Chapter 369: Their Progress

"Michelle!" Kai's shout echoed on the battlefield.

"Leave it to me." Michelle, whose name was called, immediately rushed to the left of their group, tackling a few magical beasts that tried to attack them.

"Good. Kai and Evan will handle those on the right. Nicholas, take your position in the front. Eve and Eva will support him. Tommy, be ready to see an opening."

"Understood." All those who got called acknowledged the order that came from Isabelle and moved accordingly.

They were in the middle of the forest, facing around one hundred beasts simultaneously. And the one commanding them was none other than Isabelle.

Yes. Kai stepped down and let the others, such as Isabelle, Tommy, Michelle, Ayaka, and Tasha, be the squad leader.

During the training with Ria Ross, he gained the wisdom that he wanted to apply immediately. He wished to train their commanding ability. These five people offered themselves to be the leader after he stepped down.

Isabelle was the captain of the Eagle Group, so she obviously had confidence in her commanding ability. However, Tommy was their strategist. The big plan that their group used came from him, so it was obvious he would partake in this chance, especially taking the command of the Lion Group.

It would be a wonderful experience because he knew the strength of the Lion Group. And to think this particular group became even stronger, the feeling was as if he was controlling a group of a hundred to fight.

Michelle hadn't shown her strength yet because she believed it wasn't the time to make a huge move. Meanwhile, Tasha and Ayaka seemed to have a synergy with each other. If Kai fought them again like the previous mock battle, he might be beaten by them. If it were the past him, that is.

Kai showed a big improvement here. Because of his strengthened instinct, his movement became even more precise and sharper. He could take down ten beasts within five seconds. His previous record was more than ten seconds, so it was obviously a huge improvement. But of course, he had yet to show his main strength, his Sonic Sword.

Evan didn't want to lose and supported all of them by increasing their power to another level with his new magic while taking down many beasts with his two pistols. His accuracy went up a lot, and the beasts were at his mercy because of their body sizes that were mostly big.

This group kept advancing like crazy, easily surpassing their original expectation. Kai was forced to renew his original plan and timing.

The next day, Ayaka and Tasha were commanding the team. Because they had trained together for the past three months, they learned practically the same. That was why all of them could find the similarity between their strategies.

Still, Ayaka focused on the Lion Group and let them become the focal point on every strategy. Kai didn't blame her regarding this because she simply chose a stronger group to be the main plan. Even Isabelle acknowledged that.

However, they found that the timing became even faster because of her plans. As much as it looked underestimating the Eagle Group, she understood the importance of leading a group which gave her a passing mark from Kai.

Different from Ayaka's style, Tasha emphasized more about a team fight, incorporating the two groups into one despite their style differences.

It was a bit rough from Ayaka's style, but they still managed to take down their enemies just fine.

When Kai inquired about the reason for her style, she only talked about how she was going to leave them in a few months and waited for another year until they graduated. In the meantime, there was no doubt she would be in charge of a group, whether it was a big group or a smaller one.

With all those strangers, she needed to adapt and made sure of the safety of her group. Kai understood that as well since he had been leading many soldiers that he never knew.

Last but not least, Michelle's turn came up.

She commanded the two groups by the book. It was very conservative, considering she was more reliant on the ranged attacks. In other words, Tasha, Isabelle, Evan, and Sofia became the focal point of her tactic.

This was modern warfare where they had guns that allowed them to fight enemies from afar. However, her style would surely make it hard for her to fight a stronger opponent with an overwhelming offense.

Of course, Kai didn't ask her to change her style because there was one important aspect that this style gave her. Even though it was hard to win against a stronger opponent, she wouldn't lose against a weaker one.

If Kai or the other four led the group, they basically put up too much on their force. Once they crumbled, it would be hard to recover and they also needed a fast response to avoid a total loss.

Meanwhile, her conservative style made it easier to recover from such a blow and even created an opportunity to counterattack.

To lead thousands, if not tens of thousands of soldiers, you needed to lead a small group successfully. Ria taught him how he was actually lucky when he won the war. After all, he never had the experience to lead a bigger group and was immediately thrown into a huge war.

Ria showed him how much the commanders actually took his advice and order and incorporated them to make sure there was nothing wrong with his plan.

Kai learned a lot during that time and began fixing his mistakes. The precious experience on the battlefield allowed him to fix everything and made him more stable as a commanding officer.

So, when the others began their training, Kai gave some advice on what he had experienced. This led them to faster growth.

In the end, Kai didn't need to help them anymore near the end of their mission. It took them a week and two days to kill forty-five thousand beasts. And Kai didn't even order them. If it was him, he could do it within a week while it took them fifty percent longer.

They gathered in their camp for the last day briefing since they would return to the base tomorrow and headed straight to the ancient ruin.

Kai took the hot can and a biodegradable spoon from Ayaka, who seemed to be the one in charge of food today. There wasn't much time to prepare since they were going to barely finish this today, so Ayaka didn't prepare any food for them, just some canned food.

He sat down near the tents where they gathered.

"So…Today is the last day, right?" Michelle asked.

"Yes." Kai nodded. "Well, I am conflicted whether to end this as soon as possible and return to the base before dark or do it at our pace and rest here today."

"Well, the base is more preferred since it had comfy beds," Michelle said. All the girls nodded their heads as they all agreed while the boys only exchanged looks, shrugging their shoulders. The girl seemed to be more concerned about how easy it was to wash their body in the base than here.

Either way, Kai needed to come to a decision.

"Becoming a leader is harder than you can imagine. Even I can't say myself to be a good leader…After learning the true meaning. There are three most important things to be qualified as one. The eyes to see the entire situation, the planning mind that will allow the group to fight assured as they know the plan will work…And the ability to make a decisive decision. The reason I asked you guys to be the leaders was to discover these abilities.

"Michelle had the first and the third, but she is too conservative. I don't say it's bad, but you can be more aggressive to pressure your opponent instead of letting your opponents pressure your soldiers. After all, the soldiers will be pressured if they don't know how to attack as if you are scared.

"From what I know, Even General Ethan had the time where he made a decisive blow that crippled the enemies back in the war against the Rank S Spider. The group morale increased crazily at that time, and it could resurrect an army in a perfect time.

"Isabelle has the mind and the ability to make a decisive decision, but you don't have the eyes to see the entire situation even though you have that marvelous eyes. In my opinion, you were too focused on one thing. Unless someone asked for a response, you would probably miss that.

"As for Tommy, you have been the strategist of the Eagle Group, so I understand that you have the eyes and the mind, but you lack the last one. Your order often came too late, resulting in us getting surrounded. Isabelle was probably the one who ordered the group during that time, but there might be a chance where you needed to take the command yourself, so remember this.

"Last but not least, Ayaka and Tasha. You two have a lot of similarities, and yes, your flaw is the same as Isabelle, but specifically in learning about the group morale. Ayaka focused on one group while Tasha kept it together. I don't say it's bad, but it's just too much.

"You can have the group cooperate with each other by changing their roles repeatedly, allowing them to feel good from time to time to a role that suits them. Of course, in the decisive moment, you should send the best one because it's the most important thing to deal the decisive blow." Kai took this time to lecture them.

And they seemed to take it seriously as they contemplated their own mistakes.

Kai smiled and added. "Thus, the captain for today is…No one!"