While they were speaking, the members of the Sixth Squad had already set to work without waiting for a single order. They fanned out around the encampment, inspecting the terrain with an expert eye, assessing the flow of essence, identifying weak points. Where an ordinary soldier struggled to dig a trench, an Awakened merely placed his palm on the ground - and the stone compacted itself, forming a natural parapet. Further away, a woman with pale hair traced a line of bluish light between two rocks with her fingertips; an illusion field that, seen from a distance, would completely conceal the base behind a veil of shifting mirages.
Their mere presence transformed the place. The defensive camp was turning into a military outpost. The anchor point was becoming a bastion.
