While Arima was unreservedly making his students into one-man armies, Lilis continued watching his past.
When the two remaining helicopters were out of Arimane's sight, he sighed in relief and sat on the ground whilst shouldering his rifle. At the same time, he heard two more explosions and then the sound of the choppers going down.
The rest of the squad had operated to destroy the last helicopters. But unfortunately, it was too late and the entire base was already alerted as all of the terrorists searched for the intruders.
Tieria and Jin approached Arimane and sat down next to him. They had a bit of time to rest since the towers will not be checked first and the whole enemy base was trying to recover from the shock.
"What was that?" Jin casually asked as he lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Tieria also sharply stared at Arimane.
"Nothing. I'm just like that since they injected me the nanomachines," he truthfully answered.
"An error or a dysfunction?" Tieria turned toward Jin since he was the most knowledgeable about that kind of stuff.
"That should not be possible," Jin shook his head. "They are supposed to adapt to the metabolism they are in. They can't make a human body go beyond the limits like that. Since humans are not supposed to be able to get that strong in the first place," he looked at Arimane when he said the last part.
"Why did you keep it secret?" Tieria suddenly inquired when Jin finished.
"Do I need a reason?" Arimane snickered.
Jin lightly laughed. "You're right about that. Things get really annoying with humans once they find someone that is different from the others."
"Also, if I'm not wrong, your body should possess something unknown to the human race. If some of the higher-ups were to learn that, maybe they would try to lock you up and make researches to clone your special condition. Although it would be a bit far-fetched to think they’ll make you into a lab-rat, there’s no advantage in giving the government the possibility to make even more powerful super-soldiers.”
Jin exhaled smoke and sighed. "People at the upper stairs always try to get new weapons, new ways to kill people, and making themselves scarier among the populace," he said and threw his cigarette away.
"Well, don't worry. I don't have any intention to give satisfaction to those scums," he said and stood up.
Arimane glanced at him and smiled. Tieria also got up and nodded toward Arimane. "I'll keep this information to myself as well," she declared and then looked at Jin. "What is the situation?"
"Well, I don't think that any of our members has been captured or compromised for now. Also, our aerial support is coming soon… although they're now coming for a non-existent reason thanks to a certain someone. That's basically the good news," Jin summarized.
"Now, for the bad news. Everyone in this base is now looking for us. They also seem to understand we are spread out, hidden or disguised, and they're taking measures against it," Jin told whilst looking at the virtual screen projected by his watch.
"Ah," he suddenly exclaimed. "Our position is compromised. When I say us, I'm talking about the three of us." He bitterly smiled.
When Arimane and Tieria heard that, they frowned together. In the next instant, an explosion occurred outside of the tower and a part of the wall crumbled.
"Was it too hard for you to understand that it was the most important thing!?" The trio instantly went prone and Arimane couldn't help but shout at Jin.
"Hey, listen, I can't keep track of everything at the same time! I just happened to see them because they’ve entered my drone's view at the last moment!" Jin retorted.
"Don't start arguing now please," Tieria said when the whistling in their ears had finally stopped. But soon after, another rocket struck the tower and shook the whole structure as it started to collapse, starting from the foundations.
The trio looked at each other as the floor they were on started to shift diagonally. They immediately took their decision and jumped out of the tower through the window. Arimane caught his two comrades in mid-air and landed safely on the ground before the tower fell and formed a big dust cloud.
Jin laughed and ran to hide behind a rock. "Your constitution is really useful. Even from that jump, you felt nothing," he remarked and Tieria nodded as she crouched to hide too. Arima also sat down against the ruins of the tower and groaned.
“Don’t make it a habit. My legs are aching right now.”
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"That’s still ‘nothing’ for people like us. By the way…." Jin raised an eyebrow. "Why the hell are they shooting like that!? Can they see us?!"
As Jin complained about, the three of them were actually covering themselves from the barrage of bullets coming at them.
"I think they have night and thermal vision goggles," Arimane commented whilst putting some green lentils on his eyes and Tieria imitated him. Jin watched them and clicked his tongue before doing the same with a reluctant expression.
"I don't like those things. They hurt…" Jin complained once more and put the night vision lentils on.
"It's kind of necessary right now so keep quiet," Tieria casually scolded him and peeked over the cover from a hard-to-see angle. Arimane did the same and took a glimpse. Then his eyes narrowed as he heard a very distinguishable sound.
“A pin!” Arimane warned and Jin trembled.
“Don’t worry,” Tieria calmly said. She suddenly stood up and extended her hand to grab the flung grenade. She nimbly controlled the momentum so that it won’t explode in her hand and threw it back. She instantly crouched afterward. She suffered two hits but her bullet-proof equipment saved her.
When the explosion sounded, Arimane and Jin heavily sighed.
“How did you know where it was coming from?” Arimane asked curiously.
“I didn’t,” Tieria replied whilst massaging the places she had been shot with a grimace. “I just guessed they would be throwing it above us and not toward the sides and that I would spot it if I stood up.”
Arimane was speechless and Jin rolled his eyes. “Can’t believe you just bet your life.”
"In any case, I count forty-five of them," Tieria added. “Don’t know if the grenade reduced that number though.”
"Forty-five?" Jin frowned unpleasantly and started fiddling with his electronic watch. "No wonder there were so many bullets. Those damn terrorists don't even know how to aim and save their ammunition. They just know how to pull the trigger."
"True," Arimane smirked and took out two small gray spheres the size of a fist from his pockets.
"Let’s take them out before they actually decide to bombard us with heavy artillery. Where are the two biggest groups in your opinion?" He asked and Tieria pointed at two different directions. Arimane didn't hesitate. He pressed a button on the spheres and threw them over the ruins of the tower.
