Chapter 104: Rats

Chapter 104: Rats Derrick led the group through the thick canopy of trees in the area.

Just because this was a relatively safe area didn’t mean they were completely out of danger. Emphasis on the "relatively".

The planet itself was riddled with uncertainties, unprecedented and unpredictable happenings. There was a high chance the military had managed to note a pattern amongst the chaotic happenings on the planet and managed to derive a way to predict these things.

He was pretty sure they had gotten something like that. If not, how else would they have waged war on the native beasts and minor races that had existed on the planet for fuck knows how many years

But it was clear that the camp wasn’t just going to hand over one of its key resources to the recruits on a silver platter.

They would have to go through the struggle together regardless of their lineage or citizenship status.

’At least they know know how to be fair when it comes to it’

Kieran thought, his disdain for the military was still there and unaffected.

They had fallen to the pressure of the families and consented to their ’rules’ which were only a way to give their descendants an advantage in a place that was supposed to be impartial.

’Who can blame thought. It would literally been a one versus nine in that situation’

Kieran rationalized, and while he knew that it was probably one of the reasons why they consented to such bullshit, he refused to give them any room for sympathy.

........

Back in front of the unit building, August sat alone drinking from the bottles of wine his guests had left before leaving.

He was a very busy man after all, sparing some time just to check on him was already privileged enough, but August sat there silently like he hadn’t really received something other people would classify as major.

"He really knows his stuff!"

August complemented the taste of the wine before his eyes suddenly narrowed and he turned his gaze in one direction, into the distance.

"Those ungrateful bastards. I should quadruple the training. Maybe they’ll feel a little more appreciative when they break most of the bones in their body"

He said losing the taste of the wine in his mouth.

"They better step on it though"

He muttered to himself.

....

Back in the forest, Kieran, Derrick and Ricahrd spent the next few hours traversing through the region until all of a sudden Derrick came to a stop.

"We are here! Area XA-24!"

Derrick announced to them and they just looked in front of them blankly.

It literally looked like where they had been coming from. There were none of the usual weird boundaries which marked the change in natural regions and climates.

"What did you expect? It was marked by the camp after all"

Derrick looked at Kieran and Richard like he was looking at two idiots.

"Let’s go then!"

Kieran said, ignoring the look and moving in, they were still hours behind the other team.

.....

They quickly made their way into the whole keeping eyed for anything that might less them to the group.

Kieran had been hoping to find camping spots if they spent the night here, but the rain had successfully ruined that.

Searching in the dark wasn’t that effective either. He could see clearly, but it was different than in the daylight. Besides Richard and Derrick couldn’t see too.

Richard couldn’t use his flames lest they wanted go risk attracting another hoard of monsters to them and Kieran was pretty sure non of them wanted to relive the past half a day of their lives.

"Found something!"

After moving around without a specific direction while making sure not to move too deep into the area — it was a place where the monsters were suspected to have arrived, Derrick spoke up saying he had found something. Felt would’ve been the right word.

As they approached whatever it was it he felt, Kieran silently pulled out his scythe in case they fell into another messy situation.

Clearing the last few leaves blocking them, Kieran and Derrick jumped forward, looking around suspiciously and after a while, they confirmed that the coast was clear.

Now they could ease a little while Derrick went to see whatever it was that he sensed.

"It’s a tag, from a recruit named John!"

Derrick said and Kieran’s eyes flashed to the tag.

Taking it within his hand, Kieran inspected the tag and scanned it with his watch.

<<Name: John Crest>>

<<level: mid stage level 6>>

<<Tank>>

<<Time of death: 30 minutes>>

Kieran read through the details and he was certain that it was the third recruit who had given the first one enough reason to join their expedition.

"The rest shouldn’t be too far away."

’Seems like something went wrong, the first guy surely wasn’t joking about the completion rates of these scouting missions!’

Kieran thought.

They couldn’t find the body of the recruit after looking around where the saw the tag.

If according to the tag, he had indeed died 30 minutes ago, whatever killed him had probably hoarded back his body to devour him later away from the eyes of tye other beasts in the area.

"Haaaaa!!!!!"

"FUCK!"

"Run!!"

A few minutes later, Kieran’s team came to a pause, their heads snapping in the direction the series of screams came for.

They had finally found the group they were after and it seemed like they had encountered a disaster, judging from how terrified their scream was.

Without wasting time. They broke inrona sprint heading in the direction the scream came from.

At this point, the realization of how dangerous the mission they had chosen to embark on had long since sank in, bit nine if them made mention of it because the were aware from the onset the risks it involved.

A mission capable of besting around seventy percent of those who took it wasn’t to be taken lightly either, especially considering the fact that the recruits who took it were several stages above them.

Then why did they agree? To be honest, Kieran felt like the mission’s open to them currently had to meaning, no thrill to them....

Richard and Derrick might have acted out their roles of not caring perfectly, but they also felt similar things.

Slowly but surely, they were starting to get affected by the craziness of their very own instructor.

August would’ve been smiling proudly at the moment if he could tell what was happening with them.

Unfortunately other things seemed to have captured his attention as he stared into another direction from the mountain top before suddenly disappearing from the spot altogether like he was never there.

"..."

Kieran raised his hand, signaling the others to halt having spotted the other group. He climbed up the tree to get a better view of their situation and used the leaves as cover for himself.

A while back, Derrick had notified him about his glowing eyes which came as a surprise considering he always been able to control that since the fight with the blue orcs

They would be like a signboard saying to everyone "Hey, I’m here!" and no matter how he tried he didn’t seem to be able to make them stop.

"Heh!"

Kieran’s head snapped to the side hearing a snapped to the side where he heard what seemed like a snarkle, but the two at his sides were completely silent, also focused on watching the group from the trees they had climbed up to.

Focusing back on the group which had now paused their mad sprint, Kieran took and count and inspected their conditions and he was unpleasantly shocked

Judging from the way John the dead recruit had been speaking back then, it seemed like they had formed a group of at least 30 recruits, but right in front of him were just five and they all looked worse than Kieran when he woke up after fainting from August’s training.

Their weapons were cracked and broken, their clothes tattered, dark circles and eye bags made home of their face.

Kieran also took note of how light handed they were, they must have dumped their bags to lessen their weight in an attempt to run faster and escape whatever it was that was hunting them.

"Did we make it?"

A female recruit asked in a hushed tone, and the one beside her hushed her in a desperate manner.

"Shushh!"

He said placing his finger on his lips while looking around frantically.

"I think we should leave!"

Another one of them said and the rest nodded in agreement, it was obvious that they didn’t want to spend another moment here.

’Just what did they see?’

Kieran wondered with a deep frown on his face, but before he could think about the next decision to make, whether to abort and make their way back to camp, a black blur flashed by too fast for his eyes to follow.

The next thing he saw after blinking were a couple of lifeless heads on the floor.

"Well well, another bunch of sneaking rats. How did I miss you all this while!"

A chilling voice came from behind Kieran and the other’s, sending chills down their spine as one word flashed across their minds.

"Shit!!"