Chapter 10: Increasingly Bleak

Austronesian Empire, Tanah Melayu, Malacca, Streets Of Malacca.

2000, 1, 1st Week, January.

As the violent storm raged on, the morning sky that was usually warm and lush with perfect weather was now hung heavy with a pall of gray, veiling the sunlight, while the ground below was shrouded in a veil of thick fog. Amidst the hushed landscape, it was completely quiet, punctuated only by the distant echo of gunfire.

Accompanied by the sound of faint footsteps, a team of twenty heavily armed soldiers can be seen moving through the streets.

"Hey captain, why isn't this storm dissipating?" One of the soldiers was the first to speak, casting a wary eye over the vast expanse of white mist in the middle of the storm.

Indeed, the storm persisted for an entire day. As they ventured deeper, the mist within the storm became increasingly dense. By now, the visibility was less than five to six meters.

Exploring through the desolate streets, even some soldiers could not help but shudder with fear at every rustle, fearing that an enemy might suddenly jump at them.

"Uh…" After a brief silence, the experienced captain also could not provide a reasonable explanation. 

"It's probably an anomaly," asserted a dark-skinned soldier, tightening his grip on his machine gun.

The Captain interjected, his voice a grave reminder, "Anomaly or not. Keep your guard up though, who knows who might be lurking in the shadows."

As if he wasn't right enough, a shadowy figure quickly maneuvered across the battlefield, able to skillfully dodge detection from the group of twenty soldiers stationed at different intersections. The figure bore a sinister silhouette, appearing deformed with a set of twisted horns crowning its head and limbs sharp as blades. It balanced effortlessly on legs that gleamed like swords, a chilling contrast to its humanlike form.

"Did anyone else hear that?" Gulping in nervousness, a soldier suddenly asked as he broke the uneasy silence.

"Must be your imagination," the captain replied gravely, his tone masking any hint of uncertainty, "Keep moving people. The rest of the forces can't have gone far."

The figure moved with ghostly silence as it stalked its prey. At the opportune moment, it easily leaped from a five-story building and made a dash toward its target, covering the 100-meter distance in mere seconds.

At the same time, the dense fog permeating in the streets seemed to be bearing an indescribable sense of oppression, constantly pressuring the soldiers' nerves with each passing moment.

"I swear to god, Captain. I am hearing a sou-..." the soldier paused as he took notice of the eerie approach and raised an alarm.

"Enemy conta-!"

Shing!

Spurt!

Before the soldier could finish his sentence, a spout of blood shot up in the sky, accompanied by the sickening thud of a fallen weapon.

However, his team already heard his cry and turned their attention to him, but to their horror, they only turned to find his bisected body lying on the ground.

"What the fuck is that!?"

Amidst the continuous cries of alarm, they spotted the enemy responsible for their comrade's death, and immediately each and every soldier raised up their weapons toward the advancing figure.

"Light 'em up!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Muzzle flashes illuminated the darkness as their bullets struck the mysterious assailant, but the figure remained unfazed and pressed forward with terrifying speed. Shortly after, it quickly closed the distance and targeted its next victim.

The soldier at the front aimed his assault rifle, but the figure was too close. He switched to a combat stance, but the enemy leaped forward and sliced down the rifle cleanly in half as though it were made of paper.

Stunned by the destruction of his weapon, the soldier reached for his combat knife. But he was too slow as his enemy twisted its body, to which razor-sharp limbs effortlessly sliced through the soldier's neck.

In an instant, the soldier's head flew off from his body, and crimson blood gushed out of the decapitated body like a fountain of red, splattering the surroundings with a gruesome display that horrified the remaining soldiers. But the nightmare didn't end there.

After dodging many gunshots that were being fired against it with unnerving agility, the figure once again made a dash towards another unfortunate soul that is ten meters away, but distance is no problem for it as it launched itself with the speed of a lightning bolt and as high as it jump from a trampoline, already covered its distance from the soldier in one swoop.

