Forcing his brain into action, Sean swam up, furiously grabbed the ski poles and stabbed them into the ice in front of him, using them to hoist his body up, while Ariel, Erika and Louis also grabbed onto him, helping him back onto the surface.
They then helped him to remove his weight vest, rubber gun, ski and ski poles.
Sean's lips are purple, shivering from the cold. His wet clothes plus the freezing weather made it extremely cold. He hugged his body tightly, and generated flames around him to try to heat himself up. Sean's teeth are gritting rapidly as he shakily took over a new, dry set uniform from the instructor, dashing into the snowcat to change.
After he is done, he returned back to the cadets, re-wearing his equipment, ready.
Ariel then jumped in next.
(3 hours later)
All the cadets had their turn. Their lips purple and shivering from the cold. Clara had generated flames around her, so did the rest of the cadets, trying to stay warm in their new set of gear and uniforms.
"Next task!" yelled Herbert, pointing to the 400m outdoor range to their right. "Standing and prone position shooting!" he yelled.
"For f***'s sake…" cursed Eddie internally, knowing that being cold and shivering will no doubt screw up their accuracy.
The first group of cadets then stepped forward, skiing over, using the ski rods to form a makeshift bipod of sorts, balancing their guns on it to steady their aim.
"Standing position, standby!" yelled Herbert.
The cadets loaded their guns. To make things harder for them, Herbert pulled up some fans at the sides of the cadets, blowing snow onto their face to increase the difficulty.
"Fire!" instructed Herbert.
The targets appeared, and the cadets opened fire. Using iron sights to aim with shivering hands, and snow blowing into their face greatly impaired their accuracy. Sean steadied his breathing, managing to somewhat regain a level of control, closing his right eye and squinted his left eye through the goggles and sights to see and aim at the target.
The cadets ceased firing after they have fired 5 round each. The instructors acting as range safety officers recorded the cadets' scores, then withdrawing the targets.
"Prone position, standby!" yelled Herbert.
The cadets lied flat on the ground, awkwardly adjusting their bodies thanks to the skis that are fastened to their boots, getting into prone shooting position.
The new targets appeared, and the cadets opened fire upon getting the orders.
"NEXT!" yelled Herbert once the first row is done.
After all the cadets have taken their shots, they are then ushered to guided anti-tank missile launchers, instructed to fire on the moving mock tanks below them in groups of 5.
Sean hoisted up the thick launch tube, while Albert and Vera provided him the relevant range and distance to aim at using the range finder function of their monoculars.
Upon selecting the right firing mode and elevation, Sean aimed the missile while Ariel loaded it, then immediately moving out of the way to avoid being hit by the back blast.
Once the mock tank Sean had aimed at is locked on, Sean pulled the trigger. The missile traced the mock tanks, diving into and detonating at the top of its turret, destroying it.
"Hit," reported Louis.
Once the cadets finished, they are ordered to retake their gear and trek further up the mountain. The cadets climbed up, using their skis to help them move faster. The route given to them on their smart watches, while short, goes through an extremely rugged and difficult terrain, greatly draining their energy.
(2 hours later)
"Snipers, plus your observers, and machine gunners step out!" he ordered. "Rest of you follow Nanami!"
Albert, Vera and Eddie, and 3 other cadets stepped out, while remaining 6 cadets followed Herbert, jogging behind, boots sinking into the snow.
"Bloody hell," cursed Sean upon seeing what is the course that awaited them.
It is a long obstacle course, about 400m in length, with holes at the sides that Sean recognised to be pits for training explosives which will blow up to simulate the environment of the battlefield, not to mention the firing fighting robots with high-pressured hoses and the instructors behind heavy machine gun nests.
The course ended in a magic use test and shooting range.
400m is around the average distance infantry can push in a charge. While the absolute distance looks easy, what's difficult is the up and down motion as one pass through obstacles, and then, still needing to be ready to shoot, with full gear and weapons.
Franz, who is sitting on a small observation tower, grabbed a loud speaker and yelled into it.
"We think that you all must be freezing from the ice hole! Thus, we planned a relaxing warm exercise for you all with tender affection!"
Sean, Ariel, Louis, Carl, Erika and Clara all rolled their eyes at his remarks,
"We call it, the Gateway to Heaven!" laughed Franz.
"More like Highway to Hell," muttered Sean under his breath. "Kinda fitting to describe the state we are in since South Africa,"
The 6 of them readied themselves, dashing forward when the whistle is blown.
Sean jumped, grabbing onto the wall in front of him, climbing up painfully. He ran forward, jumping over a few obstacles as bombs exploded around him. The cadets then reached a monkey bar. Sean jumped up, grabbing a pole and pulling himself forward.
