Retreating back into higher ground, away from the suffocating spore basic, the caravan finally creaked to a halt, wagon wheels groaning as the instructors barked the order to stop.
A weary sigh swept across the line of students. Dust hung in the air, mixing with the metallic tang of dried blood.
This was when most of them finally paid attention to how they looked as they wiped the snort, tears, and dirt that smeared their faces.
Unlike the pristine group with clean and neatly ironed combat clothes that left Nexus Academy on a mission, the group was now battered and bruised by the trials of the Wild Zone.
They now looked like a group of wild men braving the wilderness. Gone was their clean hair and baby face naïve with excitement, all that was left was the grave look of boys who were turning into men, who had seen blood and slaughter.
