The Military System - 28 The Battle Begins

After the short confrontation before, the five people didn’t not speak much and a stifling silence fell on the group. Although Lily (Lilliana) had managed to pacify the Elves, they could never trust a human that easily. All along the way the four of them were very cautious looking out for any signs of ambush by the human following them.

Fortunately for them, Add may not be their friend but he really wasn’t their enemy. After about30 minutes of travel, they reached near the camp of the humans. The group slowed down and carefully moved forward. The humans had camped on the bank of a stream, which was around 15 metres wide. The side, the Elves and Add were, was a bit more elevated than the other, giving an advantage in observation.

“We are here”

The young Elf named Vorn, who had firstdiscovered the Humans, led them to a spot among the trees, just before the river bank, from where humans where visible, but it was hard to see the Elves themselves. They were over a kilometre away from the Human camp, going any further would put them at risk of being detected by human sentries. Elves naturally had very sharp senses so looking across such a distance was no problem to them, for Add, however that was not so easy, however he who had his cheat like system, had no need of it either. He moved a bit away from the group and found a better position to observe.

The Elves looking at him strangely as if saying “hey what is this guy doing?”. Paying them no mind, Add took his binoculars from the inventory and began observing the humans. The Steiner binoculars had a very powerful zoom capacity and Add could see all details of the humans on the other side, clearly. Where the Elves could just make out the rough numbers and status of the humans from this distance, Add could see every detail very clearly, as the range of his vision was enhanced over 10 times.

“Hey….what is that ?”

Annavel talked to him for the first time since their one sided confrontation, however, he tone was mild, no longer having the aggressiveness and anger. She looking at a strange object which Add had suddenly brought out from seemingly nowhere. Her question, though was met with only ignorance which made her irritated.

“A total of 250 people….200 of them are dressed like soldiers with light armor….swordsmen…spear men….archers…A leader and four others have better armour…..remaining 50 people appear to be mercenaries….”

As he suddenly began blurting all that, the Elves were confused about what he was speaking, but soon realized that he was talking about the humans group present there. They were once again shocked by him, as even they couldn’t see all that from this distance. Annavel, realised that it must be the strange object which he was placing before his eyes, that was helping him to see all that. The person in question was making notes of the situation in his mind, a thing every soldier is thought, in the battlefield no one had the luxury to always carry a pen and paper, a lot of things had to be done mentally. The analogue rangefinder which worked with a pair of crossing lines helped him estimate the distance.

After mumbling for sometime, when he had finally confirmed that he had not neglected anything he stopped observing. Add then looked at Anna who was intensely staring at his binoculars and asked :

“Want to have a look ?”

“Huh ?” being suddenly asked something, Anna who was immersed in her thoughts, felt confused. She saw Add giving the strange object to her.

“It is called a Binocular…”

“Bi….no…cular…?” She could barely pronounce it.

“Yeah, its a tool to see in the distance…go ahead place your two eyes behind it and have a look….”

Add didn’t mind letting her use the Binoculars as he wanted her to know exactly what they were dealing with. Now that he was already entangled with the matters of the Elves, he could not always do things secretively, as it would waste too much time. Furthermore it was just lending a pair of binoculars, so he felt no problems.

“Just place your eyes behind those small holes and you will see…well just try it….”

Anna took the binoculars carefully, and as her hands touched it, she realised that it was made of metal and some materials she had never seen before. Add shifted away from his observation spot, and let her take the place. Mimicking Add she, placed the binoculars before her eyes, it took her a few attempts but she finally managed to adjust her eyes into the right position and what she saw immediately made her baffled.

“What magic is this…..”

Anna had never seen or heard of such objects. She had heard that there were things called telescopes, pipe like objects which helped in viewing some distance across, but the thing Add was using . Was it a new human invention, or a magical artefact ? She did not know. However she was now completely sure of one thing, this human Add, he was no simple person.

Clearing her random thoughts she focused on the group before her. She could see the group of humans clearly, as if she was standing right before them, although lines which worked as the rangefinder were a mystery to her and she had no idea what those were. However her excitement and shock soon turned to terror. Her eyes fell on a few flags and banners with had the symbol of two swords crossing each other before a red rose.

“They….they are the Kingdom’s Soldiers…”

This symbol was the emblem of the royal family of Reingleif, who shared the same surname. The presence of the kingdom’s soldiers here meant that the kingdom was actively attacking Elves. She also saw a few mercenaries who looked like they belong to the same group which raided their village a few months ago. Previously the Elves thought that it was just a mercenary group which had found them by chance, but now it was clear that the Kingdom was acting against Elves.

