Esprit de Corps

"Alright morons, are you finally willing to listen to me so that we can deal with this together?"

Despite giving me a weird look a good amount of them did agree, yet the ones who didn't did indeed make it clear that they wouldn't listen. Their sweaty faces were all left in a fit of pique, staring at me as if I was prey for the predators. However, I have no energy to waste time on those idiots.

We need to quickly come up with a plan for the next wave. The best bet is to keep trying to get them from a distance for as long as we can.

"I can see we finally have some teamwork going. HAHA, wonder how long that will last, many still seem extremely agitated about this whole task!! HAHA! Time to begin the next wave!!"

Great, didn't get much time to do much. We will have to figure out stuff as we go. I can't mess up now that I gained some of their trust.

"Alright, quick question, any of you got the earth attribute?"

They looked around at each other, it was a little worrying but if there wasn't there are still other things which I can figure out, I think.

"I- I have the earth attribute…"

"That's fantastic, makes it so much easier, are you able to create a large crater around my ice walls?"

The sudden look of panic on his face answered all my questions, I didn't expect much from them, to begin with.

"N-no?"

As I thought, I'll have to try to do something else.

"Okay, I'll teach you how to do it then. From what my teacher told me, most spells are very similar just depending on the attribute and how you execute it. Raising something from the ground is just the opposite of pushing something down."

He stared at me blankly, he had no idea what I was talking about. Explaining won't help, I will have to show him. Men really are stupid.

"Come with me, I will show you exactly what you need to do. The rest of you, if you have any long-range attacks, position yourselves on top of the wall. Those who wait and I'll tell you when to charge, support the long-range attackers if needed. Takeo-San, you're in charge up here. Good luck!"

I formed an ice slide down the wall and dragged the earth guy down with me.

"Alright, I don't like repeating myself so watch carefully. All you must do is follow these few simple steps. Got it?"

"Yes sir!"

I stabbed my sword into the ground. As I recited my summoning spell, I began pushing my sword deeper into the earth. Normally the ground should be splitting apart, however, since earth isn't my attribute, I can't do much unless I was to turn the whole ground into ice, but that would require too much time and mana.

I looked over to see if he managed to understand what I showed him, but he looked even more discombobulated. This really makes me fret. How are these men supposed to take care of the country if they can't even recreate a spell?

I fiercely moved my head towards him and gazed at him hoping for a positive response.

"Did you get that?"

Fearfully he looked at me. It seemed that he was more afraid of me than actual demons. Since we don't have time to waste, I will have to help him.

"Alright, we don't have much time to waste. We need to get this going before the wave gets to this side of the arena!"

Without giving him a chance to respond I stood behind him and grabbed his arms.

"Just leave the movements to me, all you need to do is concentrate on using your mana and reciting the summoning spell. Understood?"

He nodded in agreement as he loosened his arms to give me control. I slid my hand down his arm towards his hands and placed it on top. Tightened my grip around his weapons handle.

I whispered to his ear.

"Since you have a hammer rather than a sword, it will be easier to do this."

His body began to shiver, not too sure if it was from me making him stressed or the fact he was doing a spell he has never done before. Nevertheless, this was the only way to manage to finish this spell in time.

We slammed the hammer down onto the ground as he began reciting his summoning spell. As it hit the ground, we kept pushing it deeper. The earth began to crack. I started pushing him forward with the hammer in the ground cracking the ground around it as we circled around the ice wall.

Once all the earth around the wall was cracked, we stopped and moved out of the way.

"Now all that's left is you to do a powerful smash on the cracking earth. I believe you are competent enough to do that on your own."

"Yes, I can do that!"

He seemed to feel far more confident now. Which is great, now at least he won't doubt himself in trying to do something alone.

He began pulling his hammer up into the sky, lifting it high above his head. Slowly he began pushing it down at full force, his veins seemed as if they were about to burst. As the hammerhead hit the ground a small shockwave blew off from it. All the cracked earth began to crumble into a huge canyon below.

"HAHA! Would you look at that? It seems we have a brand-new canyon here at the arena! The cleaners will have a lot of work on their hands today HAHA!"