The soldier, shocked by the figure's unbelievable speed, realized too late that the creature was upon him, intent on delivering a killing blow. He focused all his might on shooting the enemy, but it ended on the same fate as his other two comrades.

This time, the figure's attack was even more ruthless and faster. Instead of slicing down the soldier's weapon, it went straight for the kill, ending the soldier's life before he had a chance to react.

The figure twisted its body in midair as it descended upon the fourth soldier, effortlessly slicing through his ribs and cleaving him in half. Blood sprayed from the severed remains, painting the battlefield in a gruesome tableau.

The surrounding soldiers reacted with a barrage of gunfire, unleashing round after round at the monstrous figure. But as they emptied their magazines, the creature instantly hid behind a concrete wall, evading further injury from the concentrated attacks.

The monster carefully timed its attack as it patiently waited for their weapons to run dry. Due to its inherent intelligence it was able to quickly discover that after a period, the soldiers would need to reload their weapons for a few seconds.

Once the gunfire ceased and the flickers of muzzle flash faded, the monster without a moment's hesitation, instantly dashed forward and closed the distance to its next victim with terrifying speed. The soldier, caught off guard, crumpled to his knees as the figure bore down on him.

For the past few moments, the monster had systematically eliminated the soldiers one by one, deftly evading and absorbing the numerous bullets that were being fired from all directions.

"Where the hell is the armor-piercing weapon!?"

Just as the creature prepared to strike its ninth victim, a soldier positioned at a distance aimed the monster with a large steel rod on his shoulder.

"Check your back!" called a companion to the soldier holding the weapon.

The soldier looked behind him and nodded at him.

"Check!"

"Fire!"

With the order of fire released, a barrage of smoke billowed from the weapon's behind to which was then followed by the actual release of the rocket as it streaked toward its intended target with a roaring sound.

A brilliant flash of light illuminated the battlefield as the rocket launched, followed by a trail of smoke tracing its path. The monster, hidden behind a concrete wall, failed to notice the impending attack at first. But as its senses tingled with alarm, it tried to escape. 

Unfortunately for the monster, it was too late.

Boom!

Another burst of light erupted, followed by a powerful explosion that shook the ground and sent the soldiers that were near the blast radius falling to their butt into the murky water stained with blood and disgusting smell.

Upon contact with the explosion, the monster was utterly obliterated. Even though it had tanked most of their bullets that were fired against it, the rocket's force proved too much for the creature as it couldn't withstand something that packs a stronger punch.

After witnessing the death of the enemy that had massacred their numbers, the soldiers cheered. However, their current situation didn't allow it to last long as everything happened so quickly that another wave of those flying monstrosities descended upon them, and the soldiers rushed to their defensive positions, opening fire on the incoming threats.

Though they managed to shoot down the flying creatures one by one, ammunition is nothing but a constraint as they are now rapidly running out of it.

"Captain, we are running out of bullets! What should we do!?"

"Fixed bayonets!"

As the monsters closed in on the soldiers, they resorted to desperate measures, drawing their bayonets to fight the hell out of the creatures in close quarters. One soldier, in particular, drove his bayonet into a monster repeatedly until it bled out and perished.

While the brutal method may seem harsh, the soldiers were left with no choice but to adapt to their limited ammunition and fend off these monsters until they are the last man standing.

The soldiers were facing heavy casualties, however, in just a nick of time reinforcements were able to arrive. With the rapid decline of communication devices because of the catastrophic storm, the high command thought that they would need to resupply and send additional men in the streets as reports of a number of monster sightings were increasing by every moment.

With radio communication cut off, the high command began distributing a higher class form of communication devices designed to bypass communication jammers. These top-secret, high-quality devices held the promise of reestablishing reliable lines of communication. Unfortunately, their distribution was slow, and so heavy casualties are expected to rise exponentially.

Meanwhile, all across Austronesia, flash floods were submerging the land as uncontrollable fires that cannot be put out spread throughout from villages to villages, causing widespread devastation.

As time went by, the chances of survival grew increasingly bleak.