Sounds of shots being fired and explosions coming from inside the forest made Ego’s squad sprint toward it, passing through fallen trees and holes in the ground. The bodies of goblins and orks started to show but suddenly an arrow passed to the right of Asher, making him and the others hide behind what they could find, right after they came closer to the rest of the platoon.

‘Light, this is Shadow 3. We are right behind you. What is the situation?’ Egor spoke on the radio.

‘Shadow 3, I need you on the left flank to push those freaks out; they are trying to encircle us.’ Bartel looked to the right and saw an arrow hitting someone's leg.

‘We need to defend the left flank. Ethan, take the lead.’ Egor shouted.

Ethan looked at his team and started to go cover to cover, tree to tree, as arrows flew and started to hit the ground around them. While going for cover behind a rock, he couldn’t see how many enemies they were facing. Some of his squadmates were hit on their chests and backs but the arrows didn’t pierce; they just bounced back and hit the ground.

‘Find cover!!! You are all going to get yourselves killed.’ Ethan shouted.

Egor started to look to spot the monsters but before he could find them, he heard a shot being fired from his right side. One of his squadmates shot in the direction he was looking at but he himself couldn't see anything at all.

‘Everybody shoot in the direction the arrows are coming from and avoid the trees; go for buches.’ Egor's voice came on every squad member's radio.

They started to shoot completely blindly but the arrows stopped for a moment. With this, Ethan looked at his team and signaled them to advance and before going with them, he tapped Egor.

‘Let’s use this to take better positions and advance.’ Ethan grinned at Egor.

To their right, they could already see three duchy soldiers using fallen trees as cover but they continued to push. They looked frozen in place, looking into nothing, but nobody could stop to help them, as at this moment any mistake could cost them their lives.

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Now they started to see clearly from where the arrows and now rocks were coming from, and behind any cover they could find Egor’s squads started to kill the monsters that they now could see and at this point even some of them started to run towards their position.

‘Orks!!!’ Oran yelled.

‘Yeah, I’m seeing them.’ Samal shouted.

Because of the trees on the way, one ork eventually came close and jumped on Caleb, who used his rifle to block the monster sword and as they were struggling on the ground, Ethan pulled a knife from his belt and plundged into the ork’s skull, killing it instantly.

‘Return to your position, soldier.’ Ethan

Egor noticed the monsters were now coming from their right, meaning they stopped the attempt at flanking, which made him realize that they were just too smart to be normal goblins and orks.

‘Light, this is Shadow 3, we repealed the flanking attempt, and we are going to now join the like to your left.’ Egor spoke to his radio.

‘Shadow 3, do you have any wounded?’ Bartel's voice sounded sharp.

‘Light, only minor wounds; we can still fight.’ Egor looked at his squadmates.

As he talked, suddenly the forest became quiet, and nothing more could be heard, not even the sound of rifle shots.

‘Shadow 3, regroup in the center; we need to push forward.’ Bartel's voice was heard by everyone because of the silence.

‘You heard the lieutenant; let’s go back, people.’ Ethan turned around and started to walk back.

As everyone started to follow Ethan and Egor, they passed the three duchy soldiers, who now had someone talking to them and checking if they had any injuries. Now that they were closer, everyone in the squad could see the blood marks and arrows on their arms and legs, unlike before, when they passed through them too fast to notice.

After minutes of walking, all of them reunited with the rest of the platoon and Ethan noticed that some people had bandages around their arms and legs. Asher started to help patch up some injured soldiers too.

‘I’m going to fill in everybody on the situation. Shadow 1 saw one child being chased by a group of goblins; help her and she reported that a group of no less than twenty people were being held by these monsters deep into this forest.’ Bartel sigh.

‘Look at us, sir; this is too much. How are we going to rescue anybody like this?’ A soldier behind him said.

Bartel turned around and looked at the soldier, who had just spoken, and noticed that he had a bandage on his arm. He took a deep breath and his eyes also saw others injured as he turned his head.

‘I called for reinforcements, but for them to come here, it will be too late and the people captured will be dead.’ Bartel looked around.

‘That girl is not from the duchy; she was surprised that we had Chatzi in our ranks.’ Another soldier frowned and raised his eyebrows.

‘It doesn’t matter; did you forget our orders, soldiers? Are you going to disobey the orders coming from the duchess herself?’ The lieutenant quickly looked at the soldier and spoke in a harsh tone.

After this, silence filled the forest once again, apart from the injured on the ground being treated. The soldiers looked at one another and nods and resolute faces appeared among them.

‘Egor, your squad will take the lead from now on; nobody died but let’s not play stupid games.’ Bartel looked at Egor.

Egor looked at his squadmates, shook his clothes, and gave a big smile to the lieutenant. As everyone started to stud up, Bartel walked in the direction the monsters were attacking from, followed by his team, Egor’s squad, and the rest of the platoon behind them. Left behind were ten soldiers with injured legs that made it impossible for them to walk.