Over the next hour, everyone started doing their work.
The officer was watching everyone from the hill, ensuring no one was slacking off.
Just ten minutes into the hour, the Rookies began to engage the first beast.
They were all attacking a single beast, which was only at the Early General Stage.
Of course, since there were only four Rookies that weren't doomed to mine stone the entire time, the fight was still relatively even.
The officer watched the Rookies attack the lone Early General Stage beast with disdain.
Four warriors were evenly fighting with a beast on their level.
That was way below the officer's standards.
He wanted powerful soldiers, not average ones.
But for now, he let them gain some experience.
After around two minutes, the beast died, and the Rookies rested.
"Get moving! Don't make me come down there!" the officer shouted loudly from atop the hill.
The Rookies looked with shock at the officer.
They had just killed a beast! Weren't they allowed even a second of pause?!
In the end, they went to the next beast with gritted teeth.
Five minutes later, they killed the second beast, and the officer shouted at them to continue going.
Over the next 30 minutes, the Rookies killed two more beasts.
While they were walking to the next one, the officer snorted.
"These idiots," he said just loud enough for the three Numbers to hear him. "I don't know if they are just not paying attention or if they can't see what's in front of them."
"Let one of them die," the officer ordered the three people standing behind him. "They have to learn."
"Understood," One said as he charged forward.
Zero and Two followed closely behind.
The Rookies were currently charging at a huge salamander. It was over three meters high and over ten meters long. It was redish-orange, and it simply stood motionless at one spot.
The Rookies closed in and got into formation.
Then, they attacked the same way they had attacked the other beasts.
Two of them charged at it from the front, wanting to get its attention.
However, the salamander didn't move.
When they saw that it didn't move, they attacked it with their weapons.
CRK! CLINK!
The heavier weapon managed to crack some of its scales, but the lighter weapon bounced off.
The Rookies immediately halted, their eyes wide with shock.
That wasn't an Early General Stage beast!
The salamander noticed that it had been attacked, and its eyes focused on the two warriors right in front of it.
BANG!
One of its feet threw one of the soldiers into the distance with a slap, breaking several of his bones.
Luckily, the warrior managed to block the attack, which saved his life.
The other tried to run away, but the salamander opened its mouth and released a violent breath of fire, which engulfed the warrior.
The warrior screamed hysterically in pain and rolled down the slope, trying to get rid of the fire.
Some seconds later, he managed to get rid of the fire, but all his belongings except for his weapon had been burned away.
His body was covered in severe burns, but most of them healed in the blink of an eye.
The Numbers noticed this.
'He has a warrior's body,' they thought simultaneously.
The warrior's body was the only reason why that warrior had even survived. He had used up all his Mana while he had been burning to a crisp to heal himself.
The other two Rookies had long since fled, leaving the first two alone.
The Rookie that had been thrown into the distance quickly fled.
The salamander looked at all the humans near it and eventually focused on the warrior that had survived its fire.
This had been the one that broke its scales.
The warrior fled towards the hill, and he saw the Numbers charge toward him.
Hope appeared in his eyes. "HELP!" he shouted loudly.
At that moment, One extended his arm to the side, stopping the other two.
Horror and shock appeared in the warrior's eyes.
"Sorry, only following orders," One said with a voice bereft of regret or guilt.
Before the warrior could understand what One meant, he heard a loud explosion come from behind him.
CRSH!
The salamander opened his mouth and bit off the warrior's upper body, chewing on it for a bit before swallowing.
The other Rookies looked with horror at the spectacle.
One of their comrades had died!
They all looked at the three Numbers with anger and hatred in their heart.
They could have saved him!
Monsters!
Murderers!
Traitors!
The Numbers waited for a bit before they scattered.
On the way here, they had talked about their tactic, and they had already come up with a plan.
The salamander ate the legs and looked at the three warriors approaching it.
It hadn't cared much about the earlier warriors, but these three felt dangerous.
Good!
