When Jake finally woke up, panic shook his mind as he realized he couldn’t even move a finger. Struggle as he might, his entire body was left paralyzed and even his mind felt sluggish and confused. He was in such pain he had a hard time thinking straight until a familiar voice echoed inside his mind after a few seconds.

  [ WILL YOU STOP TRYING TO MOVE?]

  Ed? What’s happening to me?

  [ I simply restricted your movements because I didn’t want you storming outside the shelter on a whim. You’re badly injured, which means you cannot move or your wounds will reopen. Understood?]

  Jake tried to look down as his entire body flared up in intense pain, and he slowly started to remember what had happened to him before blacking out.

  [ They’re all doing much better right now most of them have almost fully recovered, although your friend Ryan is in a similar state as you. He also just woke up.]

  What? How? They were almost dead before I blacked out.

  [Well, yeah, how should I say this? Kiddo, you’ve been asleep for over 30 hours. Officer Neilr gave every single one of you a healing stim, although you’re still far from being out of the woods.]

  Jake’s heart sank at Ed’s sudden revelation, but he still felt relieved at the news that everybody had made it through. He stayed silent for a few minutes before Ed finally spoke up again.

  [Your body should have recovered enough for you to endure some light movement by now. You were extremely lucky once again to not suffer any major injuries except for your throat?—?which should be able to handle speaking if you keep your voice low. Understood?]

  Yes. Thank you, Ed.

  And then, Jake suddenly regained the use of his entire body as he slightly tilted his neck to look all around him. He was currently inside his shelter, lying inside a sleeping bag. He was quite shocked to find himself wearing nothing more than underwear, although not a single inch of skin could be seen on his body as it was bandaged from head to toe.

  Jake painfully extracted himself from his sleeping bag, making sure to avoid any sudden movement that could reopen his wounds. Next to him, his sword and sniper were sitting on the ground, still covered in a thick crust of Vertaerax blood. He was about to head outside when he spotted a small familiar ring next to his sword, and he quickly put it on before activating it with a wisp of his energy.

  Like both of his weapons, the armour was so dirty Jake was almost tempted to put it back in its ring form for a few seconds, although something else caught Jake’s attention first. The protective gear was so damaged it could barely be called armour anymore, and the entire torso had lost its carbon-mesh plating. While these were the most basic equipment the alliance had to offer, Jake still couldn’t believe he’d gone through the whole thing in less than two weeks.

  “I guess I’m going to have to find some clothes soon?”

  [ Clothes can wait, kiddo. Look at this first.]

  Name: Jake Hawkins

  Rank: Cadet

  Energy Core: 85/85

  Recovery Rate: 0.425

  Strength: 16

  Dexterity: 18

  Constitution: 15

  Recovery: 15

  Perception: 19

  Cognition: 14

  [Basic Reinforcement | Lvl. 12 | All attributes +12, Core +60]

  [Basic Telekinesis | Lvl. 1]

  [Basic Biotic Reinforcement | Lvl. 4]

  Jake was ecstatic to see that he had managed to gain yet another level in his spec, and he’d also raised his [ Basic Biotic Reinforcement ] skill during the fight with the spawns.

  He closed off the prompt after quickly looking over it for a few seconds. While the new improvements in attributes he’d made during the time he’d been asleep were good news, there was only one thing on his mind right now, and that was food.

  Jake stepped outside the shelter, careful not to make any sudden movements. It wasn’t hard, since his body was so painful that even moving in slow motion felt excruciating. As soon as he made it out, every cadet in the camp stopped what they were doing before converging to his location.

  He’d barely taken a few steps toward the others when Ryan and Owens both suddenly appeared in front of him, ecstatic.

  “YOU’RE ALIVE! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT” Owens shouted at him as she tried to pull Jake into a violent hug, with Ryan grabbing hold of her just in time for Jake’s battered body to avoid being utterly crushed under the girl’s embrace.

  “Hold on, there. He almost died, remember?” Ryan said as he gestured at Jake.

  Like Jake, Ryan’s body was completely littered with wounds and bandages, although he looked in far better shape than Jake felt, but that might have also been the fact the giant always looked in better shape than Jake. He’d taken on a lot of weight ever since he’d arrived at the academy, but he was still on the slender side compared to the other cadets, especially one as big as Ryan.

