'hot... why is it so hot..?'

Mars tossed and turned around in the small bed and eventually he kicked off the covers and laid face down with one arm over the side feeling the sand below the bed

'cold...'

have found some source to cool down Mars quickly trust his right hand down into the sand and enjoyed the coldness that spared though his body form the sand, but alas it was not enough to cool down the uncomfortably hot tent, so he began with eyes still closed in protest to throw of his clothes until he was stripped down to his underpants

'finally cold...'

swing his left arm over the other side of the field bed Mars also trust his left hand into the cold sand and enjoyed the feeling of cooling down a little before his eyes opened again, as he just had solved the first problem another arouse

"....hungry"

Mars looked around the tent and saw Victoria laying on the sand a little ways away form his bed, she was lining on her back with all 4 feet in the air and snoring lightly

'there she is... well let's get some food...'

Mars poked Victoria awake and walked out the tent and was greeted by the blinding sunlight, after his eyes adjusted and stopped hurting form the bright light Mars began to move towards the place where they had eaten yesterday evening along with the other soldiers, it was a cleared out place in the middle of the small tent town were tables and chairs were neatly lined up in rows after rows, Mars walked over to serving area and revived a tray with food

'now where are the others... there they are'

Mars quickly spotted the group form Destra and walked over and sat down, but before he could begin eating he had to deal with the stars of wonder he was receiving form the others

"...what?"

"nothing it's just... how don't you have heat stroke yet?"

"heatstroke?"

"form sleeping in the tent for so long"

Mars gave a confused look at Karen meanwhile Chloe also spoke up

"yeah I was wondering about the same thing, I was out of my tent when the sun rose to avoid the heat"

"well... I'm not human so maybe that's why?"

Karen's eyes widened for a second before she gave a nod

"I almost forgot you said that when you joined our cla.s.s right?"

"I remember that!"

"yes yes, you are very smart Lily"

"ehehehe"

Patting Lily on the head Mars was momentarily in bliss from her soft hair and ears but then he noticed Karen was still looking at him with a examining gaze

"what?"

"well it's just... If you aren't human then what are you?"

"dragon"

"dragon..?"

"half"

"half..? w-wait you don't mean half dragon do you!?"

Mars gave a nod and put on a 'pure and righteous' face and asked

"wanna see ma horns?"

Karen's face lit up like a Christmas tree before she averted her gaze

"n-no I'm fine"

"oh really... such a shame"

Mars suddenly felt cold and looked to his side where he saw Chloe wearing a perfect smile on her face as she stared at him with half open eyes Mars gave her a little wave which made the chilling sensation he felt increases in coldness, luckily he was saved by Lily that asked a question

"Mars is it true you have horns?"

"yeah but I only have them sometimes"

"...really?"

"yeah want to se---"

"excuse me"

Mars looked up at the soldier that had interrupted him with slight annoyance on his face

"the general requests your presence"

Mars quickly stuffed his face with food and got up from his seat after he managed to force the food down his throat

"...lead the way"

Mars and the rest of the group followed the soldier out of the camp and into the desert where general George stood and waited in the middle of nowhere

"good morning people, i would like to see your most powerful magic"

Chloe raised her hand

"yes what is it?"

"right now?"

"yes right now, I like to know what my subordinates can do"

"...then let me go first"

George gestured to a distant sand dune and Chloe gave a nod before she raised her arms and a small flame appeared on the tips of 4 of her fingers before they rapidly grew in size hovering over her like 4 small suns

"...fuuu"

Chloe let out a breath and the 4 giant fireb.a.l.l.s began to shrink until they were the size of footb.a.l.l.s, Chloe waved her hand and the 4 fireb.a.l.l.s that gave off a stupid amount of heat fused into one bright white fireball

"...go"

with a small voice that sounded like a whisper Chloe commanded the fireball that quickly speed off into the distance towards the sand dune, moments late it hit the sand dune and exploded in a truly awesome fas.h.i.+on bringing with it a shock wave and moments late a roar of the explosion

"good"

George praised with a rare smile on his face before he looked at the others with a expression that asked 'who's next?', Lee looked at his sister and asked her

"what spell?"

"hmm... let's go with earth spike"

"okay sis"

the 2 of them walked forwards hand in hand with Lee on the left and Lily on the right as the formations on their bodies lit up somewhat responding to their mana going active as both of the twins raised their free hand and pointed off into the distance, moments later the very earth shock and a giant spike, nay a small mountain rose up form the sand with break neck speed only stopping when it was several hundred meter tall, Mars looked at the new terrain feature with a slightly dazed look on his face and remembered what Chris had told him

'that is pure destruction all right...'

Mars remained dazed until he felt someone tugging in his clothes and looked down and saw the twins were looking at him with a 'praise me' expression on their faces, Mars gave a sigh and plopped his hands on both of their heads and gently began ruffling their hair

""ehehehe""

the twins happy giggles seemed to wake up the rest of the group form their daze, even George looked somewhat dazed but quickly praised

"very good"

"my turn"

Karen stepped forwards and prepared her ice dragon spell, water started to form and gather around her floating until it formed a long slender dragon that suddenly froze into ice, glinting in the desert sun it looked quite magnificent as it coiled around her

"...go"

pointing to a distant sand dune Karen commanded the ice dragon that uncoiled it self, showing off a length of almost 20 meters before it flew off towards the sand dune, suddenly its scales stood up and a moment later they began shooting out with enough power to piece though solid rock. the ice dragon kept circling the area Karen had pointed to while shooting out ice scales in all directions until it ran out of ice and disappeared

"very good"

hearing the praise from George Karen showed a small slime as she walked back to the group

"I'm up next I suppose..."

Mars stepped forwards and began casting his 3 fold explosion spell, quickly forming 3 fireb.a.l.l.s that appeared as 3 small suns Mars quickly fused them together and compressed them together into a single small fireball that gave of a awesome amount of heat

"go"

Mars pointed at a sand dune and sent off the fireball that soon reached its target and exploded sending off a big shock wave as well as a roar of an exposition that shock Mars slightly as he watched the sand dune turn into a gla.s.s dune, even if he used a lesser grade spell than Chloe had his spell still did more damage as the quality of flame he used was superior to hers

"very good"

George looked over the group before his gaze stopped on Adam that had not demonstrated a spell yet, Adam simply gave a small smile and said

"I'm a time mage"

"...I see, in that case it's fine... well then I will now a.s.sign you to your active mana armor squads, for the duration of this mission you will be part of theses squads and support them on the battlefield is that understood?"

George looked around at the group and seeing n.o.body speak up he gave a nod before he began a.s.signing them to the squads, Mars ended up in squad 7 and was given instructions of how to find the squad in the tent town and sent off by George that a.s.signed the others into their squads. Mars along with Victoria walked back towards the tent town.

"I wonder how our new comrades are"

Victoria looked up at Mars as her horns shone

"comrades?"

"basically they are going to be our new playmates"

"what are... we going... to play... with?"

"the golems"