"Outside…".

  Jeanne didn't finish her sentence. The children began pouring out of their dormitories.

  They walked out one after another at a measured pace and arranged themselves into lines. Their faces were set with an unknown determination.

  Jeanne raised an eyebrow, then glanced briefly at the scribe woman, who gave a slight shake of her head. The nurse did not react at all.

  The yard greeted them with its usual occupants. The colossi had returned.

  And they were not alone.

  Something else was present. It appeared humanoid in form, shorter than the colossi. The entirety of its body was the color of clay, but wrong.

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  "Begin!" Jeanne finally said.

  The children moved swiftly to the weapon racks as the colossi flared to life. Each child hastily picked a weapon. Melissa glanced at the clay entity.

  It remained immobile eyes closed

  The children positioned themselves far from the littered boulders, the two automatons… and Aurora.

  The colossus bent down next to a boulder and picked it up. Steam and heat radiated from its body.

  The children became tense, ready for what would inevitably follow.

  Melissa raised her shield with her left hand and tightened her grip on her weapon with her right, Sara positioned behind her.

  Damian's gaze flickered between the colossi and Aurora, then back to Aurora.

  "Maybe it will focus its attention on her again…" his friend said from behind him, unarmed.

  "I wouldn't count on that," Damian replied. "You should have taken a weapon, Laura."

  "I wouldn't know how to use it," she said. "They didn't train us with any." She continued, resting her hand on his back. "Besides, I feel safe."

  Damian blushed a little.

  "Laura…" he didn't finish the sentence.

  A thunderous sound spread across the yard, followed by a cry of pain.

  Damian snapped his head in that direction.

  A bloodied Melissa lay on the ground, her left arm twisted from the impact.

  "Melissa!" Sarah shouted.

  The colossus bent down for another boulder. Its bronze head turned slightly… in Sara's direction.

  Sara, still kneeling next to Melissa, saw the colossus's behavior. Her eyes opened in horror.

  "Aurora!" she said shouted in panic.

  Aurora took a step towards Sara direction.

  And the clay golem opened its eyes.