The Enemy Legate’s Command Center
Not long ago
Legate Sartorius calmly continues to listen to the reports of his soldiers about the situation at the Western Mountain Pass. But he can’t get his mind off of the suicidal soldier who had attacked them. Because even as a suicidal attack, he knows someone of that skill could do better. She didn’t even destroy any of the buildings or attempt to sabotage them in any way. Just slaughtered several dozen officers, which while is a feat in and of itself, wasn’t worth the life of that soldier in the legate’s mind.
Then there’s the fact that her body was still glowing after her death. If she did have a mutation class or ability, then why would the enemy be willing to sacrifice her so easily?
It just doesn’t line up in the legate’s mind.
He keeps listening to the reports, stating that the legate in charge of the Western fortress is in a deadlock with the enemy forces. Which confuses him even more, since he knows that the enemy forces outnumber them. And yet, they aren’t attempting to do a frontal assault, instead trying to keep them on their toes.
As if they’re acting as a diversion.
The legate’s eyes narrow and he opens his mouth to bring it up to his closest officers, only for the sounds of explosions to ring throughout the base, making him shoot to his feet alongside the other officers in the hut. Then they all rush outside to find smoke rising into the air from several locations on the Eastern side of the fortress.
From the food and weapons storage units.
Fuuck!
Before he can rush over to the storages though, he notices another area where smoke is coming from.
Right behind the command center he had just left, within the tunnel. A tunnel that he now finds caved in completely.
And he questions his own vision when he sees a woman jumping over the wall fencing off the tunnel from the rest of the base. The very woman he remembered checking and finding dead barely over an hour ago.
The legate draws his sword and shouts at his men, “Capture the saboteur!” while charging in her direction, only to find it difficult to navigate through the chaos that had risen within the base at the explosions.
Meanwhile the saboteur in question just runs through the chaos, occasionally striking down his soldiers if they happen to notice her in the bedlam.
“Damnit!” he shouts as he struggles to get through the chaos chasing after her.
She’ll make it out of the walls before we catch up!
So he raises his sword and covers it in energy, only for the base alarm to begin blaring again right before an arrow strikes his sword, sending it falling backwards while launching an arc of energy behind him into the air.
The legate jerks his head around to look for the source of the shot while coming to a stop, only to find three other enemy soldiers floating high in the air above the cliff with one of them holding a bow and arrow.
So she wasn’t a suicidal soldier after all. I’ll need to report to the General about her.
He turns his gaze back to the girl running through the base and narrows his eyes.
This won’t be the last time we meet.
A grimace frames his face as he raises his gaze up to the obviously high-Class Ability Holders attacking them. Ability Holders whose Class defies the lower Tier of the planet.
And I’ll have to report them as well.
He covers his sword in energy again before having one last thought and attacking.
After the tunnel is cleared again.
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High Above the Cliff next to the Enemy Base
Not long ago
Captain Striker finds himself frowning as he and his two first lieutenants watch from above the mountains as the soldiers in the enemy base move about doing their duties. And no matter how long he watches, he still finds himself wondering why Warrant Officer Crimson decided to go about things the way she did. Because it was obvious that she would end up dying if she did.
No matter how good her regeneration is, it won’t let her fight against over thirty thousand soldiers at once.
Before now the captain was even looking to recommend her for a promotion. But now, even if she was still alive, he’s-
His thoughts are interrupted when explosions rise all throughout the base in several of the huts he and his two temporary men – one of whom is using gravity magic to make the three of them as light as a feather and the other is using wind magic to keep them in the air – had designated as weapons and food storage.
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The captain’s gaze quickly turns to the one explosion that is the biggest by far. The explosion at the tunnel. And what he finds there both shocks him and makes him burst out into laughter.
“She’s insane!” he exclaims mid-laughter as he watches the warrant officer running through the base without a single injury to her person. “Her ability is fucking insane!”
Both of his subordinates wordlessly nod their heads while watching alongside him. Then one of them – the wind magic user – points out to his captain, “Captain, it looks like their leader is targeting the warrant officer.”
Captain Striker turns his gaze towards where the first lieutenant is pointing before he finds the one referred to by the enemy soldiers as a ‘legate’ raising a sword into the air with a blue energy coating the blade. So the captain doesn’t waste any time as he pulls his bow from across his shoulder and quickly draws an arrow onto it. Then he infuses pure kinetic energy into the arrow, making the arrow begin vibrating at extremely fast speeds before he releases it, sending it flying down to hit the legate’s sword head on.
