At another side of the battlefield, Edward and Alan had been locked in battle. From far, it looked as though they were mortal enemies, trying to vanquish each other without any regards, but if one looks carefully, they will realise there are few wounded amongst them.
Everyone in the Snowdrifts knows just how close the impending war is, and it wasn’t on a scale anyone could imagine. Each of them felt an urgency in their heart that grew keener with each that passed.
The five leaders especially felt the burden weighing down on their shoulders that even Alan, the most carefree amongst them, had been putting his entire being behind becoming stronger. The way they were before the previous’ years exam - before meeting the Orcs – had significantly changed. The five of them had not realised that perhaps, they had never stepped out of the Orc-filled East Hill Base.
Gone were their childish ways where they were mindful of only themselves. Their views had broadened from once treating test results as the most important thing had now become a genuine concern of the continual survival of countless lives in the coming turbulent days.
The importance of the chance to learn was enforced again and again by their leader, Kairos, and on the field of Training Ground One, none of them was playing around.
Edward had chosen a team of archers and was engaged with Alan who taught his team to become stalwart vanguards.
Almost everyone in the Snowdrifts is a good shot with a bow and the archer had plenty of choices.
Alan, on the other hand, had picked those with great defences. Likewise, after surviving the Orc raids, there were plenty of sturdy fighters that could hold their own in a difficult battle.
The two groups were in different formations. The archers stood in the Gammadion Cross picking off those in the distance and anyone that came near they will pull them into the group and defeat the person; somewhat like a Venus flytrap on the battlefield.
Whereas the vanguards were in the Bagua array, redirecting any external force they receive as they like, even returning it to the enemy. They were a solid team that could stay in the most dangerous fights and survive.
The two groups fought like the sharpest arrows clashing against the stoutest shield, but there was little concerning actual strategy.
However, their movements evolved as time went by. Adjusting to each other’s tactics, their combat methods quickly become more efficient.
Ambushes, feints, flanking their sides, they tried out many of the old-schooled war tactics within the two hours since the class started.
Incidentally, any students that fainted could join back to simulate recruitment in an actual war, except for the commanders, their defeat means their group would be out of the match until the next class.
It means that unless you incapacitate or capture the other party, or take down the enemy commander, the battle will never stop. The only limit is that the War tactics & Commander Course collaborates with the Combat class and the duration is a day at most.
At the end of two hours, Kairos suddenly reappeared on the battlefield with his team. At this time, no group had any conclusive victories yet.
His team swept across the field like a tornado.
As the ancients said, to be victorious in all battles, one needs to know oneself and one’s enemies.
When the class first started, Kairos tested his team against the others to find out where he stood and learn their differences. Then, he furiously studied the strategies that his opponents had used.
Now, it is time to put what he learned into practice.
Of all the teams, he attacked Jim immediately. He wasn’t worried about crushing his friend, after all, the saboteur had already earned a quite a bit of point from causing Luciette, George, and Calculus, to duke it out.
Unaware that his position was discovered, Jim’s group was fiercely attacked from their flank. Though they retaliated with smoke bombs and traps, they found no way of escape from Kairos’ grasp.
Soon, his entire team was captured and complaining, especially their commander, Jim, “Boss! How did you even find us? No fair!”
“No matter how fast you guys are, you’re in trouble if you couldn’t run.”
“You must have cheated!”
“Your hiding place was too naïve! I easily guessed what you were thinking…”
“That’s cheating!”
“Well, do you want to join my team?”
“Sure!”
A swift reply.
Jim who was complaining just moments ago happily accepted the offer and switched over to Kairos’ side. There are two examinations taking place at the same time. His score for the commander course would not be lost, though the overall combat points he earned so far for his student ranking would become zero the moment he joined another team.
Jim’s subordinates also gave up on their combat points and joined. It was a painful decision that not many will accept normally, otherwise, it wouldn’t be a real test of charisma. In actual warfare, people fight with the lives of their family on the line, thus this simulation had been adjusted accordingly.
Regardless, few would decline the invitation from the top commander of their year since the potential for getting points will drastically increase.
After absorbing the saboteurs into his ranks, he sent them to stir up the fight between Calculus, Luciette, and George, further.
Calculus’ pride played a large part in Kairos’ scheme, by doing a few tiny manipulations and encouraging the Devilheart heir in retaliating, he caused the previously slightly reserved noble team to lash out at Luciette and George.
“Commander Calculus! Luciette’s men had been using us as a shield from George!”
“Commander Calculus! George had formed a pact with Luciette, and helping her block our attacks while she snips off our troops!”
“Commander…”
“ENOUGH! How dare they play with me, I am the destined one! Everyone, attack in full force! We shall beat them into a pulp and grind their faces into the ground.”
