"Attack!" Musk screamed.

  All the recruits were closely watg the Crabits, just waiting for the captain's and to advaill, when the and came, their rea 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 uhe other students, he jumped instead of running. His leap was long enough to cross from oo the other, nding with his armor and ma hand. He accelerated toward the first Crabit, and with a swing of his mace, it exploded into a cloud of blood arails.

  Katherine, oher hand, was cautious. She advanced farther from the team but walked along the creek until she reached a more isoted group of Crabits. Seeing her alohe animals sought to surrouo 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 bde cut the beast in half.

  Seeing the first ses of age and realizing that their oppos weren't that strong, the other students joihe fight.

  However, there was one exception: Oliver. To anyone engaged itle, he seemed isoted. 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 ce, there's no way I'll hit them like this,’ the boy cluded. ‘I'll have to try Observation. Hopefully, it will be enough.’

  Acc to the description of his Boon, he should be able to use [Observation] to see and exploit his oppos' 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 ge. 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 oppos. These were the only objects with color in that bd-white world.

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

  Uhe other recruits, Oliver was slowly walkihe edge of the bat zone, waiting for the right moment.

  'This ohe 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 sptter 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 inteo remain unnoticed and slowly up the Crabits.

  Yet, there was someone on the field who was his plete 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 tio observe the etle from a dista was ready to intervehis 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.

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

  After a few hours of bat, the once lush pin ied with Crabits was now covered in blood arails. Numerous cadets sat or y 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 sted ohra.

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

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

  Even though he was drenched i a blood, the cold grass beh him felt more fortable than his bed. Soon, his eyes grew heavy, and within seds, 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 lohan just 10 minutes. However, unicatioween the groups was difficult. Even among the captains, the e through their gaus was limited. By the time firmation of the movement of all the groups was received, more than 30 minutes had passed.

  But after the firmation, the captain o hurry the group to the bat zone.

  "Priii!"

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

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

  Oliver rubbed his eyes to clear the remaining slumber from his face, iently 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 he captain and marg with ease. Seeing Katherine, Astrid, and the strong boy, his curiosity sparked. He wao 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) [Sed 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 beeed to someone else?"

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

  To make things worse, he uood that these were only the cadets in Ranger on bat.

  ‘How would I rank among all the cadets at the base?’ While he pohe march tinued.

  The humid wind of the pin made the journey slightly more fortable, and the grass wasn’t so tall as to hihe group’s progress. At the front, Captain Musk kept a close eye on the map to ehey were approag the bat 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 bat zone. Oher side of the hill y a valley, and along the river that cut through the valley, there were hundreds of Crabit hordes. The number was ten times rger 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, yht will not be to extermihe Crabit horde this time. You will have thirty minutes of tinuous bat, and then you must retreat, " the captain expined.

  "Yes, sir!" the recruits replied.

  The group sloroached the horde ahead, waiting for the firmation to begitle.

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

  Although the start of the battle was very simir to the previous ohe result couldn’t have been more different.

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

  Though simir to the previous ohe bat 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 advang 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 spttered across his face, impairing his vision. Two Crabits began attag him. Even with armor proteg his body, one of the monsters mao 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 is were left and right.

  "POW! POW! POW! POW!"

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

  "Immediate retreat!"

  GCLopes