50 Regret

It's been 20 minutes since the second attempt to hunt down the Steel Winged Eagle had started.

"Go for it!" yelled a black-haired girl with crystal-like golden eyes. "Cut it down, Nero!"

"I got it!" Nero replied to Anastasia while willing mana into his legs, strengthening them to make a jump.

In front of Nero was a pretty big eagle.

"Skii!" the eagle whistled in desperation. It was already down on the ground with multiple wounds clearly visible on his body.

It had no strength to fly anymore.

Nero's figure disappeared and appeared right before the fallen eagle.

"Don't let him get to it!" from the back, Grace yelled at her Unit's marksman.

"On it!" Hugh, the marksman of her unit, yelled back. He aimed the barrel of his twin handguns at the wounded eagle and pulled the trigger.

Bang—!

With a loud, sharp noise, two bullets shot forward at the eagle.

"Amelia!" Nero cried for help from his teammate.

Amelia has already acted quickly. She had already launched an arrow by now.

Tin—!

With deadly accuracy, the arrow Amelia shot collided with the two bullets and deflected them easily.

While all that was happening, Alberto stood under a tree basking in its shade, and watched the ongoing hunt from afar.

"Looks like that guy is the weakest in his unit. He is completely useless right now." Alberto muttered to him as looked towards Kent.

"I wonder what the result would be if he was still here," Alberto spoke to no one as remembered about a certain silver-haired boy.

Alberto's eyes turned suspicious as he thought about Lucas. From the very start, he felt that something was off about him. Although he couldn't exactly point out what it was, he could tell that there was something strange about him.

The person he assessed to be someone inferior to him and just had good looks turned out to be someone as strong as him.

Alberto never saw him fight and there was no information regarding his power but it was clear that he was strong considering what had happened in the cafeteria.

Even now, there is no sign of him even though his unit was fighting with the beast. No one had noticed his disappearance till the fight started.

"Alberto, let's talk."

Right when Alberto was lost in his thoughts, a member of his Unit came and tapped on his shoulder before making him walk off with him.

******

In an area far from where his unit was fighting, Lucas continued to stroll in the forest. He was in the border region between the outer region and the inner region.

Since Lucas didn't know where his unit might fight, he decided to be as far as possible from them so as not to drive away any monsters that they might be looking for.

After walking for a bit, Lucas found himself standing in front of a certain tree that he was searching for. There was nothing special about the tree except for the fact that it was the tallest tree in its locality.

Lucas immediately started climbing the tree and soon reached its peak. Immediately after, he started to search for his unit and was able to find them immediately.

Since his eyesight had improved by leaps due to his training, he found no difficulties in grasping the events that were taking place. From the way things were going, Lucas was able to conclude that his unit would have no trouble in killing the bird first.

"Hmmm.."

Lucas's eyes twitched a little when he noticed a disturbance in the forest. 

When he looked at the source his expression turned serious. 

"I fucked up big time!"

Lucas couldn't help but curse as looked at the scene in front of him. The precautions he took to help his team have completely backfired on him.

A good number of monsters were running in all directions creating chaos throughout the forest. And a few of them were headed towards where his unit was present.

And without a doubt, this happened due to Lucas. Lucas initially went in the opposite direction to where his unit was present resulting in all the monsters within a certain area around him fleeing in terror. 

Normally this wouldn't be an issue since the number of monsters in the outer area was quite low and their strength was within the capabilities of cadets. But the present location Lucas was present in was near the border of the inner region.

The monsters present in the inner region were much more ferocious and powerful compared to those in the outer region. They were so strong that the monsters in the outer region didn't dare to approach them, lest they become their next meal.

Due to Lucas's presence near the border, all the monsters in the vicinity, including those in the inner region, fled. A handful of those monsters entered the outer forest causing the remaining monsters to avoid them which created even more chaos within the already chaotic forest.

Since most of the monsters were present in the deeper region of the outer region it didn't affect the students much. But a few monsters were headed toward the students and some of them just happened to go towards where his unit was present.

Lucas immediately dashed towards his unit by jumping from tree to tree. The distance between those monsters and others was very small and currently, his unit was fighting the bird which made them highly vulnerable to external attacks. If he didn't go at his full speed he wouldn't make it in time.

"I should have checked what was wrong with me back then." Lucas spat out in regret.

*****

"Lvae tormentorum!"

Nero invoked a chant in high elven.

Nero had his hand mimicking a handgun and pointed his fingers at the fallen eagle.

Since members of Grace's Unit tried to stop him from approaching the mana beast, in frustration, Nero decided to use magic instead.

Light particles started converging at the tip of his index finger and in an instant, the whole area was bathed in a blinding white light.

Thwoosh—!

The flash of light caused everyone to squint or shield their eyes with their hands in discomfort.

When the light subsided, the whole area in front of Nero's 'handgun' was destroyed and whatever was left of the trees and grass was set ablaze.

The body of the Steel Winged Eagle was nowhere to be seen. Not even its ashes remained after Nero was done with it.

And despite being injured, that mana beast was on [Bronze] rank.

Knowing the fact that his spell could seriously injure or even kill anyone present here made everyone shudder unknowingly.

"You did it!" exclaimed Amelia in joy.

"Hell yeah!" Nero raised his hands in a show of victory.

"We aced this Unit test!" Anastasia too jumped in excitement.

"Yeah, although I didn't do much, we won!" Kent nodded with excitement.

"You did more than certain someone."

"Oh, come on Amelia, now is not the for that."

"Hmph."

While the winners were busy celebrating, Grace was clicking her tongue.

"Tsk," she looked at Hugh, giving him a death glare. "You are useless!"

"I am useless?!" Hugh retorted. "I did everything I could! You guys can't win against Nero!"

"True," William nodded. "That guy was too strong."

"Same," Elijah sighed. "All of us did everything we could to keep him away from the eagle but he still managed to hunt it down."

Ella walked up to her friend and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Grace, it's a fair loss. No one is to blame here."

"Shut up!" Grace burst out, slapping Ella's hand away and pointing at Hugh. "Your guns are useless."

"Oh yeah? Why didn't you accomplish something with your rapier then— HEY, WATCH OUT!!"

Before Hugh could finish his counterargument, however, he saw something. His eyes widened as he shouted out a warning.