Ivan quickly ran toward where he had parked the tank. He hastily removed some tree branches and debris he used to cover it and, with his special key, slid open the driver's hatch.
Despite the darkness, his familiarity with the tank allowed him to find the necessary switches to power it up. The gauges lit up as the engine started to heat. The M1 Abrams' jet engine whirred, sounding like a jet airplane. Ivan glanced at the digital RPM gauge, waiting for it to reach the appropriate level. As he waited, he couldn't help but sweat and fidget. "Come on, come on!" he muttered, his fingers tapping the controls rapidly.
Finally, after what felt like excruciating minutes, the tank was ready to roll. Ivan set the gear into drive mode and pushed down the throttle on the T-Bar. The formidable engine roared to life, causing the debris covering the tank to fall away, revealing the metal monster in the moonlight.
The tank's treads churned the ground as it moved forward. With headlights on and his head poking out of the hatch, Ivan carefully positioned the tank to face the dirt path where he would confront the monster. The tank crushed the super goblin Ivan had encountered earlier. Now facing the path, Ivan searched the driver's compartment for the flare gun.
Finding the orange, gun-like device with a large tube, he broke the breach and saw it was already loaded with a flare shell. Ivan quickly climbed out of the tank, aimed the flare upward, and fired. The flare shot up, illuminating the area with a bright reddish-orange light. He then hurried back inside the turret to control the gun.
Inside, he realized he was almost immediately clueless. Ivan had only been trained as a driver and was separated from his crew during operations, so he didn't know how to control the gun. "Damn it! What should I do now?!" he exclaimed, trying to recall moments when he saw his comrades operating the tank.
He remembered the basic procedure: the captain or gunner identifies the target, the captain specifies the type of ammunition, and the loader fetches the specified round and loads it into the main gun's breech. It was simple enough, but he needed to figure out how to properly turn on the necessary controls like the digital firing control or follow the correct procedures. "Ah! Here goes nothing!" He decided to figure it out himself, with no time to read any manual.
First, he needed to load the gun. Remembering Armstrong's loading procedure, he noticed a lever that opened the breach. He did the same, and the breach opened, revealing it was empty. Ivan needed to grab the necessary ammo. He looked at the blast-proof sliding door of the ammunition compartment, which could be opened by pressing a button or hitting a lever below with his knee.
Ivan opted for the latter and saw two types of ammunition marked with letters: "H" for HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank) rounds and "S" for Sabot (Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot, or APFSDS) rounds. He carefully considered which type to use. Both were powerful enough to destroy a tank, but based on his experience, the monster had a tough hide that even his 7.62mm ammo couldn't penetrate, though the blast from his small grenade had cracked its skin.
He decided to use the Sabot round, believing that hitting the monster's head would be fatal, as it must have a brain. After deciding, he grabbed the heavy round and carefully inserted it into the barrel, then pushed the lever beside the gun to raise the breach and lock it.
Now that the gun was loaded, it was time to aim. Ivan went to the gunner's station and sat down. He peered into the binocular-like sight but saw only darkness. He quickly realized the thermal switch was off. He turned it on, and the surroundings turned green. Adjusting the brightness and contrast, he used the steering-like control to aim the gun, pointing the reticle where he anticipated the monster would be.
"Good, good, now let's wait for that bastard. I hope the two of them are on their way right now," Ivan muttered, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
Meanwhile, Leonard and Leila were giving everything they had to slow down the Cerus.
"Rarrgghh!!!" Leonard roared as he smashed the ground with his sword, sending fissures through the earth. Leila cast multiple spells—fire, water, ice, wind, thunder—but nothing seemed to work.
"Leila, watch out!" Leonard screamed as the Cerus, moving at lightning speed, closed the distance to her. Leila, with her agility, dodged by doing a split, then quickly backflipped to avoid a claw swipe from below.
The Cerus hurled another crystal projectile. Leonard readied himself. "Stone wall!" he cast, his shield glowing yellow. The projectile struck his shield, but he parried it aside with a forceful shove.
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Now standing side by side, Leonard asked, "Sister, how are you?"
"This never ends... I'm about to deplete my mana soon. How about you?"
"Same as you."
Panting, they glanced at the monster. "But we can't give up now," Leila declared, standing up.
"Yeah, just a little more."
"If it comes to this, I need to use some of my experiments." Leila rummaged through her leather rucksack, pulling out a metallic case. Inside were two glass vials, one filled with a dark brown liquid labeled "Napalm" and the other with white powder labeled "White Phosphorous."