As the battle between Luciette, George, and Calculus, escalated, Kairos led his group away. They headed towards where Edward and Alan were fighting, and in a fell swoop he took them down.
Because the difference between their numbers and war tactics were too huge, it was a complete massacre. Moreover, Kairos and Jim attacked at the same time from the flanks.
Soon, the archers and vanguards joined up and Kairos group turned from sixty to become a hundred. Next, they targeted the leftover three groups.
Thanks to Jim and Kairos, the three groups had mostly destroyed themselves and were decimated easily. Luciette and George’s groups joined Kairos without putting up any resistance, further increasing his numbers to a hundred and forty, while Calculus left fuming with his men trailing behind.
The first War Tactics & Commander course class is to let the students form their groups. After that, the program will start to include students from the other years and will be held once a month. It is the students’ biggest examination to determine how much training resource they will be given for the next month.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The Saint Cadets Academy number only a little over Five hundred students with more than ten thousand of such academies in the empire. Not considering the first years who are not official students yet, there are two hundred students in the second year, a hundred fifty in the third, a hundred in the fourth and only fifty in the final years. The numbers dwindle as people drop out of the academy at the end of each year. Depending on how many years they stayed in the school, they will be able to find jobs in different enterprises, be invited as guest elders in noble families, be promoted in their own faction, or be posted to the government as officials.
The majority of those in the second year joined under Kairos’ banner. A hundred and forty of them. Though they outnumber most senior year student groups, their average cultivation was at a disadvantage.
Calculus was the only group that decided to fight separately. Besides the second years, there are still three hundred students left, but they are not allowed to join forces with other years till they capture or were captured.
However, a single group could only have a maximum of two hundred members, otherwise, by absorbing too many members, smaller groups could find themselves farmed for points and make the exercise pointless. With the second years split into two groups, fighting the senior years will be much harder than before, yet an unbelievable announcement started spreading in the academy at this time: Kairos had once again declared his willingness to concede defeat if someone managed to reach him face-to-face.
At first, the seniors mocked him mercilessly.
“What an arrogant junior, as if we needs him to concede when any one of us could take him down one on one…”
“Exactly! What a joke this is… A good commander wouldn’t let enemy troops catch him unguarded anyway! He must be a failure that’s trying to grab his five minutes of fame.”
“Well, I’ve heard that he defeated the invulnerable shield from the third years.”
“That golem boy, Lux Cixton?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. He is undefeated in his class, and even many of the fourth and fifth years couldn’t break through his golem armour techniques.”
“Not just him, his older cousin, Von Cixton, from the fourth year went to seek revenge and lost as well.”
“Impossible, that must be falsified news to garner his classmates to join his group. Anyone can brag, but this lie he spun is just too ridiculous… I’ve fought Lux before, and I’m confident to say he can fend off most A rankers easily!”
“I fought Von before and got destroyed by his carpet bombing technique. You can’t imagine the pain having half my body scorched. I had to stay dipped in the healing salve for three days before they let me out. Every night in that jar, I dreamt I was gonna turn into a preserved cucumber, now I don’t even dare to eat it during meals.”
“… Feeling of cannibalism?! It’s that bad huh?”
“I don’t know, he may be famous but it looks and feels to me like he is just a braggart. I mean, if he did not lie about beating the Steel Rose boys, then why he needed to tell everyone he will concede once we catch him face-to-face?
“I actually think that it’s quite cunning of him to prepare an escape route beforehand. An excuse he could use when he lost.”
The rumours about Kairos spread like wildfire, however, as weeks passed, the guild leader of Snowdrifts made use of the Combat Tournament and proved himself to be a formidable fighter, dropping everyone’s jaws. He issued challenges with fervour and defeated all who accepted with his Secret Art. His enemies had no chance at all and ended every match after only a single move.
The World Severing Slash paralyses his target the moment he started his incantation and lasts for a short two seconds, but by the end of it, victory would be decided.
People tried to find a counter, yet there was none available. The only thing they could do was to properly receive and endure that terrifying slash.
A feat that none managed thus far.
If it was in an actual fight, at least they could try to stop Kairos before the Secret Art was used, or interrupt him with others helping. Unfortunately, the mechanisms of a fair duel made Kairos almost invincible. He quickly became known as an almost cheat-like fighter amongst the students, but he continued to avoid Sihala, the Blessed Son of the Free Fractions.
At his current strength, without using his Mana or killing techniques it is hard to assure victory, and most of his moves are made to remove threats permanently.
Fortunately, because everyone was instantly defeated, Sihala could not estimate the attack strength and dared not challenge Kairos first.
Thanks to that, he had time to slowly brush up on new techniques. It was a good thing too since many of the skills he studied felt rather lacking and he needed some time to modify it.
