KINETIC

When morning came there were several carriages waiting to take the squads involved to their designated positions around the city.

Each squad was given two carriages that could each sit six members. The supporters accompanying each squad were made to travel in the carriage with the squad they are assigned to.

All together, including the captain and the supporters, each squad has nine members. Each squad was assigned one healer and one defender. The last supporter was part of the utility category, their ability was Telepathy.

Their main purpose was to maintain contact with the other squads through the use of their ability. Although they are capable of communicating with anyone using their ability, it's easier for them to link with someone else that shares their ability.

Leo, Nila, Rene and a telepath were sharing a carriage. From Platoon one, two squads would be situated at the north of Drom while one squad would be placed at the East.

"The monsters have been appearing more frequently from the north than the East, that's why I chose to put two squads at the North and one in the East."

"We will be situated closer to the East side but still close enough so we can assist in the North if we are needed. We won't be getting involved unless one of the squads asks for help." Leo explained and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Elaine, I want you to periodically contact each squad and get updates from them. Let me know as soon as there's a problem." Leo said, addressing the telepath that Rene chose to join them.

"Yes, General." Elaine replied with a nervous tone. She was a petite girl with red hair and a cute face. She was extremely nervous and was terrible at hiding it.

It took around twenty minutes for the convoy of carriages to reach the city. The goal wasn't to enter the city but to protect it from the outside.

The direction the convoy had come from in relation to the city was South East, meaning the Convoy did a perfect split with Platoon two going left and Platoon one to the right.

They circled the city and stopped in their assigned positions, heading into the forest surrounding the city to search for monsters.

Leo, Nila, Rene and Elaine sat inside their carriage waiting.

Leo began speaking to pass the time "Luckily there shouldn't be too many monsters that appear. There were a total of three that had been spotted in the last week, with two of them being the exact same type of monster."

"There's a good chance it was the same monster but it was recorded as being independent just in case. Only the two lowest tiers of common and uncommon have been seen near this city in the passed year." Leo explained to the others.

To them it sounded like Leo was trying to reassure them that there wouldn't be any issues but Leo knew that he was mostly just trying to reassure himself.

'The last time we fought a monster Cain almost died and John got kidnapped. I know I said that I had faith in Cain because he's shown that he understood his mistake and is taking the steps to avoid repeating it but... I'm still concerned about him.' Leo thought as he looked out the window at the forest around him.

'You should try to relax while you wait. Worrying is just wishing for something bad to happen. You'll be told as soon as something goes wrong so don't think about it too much.' Dreifus said, trying to reassure Leo.

***

Leonard and his squad had been searching through the forest for over an hour now. They had to move slowly for the sake of safety so they hadn't been able to progress very much yet.

The forest outside of Drom is famous for the number of clearings that appear within it. Every 50 or so meters there would be a sudden absence of trees.

These clearings are where most creatures will be found, such as the numerous deer or rabbits they had seen so far. This time however, they encountered a much larger creature, one that couldn't be anything other than a monster.

The monster was a large horse like creature with five legs, three in front and two at the back. It had a turtle like shell on its back and it's skin was scaled in some places. It's hooves were blue and left a trail of ice behind it as it walked through the clearing.

Whispering to his squad, Leonard assessed the threat "That shell on its back looks sturdy so avoid attacking that spot. It appears to have some kind of ice like abilities that seemed focused around it's legs so watch out for stomping attacks... That's most likely when it will use the ice."

"Surround it and attack with range if you can, only get close when it's back is turned. I'll try to keep it's attention as much as possible."

The members of his squad started moving around the clearing while remaining among the trees for visual cover. Once they had surrounded the creature they entered the clearing from every side.

The monster instantly recognized it was under threat but hesitated to act upon seeing it was surrounded. "Attack!"

Several different abilities activated and the clearing light up with the colours generated by the light of their Energy.

The monster was hit from several angles and was taking heavy damage. The only area it didn't recieve an attack from was the spot where Leonard was.

With his squad having spread around to the other sides of the monster, he approached alone. The monster saw its opportunity to escape the barrage of abilities and charged towards Leonard.

Leonard's skin turned into a black metallic material and he started running towards the monster. "Hold!" one of the Infernai shouted and the barrage of abilities stopped.

Leonard and the monster rammed into each other and a small shockwave was generated from the impact.

Neither one was able to push the other back as Leonard continued to hold onto the monsters head with both his arms.

"Hit it with everything you have!" Leonard shouted.

The entire squad moved in closer to the monster. Those with ranged attacks did it so they could have better accuracy and avoid hitting Leonard. The close combat fighters so they could attack.

Blood poured out of the monsters body as it was assaulted from all sides, still unable to move due to Leonard holding it still.

Leonard could feel the monster losing its strength as the force against him lessened. The monsters breathing started to get faster and it started pushing, pulling and twisting, trying anything it could to escape.

Leonard held on as best he could and was somehow able to prevent the monster from escaping his grasp.

Suddenly the front middle leg of the monster lifted and stomped into the ground. A large spike made of ice erupted out of the ground at an angle and thrusted towards Leonard, slamming into his stomach.

The tip of the spike snapped as it made contact with his skin and a loud scraping sound was heard, like dragging a knife across a sheet of metal.

The force of the attack managed to pushed Leonard up slightly and off his feet. The monster used this to its advantage and stood up on its back legs, lifting Leonard into the air.

He was still holding onto the monsters head as it slammed into front legs into the ground. Ice shot out in every direction, forcing the Infernai surrounding the monster to cease their attacks and focus on defence.

'Looks like I was right about the stomping.' Leonard thought as he was thrown from the creatures head with several shards of ice impacting his body.

After dodging the attack, the Infernai began firing their abilities at the monster once again. Turning to face one of the long range ability users, the monster lifted its front middle leg and stomped it into the ground.

As the ice shot out of the ground and the Infernai believed her life was about to end, her captain jumped in front of her and allowed the ice to hit him instead.

Thanks to his metallic body the ice wasn't able to injure him and the Infernai behind him was unharmed.

The monster collapsed to the ground after performing its attack, it's eyes shut and it's breathing stopped.

'A last ditch effort to injure one of us before it went down. It fought to the end and I admire that.' Leonard thought to himself as he confirmed the death of the monster.

"Well done everyone, that was a perfect ambush. The monster had no option but to attack me, which is exactly what we wanted." Leonard praised his squad and they all shared congratulations with each other.

After taking a few minutes to search the corpse, they were disappointed to find that the monster had no crystal within it.

"Report our success to General Rune and find out how the other squads are doing. Inform them that we can assist them if needed." Leonard said with a proud tone.

'That felt easier than I thought it would be. My ability has grown in strength quite quickly these last few weeks. It must be thanks to my core strengthening.'

A terrifying thought crossed Leonard's mind as he thought about his own power increase 'If all ability users improve even half as quickly, then how powerful will we all become within a year? If I can match a low tier monsters strength now, then could I overpower an elite tier in a years time? It sounds so ridiculous.'

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