Rhaevia spent the next hour turning the scattered survivors into something resembling an organized, functioning military unit.
"Don’t stand out in the open where you make an easy target," she commanded, her voice calm and firm as she pointed toward a cluster of heavy boulders. "Move those three smaller stones to the eastern perimeter, but leave a narrow gap directly between them."
A tall student hesitated, wiping dirt from his forehead as he looked at her in confusion. "Why would we leave an opening in our own defense line?"
"Because anything attempting to approach from that direction will be forced directly through the gap," Rhaevia explained flatly, her eyes already scanning the rest of the terrain. "It creates a bottleneck, turning a wide attack into a manageable line of single targets."
She pointed toward a high rocky ridge behind them. "Place the strongest physical combatants behind that ridge, keep the injured students behind them, and place the Guides in the center where they can be protected from every angle."
The cadets exchanged hesitant, bewildered glances, visibly stunned by the level of tactical skill displayed by an E-rank student. Yet, nobody dared to argue with her this time. They moved quickly, heaving the heavy rocks into position exactly as she had instructed.
Rhaevia walked through the makeshift encampment, inspecting every defensive position before making quick and practical adjustments.
"Never build a defensive barrier where your squad can be easily surrounded," she told a group of freshmen fortifying the western side. "Don’t waste precious physical energy clearing unnecessary terrain, and always ensure you keep at least two clear escape routes available at all times."
Her instructions were simple, sharp, and intensely practical. They were entirely stripped of the complex and theoretical military manual jargon taught at the academy, honed instead by real battlefield survival.
The surrounding students soon came to a silent realization: every single thing she taught them had a clear, undeniable reason behind it.
When the dark shadows of evening began settling across the wasteland, Rhaevia quietly slipped away from the camp and disappeared into the dense surrounding vegetation. She moved with silent, feline grace, navigating the unfamiliar alien flora with the ease of a veteran scout.
She returned twenty minutes later carrying several neat bundles of unfamiliar, thick leaves and clusters of small purple berries.
A young noble girl stared at the strange plants suspiciously, keeping her distance. "Are those things actually edible?"
"Yes," Rhaevia answered simply, sitting down on a flat stone.
"How could you possibly know that?" the girl pressed, eyeing the unfamiliar flora. "The academy manual doesn’t list these species anywhere."
Rhaevia did not bother looking up as she began methodically separating the fibrous leaves. "Experience."
She placed several leaves between two flat, heavy stones and crushed them into a dark paste before mixing in a few drops of water. The dark green mixture gave off a sharp, medicinal scent that made several cadets wrinkle their noses in skepticism.
A small group of wounded students watched her movements with intense curiosity. "What are you making with that?"
"Medicine," she replied briefly.
She approached the most severely injured student and gently pressed the herbal paste directly onto his deep, bleeding leg wound. Within moments, the sharp stinging subsided, and the heavy bleeding gradually slowed to a faint trickling stop.
Everyone stared in absolute silence at the miraculous results.
The military shuttle’s standard medical supplies were running dangerously low, yet this supposedly useless girl had effortlessly extracted a functional remedy from a hostile wilderness. Without anyone explicitly vocalizing it, the stranded cadets quietly began depending on her for everything.
When they needed to locate clean drinking water, they sought out Rhaevia. When they needed to know which directions were safe for gathering firewood, they consulted Rhaevia.
And whenever another distant Zerg screech echoed across the dark wasteland, every eye in the camp instinctively turned toward her calm face for reassurance. The heavy weight of fear that had paralyzed the freshmen slowly lifted, replaced by a strange, collective reliance on an E-rank cadet.
Even the elite students who had mocked her earlier had completely stopped laughing, humbled by her competence. They quietly performed their assigned duties, stealing occasional, awe-filled glances in her direction.
Only one person remained stubbornly defiant.
The arrogant physical combatant who had challenged her authority earlier stood near the perimeter with folded arms, his expression bitter.
"Don’t get too pleased with yourself," he sneered as she passed by.
Rhaevia paused and glanced at him briefly, her dark eyes devoid of any emotion.
"You’re still just an E-rank trash at the end of the day," he muttered, keeping his voice low. "Finding a few wild plants doesn’t change your rank or make you a real military officer."
Several nearby students frowned at his stubbornness, but Rhaevia merely turned away without saying a word. Ignorance was harmless on its own, but in a warzone, it would become fatal. She had no intention of wasting breath on someone who refused to see reality.
She carried the remaining plant supplies toward a secluded, rocky overhang she had chosen for her own shelter. The small nook provided excellent overhead cover and a clear line of sight across the central encampment.
As she set the bundles down, something unusual in the dirt caught her eye.
Half-buried beneath the dark soil was a small, smooth black crystal. It was completely unlike any of the natural rock formations surrounding the valley.
Its surface was polished to a metallic sheen, and faint, crimson veins pulsed rhythmically beneath its dark exterior. It seemed to breathe in the dim twilight, radiating a subtle, eerie warmth.
Rhaevia crouched down beside it, her eyes narrowing.
Her instincts immediately screamed at her not to touch the unknown object. Yet, deep within her soul, something about the strange energy emanating from the crystal felt unnervingly, irresistibly familiar.
It hummed with an ancient resonance that stirred the dormant depths of her mind. Driven by a sudden impulse, she slowly extended her right hand toward the stone.
The exact second her bare fingertips brushed against the smooth surface...
BOOM!
A violent surge of raw, terrifying energy exploded through her body, flooding her nervous system.
Rhaevia’s pupils contracted sharply into tiny points. Her heart abruptly seized, stopping for half a beat as the overwhelming force crashed through her veins.
The ground around her seemed to vanish into a sea of absolute crimson light. Then, deep within the dormant core of her physical frame, something long-buried suddenly awakened.
A blinding pulse of unfamiliar, transcendent mental energy raced through her body like wildfire. It shattered the invisible chains binding her soul, expanding rapidly outward across the barren landscape.
And somewhere far within the deepest, darkest depths of her mind, an ancient voice quietly answered.