Over 5,000 years ago, when humans were the weakest Elves and other Races were widespread across Midgard, and the Elves were also flourishing. However After the 12 human knights, rallied their forces and unified all humans under their banners, the other races despite their many advantages began falling behind. Over the past five millennia, the humans had waged countless wars against the other races in Midgard and gradually pushed them all back. The Elves who once spread far and wide in the forests of Midgard were now, barely left, the last of them hiding in Waldesten. Some had tried to sail across the great oceans to the continent of Alfheim, the holy land of Elves, but if they had made it through was never known. The oceans of Iseria housed terrifying beasts, even more monstrous and disastrous than the ones found on Midgard.

However, this forest which was massive, tens of thousands of kilometres across, and covered nearly a fifth of Midgard, was full of many dangers and countless monsters and magical beasts, and many mighty creatures which could decimate kingdoms if they wanted. Elves lived mostly on the outskirts of this forest, not daring to go any deeper. The various races which were pushed back by the ever growing human race, were pushed into the remote and dangerous corners of the world, their numbers dwindling by the day. Now, it seemed that the humans had set their eyes on this last home of the Elves.

She fell to her knees and the Binocular fell down her hands. Thankfully, it was designed for military use so a fall like this was nothing to it, its manufactures even boasted that “Its covers on, you could practically pop a grenade beside it and it would still work without a scratch…”. Add picked it up and stored it back in the inventory.

The other three Elves including Vorn had pale faces and they also were trembling. The Elven villages and towns were quite far from each other….If the humans kept attacking like this, they could easily destroy their race off midland with little losses.

“We are doomed…..the Kingdom is finally making its move….we what can we do…our other villages…our towns, they will all perish…..Fjörgyn have you abandoned us….”

Annavel had lost all hope, even if they managed to escape today, which was highly unlikely, the kingdom would surely not stop until they eradicated all Elves or enslaved them.

(So that’s what the system meant by “dire straights”)

Add thought as he looked at the despairing Elves. He also thought about the situation. If the Kingdom was indeed on way to destroy the Elves, then it surely would not be done with sending such little force. Even if he eradicated them, more would come. Helmsberg alone had a standing army of 800,000 which was already massive. The entire kingdom would then at least have 5 times the number. That would be over 2 million soldiers at the lowest. Facing such a large army would make anyone despair. Even if he could help the Elves now, he was not so optimistic to think that he could take on an Entire kingdom by himself, even if he had the system. However, he had a mission to complete and the clock was ticking….he had to make a decision.

“….Whatever even if such a situation comes…like someone once said…. ‘It’s a good day to die’….”

He made his choice, a soldier lived for battle. Add’s soul was that of a true soldier, cowering away from s battle was not his style. Even if the situation turned for the worse and the system made him help the Elves till the end, he could just except the penalty and walk away, he had died once, he didn’t fear death, but he didn’t want to die in vain as well. He walked past Anna and placed his AX338 on its bipod, taking a lying down position between the bushes. Anna was still occupied in her depressing thoughts, but Vorn looked as he placed his strange weapon down. Despite the impending doom, the young Elf was curious at what this strange human was doing.

Add removed the lens cap, aligned the reticle, which in his case, was a cross, and adjusted the eye relief. The bipod was designed to help keep the rifle steady, even during firing.

With the mounting rings loose, he rotated the scope until the cross was right side up (like a plus sign). With that done, he adjusted the distance the lens of the scope will be from the eye to ensure it won’t hit him when the weapon recoiled. After that he began adjusting the knobs of elevation and windage to get a proper view of his targets. The windage knob is used to move the impact point horizontally and the elevation to adjust it vertically. Finally he adjusted the parallax knob. Once he was sure of his adjustments, he turned off the safety.

*Click – Clack*

The bolt pulled the first bullet into the chamber and as expected ;

*Bang*

Despite the active suppressor, a muffled bang echoed though not very loudly scaring Anna, and a bullet sped towards its target. An unsuspecting soldier who was acting as a sentry a little bit further from the group was hit right in the chest. The half plate armour he was wearing, was not enough to stop the .338 bullet, in fact, it barely bumped. The soldier who was keeping an eye out for any intruders, never knew what hit him. He felt a sudden pain in his chest, and next moment his vision blackened forever.

[Ding! You have Killed a Rank 1 mana practitioner (Human)! Received 500 Exp. And 250 CP!]

Add was momentarily surprised at the description “Mana Practitioner” but chose to ignore it for the time being. There were more important things to be done.

*Click – Clack ; Bang!*

*Click – Clack ; Bang!*

*Click – Clack ; Bang!*

He shot in rapid succession and gunned down soldiers one after the other. Before the soldiers reacted all ten bullets had killed their targets. All of them were Rank – 1 Mana Practitioners, earning him 5,000 Exp. and 2,500 CP. Although all this happened within a minute, the other soldiers had realised that they were under attack. They grouped up, raising their shields, and looking all around searching for the attacker. Add however stopped shooting. He now had 12,162 CP. Add could now buy something which he wanted for sometime now. He quickly opened the shop and bought it.

