War (2)

-Alpha-1 here- Ogre located at the front.

An ogre appeared wielding a car on each hand. Ogres were built with muscles as strong as trains. A majority of the ogres were over five meters tall. The most difficult aspect of fighting against an ogre was the strong resistance against any sort of fire-based attack.

Schl-kak!

A few soldiers from Ark shot their grenade launchers. The ogres were completely covered in flames, slowing them down. In that instant, a psyker with a blink ability instantly closed onto them. He used his shotgun to its head. They looked at ease and experienced.

"That person also has blink ability."

Upon Han's words, Silence quickly wrote out a message.

-Nobody has better blink control than me. I'm the best.

The special force squads gradually neared to the inner city. The roads became more complicated and the number of alleyways increased. They could see through to the dimensional crack in between the buildings.

-TssZzt, we're splitting here. Best of luck.

The special force squads split in different directions. They were now quite far away from the Allied Military Forces and minion battle zone. As planned, the Allied Military Forces kept the minions busy.

'I didn't see any organized minion forces that had an Elu leading them. It was just a hoard of minions.'

There was no way that the Elus were short in hand. After the end of the war, minions had never gathered in one place in such high numbers. 

"Wait."

Corporal Zhai suddenly halted. He touched the iron reinforcement bars which protruded out from the concrete ground. There was black fur attached to the end of the iron rods.

"That's werewolf fur." Han said from behind Corporal Zhai. 

"This is troublesome. If there are werewolves in the immediate vicinity, it will be hard to outrun them." 

Corporal Zhai mumbled. Team Delta and Echo had been surrounded and died. It is very difficult to escape from a group of werewolves who are led by Elu hunters. It will be difficult to go against such a high number of enemies no matter how skilled the squad.

BANG!

The sound of bombs reverberated from a distance. Long distance missiles and bombs fell from the sky and the minions began to scatter. Gradually, the Elu mages that were hiding amongst the minions began to appear. The Elus casted a psychic shield and blocked the missiles. The reason the primitive minion army could fight on equal footing against the modern military forces was due to the Elus.

'How many more people will die?' Han slowly closed and opened his eyes. There was no way to keep count of all the casualties on this battlefield. Han didn't have the power to defend everyone here.

'At least I should have the power to protect those next to me…'

Han looked to his squad members and started to speak. When he ordered commands, he didn't bother with any sort of honorifics even with Corporal Zhai in their squad.

"We can't afford to stop here even if we are worried about such things. We are responsible for two ceremonial points. We must hurry to take care of our task, then rejoin with the other squads." 

Han positioned Corporal Zhai into the vanguard position. Corporal Zhai had the most experience fighting in a city zone. Zhai was the most knowledgeable about the places they should be careful and where they should move with extra silent steps. Han carefully watched over Corporal Zhai's every move. There was no way to learn about these things through words. This was a skill that could only be obtained through real life experience. Squad Easy moved through the city ruins following Corporal Zhai's lead.

"Hmm." Corporal Zhai murmured to himself. His expression crumpled upon turning into an alley corner. Several corpses were sprawled in this alleyway. They looked like they were a group of homeless people. They wore ripped up coats and had wrapped their neck tightly with a scarf. Their fingers looked dirty and black.

'These must be refugees that are not protected from any country. Maybe run away criminals.'

Han followed Corporal Zhai and looked over the corpses. Han mindlessly tried to nudge a corpse with a light kick. The blood which pooled on his forehead dripped down. The blood which dripped wasn't black but red, signalling that the blood was fresh.

Ddak, Ddak. 

Han tapped his helmet twice and the squad stopped. He swiped a bit of fresh blood from the dead vagrant's forehead and showed his squad members. Red blood. Not much time has passed since these vagrants died.

Nod.

The squad nodded their head. They hid their presence while they moved forward and remained alert for any signs of noise. Amongst the chaotic sounds of battle from far away, they noticed the sound of footsteps.

Sssk.

The squad stuck close to the alleyway wall. Han threw a rock to the opposite alleyway.

Twitch.

The sound of footsteps grew louder. This wasn't the sound that could be made by a soldier's shoes. The ground slightly shook with every step.

"Kgrrrrr."

A low growl could be heard. If they approached the monster any closer, then they would surely be discovered through smell. The squad members looked to one another. Han lifted his high flash-bang granade and made eye contact with Silence. Silence wrote out an okay on his helmet shield. 

'One, two.'

Han pulled out the pin and counted. He threw the flash-bang grenade and closed his eyes.

BOOM!

A deafening explosion shook the area. Silence dashed out and confirmed the opponent's location. There were two werewolves. The werewolves had their eyes closed as they howled.

'Simon! Right!"

Han left the werewolf to the right to Simon. He dashed out with a knife at hand. Knives were the most useful weapons against werewolves in most cases. As long as they cut their throats, they would die.

CHLKAK.

Han and Corporal Zhai helped to provide cover fire against those who attacked the squad members. Amidst the chaos, Simon and Silence took their positions behind the werewolves and aimed at their opponent's necks. 

