---

  The sun wasn't even up when Jake was awakened by a strident shout that could only have come from one of his fellow cadets. Adrenaline started coursing through his entire body as a foreboding sense of danger dawned on him, along with a chilling sensation going down his spine.

  He quickly shot up before he grabbed his sword on the way out of the shelter and activated his armour as he did, which transformed from its ring form into a full-blown armour set minus the helmet. Although the gear was nearing a state of disrepair, with its biotic strengthening effect completely gone, it would still protect his already tattered body from suffering too much damage against whatever enemy was out there.

  He'd barely stepped out of the shelter when a Vertaerax spawn suddenly appeared out of nowhere and immediately jumped at his throat. Jake fell on his back as he struggled to get the creature off his neck, which was unfortunately very intent on biting off the flesh on Jake's throat before it went down, strengthening its grip any time Jake tried to pull it off of him.

  Out of options, Jake grabbed the spawn's neck with both hands and squeezed as hard as he could, choking the life out of the critter. After a few seconds that had felt like hours, the pressure on his throat finally lessened, with the Spawn falling limply to Jake's side, dead.

  Jake stood on the ground for half a second trying to calm himself through ragged breaths, before Ed's voice echoed inside his mind.

  [ Hey, kiddo. I know this isn't really a good moment with your throat being half ripped out and all, but I just wanted to remind you that the little fucker had friends, and so do you. ]

  "SHIT!" He shouted before he jumped right back on his feet, in a panic, before jolting out of the shelter with his sword clutched in one of his hands.

  One look further down the campsite instantly revealed the rest of his squad, overwhelmed by a sea of Vertaerax Spawns. By some kind of miracle, they'd been able to regroup in a defensive formation with their back to a gigantic boulder, which had acted as a natural fortification against the legion of creatures.

  The squad was holding on for now, but they wouldn't stand forever against the swarm of creatures pouring down onto them, and Jake brandished his sword as he activated his Basic Biotic Reinforcement skill before dashing toward the meelee.

  [Kiddo, there's something?-?]

  NOT NOW, ED!

  In only a few seconds, Jake was now only a few dozen meters away from the cadets, with a swarm of creatures standing between them. Since most of the creatures were facing toward the other cadets with their backs facing Jake, he cut through the enemy unimpeded as he slowly made his way toward the others, hoping he'd reach them in time to help before it was too late.

  Almost half a minute passed as Jake kept swinging his sword through the Vertaerax blindly, killing the creatures by the handful. By now, a few of the spawns had started to turn their back on the other cadets and instead focused their attacks on Jake, who kept fighting off the beasts to clear a path for himself next to his friends.

  Even then, Jake kept mowing through the enemies until he finally reached the cadets, and that was when he shot a glance at the rest of his squad. In the short time he'd lost sight of them, the Vertaerax's numbers had barely diminished, while a simple glance at his squadmates instantly told Jake the cadets were at the precipice of being completely wiped out.

  On the floor lay unmoving over half the cadets, completely covered in blood?-?both the Vertaerax's and their own. Among their numbers stood Kirk and the brothers, Jenkins and Smith as well. A small prompt from his implant told Jake that all of them were still alive, albeit unconscious?-?information Ed had managed to obtain from the injured cadets' implants.

  In front of them stood the rest of the cadets, only looking slightly better than the ones who'd fallen behind them. Among them, Owens was currently kneeling on the ground, holding her mangled left arm with her other hand and coughing up mouthfuls of blood. In front of her, Ryan was fighting off over a dozen Spawns by himself along with Ismael Laurent, and they both looked ready to keel over at any time now. Behind them, King was holding her leg, her face twisted under the pain.

  For a moment there, Jake fought off the creatures with no real goal in mind. He swung his sword, punched, kicked, and even ripped some of them apart with no real objective or thought if only to get payback at the ones responsible for hurting his squad. He might have arrived too late to save them, but he'd gotten here in time to avenge them.

  A minute or two passed before Jake finally started to slow down his assault, with his worn down, exhausted body finally starting to show signs of fatigue. Only then, once the spawn's numbers had somewhat thinned did he realize that Ryan was still standing next to him, swinging his axe through the enemies as they stood in front of the rest of their squad. Not a single Spawn had gotten past the two cadets, and not a single one of the creatures had been able to resist their unrelenting strikes. A single glance at Ryan and Jake instantly knew he was in just as bad a state as he was. His entire body was covered in gruesome wounds, and one of his arms was hanging limply to his side. But just like Jake, he kept going.

