Lieutenant Raff winked towards Scarlett and Z as he made his way to check up on the casualties.

"Tch, he saw right through me. Lying hasn't always been my strong suit."

Z thought to himself, even with incubator training he didn't have the capabilities to be a spy.

After Private Tristan was done with the treatment, the casualties managed to wake up, albeit not fully recovered, the only one with spring in his step was Odrunn, who has his own healing manifest.

Gathering the team, Lieutenant Raff started giving his brief.

"This situation is not the best, we almost lost the members of our team, but with that being said, I hope we can all take this as a lesson and learn to be vigilant always.

Usually, the illusion bat will never leave in the day and will never work with another beast. For these 2 beasts to work together I believe that there is something fishy going on.

So, I've decided that for safety's sake, we will not be moving as subunits but together as one. This way it will decrease the chances of attacks."

Lieutenant Raff ended his brief, he was sure that there was something weird going on in the forest, but at the same time, he wasn't that confident to assure the team that if they were to move in subunits he would be able to protect them. After thinking for a bit, Lieutenant Raff turned to Z and beckoned him to come.

"Yes sir?"

Z asked, curious to see if he was going to be chewed out for lying to his superior.

"You did well to defend against the bear beast, unfortunately, your artefact broke and you have no manifest, so you're defenseless."

Lieutenant Raff took out a wrist guard from his satchel, it was plain and simple looking with no jewels and adornments of any kind, he tossed it to Z prompting him to instinctively catch it.

"This was left behind by a friend, he was also a vanguard, but would often go on the offensive even though he knew that he couldn't beat an enemy. It was this recklessness that caused him to see his end."

Lieutenant Raff sighed, you could see the melancholy in his eyes as he talked about his deceased friend.

"Since you need an artefact, I'm handing this over to you. As a reminder that you shouldn't be that reckless in the future. Once you equip this wrist guard, you'll be able to create a small buckler of energy to defend yourself. It isn't much but at least you have somewhat of an out. In the future, please just defend and try to wait for backup."

Lieutenant Raff smiled as he walked back into the group, asking them to get ready to move out.

Z equipped the wrist guard, it adjusted itself and was a snug fit. He pushed on the activation switch and a buckler made of energy appeared, it practically had no weight and it was good for offence and defence. But of course, after the speech that Lieutenant Raff gave, he decided that maybe for the time being he shouldn't go on the offensive anymore.

'scratch' the sound of feet dragging against the forest floor sounded out, although Odrunn and David were more or less healed, Wallas who had a weaker body was still struggling and had to be supported by Vero.

Walking through the dark forest they had to constantly munch on nutrition bars to keep their energy up, the water supply was also crucial, but with Soli on the team, it wasn't that important.

Soon, night fell, the dark forest was more intimidating than it was during the day, there were more nocturnal beasts than there are those in the day. They had to rush to a specific safe area to set up camp, one which was not left too much up in the open for all manner of beasts to attack them.

Team 15A had already sped up quite a lot, with all members that were injured speedily recovering. They finally made it to the safe area just after sunset. Upon reaching the safe area, lieutenant Raff reached into his satchel and fished out two pieces of glowing rock, he walked to the machine in the center of the camp and slot it in.

The machine in the center wasn't very big, it was waist height for lieutenant Raff and it was about the size of a human being on its width. The machine started whirring as a blue barrier appeared surrounding the site. It was based on the premise of a shield artefact, but it was much stronger. Having it around would give the people within a much better rest, but at the same time, they couldn't be less vigilant.

Upon setting up camp, Lieutenant Raff started to allocate duties to those in the camp. There were sentry duties to be had within the camp and prowling duties just outside the camp. The support team couldn't do prowling as it was a bit too risky for them to be out there, so they were just put for sentry. A total of 3 shifts was given out throughout the night and it would only stop around daybreak.

"Vero and Kyzil, you'll take the 1st shift for prowling, if there is anything alert the rest and don't handle it on your own.

Rockboy, Fatboy, you'll handle sentry for the 1st shift. Likewise stay alert if there is anything peculiar happening within the site, alert everyone.

For shift 2, the two scouts will go out and handle the prowling, same as the previous members, don't engage on your own.

The two support members, you'll be handling the sentry for the 2nd shift.

Lastly, Scarlett, you and Zero will go for prowling for the last shift, I'll take the 3rd shift and remain awake for the remainder of the time to be sentry.

For this time, we'll let the offence team take a rest, they are instrumental in tomorrow's assault and we need them in top form."

Lieutenant Raff gave the orders and the ones that were on the first shift started to walk to their allocated locations, the rest set up some makeshift tentages and proceeded to take their rest.