A military convoy stopped a mile from Oshawa City. The soldiers were setting up camp as the trio was a bit surprised by the number of soldiers.

“Didn’t you said, twenty people?” Esther asked.

“Don’t ask me. I’m also clueless here,” said Jason.

“Sir, we’ve prepared the tent for you,” a soldier came out from the tent and left.

The three looked at each other and shrugged. They went inside, and before one of them could say anything, an unexpected guest barged inside.

“Ryan?” said Hakeem.

“Hi, guys. It’s been a while,” said Ryan. He patted Hakeem and Jason by the shoulder.

“We’ll be heading out at 1500, meet the squad on the highway heading to Oshawa beyond the base camp,” said Ryan.

The three nodded, and as Ryan was about to leave, Hakeem pulled him over.

“Wait. What’s with the extra soldiers? The squad is supposed to be twenty people, am I right?” Hakeem asked.

“Oh, they’re the support team. They’ll be handling the logistics as well as with the communication. After we depart, they’ll probably be going to build a barrier around the camp,” said Ryan.

Ryan left after explaining about the extra soldiers around the camp.

“Make sense. I guess we’re the elite soldiers now huh,” said Hakeem.

“We’re technically mercenaries,” said Esther as she corrected Hakeem about themselves.

“Come on Esther, at least let me get the glory of representing Canada as a patriotic soldier,” said Hakeem.

“No soldier has a one million dollar paycheck,” said Esther. That remark was enough to silenced Hakeem.

“Enough talk. Let’s suit up,” said Jason.

“Suit up? With what? The only things I brought are the shield and my trusty mallet,” said Hakeem.

“Me too, I’ve only brought the dirk and the new sword,” said Esther. Her arms were already crossing over each other in front of her chest.

Jason didn’t say a word. He raised up both of his arms as things kept appearing out of thin air.

“Woah,” both exclaimed out of surprise.

“How did you do that?” Esther asked. Rather than Hakeem, it was Esther being the most surprised seeing such a thing.

Esther came closer and grabbed Jason by the collar. Jason was a bit intimidated by this sudden change in her action. A bit too forward for him.

“Relax, it’s this thing,” Jason showed the dog tag necklace.

“Oh, it’s the one you got from that big ass zombie,” said Hakeem.

“Big ass zombie?” Esther turned to Hakeem.

Esther didn’t ask about anything regarding the duo hunting session as she was still sulking about it. Thus, she still didn’t know anything about it.

“Enough bickering. Let’s get ready,” said Jason.

He stopped them before things got worse. Jason wasn’t going to entertain any meaningless dramas.

“Here,” Jason passed a steel arm braces to Hakeem.

“When did you made this?” Hakeem asked.

“Your leather one got disintegrated, so I made it out of a whim. Can't leave you defenseless,” said Jason.

“Love you, man,” said Hakeem as he quickly wore the steel arm braces.

“Here,” Jason passed a leather arm braces to Esther.

“Why is mine’s different?” asked Esther.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“He’s the vanguard, and yours need to be lighter,” said Jason.

“and these are for the both of you,” he tossed two leather armors to both of them.

“is this wearable?” Esther asked.

“Just wear it, it’s for protection,” said Jason.

Hakeem didn’t say anything as he wore it while smiling. Just having to wear a leather armor was like a dream of his. He remembered playing medieval theme games and having come close to resembling the character he played really put a smile on him.

The aesthetic was severely lacking, but it didn’t matter. Just wearing one made him happy.

Esther stopped complaining and wore it. To her surprise, the crude leather armor fit her perfectly, like it was really made for her.

“How did you know my size?” Esther asked.

“It’s Scan, I can see whatever status you have,” said Jason.

“What? That’s breaching privacy,” said Esther.

“I’m gonna ignore that useless argument. I've got bigger things to worry about,” said Jason as he wore his dark oak arm braces and his own crude leather armor. To finished it off, he wore a monocle on his right eye.

He faced towards the duo as out of nowhere, a rare-grade steel sword appeared in his hand.

“Time to kill some smelly orcs,” said Jason.

“You got a weird fashion sense,” said Esther as her weight shifted over one of her legs.

“Don’t you know? Item's effect triumphs over aesthetic,” said Jason.

Hakeem patted Esther by the shoulder.

“You still got a lot to learn little one,” said Hakeem as he and Jason left the tent.

“Huh?” Esther was still confused.

The trio got out, and their overall appearance caught the attention of the rest of the soldiers. Definitely, a stark difference to the soldiers as they were wielding swords, shield, and blunt weapons.

They arrived at the designated spot, and the military squad was already waiting for them. A few familiar faces among the twenty.

Captain Ryan Rogers, Scott the ice wielding guy, Pixie the bitchy soldier, and lastly, the intimidating Berserker.

“Gather up,” said Ryan.

The whole twenty people huddled around along with the trio. They received quite a stare from the squad. A few among them were glaring hard at Jason.

He, on the other hand, ignored it. He knew his reputation.

