The Veilwalker

James observed the kids fight the void creatures with a calm gaze, making sure to keep an eye out for any errors on their part.

He also took a mental note of their fights, noticing some of the mistakes they made to correct them once they finished off the creatures.

'Ross is all about strength and power; very impressive. However, …'

James noticed how his actions forced him to tank the beam of the void creatures. He planned on speaking to the boy after.

Power was the way to go when battling void creatures, but if it left a person too exposed for others to attack, then it was being done wrong.

'It seems I stand corrected,' he smiled when Ross adopted a different strategy for facing the void creatures.

Instead of sticking to his earlier style, Ross switched things up and allowed the void creatures to close in on his position before using his vastly superior speed to play around them, eliminating them one by one with simple, yet powerful killing moves that left no room for regeneration.

It also helped that his ability was literally designed for destructive moves.

'That's good.'

As awakened at their level, they had a lot of stamina to spare. Getting tired was hardly seen, especially since the Manastorm form was discovered.

Hunters could divide themselves into teams where some would focus on using pure physical power to create openings for the ability users to finish the void creatures off.

However, for Ross and his colleagues, their first hunt was solo as there were too many void creatures for them to properly adopt a team strategy.

Then he turned to Julia and observed her style as well. He was most worried for Julia as even though she focused on getting stronger over the years, she had never been the same.

'I haven't seen her radiant smile in years…' James sighed. 'Then there is the cold demeanour she always has on.'

There had been times when he stumbled on Julia crying silently in her room, and it broke his heart to see the girl he was sworn to protect fall into the pits of despair.

'Yet, she always came back with a stronger determination to keep moving.' James smiled at the memories, both the good and the bad.
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He watched as Julia lunged at her next void creature, swiftly evading another jet stream of fiery energy blasts before condensing an energy blast of her own, sending it towards the void creature.

'That won't be enough. They may be Class D and F but it takes more than that to kill them. It would only be a waste of mana on her part.' He thought and the exact scenario happened.

The void creature took the brunt of the attack, ending up with half its upper body frozen. When Julia failed to do a follow-up as a result of another void creature coming in close, the creature blazed with energy and dissolved the ice.

The creature resumed its charge towards Julia as if nothing happened, completely neutralizing Julia's attack to nil.

'She has noticed as well… They sure learn fast.'

They may have attended the academy and learned all there was to know about hunting and even ran hunting simulations, but nothing beats the real thing, and James was glad they were smart enough to learn from their little mistakes.

'Then there is the arrogant one. Haa…. Where did this kid pick such habits?'

James couldn't understand why Henry would stand aloof like some nobleman on a noble mission.

'His moves are impressive, no doubt about that. But waiting for the target to get to him that way is just asking to be taken by force.'

Without actively moving, it was difficult to gather momentum and superimpose attack power in a combo move.

That meant Henry would have to expend new energy to execute moves where gathered momentum could be used in other attacks.

He observed as the boy moved gracefully, cutting and slicing the void creatures with speed and precision, not putting in too much power.

His kills were beautiful and conserved a large portion of the void creatures' carcass, but it was not really the way to go, especially when dealing with void creatures.

In a situation where he was overwhelmed by many creatures, adopting a power approach where the resulting shockwaves could blast the creatures back and buying time for follow-up attacks was ideal.

The creatures weren't very smart, at least for those at this level, so it wasn't an issue to adopt such an approach.

'Hm… As long as he is not dying, I guess it's all good. But… I'm gonna have to talk to him about that.'

James couldn't just stand there and watch the kid do the wrong thing when he was tasked to monitor and correct their habits and errors in a fight.

The fighting continued for several minutes as the trio moved at insane speeds throughout the destroyed star system, dodging and killing void creatures and learning from their mistakes.

'Overall, they have grown well… If only…'

He too missed Alex very much. The kid was destined for great things, yet fate decided to play a cruel trick on him.

'If he was still with us, I wonder how strong he would have become. Would he still remain stuck at his level or would he have found a way and break all known theories about awakened.'

He smiled in reminiscence, a small smile gracing his features behind his helm.

[Sir, I just received word from the empire's network.]

The captain's voice echoed in James's suit, drawing his attention from the fight that was nearing its end.

There was no need for him to make a move and his scans from earlier revealed no hidden dangers around.

'They should be wrapping up soon…'

[Yes, what is it?]

If word was reaching him when he was out hunting, it meant the information was something important he had to know.

However, the words that came next left him frozen in his spot.

[It's the missing boy, Alexander… His signal came back online…]