Aldric Thorne stood at the Shroud extraction point, scanning the casualty reports with a face built from years of practiced neutrality.
Twenty-three confirmed dead, he logged. Forty-seven injured enough to need medical intervention. Twelve emergency pulls for critical collapse. Out of five hundred first-years deployed.
4.6% fatality. 9.4% serious injury. 13% total casualty rate.
Inside acceptable thresholds for a Tier Two exposure.
Around him, the other administrators wore the same expression—not cruelty, not indifference, but the emotional distance of professionals who had done this too many times to react like civilians. Instructors, med-officers, evaluators. People who understood the Academy's ugly arithmetic.
Pressure made elites.
Pressure also made bodies.
"The reduction in student numbers is expected," Instructor Vex observed, reviewing his own tracking data.