  “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better, you had us scared there for a moment.” Owens rectified, looking slightly embarrassed.

  “I knew you’d make it out in one piece,” Ryan added, waving a hand at Owens like to refute her statement.

  “Thank you guys for worrying, but I’ll be fine. ” Jake answered in a low, ragged voice before Owens and Ryan’s face suddenly darkened.

  The rest of the cadets soon arrived next to Jake, and they spent a few minutes talking and exchanging as a group. For Jake, it was one of the very first times he held a conversation with most of the cadets, although he was more than happy to finally break the ice with them. Even King, who had notoriously been avoiding Jake for weeks now seemed glad to see him, and her entire attitude toward Jake had made a noticeable shift. The group was still talking amongst themselves when something occurred to Jake.

  “Do we know when we’re getting back on the road exactly?” Jake asked.

  “About that…” Ryan started, but he was interrupted by Ed’s voice flaring up to life inside his mind.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  [ A lot has happened in the week you were in a coma, but I’ll give you a quick rundown of the situation. ]

  In the end, Ed spent the next five minutes giving Jake a small rundown of everything that had happened during the last week.

  Not much had happened while Jake had been asleep since everyone was still recovering from the earlier fight. The cadets had all stayed at the camp while Officer Neilr had gone ahead to scout, disappearing for an entire day.

  Once the First Lieutenant came back, however, the cadets had learned that the Vertaerax had decided to all leave their nest, amassing into a giant horde that was currently headed toward the settlement. With their numbers appearing to be several times larger than even their wildest estimates, Officer Neilr had instantly alerted the other officers, who had already started undergoing the necessary steps to withstand the swarm.

  As for Team B, they needed to get back to the settlement as soon as possible if they didn’t want to face the entire nest all by themselves.

  The cadets were still discussing last week's events when the officer appeared. As promised, the officer was in a pitiful state, with his body covered in various wounds from head to toe. The most worrying looked to be the bone currently sticking out of his thigh, although if it hurt, the commanding officer certainly wasn’t making any big deal out of it as he walked with his usual grace and strength.

  “Cadets, gather around! Hawkins, glad to see you back on your on your feet!” Officer Neilr barked at the cadets.

  The officer waited for a few seconds as everyone turned around to face him before he hesitantly spoke up.

  “Things are not looking good, cadets. As it turns out, the Vertaerax are far too numerous for us to deal with alone, and they are currently headed toward the mining settlement. The current plan is for us to make our way back to the others and wait for the Vertaerax to come to us.”

  “Yes, sir!” The cadets answered, except for Jake who still couldn’t speak much higher than a whisper.

  It only took a little under a minute for the cadets to pack up, before they all got back on the road again, this time in the opposite direction.

  Even then, their march was kept at a crawl as Jake could barely tolerate anything more than a rapid walk, the pain from his entire body flaring up every time he went too fast. Moreover, he had insisted on still carrying his sword and sniper by himself, much to Ed’s dismay.

  For most of the road, they only met a few Crawlers as they made their way back to the settlement, crossing back the mountains of corpses they’d slaughtered in their path. Of course, Jake and Ryan both stood back any time a Vertaerax showed up, which turned out to be far harder than actually fighting the things for the both of them. It had only been a week since they last fought, but Jake’s body was shaking at the thought of seeing for himself how much of an effect his recent spec increase would have against the Spawns. The last time he’d fought them, he was almost as fast as they were, sword aside, and he knew he’d only need a few units in dexterity to close the gap.

  As always, Officer Neilr spent the major part of the day disappearing every once in a while, this time in order to thin the Vertaerax’s numbers before they reached the settlement. The creatures had apparently condensed into a horde-like swarm a few hundred kilometers behind them, so they would need to be ready for a fight as soon as they reached the others.

  According to Ed, they were only over a hundred kilometres away from the settlement if they made for a straight line. However, thanks to Jake and Ryan slowing the group’s pace to a crawl, there was simply no way they’d reach the settlement before tomorrow.

