As the sun fell and we marched on the target, we were hit from the left flank by German and Italian soldiers hiding in the forest. Within minutes I was surrounded by dead bodies and enemy troops. I looked around to take in everything and formulate a plan. In front of me there was a group of seven Italian soldiers closing in on four of my men, who were taking cover behind a tank. The tank was engaging as best as it could, but it had been damaged by thrown explosives and was unable to turn beyond a certain amount. To my left there was more troops descending a hill, all of them armed with bayoneted rifles. To my right and from behind more of my men were returning fire to the best of their abilities. I knew what I needed to do.
First, I had to make sure that those soldiers in front of me didn’t get the drop on the seven men. I rushed over as fast as I could, not holding back an ounce of power, and was on them before they even realized. I had to suppress my instincts to feed, I didn’t think that my own men would look on it too kindly after all. With all my strength, I kicked one of the soldiers, causing him to fly into another soldier, and both of them were knocked full force in the side of the tank. I heard bones break on impact, so I turned my attention to the other five. I swiftly fired as many rounds into them as my gun held and used the bayonet on the last one. He fell to the ground choking on some delicious smelling blood from his punctured lungs. Next, I grabbed another gun from one of the fallen soldiers and made my way to the German troops coming down the hill. I was mostly hidden from my own men’s eyes, so I didn’t hold back much. I used my teeth, claws, and gun to rip them to pieces and slammed a few of them into the ground with an Earth rumbling boom upon impact. After that I rushed to the tank and, with my bare hands, forced the gun over to the other side so that the men inside could properly open fire on the Italian and German forces to our right.
The battle raged for another half an hour, and we suffered losses, but we won and drove the enemy forces off, and back into the woods. Our men gave thunderous cheers as the enemy retreated, dragging the corpses of their men with them. No one had seen me fix the tank, but plenty had seen me kill over a dozen men in the battle in less than a minute with the rifles I picked up off the ground as we went, and some with my bare hands. After that, the men had a new nickname for me, calling me a demon of the battlefield.
We kept marching on the stronghold and arrived without very many surprises within a week, just a few attempted roadblocks, which the tanks rolled over easily. The tanks were slow, without them we could have arrived in three days, but also without them we would never be able to win. Nothing speeds them up, but also nothing slowed them down. They plowed through mud, trees, hills, enemy soldiers, and roadblocks without fail. They were, as our platoon called them, “Armored Tractors.” They got that nickname because they were big, loud, and could barely be steered. The tanks we were traveling with were mostly made up of Marks 1 and 2, and at least three “Holt Tractors.”
We set up command positions in the forest, between groups of boulders that definitely weren’t natural formations. It seemed as if they had been relocated to here from somewhere else as a part of some long-lost culture. Some of them even had markings that I recognized as old forms of Celtic, but that just because I was around back then. Some of the higher ranks joked to the new guys that the ruins were haunted by the spirits of fallen warriors, but only the most superstitious of the lot truly believed them. However, after that rumor spread, a wide birth was given to the ruins by most of the men; just in case. It made excellent hunting grounds for me at night.
Our army was massive, but the enemy was dug in deep. We all knew we were marching into a slaughterhouse; I knew each of the men were hoping that they were going to be the one to walk out unscathed. Each of them was betting on themselves and their luck. It’s an earie feeling, knowing you’re talking to someone who might not be alive tomorrow, even with my over one-thousand-years of life I still haven’t gotten used to it. Everyone felt the air thicken as the hours ticked by until we charged the enemy, everyone knew what was waiting. Our orders were to have the tanks lead the charge, with our men using them for cover as we got in close, then after we had breached the enemy’s lines, our orders were to take as much ground as possible, as quickly as we could. It was all planned out by our generals and strategists, all of whom would be safely back at base while we cleaned up the town. I don’t know if I can die, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy getting shot at.
We started our death march just before first light, the officers must have thought that the darkness would give us an edge in getting close to the town. We made it about half a mile away before the dead silence turned into roaring chaos. Mortars rained down on us, hitting a few tanks and more than a few men, but most of the shots were misses; I guess the darkness did its job. The tanks fired back as best they could, but the dark was a double‑edged sword; they couldn’t see us, but we couldn’t see them either. It took a grueling thirty-seven minutes of pushing to break past the enemy’s lines and begin our next stage. The group I was traveling with behind our tank consisted of twelve men, only half of which survived the push to the town, and another half of the remaining men were hiding behind the tank too afraid to move. Our commanding officer, Captain Oswald, shouted orders over the ringing of our ears from the tanks main cannon.
“Get up and shoot! We have to take this town by tonight if you wanna get any sleep!.” He yelled and shoved a dropped rifle back into one of the soldier’s hands. I was taking a moment to reload my weapon when I noticed the glimmer of a scope from the building behind our position, followed shortly by the crack of a bolt action sniper-rifle. The CO dropped, clutching his shoulder. “Ahug!” He screamed. I chambered a round, took aim at the sniper, and fired a single shot. It would have been an impossible feat for anyone else, but with my superior vision I watched as the bullet hit its mark and the sniper slumped over dead in his perch.
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“Captain!” One of the soldiers yelled.
“Get to cover!” Another shouted as he dove behind rubble from a collapsed building. I didn’t bother hiding and instead returned fire to the enemies in front of us.
“Even you need to get down, Night-Walker,” one of the men yelled from his hiding spot under one of the tanks and a pile of rubble.
“Not until the ones in front of us are dead.” I announced calmly. I fired all eight shots from my rifle and hit seven targets, then ducked behind the wall I was taking cover behind to reload. I may have gotten seven of them, but I had counted at least another five to the south-east, and two more to the south. “We have five to our three o’ clock and two to our twelve.” I told the men. “How’s the captain?” I asked.
