"You'll be alright," Enkidu reassured. "Saturn, right? Slow breaths, stay conscious."
"It's been an honor, sir," Saturn groaned. His face was pale and sweaty. "For all of us. To serve with the Future of Bloodhaven, to serve beside you—"
"You'll keep serving, don't give up just yet," he whispered under his breath as the stunned Firespitter rose to its feet.
Circle the beast, pull its attacks from the injured Saturn, and find a way to strike where its weakest.
It could hear him and would fire a jet of fire any second now. Once fired, he had five seconds to strike the monster's weak point before it was ready to fire again.
It would require inhuman speed or strength. It was impossible for the unawakened soldiers of this Recon team. Or at least they thought so until they met Enkidu.
He grounded himself. Forget yourself, remember the mission. The weight in his chest settled, his gaze sharpened.
Light flashed. A direct shot from a large hole where the Firespitter's head ought to be. Powerful enough to burn a hole clean through his body. Enough pain to knock him out, even if he survived.
The beam came right at his chest, faster than he could react manually. He shot forward, relying on instinct, moving before the beam was even fired.
There was a visual lag before his first step. An illusion that would leave a person wondering if an unawakened soldier just teleported.
The four meters between Enkidu and the Firespitter shrank in a second. The creature jumped at him, launching its small but heavy body with a powerful leap that cracked the floor. To crush Enkidu under its weight.
But in one smooth motion, Enkidu slid and stabbed upward, piercing its tough body to its core. He let go of the sword as the Firespitter crashed limply into the ground.
Firespitters were artificial beings made by a demon god. War machines that weren't truly alive. Once their core was destroyed, they became inactive.
Enkidu returned to the injured Saturn. The Firespitters were being thinned in number, and most of his team were still alive.
He turned his ears to the approaching army. They could escape this. But not everyone would make it out.
The sight of his friends and comrades desperately fighting made his heart heavy. But that was the mission.
"Stun the enemy and line up around the barrier!" Enkidu roared.
All the soldiers turned and gave up on killing the beasts, instead laying down precise shots to stun them. Two men ran over and took Saturn while Enkidu retrieved his sword. He followed slowly, taking time to stab stunned Firespitters in their cores.
One of the soldiers smiled lopsidedly. "If you wanted extra kills, you could have told us, sir."
"Shut up," Tanner snapped, before turning to Enkidu. "Explosives are lined and ready to go, but Franky isn't sure of the cave's stability."
Cursing under his breath, Enkidu walked past the line of soldiers with their guns trained on the monsters and to a hesitant Franky.
"We don't have time for this," he said simply.
Frankly clenched his fists. "I don't trust Recon's assessment of this cave's stability. As the Munitions Expert, I advise—"
"We have monsters incoming on both sides!" Enkidu said with a barely controlled voice. "And reinforcements—" He turned to Tanner, who jumped up slightly.
"They are still ten minutes out," he reported.
"They sent a small team," Franky growled, his blue eyes shuddering. "Those bastards must think we're having a picnic out here."
Enkidu crouched down, his steely gaze sinking into Franky's skull. "That is why we don't have time to be arguing with our superior officers." He said slowly. "We create our escape route or die here."
The munitions expert swallowed and nodded. He turned down to the circle of star-shaped bombs fixed against the ground.
Bunker breakers. An explosive mix of magic and science meant to focus the force of a 30kg bomb in a specific area and direction. In this case, it would blow an escape route into the tunnel beneath them without burning them alive.
They all stepped back five meters. Franky turned to him with a hesitant look. Enkidu swallowed his spit and nodded.
"Brace yourselves."
Franky squeezed the detonator. Light and a shaking roar filled the room like the waking of a beast. Everyone was already turned away from the contained explosion with their palms over their ears.
The vibrations and light faded, but the dungeon was still trembling with approaching footsteps. Trigger fingers tightened as the soldiers watched both ends of the hall.
The smoking hole cleared and Enkidu's heart fell. The charred hole led to a dead end. It was wide enough for one man, but only ten metres deep.
Were their directions wrong? Was the map itself wrong?
"Okay, this isn't good," Franky admitted, pulling out a handkerchief to obsessively rub the sweat and ash off his face. "But I think I have an idea where the right point—"
"We can't," Enkidu muttered. He caught the small vibrations in the walls of the dungeon. It was already an unnatural underground formation, so disturbing the structure was always a bad idea.
He tightened his grip on his sword. "The cavern will collapse if we try to create another tunnel. Everyone, line up. We fight till the reinforcements come."
The disbelief in their eyes could shake another man's resolve. But not him. He knew the protocols, had learnt how to command troops before he knew how to drive. They had to fight.
"Weapons check," Enkidu ordered dauntlessly. "We only have 30 seconds before they're on us. Create more stone barriers and have healing patches on standby."
They were low on ammunition and explosives. This squad had no awakened members in the first place, so no one here could fight a Common-tier monster with their hands or swords. This would be a close fight.
But there had to be a way…
He turned to the family crest on his uniform. It's an honour to die fighting either way. Most people didn't get the chance. They died from diseases and ambushes.
Fighting for their territory. One of the last few bastions of humanity on Earth. His hands trembled.
It was an honor.
Murmurs ran through the tunnel as the sound of footsteps drowned them out. Prayers to the guardian spirits of war and paradise. Aries and Utopia.
"Forgive my incompetence," Enkidu whispered to no one in particular. His mother, father, his subordinates, maybe even Utopia. Maybe he could still get into paradise.
Tanner walked in front of him. His face was hard despite his wavering voice. "Y-you have to go."
Stepping backwards, Enkidu's face twisted in confusion. But Tanner continued walking forward, forcing him back. The look on Tanner's face was too serious, devoid of the boy he had known since they were kids.
Tanner was a joker. A class clown from the first day they met. He always knew when to be serious, but there was always that trace of lightheartedness in him. Right now, his eyes were empty.
For a second, Enkidu was too shocked to speak. Internally, he wondered if all of this was a dream. He turned from Franky, Donald and the other young men around him. He had gone to school with most of them and was friends with some since he was five.
"I want to fight," Enkidu said weakly. "It's an honour. I want to stay with everyone. I want—"
Tanner pushed him, someone tripped him, and he fell into the hole they blasted open. His bewildered mind caught up. His sword stabbed into the charred walls to stop his short fall.
"Are you insane?!" Enkidu cursed. But then his eyes widened.
Tanner was creating another stone boundary over the hole, sealing him into the darkness. Franky took out more explosives.
Someone yelled at Tanner. "What are you doing?"
"We're taking the entire cavern down," Tanner replied calmly. "We'll take the damned beasts with us."
Once the hole was sealed, their voices became muffled. But Enkidu had always had powerful senses, he could see his trembling hand in the dark, and he could hear the other soldiers try to beg.
Tanner was trying to save Enkidu's life. Most subjects of Bloodhaven had long been conditioned towards sacrifices like this, but some people still pleaded. They knew death was coming, but still begged for someone to also save them.
Shots suddenly rang out, and the sound of rushing flames filled the air as the Firespitters came down on the desolate soldiers.
Tormented by the screams of dying men, Enkidu pushed himself up the wall. His shoulders screamed in protest, his fingers bled against the charred wall as he crawled up. But he was getting there.
Then Franky's explosive went off. He slipped.
A panicked gasp escaped him as he rushed to grab the sword with two hands. An avalanche of stone drowned out the voices above.
Inside the sealed hole, he forced his mind not to imagine the bodies of his friends crushed under stone.