The Recon Team Strikes

"Battle formation, now! Don't slack or hold back."

Right after Lawrence gave the command, the shadow 'cloaks' burst apart to reveal the ever-familiar shadow beasts. About seven of them had surrounded the group and the weakest was a peak-rank first-stage Guardian shadow beast. About two of them were mid-rank second-stage shadow beasts and one was a peak-rank second-stage shadow beast. That left the remaining four equally split between the early rank of the second-stage and the peak rank of the first-stage of the Guardian realm.

This was by far the strongest line-up this team of three were facing. Not only were they outnumbered 2-to-1 with another shadow beast on standby, but even in terms of strength, the team was lacking. Lawrence might be able to take on the peak-rank second-stage Guardian shadow beast by wielding his artefacts, but he couldn't do so while handling a mid-rank second-stage shadow beast. His teammates were also in a similar situation.

The only way for them to win was to take out the weaker shadow bests with speed and efficiency but with nothing to distract the peak rank and mid-rank second-stage shadow beasts, this was impossible.

'Is this it?' Lawrence grimaced as he gripped his sword tightly.

"Shit!"

"I don't want to die here."

The team were surrounded by the seven shadow beasts, looking as if they were experiencing the last moments of their lives.

"Can't we do anything to help them?" One of the girls on Wendel's team couldn't help but say.

Although they were all competitors, in this cavern, all students could be said to be in a similar position or on the same side, facing the shadow beasts who were their natural opponents as of this moment. Having to see a member of your company die before you in the hands of the opposite side, had a strange effect on these students. They could somewhat tolerate it if it were a magical trap but not a monster assault like this.

Apart from that, they might not show it, but most of the students on Wendel's team were quite smart. They could all see that this pack of shadow beasts were most likely not the only ones in this cavern. If that were the case, then the greater the number of students present, the higher their odds of getting to the altar at the centre and retrieving whatever treasure was on it. If they sat and watch as every one of their fellow students died one by one, unless they retreated, then it would be a wild conclusion to believe that they could succeed.

"They are done for." Wendel muttered in response.

Even if Lawrence's team wanted to fight back, they would not be able to hold out against the shadow beasts. Also, there was a very high chance that there were more shadow beasts within the cavern. If the battle got too noisy, the other shadow beasts might be alerted and join in.

So, even though some of his teammates were unwilling to see their fellow students get killed, Wendel knew that they could offer no sort of aid.

Asher thought the same thing too, and unlike the other students, he wasn't averse to seeing members of his 'party' die.

Just as the shadow beasts were about to lunge at Lawrence's team, a blazing object shot out from the exit they had left. Right behind it was a figure in a black cloak who yelled right away.

"Head down, on your knees right now!"

Lawrence was confused but he didn't hesitate to follow the instructions of the speaker for two main reasons. The first was that he was currently in a situation where death was a done deal requiring just a few seconds of time to be official. As for the second one, it was because of the strength of the speaker which was projected through their voice.

'Peak third-stage Guardian mage.' Lawrence thought as he hurriedly took to his knees and bent his head to face the floor.

His two teammates' reactions weren't slow either as they did the same thing.

The projectile that left before the silhouette expanded into a crescent flame 'blade' seven metres wide as it arrived at the closest shadow beast, one of the early rank second-stage shadow beasts. The shadow beast failed to react in time and was sliced through by the flame blade, setting on fire right after as its life came to a premature end just after awakening.

However, the crescent flame blade didn't extinguish. On the contrary, it proceeded with only a slight dip in its force as it went on to take down five more shadow beasts. In the end, only the peak rank second-stage shadow beast was left standing but with serious injuries.

The only reason it had managed to survive was that the other six shadow beasts had managed to diminish the power of the crescent flame blade to the point where it could just survive the attack by a hair's breadth. Even so, the peak rank second-stage shadow beast was now so weak that even a peak rank first-stage Guardian mage could take it down, much less Lawrence and his teammates.

"Hmph." The figure snorted right after he reached Lawrence and his teammates.

It might seem as if he only made a sound, but hidden within that sound was a mental technique that packed the punch of a second-stage Guardian spell.

The surviving shadow beast didn't even have the chance to make a sound before it collapsed with a confused expression.

"Are you guys still going to sit down even at this moment? Or have you forgotten our task?" The figure said. Hearing the voice once again, it was easily noticed that the speaker was a male.

For a second, the students wondered who he was as well as who he was talking to, but before they could even react, a few figures burst out from the tunnels behind them. The teams currently present, apart from Lawrence's, were Wendel's, Asher's and the group of survivors from earlier. From the tunnels behind these teams, figures burst out and dashed towards the cloaked man who stood beside Lawrence's team.

'So they've finally made their moves huh.' Asher narrowed his eyes.

Unlike the students who seemed confused, Asher knew who exactly these men were. They were the recon team sent to monitor the students who entered the cavern.

Even though the academy's officials led by Zero acted ignorant of the circumstances below, one could say that they knew all that was happening thanks to this recon group. The team had only one job which was to protect the students, however, the situations where they could do so were limited. For example, when the cave's entrance was unsealed, they didn't move to protect any of the students from the aftermath. Then there was also the incident with the magic traps along the way.

However, an assault by these shadow beasts, which were monsters not recorded in the kingdom's official monster encyclopaedia, fell directly under the jurisdiction of the recon team. They didn't make a move in the tunnels because they wanted the students to gain battle experience.

Unless the situation was dire enough that the students were at risk of a complete wipe-out, they wouldn't interfere. However, neither Asher's group, Wendel's squad nor the last team had reached such an extent so the recon members never showed themselves. If it weren't for Lawrence's team getting into deep trouble, they wouldn't have even appeared.

'No, they would have regardless.' Asher narrowed his eyes.

Anyone could see that the dismembered hand must be special for it to have been placed right on top of the altar at the centre of the cavern. Although the academy wasn't supposed to take a share of the students' profits in this test period, there was no way they would ignore something like this. The demon stones could be ignored because they were low levelled and also the recon team could hunt down shadow beasts with ease and retrieve them, but not this one-of-a-kind body part.

There was definitely a secret to this place and the best answer as well as the most precious item here would no doubt be the hand.

'But I can't let them get to it first.' Asher frowned.

The strange white dot he had seen using Life Perception could not be seen with the regular eye, but that didn't mean that Asher had an advantage. Once the recon members got close, who was to say that they wouldn't be able to sense it? If that were to happen, Asher could kiss that item goodbye as he would never get his hands on it.

'No. That can't happen.'

"You guys wait here." Asher said before dashing out of the tunnel.

No one in his team was able to respond to his words and by the time they could, Asher was already gone.

'No matter what, I have to get IT.'