"Watch your footing so you don't lose your balance," Graves warned Julius as they navigated the crumbling concrete of a dilapidated building.
The graduation mission had officially begun. The five of them had immediately grouped up to form a cohesive squad. The military allowed the cadets complete freedom to choose their own teammates, and Graves knew he couldn't have asked for a better lineup than Julius, Winter, Apollo, and Gamby. Their primary objective was simple yet daunting: navigate the dangerous, uneven landscape of the ruined training sector and reach a designated extraction zone. Success meant graduation; failure meant termination.
"Yeah, I know," Julius muttered back. His rifle butt was pressed firmly against his shoulder, his grip steady on the chassis, and his index finger rested safely outside the trigger guard while his left hand supported the barrel.
The squad moved in a tight tactical formation. Apollo spear-headed the advance, Winter flanked the left, and Gamby brought up the rear, keeping her weapon trained on their blind spots. Graves was placed directly in the center—a strategic placement Apollo insisted upon, even though it meant every line of fire was blocked by his larger teammates.
"Movement ahead. I see one coming," Apollo whispered, suddenly halting the line.
A moment later, the heavy, rhythmic thuds of a devil's footsteps vibrated through the ruined floorboards. Fortunately, it sounded like a lone wanderer.
The squad quickly melted behind a half-collapsed brick wall, holding their breath as they waited for the creature to close the distance. Normally, a long-range specialist like Winter would have split off to find high ground immediately, but Apollo had ordered them to stick close until they assessed the initial threat level. As their elected squad leader, they trusted his judgment.
When the devil finally breached the cross-streets, Graves felt his throat go dry. It was a massive, ten-foot-tall creature resembling a predatory lion, but its skull was crowned with twisted, protruding horns. Most unsettling of all were its eyes—six of them, split evenly across both sides of its face, twitching and shifting completely independently of one another.
"That thing obviously commands a massive field of vision," Julius whispered, his voice barely audible. "But according to the academy databases, this specific lion-variant suffers from incredibly poor hearing."
The squad nodded in unison. The breed was a common fixture in their survival textbooks.
"What's the play, leader?" Gamby asked, her back still pressed against the wall as she kept watch behind them.
Apollo fell into a brief, intense silence, his brow furrowing as he calculated their odds. "We circle around it. Use the terrain for stealth. Luckily, our camouflage uniforms should fairly us blend into this grey rubble well enough."
"Good point," Winter agreed softly. "Let's move."
Utilizing the crumbling walls as visual obstructions, the five of them successfully maneuvered past the beast's chaotic gaze, reaching a flanked position right behind its rear. Technically, they possessed enough collective firepower to launch a loud, frontal assault and obliterate the beast. However, the military heavily rewarded strategic execution over brute force—a fact reinforced by the five surveillance drones humming softly overhead, recording their every move for the evaluation board.
"Did you happen to read the chapter stating the devil's rear is its most vulnerable point, Julius?" Apollo asked, a mocking edge to his whisper.
"Of course I did," Julius shot back dryly.
"Let's just kill the damn thing already, our timer is ticking down," Gamby interrupted, her finger itching near her trigger.
"Yeah, I agree with her," Winter added, nodding.
"Alright, layout change," Apollo commanded. "Winter, I need you on overwatch. Keep your ears open and give us a bird's-eye view."
"Roger that," Winter responded. With a fluid, athletic grace that far surpassed anything a human from the old world could achieve, she skipped between the shattered boulders, leaping high into the structural ruins above.
"Graves," Apollo ordered, turning his gaze to the center of the formation. "I want you to step out and distract the devil. The moment it commits to you, Julius, Gamby, and I will hit its blind spot."
Graves nodded automatically, stepping away from the wall to execute the command. But internally, his mind was screaming.
Why do I always have to be the literal bait for these damn things?!
Because his Gene Lock remained entirely sealed, he didn't possess the supernatural speed or physical durability that his teammates took for granted. If he made a single misstep, he wouldn't just fail the exam—he would be torn to pieces.
But he couldn't exactly use his lack of superpowers as an excuse.
Stepping into the open street, Graves took a deep breath, channeled his raw outskirt survival instincts, and screamed at the top of his lungs. "Hey! You ugly piece of garbage! You look almost as handsome as my roommate Julius!"
The massive lion-devil snapped its six eyes forward, locking onto Graves instantly.
Back behind the wall, Julius's eye violently twitched. "I am legally going to break his legs after this mission," he fumed under his breath.
"No way, only I get to bully the little pumpkin," Gamby retorted with a smirk. "Besides, look at him. He's doing a great job."
Apollo nodded in silent affirmation, keeping his rifle trained on the target.
Graves's heart was hammering against his ribs so loudly he was terrified the devil might hear it. But having lured monsters across the lawless badlands for years, he knew exactly how to project an aura of complete, unbothered arrogance. The devil roared, raising a massive, clawed paw to swat him into the pavement. Graves anticipated the arc, throwing his body into a hard roll to the left just as the claws shattered the asphalt where he had been standing.
Scrambling back to his feet, Graves bolted down the alleyway. Enraged by the fragile human's defiance, the lion-devil ignored everything else and gave chase in pure malice.
"Do it now! Fire!" Graves yelled over his shoulder.
"Engage!" Apollo roared.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A synchronized volley of core-powered gunfire erupted from the ruins. The specialized rounds slammed directly into the devil's exposed rear weak spot, causing the beast to release a piercing, agonizing squeal. Yet, driven by pure hatred for the boy who had insulted it, the monster refused to turn around, blindly pursuing Graves and giving the rest of the squad a perfectly clean, unobstructed angle to keep unloading their magazines.