“Bleeding, but alive!” I heard his voice call out from near the tank, but I couldn’t see him. “You need to get down Alucard! That sniper could have a bead on you!” He reasoned.
“He doesn’t.” I announced before standing up and killing the two German soldiers to the south. I had lost sight of the five others and assumed they had either retreated or repositioned.
“Why isn’t the tank firing on their position?” One of the men asked. I hadn’t even noticed yet, but the tank hadn’t fired a single shot in over a minute.
A voice from inside the machine called out, “the main gun jammed, we need ten more seconds!” I decided to try and get a better vantage point on those Germans and scaled the crumbling remains of the building to look around. I made it seem like something anyone could do, by pretending to struggle, but if I had wanted to, I probably could have made it in less than a second.
“Alucard, have you lost your mind?” The captain roared, but I ignored him. I looked around and saw my targets, they were attempting to flank us by circling around to the east. I took aim and fired, hitting every shot.
“We’re clear!” I shouted from the top of the structure.
“What about the sniper?” one of the men asked.
“I saw a glimmer coming from that tower to the north. Is that tank ready yet?”
“Yeah,” I heard from the tank.
“Fire on that tower,” the captain ordered. The main gun swiveled around, and with a thunderous sound the shot hit the tower and it collapsed. I climbed down from the structure and walked back to the squad. The captain slapped me on the back and said, “Night-Walker, you’re either crazy, or fearless.”
“Don’t forget lucky. What if that sniper had taken a shot at you?” One of the men asked.
“I suppose I would have taken a shot back at him.” I told him.
“Crazy it is,” the captain laughed. With that we pushed forward and cleared the town bit by bit. It looked bleak for a bit there when a random German soldier tossed an explosive under the tank, killing the men inside and taking the tank out of the fight, but we rallied with another squad who had taken heavy losses. They had lost their captain, but they still had a tank, so we merged our squads and continued. The additional manpower brought our count up to nine men and one slightly damaged tank.
We marched behind the tank, listening to the sounds of fighting in the distance, but not seeing anyone ourselves. “I don’t like this sir, it’s too quiet,” I told the captain.
“Agreed, I feel like we’re walking straight into the maw of the beast.” He stated. The captain then gave the order for a full stop.
“What’s the problem sir?” One of the men asked.
“How’s the tank looking?” He asked one of the men inside.
“Not great sir.” One of them answered.
“Is it fixable?” The captain asked.
“Aye sir, but we need to shut it off for a bit.” He answered back.
“Do it.” The captain ordered. The tanks engine shut off and a disturbing calm rang out, broken only by the pows and pops in the distance. “Alucard, Jefferson, Reeds, go clear the building to our right. Green, Stiles, Rikers, clear the one in front of us. The rest of us will stay here to guard the tank. The other two and I walked into the building and cleared it floor by floor. I had heard something a few floors above us and focused my hearing on it. It was definitely the sounds of footsteps. Just as Jefferson kicked open a door, I heard the sounds of a pin get pulled.
“Get back!” I yelled. I grabbed Jefferson and Reeds by their harnesses and flung them to safety. However, in doing that, I was caught in the blast. I felt the shockwave and shrapnel rip through me, and it sent me flying into the wall. All I could bring myself to think was, Well that hurts! For me, this was more of an inconvenience than an injury. I knew I would be fine in a moment, thanks to all the blood I had eaten lately, but to Jefferson and Reeds, I had just sacrificed myself to save their lives.
“Alucard!” Reeds shouted and picked himself up off the floor to run over to my mangled body. Jefferson was dazed, but alive, and a moment later he stumbled over to me as well. Reeds was cradling me in his arms thinking I was dying. “You’re gunna be okay Vlad. You’re the Demon of the battlefield.” He reassured me.
“The medics are going to fix you right up.” Jefferson added.
“I don’t think they are going to get the chance,” I said. They had no idea how true that statement was.
“Don’t talk like that Vlad, you’re gunna be fine.” Reeds said.
“Yeah… I know,” I said and began to stand up. Reeds shoved me back down.
“No, don’t try to stand up, you might injure yourself more!” I grabbed his hand and pulled it off me before standing up.
“I’m fine,” I told them as I picked up my rifle and stood up.
“B-but… you…” Jefferson stuttered out. Reeds just sat there on the ground where he had been cradling me, his mouth agape in shock. I rolled my arms in circles to make sure they could still move. I was still in a fair amount of pain but that would subside soon, so I was able to keep going.
“Come on, we still have to clear the rest of the building.” I said to them.
“H-how are...” Reeds tried to ask, but I cut him off.
“Don’t worry about it okay. In fact, don’t ever mention this to anyone ever again.” I told them in a deathly serious tone.
“H-how… who are you?” Jefferson asked.
I laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed slightly so that he got the point, “I am Vladimir Alucard of her majesty’s royal army, and that’s all anyone needs to know. Understand?” I stared deeply into his eyes and did something I had been practicing for a while. I used a bit of magic to make them forget what they saw. My eyes glowed green, and then so did theirs.
They repeated, “you are Vladimir Alucard, and that’s all anyone needs to know.” I took my hand off Jefferson’s shoulder and their eyes returned to normal.
“You men ready to keep clearing this place?” I asked.
They both shook their heads and rubbed their faces, then Reeds stood up and said, “Uh, yeah. I think so.” He seemed confused, but I knew that was normal.
“Then let’s go soldiers!” I exclaimed and started marching quickly up the stairs to the next floor. This time being careful of traps and taking the lead just in case.