Jim bravely ran headfirst into the snare laid out for them, eliciting a series of yelps as he stirred up the hornet’s nest.

The ambushers had quickly given up on their hiding place, after what they thought as a scout stumbling onto them.

 A clash of weapons shortly ensued, and on hearing that as his cue, Edward fired a series of very precise shots at his targets. Regardless they are visible or not, his arrows struck them heavily on their torsos and limbs, aiding in Jim’s escape.

With the archer’s help, the young saboteur retreated quickly, twisting around the trees while dodging their foes, he quickly disappeared from sight; only their Soul Perception made it easy to estimate how many pursuers are following behind.

"Looks like we managed to pull out all five teams. Luciette sure is fast in her counterattacks. Everyone, it's time to head back!" Kairos laughed like a hunter who had just snared a large prey.

The group turned and ran without waiting, letting Jim catch up with them. Their strategy of sending a single person as bait forced their opponents to traverse the difficult terrain, with only a single target to follow.

A moment later Jim reappeared in sight, and now with scrapes and bruises covering him, but no one is anxious for their friend.

Just half a month of intensive cultivation have brought them to equal grounds to the average students. Their swift improvements largely due to the new cultivation method they adopted. Along with their runic weapons and their unique Soul Perception ability, they are definitely difficult to be taken down.

The days where Kairos and his team gets beaten up, even when their group sprung a sneak attack on a single opponent, now seems like a distant memory.

The trackers followed closely behind, just as they expected, a huge success on Jim’s part to lure them out.

In fact, the light wounds and bruises on him were purposefully received to encourage the Blue Teams to continue chasing. Every scratch gave the other team hope that they are about to catch their target, but in truth, they might be as well on the other side of the planet. Regardless, it was a pain he was prepared to suffer, for if they found out he could have fought them without receiving a single blow, he would not have made a very good bait.

Perhaps, it is better to say that Jim was in no position of danger from the outset. They only needed to bring their opponents to the right place where they could capture as many targets as possible. Like a fisherman that pulls the net when the fishes are in place.

But first, they have to help their saboteur.

With the distance between them becoming shorter by the moment, Jim waited for the most opportune moment before making an attempt to disengage his pursuers, at the same time Kairos commanded with a hiss, “Now!”

At that instant, everyone stopped fleeing and instead jumped into action. They turned with great haste, towards extracting their friend as the two parties clashed savagely; the five sorely outnumbered by their opponents, chose to concentrate their efforts on falling back to safety.

With resounding success, the two sides parted once again after the short skirmish, creating a small distance between them, but as expected, the blue team did not give up the chase. Fortunately, for now, their pursuers had not noticed anything odd about the entire situation and continued giving chase.

 If anything, the short bout only served to motivate the Blue Team’s ambushers, but this only caused a smile to creep across their faces.

After all, a lure that is not moving energetically cannot reel in a big fish.

They moved steadily, with Kairos’ side giving a good show of being pressured until Jim stumbled from an exposed tree root.

To the other side, it only looked as though the previous scuffles had taken more wind out of the saboteur than everyone expected.

Seeing that someone fell and the rest of the team stopping for him, the blue team members laughed and quickly caught up.

"End of the chase guys. Surrender your badge, and we'll let you off without a beating." A boy with an F ranked blue badge says as his men fan out to surround them.

At first glance, the boy’s tall, lithe figure with lean, powerful muscles, and shaggy hair made him look like a wild beast, but the high-quality clothes that he is wearing gave away his station as a noble.

Just his presence alone set him apart from the rest. He is clearly superior, an F ranker that could wipe out their entire team by himself.

"I am Alucard. What's your name?" He asked, his eyes glowing menacingly red as he looks directly at Kairos. There is no need for him to ask who the leader of the five is.

"Kairos. It seems that Luciette has sent quite a few guys this time. 25 of you aren't I right?" Kairos replies without a hint of fear in his large black eyes.

A look of surprise flash across Alucard's eyes.

To prevent their prey from fleeing, and to encourage Kairos’ squad to engage in combat, all this while, he only had ten of them to give chase directly. The rest are hidden further away from detection in an attempt to overtake and surround their targets.

Having been found out so easily, Alucard immediately recognised that it was not an overestimation of this team’s abilities when Luciette sent that many out against them.

Firstly, this level of astuteness his opponents have is simply uncanny.

Secondly, the J rank badge they donned is a terrible indicator, as though the five have something malicious to hide, and that only served to unnerve him.

And, lastly, the amount of time that these boys used to take down three Blue Team scouts are much too fast for comfort.

The only assuring thing in this situation is that they outnumber their foes five to one. Alucard even felt a bit fortunate to have finally caught up with these slippery rascals. However, unknown to him, facing these many opponents is within Kairos’ calculations.

Hiding a grin, the five of them suddenly turned and bolted despite their enemies encroaching onto their position, causing Alucard’s men to give chase almost instinctively. 

