Chapter 392:Delta.

Chapter 392: 392:Delta.

He entered the nearest building. A staircase went up which he climbed in his female form. He arrived on the second floor infront of a broken window. The adjacent building approximately three meters away.

Antony stared at it.

"No."

The Tier Three beast roared below.

He looked again.

"Fine."

He ran and jumped. For one unpleasant second, there was nothing beneath him, then he hit the opposite ledge, his fingers catching the edge.

His female form didn’t have enough strength to pull up easily.

"Bad planning."

He shifted his feet against the wall and barely pulled. He climbed over without transforming since it was too expensive.

He ran through the building, down another staircase and out the rear. The Tier Three fight was behind him.

He smiled.

"Still alive."

The timer read:

[12:37]

Delta was close he could see it. Then he heard growling. Two Tier three beasts emerged from opposite alleys.

Antony stopped dead in his tracks. They noticed each other, then him.

"That’s inconvenient."

One immediately lunged at him. He dodged. The second attacked immediately after. He rolled to the side.

The two beasts nearly collided in the middle.

Antony noticed something from that and smiled.

"Wait."

The first came again angrier this time. He moved at the last moment , its claws striking the second beast which had also decided to attack at that moment. The second screamed, turned, and attacked the first. Within seconds, the two were fighting each other.

Antony slowly backed away.

"Good luck."

He ran.

Checkpoint Delta appeared at the end of the road. It had large reinforced gates, academy personnel and a green extraction zone.

He checked his ammunition while running, he’d barely used any. His body hurt and his core reserves were lower than he wanted but functional. He had no serious injuries.

He crossed the final street. The extraction system recognized his candidate card.

[CANDIDATE 1472 DETECTED.]

Antony entered the marked zone.

A tone sounded.

[PRIMARY OBJECTIVE COMPLETE.]

[TIME REMAINING: 12:04]

He stopped.

Twelve minutes.

He bent forward, hands on his knees.

"That..." He breathed. "...was actually fun."

An instructor stared at him completely unimpressed.

Antony straightened.

"Eventually."

The instructor pointed toward the recovery area.

"Proceed."

"No congratulations?"

"Proceed."

He sighed.

"Nobody here appreciates anything."

He walked away.

Above the extraction area, observers sat behind reinforced glass.

Antony couldn’t hear them. He couldn’t see the evaluation screen displaying his performance.

Candidate 1472 - Antony Braille

Confirmed Beast Eliminations: 4

Unnecessary Engagements: Low

Ammunition Conservation: 92%

Serious Injuries: 0

Simulated Civilian Recovery: 1

Hazard Recognition: Pass

Structural Risk Avoidance: Pass

Adaptive Ability Use: High

Objective Completion: 27:56

One instructor frowned.

"Four kills."

Another leaned back.

"You’re looking at the wrong number."

The first examiner looked over.

"Ninety-two percent ammunition remaining, one civilian recovered and no injuries. He identified the unstable tunnel before collapse plus avoided the Tier Three."

The first instructor frowned.

"Some candidates engaged it."

"Some candidates are idiots."

A third instructor looked at the recording of Antony manipulating the two Tier three beasts into attacking each other.

"He didn’t even fight these."

"Why would he?"

The instructor tapped the objective displayed at the top.

REACH CHECKPOINT DELTA.

"He completed the mission with twelve minutes remaining, preserved almost all his ammunition, avoided unnecessary injury and recovered a civilian."

The first instructor nodded slowly.

"His transformations are inefficient."

"For now."

"Three unnecessary switches."

"He’s eighteen." A pause. "Trainable."

The evaluator marked something.

TACTICAL DECISION-MAKING: ABOVE EXPECTATION.

Antony knew none of this since he was too busy drinking water. By late evening, the surviving candidates were assembled once again.

He stood beside Rebecca. She had completed the course too, barely with four minutes remaining. Her uniform was torn at one shoulder.

Antony looked at it.

"Beast?"

"Automated turret."

"That’s embarrassing, a beast would have been more majestic or something."

"It shot you too."

"It missed, there’s a difference."

"Because you ran away."

"That’s called tactical repositioning. Fighting something that can be escaped from is very stupid. Follow my advice next time, I know this things."

She rolled her eyes.

The central display activated.

He looked up.

The number changed.

[CANDIDATES REMAINING: 503]

Silence filled the area.

Antony stared in disbelief.

They’d started with 2,037 now five hundred and three remained, less than a quarter. And the academy only wanted somewhere between one hundred and fifty and two hundred.

He exhaled.

Rebecca whispered, "Day Two is going to be worse."

"Please stop saying things like that."

An officer stepped onto the platform.

"Five hundred and three candidates have qualified to continue."

A few people smiled.

"Do not celebrate yet."

The smiles vanished.

"Today’s evaluation is complete."

This time, relief spread carefully but nobody trusted them anymore.

The officer checked the time.

"Tomorrow’s examination begins at 0500."

The crowd went silent.

Antony was left speechless, even with Silver, he never woke up this early.

Someone raised a hand.

"Sir?"

The officer looked over.

"Question."

"What time?"

"0500."

The candidate looked at the darkening sky.

"That’s less than eight hours from now."

The officer nodded once.

"Correct."

The candidate seemed to think there had been a misunderstanding.

"We’ve been testing all day."

"Correct."

"We need time to recover."

"Correct."

Antony almost laughed.

The candidate looked frustrated.

"Then why are we reporting at five?"

The officer looked across the exhausted group.

"Because recovery is part of your examination."

That killed every remaining complaint.

"You will not always choose when you’re required to operate. You will not always receive a full night’s sleep before deployment. You will not always enter a dangerous zone with a rested core, perfect equipment and ideal conditions."

Antony’s smile slowly disappeared.

The officer continued.

"If your performance collapses because conditions are inconvenient, we need to know now rather than after someone else’s survival depends on you."

Nobody spoke.

"Eat." The officer’s tone remained flat. "Treat your injuries, restore as much core energy as possible, and sleep."

Then his eyes moved across the remaining five hundred and three.

"Report here at 0500."

A buzzer sounded and everyone was dismissed. For several seconds, nobody moved, then Antony looked toward Rebecca.

"Five in the morning."

She nodded.

"Five."

"We have to travel back, eat properly, shower and sleep."

"I think."

"And be here before five."

"Yes."

Antony stared at her.

"Your brother knew about this."

Rebecca smiled tiredly.

"Probably."

"I definitely hate him."

This time she laughed.

He streched almost instinct and turned to look toward the academy exit, psyching himself to leave. His entire body felt heavy and his core felt depleted. His also legs hurt.

He had absolutely no idea what the academy planned for Day Two. But his candidate card still glowed against his chest.

1472 - QUALIFIED FOR DAY TWO.

Antony smiled.

Out of more than two thousand candidates, he was still standing.

Tomorrow morning, they would return but right now, there was only one person Antony Braille needed to beat.

The version of himself that wanted to sleep through the alarm.