The sky above the simulation city was covered in thick smoke. Flames cracked and hissed along broken rooftops. Every few seconds, a distant Kaiju roar echoed through the ruined streets like a war drum.
Team One — Kai, Renji, and Mina — sprinted into the west quadrant of the map, where the first Kaiju towered over a fallen office block.
It was at least four stories tall, hunched with jagged armor plates, its mouth glowing like molten lava. It raised its claw and ripped an entire billboard in half, hurling it into the streets.
Kai narrowed his eyes. "We need to draw its focus away from the civilians. Renji, left flank. Mina, find where the survivors are. I'll break its guard."
"Finally," Renji grinned, cracking her knuckles. "Let's dance."
She dashed forward with perfect speed, boots sliding over cracked pavement. The Kaiju turned, shrieked, and slammed its tail down — BOOM! — but Renji was already climbing rubble, vaulting off walls, flipping over its arm and landing a roundhouse kick straight to its eye.
"HEY! Over here, ugly!" she shouted.
The Kaiju roared in fury and chased her, knocking cars aside. That was Kai's moment.
He stepped forward, his body surrounded by flickers of electric-blue lightning. His eyes glowed, and his voice dropped like thunder.
"Absolute Manipulation: Volt Collapse."
A pulse of energy built at his chest, then exploded into crackling bolts that homed in on the Kaiju's joints — its knees, shoulders, even its lower back. Sparks burst on impact. The Kaiju screamed and stumbled, its limbs buckling as lightning surged through its nervous system.
Then Kai launched forward — his fist charged with raw power — and punched its chest with a shockwave so loud the concrete beneath them cracked. The beast collapsed in a smoking heap.
"One down," Kai said, lowering his arm.
Meanwhile, Mina had followed the emergency signal from a crumbling metro tunnel nearby. Faint screams echoed from beneath. The entrance was blocked by heavy debris — too much for normal force to clear without hurting those inside.
She stepped forward calmly, placed her palm on the tunnel wall, and took a deep breath.
"Let's turn up the volume."
"Sound manipulation-Echolocation"
She clapped her hands together — BOOM! — a perfect sonic wave burst from her body in a focused ring, targeting only the rubble in front of her. The vibrations rippled through stone and metal, shaking it apart without touching the space deeper inside.
"Don't move!" she called down. Her voice echoed with sound resonance, reaching the frightened group with crystal clarity.
Using echo pulses, Mina tracked their location, adjusting every burst with sharp control. Then, forming a blade of compressed sound in her hand, she cut through twisted metal bars and collapsed beams until a clear path appeared.
"Come on! Stay behind me!"
She guided six civilians — coughing, injured, panicking — out of the smoke one by one, shielding them with a humming sonic field that deflected falling sparks and debris. They reached safety just as Renji and Kai regrouped.
Mina nodded, sweat dripping down her brow. "They're safe."
Kai glanced at her. "Good work. Another Kaiju inbound."
Across the simulation city's eastern zone, Team Three was mid-battle.
A reptilian Kaiju with glowing red spines roared as it stomped through a collapsed hospital. This one was faster — and angrier. Its tail smashed through walls, and its claws dug trenches in the pavement.
Kaito Shiranui stood calmly in the open, golden eyes sharp. He opened his hand and summoned a six-foot-long war spear forged of glowing metal, crackling with spiritual pressure.
"Sera, open a path. Troy, defense. I'll aim for the kill."
Sera's arms shimmered as twin energy blades formed around her wrists. They pulsed in midair like solid light, edged with serrated energy. She dashed toward the Kaiju without hesitation, slicing through its ankles with surgical precision.
Sparks and blood burst as she darted between its legs, blades carving shallow cuts — enough to anger it but not slow it yet.
That's when the Kaiju countered, slamming its claw down hard, targeting her.
"Barrier"Troy shouted.
A translucent barrier dome appeared above Sera just in time, the monster's claw slamming into it and cracking the shield but not breaking it.
"I've got you covered!" Troy called out, forming a second angled wall under Kaito to use as a jump ramp.
Kaito ran up the glowing ramp, his body weightless as he flipped midair, his spear now glowing red-hot.
"Arsenal Vein: Piercepoint Thrust!"
The spear punched through the Kaiju's collarbone, blasting through muscle and pinning it to the side of a half-broken building. The monster flailed, screeching.
Sera climbed up nearby rubble, her energy blades extending to full length like glowing scimitars. She spun once in midair and slashed both blades across the Kaiju's neck, drawing an X-shaped energy cut.
The Kaiju gurgled — and dropped.
Sera landed, panting. "It's down. Who's next?"
Then came the rescue operation.
Troy moved first, waving his hands and summoning floating barrier platforms that let him walk across dangerous ruins. He used barriers like bridges, guiding trapped civilians across collapsed areas.
Kaito switched to a massive shock-absorbent tower shield, which he used to block fires and falling rubble while clearing safe exits with a one-handed axe.
Sera carved open doorways and lifted beams using her energy blades, reshaping them as needed for stability.
At one point, a child was trapped under a collapsed ceiling beam. Troy slammed down both hands and created a support cage of glowing walls to hold the structure up while Kaito lifted the beam and pulled the boy out.
Moments later, the full group — ten civilians total — stood behind the team, unharmed.
"All civilians secured," Kaito reported, voice calm but proud.
Back in the control chamber, Professor Kael Durnas stood silently. Around him, the other instructors watched with wide eyes as the monitors showed:
*Kaiju defeated
*Civilians rescued
*No student casualties
* Team coordination: Exceptional
Durnas crossed his arms. "They did well."
He turned to the headmaster's screen.
"But the true storms haven't come yet."