9.1 Frontline

200 F.Y.

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"Move forward!"

With a cry, some of the shieldmen at the front took it upon themselves to take the lead for me, all of them taking point as we all moved as one towards the wall of armor that was both our jailers and our exit out of this stupid place. The charged atmosphere around me has relatively cooled after the Dezimals' rather sudden and hasty retreat, my fellow Nenners already getting their spirits up as they moved forward.

As for myself, I marched just behind our front lines, Lise still firmly by my side as we approached the enemy blockade at a cautious pace. It might not be the fastest way to our goal, but it was still the best way to attack the situation with what limited options we have, not to mention that I still had to think of something to break the inevitable stalemate.

"Brother, we're gonna get out of here, right?"

Beside me, Lise walked resolutely, her sword still at the ready despite the clear lack of enemies in our immediate sphere of influence. It was cute, if not downright horrifying just how dedicated she was to my every word. Still, she was my sister now, and thus, it was my responsibility to take care of her.

If it would make her happy, then I'd let her do what she wanted wholeheartedly.

"We will, Lise," I replied with some conviction of my own. "We will."

Like an inane ritual akin to holding on to your lanyard during class reports, I readied my katana for the umpteenth time that day as we found ourselves dab-smack in the middle of the valley of blazing hot vats. The molten mix of metal currently surrounding us made it almost unbearable to stay within their immediate vicinity, at least not while having some kind of cool drink to soothe the blistering heat ravaging my sweat-soaked body. But still, I had to power through it. It wasn't ideal, but we were Nenners. We were used to the smoldering heat of our furnaces. I had hoped to use this heat against our enemies, and yet we were currently the ones struggling to hold on to our formation as we walked through the literal valley of death.

"Go... ahead..."

"Push... through!"

All around me, all I could see were my fellow Nenners struggling to make it through this heat. People were panting along as we trudged forward, not caring to even wipe the sweat off their brows as they were too busy trying to keep their formation up just in case our enemies changed their minds.

I was pretty sure they wouldn't though. If they were as smart as I gave them credit for, then they'll let just us dehydrate ourselves to death trying to close the gap.

"Fvck... me..."

I cursed under my breath some more as I remembered something far more important. I strained myself to look at the distance between us and the veritable wall of steel-colored armor. It was easy to put off when there was still some considerable distance between us and them, but it was still the elephant in the room, especially to our whole planning committee of one as I had to think of something to break this fvcking blockade.

Fvcking joy....

With another sigh, I tried to focus whatever brainpower I had left away from the unbearable heat and toward thinking up a way to let our group of over a hundred-strong Nenners punch through that fvcking defense without losing anyone in the process. It may not be much, but it was still a lot considering the amount of fvcks that I give in not trying to die.

Now, let me think... Fvck me... It's so hot that I could barely even think straight...

Okay... A straight-up charge would be straight-up suicide so that's out... It would've been ideal if we had any kind of reprieve before the inevitable battle, but that was literally impossible... Maybe we could go with the '300' idea again, push through with our shields up and try to move the wall back? Our rifles would then be used to pick off stragglers- Wait...

I scratched my head in frustration as the stupidity of the idea smacked me in the face.

No... Our rifles didn't have the precision for that kind of work yet... Not to mention our riflemen being literal amateurs when compared to the snipers of modern-day. I know I'm not that accurate enough to provide cover fire yet. What more so these guys that haven't even had over a week of training? Shvt... What could we even do? What could we do...

"...Brother?"

Lise grabbed my attention with a tug at my tattered shirt. I tried my best to calm my worried heart at her sweaty, most likely dehydrated state, but I knew it was a lost cause as I gave her the most worry-free smile that I could possibly muster. "..Yeah?"

"We... We have to fight..." my little sister panted in between breaths, her sword lagging behind her as the heat sapped her of her strength. "Break through... the guards..."

I bit my lip as I ran the idea through my head. We were tired, possibly sweating all the water out of our system as we walked towards our possible deaths... Our overall strength will be far from the strength that we had when we repelled the first attack... It might be overkill in terms of our current states, but with myself and Lise... Yeah... It was certainly in the cards... Sow chaos by trying to attract attention... let the front lines push through the shattered formation...

Yes... It could honestly work.

Although, that would mean that I'd have to risk Lise's life again alongside mine. Then again, I'd be risking it either way if I decided to do something else. Perhaps there might be a better idea out there somewhere that I could figure out if given the time, but as our march grew closer and closer toward the enemy defenses, I realized that it was quite possibly the only way we even stood a chance at pushing through and escaping.

There was no time to try and entrench a front for ourselves when the enemy had the better position. They'd never just watch us setting up our kill field when they could simply run us over while our rifles were down. No, the initiative to attack was squarely on our side of the battle. Anything less would just be us cooking our assess off while the tin cans roasted a proverbial marshmallow with our steaming corpses.

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