Alligator.

Ralph felt a little better after teasing the "brown ice" and spent most of the day patrolling the surroundings, analyzing the surroundings.

When it was three hours before nightfall, Ralph decided to get some sleep again, or else he couldn't make it through the night.

Although this can be a fatal mistake, Ralph knows that the night is much more dangerous than the day.

"Dare to do anything when I'm asleep and you will pay the price!" Ralph threatened the woman, who ignored him.

Ralph fell hard into the net and fell asleep after after setting an alarm on his watch.

...

~ Boom!

Ralph woke up slowly, hearing the sound of something serious exploding.

-What's this ... !!!

Ralph thought for a moment that it was the woman, but he jumped up when he felt a strong shock wave.

Picking up the rifle and becoming invisible, Ralph reflexively looked in one direction.

The spot where the generator was was now on fire, but that wasn't what caught Ralph's attention.

The woman was fighting a beast that looked like an alligator, but much larger and red in color.

~ Roar !!!

With each roar, a strong shock wave caused the dust to rise and everything within a radius of ten meters flew away.

Ralph endured the shock wave and the pain in his ears and aimed in the direction of the beast and fired without hesitation.

The woman appeared to be trying to use the nearby wood to attack the beast, or to arrest it, but she was not quick enough and could only dodge the attacks while shooting.

Fortunately, the beast was not very agile. However, Ralph and the woman soon realized a problem, the beast's skin was so thick and hard that the bullets did not cause so much damage. If it continued, both would run out of ammunition.

Ralph stopped shooting and decided to try to buy time for the woman to land a fatal blow.

He approached the beast quickly while remaining invisible and when he was close enough he created large flames that surrounded the beast.

The beast was intimidated and felt threatened and hesitant.

"Now! Do it now! This is an illusion!" Ralph shouted and the woman quickly understood.

She manipulated the wood of a tree to hold the animal firmly in the ground, as if it were chained. For this, she used the roots of the tree, which rose from the ground and took the beast by surprise.

She repeated the same process a few more times, to make sure the beast was trapped enough.

The beast seemed to have noticed the strangeness of the flames and tried to leave with all the strength it had, but without success.

Ralph and the woman did not let their guard down anyway, as the beast might have some hidden ability.

As if to meet their expectations, the beast began to roar even louder, causing shock waves that took Ralph and the woman down, who spit blood and had blood coming out of their ears, both had temporarily lost their hearing.

The shock wave seemed to have weakened the roots a little, and the beast was gradually getting rid of them.

Ralph realized the situation and, enduring the pain he was feeling, got up and approached the beast without hesitation.

-Dammit!!.

Ralph aimed into the beast's eyes and opened fire.

~ Roar!

The beast roared in pain, but the wound did not seem to be enough to kill it.

Ralph saw that it wouldn't work and used a grenade, throwing it into the beast's mouth and running afterwards.

~ Boom!

The beast looked like it was going to explode, but surprisingly, the body of it remained whole.

Smoke comes out of the beast's mouth, now motionless.

Ralph, who had dropped to the ground, stood up and approached cautiously to see if the beast had finally died.

There were bullet marks all over the body, but they looked like wounds too small to be taken seriously. The beast's eyes were destroyed by Ralph's gunshots.

When Ralph checked its mouth, he saw that it was almost completely charred.

The beast had no signs of life, no matter how much Ralph checked it out.

Ralph was finally able to take a deep breath and the pain he was feeling made his expression twitch.

The shock wave seems to have fractured some ribs, as he feels immense pain in his chest. His ears were bleeding and he was hearing impaired, probably a perforated eardrum.

The woman was in a similar situation, she finally managed to get up and looked at the beast in fear.

Only one beast almost killed them both.

Ralph then had time to notice something, it was completely dark, with only the fire and the moon lighting up the room.

Looking at the broken watch, Ralph saw the clock hands at 19 and 30.

-But what the hell ...

Ralph thought without understanding, didn't the alarm go off? How did he end up sleeping more?

He then shook his head and decided to take care of his injuries first.

To prevent infection, he took an antibiotic that was in a first aid kit that he carried in his backpack. Then he put two pieces of cotton in his ears.

The fractured ribs were not something he could treat immediately, so instead he checked the woman and, after seeing that she too had followed the same procedure, he spoke on the Walkie Talkie.

"Is anyone listening? Our post was attacked by a beast ... We managed to defeat it but we are injured ..." Ralph spoke in a serious tone, still in severe pain.

"You weren't ... the only one ..." Victor said, clearly in a low tone.

Ralph swallowed his own saliva, they too had been attacked.

"Our post was attacked too ... Dark Green broke his arm ... and we all suffered burns." Another Walker spoke on the line.

Ralph frowned at that.

"When you were attacked, can you tell me the time?" Ralph asked seriously.

"... I don't know exactly but it was around 19:20 pm."

"I think it was on that track too."

-What a great coincidence!

Ralph thought sarcastically.

"These bastards ... They are watching us." Ralph spoke.

"What do you mean? Do you think the military did that?" Victor asked.

"Unless the beasts communicate, yes. We were all attacked at the same time." Ralph explained.

Everyone was silent.

"Cough Cough ..." Victor suddenly coughed.

"Sorry, but it looks like I'm going to have to hang up, the others on my side can speak in my place." Victor said in a weary voice.

Ralph worried about Victor's condition but remained silent.