"Ruthless…" Jin muttered. The spheres touched the ground at two places where many terrorists had gathered together. The spheres lit up and a blue light emanated from them before they exploded into cyan flames, blasting and burning everything around them. Those were the effects of an Eion grenade.
It was without saying that the people within the grenade's explosion radius all died almost instantly. The rest of the terrorists were petrified and stopped shooting for a moment.
"Good. You got half of them," Tieria said after checking.
"Let's go then," Jin smiled and looked at his monitor. "Sorry for the wait. Here is the surroundings’ data. To be fair, the Eion grenades’ effect didn't help me," he uttered and showed the screen to Arimane and Tieria.
"Here," he pointed at a certain area on the display and the two others nodded. "We'll breakthrough with this path."
"I'll attract their attention by going there. Tieria, get them from behind. And Jin, please cover us from here," Arima said and stowed his rifle inside the case before handing it to Jin. He then pulled out his revolver and loaded it with charged Eion bullets.
"Do you have a flare?" Arimane requested and Jin gave him a white tube. "Thanks," he said then snapped the tube before throwing it toward an open space. The intense light of the flare illuminated the area and the terrorists shouted as they threw away their goggles to the ground and rubbed their eyes.
Arimane inhaled and kicked the ground. Some people immediately saw him but Arimane was quicker and started shooting. Each one of his bullets, were very powerful and long to recharge. So, he used them in the most efficient way possible. Each of his shots would at least take one life and even two from time to time.
Of course, most of the terrorists all started focusing on him and began shooting as well. It was also then that they stopped holding back and threw every grenade they had.
Arimane snorted. “Idiots. If you had used those previously, perhaps you would have had more chances to take us out.”
He leaped and evaded the grenades. Sometimes he couldn’t even have his eyes open because of the flash ones but no one could hit him as he swapped covers in seconds.
Arimane soon finished his cylinder and plunged behind a wall to cover himself from the bullets. He opened the cylinder and ejected the bullets before using a speed loader to reload.
"I can't wait for the bullets to recharge…" He uttered and peeked out of his cover.
He instantly crouched down when he started being shot at. He waited three seconds for the shooting to stop then stood up. He proceeded to aim with inhuman speed and eliminated the two who were going to shoot at him first. He then killed two others with a single bullet and then killed another four with his last three bullets before going into cover.
He reloaded again and saw that Jin was supporting him with his assault rifle. After a few seconds, Arimane was ready to go once more. Even if he had been hit five times, he didn’t seem to get tired or slowed down.
But he noticed that the number of shots he was hearing had dropped dramatically. He stayed behind his cover until he could only hear a single gun shooting. It was then that Arimane was able to hear a silenced gun.
When he was sure no one was aiming at him anymore, Arimane went out of his cover, so did Jin. The latter threw the case to Arimane and then looked around.
He looked at the corpses here and there and sighed in relief. "You really did it you two," he mumbled whilst putting a cigarette in his mouth.
Arimane nodded and looked at Tieria who was going through the terrorist's possessions. If he had to be honest, he was greatly impressed by her work earlier. She had completely erased her presence and managed to kill at least ten of them without being detected.
"Did you find anything?" He asked her.
Tieria grabbed a small tablet and threw it over her shoulder. Arimane caught it and looked at what was on it, it was a simple electronic map of the base. But that kind of thing, they could have it with the drone. The important detail on the map was where the headquarters were situated.
"Those people are seriously dumb," Jin spat as he observed the map. "Who casually marks the HQ's emplacement on a map, which was also held by a simple foot 'soldier'," he said and transmitted the information to the squad.
"Well, only that one map had a mark like that," Tieria shrugged.
"Anyway, let's go. Sir Moria just gave us a meeting point," Jin said and started running.
Arimane and Tieria followed him and jumped on the roofs to be faster.
Ten minutes later, they reached a very plain building that was a mile away from the said HQ; a reinforced building with concealed turrets around it.
When the trio entered, they rejoined with almost all the squad. The first ones they met with was Moria and Erin.
"Not everyone has arrived yet, but from the messages I received, we didn't lose anyone," Moria said when they entered. He then gazed at Arimane and smiled. "Good job with those choppers," he praised him and Erin nodded in agreement.
Arimane merely shrugged. "It was easy with this rifle," he humbly responded and the members of the squad laughed at his modesty.
"Well, since it came to this. I’ll have to rely on you for the rest of this mission as well. Follow me," Moria said and headed to the roof, Arimane followed him along with Erin, Jin, Tieria, and some other members.
"Look at their headquarters," Moria gave binoculars to Arimane. "The room in the very center. You can connect the binoculars with the thermal vision of the drone to see it," Moria explained and Arimane nodded. He pressed a button on the binoculars and spotted a figure behind the walls, shouting at his phone.
"Do I have to take him out?" Arimane tilted his head. "Who is it?"
"From our intel, he's essentially this town's political leader. He's the one who commands. You can take him out from here?"
"Of course. The walls are should be tough though. Maybe it'll deviate the bullet in a way that I can't predict, but if I use an EG bullet, it should work without a hitch," Arimane confidently asserted whilst preparing his rifle.
EG bullets were the explosive ammunition Arimane had used to destroy the helicopters.
Moria nodded. "It's perfect then. We'll do the same tactic. Stay here with Jin and Tieria and wait for us to reach that building. At my signal, you shoot. Once you take out the leader, carry on with the turrets. They will attack our choppers otherwise and some terrorists may try to pilot them," he instructed and Arimane nodded.
"Alright, it's time to move again!" Moria then shouted to the squad.