“Yes but first, shouldn’t we eat breakfast?” one of the infiltrators asked.

Erwin said, "You can eat on the way if you wish but we should move as fast as possible, we don’t know when the Orc King will decide to return.”

One of them, a man, said, “Yes, but the Orc King has the entire continent of Occasus to worry about, I doubt he will conquer it so quickly.”

Erwin looked at him and sighed.

“Look here...”

The man supplied, “Jormand.”

Erwin continued, “Look here Jormand, lesson one of the battlefield is to always assume that the worst can happen. In this case, the worst that could happen is that the Orc King has returned or will return in the midst of our mission. To avoid that, we should move as quickly as possible.”

Jormand frowned.

“But sir, are you sure that you are alright? I saw you yesterday, you were sleep deprived and frankly in poor health. While you do look better now, that doesn’t mean you have fully recovered.”

Erwin snorted.

“I have spent the last three years like that, and I don’t think that it has impeded me. In fact, now that I have slept longer than I usually do, I feel like I can do a lot better. Now come, get what food you want to eat and meet me at my tank. We move out as soon as you all arrive.”

Seeing that Erwin was adamant, Jormand sighed and reached into his bag, taking out a folded map.

He handed it to Erwin, saying, “That is the route we must take to get to the Orc King’s city.”

Erwin took it and proceeded to study it, waving his hand to dismiss the group to get their breakfast and equipment. He sat on the top of his tank, studying the route to the Orc King’s city, memorizing landmarks that he’d encounter on his route. With the scale of the map provided, he also mentally calculated the distance he’d have to travel. When he managed to figure it that out, he calculated that he’d have to travel roughly three thousand kilometers. The next problem he focused on was how long the journey would take. As his tank traveled roughly thirty-five kilometers an hour, ideally it would take a little more than a week. However, accounting for the terrain, the need to forage for food, sleep and stealth, Erwin calculated that the overall time would be two weeks.

Those two weeks would have to be treated with care, for out there, he wouldn’t have a source of metal to repair the tank should it come to harm. But, he wasn’t planning on being reckless so it should be fine. And with the route which avoided most orcish settlements, he shouldn’t encounter combat either. As he thought deeply on the execution of this mission, the four infiltrators returned with their equipment and some food, Jormand handing him a loaf of bread and a waterskin. Erwin took it, nodding at Jormand before climbing into his tank, gesturing that the others climb on.

Erwin said, “Make yourselves comfortable, it will probably a bumpy ride.”

With that warning, Erwin started the engines and began to maneuver the tank to the opening gate, increasing to max speed as the tank roared out of the settlement. Heeding his warning, the four people managed to avoid falling off, grabbing on tightly to the ridges of the tank’s surface tightly for the first few moments before getting comfortable enough to relax their grip.

The first hour of the journey was a bit exciting for the four, the thunder of the engines, the jolt when the tank bulldozes an obstacle, and the feeling of awe at the speed this tank was going. But, with time comes boredom and they quickly got used to the engines’ roar, the lurching of the tank, and its speed. And the scenery wasn’t much better, just the trail the tank left behind and the trees which went on by. There was absolutely nothing else to see and so the four decided to either take naps or converse with one another.

As for Erwin, he just checked the map and his surroundings every once in a while, trying to estimate his current location on the map. When the sun began to set, Erwin wanted to push on but Jormand and the others insisted that they stop for the night. The naps they had taken on the tank were always interrupted with a particularly violent jolt, so in order to sleep, they wanted to sleep on the ground. Erwin acquiesced to their request, he had taken this into account when calculating the time it would take to travel and thought that he might as well use that time to rest.

The four gave a weak cheer when Erwin agreed to stop, falling onto the ground with relief s they rolled across it. Jormand was a bit more composed, a small smile on his face as he watched them.

He then saw Erwin clamber out of the tank and said, “It must be worse for you inside the damn thing huh.”

Ewin shrugged.

“I’ve been in this thing for twelve years now, it doesn’t bother me too much anymore.”

Jormand was a bit surprised.

“Twelve years?”

Erwin nodded.

“That is if I remember properly. More than ten that’s for sure.”

Jormand was silent, this man had pushed himself like this for twelve years, what does that do to a man? Then Jormand recalled the incident three years back and thought that Erwin most likely didn’t act like this for all those years. He only pushed himself for those three years but still, three years was a long time. To constantly push his body to its limits, again and again, it was a miracle that he was still alive. Erwin stretched, Jormand taking note of the strange looking luger at his side.

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Curious, he asked, “What is that?”

Erwin looks to where Jormand gestured and said, “It’s my weapon.”

“That’s a curious looking weapon, what’s it do?”

Erwin patted the luger.

“Well, it’s basically like this gun here,” he knocks on the main gun.

“It’s just smaller is all. But even if it is small, it can still kill an orc in an instant.”

He concludes his statement with a snap, Jormand looking once again at the luger in disbelief.

Erwin chuckled.

“You don’t believe me.”

Jormand scratched his head, “Well, it’s kinda hard to.”

Erwin stood up and said, “Well since we’re still in safe territory, it probably won’t hurt for me to show you what it can do. Come, let’s go hunting.”

