Arrogance

After we concluded the mission, Russel and the rest of the Crimson Sparks arrived at the scene. Russel instructed the Crimson Sparks to gather all the men who died into one enormous pile. Afterward, we all stood at the bottom of the pile grouped up. Beta 4 held a large barrel covered in warning labels and threw it on top of the pile of corpses. The way we threw it made it seem light. It landed on the decapitated leader's body as if it were a small star on top of a Xmas tree.

"Gamma 7, shoot it." Russel glared at me. His face was painted with rage and his tone was harsh. Heeding his orders, I grabbed my sniper and shot the item. In a flash, small runic characters wrapped around the bodies disguised as small embers. I turned back to Russel and noticed that his right hand was covered in burn marks. He tried to hide it with his left, but the burns kept spreading. He was muttering something under his breath.

"So that's how they do it." Rin walked beside me with Smith leaning on her. "No normal flame is hot enough to burn that fast."

"…" Smith stared into the flames. Her distance gaze was full of loneliness as if something was robbed from her. Russel walked up to me and broke character as he whispered into my ear.

"Thank you for saving her." As he walked away, he turned back with Beta 4, healing him at his side, and spoke with his normally harsh tone. Crimson Sparks, regroup in the forest. Rin, Smith, Florance, and I will catch up momentarily.

"Sir!" As the others disappeared into the forest, Russel pulled out his rifle and switched off the safety. Rin grabbed Smith and slowly backed away from me.

"Alright bastard. Since you wanna betray orders, you'll get to experience true hell." He glimpses back at Smith. "See, you indirectly caused her mind to shatter dumbass. She not only watched you get your head blown off, but she also made contact with a Beta level threat. These creatures are born from human sin and they feed off their corresponding desire." Russel pulled out a small piece of paper covered in notes. He glanced over at them before continuing.

"Some commander you are-" In response to my outburst, he shot my arm off. "Okay, can you not take advantage of me!?" Beta 4 walked over with a cheerful smile on his face and healed me. "Thanks." However, that smile soon turned to scorn. I tilted my head in confusion as he walked back to Russel's side.

"What you guys encountered was a subbranch of Pride known as Arrogance. And judging by the current state of Smi-er Gamma 9, she fed off her arrogant personality." Russel put his paper away and looked at me, expecting a question.

Just to humor him, I asked one. "So, the creatures you capture feed off specific traits of humans?"

Russel smiled. "Yes, Beta creatures are unique in the sense that they cannot die unless an Alpha-level creature kills them. If we try to kill them, they will only enter a stasis until they recover enough energy to get up. To gain power, they feed off their corresponding traits. While feeding them sounds like a horrible idea, they help understand the world and give us the means to fight against The Fallen and Distortions." The sound of helicopters occupied the night sky. Their searchlights illuminated the sky. Russel settled his rifle on his hip. "Let's go, we can continue this later." He led us into the forest, where we met up with the others in an armored truck.

After we hopped in, the driver of the vehicle took off. We all sat in silence. Jackson and Davis both gave looks of regret toward Smith. Jackson bit his lip, causing it to bleed. His anger was understandable. Ever since we first became a team, we never had a single person suffer a major injury during a mission. So seeing Smith in this state was enough to drop morale a little. I looked over at Rin and she clenched Smith's only hand. Her prideful nature was torn. I look at her with the same look as the others, but instead of blaming myself, I choose to only think about the creature that did this to her.

A human with the ability to transform into a beast. Arrogance was its name, or its classification, which meant that it prides itself and its ability to best everyone else.

"So, how is the taste of reality?" Russel said, drawing my attention to him. His insensitive question caused Jackson to glare daggers at him. "I'm not asking to rub salt on your wounds. I'm asking because this is life. You lot have gotta lucky thus far with how few losses you guys endured. But this war is only getting worse. It's bad enough that we have to rely on kids to fight our battles."

"What did you expect?" I muttered. "After the bombs fell 50 years ago, most of the world population vanished. We have only barely started to recover from the major battles of WWIII, but there are still groups trying to tear apart the new world many have died for. And lucky for the adults, while they are trying to create a 'better future' filled with technology, we teens are trained to fight the battles they are too old for."

"You can speak!?" Russel said in surprise.

Oops… I forgot I rarely talk in front of the others. Darn bastard, I got too comfortable with him.

"But yes, it's a dark world we live in that kids are fighting to help protect the bastards trying to reinvent our futures. The roles should be reversed, but what can we do about it? They have already fought their fair share of battles." Russel looked at the ceiling of the vehicle and sighed. "This battle has been going on for five decades. I just wish it can end already." Afterward, we continued riding in silence.