Kill The Dragons - Chapter 49

“Ki….jo.”

Han fumbled his words. Kijo looked at his chest with an unbelieving face.

“Kack!”

Kijo’s chest was completely punctured. Instead of calling out Kijo’s name, Han immediately commenced emergency treatment. He used his hands to press down onto the chest wound. Han hurriedly transferred him into a shelter in the middle of the battle formation.

Cough, cough.

Kijo kept spewing blood from his mouth. Han roughly called out for Jose.

“Control the bleeding! His wound! $##@. How about the enemy?”

Jose used his flames to burn Kijo’s wound closed. Kijo flailed in pain while groaning.

Chhhiiiiii!

The smell of his burnt flesh smoked the area.

“Wait for the enemy. We still have the assault team remaining.”

The Elu hunters slowly snuck closer using the darkness.

Elu hunters were naturally very thin and lanky. They had no whites to their eyes and a strange, creepy light seemed to reflect from them. Their ears twitched catching every little noise around themselves.

The Elu hunters immediately discovered Han’s plans. They had sent the werewolves as bait to set off all the traps.

It was easy to take down a group of people who had already been significantly weakened.

The Elu hunters had mistaken the situation, as such.

Even while Han had been pushed into a defensive and inferior position, he did not dare use his last assault team. Although there had been a danger that they would all die, he firmly resolved in his heart to keep them hidden.

The assault team remained on standby for Han’s commands, breathing as slowly and quietly as possible. They peered down towards the Elu hunters. The assault team was peering down with chilling, murderous eyes.

“Jose.”

Han quietly called out to Jose. The fire type psykers put their strength together to form their last fireball. As the fireball sparked, all the Elu hunters’ positions became bright as day.

“Kekeke.”

The elu hunters scoffed, laughing at their feeble last attempt of survival. The fire type psykers didn’t manage to injure them at all. However, the fireball had not been an attack but a source of light to locate all the enemies at once.

Swaa-swa-swa!

The assault team hiding on top of the trees jumped down and assaulted the Elu hunters all at once. The assault team moved on top of flat rocks, which Kuro controlled in place of airbeats. Their mobile tactics were as swift as the Elu hunters’.

“kaaa!”

The Elu hunters screamed. The assault team ruthlessly slaughtered all the hunters. There was no mercy in their hearts amidst the brutal war.

Tremble

The Elu hunter’s body trembled before dying. There were two injured members from the assault team, but it was minor in contrast to the outcome.

“Is this the end?”

Canute leaned against a tree and quietly mumbled. The youths looked toward Kijo. Kijo was gasping for breath. His situation was urgent.

“Endure, Kijo. Don’t die here.”

Kijo’s throat seemed to be filled with blood and couldn’t properly speak. The werewolf and elu hunters’ dead bodies gave off the stench of death. The forest surrounding them was burning down and their surroundings were bright.

‘We must move immediately in case there are more enemies. They will still find us dozens of kilometres away.’

Han thought in that way. He had a hard time bringing this up to his squad.

‘However, if I don’t speak first, who will?’

Han quietly got up. Everyone looked toward his direction. Everyone understood already. If Han had not come up with this battle formation in that brief moment, things would not have ended so smoothly. They would have probably been completely slaughtered.

“We’re moving out.”

Han’s words settled heavily into everyone’s hearts. Everyone was completely fatigued. However, nobody said a word of complaint.

The squad members tied some spears and cloth together to make a simple stretcher. They helped Kijo on top of it and moved forward. No, they tried to move.

Aaah, oooooh!

It was a crying howl of a werewolf, the youths’ faces turned rigid. They had no more strength to continue fighting. They thought this was the end of the fight, but the next stage of the battle seemed to have begun once again, causing the youths to feel more hopeless.

Reality was much more brutal than their training. They were thrown from despair to misery.

The reason the drill instructors had continued to push them without end into despair had been for this very reason. They required strength necessary to endure through the worst of worst situations.

“Collect all the javelin spears. We will be moving behind the barricade.”

Han commanded his squad roughly. The squad members followed Han’s command like a reflex. Han’s stern command had given the youths a bit of strength.

Aah-oooh!

The crying howl repeated. There had to be a minimum of three or four werewolves.

‘There could be more than that. All the werewolves should be gathered in that area.’

They were able to thoroughly prepare for the battle and just barely killed five werewolves. If more werewolves arrive at this place, even Han didn’t have another plan devised.

‘What is there for me to do now?’

Han looked upwards. He hid his face from his squad members.

‘A satellite?’

Han mumbled inwardly. Something shined in the sky. The shining object was speeding past quickly.

The unidentified object seemed to flash in a set interval and then paused.

“Prepare yourselves. We will do our best to stop them with our javelin spears. Assault team, get into two-man teams and take care of the injured werewolves together.”

As long as they had energy left, this plan should work just fine. However, the youths were mentally and physically at their limits.

Aaaahwooooh!

The werewolves of the forest enlarged their encirclement around them. There should be a minimum of seven werewolves. There was a delicate silence between the werewolves and squad members. There was a completely snow-white furred werewolf among the wolves.

‘White Fang. They have more intelligence than your average werewolf.”

Han bit his lip so hard that it began to bleed. The werewolves encircled the squad, preparing themselves to attack at the same time.

A deafening boom rang. Hot steam gushed out. It was as if a meteorite had fallen from the sky.

BOOM! BOOM! Unidentified flying objects continuously struck the ground. The steam gradually dissipated. It was a red assault pod. It was a high-altitude assault pod, made of extremely durable material for surprise attacks from high up in the air in enemy territory. Only four assault pods exist in the world and one of them had just been ejected by the black crow.

