Unfortunately for the nobles, their complaints fell on deaf ears because the ash cop left without even assigning the tents to the 4 teams. Some had thought of setting up their tents, but it remained a thought because it would be a sign of disrespect to the ash corps.
While they were still complaining, Blake and his team walked into the farthest tent. It was the safest because it would give them more time to prepare in case something happened and it would prevent anyone from giving excuses when snooping around the tent.
Most of the nobles wanted to complain, but with the presence of Blake and Luciano, they were forced to keep their mouths shut.
Once they had settled in the tents, the team began chatting about the effects of the beast tide on the empire to pass time.
When it was noon, food was delivered to each team by ash corps in dimensional amulets. The team opened them to find a sizeable portion of rice with beef stew for each of them.
"I actually taught it would be way worse." Blake said as he didn't was time to dig into the food.
"Why do you say so?" Luciano asked with an intrigued expression.
"Because I have always thought of the military life to be a hard one, and that includes the quality of their food." Blake answered with his little knowledge of the military back on Earth, but he was completely wrong to think the military of both worlds was similar.
This made Luciano look at him with a raised brow for a second before returning to normal. "This might be because you guys didn't grow up in the empire, but everybody knows that the military receives the same quality of food as the school or any public related agencies."
The military on Earth didn't bother to train or hire chefs because of their limited budget and because they saw the chefs as liabilities in certain situations. As for the Synder Empire, they had more than enough resources and they didn't need to move around with the chefs because the foods could be teleported to them as long as they weren't too far from the city or they could be stored in very large dimensional amulets, keeping them hot and fresh till needed.
"If so, then being an ash corps isn't as bad as I thought..." Blake said as he continued munching on the food, but he soon paused to ask. "Can you ask for more?"
"I knew you would ask that. No, you can't." Luciano chuckled.
"I take back my words then..." Blake said as he brought a plate of ramen from his dimensional space, but no one was surprised. They could swear that Blake had more than 2 weeks' worth of food in his dimensional amulet.
___
After lunch, all the teams reported to the walls where Major Reeves was seen staring into the horizon with his hands folded behind him.
Without uttering a word, the teams took their positions and waited for Major Reeves to turn, but soon another group of students was making their way onto the wall, it was the second-year students.
'The fuck are they doing here?! The school didn't say anything about them defending the city walls with us.' Brian said through the mind link.
'We should have expected it since the test was with them.' Castiel said.
'This only makes things worse.' Blake's eyes were locked on the rank 1 of the 2nd year, Serhan.
They were sent to the southern wall because they were the top team of the 1st year students. So it was natural for the top team of the 2nd year students which was led by Serhan to be deployed there.
"Now that everyone is present, I want to lay down a simple rule." Major Reeves said as he finally turned to look at the students. "In school, you maybe be seniors and juniors, but here you are all equals. This means I am the only one that can order people and I shouldn't hear of any cases of bullying, because the bully would be dismissed straight away."
Major Reeves' words were directed at the 2nd year students, who seemed to be frightened by his mean expression.
"Now to the main reason you were called here. You will be taught the 1st and 2nd lesson, and after an example by a sergeant then it would be your turn." At this point, Major Reeves had an evil smile on his face as he continued. "Every team will be graded on how good their execution is, and at the end of the lessons, the team with the highest number of points would be rewarded. Also, the grading of both years would be separate to make things fair."
'Here I thought that things couldn't get worse, but he decided to disapprove my claims.' Blake thought as he continuously rained down curses on Major Reeves. He had been complaining that the school was promoting unhealthy competition, but Major had made the situation even worse.
'To be honest, I don't feel anything has changed. Although this might make them even more stupid, it doesn't Increase their strength which we are already prepared for.' Castiel replied.
'I would have loved to agree to what you just said, but we are prepared for everything except for the 2nd year students. If the said reward is deemed to be good enough, there is a possibility that they could help their family members in the 1st year to eliminate competition.' Blake pointed out.
"Since all that has been settled let's get into lesson 1. The 1st lesson is learning the most efficient way to kill beasts from the top of the wall. It is basically using the appropriate tool for a particular job."
"In wars like this that involve large numbers, strong AOE-type attacks are a must have, but there are situations that need deadly single target attacks." Major Reeves explained.
"For example, if an elite or Knight rank morg was to be left alone it would deal a tremendous amount of damage to either the wall or barrier, so their deaths would be prioritized over other beasts.
Because of their rock-hard hide, casting an explosive spell that would be able to harm it would be a tremendous waste of mana, so you would be looking at spells focused on penetration. This would save both mana and time."
'This is common sense knowledge, but it is very important for some numbskulls on this wall.' Although it was something anyone with common sense would know, with the things Blake had seen the nobles do, he doubted if common sense was truly common.
A similar thought was on Major Reeves' mind. He had been through more than 30 beast tides and on multiple occasions, he had seen students, adventurers, and even noble family members make such mistakes because they wanted to get as many points as possible.
They would end up using a lot of mana and if something unexpected happened, like when the beasts managed to break through the barrier and make their way onto the wall, they would end up dying because they lacked mana.
"In the case of explosive spells, there would be a situation where the beasts would be in sensitive areas of the wall where the towers and cannons can't reach, that is where they come in. For example, if we are up against insect-type beasts, explosive spells with large areas of effect are the best." Major Reeves explained.
"Since we are done with that, it is time to move over to the execution phase. Sergeant, come up and show the kids how it's done." Major Reeves called up the closest ash cop to give a demonstration.
Currently, the city's barriers were under attack by a few low-level beasts. They had been attacking the barrier since morning, but the reason why the ash corps hadn't dealt with them was that they weren't strong enough to leave a scratch on the barrier and they were what the students were to practice with.
Without hesitation, the sergeant took position and lightning arcs began curling around his body, before firing out a single arc of lightning that branched into 5 lightning bolts.
CRACK!
The lightning bolts pierced into the hard shells of the elite rank armadillos mindlessly attack the barrier, killing them instantly.
"Thank you sergeant for the wonderful demonstration. Now, every team should take a position at the edge of the walls.." Major Reeves ordered.