"Attack!" Musk screamed.

All the recruits were closely watching the Crabits, just waiting for the captain's command to advance. Still, when the command came, their reaction time was mixed.

The students from the first battalion quickly charged at the monsters. Leading the way was a mountain of muscles, known by some as Kyle.

Kyle was one of the biggest cadets and part of the invincible trio of the first battalion. But unlike the other students, he jumped instead of running. His leap was long enough to cross from one end to the other, landing with his armor and mace in hand. He accelerated toward the first Crabit, and with a swing of his mace, it exploded into a cloud of blood and entrails.

Katherine, on the other hand, was cautious. She advanced farther from the team but walked along the creek until she reached a more isolated group of Crabits. Seeing her alone, the animals sought to surround her to attack without mercy. But the moment the first Crabit jumped, her slender sword was already in hand, and with a quick flick of her wrist, the blade cut the beast in half.

Seeing the first scenes of carnage and realizing that their opponents weren't that strong, the other students joined the fight.

However, there was one exception: Oliver. To anyone engaged in the battle, he seemed isolated. He wasn't close to any other recruit.

"‘Breathe, breathe,’" Oliver thought as he aimed at one of the Crabits in the nearby 'herd.'

"Thum!"

Finally, he took the first shot, but the creature quickly dodged as expected.

‘No chance, there's no way I'll hit them like this,’ the boy concluded. ‘I'll have to try Observation. Hopefully, it will be enough.’

According to the description of his Boon, he should be able to use [Observation] to see and exploit his opponents' defensive and offensive movements.

‘Let’s try!’ the boy thought as he gathered the necessary Energy to cast his ability. ‘Observation!’

As soon as he used the ability, his vision began to change. Most of the colors had vanished. Instead, the entire world was in shades of gray. Even so, he could perceive every detail around him, but most importantly, he could see lines on his opponents. These were the only objects with color in that black-and-white world.

The boy paused for a moment, trying to understand his ability. Observing the battle before him, he realized that the red lines indicated where his opponents were likely to attack, while the green lines marked areas they were unlikely to defend.

Unlike the other recruits, Oliver was slowly walking near the edge of the combat zone, waiting for the right moment.

'This one!' the boy thought as he spotted a green line near his target.

Quickly, he aimed at the Crabit and took the shot.

"Thum!"

His shot hit one of the Crabits directly for the first time, causing it to explode and splatter blood onto the other creatures and recruits around it.

"Yeah! Let’s go!" Oliver cheered.

Whenever a Crabit slipped up or was injured, he would fire a kill shot. He intended to remain unnoticed and slowly clean up the Crabits.

Yet, there was someone on the field who was his complete opposite. While Oliver sought to be silent and precise, Astrid was smashing and screaming. She banged her axe against her shield to attract as many enemies as possible.

"RUAAAH!" she yelled as more and more Crabits surrounded her.

The captain continued to observe the entire battle from a distance but was ready to intervene. This helped calm Astrid's friends despite her rather risky strategy. While the other cadets faced two or three Crabits, she had eight monsters around her. However, this number never grew. Whenever a new creature approached, she quickly struck them with her axe.

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A cleave split two Crabits in half, with such a clean cut that it seemed surgical.

After a few hours of combat, the once lush plain infested with Crabits was now covered in blood and entrails. Numerous cadets sat or lay scattered across the grass. Many had drained much of their Energy reserves during the battle, while others were exhausted from the long fight.

However, the day was still young—or maybe not—it was hard to tell. None of them knew how long the day and night cycle lasted on Aethra.

"You have 10 minutes to rest; after that, we will move to the next attack point," the captain said as he walked among the students.

Oliver collapsed onto the ground as if the strings of a marionette had been cut. Even though his [observation] energy consumption was very low, the shots from his energy pistol used up the rest. In the first few minutes of the battle, he managed to stay quite active, but in the final moments, he was exhausted and unable to fire another shot.