Oh? Someone will have to clean this up. That's unfortunate for them, the average person wouldn't be able to fill this hole up quickly, I did give a little extra boost to the guys' mana to ensure that the hole would be big enough.

Getting a bit side-tracked there, time to head back to the rest of the group. I quickly cut open an entrance in the wall and we went back inside the walls, as we rushed back, I quickly replaced the hole.

I dashed up to the top of the wall to get an overview of where we were with the wave. They haven't managed to get too much done but more than I expected. Takeo-San seemed to have managed to keep them somewhat under control, good to see that.

"Good job Takeo-San, glad to see you kept them in control."

"Oh, thanks. I see what you have done there around the wall, that's smart. Wouldn't have thought of an extra line of defence using the land like that."

"Of course, you wouldn't have. That's why I had to do something to help all you sorry people out."

"You always have a way to come back at me no matter what I say, sometimes it amazes me."

"No need to thank. We have important things to do as of now."

"Alright, what now Kato-Kun?"

"I will go down with the ones who don't know any rage spells and fight the demons there. Should speed things up, but I need you to do an important task."

"O-okay? What is the task?"

"Right so, I will need you to be able to manage the guys up here and help them make sure not to accidentally shoot one of us. Some of them have pretty wonky aims and I don't want to need to defend myself from them firing something at me."

"Ahhh, I see! I will do my best!"

"Great, good luck Takeo-San."

"You too Kato-Kun!"

I snatched all the guys I needed from the top of the wall and huddled them together for a quick overview of the plan. There isn't much they need to know other than to make sure to look for the ranged attacks which the guys from up on the wall will do.

"Looks like someone finally took leadership! HAHA! Will this mean we will finally get to see some well-organised attacks against the demon waves or will they still carelessly walk into each other!"

As always, the commentator with his stupid 'HAHA!' I wonder how much he gets paid to tell everyone exactly what they can see. His voice is also so loud and agitating, if I manage to get through this whole exam without throwing some random attack at him, I'll be amazed by myself.

I quickly created an opening in the wall and a quick bridge for us to cross. We charged over into the battlefield, without wasting time we all positioned ourselves around the arena to avoid walking into each other. This way we should be able to manage the wave better rather than have everyone in one place getting overloaded with demons, as well as not bumping into each other or getting in each other's way.

We managed to get past each wave swiftly after we got organised. Most of the guys who decided not to work with us ended up getting beaten by the demons. In other words, they failed the exam. It's sad to see but in the end, this was a team test, working alone wasn't going to work out for longer than a few waves.

"HAHA! Well done to those who still stand! You have managed to survive many waves and worked as a team to defend the boy! HAHA! NOW! It is time for the final round. This round you will have to defeat the wave as well as the huge dragon, don't worry it's a wingless dragon, he can't fly, not anymore at least HAHA!"

That's interesting, I wonder if I could manage to take on that dragon alone. Though this is supposed to be a team test so I doubt it would be easy enough to win against alone, In most of the later waves I wouldn't be able to win alone. We did struggle on a few. Luckily, we had the walls and the trench around us, which made it much easier.

"Alright guys, we will have to go all out on this dragon. Since this is supposed to be a team test, I assume it won't be easy to beat. I will need all of you to work with me so that we can defeat it. Reserve your energy and mana for the dragon, try to kill off the demons the easiest and quickest way possible. Got it?"

"Yes SIR!"

They all replied to me enthusiastically. Glad to see I managed to gain their trust. Maybe men aren't that stupid, they can be useful when used correctly. Thinking about it now, this is only just an entrance exam for the military, not the military itself. With that in mind, the actual soldier should be more powerful so maybe I was just looking at these guys wrong.

After a few minutes, the gates began to lift. I wasn't sure what I had expected but it sure wasn't this.

All the demons poured out of the gates alongside the dragon. There were thousands of demons all rushing towards us, most of which were mage class skeletons. The huge grey dragon was stomping its way in following the smaller demons. I'm not sure if we will manage to all get through this.

I need to quickly come up with a plan to make this work now. The dragon wasn't supposed to be here but it's fine, it's still doable. I think it should be doable, why wouldn't it be doable. All we need to do is beat the dragon while making sure that the boy is safe. Easy. It's that easy. Right?