Movement

'I think that this might very well be the purpose of this assignment.'

Regis looked at the results of the latest scan. His gloves that had been malfunctioning till a few moments ago were back to their peak condition. The power of his last punch was the proof of that.

Due to the sudden pause, the goat was back on all four once again. Instead of leaping mindlessly at Regis like all the previous times, the goat scratched the ground with its front hoof for a second before charging towards Regis.

Regis knew that he had to be extra careful this time around. Unlike the previous times, the goat was dashing towards him…. from the ground. This change meant that the goat had greater maneuverability than when it was in mid-air. Also, the goat reaching barely above his knees made it so that Regis would have to maintain a lower stance if he wanted his fists to connect.

Regis side stepped the synthetic beast and side stepped once again before sweeping his feet on the ground. The goat was able to change its direction on the first side step, but its legs were swept from under it before it could turn once again.

Once the goat fell down, Regis immediately moved forward and pressed his knee on its chest. He used his weight to prevent it from standing up, gripped one of its horns with one hand and threw a series of punches with the other.

In terms of stats, the goat had enough strength to lift itself up even with Regis pinning it down, but it was unable to produce the necessary force due to lack of support from its feet. Regis had chosen the synthetic beast due to its low defence and with him hitting it at unprotected part repeatedly, the synthetic beast immediately reached the threshold of damage and one of it's horns detached from its head and dropped on the ground.

Regis immediately stopped and stood up. He picked up the horn and looked back at the synthetic beast. The goat rose to its feet, looked around and walked away as if nothing had happened. Regis looked at the departing Olvet valley goat with a strange expression on his face.

This fight felt kinda….very weird…..

Looking away from the synthetic beast, Regis ran a scan on his gear once again. When the result of the scan was shown on his screen, he got a clearer picture of the purpose of the ongoing assignment.

Stats were never the deciding factor in a fight. The difference in stats could also be affected by the equipment that either side wore. One needed time to adjust to the difference in stats when wearing the equipment. But equipment was susceptible to damage, which could be disastrous if one did not adjust to the change, especially in the conditions which resulted in damage in equipment.

With the durability of equipment, the only cases that could result in damage were either a very serious fight or bearing the burnt of a powerful attack beyond its capacity.

And, both these conditions meant that the wearer should adapt to the change instantly or he would only end up dying. This assignment was most likely a setup to emulate the similar conditions where the equipment malfunctioned in the midst of a fight, leading to a significant change in strength, maneuverability or other factors that were required in the fight.

Regis picked up the horn and put it in his spacial expansion bag. He glanced at his hoverboots. Currently, one of them was 'malfunctioning' or rather temporarily blocked. He checked the new message that popped up from his holowatch.

'Task 2: Gather 3 ingredients used to make anesthetics.'

Regis looked around himself after reading the task. The forest surrounding him was artificial. All the animals in this forest were created by humans just to function as a part of the ecosystem. The trees were real, but none of them were natively found on planet Cerberus. They had been transplanted on this barren planet when the military camp was built here. Before then, the entire life on this planet had been wiped out due to cosmic storms, leaving behind a completely barren planet in the Dusk zone which no one cared for.

A screen popped up in Regis' vision. The helmet once again went through the data that had been collected ever since he entered the forest. Soon, the helmet was able to confirm one ingredient while also listing one that could potentially be an ingredient.

After taking a slight rest to recover his stamina, Regis immediately set off to the location where he had come across the first ingredient.

'Seismic activity detected'

The visor of the helmet flashed red for a brief interval. Regis immediately heeded to the warning and stepped away from where he was standing.

The ground where he had been standing cracked. It started as a small pit that continued expanding till Regis could not see either of the two ends of the crack. The previous forest was now replaced by a valley that was seventy meters apart as denoted by the helmet.

'The mission just got harder.' Regis could see that the terrain across the valley had also changed, meaning that the data and location saved in his helmet was now unreliable.

'Still, the general direction shouldn't have changed by much.'

Even then, it took Regis an extra hour to finally reach the location where he obtained a pear-shaped fruit that was used as a base in creating an anesthetic. He plucked two of the fruits and put them in his spacial storage.

-------------------------------------------------------

"Lieutenant sir, two of the cadets have already failed their first tasks." The assistant instructor said while looking through the multiple holographic screens hovering before him.

"Don't worry. Even if they have failed the first task, they still have more chances and tasks." The senior instructor replied while skimming through the holographic screens. In midst of the inspection, the instructor suddenly paused at a screen. His eyebrows curled into a frown as he kept looking at the screen.

"Oh, although the cadets are allowed to form teams in this assignment, isn't it weird for the three of them to team up from the start? They are maintaining distance amongst themselves, but still are in the surveillance zones of each other" The assistant sneaked a peek at his superior's screen. "Should we deduct their scores?"

The instructor kept watching the three cadets silently before signaling his assistant to take over.

"Widen the perspective area and monitor these three."

The assistant opened the said screen before him, while the instructor switched to other screens, monitoring all the candidates sequentially. The small office fell silent once again.

"What the… its like they are actively avoiding their mission targets. Just before the target is about to enter the range of their helmets, these cadets turn away towards a different direction." The assistant said after watching the four cadets.

'Hmm..aren't these three the ones who got into trouble the other day along with two more cadets?' The instructor was suddenly reminded of the investigation that was ordered a few days earlier.

"They haven't done anything yet, but they are acting suspiciously. Keep monitoring them and be ready to interfere if they show any signs of disrupting the assignment.

The assistant nodded and continued with his assigned task. He immediately activated the AI installed in the monitoring holoPC and shared the surveillance with it. The AI processed all the data and sent out the results to a subsidiary screen.

'That one, why do I feel that I have seen that one before….hmmm….oh!'

The assistant suddenly frowned.

"Sir, it seems that they are moving in a group of five. These three are moving together, while the other two of their group have maintained a comparatively larger distance between themselves. It should be a five-man team formation where the two acting as scouts and sending back the scouting data. Since the three do not enter the trigger zone of combat, there is no controlled malfunction of the equipment."

The instructor immediately switched his screen to a detailed satellite view of the entire test zone. He had recognized the other two who were moving about five hundred meters ahead of the three and sure enough, they were the other two who had been interrogated by the Captain.

The forty red dots moved randomly all across the screen, but both the instructor and his assistant were focussed on the five that seemed to be moving in a battle formation. Suddenly, the five dots disappeared.

The instructor reacted immediately while the assistant looked at the darkened area on the screen in shock.

"Lets move out!"

"Yes sir!"

Both the instructor and his assistant ran out of the surveillance room and dashed towards the area where the assignment was taking place.