The Snowdrifts began by integrating the others into their Starfire array, teaching them the steps and the way to circulate their Ki. It is a very intricate and complicated formation but encouraged by having their lives on the line the other students quickly picked it up.

As they started to understand just how profound and powerful this array is, gazes of awe and gratitude fall onto Kairos.

They realised the kind of precious treasure this battle formation is. It is simply astonishing that Kairos did not choose to hoard the information, but gave freely to all who needed his help. Thinking about it, it is very likely that the boy has more where it came from, and if the other arrays he used before are of this standard then they really could not underestimate the Snowdrifts.

There’s one thing for certain. After this training exercise, no matter what is the score for each student, any person from the Snowdrifts is going to become highly valued.

"Kairos, we will not forget what you did today. If we survive this, you can always count on us from now on," many of the nobles among the group murmured agreements throughout the camp.

Kairos mutely nodded in response. He did not take it to heart, after all, a formation that only he knows of is useless.

He may have given away the Starfire array, but he had plenty in reserve.

.....

That night, a full moon has risen, slowly climbing its way towards the height of the sky. Strong gusts of wind whistled through the woods, a disturbed rustling of leaves that seem to speak of the chaos to come, lingered in the air.

Before long, the Orcs returned from the forest and with them and they carried the largest trees they could find from the woods.

The tallest Lawson Cypress stood nearly seventy meters tall, and tying a few of them together formed an instant bridge.

What these War Beasts are doing is far more advanced than the students expect. Monsters that could only use basic tools like apes had found a way to cross their moat.

"Jim!" Kairos loudly called out.

"Roger!" He took a look at what the Orcs are doing and replied without hesitation.

A black shadow disappeared from the top of the ramparts.

Becoming Mid F rank has improved Jim's abilities by many folds, and from the previous fights, he had learned to significantly increase his power for a short amount of time by expending his life force in a controlled manner.

The Orcs marched to the moat, pulling along the long cypress bridge they have created.

"Edward!"

"Ready!"

"Everyone, gather your strength for him."

....upon my arrows...

Its....of lightning...

the true name of destruction...

The wind carried away the murmurs of their chants as Jim rushes towards the moat.

A loud thud hit the ground nearby him, as the bridge managed to cross the hundred and fifty meters width of the waters.

The Orcs started running on top of the bridge, ignoring the cypress underneath their feet groaning from their weight.

As the moon climbed further up in the sky, a luminous silhouette of the boy appeared under the moonlight, eerily still in the middle of their bridge.

He had no fear, even next to his enemies. This is what saboteurs are meant for.

Jim awaited the Orcs patiently. His senses tell him that his enemies are only at E and F ranks. Nothing that he couldn't handle.

He would be worried if they are human practitioners with all kinds of martial techniques, but for the close-combat Orc race, they are unable to do anything to him on this narrow bridge.

The first of his foes quickly reached his striking range.

*Clink*

With a simple jump and a downward strike of his dagger, an Orc was ripped apart.

*Slash*

Still in mid-air, Jim twirled around with a flowing movement and wielding his daggers like a hurricane, the one that had stepped over its fallen brethren were immediately cut down.

When the second one fell, he shot several darts with a contraption under his sleeve, and took down three more.

All these took a while to describe but in just the time it took for him to jump and land, he had killed five enemies. The weaker Orcs seeing this stumbled with fright. But a large and bulky Orc bellowed ferociously from behind, and it shoved those in front off the bridge, sending them splashing into the water.

It roared its challenge and waved its club around. Its voice filled with bloodlust while effortlessly striking down all the darts Jim shot at it.

"Hmm..... A War Chief. This is a fat prey."

The War Chief rushed forward, smashing down its fellow Orcs that were too slow to get out of its way, and then swung its club at Jim.

Its companions wanted to cry. Wasn’t they on the same team? They already let it through to the human boy, but just for some arm space, was there a need to bonk them all?

No matter one is human or Orc, being low-level is terrible.