“Now this is exciting!” Captain Striker shouts. “Arm yourselves men, because we’re gonna cover her retreat!”
“Yes, sir!” both of them shout. And at the same time, the other team watching over the base shows themselves as they uncloak on the cliff located on the other side of the base and begin firing at the soldiers in the base as well.
The captain laughs once more at the sight of Captain Vargos joining in on the fun.
Once we get out of here, that old fart locking her down won’t be able to do shit about her promotion! Not this time!
And with that thought amusing him, Captain Striker continues pulling back one arrow after another, sending them flying at the enemies.
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Aria
One System dinging sound after another echoes out in my head as I run through the base, killing soldiers that notice me along the way. And in addition to those, more soldiers died in the explosions, and even more to the fires that came after.
But I just keep running, not paying any mind to the number that I find growing in the corner of my vision. Not until it reaches a hundred, that is. Then I feel a strange warmth spread across my body followed by another dinging sound. But this one is slightly different. It’s higher pitch and sounds more celebratory than the others.
User has leveled-up for the first time.
User will now be given their first skill.
Assessing user’s accomplishments and actions… assessment complete.
User will now be given the following skill:
Harvest
This skill allows the user to harvest the souls of the dying around them. They can then devour the soul energy within them, sending the souls off to the void. Or they can devour the soul whole, taking in the extra soul energy making up the shells of their souls and persons and erasing the person from reality itself in the process.
I frown at that, unsure about what the heck ‘soul energy’ even is. Only to decide that it doesn’t matter right now as I continue running through the base.
Eventually I arrive at the wall and quickly climb the stairs to find the top of the wall almost empty, most of the soldiers having gone down to deal with the fires or figure out what’s going on. And the ones that remain I simply ignore as I jump down from the wall, landing on the ground below with a crunch to my legs.
I ignore my broken legs too, the things repairing in mere moments before I begin running away from the fortress.
Mission is a success.
Now I just need to get past the Western Mountain Pass fortress, and I’ll be golden.
As I’m running across the Western Mountain Pass, I turn my head to glance back at the base, finding both captains’ teams retreating now that I’m out. And I immediately feel gratitude towards them.
If it weren’t for them, there’s a decent chance I’d have been captured in there.
A faint smile dawns on my face at that before I focus on the walls where I find several soldiers from the base finally raising the gate and beginning to rush out of it. But by now I’ve already built up a pretty large distance. So I continue running, facing forwards again until I reach a good spot where I can climb the cliff without anyone seeing me.
After I reach an outcrop several dozen meters above the ground, I stop climbing and stay low to the ground as I look out over the Pass, watching the soldiers charge right past me.
And safe.
Nice.
I wait a little bit before continuing my climb up the side of the cliff, finding it to be a lot easier now that I’ve gotten so used to climbing.
Falling off a cliff a lot does that for you apparently.
Once I reach a safe enough height, I turn to look at the base, finding all of the buildings I set bombs in having been completely destroyed. Although the fires that spread to the nearby huts and tents were put out by the soldiers. And things are starting to calm down now.
Good thing the enemy soldiers didn’t seem to have any flying Ability Holders. Or Ability Holders that could mimic flight like Captain Striker’s first lieutenants.
Which kind of surprises me. These soldiers, I haven’t run into any that had any Category 5 abilities so far. At best the leader with the glowing blue blade had a Category 4 ability.
It makes me wonder if the quality of abilities the enemy has on their planet is just lower than ours or something.
Could be that they just didn’t send their strongest Ability Holders here though.
Anyways, I begin navigating my way across the cliffside as I head back, making my way home.
And as I do so, I can’t help the smirk that stretches across my face at the thought of the emperor’s face when he hears what I did. Because there’s no way he can cheat me out of a promotion this time.
He also won’t be able to cheat me out of any other promotions after this. Because promotions at second lieutenant and higher are handled differently from warrant officer and below.
The emperor won’t be able to say or do shit about it, nor will his dog.
I should also get some time off to head to officer school. Even if it’ll likely be for a very short duration, all things considered. We are at war after all.
Certainly something to look forward to though.