  Moments later, Jake finally realized that only over 50 of the Spawns still stood in front of them. Next to him, Ryan had finally fallen flat on his face, unconscious and covered in blood, leaving Jake alone against the creatures.

  Jake shot a glance at the cadets that lay unconscious behind him, his mind naturally accepting the fact that this was the end for him. There was no way he'd make it out of this alive, even by some kind of miracle. But his resolve only hardened in the face of certain death, and he raised his sword one more time as he dashed toward the Spawns, letting out a roar of anger as he did. Or at least, he'd tried to roar, but only pain erupted from his throat as his mind went blank.

  When he came back to his senses, the only thing he could make out was the immense pain radiating across his entire body, his mind a confusing mix of fear and pain as he struggled to even think. He was still standing guard in front of his injured teammates, somehow still on his feet. For what felt like an eternity, he fought the need to lie down until something caught his attention in front of him. He could barely make out anything thanks to the blood that dripped in his eyes and the way the ground seemed to twist and dance around him as he struggled to stay upright. Still, Jake painfully raised his sword, and he groaned as his entire body seemed to rebel against his every move, but he pushed the pain aside and took a step toward his opponent, his sword falling on his enemy as his mind went completely dark for the second time.

  ---

  At every moment, First Lieutenant Ozkud Neilr used his detection skill to locate any potential enemies that would be too much for the cadets to handle. He wanted them to grow stronger, of course, but having them fight a Vertaerax Overlord or some of the other stronger individuals of the species would only lead to their untimely deaths, which would accomplish nothing, if not waste the weeks he'd spent training them.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  It was late into the night that the Officer felt a powerful presence located to the north of their camp, and he immediately left the camp to investigate. Granted, there shouldn't be anything that could pose a threat to him on this planet, but it was always better to be careful, so he approached the creature's location with extreme prudence and made sure to hide his energy signature.

  He made his way through the empty desert at amazing speed, his legs carrying him multiple meters with every step. He wasn't particularly gifted in dexterity as an awakened, but the Kreigen's physical attributes were not to be compared with any other race. Still, when Ozkud finally arrived at the presence's location, something felt wrong. The powerful presence had completely disappeared, and the officer couldn't help but grow worried at the sudden realization that the creature was hiding from him.

  He was still lost in thought when a gigantic insectoid fell from the sky, and he barely managed to get himself out of the way in time for him to not be crushed under the creature. Ozkud dashed to the side and turned back to face the creature, and he almost yelped in shock at the sight of the insectoid.

  [ Vertaerax Overlord?-?Towering at a staggering 20 meters in length and nearly 10 meters wide, this hulking monstrosity is covered in a nearly impenetrable exoskeleton similar to the Vertaerax Crawler's, although many times more resistant. Oh, and don't let their size fool you?-?they're deceptively fast for something so massive. ]

  In front of the officer stood a total of three Vertaerax overlords, and behind them, an entire legion of thousands of Vertaerax spawns were making their way toward him, with the overloads standing there, unmoving.

  "That's just great." He let out, with a weary groan.

  Ozkud didn't waste a single second before he activated one of his more powerful skills: [ Biotic blast ].

  By nature, the skill was far from extraordinary as it was something that was taught to Kreigen recruits during their last week of basic training, but Ozkud had trained the skill to peak mastery, resulting in a huge boost in attack power, on top of it being pretty cheap to use at only around 250 biotic energy units per blast.

  As soon as the legion of spawns arrived into striking range, Ozkud's fists started glowing in blue, translucent energy as he unleashed the skill almost 5 times in a row, without pause, creating massive shockwaves that destroyed everything in their wake. When the dust finally settled down after a moment, only a few hundred of the Spawn remained, and he was about to claim the lives of the rest when one of the overlords finally decided to make a move. The creature displayed shocking speed as it reached the officer in record time and one of its claws fell on Ozkud, who blocked the blow with one hand. Then, Ozkud countered with a strike of his own into the arm of the creature, and a sickening crunch was heard as the arm was crushed under the blow's impact.

  It took a few minutes, but in the end, the officer utterly destroyed the three creatures without spending an ounce of biotic energy, killing the three Overlords with the strength of his physical attributes alone. The Kreigen might not be the strongest biotic users, but their natural physical attributes were unparalleled.

  Suddenly, a thought surged in his mind as he remembered hundreds of spawns fleeing for their lives in the opposite direction.

  [ Yes, as you suspected, they are indeed headed toward the cadets. ]

  "SHIT!" Ozkud shouted as he dashed in the spawn's direction.

