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Chapter 38

Walking out of the barracks and exiting the living quarters, Thomel was far less happy having the lieutenant guarding their backs than he was previously.

He didn’t consider himself much of a romantic or empathetic person but what the lieutenant had just done crossed every line imaginable.

The only thing stopping him from just pulling the trigger and dealing with the psychopath was the fact that the Neven discs were enchanted with some sort of life link enchantment, if the lieutenant died then they were unusable.

The lieutenant had made that perfectly clear the moment he realised nobody was on board with his ‘move out’ command.

He could of course be lying but that was a risk Thomel wasn’t willing to take.

Skittering sounds rang out and one the multitude of humanoid monsters that seemed to be present in this monitoring station came careering around the corner towards them.

With their beamers turned all the way up, the creature simply ceased to exist, as did the entire concrete wall behind it. Every time this happened he felt like he was watching a ballon getting popped with a needle.

Carefully leaning as far back as they could, Thomel and the vanguard hunter scooted along the wall and turned around the corner at the furthest possible angle.

Nothing was there but just as Thomel and his ally walked started to walk forward and gesture for the others to follow.

A clawed hand burst through the wall, the razor-sharp fingers slicing into his fellow hunter's throat like a knife through hot butter.

His partner only had a moment to gurgle something and then he was pulled back and slammed hard into the wall, his neck snapping and blood splattering everywhere.

“Move on.” Was the cold and calm response of the lieutenant as he started to storm down the hallway.

With a lingering glance at the dead hunter, Thomel followed suit and quickly caught up to the others, being shoved roughly in front by the lieutenant.

He lost track of how many hallways and intersections they had to walk through and how many monsters they slew but eventually, they’d returned to the command centre.

Striding into it to regroup with what remained of the other teams, Thomel was dismayed to find nobody present.

Their team leader was equally distraught, shaking his head hatefully.

“Perhaps we should fall back.” Said the hunter who’d backed Thomel up last time.

“No!” Was the lieutenants instant response.

Pacing back and forth for a few seconds, he stated. “Right fine, we’ll do this ourselves.”

“Follow me.” He called out behind himself as he took the lead and started walking back the way they came.

By process of elimination, Thomel became the rear guard as they started to follow their unstable leader.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

He wondered what happened to Volly, surely she was alive, there was no way she would die so easily.

But then, even the RF member wearing power armour had been heavily injured and on the brink of death.

But he couldn’t think about that now, so he cast all thoughts of her from his mind.

She was fine, he going to be fine, Axel, Marace and Cale were all definitely doing fine.

And all he had to do was take a couple of steps and soon enough, he would be able to see them all again.

Seeing something dart across the wall the moment he blinked, Thomel forced his eyes open and hurriedly discharged his beamer.

It raked a giant wound across the ceiling and destroyed the white lights but it didn’t hit anything because there was nothing there.

Rotating around the other two hunters brought their beamers to bear and looked around rapidly, trying to spot what it was that Thomel had fired at.

“False alarm.” He muttered out to them shakily.

“Magic?” The lieutenant called out.

“Could be.” He replied.

“...Get up there!” The lieutenant snarled, walking over and taking up the rear guard again while the empathic hunter took point.

Thomel really wished he could rub his eyes right about now but the hazmat suit prevented that unfortunately.

He could still try but it wouldn’t work too well, all it would really accomplish would be getting some sweat in his eyes.

“Oh.” The empathetic hunter said dully, looking back over at Thomel and the hunter with fast reactions before sprinting and diving into the middle of the intersection.

Thomel missed the creature that leapt out but luckily the other hunter bisected it easily.

Unluckily this didn’t kill the fiend and it scrambled madly on the concrete floor towards the downed hunter.

Thomel’s second shot hit the creature and he kept his finger on the trigger. Melting it and ruining the entire being before it got the chance to claw its way onto one of the few hunters it seemed was left.

Walking up to them, Thomel extended his hand and helped lift them to their feet.

“Than-” They started to say before a tendril dove into their back and extended slightly out of their chest. Blood dripping off it like a leaky tap.

The adrenaline that had been fading from his body surged again and he could see in perfect clarity the white scraps of fabric stuck onto the freshly barbed tip of the tendril.

He looked into his dying hunter's face and even though he couldn’t see their eyes, he knew that they were staring at him in horror and confusion.

Then they were pulled away and slammed into the wall. The tendril had come from the hole Thomel had created with his poorly aimed lance of energy.

In this moment of pure clarity and vision, the irony of how trying to protect themselves just led to them getting killed from different angles wasn’t lost on him.

They should have just kept their beamers on a low charge but even the lieutenant had his on a very high charge.

If they’d just been given guns with typical explosive ammo they probably would have done better than this.

“RUN” the quick-reacting and evidently quick-thinking hunter said as they ran by and hurled Thomel along with themselves.

The lieutenant was already sprinting ahead of them, running around corners with his gun raised and ready for anything.

Thomel stupidly tried to look back but and as he did so he nearly tripped over his own feet.

“They’re dead, keep moving.” The last remaining hunter apart from him yelled, slapping him across the face.

That snapped Thomel out of his shocked state and got him focusing on moving as fast as he could, just like the lieutenant was.

All he had to do was take a couple more steps, just a couple more then everything would work out.