--- The hospital retake, final part ---
Sergeant Tiago and his team advance cautiously through the hospital corridors. The other teams reported strong enemy resistance, but it is easily overcome. One of the teams reported by radio that they had killed one of the Minotaurs that had retreated into the hospital earlier. Unfortunately, it managed to kill 2 soldiers and wound 1.
As he turned the corner of a hallway, a dart flew in his direction, hitting him squarely in the middle of his vest. Tiago quickly stepped back and took cover. He looked at the dart and quickly removed it from the vest. "Lucky break, Sergeant," said one of the soldiers who was right behind him. Tiago grabbed a flashbang grenade and tossed it down the hallway in the direction the dart came from. Quickly, they all resumed advancing. Three confused archers were visible after being hit by the flashbang grenade. Tiago aimed his I.A2 rifle, and in seconds, a controlled burst of 7.62mm rounds ended the lives of those unfortunate archers. Advancing down the corridor, they saw a lone archer in front of a closed door, preparing to fire his arrow, but he was hit with a precise shot to his head.
The team approached the door. "Why was he in front of this door?" Tiago wondered as he looked at the lifeless body of the archer, who appeared to be between 16 and 17 years old.
"Is he a child?" asked one of the soldiers.
"That doesn't matter now. Child or not, he was ready to fire at us. He made his choice," said another soldier.
This reminded Tiago of the war against the Narco-terrorists five years ago when he often saw teenagers carrying AK-47 rifles during the conflict. They were all deceived by the drug trade and ended up dying. The war was won, and in the end, drug and arms trafficking decreased by 70% across the country. But the cost was high.
Tiago refocused on the mission and said, "Let's see what's behind this door."
They opened the door and entered in pairs, aiming their rifles. The scene they saw was at least concerning. In the room was a man wearing a blue cloak, 2 soldiers in golden armor with golden swords, and a woman in armor that appeared to be made of leather.
They were holding 3 nurses and a person who appeared to be a patient of the hospital hostage. Tiago had dealt with hostage rescues before, but this was different.
They were speaking incomprehensible words; the soldiers in armor wore helmets, making it difficult to see their faces, but their eyes were extremely blue. The mage seemed to have a wound on his shoulder, probably from a gunshot. The woman in armor had an expression of pure fear and was totally terrified. She was the only one not holding a sword. Slowly, everyone in that room was surrounded by rifles.
Tiago didn't want to risk opening fire and harming the hostages, so he would have to try to make them surrender. That's when he notices the mage raising his staff, he sees a small spark forming at the tip of the staff, but before anything could be done, the mage receives a precise shot to the chest from one of the soldiers. The two armored soldiers are distracted for a moment, Tiago shouts for the hostages to get down, and then opens fire on the two armored ones, one of them falls dead to the ground while the other takes a shot in the shoulder that makes him scream and fall to his knees in pain.
Stolen novel; please report.
The armored woman, upon seeing the hostages throw themselves to the ground, does the same, thus avoiding being shot, but she feels someone pressing her against the ground. She tries to see who it is and it's one of the soldiers who handcuffs her and then lifts her up. The hostages are taken out of the room, Tiago asks two of his men to escort the hostages to the hospital entrance, he informs over the radio about everything that happened. The injured armored soldier is also handcuffed and taken out of the room.
All teams seem to have cleared the hospital, and some are leaving with prisoners. Tiago and his team also prepare to leave. They quickly advance through the corridors, but a loud growl is heard behind their team. One of those Minotaurs was standing right at the end of the corridor behind them. He hears the captured armored soldier saying something, Tiago can't understand, but clearly, he was insulting his team.
Tiago and two more soldiers start firing at the monster, the others protect the prisoners so they don't escape. Amidst the confusion, the 7.62mm bursts seem to hurt the beast, but not enough to bring it down. The creature, now even more enraged, starts running towards them with its axe, in a single blow, it cuts one of the soldiers in half. This makes everyone step back a bit. The other soldier curses at the creature and begins to fire, but he receives a direct impact from the Minotaur's kick.
Seeing this situation, Tiago orders his team to fall back, he realizes that the creature is wearing a chest plate and a Greek-style helmet. However, its eyes and mouth were still exposed. Five more soldiers start firing more 7.62mm bursts. Tiago wonders how the other team managed to kill one of these things. As the creature was preparing for another deadly blow, a shot from an AT4 hits it directly in the head, making it explode. Everyone looks back and sees one of the young cadets with that powerful weapon on his shoulder, Tiago recognizes him, and it's Pedro. He is not alone. Right behind him are Marines.
"So the Marines arrived," said one of Tiago's team soldiers. A Marine sergeant goes to Tiago and says, "It seems we arrived just in time."
"Well, I appreciate it, but why did you bring that cadet?" Tiago asked, confused.
"He wasn't the only one, all the soldiers from your platoon who stayed outside also joined us, and as he had an AT4 in his hands, we asked him to accompany us after hearing several shots coming from this corridor."
Tiago shakes the sergeant's hand and thanks him once again; he goes to Pedro. Pedro expects to receive a scolding again, but to his surprise, he sees Tiago's hand extended to him. "Good job, Cadet."
Pedro then accepts the handshake and shakes Tiago's hand.
"It was nothing, sir."
Tiago and his team leave the hospital, which will now be under the control of the Marines. As they walk out, he sees 5 AAV-7 A1 CLANF (Amphibious Assault Vehicle) from the Brazilian Navy Marines. In the street leading to the hospital, he sees a huge convoy of military trucks, LMVs, MBTs, and Guaranis moving. "Clearly, there are hundreds of army vehicles," Pedro says as he stops next to Tiago. "It seems we really are at war."
After that, the 11th, in which Tiago, Pedro, and Gabriel are part of, joined the large convoy passing by and headed towards the outskirts of the gate; all enemy strongholds scattered throughout the city were neutralized along with all the remaining flying monsters, and the only point of enemy resistance was around the mysterious portal.