Chapter 421: The Sword

Raze arrived in Nexus with twelve Mythal Hunters and absolutely no interest in sightseeing.

His group stepped out of the transport vehicles outside the Hunter Association’s eastern training complex. Each Hunter carried their own equipment, and their expressions showed the confidence of people who had survived battles that would have overwhelmed ordinary teams.

Raze looked toward the training grounds.

"Where are the Hunters?"

A Nexus officer standing beside the entrance blinked.

"Good morning to you, too. I’m the liaison assigned to your group. I can arrange a tour of the facilities before we begin."

"Can the tour fight?"

"No."

"Then we can skip it."

The officer stared at him.

One of the Mythal Hunters coughed into his fist, apparently hiding a laugh.

Raze turned toward his group.

"Equipment check. Ten minutes. Anyone who isn’t ready when I return can explain to Kai why we wasted the trip."

The Hunters immediately dispersed.

The Nexus officer watched them go before looking at Raze again.

"Are they always this... direct?"

"Usually they’re worse."

Raze started walking.

The officer hurried after him.

...

Kai, Sera, Lily, and Aren were waiting near the main training field when Raze arrived. Several Nexus Hunters had already gathered, including experienced members of the Hunter Association who had volunteered for the joint exercise.

Aren stood near the front, looking Raze over with open curiosity.

"So you’re the Sword of Mythal."

Raze stopped in front of him.

"You fight?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Aren waited for more.

Raze looked toward the training field.

"Because I need someone to hit."

Aren stared at him.

"That’s your introduction?"

"Did you want a speech?"

"No. I was expecting something more complicated."

"Then you came to the wrong place."

Sera sighed.

Kai watched the exchange with a familiar expression.

"I told you he was like this."

"You did," Sera replied. "I just hoped you were exaggerating."

Raze heard them.

"I can still hear you."

"Good," Sera said. "That saves us from repeating ourselves."

Lily laughed, while Aren shook his head and stepped onto the field.

Despite the exchange, there was no real hostility between them. Aren was curious about the man who had helped Mythal survive its Disasters, and Raze was interested in finding out whether Nexus’s reputation matched its actual combat ability.

The Nexus Hunters assembled around the field.

Raze studied them before speaking.

"I’ve heard plenty about this city. You’ve got powerful Hunters, experienced teams, and some impressive defensive systems. I’m not here to tell you that Mythal is stronger."

He pointed toward the training area.

"I’m here to find out whether we can fight together when the situation stops going according to plan."

A Nexus Hunter near the front raised his hand.

"Are we testing individual combat ability or team coordination?"

"Both. But if you want to prove how strong you are, there’s a sparring ring over there. Today, I’m interested in what happens when your opponent stops being the most important thing in front of you."

The Hunter lowered his hand.

Raze looked toward Aren.

"You wanted something complicated. Let’s see if you can handle something simple first."

...

The first exercise was a straightforward sparring match.

Aren faced Raze in the center of the training field, with the other Hunters watching from the sidelines. The rules were simple. No lethal attacks, no outside interference, and the match ended when one fighter was forced out of the marked area or surrendered.

Aren adjusted his stance.

"Are you going to give me a chance to prepare?"

"You’re standing in front of me. Prepare."

Raze moved.

Aren barely managed to block the first strike. The impact forced him backward, and he had to turn his shoulder to redirect the second blow rather than absorb it directly.

Raze didn’t give him time to recover.

Aren retreated toward the edge of the ring, then changed direction and used a quick feint to create an opening. He struck at Raze’s exposed side, forcing the Mythal leader to shift his stance.

The watching Hunters reacted with a few impressed murmurs.

Raze smiled.

"Better."

He advanced again, forcing Aren to defend against a series of attacks. Aren used his knowledge of positioning to avoid being trapped against the boundary, but he couldn’t control the pace of the exchange.

When Raze finally drove him out of the marked area, Aren landed on his feet and immediately looked back toward the ring.

"That was quick."

"You’re still standing."

"That’s a generous way to describe losing."