Even though he was drenched in sweat and beast blood, the cold grass beneath him felt more comfortable than his bed. Soon, his eyes grew heavy, and within seconds, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

If someone had been keeping track of time, they would have noticed that the cadets had rested for much longer than just 10 minutes. However, communication between the groups was difficult. Even among the captains, the connection through their gauntlets was limited. By the time confirmation of the movement of all the groups was received, more than 30 minutes had passed.

But after the confirmation, the captain needed to hurry the group to the next combat zone.

"Priii!"

Some students awoke startled by the whistle, while others had been expecting the next signal and looked anxiously at the instructor.

"Prepare to march. We will advance a few miles north until we reach the forests." Musk explained

Oliver rubbed his eyes to clear the remaining slumber from his face, inadvertently wiping away some dried blood. Although only a few minutes had passed, he felt sluggish, as if he had slept for hours. His feet ached from the walk and the battle, and blisters were soon to form.

Looking around, the other cadets also showed signs of exhaustion and sluggishness. But they remained focused on the march, especially the students who had led the first charge, who were now near the captain and marching with ease. Seeing Katherine, Astrid, and the strong boy, his curiosity sparked. He wanted to know how the ranking stood.

| Ranking

| 1 - William Forester [First Battalion - 13th Group] - 33 Kills

| 2 - Gregory Torres [First Battalion - 1st Group] - 30 Kills

| 3 - Amanda Romanov [First Battalion - 12th Group] - 28 Kills

|

Unsurprisingly, the top spots were all from the first battalion, but Oliver was still impressed that none were from his group.

| 15 - Kyle Astor [First Battalion - 14th Group] - 16 Kills

| 17 - Katherine York [First Battalion - 14th Group] - 15 Kills

| 22 - Astrid Oldenburg [First Battalion - 14th Group] - 13 Kills

| 41 - Oliver (Nameless) [Second Battalion - 14th Group] - 9 Kills

Seeing the list gave Oliver mixed feelings. ‘Just nine kills?’ He could remember having shot much more than that. "Could the kills have been credited to someone else?"

Reaching those nine kills had been extremely taxing on him and his Energy, yet he was leagues away from the other cadets.

To make things worse, he understood that these were only the cadets in Ranger Weapon Combat.

‘How would I rank among all the cadets at the base?’ While he pondered, the march continued.

The humid wind of the plain made the journey slightly more comfortable, and the grass wasn’t so tall as to hinder the group’s progress. At the front, Captain Musk kept a close eye on the map to ensure they were approaching the next combat zone. Behind him were the students who had performed well, eager to improve their positions in the ranking.

After climbing a hill, they finally arrived, panting, at the new combat zone. On the other side of the hill lay a valley, and along the river that cut through the valley, there were hundreds of Crabit hordes. The number was ten times larger than what they had faced before, and they were already tired. Seeing what they had to face didn’t boost the group's morale.

"Cadets, your fight will not be to exterminate the Crabit horde this time. You will have thirty minutes of continuous combat, and then you must retreat, " the captain explained.

"Yes, sir!" the recruits replied.

The group slowly approached the horde ahead, waiting for the confirmation to begin the battle.

After a few seconds, the signal came. "Attack!"

Although the start of the battle was very similar to the previous one, the result couldn’t have been more different.

The cadets eager to climb the rankings rushed ahead of the group. Katherine again sought to isolate herself for more room for her combat, moving quickly among the Crabits with thrusts and quick cuts. But this time, she couldn’t move as fast.

Though similar to the previous one, the combat site had a deeper river. Its muddy banks made movement difficult, and the same problem affected all the other cadets, who were already exhausted.

Kyle and Astrid kept advancing and turning the monsters into bloody mush, but not everyone could do the same. Soon, problems began to arise, and the group started getting surrounded while the number of Crabits kept increasing.

"ARGH!"

One of the students fell to the ground, mud splattered across his face, impairing his vision. Two Crabits began attacking him. Even with armor protecting his body, one of the monsters managed to bite off one of his hands in a single snap. Blood spurted from where his wrist had been, and his scream of pain startled all the cadets around him, adding to the chaos of the surrounding fights.

More incidents were occurring left and right.

"POW! POW! POW! POW!"

Several distant shots exploded some Crabits. The captain began to shout.

"Immediate retreat!"