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Woof! Woof!

"Defenders, hold! Pay attention to yourself and the hounds. Don\'t create any openings!"

Swoosh!

At the same instant that someone said that five hellhounds turned into a blur of motion. The defenders only felt something fast and solid colliding on their shields and barriers, causing them to wince from the impact.

Still, they defended against the attack successfully. If this were two days ago, they wouldn\'t even be able to stand properly like this.

"Counterattack, now!" Another order was sent.

Those who were behind the defenders sent out volleys of their attacks towards the hellhounds. Some used balls of fire packed with heat, some used icicles, others used fired arrows that nearly turned invisible with how fast they streaked through the air, and some threw their spears with all of their might.

Some attacks landed while the majority didn\'t. Despite that, nobody berated those who missed. Everyone was focused on their task and primed to execute orders right away.

The fight continued like this, the teams continued shuffling between formations to respond to the threat and the hellhounds continued attacking them, searching and abusing all their vulnerable spots without fail.

"Ah, shit! They got me again!" Someone grunted in annoyance, but it didn\'t keep him down. He stood back up after regenerating the flesh that was torn from him and corrected his stance.

"You really need to work on your stancing. This is...what, like the 50th time already since we started? Others have already learned their lesson except you." One of his teammates pointed out.

"I\'m grateful for the reminder but the hellhounds are enough to remind me of that, thank you very much." He replied sarcastically. "Don\'t worry, I\'m almost there."

"By almost, you mean like 50th hell bites away?"

"Shut it, you! And pay attention, they\'re coming again."

Two days ago, banters like this amongst cadet squads would\'ve been impossible. By this time, they\'d be too tired, scared, and defeated to even think of it.

Yet here they are now, two days later. Things have changed and they\'ve grown used to it that quickly. Sure, the jaws of the Hellhounds still hurt like hell, that\'s why they call them Hell Bites, but they\'ve learned - the hard way, to endure it and keep going.

All of it was thanks to Cedric\'s lead.

It\'s astonishing how quickly they changed. Some of them couldn\'t even believe it themselves, but the results won\'t lie.

Gone was their sense of self-importance and pride, it\'s been ruthlessly crushed, turned to dust by Cedric right at the very start. It was replaced by humility and a genuine desire to be better, to prove that they weren\'t a mistake.

They fumbled at the start, but once they discovered how quickly they were improving, all disagreement and skepticism disappeared. They learned to grasp the situation and knew how to cultivate real strength and power.m

The cadets never experienced such brutal hard work before. Sure, they\'ve trained hard before, but compared to this? Their previous experience might as well be called a warm-up.

Still, it was enlightening how much they\'re growing despite this hardship. Some of them thought that they hit the ceiling of their potential already and that the only way they could grow stronger was by earning more Demon Souls to level up, advance their Tiers, or upgrade their skills.

And all it took for them to find that out was to be abused and tortured by the Hellhounds and be the target of Cedric\'s ire.

Actually, Cedric only berated them harshly once. And that\'s two days ago when they all started this. They didn\'t hear any harsh words from him after that. However, that doesn\'t mean that Cedric laid off them.

Every cadet here knows that he\'s watching them at all times. How? Because periodically, someone or some people will hear his voice in their heads, either giving them instructions by pointing out what they\'re doing wrong and giving them a few ways to fix it, or by telling them to do something for him that will spice up the training.

All of them knew this. And it\'s astonishing because how is he even doing that? There\'s a hundred of them here, all at the same time! Just how absurd he senses were that he could achieve this?

It\'s like each time they thought that they\'d seen the ceiling of Cedric\'s abilities, he would do something to shatter their beliefs and make them realize just how much of a gap there really was between him and them.

The Squad Leaders felt this the most, that\'s what the majority of the cadets thought.

Because even as he kept observing all of them, they had never seen Cedric idle, even during their breaks. Each time they look at him, he\'s doing something important. And their poor Squad Leaders could barely keep up with him.

Everybody knows that Cedric was harsher to the Squad Leaders than the members. Sure, he isn\'t verbally abusing them or even directly hurting them, but the sheer pressure of his authority and skills pressed down on them.

Cedric held them to a higher standard because of their position, so he was much stricter towards them.

He forced them to confront the Cerberus - which still terrified the cadets by the way. The cadets saw how their leaders were maimed, burned, shocked, melted, and faint, all under the playful assault of the big three-headed puppy.

Neither Cedric nor the Cerberus discriminated against them. Male or female, they experienced the same, held to the same standard as Cedric was.

To top that off, even after experiencing so many close shaves to death, Cedric would just tell them to walk it off or worse, question them about the responsibilities of a leader.

Some cadets felt fortunate that they weren\'t chosen as Squad Leaders because if they did, they\'d experience that too. The hellhounds looked much tamer and cuter in comparison to what\'s happening there, so they prefer this instead.

Still, between the cadets and the leaders, one thing was constant. And that\'s progress. They are stronger, tougher, more resilient, and braver than who they were two days ago...two days ago!

They might\'ve suffered a lot but it wasn\'t for nothing. This was one thing they couldn\'t deny. And all of it, was because Cedric slapped them awake to reality.

**

Once again, the Knight Captains are watching the cadets from afar. Only a few of them were here but that\'s because not all of them have the leisure to do so.

"He came through." One of them said, sounding impressed by what he\'s seeing.

"Yeah, he did." Silverwing nodded. "I sensed his hesitance to do it before, but he still accepted the responsibility anyway. I thought that he would only do the bare minimum but he had proven me wrong."

"There\'s still two days left before they go on patrol again. If they can keep progressing like this, we shouldn\'t have to worry about more casualties."

The person who said this suddenly shivered, and not just because his colleagues turned to glare at him.

"Me and my god damned mouth." He swore under his breath, crossing his fingers and hoping he didn\'t just jinx it.

His colleagues could only roll their eyes at that.

"The academy really lucked out on him." A female Knight Captain sighed. "Silverwing, you better make sure this kid joins us after he graduates. It would be a waste of his talents to leave him out there! They will turn him into a mascot."

"Relax, I know what to do." Silverwing snorted, "Besides, I really don\'t think it\'s necessary. The kid\'s going places, sure. But I don\'t think he\'d be satisfied to just being a City Lord or a Governor and rot away like that."

Silverwing stroked his non-existent beard and continued: "I can recognize the look of ambition when I see one. And that kid has loads of it, despite the mask of discipline he wears at the time."

The rest went quiet after that. Silverwing wouldn\'t be wrong in his judgment, he\'s always been good at discerning people with that eye of his.

All of a sudden, their military badge buzzed. All of them took it out at the same time and the first buzz. They held it and analyzed what was happening...and when they did, their expressions fell.

"Shit!" One of the Knight Captains swore and immediately left. The rest of his colleagues weren\'t far behind him.

"How can this be? This doesn\'t make sense!" The female Knight Captain sounded distressed.

Silverwing gritted his teeth and refused to say anything. Inwardly, he\'s panicking too, he\'s just more disciplined about it.

Seeing the Knight Captains - leaders of 100 strong men who frequently deal with the horrors of the outside world, panicking like this was not an everyday occurrence. That\'s why whenever it happens, everyone will know that something earth-shaking just happened.

But right now, everyone would probably agree that it\'s for the best if the news they received doesn\'t spread for now.

After all, two men of the Lord Commander rank being gravely injured and currently fighting for their lives, would only cause widespread panic and chaos to the entire army.