“Still, I’ve never seen beasts like that,” a soldier noted. “What planet did they come from?”
“Who knows?” the captain answered. “I have no idea, but they seem well trained and can cooperate with us to some degree, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Sure, but aren’t you curious?”
The closest force to their targets were five beasts and one squad. There had only been two beasts when the squad had grouped up with the creatures, but another three had joined them shortly afterward. They were the squad that Kiriha’s group was trying to fight, as they had gotten too close.
“They’re going straight ahead without hesitation,” the soldier said. “It’s honestly a big help.”
“I hope they’ll lead us right to them...” the captain muttered.
The soldiers were in a troop transport, following behind the beasts. It was only moving at forty kilometers per hour because of the poor terrain, but the animals slowed down enough for them to keep up. It was far better than searching without many clues. The fact that they were heading for their goal made it feel like the soldiers were moving at a much higher speed than they really were.
“Oh!” the captain exclaimed.
“The beasts have stopped. Something must have happened. Slow down.”
“Understood,” the soldier replied.
Following the captain’s order, the driver slowed down. The truck’s headlights lit up the beasts. They looked like hyenas, but their fur was dark green. The light made their eyes glow yellow. These creatures didn’t exist on Forthorthe because they were magical beasts that Grevanas had summoned from Folsaria.
“Right, so that’s what they are,” the captain murmured.
Five meters away was the entrance to a ravine a few meters wide. A small river ran through its center, and one of the beasts was drinking from it. Their targets had entered the ravine, so the beasts were waiting for the soldiers. Realizing that, the captain gave out orders.
“Use the unmanned craft to report to our superiors.”
“At once!” the soldier replied.
Having gotten close to their targets, they now needed to make difficult decisions, so the squad captain would contact Maxfern and Grevanas and wait for orders. Since they couldn’t use gravitational waves due to being in enemy territory, they used an unmanned craft equipped with laser communications to make their report. It would contact their allies in orbit, and since it used a laser to make direct contact, there was no fear of it being intercepted. Just in case, however, the unmanned craft only made contact when there were no enemies above them. It might have taken some time, but it was necessary.
“Captain, we’ve gotten an answer,” the soldier reported. “‘Continue the pursuit.’”
“All right, everyone, get off! We’re going into the ravine!” the captain ordered.
“Understood!” the soldiers answered.
As expected, the orders from above told them to follow their targets into the ravine. They would need to leave the vehicle, which was why the captain had requested orders.
“Can you lead the way?” he asked.
The beasts growled and entered the ravine ahead of the soldiers.
It was dark outside, as the sun had already set, but the beasts had night vision and their other senses were sharp. They could find their targets much faster than the soldiers.
The ravine was narrow, so the beasts proceeded in lines of two, with the soldiers behind doing the same. The cliffs on either side were steep, so little light from the stars above leaked in. Even with light, it was hard to see. The soldiers next to the captain seemed uneasy.
“Captain, are they going to attack?” one asked.
“If our targets came here under the assumption that they wouldn’t be able to escape, they definitely will.”
The squad captain believed their targets would launch an ambush from the ravine. That was why he had his soldiers in a formation with plenty of room to move around.
“There may only be three of them, but they’re still the Blue Knight’s allies,” another soldier said. “Meanwhile, we are a squad of ten. Maybe we should have waited for our allies to join us.”
“Waiting is dangerous,” the captain answered. “I can’t imagine what would happen if we gave them more time. As you said, they are the Blue Knight’s allies.”
He could understand his subordinates’ concerns. He shared them. But giving their targets time would be a bad call. Since those three were the brains behind the Blue Knight, they might be able to come up with some sort of plan if they had enough time. The soldiers would have a higher chance of success with force. And combined with the support of the five beasts, the captain figured that if they were going for it, they had to do so now. There were a lot of unknowns, but it was the best option right now.
“That makes—”
That was when the beasts in the front growled. The remaining three moved their ears and became more alert to their surroundings. Seeing that, the captain raised his voice.
“Deploy the distortion fields! They’re attacking!”
The assault came at around the same moment he spoke.
