so?" Chris recalled the look in Anna's eyes. He sure as hell didn't want to make her his enemy.
"Well, I have to go home now. Girls, I leave him in your hands." Anna said while waving and walking away.
She could feel the stares from the other girls, some in envy, while others in admiration.
Chris watched Anna walk away. It was as if all the other girls disappeared from his sight, leaving Anna alone at the center.
Anna walked down to the breakfast table. It was the day of the carrier trip.
"Good morning, Ms.Hastings." Leah was already downstairs. She didn't need to wake Anna up that morning as she got up herself.
"Good morning, Leah."
"You have received a letter." Leah handed Anna an envelope.
Anna took it and read the name of the sender. A smile popped up on her face.
She opened the envelope and started reading the contents. As she read farther, the smile on her face got wider.
Leah didn't see who the sender was, so she was a little puzzled. It would have been a little presumptuous to ask, so she just ignored it.
"Now, shall we get to breakfast?" Anna closed the envelope. She seemed to be on cloud nine.
"You look really happy today, MsHastings, even more so than usual," Leah said.
"Really?"
Leah thought it was probably from the letter that morning. She only became more and more curious.
They were in the classroom, waiting for Mr.Davis to give them the announcement.
Soon enough, Mr.Davis walked into the room.
"Good morning everyone. For those of you who received the letter of invitation on Saturday, today is the departure day for your carrier trip. So, please head for the airfield. Mr.Grey, one of the supervisors that will be going with you on the trip, will provide you with more details." Mr.Davis said.
Including Anna, Will, Leah, and Emily, there were a total of 6 people in her class that made it to the top 500 or were granted a free pass.
The 6 of them walked out of the classroom and headed outside.
"I am so excited. I have heard jets zooming past our houses before, but I have never seen one up close." Will said beside Anna while walking down the hallway.
Due to the NDA she signed with Hamilton-Douglas, Anna didn't tell Will that she had actually flown in them before, many times.
"Will, you will actually get to pilot them, too," Emily said quietly, timid as always.
"Ah, I don't know. I don't think I will be able to land them." Will said.
"Then you can be my co-pilot," Leah said, being a lot bolder than Emily.
Leah didn't mean it in an inviting way. She was trying to tell Will that he could be a co-pilot, but it somehow came across as her co-pilot. Emily was a little taken back at Leah's boldness, but she still tried to compete.
"Y-You can be my co-pilot, too…" Emily said it in a much weaker voice. She tried to hide her bright red face.
Anna was amused by Will's newfound harem. She walked over to talk to the other 2 that were with them. Ava was one of them, the other was a boy named Dylan. They were chatting.
"Hey, Ava, Dylan." Anna went to say hi.
"Oh, hey, Anna." Ava turned around at Anna's voice. Dylan gave a small wave.
"You two made it to the top 500, too?" Anna asked.
"No, no. We are part of the student council." Ava smiled.
"But I actually did make it to the top 500…" Anna heard Dylan mutter his breath.
"Anyways. Anna, Dylan is my boyfriend, and Dylan, Anna is my friend." Ava introduced them to each other.
"Your boyfriend?" Anna was a little surprised.
"Yeah. Is there something wrong? I am sure you have had a lot of experience, right? Given that you are Anna Hastings and all." Ava gave Anna a wink.
"Um… no… actually." Anna was somewhat embarrassed.
She had wanted a boyfriend for a long time. Her mother kept on rushing her to get one, too. But she just couldn't find one that caught her interest, so she was a complete newbie when it came to this kind of thing.
"What?" Ava didn't expect it. From the look on Dylan's face, it seemed like he didn't either.
"Anyways, seeing how close Luke was with you, I thought you didn't have a boyfriend." Anna quickly changed the topic.
"Luke? No, he is just a friend. He is clearly infatuated with you, so I wanted to support him any way I can. Although I don't think he has any chances with you." Ava explained.
"Yeah…" Dylan gave a slight nod in agreement.
They reached the exit to the airfield before they knew it. They could hear loud propeller noises from the other side of the door, which after they opened, they saw 10 cargo planes lined up with the rear ramp opened. Students and teachers crowded at the entrance.
"Hi, Anna." Charl's voice came from behind her. Chris, Theo, and another boy were walking beside her.
"Hello, Charl, Chris, Theo" Anna waved.
"Ey oh." Chris and Theo waved back.
"Ms.Hastings! It's such a pleasure to meet you." The boy beside Chris had his eyes light up and rushed in front of Anna and gave her a salute.
"Whoa whoa. You don't need to be so formal. Anna is fine." Anna was a little surprised and embarrassed.
"Haha. Anna, this is Nolan from my class. He was among the top 500." Chris laughed.
"Then, hello, Nolan," Anna said.
"Yes, hello." Nolan was still starstruck.
"Oi! You lot over there! Come on! Get over here!" Mr.Grey shouted on the top of his lungs, trying to get his voice over the propeller and engine noises.
Anna and her group ran over to the airfield. When they got close enough, Mr.Grey started talking to them.
"Group yourselves in 10s. That will be your group for the rest of the trip. So pick carefully."
Anna looked around. She had 10 people with them.
"Are you guys fine with all of us being in the same group?" Anna asked. Nobody objected.
"Alright then." Anna turned over to Mr.Grey. "Mr.Grey! I think we are fine like this."
"Perfect! Then get on board the plane!" Mr.Grey pointed to the cargo plane closest to them.
"Yes.Sir!"
There were 54 passenger seats on the plane in rows of fours, split down the middle by the walkway.
Anna and Leah sat down next to each other at the front. Will and Theo sat down behind them. Chris and Nolan sat down beside them.
After a while, the rest of the plane was filled with people from other groups.
"Ready for take-off!" The pilot in front of Anna yelled out the window.
After the ground crew gave him a signal, the pilot started driving the plane forward. Gradually they gained speed on the runway and took off.
They were on their way to the GMRS Citadel near the border of the Derunce Empire.
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