Did I Become smarter?

(Gerhard's POV)

Somehow it feels weird…

Did I become smarter?

I mean I never was the brilliant type and often needed Spencer's help to not fail in high school, so I'm not sure how to describe the feeling I get during fights since I got the combat perception ability.

After I got this ability, I wasn't sure if it was even "worthy" of being an E-Rank ability. In the daily training, it always felt as if Spencer could overwhelm me at any moment if he wanted, and I couldn't feel any difference…

Until a few days ago…

We were ready to hunt the first corrupted beast, the one that swarmed us with a lot of rats.

This power it's supposed to let me read my opponent's movements to a certain extent, but until now I have been busy in the armory and the only time I fought was during the training with Spence.

It came as a huge surprise… I don't know tactics like Hayley, I don't have a fantastic memory like Hope, and I'm not smart as Spence, Dante or my sister, but I was able to understand the movements of the enemies.

Just like that, I started to understand the way some of them fought, I understood the reason behind Spencer's movements. Not like I could analyze his combat style, but based on the reaction that came from the beasts I knew the huge impact of his abilities.

How he clogged them and stopped them from swarming on us, just like what Hayley was doing in her own way.

Even if I still didn't get how this is an E-Rank power, even an idiot like me understands the importance of knowing what the enemy is doing…

And that's what I'm doing right now.

The movement of snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and other swamp beasts were clear on my eyes, the intention behind each action. Once I saw them fight for a while, I was able to understand and predict the way they are going to fight.

That crocodile is moving to the side to flank me, but facing it would leave me vulnerable to be sneak attacked by the snake that went to hide in that tree…

This simple analysis was something that I didn't do before. I would have just jumped towards the crocodile.

But now I know that it's not necessary, instead of facing the crocodile I moved forward. That left the crocodile out of position and was forced to change his route, as I hacked the tree with my halberd. I didn't have to worry about the crocodile.

After forcing him to change his route, he was in a bad position. A whistling sound came into my ears as a bolt pierced the hard skin of the crocodile. The cry of the beast was followed by an angry roar shortly after.

Even if I wasn't the one that hit it, it looked at me as if it was my fault that he was wounded.1

Without wasting time, the snake jumped from the falling tree in my direction, but I was waiting for that movement and used the shaft of the halberd to throw it into the floor.

In the meantime, one of Hope's weapons flew directly into one of the crocodile's legs, making it fail in the second try to assault me.

Using the movement of the shaft, I lifted the halberd doing a quick turn around, where the crocodile was at my mercy thanks to the previous attack. As a medieval executioner, y dropped the ax-like weapon in the head of the hopeless beast, cutting it off cleanly.

The last hit on the stunned snake came from one of Sophie's bolts.

Awareness of my surroundings, enemy tactics… and my own teammates abilities were now clear to me. It was in this kind of moments that I understood this power… how knowing your enemy and yourself was the biggest advantage in battle.

Still, there were three people that I c couldn't predict their movements… but I think it's just a matter of time for me to get the hang of it.

After a short break, we decided to camp. During the night we had to repel some beast, but they were minor raids and the people guarding at the time was able to handle them without a hitch.

The next two days the time between fights got shorter as we advanced, the appearance of a D-Rank semi-human during the last battle worried some of the people, but I was able to fight it and get the upper hand without anyone's help (as I requested).

The D-Ranks right weren't a problem anymore, Hayley and Spence have been able to fight against them for a while now, Hope and I had grown a lot too, and we aren't the only ones, as I think that some people in the hunting teams now can fight a lot better.

I was kind of enjoying myself fighting, but I noticed that Spence was worried about something.

Something is about to happen, or he is about to crap his pants… and he hasn't done that since preschool, the first option it's most likely to be the reason.

As I was about to ask him about it, he told us.

"Get ready, I think that there is a beast in the same level of an Alpha here…"

So it was that. Some gasps of surprise appeared in between the new guys. Sophie, Giorgio, Matt (one of the new snipers) and Robert (the one using a shotgun) never have seen or fought an Alpha before, but they heard the stories of that battle.

"It's the one we are looking for?"

Spence looked at Mark who just asked him about it.

"I'm not sure since it's a threat to Green Shelter we can't let it go anyway."

"Shouldn't we ask for reinforcements?"

Robert seemed to be extremely scared, it was clear for all of us that he wanted to go back and avoid this fight, but he didn't count with one thing.

"I already told Dante about it, and Blake already knows about the situation. They will get ready, but we have to take our chances here first. We can't allow the beast to get near the city…"

I didn't feel it, but I knew that he used his Courage Inducement on them.

Having deserters was more dangerous than what I used to think… they were in charge of supporting Alfred, losing them would mean losing half our rearguard.

Comforted by Spencer's words they nodded, they were still shaking a little, but somehow I knew that they weren't leaving… at least for now.

"We have to move to a better place for the fight, Rose said that they are moving in this way as we talk."

"There was a place with good cover a while ago."

Giorgio took one of the last maps that he made and pointed an area that we saw from afar about fifteen minutes ago.

"With some time I can improvise a wall here, and they wouldn't be able to attack us from the rearguard."

I didn't get the map symbology, so all I could do was try to remember the place he mentioned. Spencer looked at the map a few seconds a shifted his gaze towards Hope.

"What do you think?"

"A strong beast will break through easily, but it should keep the weaker ones away."

He nodded as if this was all the confirmation he needed.

"We are going back there."

… What followed was a short run to the place.

When I saw the place, I understood why it was better to fight here. It was drier, so our movements were hindered by the mud as it did in the previous battle. The presence of a few rocks made it easy for some of us to take cover and avoid getting surrounded.

Giorgio started to work right away, and with Hayley's help, they created a wall of frozen mud between two rocks. I was in front of everyone with Mark and the shielders ready to stop the incoming wave.

For the first time, I saw Spencer get ready to fight as two blades appeared on his hand as he went to the right flank while he told Hope to take care of the left one.

All these orders finally made sense. The old me was of the idea that we should take down the strongest beasts as fast as possible, it didn't cross my mind the tactical advantage of surrounding your target or avoid getting surrounded.

"G get ready to handle the Alpha…"

That was my job, resist the attacks from the strongest beast while the others weakened it… Also, I was told to get the Last hit this time.