“You’re wide open, ho!”
“The early bird gets the worm, ho!”
Strange voices rang out as fire and electricity rained down from above. They struck the beasts and soldiers directly. The fires burned the soldiers, yet they took almost no damage thanks to the distortion field. However, when the electricity struck the three beasts in the rear, one of them took enough damage for the summoning magic to be dispelled, and it turned to ash and disappeared. The other two were still there, but shock left them staggered.
The two beasts in the front growled at something overhead. There were enemies in the darkness. Using that as their lead, the soldiers, equipped with Liberation Army standard beam rifles, fired into the sky.
“They got angry, ho!”
“Spare us, ho!”
Before the soldiers could pull their triggers, the hidden enemies retreated. The soldiers only caught a brief glimpse of them thanks to the lights attached to the rifles, but all they could tell before the strangers disappeared was that they were small and dark brown.
“Woof! Woof, woof!”
“Grrrrrrr!”
The two remaining beasts ran after the enemy—a natural reaction for such creatures. They wouldn’t let something that hurt their pack get away. But it was a big mistake from a military perspective.
“Wait! Get back!” the captain shouted, but though they had listened to his orders before, they ignored him. They were too agitated to hear him and leaped into the darkness.
Dammit! What should I do?! If we don’t follow them, we’ll lose the beasts! But the enemy will definitely be waiting to intercept us!
He was forced to make a difficult decision, which had been the enemy’s plan from the start. They wanted to separate the soldiers from the beasts and deprive them of a way to track them. Yet, despite knowing that, an ambush awaited the soldiers if they gave chase.
“Damn, there’s no time to wait!” the captain exclaimed. “We’re following the enemy! Follow me!”
He made his decision and ran after the beasts. The soldiers followed his lead.
The beasts can find the enemy in the darkness! the captain thought. If we wait, we won’t be able to move around in the ravine!
The beasts weren’t just necessary for tracking the enemy from afar, but also for their current situation. If they didn’t follow the beasts, the soldiers would be forced to be more cautious, making them practically unable to move in the ravine, which was just what the enemy wanted.
“They’re smart!” the captain warned his team. “Don’t give them time to think!”
The soldiers desperately ran. All they could see was what little their lights illuminated. They swept them back and forth, staying vigilant of their surroundings as they moved as quickly as possible. They had to find the enemy before the two beasts that had run ahead were killed.
“There they are!” The captain shone his light and found the enemy. Like the intel had said, it was three girls. They each had a weapon and were in the process of battling the two beasts.
Suddenly, one of the creatures let out a scream and fell to the ground. The other was still fighting, but it was staggering and covered in wounds. They were in a miserable state, but the soldiers had made it in time. Although the beasts had been gravely wounded, that was fine since the soldiers had discovered the enemy in time. They just needed to let their firepower do the talking.
Seeing his chance for victory, the captain raised his voice again. “Attack! Once they’re down, it’s over!”
He felt both excitement and relief as he aimed his rifle, setting his sights on one of the girls and firing. It was a black-haired girl with a naginata, which looked like a large spear to him. However, the beam was blocked by a distortion field. It appeared to be military-grade and blocked the attack.
“I guess they’re not completely defenseless!” the captain noted. “But we just need to press our advantage!”
Even if the enemy was using military-grade distortion fields, they wouldn’t be able to endure repeated attacks. If the full squad worked together, they would win. However, their three targets weren’t without a plan.
“Hey, are you trying to run away?!” the captain cried.
Realizing their disadvantage, the girls had turned around and were attempting to escape deeper into the ravine. As they did, they would fire back at the soldiers, but it was no easy task to shoot backward while running. They were throwing out sporadic attacks that didn’t stop the soldiers.
“It’s too late to run! We’ve already found you!”
Their actions were pointless. If they were going to run, they should move faster. Their advantage had lain in ambushing from the dark, but since that advantage was gone, the three had no chance of escaping.
“Don’t stop shooting!” he warned the others.
The order was to kill, and the soldiers fired with everything they had. After enough shots, the distortion field protecting the girls finally broke.
“It’s over!” the captain shouted.