_ _ _ _ _

Item : PKP Pecheneg 6P41 – NM , 7.62×54 mmR general-purpose medium machine gun (Grade – Unique, Rank – Low Tier)

Description : The PKP Pecheneg (Pulemyot Kalashnikova Pekhotny “Pecheneg”)6P41 – NM is a medium machine gun chambering the standard Russian 7.62×54 mmR round. It is a modernised version of the PK machine gun developed by the Legendary Arms inventor Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov.

It comes with a It comes with a Picatinny rail for night vision or telescopic sights, the standard being 1P89-3 unified optical sight and can also equip other optical sights. It also has an additional tactical handle below the barrel for the convenience when firing. The PKP is belt fed and accepts 100-, 200-, 250-round box magazines.

It is intended for use from an integral bipod as a squad support weapon, however it can be used in a two handed carrying fashion as well, and is designed as an anti personnel weapon. It provides more sustained firepower than the PK and its other predecessors, and the 7.62×54mmR cartridge offers a longer effective range and better penetration of light structures and improvised covers in most type of environments and battlefields

While it does not perform exceptionally well in terms of accuracy, it is known for its superior performance in supressing enemies with a muzzle velocity of 900 m/s rate of over 700 rounds per minute and a barrel with improved heat dispersion. Made of titanium alloy, it is a durable, light-weight, and fairly easy to maintain machine gun, which can serve under extreme conditions without a hitch.

Damage : 150

Durability : 400/400

Effective Firing Range : 1000 – 1500 metres

_ _ _ _ _

The PKP was a very good gun in its class. Its 7.62×54 mmR rounds were very powerful and the damage they caused were even greater. Based on the Kalashnikov family of rifles it was a durable, easy to use and maintain weapon, which had stood the test of time. When engaging a large group of enemies alone, at medium range, a machine gun was the best choice. The gun had a preloaded 100 round box magazine and was ready to shoot.

“What is….what are you…..?”

Anna who was watching the humans falling dead one after the other could not help but ask. She was in awe and fear of the weapon Add was using while Vorn and the other two had their jaws dropped. She had heard from her parents that the Kingdom’s soldiers in general were physically stronger than the Elves. But they were dropping dead like flies before Add’s strange weapon, which was simply unheard of. She had lost track of how much shock this human boy had given her, in the little time she had known him. And then again, Add brought out a similar yet different weapon.

“This Miss. Annavel….” Add looked into her eyes and gave a small smile which seemed to her as a devil’s smile…. “Is….how a true ‘Soldier’ Fights…”

He once again fixed his eye on the scope as he loaded a new magazine into the AX338. The battle had just begun.

_ _ _ _ _

A/N :

1. As you may have seen, I tend to describe weapons and systems and how they work, in detail. I know that many people find it annoying, but that’s what I want to write. I wanted to make a fiction which would enclose how everything works and not just simple language like, ‘this does that and that does this’. Rather I want to show ‘how it is actually done’.

2. I also realise that many people are troubled with some complex terms I sometimes use. So from this chapter on, I will describe the meaning of any difficult terms I use in a chapter, at the end of the said chapter as a “Additional Information”.

3. The Said Information would be collected from sources like books, and (mostly) the internet so I can only say that they are true to the best of my knowledge.

Additional Information :

Parts of a Rifle Scope :A rifle scope is usually comprised of a body, eye piece, objective lens, shoulder, and windage, elevation and parallax knobs.

The eyepiece is the part of the scope you look through and the objective lens creates the magnification of the target.

The shoulder of the scope is where the diameter increases to hold the objective lens.

Windage and elevation knobs can move the reticle side to side and up and down. Parallax knobs are rarely adjusted and affect the movement of the reticle in relation to the target.

Reticle : The reticle of a rifle scope is the image you see on the lens of the scope that indicates where the weapon is pointed. It is usually a cross, though there are many reticle variations that include circles, exes, and a number of others.

Two types of scopes : A single lens scope provides one level of magnification, whereas a variable power scope has a ring that allows you to choose between different levels of magnification. Most rifle scopes are single powered, but if you’re unsure which your scope is, look for a power selector ring past the shoulder of the scope but before the objective lens. This adjustable ring will permit you to choose between different levels of magnification the scope can provide. Most military and professional snipers use Single lens scope due to its simplicity.

Parallax : Some high end scopes allow you to adjust a third variable in the scope: the parallax. Parallax is the movement of the target as it relates to the reticle in your field of vision when you move your eye away from the centre of the eye piece. An issue with your parallax may cause the target and the reticle to appear to be on different optical planes.