Chapter 1595 (1/2)

Randidly rather casually removed some smoked sausages from his interspatial ring and began to snack as the next wave of foes came. It might just be his imagination, but he really hadn’t felt full since returning from the shaft. Some fundamental change had occurred in his body and respectable amounts of food no longer cut it.

That didn’t stop Randidly from trying, however. And the sausages were his own make, and delicious.

Below, more and more recruits streamed into the canyon, gathering up in bunches and throwing themselves forward at the elite group. Learning from the prior losses, each assault team was about two thousand individuals in size, probably all taught by the same Drill Sergeant, and possessed one or two individuals with powerful enough images they could rival Randidly’s elites.

Still, the Nexus was a place where quality mattered most of all. Even in the face of these large groups, Randidly’s recruits kept up their pace. They lashed out, disabling and wounding their enemies with each strike. The Head Drill Sergeant manipulated Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil and cleared out the wounded individuals.

Alas, poor me… Randidly thought while pushing the rest of a sausage into his mouth. He noticed the struggle not to comment on Superintendent Xeruth’s face not to comment. Randidly licked his fingers with relish. Even though I am Head Drill Sergeant, I am working so hard with this Challenge… truly a martyr, I am.

And he didn’t even get a break. After one large mass of bodies was annihilated, the next one rumbled forward. Each seemed more powerful than the last, and finally, in the chaos of battle, there was a casualty. One of the elite groups was struck with a glancing blow in the side and stumbled. With just that small mistake, she was swarmed and smashed into the ground.

Randidly pursed his lips. He obviously hated to see his people wounded, but knew it was inevitable. He carefully marshaled his emotions. It had to happen eventually. The question is… How will you deal with loss, trainees…?

But his worries that this was the beginning of the end proved groundless. There were no dangerous deviations in that Squad’s formation after losing a member; Helen had been adamant that they practice their teamwork with all numbers and member combinations for just this sort of scenario. Gradually, this most recent assault was defeated and smoothly another came forward. In the next scrum, two of the elites were defeated. In the following one, another individual fell.

Randidly’s heart throbbed for each of his recruits that fell. It never got any easier watching them being attacked.

Yet as the elite group had defeated about half of their fellow recruits while only losing four individuals, some of the other Drill Sergeants were looking at Randidly with a strangely heavy gaze. He could feel hesitation seeping into the surrounding space; it seemed they finally realized the price of forcing this issue against him.

Influence +6!

Through his connection with them, Randidly could also feel the recruits’ understanding and respect for him shooting upward. They had been forced into exhausted and hopeless situations constantly in his training. At the time, they had just assumed that their Head Drill Sergeant was a sadist. But now he could feel them realizing the importance of the resolve they had gained by scraping their bodies dry, again and again.

For the next three waves of assault, not a single recruit was wounded. Their movements grew more efficient as they bashed and cut down their foes. This crucible was strengthening them further.

Yet Randidly’s expression shifted toward a grimace, despite their improvements. First, his elites had needed to use their images more and more often to keep from being overwhelmed. It was fine for now, but outside of the small squads, even his elites' images weren’t very compatible. Soon they would be fighting each other for influence in the surrounding space.

But more importantly… within the most recent group was an individual who definitely did not belong within the recruits. To Randidly’s sensitive emotional perception, this man dragged around a heavy clump of bloodlust that set his skin tingling.

Randidly’s gaze turned flinty. So, you truly mean to beat my recruits at any cost, huh…?

Without revealing his capability, the man suppressed his image and marched forward as a part of the new attack. And although it made him extremely uncomfortable to do so, Randidly did nothing but watch. He couldn’t protect his recruits from surprise threats like this. It was a part of learning the art of war. They would be weakened by his favor now, down the line.

That didn’t make it any easier to handle his thrashing anxiety, however.

Of course, when that bloodthirsty individual had the chance, he erupted with a horrible fuschia jellyfish that struck back and forth with its long tentacles. An entire squad of Randidly’s elites was wiped out like it was nothing. Then the jellyfish ballooned in size, rapidly swelling to fill the sky above the Challenge.

“All of you are nothing, ulululululoooooo!” The fellow cackled strangely. The fuschia jellyfish pulsed and undulated in an almost obscene way. The battlefield around him partially stilled as Randidly’s recruits shifted their focus to this obvious threat. The man’s smile widened. “Cocky scum, let me remind you of true power! One Thousand Seizures!”

The jellyfish bulged as protuberances wormed their way out of its slimy body. Then they accelerated outward, striking at ally and foe alike. The man continued to cackle as Randidly’s recruits retreated before the onslaught. His eyes glowed bright fuschia.

Randidly gritted his teeth, forced to watch the indiscriminate slaughter. Although his rational mind knew it was foolish to do so, he made a mental note of the features of this man. In the future, Randidly would pay him back for his wild violence.

Then a Vulpine stepped forward and casually grasped at the air. The tentacles were frozen. Then, just as casually, Raymund Ballast flicked his fingers forward. “You reap what you sow.”