Chapter 101: Poor display

It was a mess. It took Nero and Wendy ten minutes, at most, to clear out most of the snakes, barely using any aether along the way. In fact, Nero was the only one using aether at all, and Wendy hadn't even done that. Yet if one were to observe their group, it would look like they had just experienced a massive assault by formidable foes. At least a dozen angry bears, or something along those lines.

Nero was genuinely bewildered by the performance. Kolar had given them combat training from a young age. That was a fact. They must have also received survival training. Surely most of them had their abilities much longer than him as well.

So why then had they all panicked so badly, and reacted so poorly?

Taylor, Charles and Henry stood unharmed, mostly because his flame had been protecting Charles and Taylor, while Henry must have avoided the whole fight. Glade, who Nero judged as the animal expert, was also fine. So was the hammer wielding boy who apparently had a healing ability.

That was six out of the twenty who were unhurt. The other two were the two scouts who had left their group. Almost everyone else had been bitten by a snake, or at least hurt in some way.

He refused to believe that so many of them were completely incompetent, which could only mean one thing.

The makeup of the teams had been extremely deliberate. They had purposefully put highly skilled individuals with those who lacked physical skills or combat awareness. That did not mean that they were incompetent.

After all, the army had not recruited all Neophytes, but a select few of them. That meant these other eleven recruits who had suffered tremendously in their first assault had skills outside of the realm of combat. The whole purpose of the team was to find a way to support each other so that they could survive situations that they weren't well suited for.

"If the scouts had gone out alone, then they would not have had the advantage of numbers. They are too weak to survive the forest alone and that's a fact. They would have suffered, and we would never have been able to find them. Right now, I killed all these snakes and dragged your body out of the hole you threw yourself in.

I am the reason you're alive, and your own lack of awareness is the reason you're hurt. Don't blame others for your own incompetence. It's the fast ticket to keep yourself from improving, and getting yourself killed."

Nero looked down at her, like an adult instructing a child, then pulled his spear back.

"Everyone, grab one of the wounded, we need to get out of here. We can decide what to do next once we're in a safe space."

For once, no one argued with him. Even if they didn't agree, no one wanted to stay here in case the snakes came back. It was fortunate that the wounded weren't in too bad a condition. It was just that they couldn't control the leg that had been bit which meant that they had to hop on one foot.

In the case of the two most wounded recruits, they had to climb onto the backs of others. Glade and Charles filled that role.

With their speed considerably slowed down, twenty minutes later when they finally decided to stop, they hadn't gone as far as Nero would have liked, but there was no helping it - they had to rest.

During this time, he had already thought about what to do. Regardless of what their actual mission was, that was not the purpose of this exercise. Improving their teamwork was the real objective. In that case, instead of rushing to complete the mission, he would rather take it slow and figure things out.

A part of him also didn't want to abandon the others, though in his mind he kept telling himself he should prioritise his objectives over such notions.