They believed with their superior numbers they have the advantage, and definitely, would not let their prey flee.

At this same instant, Alucard urgently yelled, "Wait!", but it is already too late.

He had noticed that they are standing, perhaps not so coincidentally, in a small clearing surrounded by trees. But, he did not notice a tiny trail of grey dust, tracing across the grassy land.

As the five ran, Jim, the fastest among them, took the time to strike a match and allowed a spark to fall. Immediately, the grey dust caught into flames, and the Blue Team noticed with alarm as a line of fire rapidly sped towards them. Then, it split into eight directions, towards the Cardinal and InterCardinal points.

Each trail ended at an oil bottle, kept hidden among the trees. The heat quickly caused the solution within to explode into a ring of fire that effectively trapped most of the 25 Blue Team ambushers.

The firewall is created from a newly invented chemical fuel specially approved for this exercise. Though it creates extreme heat, it does not spread, and therefore wouldn’t burn off the rest of the forest, rendering their training exercise into a fire fighting exercise.

The blazing circle of flames immediately caused several screams from the blue team. Although the robes each student is wearing are imbued with runes that provide powerful protection against all elements, and thus prevented them from being burned alive, but the heat still forced them to back off.

When the blue teams found themselves huddled in the middle of the clearing, back to back, the traps that Edward and Jim have setup at the start of their operation triggered, sending a rain of arrows and bombs to hit the guys that were after them. All the previous preparations were for the sake of gathering their opponents in an area small enough to be blasted off into submission.

The luring, the fire circle, and even this moment. One step at a time, they tightened the noose around the neck of their stronger opponent, until it became too late by the time they realised.

The bombs are made of things that they took on this mission. Metal pellets, controlled explosives, approved tranquillizers, approved lethargy inducers, approved hallucinogens, dishwashing detergents and even Jim's bag of candies which he had unfortunately left forgotten in his haste.

It was quite literally a trap that they had put in everything they had. While the assortment seemed random at first, the effect of every item started to take effect and complimented each other.

As the hidden weapons (and candies) struck their foes like an engulfing tidal wave, different coloured smoke started gassing the area one after another, reducing visibility to a minimum. The splattered dishwashing liquid reduced mobility. The drugs befuddled them.

Meanwhile, masking themselves within the smoke, the five are the only ones that manoeuvre with ease, thanks to their Soul Perception. And within the confusion, they dealt their enemies a heavy blow while snatching as many badges as they could in the process. Jim, of course, also took the opportunity to retrieve some of his lost candies. Those precious confectionaries come in once a month in the canteen and are usually reserved for the better students.

Only he knows how difficult it was to procure them.

Suddenly, the group sensed, at the same time, that their opponents are activating some countermeasures.

“Talismans!” Kairos breathed, “We’re pulling out!”

Unfortunately, even with this amount of traps, it is hard to say how long they can incapacitate the other team. And also, they can feel that after their initial luring, new enemies are drawing close.

They made a fast decision to retreat. Even though they do not have the time to expel these guys by tying their limbs up, but by taking their badges it will still earn the team extra points.

With this ‘Pluck-and-run’ tactic, Kairos' group ran off quickly before the rest of the bombs finish blasting off.

However, before they could escape, a whiplash of wind cleared the surrounding flames along with the rest of the trap devices.

Kairos’ team did not stay to watch the result, choosing to dash madly away from their foes. Judging from the powerful effect, which instantly cleared out their meticulous setups, it is probably from an advance talisman that only high nobles could afford.

"Hurry, after them!" the blue team’s captain shouted and his men tried to fight off the crippling drugs to obey his command. They had shielded themselves with all kinds of techniques and artefacts, but only a few of them managed to avoid passing out. Those that could move started pouring into the dense woods after Kairos' team, but lacking a step behind, things are already too late.

From there the five ran non-stop till they re-join George's base.

Half an hour later, when they came close to the East Hill, they witnessed with wide-eyes at the new base camp standing gloriously before them. 

It is clear that George had planned to create a fortress. The newly erected walls are made from the thick timber taken from the nearby forest, forming a respectable defensive structure. While the flatland where the trees were extracted, now became exposed and it decreased the types of ambush tactics available for Luciette. Additionally, a moat is being dug out at this moment, although Kairos does not know what how George intends to fill it.

Such a massive construction, done in less than a day, is only possible because they are all cultivators. Of course, George's swift but clear directions also played a significant role.

With this new base, along with the recent successes of Kairos' team, Luciette is rapidly losing her advantageous grounds.

The five found a sturdy gate and easily identified themselves to the guards. After a gap was pulled open, most of his team eagerly went for a well-deserved break. Kairos, however, have another obligation to complete. Holding the badges they collected in his hand he strolled into the central war tent of the temporary base to give his report.

Now, face to face with his commander, he dropped their bounty on the table with a smile.

"23 Badges?!" George exclaims as he saw the sheer amount of metal tokens handed to him.