Station B, where Ralph was, was attacked by a beast that looked like an alligator, but much larger and completely red.

Station A, where Victor was, was attacked by a large snake with the ability to release acid. They could only win because of Victor's ability, which was able to block the snake's acid with the objects he levitated, and the ability of a Walker named Thiago to increase the weight of something.

Since the snake was fast and had strong scales, conventional weapons like rifles did not work.

Victor levitated a large stone above the snake's head, and Thiago increased the weight of the stone so that it crushed the snake's head.

However, they only managed to accomplish this feat after they were all injured in some way.

Post C was attacked by a giant tapir, it had several thorns on its body, and spit fire. The Walkers almost died due to the beast's resilience, which even though it was hit by grenades and projectiles for several minutes did not appear to be seriously injured.

They only managed to kill the beast after a Walker capable of creating flames distracted it while two others attacked the beast's flanks with piercing ice and compressed air attacks.

The compressed air on one side allowed the ice to penetrate the beast, but only after a few minutes did they manage to defeat it.

Ralph considered that he faced the weakest beast of the three, and that may have something to do with the number of Walkers.

Station C had four Walkers and Station A also. But Ralph was alone with just another Walker.

If they had faced one of the other two beasts, they would certainly have died.

"Those damn ... Training? Heheh." Ralph murmured with a smile as he leaned against a tree.

The power generator had been destroyed, along with almost the entire post. The fire was going out, only embers were left of what was once wood, the shock wave must have done that.

The accumulated tiredness hit Ralph right when he was injured. He struggled to stay awake.

The night was cold, and he was vulnerable to anything in that state, he had to do something.

-At least a fire.

Ralph thought as he walked towards the embers.

He picked up some sacking branches with difficulty and put them on the fire with some straw.

Soon, the fire was back.

Ralph took his sleeping bag and put it next to the fire, and then started to prepare something to eat from the supplies that were scattered on the floor due to the previous one. Fortunately, supplies were sealed.

After eating, Ralph lay down and fell asleep.

Even if he stayed awake for the rest of the night, he couldn't do much against any predator. And even if the noise were to attract other beasts, he could not go far from the place safely in the state he was in. The only option left was to conserve strength while resting.

The woman didn't much like Ralph's action, but she understood his point of view. Furthermore, she thinks the military was behind all of this.

She approached the fire and repeated Ralph's previous action. She ate, but did not sleep immediately, instead she manipulated some leaves and wood that were around, making temporary shelter for them.

Although not perfect, at least it would protect both of them from eventual rain.

She then lay down and let the accumulated tiredness take her to the world of dreams.

While the two slept, two hidden figures watched them from afar.

"They seem to have understood." One of the figures spoke, he had a male voice.

"If they were so stupid as to not do it, it would be better to fail them directly." The other figure, who had a female voice, spoke.

"But I don't understand why this is so, wouldn't it be better to follow normal training?" The man spoke.

"Are you an idiot? Didn't you hear the commander's explanation? This test is not aimed at their skills, but at the psychological one." The woman shook her head and continued:

"The most attentive ones should have related everything before, the explosion, the posts abandoned in a hurry, the loss of communication ... All this generated psychological pressure on all of them, unless they are so stupid."

"So, being stupid is an advantage in this test." The man spoke while laughing.

"Don't make so much noise ... First, the stupid ones didn't get to the posts within the allotted time. That was the purpose of the parachute jump. It takes a minimum of IQ to overcome the relief and not get lost while trying to find the advanced post."

"This seems more like an excuse to make them...." The man spoke.

The woman decided to ignore the man and continued to watch the duo by the fire. Her and her companion's duty was to protect those two from beasts classified as Alphas, which could not be defeated with heavy weaponry such as explosives and cannon fire.

Of course, some types of weaponry are still effective, but they are so destructive that they are not practical. An example is the thermobaric bombs.

Beasts that can be killed by conventional weaponry are classified as Betas, although some are stronger than others within that classification.

Alphas beasts are very rare, but there are an increasing number of appearances everywhere in the world, so they two were designated as protectors of the so-called "Walkers".

In a way, they are also Walkers, but unlike those who were training at the military base, they were trained on the battlefield, under pressure they were forced to develop the skills they had.

According to superiors, Walkers trained at military bases will serve as an investment in the medium term. She understands them since there are few veteran soldiers with skills and at the same time capable of fighting Alphas beasts.

If these novice walkers evolve enough, they will serve as a spear of humanity in the future.

"There are strange signatures on the radar, it could be an Alpha class." The man spoke suddenly, looking at a smartphone.

"How far?" The woman asked.

"... The radar does not seem to be able to locate precisely, there is a lot of noise ... But around 30 kilometers east of here." The man spoke while frowning.

"It is outside our garrison zone, the other team will take care of that." The woman spoke while yawning.

"Understood." The nodded man.

As the night progressed, small noises could be heard, coming from afar, but then they stopped suddenly.

"At that point, one of the two sides won, which you see on the radar." The woman spoke while wearing eye drops.

"... The beast has stopped moving, I think." The man spoke and sighed, the radar was very noisy.

"If they lost, there will soon be rain in that direction, followed by fireworks." The woman spoke as she watched the duo at the fire again with a spyglass.

The man showed no approval or disapproval.

After several straight hours of silence, the sun finally appeared on the horizon.

"Let's see what they are going to do next, the last part will not be easy." The man spoke with a smile.