Chapter 42: Hold

Chapter 42: Hold Few minutes later....

"Why aren’t they here yet?" Jake grumbled, kicking the small rock in front of him.

Beep!

The beep sound of Kieran watch broke the silent atmosphere and he raised his and to check.

"Hmm?"

He made a sound, turning his head sideways to the direction they had just ran from before heaving a tired sigh and standing, dusting his legs.

Jake looked at him, confused and asked,

"What are you doing?"

"They need backup" Kieran said, inspecting his weapons and picking up his backpack.

"Hmm? What are we waiting for? Let’s go!!" Hake said, jumping go his feet, his face flushed.

His withdrawal tendencies were finally starting to kick in and he was really hoping he could finally see something satisfying to fight this time around.

Beep

The moment they made to leave though, another beep was heard coming from Kieran watch. Looking down, he saw another message, but this time it was from the camp. It only contained two words.

<Stay put.>

Seeking this, Kieran frowned and chose to ignore the message.

"Let’s go" he said to Jake who immediately questioned him having seen the expression he had when he saw the message and after

Quite a few things could break Kieran’s cold mask and seeing a frown and his face becoming colder after was something he found strange.

"What is it?"

"I’ll tell you on the way!" Kieran said, running in the direction they had come from, with Hake following behind him.

.......

Back in the camp

"They got a message? Smart!" Selena said looking at the happenings on the screen.

"How long before our forces get to them?" She asked one of the soldiers sitting at the desk.

"about twenty minutes mam!" The soldier replied.

At the side, the masked man had a weird expression that was concealed like always.

"He ignored a command for the sake of his friends despite knowing the consequence?" He thought with strange glint in his eyes.

.....

Back at in the region....

"Are you sure?"

Jake asked Kieran in a deep and serious tone different from the rest he had use so far. Kieran had just explained the situation if things to him including the order he had gotten from the camp.

"Yes! You can turn back if you wish though" He said without even looking back.

He had already made up his mind the moment he saw the order. But Jake wasn’t him and they didn’t have the same relationship with Ruby and he could choose to turn back now, Kieran would understand perfectly if he did.

"Turn back? What do you take me for? If I did, I wouldn’t be able to establish myself as your big bro, would I?" He said loudly, his aura once again unrestrained l, the real Jake that Kieran had gotten to know was present.

Turning to look at him from the corner of his eyes, Kieran remained silent and continued running, changing his direction.

"We’ll be there in a few seconds, get ready!" Kieran said before they both sped up.

Clang! ....

Even before they got there, they could already hear the sounds of battle from a distance.

Getting there they saw what could be called a small army of beast of various types rushing and clawing their way to the middle, trying to Rea h something.

They could also hear the shouts of the recruits as they tried their best the fight back.

"Hahaha, finally something worth my time" Jake laughed hysterically upon seeing the huge amount of those tall blue beasts that Kiernan had killed on the previous outpost amongst some other beasts. They also spotted some monsters from the stampede they had encountered on their second day in the region.

"They’re in the center, we have to break through and retrieve them." Kieran said to Jake who surprisingly still hadn’t lost it and lunged into the pack if beasts.

"Go wild, but don’t go too far" Kieran said, picking up his scythe and the small B2 laser pistol. So far all of the beasts’ attention were on the guys in the center of the encirclement and they were still unnoticed.

"Alright, I’ll make a path for you" Jake said before diving straight into the swarm of beasts.

"MOTHERFUCKERS!!!! COME GIVE YOUR LIVES TO THIS DADDY!!!!!" He said while rushing in, making a part of the swarm focus theory attention on him before rushing out to meet him.

Kieran didn’t waste the opportunity and immediately followed behind Jake who was already wielding his great sword in a wild battle against those beats that he easily eliminated, that crazy smile had finally made way to his face.

They both chose not to use their high damage weapons to prevent hurting each other. Jake had a wild fighting style and much preferred using Melee weapons and Kiernan wasn’t confident enough in his control to match the way the mad man fought.

Immediately they stepped onto the swarm, Kieran immediately felt it.

His senses automatically heightened, the smell of blood invaded his nostrils along with the morbid stench of those monsters and the feeling and tension of death surrounded him.

Strangely, he felt comfortable as a smile broke out on his face as his eyes flashed amber before he also let loose, his battle and bloodlust unveiling itself again.

This time though, he made note to stay completely conscious, lest he lost it like in the previous battle.

Although he was back to normal for the most part the bloody voice that whispered to him to kill was still there and he didn’t mind taking out that urge and hunger on some shitty beasts.

The monsters lunged on them from various sides and angles but it was still manageable for him especially with Jake taking on most of the aggro from them.

It took them a few minutes of intense struggle to reach the center, minutes that felt hell on earth and the moment they did, they didn’t have the time to check up on them had they immediately had to turn around and face the incoming breasts. Taking a moment to turn his body slightly, Kieran shouted to whoever he saw was close to him.

"Gather around, we’ll try to break through now. I’ll hold the rear!!!" He said and they quickly adopted a small formation with Jake and Sabrina after the front, Ruby, Ethan, Liam, the recruit with the glasses on both sides and Kieran holding the rear with William, the one that had gone against him earlier.

The remaining recruits were at the center using their heavy artillery to fight along with some laser grenades

With a short shout, Jake got the signal and made do with those beasts that gave even Kieran a headache to deal with before moving forward.

Unfortunately, their advance was cut short and they were stuck in the previous situation Ruby had been before requesting for help.

"Ahhh!" The recruit, William screamed beside Kieran.

A Kraalox had managed to perfect him in the abdomen with its stinger. Cutting off the stinger with his scythe, William finished the Kraalox off with his sword uncaring about his injures.

’He’s going to die’ Kiernan thought briefly before continuing the battle.

William had been pierced by the Kraalox’s stinger. Even if he didn’t die of blood loss the poison was going to take his life before they could break out if the encirclement.

’Where are they?’

Kieran thought anxiously as he doubled down his efforts and cut down a beast that had tried manages to get past William who was starting to slow down due to the poison, before returning to his position to cut down more beasts.

He wasn’t foolish enough to think they would be able to get in and out of an encirclement of a hundred plus beats, especially with injured recruits.

He had considered the odds and he knew that even though he got the order from the camp to stay put, there was no way they were going to abandon them here, after all they were the most promising in their batch!

What he didn’t expect though was that it was going to take them this long to send back up.

What Kieran didn’t know was that they had only been fighting for a few minutes, not nearly enough for the camps reinforcement to reach their location.

"Hu–"

A blade came down, cutting the arm of a beast that had almost pierced his chest.

"The hell are you doing?? Thinking in a battle??" The recruit with blonde hair shouted at him while cutting down the beast near them.

Looking to the side, William was nowhere to be seen, he must have side with the blonde replacing hum to fill up the gap in formation...

He had truly lost it, and had almost died. Refocusing, Kiernan kept up the pace as they slowly inched forward towards the edge of the encirclement at a pace that could be considered to be barely faster than that of a turtle.

BOOM! BANG!! BANG!!!

Just when Kiernan was starting to get doubtful and tired, loud sounds of weapons and screams could be heard from the edge of the encirclement.

Their reinforcements were here, but this didn’t mean they could rest easy as the beats having realized their impeding death and impossible escape only became more fiercer in their attacks, increasing the burden in Kiernan, Jake and the others who were holding the frame work of the formation.