I feel a sharp kick in my side. It feels familiar, I must’ve gotten a similar kick before. “Get up, Imbecile, it's your turn.” Ah, a lovely voice accompanies the kick, how nice.

  I open my eyes and the first thing I see is Violet standing over me. She is in the process of pulling her foot back to kick me again. I Blink onto my feet, stumbling a little bit as my body remembers how to move. “Alright, alright, I'm awake. Though, could you still kick me again?”

  “What the fuck you weirdo.” She says, but she does kick me in the shin before promptly collapsing against the FAUD. I take up my post on the top of a nearby building. It is super nice, giving me a vantage point over the entire stadium and entrances. Thankfully, the entire area has stayed quiet.

  Nothing happens as I stand watch. The sun slowly rises over the horizon, painting the sky a lovely yellow color. It reminds me of Lemon’s eyes.

  My eyes are far prettier than the sky. Don't you dare insult me so. She immediately corrects me. We have kept our dragons inside their orbs and attached to our chests. It is important, because the only way for them to give us aether at the moment is physical touch. Apparently once they hit a juvenile they can transmit smaller amounts to us without touch.

  I meant it as a compliment you know. Your eyes are plenty pretty of course. I quip back.

  Are they prettier than Violet’s?

  Uh. Uhm. Uh. Yes?

  You better let me out of this orb right now so that I can bite you nice and hard. She says, sounding quite angry. But It's hard to say, Lemon’s eyes are nice. But Violet’s are just so deep and wonderful. Lemon’s feel like they hold a lot of power, but Violet’s feel gentle, almost like they want me to fall in and never leave.

  I end her anger by promising a few pets when we get back to a safe place. Which seems to placate her for now at least.

  I rise from my perch and go to wake the others now that daylight is back. While we could fight at night, it is important for us to sleep every once in a while. We are still humans after all, no matter how superhuman we may become.

  Well, actually Violet and I are apparently part dragon or something now. So wait, does that mean we need less sleep? That would be cool if we could somehow siphon energy out of the air instead of sleeping. But that sounds kinda crazy. I wonder if the Elder would talk to us again. They seemed quite friendly, but I don't know if it is polite to ask such a powerful being for a bit of casual conversation.

  It takes a bit of effort to wake the others. Liv especially, she sleeps like a rock, even though she got first watch. I guess it would make sense if her mind is as tough as her body, given she is our tank and all. I couldn't imagine standing at the front and just staring the monsters in the face and taking their attacks. She is some special sort of brave.

  Stephen gathers us around the map. “Alright, we have nine hatcheries and the queen left. If we push hard, we should be able to clear out three of the hatcheries a day. It's going to be tough going though. We will also want to be at full rest when we finally take on the queen.”

  “That sounds like a lot of work. Can't we just have Moxie drop a nuke on them or something?” Liv asks.

  “Mana small.” Moxie says, shutting down the idea. It seems we are both heavily limited by our small mana capacities and regeneration. Which is a common case for mages early on. Something about growing slower at the start so we don't accidentally kill ourselves by channeling more energy than our body can adapt to.

  “Drat. I guess we will have to get our hands dirty then, huh?” Liv grumbles.

  I have a brilliant idea. “Maybe If I went in firsthand I could destabilize their ranks and cause a bit of confusion? That would help Violet and Stephen pick them off easier, as they wouldn't group up as much. Then Moxie can deal with whatever ones group up around Liv and vaporize them.”

  “That is a brilliant idea.” Stephen says, slapping me on the back. “Guess you didn't win all those strategy competitions for nothing, huh?”

  “Nah, it ain't anything special. I am just being aware of all our specialties. You, Violet and I are best at picking off lone stronger targets. While Moxie and Liv are our crowd control. But given that hounds are naturally more swarm-oriented, it just makes sense.”

  Strangely, Moxie walks over to me. Before I can think about what she is doing, she stands up on her tippy toes. Then she pats me on the side of the head – not quite able to reach the top. “Maka smart.” Is all she says while smiling.

  “Well then fellas, if we've got a plan, let's go smash some more monsters!” Liv says, breaking apart our meeting.

  We race across the rooftops towards the next hatchery. This is apparently the smallest type of hive, but it still covers a massive area. I can't imagine how large a grade five is, they must span a good portion of a planet. I rue the day when we actually have to take one of those on.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  We come upon the next hatchery and I get to work. I activate Stealth and drop right into the middle of the monsters. Which is downright terrifying. But I steel myself and get to work. It's amazing, they can’t even smell me with Stealth active.

  I quickly move on top of a rock outcropping and power up several fireballs. I launch them all around the hatchery, causing my Stealth to deactivate. But before any of the monsters can react, they are on fire.

  I laugh lightly.

  The others charge in, Violet makes mincemeat of the hounds as she darts in and out like the wind. In similar fashion, hounds fall in droves as Stephen’s rifle fires over and over again. Many of them cluster around Liv and she cuts them down, when they grow too many Moxie casts some sort of light column down upon them and they burn into a crisp.

  Of course, I am also on the field, I stick behind Violet and cover her flank. Which seems to be exposed quite often as she prioritizes speed and damage over safety. I should probably inform her about that. Though she might get mad and try to kill me if I do, it is worth it if it keeps her alive longer.

