After weighing the pros and cons, Miles Sherman still felt they should just push through and cross the river.
No one could predict what might happen if they took a detour.
Zoe Pierce unhesitatingly gripped Miles Sherman’s outstretched hand. The falling raindrops were hitting her so hard she could barely keep her eyes open.
Miles stepped into the stream first. The water ca up to Zoe’s knees, but for him, it just barely covered his calves. After confirming there was nothing else in the water, Miles tightened his grip on Zoe’s hand. "Co on down."
Zoe followed him into the water. Even through the layer of her training uniform, the icy chill of the river water made her shiver.
Water in a mountain stream is always the coldest. On normal days, under a scorching sun, it could cool down a hot traveler and dispel the sweltering heat.
Not to ntion, with the drop in temperature, the constantly flowing water was now chilled to the bone.
She clenched her jaw, her wrists held tightly in Miles’s grasp as he pulled her forward.
The one silver lining was that the river’s current wasn’t so turbulent that they couldn’t stand. Zoe took a few steps in the water, focusing all her attention on staying right beside Miles.
The slightest lapse in concentration, and she could step on a moss-covered rock and slip at any mont.
Miles’s steps were cautious and deliberate. It was less like he was leading Zoe across the river by the hand and more like he was practically dragging her onto the bank.
After crossing the river, Zoe felt like her lower legs and feet were so frozen they were almost numb.
Miles found a spot that offered so ager shelter from the rain, and the two of them ducked underneath it for a mont. "Are your legs okay?"
His gaze fell on Zoe’s face. Her pretty features were now pale from the cold, and her lips had taken on a bluish tint instead of their normal color.
He turned his hand and took hers; it was just as icy.
"No, we can’t keep going," Miles said with a frown.
Zoe stomped her feet, rubbing her hands and face to warm herself up. "I’m fine. If I’m really not doing well, I’ll tell you. This rain looks like it’s going to last all night."
So if they delayed, they’d be stuck for the entire night.
Miles disagreed. "Zoe, your health is more important."
Zoe shook the water from the Intelligent Brain on her wrist. She wanted to say more, but the disapproval on Miles’s face clearly wasn’t going to be swayed easily.
"So tonight’s plan is off, isn’t it?" She hadn’t forgotten their plan for the evening: seize a supply point and eliminate another group.
Miles reassured her, "We’re not the only team with an Oga."
So they definitely weren’t the only squad affected.
Zoe took a deep breath. "Just wait a little longer. I really think I’m okay. You said you trusted ."
’Just give a little ti to recover.’
Miles: "..."
’When I said I trusted her before, this isn’t what I was talking about.’
But eting Zoe’s sowhat stubborn gaze, he couldn’t bring himself to refuse her outright. Instead, he glanced at the ti and said in a low voice, "You have five minutes. If your body temperature returns to a level I find acceptable, we can keep going."
The condition was a bit harsh. The judge hadn’t given a specific temperature; he could decide whether they continued based entirely on his own opinion.
But Zoe actually breathed a sigh of relief.
’As long as he’s willing to budge, that’s all that matters.’
So, Miles watched as Zoe started doing warm-up exercises in front of him. When the ti was up, she hesitantly held out her hand.
Miles reached out, not missing the nervousness in her eyes. After a mont, he said, "Let’s go."
A smile touched Zoe’s lips. She glanced at the coordinates of their rendezvous point and estimated the ti. If there were no more surprises, they would arrive in another fifteen minutes.
About ten minutes after the two of them left the rainy shelter, a group of seven or eight people ca jogging up to the sa spot.
"Soone’s been here." Traces were hard to spot in the rain, but in this sheltered area, the water stains and muddy prints were glaringly obvious.
"Two people." An Alpha skilled in analysis had already begun his investigation. "Based on the size of the footprints, I’d estimate it’s an Alpha and an Oga."
"Their direction was roughly this way." The direction of the incoming and outgoing footprints was different, and they could faintly distinguish them while standing there.
Soone glanced at the rain outside. "Judging by the tracks, they couldn’t have been gone long. Maybe fifteen minutes ago, twenty at the most."
Everyone’s gazes turned to the tallest man standing at the edge of the group. His looks weren’t particularly striking, but all the other Alphas subtly deferred to him as their leader.
On his black training uniform, the gold trim was conspicuous.
This was the team from the First Military Academy.
"After them," Victor Vance said, gazing into the distance. "That direction leads straight to the supply point. Their destination is the sa as ours."
"If they’re from our academy, we can expand our team. If they’re from the Federal Military Academy, we can eliminate them."
"An Alpha and an Oga won’t get far," he explained to the others. "Shawn Jarvis, give it a try. As we pursue them, see if you can use your spiritual power to picture what they look like."
So people’s spiritual power isn’t impressive in terms of Attack Power, but when used for other purposes, it can be surprisingly effective.
For example, the closer Shawn Jarvis’s spiritual power got to a person, the more he could retroactively sense what they had done and perform a trajectory analysis.
It was a type of Perception, with certain limitations, but it was exceptionally useful for tracking people.
"No problem," Shawn Jarvis agreed without hesitation.
The group plunged directly into the curtain of rain. Braving the downpour, they followed the trail in the direction Miles and Zoe had gone.
"It’s a tall Alpha and an Oga..." The others watched as Shawn Jarvis’s spiritual power drained away rapidly. "They’re wearing Federal Military Academy uniforms!"
"The other person’s spiritual power is higher than mine; I can’t make out his features." Shawn Jarvis said, panting, his brow furrowed. Rainwater ran down his nose and into his mouth, and he spit it out. "He’s definitely not an A-level Alpha."
He could usually picture the faces of Alphas at his own level. Even for those at the sa level with stronger spiritual power, he could at least make out the general contours of their facial features.
When he ran into a situation like this, where he couldn’t see any facial features at all, there was only one explanation: "It’s an S-Class Alpha."
An S-Class Alpha from the Federal Military Academy.
That narrowed it down considerably.
Miles Sherman’s squad.
Then Shawn Jarvis’s brow furrowed again. "Strange... I can’t see the Oga’s face either. Is her soothing ability really high?"
A situation like this had almost never happened before.
Victor Vance said directly, "It’s perfectly normal for the Oga on Miles Sherman’s team to have a high soothing ability. Are you sure it’s just the two of them?"
Shawn Jarvis was certain of this. "Their steps were rushed. They must be on their way to rendezvous."
The others clearly found this explanation plausible. After all, everyone on Miles Sherman’s squad was S-Class, so the probability of them being eliminated was extrely low. It was most likely that they had split up to act separately, and the rain had delayed them, leading to their discovery.
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