Moss pointed toward the passage when his teammates arrived. However, his teammates did not look where he pointed. Instead, they curiously looked at the little Lightning Rabbit rubbing its head against Moss.
“What’s going on here?” Alan stared at the Magical Beast and asked.
“Did you tame it?”
“It’s so cute!”
“Captain, are you trying to be considerate since I’ve never tamed a Magical Beast?” Baylon asked.
Moss shook his head when he heard his teammates talking. “I wanted a companion for Little Seven, and this guy was around. It was just a spur of the moment.”
“Gah, please stop hurting my feelings, Captain,” Baylon said helplessly, covering his eyes with both hands.
“All right, let’s get back to the main topic, shall we?” Moss recounted what he saw when he patrolled the cave, how he took the mices’ food, and asked the rabbit about the mices’ movements.
“So, something attacked the Lightning Rabbits too?”
“What kind of beast would do that?”
“If we don’t find out now, we can ask the instructors after the final assessment.”
…
When the Guardians finished discussing, Moss kept Little Seven and the Lightning Rabbit in his pocket dimension, which caused even more commotion.
“Moss, are there any more surprises you’ve not shown us?!”
“It’s only been a few days, so why do I feel like you’ve left us behind?!”
“If I knew you had an Interspace Ring, I would have left our equipment with you!”
…
Moss waved his hand, smiled, and led them toward the tunnel at 3 o’clock. Everyone was 120% focused along the way, but nothing happened.
Still, they scouted their surroundings again when they exited the other end of the tunnel. They found more traces of the Stubborn Donkey Mice.
Suddenly, Moss received a message from Captain 016, Harry, “Moss, we’ve discovered the whereabouts of the mice, and we’re ready to launch an attack. We might need your backup soon.”
“Harry’s team is quick!” Alan said in surprise.
“They might not have encountered many Stubborn Donkey Mice. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have asked for our cooperation,” Mill said, looking at her watch.
“Let’s speed up. Since we’ve found the mices’ tracks, their new nest should be close,” Moss said in a low voice and took the lead to head northwest.
…
“Captain, we’ve found four new holes. We can verify that there are indeed Stubborn Donkey Mice living here.”
“Still, we don’t know how many of them are inside. I would guess there are a lot of mice.”
“We won’t achieve our expected results if we rush into their tunnel.”
“We should adjust our battle plan and think of a way to lure them out.”
…
Moss listened to his squadmates’ reports and fell into deep thought. After organizing the information, he shared his new idea, “Let’s place the food I found in their old nest near the tunnel’s entrances. We should also make sure there are only four entrances and exits.”
Moss removed the food he brought from his pocket dimension as he continued, “Afterward, I’ll wait for the opportunity to sneak in and place some paralyzing gas and smoke bombs in the nest to drive them out. Meanwhile, we’ll see if there are other escape routes. If there are, I will destroy them.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?!” Mill questioned.
“The space is small, so they can’t do anything to me if I use my shields,” Moss was determined as he looked at the Guardians and continued, “Alan and I will take charge of setting up the paralyzing gasses.
“Then the rest of you quickly block the entrances and exits after receiving my signal. Once we’ve forced them out of the last exit, Mill and Bass will force the mice to retreat toward our pre-arranged encirclement. We’ll catch them all in one fell swoop.”
The squad repeatedly nodded when they heard Moss’s plans, but their expressions were unsightly.
“I think it’s a good plan, Moss, but what if we…”
Before Bass could finish, Alan interrupted, “Blah, blah, blah, there’s no ‘what if’!”
“If we encounter a ‘what if,’ we will immediately execute the emergency plan and send a distress signal to our squad’s instructor,” Moss said severely.
The squad noticed Moss’s determination, and no one could find a better solution than his, so they could only agree. However, they admired Moss even more.
Alan handed over a dozen paralyzing potions and smoke grenades to Moss and proceeded to set up their defenses. The others saw this, assumed their roles, and busied themselves.
…
Meanwhile, forty-eight screens displayed the students’ performance in the Magical Beast territory at the rendezvous points.
The instructors sorted the voltage and discussed the students’ performances with great interest.
“Considering how things are going, it seems that A-110’s squad will be the first to complete their mission.”
“A-066’s squad performance is looking decent too. They’ve found a bigger Lightning Rabbit cave and are starting to attack.”
“What’s us with B-666’s squad? They’ve made holes everywhere but haven’t killed a single mouse. I wonder what they’re doing.”
…
A moment later, instructor 055 pointed at the screen and shouted, “Moss reentered the mices’ cave! Does he have a death wish?!”
The other instructors also quickly shifted their attention toward screen 43.
“B-666 is too rash and has put himself in a perilous situation!” Instructor 055 quickly contacted his colleague following Moss’s squad and told him to pay closer attention to their movements and that he should immediately act if they were in danger.
Before instructor 055 finished, another voice sounded, “Hey, Team 016 is under attack!”
“Wait, the Stubborn Donkey Mice aren’t the only ones there. There’s an Explosive King Cobra too!”
The other instructors quickly looked at screen 016.
“This is going to be troublesome!”
Seeing this, instructor 53 quickly passed the message to Flying Wolf and Red Spider.
At the same time, he used his walkie-talkie to tell Team 016’s instructor, “Be on high alert. Immediately launch the emergency plan if you encounter any issues!”
As soon as the call ended, a few instructors shouted, “It looks like Team 016 is running toward the Guardians! What are they doing?”
“The Guardians are fighting too! They even managed to force every mouse out of their nest. Did B-666 do it alone?”
“There’s already an alarming number of mice! The consequences will be unimaginable if Team 016 lures the mice and king cobra there.”
Instructor 53 again reported the situation to Flying Wolf and Red Spider.