Shi Lang stood in the observation room. His students had decided on the strategy quickly and then they moved towards the southwestern clearance of the forest. Theseus led the people to attack the others before they got surrounded.

Every other teacher in the pavilion knew that the class trained by Shi Lang will be different than the rest, but this was something they did not expect. To be honest, they did not even know that Shi Lang will be personally teaching a class and training it for the competition.

This chain of surprises from the young general had taken a toll on their minds and souls. However, they had nothing that could be done to stop these surprises, except brace mentally.

…

Theseus and the class moved through the forest carefully. They made sure not to leave any signs of movement. The wisdom and commanding ability shown by this young guy were admirable.

The credit due for the class was not to be undermined. They all followed their leader without any lapse. They performed their duties with outright dedication.

As they were moving through the forest, Vanessa said, “Scanners picking up movement, Theseus.”

The class stopped in an instant, and Theseus said, “Chou.”

“On it, leader.”, after saying that Chou looked at four guys and said, “Come on, diamond formation, on me.”

He took point and led the team forward. His speed and efficiency were the highest in the team when it came to combat and physical work. Chou had formed a team of his own, efficient in physical activities after they were trained by Shi Lang.

Their physiques were optimal for such a role in the military. Shi Lang taught them all with dedicated methods. He wanted to have them all reach the peaks of their potential and a way to do that was to focus on the points they all excelled at. His training was also the reason why they all broke through to three-star level cultivation. The reason Shi Lang had taken up the job of the teacher was not only limited to taking a break and teaching a batch of students.

He wished to channel the knowledge of cultivation throughout the federation. Whether it was the accelerated pace of the Terran blood cultivation, or it was spirit cultivation, he wanted it to become a source of power in his civilization. The young man has also decided to talk to the cabinet once he was done with his task here.

Chou and the team moved forward and after a hundred meters when they discovered the source of movement they relayed the information back. Theseus told them to stay put and wait for the team to come over. It did not take the team too long, and Vanessa said after looking at the scene in front of her, “This thing can trick the scanners.”

She and Theseus exchanged glances and said, “Let’s pick up these little guys. They will work as our decoy.”

In front of them lay a group of hamsters. These guinea pigs were all as big as a human baby, and they triggered the scanners on their visors, giving off the signals of a distant movement. Thus, the two leaders found themselves with a perfect decoy.

With that, the class moved forward at a faster pace. They found twenty such guinea pigs. Theseus and Vanessa split into the batch in two. Theseus was calculative and he choose to lead the support group while Vanessa was spontaneous and thus she took charge of the frontal force.

Vanessa had Chou and Quo Lina with her, these two were the best of the best, and putting any one of them in the support group would be like holding them back. The motive of this competition was to survive till the end, and only when you have a mindset to prevent casualties would you last against the seven teams.

It did not matter if they all targeted the class from Federal Star Academy or not, only the class with the highest number of students left ‘alive’ in the competition will have a chance to win the final round.

Theseus was well aware of this and thus he stayed back to support. Vanessa and her team of fifteen people hid in the woods as they cautiously surrounded the clearing. None of them could be detected and they did not leave any obvious sign of presence. The big guinea pigs they caught were all placed in different spots to confuse the enemy more.

Vanessa had five people posted on the crowns of the trees and the other ten were asked to surround the clearing. Then they waited for a target to appear.

…

pan,da-n0v el Theseus was hiding with his team in distance, observing the situation and a teammate made hand signs, ‘Leader, enemy spotted. Seven hundred meters in opposite direction.’

The class monitor nodded and replied, ‘Good job Zed.’

Zed was a scout, his ability was to sense movement on the ground. He could distinguish friends from foes if he concentrated. The entire class had taught themselves a habit where will all tap the ground every five seconds. The movement was just a micro-muscle twitch, but this was enough to ease up the job of their scout chief.

Theseus relayed the information to Vanessa, who contacted her entire team and said, “Be ready.”

Shi Lang did not teach them to enter a state of indifference in battle, after all, they were too young, and if they literally became indifferent to life and death when competing with the friendly forces, that might be a disaster. Though he did tell the students to keep calm before they engage the enemy and not to startle them.

Vanessa followed his words and the frontal forces waited for the opponent to arrive in the range with patience. It took the other party three minutes to reach the place. Thirty students dressed in tactical gear entered the clearing, they searched around carefully but when they discovered the guinea pigs, they thought that they have walked into a rodent colony.

The decoy was a success, Chou looked at the people in the clearing and said, “Ness, can we?”

He was asking if they should start the attack. The lady nodded and said, “Snipers identify the leader of the troupe.”

The snipers identified the leader, and Vanessa said, “One of you take aim at the leader, while the rest look for influential people in the group.”

The snipers understood her motive and they replied, “Aye.”

Vanessa wanted to take down the higher level of the teams, and then have the ground teams battle with the rest of the team. Without the leaders, the group will be akin to a headless fly and they will be easier to take out. This was a great strategy in an ambush.

The experts watching the telecast on public channels exclaimed. Vanessa waited for the people to get a lock on to the opponents, before she said, “Snipers will snipe after the ground forces initiate an attack, you will only have a few seconds to exploit their shock. Understood?”

The units responded and Vanessa took a deep breath as she said, “Attack.”

The federal star academy batch did not make any loud noises and as soon as they got out of the woods, their stun guns began to fire. They had locked onto the targets beforehand and their aims were perfect. The leaders of the opponent team were surprised but before they could figure out the situation. The snipers from FSA had stunned them.

The battle after that was mostly one-sided in favor of Shi Lang’s class, however, they were not yet in the green of safe, they heard Theseus says, “The clamor attracted attention, two teams heading this way, retreat and regroup.”

Vanessa was surprised but then she nodded and said, “Raid complete, let’s go. On me.”

The team was not slow, they did not doubt the orders for a second and then followed Vanessa to leave the place. Theseus on the other side has already decided to step back from this place and hide it out for a few minutes. If they faced two opponent classes at the same time, they will not be able to survive, let alone win.

Just like that, one class was out of the run and it was not yet five minutes before the game started. Shi Lang nodded at this scene with a calm smile on his face. Aztec sighed and said, “Sir, are you not happy?”

Shi Lang smiled and said, “I am happy, but this is not a good time to display it.”

He turned his gaze toward the defeated comrade standing in the pavilion. He wanted to console him, looking at the dejected expression that man had, but this was a simulated war, defeat will only leave you with regret and there was no pill for regret in the world.

Just like the students, teachers had to grow as well. Shi Lang and Aztec turned their heads back to look at the screen and found the situation to be getting interesting.