Each team had been randomly assigned to different positions which had quite a lot of space between each team. Below each of these positions were different kinds of beasts, meaning the difficulty each team would face was solely dependent on their luck.
'This would be a problem.'
When they got into position at the edge of the walls, the students noticed something. The distance between the top of the wall and the bottom was very huge.
Due to this huge distance, if the students were to attack, the beasts would have enough time to sense the attack and move out of the way.
If they wanted their attacks to connect and deal damage to the beasts, it meant that they needed to put in more mana to their spells, but this also meant that they would run out of mana more quickly.
'No wonder he was continuously mentioning efficiency and saving mana.' Blake thought as he began assessing the situation.
Right below Blake's team was 10 Jacklers. The hyena-type beasts were known for their speed and biting power, meaning the attack from Blake's team was meant to be fast and also pack a punch.
"Get ready!" Major Reeves' voice echoed all around the wall, as the students began readying their spells.
At that moment, Blake had already conveyed his plan to his team, so when Major Reeves had given the signal to attack, arrays began forming above his team.
Elemental Cannon: Blazing Arrow!
Once the array was complete, the blue lines of mana that formed the array were complete, they changed to orange and moved in front of the team.
A ball of flames began forming at the center, and once it was complete, Blake stretched forth his hand and the fireball was launched at the jacklers.
BOOM!
When the ball of fire was a few meters away, the jacklers raised their heads to see the attack coming, but before they could react Blake clenched his fist and the fireball turned to 10 arrows with flames at the bottom boosting their speed.
'Perfect!' Apart from Luciano who had an indifferent expression, a smile could be seen on everyone's face, they were happy with the result of their tier 2 elemental cannon battle array.
Both normal and battle arrays were grouped under 6 tiers. Tier 1 battle arrays like barriers being the basic, while the legendary tier 6 battle arrays that could destroy empires were the highest.
The elemental cannon they had used was a very special battle array even among tier 2. It possessed insane explosive power and allowed the user to manipulate the projectile even when it had been fired.
Once all the beasts below the walls had been killed, Major Reeves who just deactivated mana vision spoke up.
"I just spoke about efficiency, but no one except this group understood what I was saying." Major Reeve's said, pointing at Blake's team. "You might have made the right decision on which spell to use, but was it the most efficient way to kill the beasts, no."
"Not only did you not work as a team, but you ended up spending more mana because you attacked individually. As for them, they worked as a team, use the most effective method, and ended up saving a lot of mana." Major Reeves said in a disappointed expression.
'What the hell were they thinking? The team's execution was to be graded, so wasn't it obvious that team attacks were required?' Blake couldn't help but shake his head.
"Enough talk, let's get into grading. For the first-year students, Team Blake gets 10/10 points while the rest get 2/10." Without caring about the looks on their faces, Major Reeves moved over to the 2nd year students.
"I had expected you all to perform better than the 1st years since you are a year ahead, but seems like you all just bigger disappointments." Disgust was written all over Major Reeves' face. "Team Serhan gets 5/10 for their team corporation, as for the rest they get 1/10 points."
"Why are we being scored lower than the first-year students when we did the same thing if not better?" A noble from Serhan's team complained.
Major Reeves was about to walk away, but on hearing the complaint he turned to the direction the voice came from.
"I don't remember giving you permission to speak." Major Reeves began walking up to the noble with a bone-chilling stare locked on him. With every step the Major took, the more the noble found it hard to breathe.
They were slow steps, but by the time had already gotten to the noble, he was already on his knees and his face had turned purple due to lack of oxygen.
"Aren't you ashamed of those words you uttered… oh I forgot, you are a noble." The noble couldn't handle it anymore and passed out.
"Does anyone have any other thing to say?" Receiving nothing but silence, Major Reeves returned to his original position.
'He just keeps confirming my suspicions that he is related to Instructor Zirrack.' Blake mind-giggled.
"Make sure to have some rest because you will need it for your night shift. Dismissed!" Major Reeve's words left the students in utter confusion, but no one dared to ask, so they left for their tents.
____
"Worst comes to worst, we would have to patrol the walls. So I suggest we all get some sleep before then." Blake to his team.
Unlike Blake's team who were currently resting in their dimensional tents, the other teams were nowhere close to resting.
The 1st and 2nd-year teams had 2 things in common; the 1st was that they were all jealous and angry with Blake's team. That of the 2nd year students were far greater, not only had Blake's team outperformed them but they had also been disgraced by Major Reeves.
The 2nd reason was that they all needed to learn more battle arrays, especially the one Blake's team had used. Although they had all been taught about battle arrays, most of the teams had disregarded them because they didn't think it would matter that much, especially if they were all strong.
The problem now was that even if they could leave the camp and return to the school to get books on battle arrays, did they have enough time to learn and become adept at using them.
___
Behind the inner wall.
Once the normal class had been deployed to the wall they were ordered to report back at the wall by noon, but unlike the elite class that began training, they were deployed to watch how the ash corps delivered relief materials to the people in need.
Although it looked easy and wasn't close to being half as dangerous as that of the elite class, the task was a difficult one for the normal class. They weren't as strong as the elite class and didn't have as much experience and exposure as them, making the task of fighting gangs a hard one.
The reason they had been sent out immediately was that the next day the positions would reverse. They would be the ones delivering the relief materials while a member of the ash corps supervised them.
As they moved through the city, the students began noticing the changes caused by the beast tide season. The once-bustling streets of Calton city had turned into a ghost town. They could hardly see anyone on the streets, even all the stores and industry were closed.
The major cause of this was the beats tide, but the effects of the gangs couldn't be overlooked.
For example, some industries had shut down because of a lack of materials to continue production, but even those that still had more than enough materials in stock had to shut down because of getting harassed and robbed by gangs.
This was the major cause of unemployment and the need for relief materials especially in the slums since almost 90% percent of them were wage workers.
Although the situation seemed to be very bad in the eyes of the general populace, only a few people in the city knew that the top gangs didn't act during this period because if they did, the city wouldn't survive the beast tide.
This meant that the ones causing all the problems were the mid and low-level ranked gangs.
____
Back to the southern wall.
Blake's team had just finished their dinner and had boarded the stagecoach making their way to the wall for their night shift.