Still a bit skeptical, he orders one of his team members to follow, an archer. That way they would still bring something back. As for the other two, he told them to guard the tank. The three of them set out into the forest to find their meal for the night, expecting to spend a good few hours on the hunt. After all, the animals had either run or hid from the tank, it would be some time before they would be able to return to camp. But, unfortunately, they would have to deal with it.

The three set out, with Erwin holding back at first, letting the elven archer hunt down most of the small game. Rabbits, squirrels, birds, these were the animals that they had at their disposal, bigger game had already run. In the end, they managed to get a single rabbit, two squirrels, and one bird, these should be enough to last the group of five another day, not counting what they would eat tonight. But that would be enough, after all, this was only the beginning of the journey. A more proper schedule would be drawn up to streamline the entire process.

Finally, when three hours had passed, Jormand finally asked impatiently, “Why won’t you use that gun of yours?”

Erwin said, “Because I don’t want to scare off other prey when I use it. It’s rather loud. But seeing as we have enough meat, it should be alright.”

A bit confused, Jormand followed after Erwin as he pointed at a tree, saying. He held up a fist, Jormand and the elf stopping in their tracks. Then Jormand watched with anticipation as Erwin slowly drew his firearm, pointing it at a tree. The smallest click could be heard, the safety was now off and Erwin carefully aimed, the narrow black snout of the Luger with its slight gold engraving glinted softly.

And then thunder and fire erupted from the gun and it recoiled, jolting Erwin’s arm slightly. When it occurred, Jormand flinched with surprise, although his eyes did not miss the tree’s surface suddenly marred by a small hole. But that was not the extent of the damage, much to his amazement, he saw that on the ground some ways from the tree was disturbed as if something small had buried itself into the leaves with great force. And while the noise was surprising, it was far more devastating for his companion. The elf lay on the ground, cradling her more sensitive ears.

Erwin winced in apology, saying, “My apologies, I forgot that you elves had more sensitive ears.”

Recovering somewhat, Jormand stood up, asking, “What the fuck was that?”

Erwin smiled.

“That was a gun Jormand. Now you see why I didn’t want to use it so quickly.”

Jormand stared at the weapon which Erwin returned to his holster, unable to tear his eyes away from that small and yet destructive weapon. For an instant, he felt desire burn in his chest, if he had such a weapon he would be unstoppable. But then he felt something and he looked up to see Erwin gazing down at him, Jormand noticing that one hand was on the Luger. Fear replaced that desire as he stared into the eyes of a man who had made slaying orcs a daily chore.

Erwin chuckled.

“You aren’t the first to have desired it, and I doubt you will be the last. But at least you understand that its owner won’t give it up so willingly. Anyways, let us return to camp. I’d wager your companions are rather hungry right about now.”

Jormand chuckled nervously.

“Well, it’s not every day you see such a weapon.”

Erwin nodded.

“I don’t blame you, in a world like this, good weapons are very desirable. But, as you have just heard, it’s rather loud. Very good for a first strike but not for a continuous stealth assault. So it’s more of a weapon one uses when they have nowhere else to run, a last ditch effort to survive. It is a weapon one shouldn’t draw so lightly. I only do it here because I know that there aren’t any orcs who would investigate.”

Jormand thought on the implications of having such a weapon, he had felt the shock, heard the thunder, seen the fire. He had also seen it seemingly go through a tree, a weapon which did not care about shields or armor, it could kill all with a single shot. As Jormand looked once more at the weapon, he couldn’t help but notice Erwin’s silhouette, lonely and slightly bent over, bearing a weight most men couldn’t. He realized that such a man needed these weapons to survive, to face the world which had such large expectations for him.

That weapon, his tank, all of these were just crutches that allowed for him to stand, for he bore a weight so great that most others would’ve crumpled. It was like the saying, “With great power comes great responsibility,” Erwin truly bore a great responsibility. Jormand laughed at himself, to think that he even wanted to the gun in the first place. If he had that gun, it was highly likely he too would bear such a responsibility and he wasn’t sure if he could carry it.

The three returned to camp and as the moon sat high in the sky, they cooked their meat and shared stories. Over the fire, Erwin shared tales from his old world, of the great battles fought there and the great destruction humanity was able to unleash. He spoke of weapons far greater than those he currently possessed, of great cannons which destroyed the earth, tales which the four found hard to believe. But they already saw proof with Erwin’s luger and his tank, what’s to say that other more terrifying things existed.

And then there was the scale of the war, they were utterly stunned to hear that the wars Erwin fought encompassed the entire world, tens of nations forming alliances and enemies and warring with one another. The loss of life was in the millions, a number that was so large that the humans couldn’t comprehend it.

One of them noticed.

“A bit like the orcs.”

Erwin looked at him and nodded.

“Yes, I thought the orcs were different when I came first came here. But I quickly realized that they were just like me, just like the people I knew back home. They were no different at all.”

The man, no, a boy now that Erwin got a closer look, asked, “And are you afraid of that? Afraid of being like them?”

Erwin gave a wan smile.

“Well, if I was younger perhaps I would’ve. Now, I’m just not surprised. I am old in the ways of war, I was raised for it, trained in it, and survived in it. Even though I wanted to do other things, I was molded to be a soldier and a soldier I became.”