Chains Of Pride

A little while later, the door of Building C opened once more, walking in was Gero Siyenasta, a Digium of the engineering dept as well. Still, Gero was different from the other teams in that he was the only one on his team.

"Tch! There he is, Gero Siyenasta" a Digium sneered in one of the opened novre rooms. His younger teammate heard him and looked over to see who he was referring to. "Huh, who's he?" his friend asked, obviously confused by the tone his friend used. "You don't know? Right, I remember you're pretty new here, so you wouldn't know." The friend chose to explain. "He's Gero...Gero Siyenasta, an A-Class Digium, he doesn't talk to anyone and basically keeps to himself"

"Whoa! He's an A-Class Digium?! Wait, then how come he's hated?" His friend, a B-Class, asked back with his brows furrowed. "Yes he is, and would you shut up and listen?" His older teammate clipped. He continued, "As I was saying, the reason why he's so infamous despite being an A-Class Digium is simple, it's because he doesn't give anyone any face". "

Any face?" the younger teammate inquired, clearly wishing for his older teammate to explain. "Yeah face, if you approach him, try to talk to him or anything, he gives off this vibe of looking down on you and the way he talks to people makes it seems as if he's talking to an idiot." the older teammate paused before going on "Plus he doesn't work with anyone, saying that they wouldn't understand his work."

The Digium scoffed at this point before saying "humph I don't know who he thinks he is, thinking that whatever he's working on is something no one can help with, he must think he's so great, just because he's an A-Class." The younger teammate then showed a trace of understanding of the situation, he couldn't help his eyes from gleaming with that same tint of disdain.

"Oh yeah? Well, it seems that he actually has a soft spot for a lesser, I heard he actually spoke with a D-Class Digium sometime last week. Apparently, they were confused when they just arrived, and he actually bought them to the admin office to get them started and everything.

Can you believe it?! A D-Class of all things. He doesn't talk to anyone in A-Class or B-Class, but then he up and goes and cavort with a D-Class. One of the teammate's other associates commented when he saw him.

"Really? He did that? Does he also plan on staining the prestige of us A-Class as well? Hmph, I bet Akiri's group took care of him then." The older teammate from before joyfully sneered just thinking about it.

"Uhm, actually, I heard that they did search for him after they found out about, but they were soon located by the Medical Ward in a half-dead state. Long story short, they got the shit beat out of them, Medical Ward said their injuries were caused by repeated hits with a blunt instrument, most people think he did it. How could you not hear about it? Everyone was talking about it last week after it happened." Replied another digium on their teammate

"Hahahahahaa!! I'm sorry I know you like em and all Kiji, but that shit is priceless!! Not gonna lie I always kinda found their attitude overbearing if anything, so even though I may not like Gero, I give a thumbs up for that." A digium within the group couldn't help but burst out laughing when he heard mention of the incident.

Gero's eyes slightly shifted to the group that was talking about him a while ago before leaving their conversation behind, "Another ignorant fool for the masses" he lightly sighed with a cold expression on his face before making his way to his novre room. He passed the room where Kia and his teammates were working, his eyes swept across all three before he paused on Kia for a slight moment longer before moving on and finally entering his room.

"Man whenever I see that dude, I just get chills all over" Tiel stated after being looked at by Gero. "Yeah I know what you mean, dude needs to stop with the knife eyes, and cut down on the weirdness" replied Tiel.

Kia heard both their comments before asking himself, "What was that feeling? It was slight, but I could've sworn I felt something when our gazes met. Hmmm sighs, I must be out of it" He soon shook his head and closed the door to their novre rooms before focusing back to his task.

Building C's door opened once again as a group of people walked in at the same time, heading to the room that Kia and his teammates shared. The team was the fighters for Engage, as they would use the battle suits called Armis created by the engineering dept, they would pay a visit every now and again to see if there was anything new to expect.

"Kyaaah! It's the team Proelius they're here again!" A female Digium screamed in excitement when she saw them heading. They were soon mobbed by females before they could make it far.

"And that's my cue to disappear for the moment" hearing the commotion outside, Kia put down his notes and walked out telling his teammates he was heading to the bathroom. Kia hated noises and needless excitement, so he used the excuse of going to the bathroom to leave the room and wait until the Engage fighters and the screaming girls left.

Engage was a sport, more of a battle really, that took place in an arena of sorts. The fighters would use Battlesuits or Armis created by their own novare institutions in a head-on clash with each other. What made Engage different from sports like the arcane boxing of yonder years, was that the fighters suffered no physical damage at all.

All damage inflicted on the Armis is absorbed by the suit in its entirety, then quickly calculated by the receptors and fed into the wearer's brain as electrical stimuli to simulate the pain the body would suffer. However, the signals sent to the brain were diluted somewhat to allow for the armoured blows of the Armis to not knock out the wearer in one shot.

After all, a normal Armis can effortlessly demolish a building with its destructive power. So to make sure the battle is not short-lived, the receptors are significantly dulled. After all, it's quite apparent that an average human wouldn't be able to stand after getting hit by something akin to a truck.

By the time the Engage fighters made it to Kia's novre room, a swarm of girls were blocking the way. A Shepherd was with them as well, he scanned his palm on the biometric scanner to open the door for the team. A burly man with a buzz cut parted the way and forced his way through the screaming girls and led for his teammates to come through as well.

When they were safely inside, the door locked, keeping the mob outside, they sighed in relief "Finally! I thought they were going to rip my clothes off for a second there!" one of the fighters commented with a big smile on his face, obviously not angry with the earlier experience.

The burly man from before turned to Shepherd Akiu who brought them here and extended a deep bow. Seeing this, the rest of the team did the same. After this, the Shepherd turned to the interior of the workshop and saw Tiel and Miyata, who also extended a deep bow to the Shepherd. He then slowly shifted his gaze to the Modified Armis, and his eyes flashed with astonishment.

The team also followed his gaze and saw the suit with the newly added mods before they gasped in surprise as well. "Incredible! The designs and mods on this Armis are ingenious, it's nothing like the ones we have!" The burly man from before couldn't help but praise when he saw the changes.

At the back of the group was another youth who was indifferent to the situation, a stark contrast to the elated mood of his fellow teammates. He was the ace of their team and the reason for their continued holding of the mantle of champions, Lanzo Setamaru.