With his reputation cleared, the seniors finally realised the reason the young earl dared everyone to break his formations: Few can match him on the battlefield.
Alan and those he trained as vanguards stood at the fore in the Bagua formation, bravely meeting any who dared clash with their group.
Edward’s archers took to the sides, protecting the group at the flank while providing support fire at the same time.
With the Gammadion Cross formation, these bowmen were not just proficient at picking off enemies from a distance.
Jim went ahead to gather information, even as far as behind enemy lines.
When charging the enemy, Long, John, Silvers, and Sasha, rode into battle at the forefront taking on the hardest fights and often coming out victorious.
While the general direction and strategy of their group is decided by strategists, the details and precision needed on an ever evolving battlefield are better left to the tacticians.
Snow, Leaf, Small, and Smaller, are all brilliant playmakers that fit into this role. They ensured that whichever strategy was adopted will be carried out perfectly.
Meanwhile, George commanded the overall troops making them as solid as a single plate of stout metal shield. And while the enemy engaged the main unit, Luciette’s troops sends deadly strikes at their flanks then disappearing like the morning dew. The two proved to be expert strategists alongside Kairos who acted as the overall commander.
He could predict not just enemy movements with Soul Perception, but also accurately guess the thoughts in their opponents’ mind.
It was not too difficult for Kairos who had to fully understand a person’s mentality to customise martial skills.
As he defeated one commander after another, he slowly discovered a new talent within. Due to his incessant practice in finding out another’s thoughts, his ability to hear the voices of spirit ores and herbs slowly extended towards humans.
This new sense that works like an overly sensitive kind of empathy works with the same range as his Soul Perception.
It wasn’t anything audible, but he could pick out a semblance of someone’s strongest desires. Unfortunately, it did not work all the time, requiring him to first sync with his target’s character for him to become sensitive enough to that person’s feelings.
Yet, this minor advantage was all that was needed to make him undefeatable.
Detecting hostility and other emotions, it allowed him to discover and dissect the most dangerous plans of enemy commanders, and avoid otherwise deadly ambushes.
Soul Perception might grant incredible awareness, but it is far from omnipotent.
There were a few close calls when he couldn’t tell there were ambushes hidden underground or people within hollowed out tree trunks, but thanks to the emotional spike in the enemy as he approached the traps, he could turn back his troops in time.
Soul Perception can discover very tiny details that would give away the existence of such deceptions or camouflage, but the mental strain to carefully sift through every little thing around was tremendous and often takes too long foil a trap in waiting.
Needless to say, now that he has become somewhat of a mind-reader, he has completely turn into an unfair presence on the battlefield.
The first opponent they went against during the next class was the third years. There were two prominent commanders in their ranks that caused the hundred and fifty students of their year to be split into two groups.
The smaller group lost against Calculus while the larger one won, though just barely and only after an extended struggle. However, when this same group of seniors met Kairos, they were decimated. Left without a chance, the two groups of third years joined forces and eagerly challenged the Snowdrifts again.
Unfortunately, the rematch with their combined forces ended in the same way with their defeat.
The strength that the Snowdrifts had instantly became renowned. Of the third years, Lux Cixton in particular was tricky to take down. It took the four captains – Long, John, Silvers, and Sasha – to surround and wear him down for an hour before they could break his Golem technique, but even so, it was impressive.
The Snowdrifts captured him then invited him to their group, and surprisingly, he accepted wordlessly and joined the frontlines alongside the vanguards.
The fourth years fought against them next. Due to Von Cixton’s Ki Stone that could store ample amounts of refined energy, their war tactics was vastly different from others.
The strongest of his group protected him in a tight circle, while the leftover bulk of their group scattered across the battlefield.
It was like they had weaved a great web across the entire training grounds, and when they snared their prey, the whole group will spring into action.
Fighters threw themselves at the enemy, hindering and distracting them while prioritising safety as they waited for Von’s group to arrive.
Once he came near, they will unleash devastating Ki techniques of different elements that blast their enemy to bits on a grand scale.
This technique caused the defence-inclined George Kitty to grit his teeth in frustration, but nevertheless, they managed to pull through in the end. Mostly, thanks to an incredible resilience displayed in their tactics that they could wait till Von Cixton ran out of juice.
Kairos once again extended his welcome towards the second Steel Rose member, and likewise, he entered the group.
Von Cixton and his group chose to stand beside Edward, complementing the mid-range archers with his long-range artillery ability.
Afterwards, they met the fifth years.
It was a battle between Kairos’ hundred and forty against a hundred and twenty B and A rankers; of the latter, the additional twenty students were absorbed from other years into their ranks.
Despite their number differences being rather small, and the enemy’s cultivation advantage, the Snowdrifts trounced the fifth years on the battlefield, taking down a few famous fighters.