CHAPTER 68
Ray landed with a heavy thud, effortlessly carrying Trisha in a princess-like style as he absorbed the impact of their descent.
"Will you drop me now?" she asked, her voice as level and cool as ever.
"Okay," Ray casually replied, immediately releasing his hold and letting the girl drop back down onto her feet.
Trisha's expression didn't shift in the slightest.
She didn't blush, nor did she look flustered by the sudden rescue or the physical proximity. It was as if nothing in this world could truly faze her.
Not that Ray cared much at the moment; his focus had already shifted toward Kai, who was still staring intently at the Aspirants.
The students were clearly struggling, throwing themselves with desperate futility against the massive, laughing Aberrant.
"What now?" Ray asked, his tone urgent.
"I-I don't know. No matter what we do, our attacks just don't seem to work. And…" Kai paused, his eyes narrowing as he observed the battlefield and the clumsy movements of the trainees more closely.
"... We have never had the opportunity to train or fight together, hence their movements are so uncoordinated. I don't even know how to organize them properly under this much pressure."
"I can help!" A clear voice suddenly spoke through the communication link in Kai's ear.
He turned toward the source and spotted Van waving frantically from a safe distance away from the primary engagement zone.
"Listen to me carefully. I have realized you all are just bombarding the Aberrant with the same repetitive pattern over and over.
Every Aspirant here has roughly one minute of air time before they are forced to land and then launch off again."
While speaking, Van made sure to connect his signal to Trisha, Berg, and even Ray himself so they could all hear his tactical breakdown along with Kai.
"Yeah? What's your point exactly?" Berg coldly demanded, his ego clearly bristling at being lectured by someone he considered a non-combatant.
"My point is… out of over two hundred Aspirants present, only a hundred are bravely challenging the Aberrant right now.
The rest are back here with me, paralyzed by fear. So, I suggest you all split yourselves into coordinated teams of two."
"And how exactly will that help our situation?" Kai asked, raising a skeptical brow.
"... By splitting yourselves into teams of two, this is what will happen. The first team will…"
Van began meticulously explaining his plan, detailing a rotation of suppression and strike teams to ensure the monster was never without a target.
A few seconds later, he added;
"... Until then, I will continue to observe the Aberrant's movements and see if I can pinpoint exactly where its heart is located."
Hearing the depth of his planning, the group leaders glanced at one another in silent deliberation.
"Well, I think this could actually work," Kai nodded with a weary sigh of relief.
"I don't take orders from some low-grade—"
"Will you just shut up?!" Ray finally barked, his eyes boring into Berg with a frightening intensity.
"We are in a life-or-death battle against a powerful foe and you still want to act arrogant? If you die here, do you think your status will matter again?
You will be replaced in a heartbeat, you fool. If there is one thing I can do in this life, it's trust Van's words and his tactical judgement.
Amongst us all, his brain is sharper, and he isn't nearly as dumb as you are."
"..."
There would have been a long moment of stunned silence if it wasn't for the unrelenting, thunderous sounds of the ongoing battle.
"How dare—"
"Enough, Berg. Let's put our petty differences aside and get through this alive. Our grudges can wait until we are safely back at the Corps," Kai quickly cut through any further attempts at banter or infighting.
Grinding his teeth together in a fit of suppressed rage, Berg eventually scoffed and looked away.
"Fine. I will lead the second strike team."
"We will take care of the first team," Ray added, shifting his weight into a combat stance while glaring ahead at the monstrosity.
Suddenly, a softer voice resounded in his ears through the private channel.
"And Ray, please take care of yourself. I don't want to lose you. If it gets too tough, we are escaping this place together!" Van shouted down the ear piece, his worry evident.
Ray didn't reply to Van; he only nodded, a small, resolute smile playing on his face.
Kai quickly pressed his finger to his ear, his gaze locked on the hundred Aspirants who were currently smothering the Aberrant with a barrage of disorganized attacks.
"Split into two teams! All of you, descend now! We are dividing the ranks!"
The Aspirants turned to stare at him in confusion, but with a collective nod of understanding, they all glided back toward the earth and landed.
The Aberrant finally had a moment of breathing space, panting heavily while smirking at the humans with a look of pure derision.
"Giving up alr—"
"Team one, let's go!" Kai ordered, cutting the monster off as he vaulted off the ground with a powerful thrust.
Beside him, Trisha and Ray were blurred streaks of motion, while fifty brave Aspirants followed closely behind them.
They launched forward at full force, their eyes fixed with singular focus on the Aberrant.
"... You all just don't want to learn, do you? Fine then! Have it your way!" The Aberrant roared into the air, the sound vibrating through their very bones.
'For some reason, I'm not afraid,' Ray mused inwardly, his pulse steady as his fingers began gleaming with a subtle, dangerous light.
His eyes remained fixed on the looming monstrosity before him.
"Attack!" Kai thundered into the sky, his vocal chords straining under the weight of his command.
The moment the words left his mouth, jagged crystalline spikes burst into the air from his fingertips, smashing into the Aberrant's face at full force.
Simultaneously, a flurry of ice shards from Trisha's palms landed on the creature's head, aiming to pierce deep into its sensory organs.
Spikes of jagged earth rocketed through the air from the supporting students, and Ray added precise lines of energy from his hands.
All these efforts culminated into a massive, staggering attack that smashed against the Aberrant's chest and sent it skidding backwards across the gravel.
'Thirty seconds left,' Ray mentally noted, keeping track of their limited air time.
Sparks of brilliant electricity began crackling beneath his feet and, without a moment of hesitation, he pushed off like a loose arrow shot from a bow.
Beside him, Kai and Trisha maintained the formation, closing the distance.
The Aberrant finally regained its footing, and with its pride wounded by the minor injuries, it refused to stand idle any longer.
With a clamorous bang that shook the clearing, the monster shot forward. It blurred through the air with such velocity that it caught the humans completely off guard.
'Shit! It's actually faster?!'
It appeared in the absolute midst of the Aspirants and, almost immediately, plunged the formation into utter chaos.
Claws flashed through the air like scythes, splitting the ranks of the teens in half.
Blood sprayed into the air like macabre fountains as bodies dropped one after the other to the forest floor.
'No, no, no!' Kai screamed inwardly, his heart shattering at the sight.
"I promised to get them all home safely! Damn you!" He thundered in a fit of grief-stricken rage as he punched the air twice, sending two thick columns of purple crystals streaking towards the creature.
Spinning around with cruel reflexes, the Aberrant swung a fallen human toward the incoming attacks to use as a shield.
The columns immediately tore through the limp body, sending blood spraying in sickening waves.
Kai froze mid-air, horror written across every feature of his face.
That was when the terrifying truth finally clicked in his mind.
'The Aberrants grow significantly faster and stronger the more they get injured… the pain only fuels them.'
"Shit! Van! Your plan can't work, damn it!"
Ray didn't care about the failing strategy or the tactical breakdown.
His mind was solely fixed on a single, burning objective: taking the creature down.
Kicking the air continuously to maintain his altitude, he appeared directly before the creature's face.
Their eyes locked instantly—human resolve meeting demonic hunger.
"I still haven't paid your kind back for killing my mum and sister!" He howled into the air as twin lines of raw energy exploded from his hands, smashing into the Aberrant's face and tearing a deep, bleeding line into its snout.
This impact sent the creature skidding backwards for a few inches, its head snapping back.
Ray smiled at the success of his strike, only for the expression to freeze the very next moment.
The Aberrant regained its footing far faster than he had anticipated, and it wasted no time in swinging its massive, thick leg towards him at neck-breaking speed.
"F*ck."