  “They’re going to catch up if we don’t pick up the pace.” Officer Neilr said as he suddenly appeared next to the cadets. “Ryan, Hawkins, focus on going as fast as you can. Everyone else is in charge of mowing through anything in the way. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir!” The cadets echoed, with Jake and Ryan’s pace picking up to a slow jog. Jake’s entire body was riddled with pain as every stride felt like torture, and he could tell from Ryan’s expression he wasn’t the only one, but they still kept going. Thankfully, the squad didn’t run into any Vertaerax except for the unusual Crawler on their way back, with the bulk of their forces far behind them. For now.

  Far behind the cadets, First Lieutenant Ozkud Neilr was levitating a few meters above the ground. The horizon was filled with legions upon legions of Vertaerax, the bulk of their forces mostly consisting of Crawlers and Spawns.

  These insectoids were far from threatening by themselves, as even the weak cadets could handle a whole lot of them without much of a problem. The issue, however, was the sheer number of the horde.

  “How the hell does a Vertaerax nest grow to this extent?” Officer Neilr almost shouted. “I’ve never even heard of something like that.”

  [ There is a very high probability that the nest’s growth may be due to outside interference, as could be suggested by the awakened overlord we encountered before ]

  “You’re right, something doesn’t feel right” Ozkud mumbled to himself.

  The Kreigen closed his eyes for a second, focusing on his perception power and making sure the cadets wouldn’t run into any unexpected trouble. For all his cold exterior was worth, he had grown to like this group of cadets. Sure, some were a little harder to like than others, but most of Team B had been handpicked by the Kreigen himself, and contrarily to what the cadets had assumed, he hadn’t chosen them because they were the strongest of the promotion. No, talent meant nothing on the road to power. The only thing that mattered was the unquenchable thirst to push through and survive, or as some would call it?—?the spirit.

  Ozkud opened his eyes back again after a while, sensing that the Vertaerax horde was closing in on him. He slowly made himself levitate back down to the ground, where he started accumulating biotic energy in his hands.

  The power kept growing in the palm of his hands as he directed every ounce of energy he had into one of his strongest skills, one he’d only learnt a decade or so ago. He lifted both of his arms in front of him, where swirling lines of pure biotic energy started accumulating into a ball that kept growing in size. For more than a minute, the officer kept feeding his biotic energy into the technique until the swirling blue ball of biotic energy reached the size of his torso. Ozkud could barely contain the amount of power that was currently held at his fingertip, but he still finally managed to throw the ball forward with a strenuous roar.

  The ball started moving forward slowly, but rapidly started to pick up pace as the speed of the ball grew exponentially. It flew across the landscape for what felt like a few seconds until it reached the horde, where the ball detonated.

  He rarely used this technique, since it took way too much time to even throw the thing, on top of it being extremely hard to control. However, the large explosion it engendered remained the best and easiest way for him to take care of a lot of enemies at once.

  The cadets were still making their way toward the settlement when a small earthquake shook the ground under their feet.

  “That’s odd,” Jake said, thoughtfully.

  “It’s nothing, let’s keep going,” Kirk answered from the left.

  The cadets had been running uninterrupted for almost 20 hours now, and everyone was growing tired. Jake and Ryan, especially, were very close to exhaustion since their body had yet to recover and their wounds had all but reopened by now. The brisk jog they’d started with had rapidly been reduced to a slow crawl as the pain and blood loss from their injuries seemed to sap away their strength.

  “Only 15 kilometers left,” Jenkins shouted from the front of their group.

  They hadn’t encountered any Vertaerax in over five hours by now, but none of the cadets were stupid enough to let down their guard even then. In times like these, not being careful was an easy way to get killed.

  As a result, when a fast-moving, unrecognizable figure approached their location, the cadets all immediately stopped in their tracks. Jake drew his sword out of its sheath and saw the others do the same with their o wn weapons, preparing themselves for a fight.

  It only took a glance, however, for them to finally realize what stood in front of them was not a Vertaerax, but First Lieutenant Gwyra.

  “I’m quite shocked that all of you have made it back in one piece. I don’t feel the First Lieutenant Neilr anywhere?” She said, calmly.

  “He’s been thinning out the horde as we ran, Officer,” Owens answered, promptly.

  “Kreigens.” She mumbled, shaking her head.

  “Alright, let’s get you lot back to the settlement. I’ve arranged a space for you to set up your shelters, and I’ll have someone make some preparations for some showers and a warm meal. Well done, soldiers.” She said, the hint of a smile standing on her lips.

  “Yes, ma'am!” They echoed back.