  There were more than three hundred spawns headed toward the camp, and the commanding officer knew there was no way the cadets would come out unscathed from such a fight. Thankfully, he was much faster than the creatures and would catch up in no time, or at least he would have, if not for yet another Vertaerax overlord's claws taking a swipe at him, sending him flying for over a few dozen meters.

  He didn't even manage to get up before the overlord was on him again, this time trying to bite through Ozkud's body. Thankfully, the Kreigen managed to get back up on his feet and stop the creature with a blow to the head. Although he did manage to stop the beast's momentum, he'd barely made a dent in the overlord's exoskeleton which immediately alerted him.

  He didn't get the time to stay confused for too long, however, as the creature opened up its mouth, from which a powerful ray of condensed biotic energy erupted right into the officer, who was blown away by the power of the attack.

  "What the hell? An awakened overlord, how is that possible?" He mumbled between two groans.

  The fight lasted for over half an hour, and not once did Ozkud gain the upper hand. It was only once the creature had run out of biotic energy that he finally managed to gain an advantage, and the fight was over soon after that. When the Vertaerax Overlord pounced on the officer with its mouth wide open, Officer Neilr let himself be swallowed whole by the creature.

  He could almost feel the brief relief and triumph from the creature before he activated his trademark skill, [ Biotic Blast ], inside the beast's mouth, detonating the creature from the inside. Usually, the officer would have been able to use one of his more powerful skills in order to pierce through the creature's exoskeleton. However, his biotic energy reserves were all but dried up from the previous fights, so he had needed to be a little more creative this time.

  Afterwards, the officer didn't waste a single second before activating his movement skill and making his way back toward the camp with all the speed he could muster. He'd ended up being stuck with the awakened Vertaerax for far longer than he'd expected, and he was scared that most of the cadets had already perished to the swarm of spawns.

  A few minutes later, he finally arrived at the scene, and what he saw made his heart skip a beat. The cadets had positioned themselves at the back of a cave, which had allowed them to fight the spawns in only one direction and not immediately get overrun by the sheer number of the Vertaerax. It was a good strategy. However, it had been far from enough.

  Next to the wall stood 8 unmoving cadets, and Ozkud was relieved to hear from his implant that they were all still alive and had simply fallen unconscious after exhausting their biotic energy reserves. Thankfully, it seemed that none of them had suffered too much of a backlash from having their cores depleted.

  The most worrying of the lot was definitely the two remaining cadets who were a bit farther from the group. On the ground lay cadet Ryan, unconscious and covered in blood amongst the corpses of spawns. His body was in a pitiful state, even more so than the others, but he had also only fallen unconscious after depleting his core.

  [ This one is going to need a healing stim right away, as well as some bandages. ]

  Ozkud nodded at his implant's assessment as he gave the cadet a healing stim before walking toward the remaining cadet. Jake Hawkins was currently standing on both of his feet, his eyes blank. He was covered from head to toe in gruesome wounds and an insane amount of blood that was without a doubt his own. His sword was held between his hands like he was still ready to chop down anything that came too close. His throat, most notably, was completely ripped open in the most disgusting way Ozkud had ever witnessed, which was something worth mentioning since he'd witnessed a lot of them.

  He stood between the other cadets and the sea of corpses, with not a single spawn left alive, and Ozkud could hear the cadet's ragged, wheezing breath.

  "By the creator…" Ozkud mumbled, as he finally reached Hawkins.

  He was about to grab hold of the cadet when a sword came crashing down at Ozkud's head. Fortunately, the cadet was no threat to Ozkud, especially in his state, and he caught the sword with one hand

  [ According to Cadet Hawkins' implant, it seems the cadet has already lost consciousness and is acting entirely on instinct. ]

  "I've never seen anything like this before." The Kreigen mumbled as he easily grabbed the still struggling Hawkins by the head and took out a small syringe from his spatial ring, which he immediately injected into the back of the cadet's neck.

  "This should do the trick." He added, and before long the cadet was hanging limply in Ozkud's arms.

  The officer put the cadet back on the ground before taking out a healing stim from his spatial ring and administering it to the cadet, before patching up the cadet's injuries with bandages he took out of his spatial ring. He walked over to Ryan and did the same, and before long, all of the ten cadets were bandaged and treated to the best of his ability. Afterwards, he finally started tending to his own wounds.

  The overlord awakened had proven to be quite the challenge, and Officer Neilr had sustained massive injuries during the fight. The good news, however, was that his regeneration attribute was so high he'd soon be back in peak form, even without a healing stim.

  Finally, he opened up the stove and started to cook the spawns for the cadets. He looked back to Hawkins, who was covered in bandages from head to toe, before a smile appeared on his lips.