Jim stare down his opponent coolly without fear, despite facing a Peak D magical beast that once able to decimate the entire Snowdrifts.

A flip, a roll and a smile, he swiftly danced out of harm’s way. After increasing in his cultivation grade, and being the fastest among all of the Snowdrifts, only he can handle a War chief this easily. Even on the narrow platform, a lumbering oaf is dreaming if it thinks it could touch Jim.

"Nice to meet you. And, good bye," he said, so sweetly that it caused hair to raise on the Orc in alarm. In the boy’s hand is a small wrapped parcel. He threw it forward and immediately retreated from the bridge with due haste.

The package exploded into a massive cloud of shimmering dust upon contact with the large Orc, at the same time Jim released two throwing stars, one from each hand.

The two flying weapons flew spun through the air at incredible speed, and collided in the middle of the giant dust cloud.

A tiny spark was birthed from the metal clashing against metal, but it was enough to ignite all the dust in the area. A fiery hell descent upon the Orcs that were still on the bridge and their anguished cries roared out.

Those that just stepped on the cypress, quickly ran back to their side of the moat, pushing and shoving each other to get on to shore.

But, Kairos had been anticipating this.

An arrow, glowing with eight sparks of different colours, shone brightly from the edge of the rampart. It released without warning, with such swiftness that it became nearly invisible to sight, leaving only a trace of light, before an enormous explosion wrecked the retreating Orcs.

It was at the most congregated area by the shoreline that the destructive force ripped apart the War Beast, shredding nearly a hundred that died without knowing what happened.

Their King stood helplessly on the side, even as its brethren cried out in rage and pain.

Unlike the rest of its race that knows no remorse, the Orc King is an unique individual that could. Made more of magic than of flesh, nature herself sang to it when it was but an egg, and it knows how to cherish life, unlike the rest of its race.

Even now, her songs of life and birth are all around, but it abruptly stilled by the deaths.

The young Orc King walked forward alone. Its skin glowed blue like sapphire gems under the moonlight. Its eyes more intelligent and wise than the others of its kind. Upon its brows sat a small crown of light weaved of magic that could hardly be seen, perhaps, because of its youth.

It walked over to where its dead lies and tilts its head down, solemnly looking at the destruction laying before it.

A strong feeling it had never experienced before gripped its heart. It was a pain that throbbed with every pulse, even though it was not wounded. And, like a kindle, it set aflame something within that wishes to consume all, including itself.

Its figure proud and unyielding as it shook its head, clearing its thoughts. As it had once believed, the humankind is far too dangerous, and as the King of their race, it will remove all who stood as a threat to their existence.

Having been deterred once again, it ordered the Orc armies to move back into the safety of the forest, bringing back their wounded and resting for their next battle. On this day, they have been thrice repelled by the human children, but in return, they also gained invaluable experiences.

Kairos felt the change of their demeanour in their retreat. A frown appeared on his face.

“The battles for today is probably over. Change the watchmen every two hours. Everyone else, go and have a good, well-earned, rest.”

The siege had not been as harsh as they expected, but it made them more frightened. Anyone with an eye could tell that the Orcs are learning, and rather too quickly for comforts. Instead of mindlessly charging in like how War Beasts should, their opponents are picking them apart and learning the way to fight them, just like when the Orcs surrounded and toyed with Alucard’s group.

After assigning the most urgent tasks at hand, the five boys gathered privately.

"Kairos, why do you think we were attacked?"

"Hmmm. That's a good question that I've been thinking about that as well. The scouts reported that not just our side, but the blue team were also targeted initially, yet, from their numbers now, they appear to have concentrated their entire force against us.”

"Could it be Calculus?"

"It is possible. But in what way do you think Calculus can direct those magical beasts?"

"Vengeance?"

"Blood feud?

"Yeah...those?"

Kairos nods and says, "I have the same thoughts. Do you know that Luciette got the hidden flag from someplace near the Orc village?"

