True Battle III
"Sir?" the captain questioned him.
"Stay here, be ready to use the thorn fruit should my operation prove a failure. Give me a team of those you believe have the best chance of success." Jacob continued.
The captain was stunned for a moment before he gave an affirmative nod and began selecting a few fighters to form the rescue team.
"You there, the boy who stood against the wolf-spider, come here." Jacob said to the boy who had made his way to the back lines.
"Y-yes sir?" was the response he got after the boy had walked over to him.
"Your name?" Jacob asked.
"John sir!" the boy replied energetically this time.
"Are you willing to risk your life again to help those in need?" Jacob asked.
The boy's once hesitant face changed several times in the next few seconds, finally landing on a resolute expression.
"Yes sir!" He said energetically.
"Good, gather any others willing to come, your job will be to move the wreckage and gather those inside while we fend off the beasts."
Jacobs thought process was simple. The boy had proven a certain resistance to fear, and he wanted some people to do the heavy lifting of the search so that both himself and the warriors wouldn't have to split their forces once they got to the wrecked home.
He had no intentions for the servants to fight, but it would be foolish to treat them as pure deadweight.
A few moments later John had gathered 3 other men to help with the operation.
2 appeared to be doing it out of goodwill, while the final man wanted to rescue his spouse who was trapped inside.
"Sir, I have gathered this squad of warriors. Please be swift as every moment away from the front line is another moment we grow weaker." The captain had gotten back to him with 5 men.
"Right" Jacob responded.
He turned to his team of 9, 10 if he included himself.
"The plan is simple. The warriors will hold the front line while I will assist when necessary. We will advance on the wreckage and set up a defensive formation. From there the servants will evacuate those inside the wreckage. When all those inside have been safely retrieved, we will retreat. AM I CLEAR?" Jacob ended his briefing with a shout.
"IN PURITY WE TRUST SIR!" The men shouted back.
'Must be their equivalent to "sir yes sir"' Jacob thought.
"MOVE OUT!" Jacob cried, well aware that he was wasting precious time.
And so started the rescue operation.
It went smoothly at first, Jacob's first action as they began moving was to unload the clip of his gun to see how many rounds he had left.
After checking the size of one of his bullets, analysis informed him that the clip held 7 more shots.
To be frank, Jacob had made a mistake. In his haste he had forgotten to grab the spare clips for his gun when leaving the cabin, meaning his current 7 bullets were all he had.
As the group of 10 began to move towards the wreckage they encountered a few beasts, thankfully those between them and their objective seemed to be weaker than others.
Jacob ended up shooting twice in that time, both shots were perfect as analysis had gained enough data to perfect his shooting.
Of course, it couldn't predict the gun misfiring but provided the mechanism worked properly Jacob wouldn't miss.
He could even do trick shots if he wished.
Without realising it Jacob had stumbled onto what might be the most suitable weapon for him.
An ideal firearm had one aspect that no cold weapon held, consistency.
Where bows and blades differed massively in performance based on who wielded them a gun would perform the same mechanic sequence with every trigger pull.
Considering Jacob could perfectly position the gun at any point in time due to his ability it made the weapon go from deadly to downright unfair.
He could theoretically hit any target that moved semi-predictably within the gun's effective range.
And that's exactly what he did.
His first shot landed directly in the eye of a tiger-badger blend beast, while his second perfectly nailed the knee joint of what looked like a large praying mantis.
The mantis had a tough exoskeleton and moved its head around sharply at random intervals, making the leg a much easier target.
Thanks to his intervention the warriors had little trouble dealing with the mantis and were able to swiftly go back to dealing with the smaller, less dangerous beasts.
They soon reached the wrecks.
"WARRIORS, DEFENSIVE FORMATION. BOY, TAKE THE OTHERS AND GET OUR PEOPLE OUT!" Jacobs shouted over the clanging steel as the warriors fought off beasts.
It might sound weird to hear steel clanging in a battle against beasts but many of their foes had scale-like armour with the toughness of metal. Or claws that could parry even their sharpest blades.
Thankfully the warriors were used to such things.
Sadly, Jacob had made a mistake.
His shout had once again drawn the attention of the whole battlefield. Even creatures with limited intelligence knew to take out the leader first.
That was when the hoard that was once attacking their front line turned around.
And charged the rescue team.