"Time to conduct some tests." She threw the napalm, which splattered across the monster, then threw the white phosphorus. The reaction was a blinding explosion, much more powerful than a grenade.
The monster halted, stunned. "It works!" Leila exclaimed.
But Leonard's expression was grim. "It did work, but I think we've just made it angrier."
The Cerus's skin began to melt, its eyes turning a fiery red. "Oh no..." they both muttered, chills running down their spines. The monster released an ear-piercing growl.
At that moment, a bright red light emerged from the sky. "Let's run for it!" Leonard shouted. The siblings sprinted towards the light.
The enraged Cerus, now a storm of fire and lightning, chased them with terrifying speed. Each of its steps shook the ground as it closed in.
"Chase the light," was all they could think as they ran with every ounce of strength they had left. From the horizon, they saw a bright white light. Whether it was magic or something else, they didn't know, but it was their only hope.
Ivan, peering through the scope, saw two human heat signatures outlined in green running toward him, followed by a massive, glowing creature. "That's them!"
Quickly, he adjusted his aim and targeted the giant creature. "Take this, you bastard," he muttered and pulled the trigger.
Click.
"..."
"???"
"!!!"
The gun did not fire. "What the hell?!"
Click. Click. Click.
Ivan repeatedly pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. His heart sank. "No, no, no, no! Not now! Work, goddammit!" He frantically tried every trigger but to no avail.
"Shit, shit, shit," panic consumed him as the Cerus and the siblings drew closer. "WHAT SHOULD I DO, WHAT SHOULD I DO?!"
Desperately scanning the controls, Ivan noticed the gun was on safety mode. The only way to fire it was with authorization from the tank captain. Realizing this, he quickly switched to the captain's seat, searching for the gun authorization control. Finally, he found it and switched it to fire mode.
He saw the gun indicator light up, signaling it was ready to fire. "Alright, alright. Damn it, if I could control the tank by myself without changing positions, it would be easier!" he grumbled.
Ivan rushed back to the gunner's seat and peered through the sights.
Leonard and Leila ran as fast as they could toward the light, the light that would save them from this nightmare. The Cerus was inches from them, its fiery breath hot on their heels. They ran desperately until, finally, they reached the light. Both jumped and slammed onto the ground beside the tank.
Ivan, shocked at how close the Cerus had gotten, wasted no time. The monster was at point-blank range. "Now you can die!" he shouted and pulled the trigger.
The tank's gun roared to life with an earth-shattering boom. The Sabot round, a deadly tungsten projectile, shot out with incredible force. The recoil jolted the tank as the projectile hurtled toward the Cerus.
Outside, Leila sat on the ground beside the tank, her body aching and exhausted. Her eyes, reflecting the chaos and destruction around her, locked onto the scene unfolding before her. The silhouette of the tank under the moonlight stood like a guardian, its massive form casting long, ominous shadows across the ground. For a moment, everything seemed to slow down.
Her heart skipped a beat as she watched the tank, an iron behemoth, unleash its deadly payload. The muzzle flash lit up the night, the bright flare illuminating the battlefield. The Cerus, caught in the path of the Sabot round, seemed to move in slow motion. Leila's gray eyes widened, capturing every detail.
The monstrous creature, with its hide of molten rock and lightning, was no match for the sheer power of the tank. As the projectile made contact, the Cerus's head exploded in a shower of bluish blood and sparks, the violent eruption resembling a fusion of a volcano and a thunderstorm. Time seemed to stop for Leila.
In that split second, her mind was transported to a distant memory, a time when she had witnessed such overwhelming power before. It was a feeling she couldn't quite place, a sense of déjà vu that sent shivers down her spine. The raw, unbridled force of the tank's attack stirred something deep within her.
Her gray eyes, usually calm and composed, were now filled with awe and wonder. The sight of the Cerus's demise, the splattering of its blood, the brilliant sparks—it all felt surreal, like a dream.
Leila's heart, amidst the chaos and destruction, felt an inexplicable warmth. This power, this overwhelming force—it was something she had seen before, something she had felt. It was a memory from her past, a moment etched into her soul.
As the realization dawned on her. A tear escaped from the corner of her eye, tracing a path down her dirt-streaked cheek .She whispered softly, her voice barely audible over the dying echoes of the explosion,
"Ti...ger."