"You didn’t panic when I pressured you, and you found an opening. That’s enough for a first round."

Raze extended a hand.

Aren accepted it.

"I suppose I should thank you for not throwing me into the wall."

"Don’t thank me. I was considering it."

Sera shook her head while Kai watched the Nexus Hunters’ reactions.

The match had accomplished its purpose. Raze had demonstrated the difference in their combat styles, but he had also shown that he was paying attention to Aren’s decisions rather than judging him solely by the result.

Then Raze turned toward the assembled teams.

"Now we’ll find out what happens when fighting well isn’t enough."

...

The second exercise used a simulated evacuation scenario.

The Nexus Hunters were assigned to protect a route leading from a residential district to a designated shelter. The Mythal Hunters would act as an opposing force, applying pressure from several directions without using lethal attacks.

The Nexus team received a map, an objective, and a clear instruction.

Protect the evacuation route.

The exercise began.

The Mythal Hunters advanced through the training grounds, forcing Nexus’s defenders to engage them at several points. The Nexus Hunters responded well. Their front line held, their ranged fighters controlled the open approaches, and their support members kept the defenders from being overwhelmed.

Aren coordinated one section of the field, using his understanding of the terrain to prevent the opposing team from surrounding them.

For the first few minutes, Nexus appeared to have the advantage.

Then Raze changed the objective.

One Mythal Hunter withdrew from the main engagement and moved toward an alternate path leading to the simulated shelter. Two others increased pressure on the defenders, drawing their attention away from the route.

A Nexus Hunter spotted the movement.

"Enemy flanking the shelter!"

He immediately pursued.

Two teammates followed, leaving a gap in the formation.

The Mythal Hunters recognized the opening and pushed through it. Another Nexus defender abandoned his position to reinforce the pursuit, exposing the route from a different direction.

Within seconds, the evacuation corridor was open.

Raze raised his hand.

"Stop!"

Everyone froze.

The training display changed.

EVACUATION ROUTE COMPROMISED

SIMULATED CIVILIAN LOSSES: 47

Several Nexus Hunters stared at the result.

One of them lowered his weapon.

"We had them. If we’d finished the engagement, we could have pushed them back."

"You were winning the fight," Raze replied. "You were losing the objective."

The Hunter frowned.

"The flanking unit was heading toward the shelter. We had to stop it."

"You had to protect the shelter. Those aren’t the same thing."

Raze pointed toward the abandoned positions.

"You saw an enemy moving toward your objective, so you chased it. You didn’t ask whether pursuing it was the best way to protect the route. You didn’t check whether someone else could intercept it, and you didn’t consider what would happen if your position became empty."

Another Hunter spoke up.

"We couldn’t wait for orders while the enemy was moving."

"Correct. You shouldn’t have waited. But acting quickly doesn’t mean acting without considering what your team needs."

Raze let the words settle before continuing.

"During the Second Disaster, Mythal faced threats coming from several directions. We couldn’t chase every enemy or defend every position with the same number of Hunters. We had to decide which positions mattered, who could move, and what we could afford to lose."

He looked at the group.

"Your fighters are strong. Your reactions are fast. But the moment the situation changed, several of you abandoned the job you were assigned to do."

Nobody argued.

Aren studied the map, focusing on the routes the Mythal Hunters had used.

"The problem wasn’t that we failed to react. We reacted to the wrong thing. We treated every threat as something we had to confront directly instead of deciding which threats could actually reach the shelter."

Raze turned toward him.

"Go on."

"We need alternate interception points. If an enemy leaves the main engagement, another team should be able to block its route without pulling defenders away from the evacuation corridor. We also need fallback positions in case communication fails."

Raze examined the map again.

"Can you build a formation around that?"

"I can propose one. We’ll need to test it against different approaches."

"Then do it."

...

Aren worked with the Nexus and Mythal Hunters to redesign the exercise.

Instead of relying on one fixed defensive line, they divided the training ground into several connected zones. Each zone had a primary team, a fallback position, and an alternate route that could be used if the main approach became unsafe.