  I sink my blade into the last egg and the hatchery is finally cleared. It is absolutely disgusting, all of us are absolutely soaked in black blood and who knows what other substances. We clean up the remaining monsters and wait as the FAUD collects the remnants. Then, we start moving towards the next hatchery.

  On our way there we get a pleasant surprise as a monster manages to leap up and snatch Moxie right out of the air. She ends up dropping to the ground, but before any of us can head back to assist a large explosion rocks the surrounding area.

  When I reach Moxie, I find her sitting in a crater several meters in diameter, dozens of dead monsters around her. She is covered in a mixture of soot and black blood, her arm has a large claw mark on it from where the monster got her. She looks up and smiles at me. “Monsters go boom.”

  “Indeed they do.” I jump down to the ground and help her get back onto the roof. She explosively discharged all of her mana, so we take a few minutes to let her get some back and patch her arm up. I should remember to not make her angry, I wouldn't want to end up incinerated in a fiery explosion.

  We make good progress and reach the next hatchery with only a few minor injuries. I employ a similar strategy as last time and drop into the hatchery first under Stealth.

  But this time, Moxie gave me a few fun toys to test out. Apparently that explosive mana discharge managed to give her a few ideas. So naturally, she developed a new spell on the fly in the middle of a hive. I take a bunch from her and they feel like balls of condensed mana in my hands, and they are very warm. But I quickly move around the hatchery and place them on all the eggs.

  I jump back on the roof just as my aether runs out. “Light em up Moxie.”

  The ground shakes as she releases a wave of light into the hatchery. The balls of condensed mana were rigged to explode with a fancy containment that she can trigger from a distance. I kinda feel inadequate, all I can do is throw a few fireballs. I also barely have any mana, I can't imagine how much Moxie trained to have so much. She must've sunk every single one of her free points into mana capacity.

  Almost all of the eggs are destroyed, which makes the monsters very angry of course. They immediately notice our presence and the entire group charges us at once.

  “Uh, guys. Maybe we shouldn't have angered them all at once.” Liv says, sounding a bit apprehensive.

  “Nonsense,” Violet says, her eyes blazing with a blue flame, “we can deal with them much faster if they come to us willingly.” Then, without waiting for us, she jumps down into the foray, she must activate a skill as she moves at a truly absurd speed. Its fucking awesome to watch.

  I quickly jump down to join her, and immediately get surrounded by half a dozen hounds. They die quickly as I Blink between them, driving my dagger right into their core each time.

  I hear a shout as Violet gets swarmed by two dozen monsters at once. She seemingly disappears into the group as if she was never there. I rush over, Blinking several times to get a good vantage point. But then I spot her calmly in the middle of the cluster, stabbing away and dodging every single attack with apparent ease.

  I jump down to help her anyways, lobbing a bunch of large fireballs that thin the crowd massively. My body feels very alive, almost like I have never truly lived until this moment. It must have something to do with the countless levels that are flowing into me, making me stronger with every monster we slay.

  When we finish clearing the hatchery I look at Violet. She gives me that cute scowl of hers. “Idiot, I don't need your help, stop stealing all my kills.”

  “Hmm, from where I was standing you do seem to nearly die a lot. But if you want to die, then ill leave you to your monsters.”

  She doesn't respond, instead she grabs an energy bar, pops her helmet open and eats it with vigor. She is a strange person indeed, though perhaps one day I will figure her out.

  We depart the hatchery and arrive at the next one, which wasn't very far away. It also seems that we drew quite a few of the monsters away from its defense. So I don't even need to deploy the explosives as we march right in the front door.

  They fall in the hundreds as we mercilessly destroy the hatchery, not letting a single trace of the monsters remain. It is satisfying, to finally be killing monsters after training for so long.

  I wonder if this euphoria is what all new cadets feel. It is truly amazing, and I can see the others are enjoying it just as much as I am. Everyone seems to be in really high spirits.

  Unfortunately, the sun starts to set, so we make camp once more. We make an impromptu campfire using some wood from a nearby building and sit around it, enjoying the very weirdly tasting rations.

  I end up winning against Liv for the first watch, so I take up a spot on a nearby building as the others descend into sleep.

  If we keep this up, we might just eradicate the monsters some day.

  [Scout has leveled up! Lvl 60 -> Lvl 67]

  [Mage has leveled up! Lvl 24 -> Lvl 42]

  [Average Level is now 54]

  [Gained 25 Unallocated Stat Points]

  [Lemon has leveled up! Lvl 15 -> Lvl 24]

  [Stealth has leveled up! Lvl 6 -> Lvl 8]

  [Blink has leveled up! Lvl 14 -> Lvl 15]

  [Magic Fundamentals has leveled up! Lvl 5 -> Lvl 8]

  Next Chapter: Don't Forget The Teeth

  If you are enjoying the book, I would really appreciate it if you dropped a follow or comment!

  Checkout the official

  - FROM RUNNING THE BLOCK TO OWNING IT -

  - [SURVIVE] - [BUILD] - [CONQUER] -