As Bruce moved to meet the horde, his mind swirled with Bale's instructions. He could vividly recall the moment Bale spoke about the points earned for each kill. Each crab was worth a hefty 50 points, while a human was only worth 10. Those words alone had planted a dangerous impression in the recruits' minds, kill the crabs, reap the points, secure the ranking.

But the true objective of the test was far more important, save as many villagers as possible. With roughly three thousand villagers at risk, Bruce was determined to save every last one of them. That alone would secure him an overwhelming 30,000 points.

Anyone who focused strictly on killing crabs would fail this test miserably. From his calculations, there were probably no more than 400 crabs in total. Even if each one offered 50 points, killing them all would only amount to 20,000 points. And that didn't even factor in their absurdly durable bronze shells.

The smarter path, the only path, was to disable them.

However, as Bruce mulled over Bale's advice, a deep crease formed between his brows. Solving the first mystery only led to more questions bubbling up inside his mind.

'Time to disable the horde of beasts?' he mused, a faint smile tugging at his lips as he tightened his grip on his daggers.

Now facing the advancing swarm of bronze-shell crabs, Bruce coated both blades with mana. Then, with a burst of speed, he charged at the nearest one with renewed determination.

The crab reacted immediately, swinging one of its massive pincers toward him in a lethal arc. Bruce slipped past it with practiced ease before bringing his dagger down in a clean, powerful slash toward the creature's shell.

CLANG!!!

The sound was deafening. It was like striking solid metal. His blade vibrated violently in his hand, a numbing jolt racing up his arm. The crab itself slid backward a few meters, its enormous body pushing grooves into the sand, but otherwise remained unharmed.

Bruce stared, eyes widening. The impact had left a pale white streak across its bronze shell, but the dagger had only managed to dig in by a few centimeters.

Seeing that casual strikes wouldn't cut deeper, Bruce sighed inwardly. 'Its shell is ridiculously hard indeed.'

The result defied all logic. This very attack had gutted an A-rank mutant hyena in a single blow.

...

As the clash ended, the nearby bronze-shell crabs finally noticed him and began homing in on his position, their limited eyesight having prevented them from detecting him earlier. Dodging another lightning-fast swipe of a massive pincer, Bruce caught sight of something peculiar. The crab's abdomen, its underbelly, where the legs and appendages connected, did not share the same impenetrable bronze armor.

If he struck through there, he could reach the unprotected joints…

This was expected. Covering their entire bodies in bronze-like armor would completely cripple their mobility and agility.

While he could brute-force his way through the shells if he wanted to, Bruce's current goal was to conserve strength and mana. There were simply too many crabs…

A grin stretched across Bruce's face as the realization clicked. Many beasts had their vulnerabilities beneath them, he had already noticed that from the mutant hyenas and now the crabs. Both had their weak points in nearly identical regions. With that, everything became simpler. He had ignored the hyenas' weak spot earlier because it didn't matter. But now that he needed to disable as many crabs as possible while conserving his power, targeting weak points was undoubtedly the best approach.

With a battle maniac's fervor igniting in his eyes, Bruce lunged toward a towering two-meter-tall bronze-shell crab. He locked onto its elbow joint, there, the bronze was slightly lighter, less reinforced.

With two swift slashes of his daggers, several of the crab's leg appendages were instantly severed, sending its massive head-like carapace crashing to the ground. The enormous creature became completely immobile.

Astonished by the sheer ease of it, Bruce blinked in surprise.

He had prepared himself for far more resistance, but it seemed he had been overthinking. Compared to their nearly indestructible shells, the underbelly armor was significantly weaker, allowing him to cut cleanly through the joints with a single decisive stroke.

His strike against the first crab stirred the rest into a frenzy, provoking them into an even more aggressive sprint toward him. But Bruce paid no attention to their escalating hostility, the rising exhilaration of battle drowned out everything else.

"Come…" he whispered.

Time blurred as Bruce moved. He carved through the horde with ruthless precision, disabling leg after leg, joint after joint. Each crab that lunged at him fell moments later, crippled cleanly and efficiently.

Time passed, and more crabs kept emerging from the sea, forcing Bruce to maintain his relentless efforts. Having already disabled hundreds, he had become an expert in severing the enormous limbs of these towering bronze giants, humming a self-made tune under his breath as he worked.

He moved with insane speed through the horde, his daggers flashing in clean, deadly arcs as he struck at their weak spots. Within seconds, he had disabled hundreds more, legs severed, pincers sliced apart.

He targeted the pincers deliberately. He had noticed that even with all their legs removed, the crabs could still crawl, slowly, but dangerously, using only their massive pincers. Only by removing both legs and pincers could he render them truly defenseless. And the best part was that once severed, it was only a matter of time before the beasts died from blood loss and the collapse of their vital pathways.

He might not even need to finish them off himself…

Meanwhile after attacking, Bruce didn't slow down.

The moment one crab fell, he was already gone, vanishing in a blur of motion and reappearing beside the next target. His daggers flashed once, twice, clean silver arcs carving through the air with lethal precision.

SHRRK!

Two legs severed.

Before the crab even realized it had been attacked, Bruce was already behind it, cutting through the thinner joint at the base of its pincer.

CRACK!

The pincer fell uselessly to the sand.

Bruce didn't watch it collapse. He had already left. Moving with insane speed towards the next Bronze shell crab!

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