“You know what we are up against, they’re strong, but we are stronger,” said Ryan. He bolstered the motivation of his squad as he knew what they were up against.

“Stick to the tactic and strategy we practiced, and don’t get careless,” said Ryan. “Got it?”

“Roger,” said the squad in unison.

Captain Ryan passed something to the trio.

“In-ear comms, for the in-between squad and also with the support team,” said Captain Ryan.

The squad departed, making way to Oshawa. Jason and his partner were walking at the last line of the squad. Jason’s eyes darting around at the soldiers as something piqued his interest.

Is that a grenade launcher?

He wasn’t wrong. Most of them slung a grenade launcher on their back. Rather than mocking them, he had a thought in mind.

Do they create a new type of weapon? Or they created some kind of tactic using grenades?

Underestimating the military would be wrong as they wouldn’t enter a battlefield without a plan.

Let’s see what they have in plan.

Jason smiled. He was anticipating a good show from the military. The walk was long, and as they entered the city, the soldiers went red alert. A few of them were already holding on to their grenade launchers, and some were loading up their crossbows.

Yes, crossbows, and it wasn’t any normal crossbow. It was like a smaller size ballista or just a bigger version of a crossbow with a bigger dimension crossbow bolt.

Hakeem nudged Jason.

“That’s pretty cool,” said Hakeem.

Jason didn’t say a word as he maintained his sight on to these crossbowmen. They weren’t many as only two of them were armed with such weaponry.

“Roofs clear,” said one of the soldiers as his eyes kept glancing the roofs on top of their heads.

“Alleyway clear, no sign of hostile,” said one of the soldiers.

“Front, no sign of life and... it’s getting boring,” said one of the cheekier soldiers.

“Don’t jinx us, Cooper,” said Captain Ryan.

Then something flew above the squad. The trio looked up in the air and saw drones flying.

“Recon drone team scouting the front,” the in-ear spoke. The support team came into action.

Back at the campsite located outside of Oshawa, underneath a single tent, five soldiers were controlling the drones as they looked through the empty streets from up in the sky. Then one of them spotted something on the screen.

“UC spotted, two klicks from your location over,” said the drone controller.

Captain Ryan raised his fist in the air as the whole squad stopped moving.

“Snipers, up on the roof. Left and right,” said Captain Ryan.

Those who carried crossbows separated themselves as they went inside the closest building.

“Take cover,” said Captain Ryan. The squad dispersed away from the road, hiding in between the buildings. The trio followed along without question.

“Drone team, can you bait them?” Captain Ryan asked.

“No, sir. We’ve been trying, and the UC aren’t moving. They’re ignoring us, sir,” said the drone controller.

The drone hovering above a group of orc was left ignored.

“Pixie, you’re up,” said Captain Ryan.

Pixie took out two combat daggers as the sheen of the blade caught Jason’s interest. He used Scan on it, and he smirked.

Titanium daggers? There goes the taxpayer's money, but I guess it’s better than hiring us.

Pixie nodded and went running on the road. Her speed was better than before, and a few minutes later, she appeared in front of the orcs.

“Hey!” Pixie shouted.

She waved her hands at the orcs trying to catch their attention. But she didn’t need to try hard as the orcs were riled up in just an instant after spotting a human at a distance.

The four hulking orcs grunted and went running towards Pixie. Despite their pudgy bodies with excess flabby fat, these monsters were running without much difficulty.

Pixie ran, baiting them as she brought them back to her squad.

“Four orcs incoming,” said Pixie.

“Got it,” said Captain Ryan. “Grenades, get ready.”

As the orcs came closer. The snipers were ready to shoot.

“Got eyes on the target,” said one of the snipers.

“Same,” replied the other sniper.

“Should we take the shot?” asked one of the snipers.

“Not yet, we need them closer,” said Captain Ryan.

Captain Ryan took a peak from the side of the building. As he saw Pixie running closer, he then saw the orcs chasing over Pixie.

“Shoot it,” said Captain Ryan.

The bolts went flying. One of them struck right at the eye of an orc.

“Guargh!” the orc screamed.

Then another orc screamed as it too been hit by a crossbow bolt. The other two orcs stopped on their track, surprised by the sudden attack.

“Launch the grenades,” said Captain Ryan. Large caliber projectiles went flying in the air. As they dropped on the ground around the orcs, yellow gas started to disperse out from the projectiles.

The orcs were confused and erratic. A few of them started assaulting the projectiles that were emitting these yellow smoke, crushing them underneath the soles of their feet. But the effects started to kick in. The orcs coughed and retched, much to the surprise of the trio who witnessed everything. Then he heard Captain Ryan.

“Mask on,” said Captain Ryan.

Every ground squad members took out a gas mask and wore it.

“Beth, masks to the hired,” said Captain Ryan.

Beth, another soldier, threw gas masks at Jason, Hakeem, and Esther.

Jason looked at the mask and glanced back at the scene of the choking orcs.

Chemical warfare, huh? Interesting…

Jason slowly wore the gas mask as he hid a smile underneath it.