Louis struggled to hoist himself up, moving forward extremely slowly.
"HURRY UP!" roared Herbert.
"YOU MOTHERF***ERS DARE TO GO SLOWER?" shouted Franz into the loudspeaker, drinking a large gulp of warm coffee.
Sean is currently leading the 6, tied with Carl, followed by Clara, Ariel, Erika and the lastly Louis.
The fire-fighting robots activated their hoses, spraying the cadets with high pressured water. "AH!" Ariel screamed, losing her grip and falling onto the ground below, injuring herself. Limping, she staggered back to the start of the monkey bar and restarted, shivering from the cold. Clara sped up her pace, now tied with Sean and Carl.
Carl's competitive nature kicked in, and he pushed his body to the max to prevent being overtaken by Clara and to try to overtake Sean. Clara noticed what he is doing and her own competitive mood stirred up, pulling herself forward.
Neither of them is able to overtake Sean, the 3 maintained their tie.
Squad Artemis members simply have better physique.
Reaching a final length of barbed wire, the 6 cadets crawled down, lying on their left side, holding their guns in their right hands and rapidly crawled forward under the barbed wire. The instructors fired their heavy machine guns, firing above them.
After clearing the barbed wires, the cadets ran to the next section.
Louis leaped, stepping on short studs that are hammered into the ground.
After clearing her studs, Erika jumped over a 2m deep square pit, then running and quickly flipping over a 1.1m tall short wall.
Upon finishing her 1.1m wall, Ariel slung her AUG A3 SF back, dashing forward and jumped, grabbing onto the top of the 1.8m tall platform, climbing on, then running and jumping off 2 shorter platforms.
Carl maintained his speed after jumping off his platforms, running onto an elevated horizontal pole, carefully maintaining his balance on the round surface as he ran.
Water balloons filled with paint are thrown at them. The cadets ran forward, using magic to shield themselves as required of the course.
Sean yelled, throwing fireballs to incinerate the balloons.
Clara generated ice daggers and threw it at the balloons, popping them.
Ariel's body turned red hot. She generated explosive bursts of flames in the air simultaneously, instantly incinerating the balloons around them.
The heatwave generated caused the coffee in Franz's mug to bubble instantly, shocking him at this raw magical power never seen before. He knew that Ariel is overpowered magically, but he never expected her to be SO overpowered. The stunned instructors on the ground opened the second box, launching more balloons at them. Louis dashed forward, conjuring water into a raincoat like substance that wrapped around him, shielding him from the colourful munitions.
Carl on the other hand used telekinesis, stopping the balloons near him in mid-air, then violently crushing them with his mind.
Erika generated wind blades, slicing apart a row of balloons before it hit her, forming a colourful smoke.
Maia shouted at them from the shooting range. "FASTER!"
The cadets quickly unslung their guns, running past Maia and the other range safety officers.
The cadets ran behind covers, firing at the targets that popped up, switching between hands when peeking out from different covers, keeping their exposed body areas as little as possible when they shoot at their targets.
Ariel slightly raised her AUG A3 SF rifle further when she fired with her left hand, this is to prevent the spent casing from ejecting into her face, a drawback of her preferred rifle's bullpup design. Clara comfortably switched to her left hand when she needed, aiming down the Aimpoint Micro 2 red dot sight, her 3x magnifier unused given the close distance, covering Ariel's reload.
Sean captured a target swiftly in the reticle of his LPVO optic, firing his SCAR-H, shots landing on the bullseye . He crouched down to reload, Louis immediately stopped behind him, opening fire to cover Sean. Upon finishing his magazine, he tapped Sean, and the 2 swapped positions. Louis ejected his spent magazine from his HK-416A5, quickly grabbing one from his plate carrier front and loading it.
Carl locked in his target within the reticle of the Eotech EXPS holographic sight on his HK-416A5, 3x magnifier too unused, opening fire. Erika next to him aimed her SG-553 lower, in order to access the RMR red dot sight mounted on her ACOG 4x optic.
The 6 advanced forward, covering each other alternatively.
Reaching the last pistol range, the 6 cadets moved out from behind the covers of each other, standing in one straight row and advanced forward.
Clara dropped her KAC KS-3 rifle, letting it rest against her FCPC V5 plate carrier, and drew her CZ P-07 pistol, lining up the target board in the iron sights, pulling the trigger.
The others also fired their pistols at the targets.
"Clear!" they yelled when they finished their magazines, checking their guns again to make sure they are empty.