While the senior officials were shocked, Divo had gone back to the enemy team. They reported the situation and Divo said, “Leader, I think we should not waste much time. The FSA took down the Cairo Academy class without a causality. This shows that they are stronger than in the past. Their classmate almost took me out by surprise and they are aware of our arrival here. The more time we take the more time they get to prepare.”
The team leader nodded and said, “You are correct Ismail, but how are we going to locate them?”
Divo said, “Send out squads? If we send out an assault squad forward, will we not be able to get them? Although they move quickly, they must have left some sort of trace?”
The two team leaders nodded and they began to form a strategy meanwhile Divo began to mingle with people. While he was doing so, he would sit on the ground and sneakily hide a stun grenade under a thin layer of soil. This was his talent, a bomb plantation. A stun grenade looked like a phaser nade, but it was significantly smaller in size.
The size played to Divo’s advantage and he was not noticed in his action. It took him two hours to plant five such nades. He was very patient in his planning and action. If he was to rush and get caught, all the effort will go in vain. Although he was not scared of getting shot down, his failure will cost his team some valuable time.
…
Theseus said, “Assault team, spread out.”
Vanessa led the assault team and they all spread out surrounding the opponent from all sides, they maintained the proper distance to avoid the monitoring equipment. Divo got high up on a tree and looked in a certain direction with his visor turned to thermal imaging. He spotted that one region was particularly low in temperature than the rest.
This was his signal to act. The difference in temperature belonged to the ability used by a fellow classmate. Divo smirked and changed back to normal vision mode, and looked down. The spots he had rigged with nades, were full of people moving around them. He took out his original communicator and started the short delay timer.
A few seconds later, five nades exploded with a high-pitched buzz taking down at least twenty students in reach. The team leaders were surprised, however, before they could do anything, Vanessa and her troupe charged over from all sides. Divo played a significant role, and he snipped down the two team leaders.
Without their leaders, the teams lost their confidence and were taken down with much ease. Vanessa and the rest were not alone this time, the support group helped them pick up all the loose fish that tried to escape the net. This was an accomplishment. They had taken down three of the eight teams. The display of tactics and ability was impressive and they had come halfway to the peak with ease.
…
The general council watched the battles and they found that not only Theseus but the entire class trained by Shi Lang was on par with the elites in terms of tactics and movements. Their strength may be lacking but that was because they were too young at this moment.
An entire day passed and the teams kept falling, FSA also lost a handful of members. Chou was the most notable member of the team. He put himself in front of a bullet for Theseus. The muscle of the class knew the importance of the brain.
…
Shi Lang watched it all with no change in his faint smile. Someone in the observation pavilion could not help it and asked him, “Sir, how can you smile when your students are falling?”
The young general replied, “I am happy that they understand their roles, as the leader, Theseus needs to learn the burden he will carry for standing in front of his men. The rest of them will also have to understand what they need to do in order to support their leader, even if it is to lay down their lives.”
The people nodded, this was how the military worked. Shi Lang went on to say, “Not only the leader but everyone in the unit should be protected. The only reason Chou fell down was because he was the closest to Theseus. If you all noticed, almost everyone shifted their attention to the attack.”
The surrounding people nodded, they were all people who had stood on the frontlines, either they owed their lives to someone, or someone owed them their lives. They agreed with Shi Lang on this matter from the bottom of their hearts.
…
The battles continued and the whole day passed, in the end, Quo Lina earned the victory after taking down the captain of the last team with mutual destruction. Shi Lang had taught them to treat this contest like a battle of life and death and their goal was to protect as many classmates as possible.
The competition came to an end and the students were bought back to the Elton Military Academy. They were given a few minutes to rest and recieve medical aid if needed. The competition was quite intense, the stun bullets did not hurt but the knives really left some cuts on the bodies of their fresh meat.
Shi Lang and the rest of the teachers came to their classes, while the former was here to praise his class, the rest were here to console. There was no meaning to coming second or third. The runner-up was the biggest loser.
The students of FSA stood up in front of Shi Lang in an orderly queue. They were simplxy waiting for the teacher to praise them, but Shi Lang said, “You all know that you could have made the ending so much better?”
Theseus stepped forward and nodded, he said, “I made a few mistakes in my conduct. I should have been better.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “The rest of you are also the same, you need to learn from the mistakes you made today. Dying is not the best choice of alternatives to seek victory, however, what you all did was very impressive, it exceeded my expectations. Keep it up.”
Shi Lang was wearing his ceremonial uniform and he was looking awe-inspiring. The students heard the flaws pointed out by their teacher, but they also heard the praise he gave. Shi Lang was not completely a cynical bastard. He was the idol they all worshipped. Although he gave off the impression of the devil. His actions were anything but cold in reality.
Suddenly, a tiny figure rushed past the crowd and appeared in front of Shi Lang. The young man looked at the tiny figure and a smile appeared on his desolate face. He asked, “Where did you find the way to get here?”
“Mom told me.”, said Shi Tao as she raised her daity wrist to show the communicator with Amelia smiling and waving at him.
Shi Lang waved to her before the projection vanished and patted Shi Tao on her head as he asked, “Why did your mom stay behind?”
Shi Tao looked around and said in a hushed tone, “Those old people were trying to bully me with questions like what special ability does the class have, so mom told me to get out and find you.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “You did great, now, go and congratulate your seniors, look how they are gazing at you.”
Shi Tao was the pixie of the class. She bought smiles to everyone, and the people bustled with new found energy. After a few minutes, the awards were presented and the class smiled to click a picture together. Shi Lang did not give the ending speech and went to the VVIP lounge to get a one on one with the old bones.
He had been away from the general council a way too long it seemed. He was walking through the crowd and the aura of a kind and generous teacher had vanished to be replaced by the demon from hell. Those who happened tobe too close to him, made way, they did not wish to entangle with him. This was the power he commanded, and it may seem as if he was not doing much these days but he was cultivating without any effort spared.
None of the people in the world understood his mind, they thought he went to the school to calm down, but instead, he was building up his spiritual energy to break through another level as soon as possible.
The moment he entered the VVIP lounge the surrounding people all cast a gaze at him, and fell silent. Amelia smirked when she saw the situation. Shi Lang asked, “What is the fuss about?”
Charlotte said, “We were discussing what division or fleet will be better for this batch from FSA, in the…”
Her words were not finished when Shi Lang interuppted her and said, “They will be the guardians department. Trained by secret divisons, and tested by the fleets, their task will be…”