After becoming the commander of the red team, he is now privy to all the reports from the scouts, past and present, so it is no surprise that he found out the movements of both teams that happened in the past few days.

"WHAT? Let me guess, Calculus is the one that retrieved it?" Alan said.

"That bastard!"

"Whoa, don't say that bastards aren't that bad. I'm one, and I'm not bad am I?" Jim asks

"Yeah, that's not Jim's fault that he's a bastard. Tommy apologise to our bastard! Quickly!!" Alan adds on cheerfully, already forgotten his anger.

"I'm sorry my bastard friend."

"Enough! I'll cry!"

"That's the girly-est threat I've ever heard," Edward said while laughing.

"Ahem! Anyhow, is there any way we can communicate with those Orcs?" Kairos asked, not surprised how light-hearted they could be after a battle.

"If you don't know, then most likely we won't either."

The guys signed.

All these bloodsheds seemed pointless, countless life ripped apart for the selfishness of one person, yet as citizens of an Empire during a state of constant wars, how are they not used to seeing this already?

"Just in case, one of us need to be keeping an eye on the Orcs with our Soul Perception, so let's join the guard rotation as well."

"Captain you don't have to do it, the four of us will handle the surveying."

"Yeah yeah! Just concentrate on that commander thing-y."

"Everyone really has confidence in you, you know?"

"Haha. Sometimes I think I am the only person that is not confident in myself.

I'll have a chat with George's team and see if they have any brilliant ideas to get us out of this mess. Most likely the Orcs will attack at sunrise, be prepared."

"Roger! See ya, Captain."

The guys set forth about their assignments without delay. They might be the only ones that could truly secure their perimeters from sneak attacks.

Climbing down the ramparts, and getting to the middle of the camp, Kairos entered the large orange war tent with a red flag on its top.

“Sir!” the four tacticians from George’s team saluted as Kairos entered the tent. Even if they are only students, this is a mock battlefield, and everything adheres to wartime regulations.

With a wave of his hands, Kairos gestured for them to relax.

“I want to ask if you guys know of any ways to communicate with the Orcs.”

“Communicate with… magical beasts?”

“Unheard of.”

“Haha, that’s a novel idea. If we could talk to them, maybe we could have avoided that war many years back.”

Kairos shook his head in disappointment. As expected they do not know much either, but thinking back when they were combating the Orcs, the enemy were moving by commands given in grunts and snorts. He is confident that those beasts have a way of communication among themselves.

“Hmm, alright. Tell me what you guys have got,” he asked finally, and they went into a serious discussion.

After deciding on the direction of this siege, Kairos returned to his tent. As the night darkens and the full moon has claimed its place at the zenith point of the sky, he sat in the darkness of his partitioned room, a luxury, considering where they are. He did not really need his crystallised light and kept it unused in an opaque bottle.

He had entered into a state of meditation while trying to solidify his current level of strength. Since becoming Entry E rank, he did not have the time to stabilise his energies. His flesh had strengthened to endure the stronger Ki within himself, but the remnants of wild Heavenly Energies still ran rampant.

It was not an easy task, and he felt as though he was trying to subdue a rampaging dragon inside of his body. His soul force spiralled around it, attempting to overcome that foreign energy. But when the Heavenly Energies felt it was being smouldered, it started radiating a high amount of heat to burn off his soul force.

Kairos spit out a mouthful of blood, but unexpectedly at this moment, a fiery Ki reared its head out of his Dantian, and like a deadly serpent, it bit at the Heavenly Energies and started taking great chomps. Like a hungry pack of wolves, the fiery Ki ate at it while becoming thicker and brighter than before.

Only when the last strand of wild energy was consumed did the Ki happily went back into his Dantian, as if it was satisfied. When it returned, Kairos felt a new flow of energy released from his Dantian into his body, finally becoming a part of him.

“Great! I am now truly E rank! Time to have a little chat with our Orc friend. No matter what I have to give it a try. Nothing ventured nothing gained after all!”

A shadow disappeared from the community Snowdrifts tent.