The Hunters also agreed on simple signals for when communication failed. No one would need to wait for a central order before moving to a designated fallback position, but any change that affected the evacuation route had to be communicated immediately.

Lily watched the revised layout appear on the training display.

"This is much better. The first arrangement assumed everyone could see the same information. This one accounts for what happens when they can’t."

"It’s also less rigid," Aren said. "The teams can adjust their positions without abandoning the overall objective."

Raze crossed his arms.

"Let’s see if it survives contact with my Hunters."

The second attempt began.

The Mythal Hunters attacked from the same initial positions, but they quickly changed their approach. One team applied pressure to the defenders while another attempted to reach the alternate route.

This time, the Nexus Hunters didn’t chase blindly.

Aren’s team held its position while a second group moved to intercept the flanking unit. When the Mythal Hunters changed direction again, the defenders shifted to their fallback positions, keeping the evacuation route protected.

One Nexus Hunter spotted an opening and called for support rather than leaving his post alone. His teammates responded, and together they forced the opposing unit away from the shelter.

The Mythal Hunters tried one final maneuver, splitting into two groups to draw the defenders apart.

The Nexus team held.

The simulation ended.

EVACUATION ROUTE: SECURE

SIMULATED CIVILIAN LOSSES: 0

A cheer rose from the Nexus side of the field.

Aren exhaled and looked toward Raze.

"Better?"

Raze studied the results before nodding.

"Much better. You stopped trying to win every fight and started protecting the reason you were fighting."

He looked at the Nexus Hunters.

"Don’t mistake this result for mastery. We used a familiar field, known objectives, and a limited number of variables. A real emergency will be harder."

The Hunters quieted, but their expressions had changed. They had failed once, understood why, and corrected the problem without being humiliated for it.

Raze continued.

"We’ll run this exercise again tomorrow with different terrain, damaged communication channels, and objectives that change halfway through. I want you to learn how to adapt, not memorize today’s solution."

Aren smiled.

"Are you always this demanding?"

"Yes."

"Good. I was worried the first exercise had been an exception."

Raze gave him a rare approving grin.

"You might be useful after all."

Sera let out a long sigh.

"I’m going to regret having both of you in the same place, aren’t I?"

Kai watched the teams begin discussing their mistakes and successes.

"Probably."

...

As the training grounds emptied, Kai considered what the day had accomplished.

Elden had made Nexus’s infrastructure more resilient. Mira had strengthened the systems that protected civilians. Raze had shown the Hunters how to adapt when the battlefield changed.

None of those contributions could replace the others.

A perfect defense was useless if people couldn’t reach safety. An evacuation plan was useless if the teams protecting it abandoned their positions. And the strongest Hunters in the world could still lose if they couldn’t coordinate their actions.

Raze approached Kai as the last training group left the field.

"Nexus has enough powerful Hunters. Their problem isn’t a lack of strength. They need more practice operating when the situation changes and their usual formations stop working."

"Can you continue the joint training?"

"That’s the plan. We’ll rotate the terrain, change the objectives, and introduce communication failures. I also want Aren involved in designing the scenarios. He understands these ruins better than most of the people here."

Aren looked pleased by the recognition.

"I’ll help, provided you stop trying to throw me into walls."

"No promises."

Kai shook his head.

Then a sharp tone sounded from his phone.

The central network had sent an update.

Kai opened the report, and his expression became serious.

The signal’s transmission pattern had changed again. This time, the network had recorded a more substantial shift in its movement data.

The available information was still incomplete, but the previous estimates could no longer be trusted.

Raze noticed the change in Kai’s expression.

"What happened?"

"The signal changed. The network is recalculating its trajectory."

"And?"

Kai read the report once more.

"We may have less time than we thought."

The training ground fell quiet.

Raze looked toward the city beyond the facility, where Nexus’s defenses were still being inspected and the alliance was only beginning to take shape.

"Then we’d better make tomorrow’s training count."

Kai closed the report.

The alliance had learned to work together, strengthened its infrastructure, and improved its response to changing conditions.

But the approaching signal was still beyond their understanding.

And the time they had to prepare might already be running out.