Many beasts had an inherent drive for battle, and the salamander's instincts told it that it would become more powerful if it won.
One charged in with incredible speeds, and the salamander focused on him.
BANG!
The salamander charged forward and tried to bite One.
One immediately jumped back. While fighting the spider, he had been confident in evading its attacks while staying at melee range, but this salamander was way more dangerous. Because of that, One kept his distance from the salamander at over ten meters. This would give him enough time to react to its attacks.
The salamander barely missed, and it jumped towards its prey again.
The salamander was way faster than One, but One perfectly outmaneuvered it. He was only moving when the salamander had already made its move, which gave him just enough time to get out of range.
Eventually, the salamander realized that this approach didn't work, and it released a searing breath of fire.
One was engulfed by the blazing fire, hiding him from the salamander's eyes.
The officer on the hill only smirked.
Right now, the officer saw One crouched behind a gigantic shield, which had been summoned from his Space Ring.
'Quite clever,' the officer thought.
The salamander noted that its fire was still being dispersed by something several seconds later, which made it think that its prey was still alive.
The salamander intensified its fire as it tried to burn its victim into nothingness.
Sadly, it couldn't see the gigantic shield beneath its stream of fire.
Suddenly, the salamander saw One charge into the distance.
A second later, the thing that had stopped the salamander's fire began to slowly vanish.
The shield could only resist so much fire before melting.
Suddenly, the salamander noticed a blue light come from the edge of its vision, and it focused on the light.
A deep-blue, icy spear was rapidly moving closer to the salamander's pupil!
Out of reflex, the salamander immediately jumped to its left to evade the spear.
"RAAAAAH!"
The salamander heard a rumbling, deep shout come from the place where it was currently jumping towards.
Its vision focused on its goal, and it saw a man with a colossal sword shouting in what appeared to be rage.
All the muscles on the man's body seemingly blew up as his entire body was pushing power into his sword.
And then, when the salamander's body reached the man, Zero's gigantic sword smashed forward.
BOOOOM!
A fiery explosion appeared behind Zero, his entire body pushing forward with everything he had.
"RAAAH!"
The salamander's body was still in the air, and its side was turned to Zero.
Zero's sword hit the side of the salamander's body.
CRACK!
The heavy and gigantic sword punched through the scales and cut through the salamander's body until it hit the salamander's spine.
CRK!
The spine cracked under the power of the sword, but it didn't break.
And then.
BOOOOOOM!
A violent explosion of fire came out of the sword, which was buried in the salamander's body.
CRACK!
The spine cracked apart, and the force of the explosion cleaved the salamander in two!
The two halves of the beast passed beside Zero as his sword exploded on the ground.
Silence.
One and Two looked with shock at Zero.
Zero had told them that he could kill it if he got an opportunity, but they hadn't expected that!
The sheer brutality and power behind this attack were insane!
That guy had cleaved a Middle General Stage beast into two halves!
The officer's eyes also widened when he saw Zero's power.
All the soldiers had long since stopped working to watch the fight, and they were just as shocked.
Zero slowly stood up and walked to One.
He didn't say a word.
One only looked at Zero, his expression indiscernible behind his mask.
'The shout should have masked my absence of exhaustion,' Shang thought as he stood in front of One.
'If there are traitors in this camp, they will definitely take note of me. With my proclaimed greed for money, they are more likely to pay me off instead of getting rid of me.'
'They can't ignore someone like me if they want their plan to work.'
Yes, Zero was Shang.
Over the last couple of months, Shang's body had undergone an insane growth spurt, making him reach about 185 centimeters.
His hair had its growth accelerated by Magic, and the muscles of his body had increased in volume due to some medicine he had taken over the last couple of months.
The Dean had given Sword a great number of Peak General Stage ore to upgrade it and to allow it to change its shape.
In order to make Sword this massive, the Dean had spent over 50 units of ore!
Sure enough, no one would be able to link the old Shang to Zero.
They were completely different.