"Get down!" Corporal Zhai shouted as he aimed his gun. They couldn't afford to be at ease just yet.

Pah!

An arrow made of psychic energy hit the ground. An Elu hunter was up on the building roof shooting arrows. Whenever they stood in place, a psychic arrow came flying in their direction.

"Silence! Save your strength."

Silence was going to use his blink ability to kill the Elu hunter. Han shouted to stop Silence. Silence quickly hid behind a wall. 

'I can't afford to have Silence waste his psychic energy here. There will be a moment when his strength will be necessary later.'

Once Silence's blink ability is depleted his overall battle strength would be reduced by more than half. His battle power depends on his blink ability. Blinking depletes a vast amount of psychic energy. This battle skill must be used sparingly.

'The distance between us is very far. About 40 meters. If we take the height into consideration, he will need to deplete more psychic energy than usual. We can only reach the Elu with a grenade launcher.'

Squad Easy didn't bring a grenade launcher with them. Han calmed his breath and took out a grenade. Psychic energy flowed from his eyes.

Han threw his grenade high into the air. Originally, the grenade would slowly lose its momentum, but the further the grenade flew, the faster it bulleted in the air. He wasn't using his telekinesis to control the grenade, but he was using his telekinesis to fling it consecutively in the air. Han used his telekinesis to fling the grenade one last time at the maximum distance his psychic powers would reach, the grenade flew exactly to the Elu hunter's location.

BAA-AANG!

The Elu hunter's body was shredded to pieces. 

"That just now…"

Simon stared at Han. Silence was equally shocked. Only Corporal Zhai who wasn't a psyker didn't understand the complexity of Han's maneuver just now. 

It was impossible to boost the speed of a moving object with psychic energy with normal psychic control ability. Han's grenade was flung three times consecutively in the air, and was able to preserve a huge amount of psychic energy. The last time Han flung the grenade, he was able to accurately aim at the Elu. The grenade flew with the power of inertia at the Elu like it was being shot out of a grenade launcher.

'This reaction….' Corporal Zhai stood confused. 

It was impossible for a normal soldier to understand the difficulty of the move just now. Telekinesis was a psyker's third hand.

"If I were to try and explain it with a figure of speech, it's similar to trying to juggle with four balls." Simon mumbled. Amidst the chaos of battle, without a bit of foresight, Han had just displayed circus acrobatics. Simon had superior overall telekinetic power, but even when he was dubbed a genius, he could not pull off such fine control.

If Simon using telekinesis was equivalent to a fighter who has been training for a long time, Han would be an acrobat who could use telekinesis to the utter limit. 

"That was a huge disturbance. More minions should appear soon. No, they will. Corporal Zhai, please set up a tripwire at the roadside of this location.

Han ordered Simon and Silence to survey the area. Han went to the alleyway and dragged a vagrant's corpse.

'Apologies.'

Han apologized in his heart. He would not know the identity of this vagrant his entire life. However, he was sure of one thing. The living were more important than the dead.

"Han…"

Corporal Zhai set up the tripwire. He observed Han's behavior with a strange expression. Han set up the corpse behind a cover wall.

'If they attack us in the same pattern as they have up until now, the werewolves will be the first to arrive.' 

Han mumbled this silently to himself as he took off the vagrant's clothes. Han placed his own battle shirt over the vagrant. 

"Corporal Zhai. Do you have any remaining grenades? Three or four more would do."

Han used the vagrant's corpse to set up a booby-trap. He made it so that when the shirt is pulled or moved in some way, the grenade pin would pull off. He also tied a trip wire around the corpse's finger and placed a gun trigger in position. When the trip wire activates, the gun will immediately fire. If a werewolf or minion were to approach the corpse and touch it, the grenade will explode. An Elu would not be easily tricked, but minions with lower intelligence will be easily baited.

Puh! Puh!

Han stabbed the vagrant's waist with his knife. The thick smell of fresh blood permeated the air. He calculated that even if the minions avoided the tripwire, they would not be able to withstand the smell of blood. 

'Is he making a booby-trap with a human corpse? He's only ten years old…'

Corporal Zhai felt a chill watching Han. He's using a human corpse like a tool. These were tactics only expert and veteran soldiers used. The moment Corporal Zhai thought about whether he should set up booby traps using the corpses, Han already finished setting one up. Corporal Zhai didn't think Han's decision was wrong. He was thinking of the same way. However, he felt pity for Han in his heart.

'Han is becoming a soldier faster than anyone. Though, this is how it should be…' The right decision doesn't always mean that you agree emotionally as well. 

Squad Easy moved to their marked position on the map. From time to time, they ran across Elu hunters and ambushed them before passing by.  Minions were marching without fear in the bigger roads. Squad Easy hid themselves and waited for the minion army to pass.

'Just how many minions are in this place?'

It seemed like all the minions that could be summoned on earth were teleported here. The Elu mages that were in hiding just used their last card to declare an all-out war. The Allied Forces and Ark quickly requested for more back up. An all-out war from the dragon army and humanity had begun.