SSSssssk!

The assault pod’s door opened. Steam puffed out in giant clouds. A person clad in an iron suit stepped out of the boiling pod. The red suit had scars all over from the long-term use. Time had done its worst to beat up the suit through all the wars.

“Psychoframe?”

The only gear that was able to be useful in actual battles were the psychoframes, made for the sake of fighting against dragons. Only psykers had the ability to control psychoframes.

“It has been a long time since fighting a war.”

It was a familiar voice. It was the infamous first-year drill instructor, Sergeant Red.

The other assault pods opened one after another and more psychoframes appeared from within them. Each first-generation psychoframe had their own charm.

Each country had refined their own versions during the first wave of aggression, and so each frame looked distinctly different. These were the psychoframes that had not undergone the process of mass production.

The first-generation frames were made for the use of a single person. These were the frames that put an end to dragons during the first wave of aggression.

Krr, Krrr.

Sergeant Red moved his fingers. His psycho frame’s exoskeleton moved in the same way.

“Don’t fear, we’re here.”

Sergeant Red unsheathed the sword that had been hidden on his back. It shined of ivory light. Ironically, the materials that saved humanity from dragons were the dragon bones and leathers itself. Humanity did not waste the dragons’ corpses and made weapons and gear with them.

‘Their survival is a miracle.’

Sergeant Red scanned his surroundings and mumbled. The best team had been formed to save the remaining survivors. It was the first time for psychoframes to be used in actual battle, following the war against dragons. They had assumed the worst case scenario and prepared for the appearance of a dragon.

‘These youths have received formal training as a psyker, but it’s surprising that they’ve survived through these conditions.’

The only reason Sergeant Red could immediately come over to participate in this battle had been because the youths had set fire to the forest.

Grrrr-.

The werewolves let out a low growl. They instinctually sensed their natural enemies.

Just as weaker animals would try to flaunt strength, the werewolves’ furs inflated and they began murderously wailing.

The psychoframes and werewolves’ strength differed too vastly.

‘We have 26 minutes of operation time, let’s put an end to it beforehand.’

Sergeant Red sent a hand signal for his team. The psyker warriors moved out.

They easily sliced and tore the enemies in two. The werewolves were slaughtered and torn to pieces. The werewolves were powerless against the overwhelming battle prowess of the psychoframes.

The youths cheered loudly. The gruesome battle didn’t affect them in the least. They were overjoyed knowing that they had survived. Within the cheers, Han looked forward in silence.

‘I must become stronger.’

Han had felt inwardly satisfied over his own strength during his stay in Ark. He had achieved eight record-breaking consecutive victories and had been a matchless squad leader among second years. However, he lacked in too many ways during the actual battle.

In truth, Han had achieved a very surprising miracle. There wasn’t a single person that would blame Han in any way. The only person who felt dissatisfied was Han himself.

Squads 7 to 13 had lost half of their squad members due to death. As for squads like 8, who could not escape, they were annihilated.

Ark had never suffered in such a way, ever since Ark’s establishment. The high ranking advisors opened a conference and pointed for them to take responsibility.

“However, the result of this battle is a miracle. They had to fight against werewolves and Elu hunters without any special gear, and still, not one death resulted.”

The squad that Han led didn’t have a single fatality. Objectively comparing the battle to past records, it was no different to a miracle itself. It would not have been strange for the whole squad to have been killed.

“This feels like a lie. Has this report been fact-checked?”

“This report had been constructed after hearing every survivor’s testimony. Squad 13’s leader, Han had made a temporary squad, and effectively defended against their enemies.”

“Good news as a result of a tragedy. We have discovered a promising talent.”

“We will start recruiting for second years again to refill the numbers. We will pick the promising individuals from the first year.”

The executives of Ark moved on to the next report.

“It seems that minions have appeared from the area around the dimensional tear. What do you think this means? Speak freely without reserve.”

“We monitored the black boxes from within the aircrafts, and it’s definite that there has been an Elu mage from among them. Elu hunters are not capable of attacking with such strength. It’s the first Elu mage’s appearance following the war.”

“The remnant minions that we have been fighting against are low ranking Elu hunters. Following the war, an Elu mage has never made an appearance so this must have a deeper meaning.”

Ark was the core psyker institution, and at the same time, they acted as the core military defence team. They had fought against the remnant minions that had hidden in abandoned terrains around the world.

“According to the oracle’s prophecy, we still have a little bit of time until the next wave of aggression by the dragons.”

“However, it’s a fact that the Elus have become active once again. Let’s not forget that this has been within territories near the dimensional tear. They have always run away, but this time they were the ones to attack first. Sergeant Red, what are your thoughts?”

The executives’ eyes peered to Sergeant Red.

Sergeant Red looked to be in a bad temper. Many youths had died. As the one who had been the first-year drill instructor, there was no way he could be feeling happy in the least. He had once taught every one of the youths.

“There is one easy way to gather information in war. ‘Capture alive, and torture.’ Are there any objections? I understand we are shorthanded. I shall capture an Elu mage. Please let me form a team.”

“Are you returning to active duty? Sergeant Red.”

“I never retired. It was just that the war has never needed me.

“I approve with the authority of the Chief of Staff.”

Sergeant Red nodded and marched out of the council. The urgent meeting ended.

Now they needed a sacrificial lamb for the sake of explaining to the governments of all the countries around the world.

They needed someone to face the anger of the financial backers. A quarter of the second years had died. Someone must take the blame.

‘Goodbye. Greseman.’

Sergeant Red had already predicted the one to become the sacrificial lamb.

A few days later, the second-year chief drill instructor, Greseman took on full responsibilities for the casualties. He had received two years behind bars following military court.