"Immediate retreat!" Musk commanded.
The captain fired to support the cadets who began leaving the battle. The cadets who hadn’t advanced far could climb the hill and quickly escape combat.
Unfortunately, many others were still engaged in the fight. One of them was Oliver. His strategy had been to use the spaces between the battles to shoot opponents unnoticed, but with the increasing number of Crabits, there wasn’t as much space between the groups, and with the retreat, he became an easy target.
His [observation] Boon allowed him to avoid the Crabit attacks as he tried to move away, and whenever he saw an opening, he fired to prevent other herds from attacking him.
Astrid was also having trouble getting out of the fight; she had attracted the attention of several enemies at once. Her saving grace was her shield, which helped her block attacks while trying to retreat.
Kyle and Katherine, however, didn’t have as many issues. With his immense strength, Kyle swung his mace and turned the monsters into dust. Katherine used her Boon to create red spikes from her sword, piercing multiple enemies with a single strike.
The intense battle continued. Oliver tried to move quickly to avoid the Crabit attacks. Each creature attempted to strike with its front claws, trying to grab or scratch him, but when they were further away, they leaped with open mouths, trying to sink their teeth into something juicy.
Oliver finally started to catch his breath, leaving the danger zone. Or so he thought. Lowering his guard, he didn’t notice he was stepping in mud. His feet, lacking proper support, slipped, causing him to fall backward onto the ground.
Although it lasted only a few seconds, his fall seemed to be in slow motion. Oliver could almost perfectly see himself hitting the ground. The boy quickly tried to use his hands to get up, but had already a Crabit in front of him.
The creature leaped with its grotesque mouth wide open and sharp teeth on display.
| Thum!
The monster exploded. He had been saved by one of the captain’s shots. Even so, a shower of entrails fell onto him. The strong smell of blood filled his nostrils, waking him from the shock. He summoned all his strength to pull himself out of the mud. But his opponents weren’t done yet. On his left, a Crabit struck him with its claws, tearing off one of his armor plates and lacerating his torso. The sharp pain triggered all the adrenaline he needed.
| Thum! Thum! Thum!
This time, it wasn’t the captain. In a quick reaction, Oliver pulled out his Energy Pistol and shot the creature. With one hand holding his wounded torso, he got up and continued running toward the group.
His appearance was deplorable. His armor was destroyed around his abdomen, and the intact parts were covered in a mixture of entrails and blood. His only consolation was that the other recruits didn’t look much better.
Upon reaching the top of the hill, he collapsed to the ground.
Oliver could only say, “Damn. That was close.”
---
---
Many cadets had thought that the march to the combat zone would be one of the hardest parts of the day, but they had no idea what awaited them on the march back.
Among the thousands of recruits, hundreds were injured. Some were seriously hurt, to the point where they needed the support of others to walk. Those with lighter injuries weren’t a burden to be carried but couldn’t keep up with the pace of the march.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Oliver could easily hear the groans and complaints of pain, along with the occasional cadet crying loudly. The experience had been unique; many of them had never been so close to death. Not that it was just another day for Oliver, but after two close encounters with death, he had become more accustomed to the feelings and emotions these events evoked.
His main complaint at the moment was his abdomen. He was almost sure he had a broken rib in addition to the laceration. His feet were also finally feeling the blisters caused by walking in boots. Nothing that a night’s sleep and a VAT wouldn’t cure, but they still had a long way to go before reaching the settlement.
A bit further ahead was Astrid, barely walking. Her face showed all the pain and effort she was making to keep moving, but she was holding her bleeding side while dragging herself along with a bandage on her right leg. Still, Oliver could see the bite marks of a Crabit that had tried to take a chunk out of her leg.
The boy was tired but clearly had more energy than some of the other students, so he approached her. He didn’t know the girl very well, but thanks to her, he had gained access to the chat, something that others had clearly avoided teaching to the second battalion.
"Can I help you?" Oliver offered his shoulder for support.
Astrid was proud and usually wouldn’t have accepted the help, but she knew Oliver. She had already heard about him from Isabella, and honestly, the pain was too much for her to think clearly.
"I think so," she said quietly as she moved closer to Oliver. Astrid put one of her arms over his shoulder and started to use him for support as they walked.
The two began walking, but silence hung between them. They knew each other, but they weren’t close enough to have much to talk about. Still, the silence was uncomfortable, to the point that Oliver began searching for something to say.
"Do you think… do you think it will always be like this?" he asked as he looked at his limping classmates.
Astrid paused for a moment to think about the question.
"Well… without a doubt. It's ‘part of the training’." Astrid replied.
"What do you mean by ‘part of the training’?" Oliver asked.
She looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to them; most were too preoccupied with their own problems to notice them.
"What do you think the goal of this mission was?" Astrid asked.
"To eliminate the Crabits. To bring safety to the settlement?" Oliver answered.
"Yes and no. All our training is prepared on two levels: the physical and the psychological." Astrid explained.
"So… eliminating them was the physical part?" Oliver asked.
"That, and training for combat. The psychological part was having a real battle, but above all, experiencing a real defeat." Astrid explained.
"A defeat? What do you mean? Why would we need to train for something like that?" Oliver asked.
"Sometimes I forget you’re a Nameless," she said, smiling as if that were some kind of compliment. Oliver didn’t take it personally, but he was still confused.
"Almost all the students in the first battalion come from great Houses. It may not be obvious to the general public, but the Houses have a lot of political and military power. Many have never suffered in life; worse yet, they’ve never experienced defeat."
Oliver began looking at the more injured students and realized that many from the first battalion had been the first to engage in combat as if they had no fear of losing but also weren’t prepared for when something went wrong.
"My sister, I think you know her already," Astrid said, making Oliver shudder as he remembered Captain Liv's grueling training sessions.
"She always told me that war is 90% mud and crap, 9% combat, and if you’re lucky, maybe 1% glory. Many here are prepared for the 1% glory, some for the 9% combat, but most aren’t ready for the mud and crap." Astrid explained.
"I see. But why didn’t they tell us?" Oliver asked.
Astrid thought momentarily before explaining, "You can’t truly feel defeat if you know you’re going on an impossible mission. But also, do you really think the powerful parents capable of controlling the empire would allow their babies to get beaten?"
---
---
Oliver felt like he understood the Academy better, but especially Astrid. Finally, he had a longer conversation with her that wasn’t just about combat.
When the group finally arrived at the settlement, new tents had been set up. Many cadets needed medical attention, and Oliver was one of them. He was quickly taken to one of the medical wards, and with a portable VAT pressed against his abdomen, he began recovering rapidly. Some might even call it miraculous.
After being released from the medical ward, he returned to the camp set up for the group. Several tents were scattered about, each with a student’s name on it. It wasn’t hard to find his, and his body was begging him to sleep. But just as he was about to collapse inside his tent, he heard the dreaded whistle.
"Priiii!"
The students who were already lying down quickly got up. The others outside searched for the source of the noise. As many had guessed, it was the captain.
"Today, you survived your first combat. You learned hard lessons and managed to eliminate many hordes of Crabits." Captain Musk spoke.
Some cadets took on a more proud expression, but they were few.
"But the mission is not over; tomorrow, we will conduct a second incursion, " the captain explained.
"Bring glory to the New Earth Army!"