Tefot, one of the most popular cities after Adelta in the Cassian nation, was only three hours away from the island by foot. From Baldwin’s shortcut and yelling reminders, they were able to reach the border between the northern woods and Tefot in two hours. They were on the hilltop, the separation point between the woods and the city. Smoke and screams greeted them when they reached the end of the hill.
“Crouch, Don’t blow our cover.” Baldwin ordered them as they hid behind a thick set of bushes. Yuri was sweating uncontrollably. He was terribly anxious.
“This is Master Hanshon, Silver card Valor, and instructor,” Hanshon spoke to the walkie-talkie. “We are here for assistance.”
The transceiver buzzed for a few seconds.
“Master Hanshon?” The female voice on the other end of the voice said. “This is Meara,” Yuri remembered the red-haired military officer Yuri met on the shore of the northern woods. “Our priority is the rescuing of citizens. Information regarding the Proxiamian attack is only secondary. We have split into three teams Group 1 is leading a frontal attack from the center of the city. Group 2 is penetrating the eastern sideline along with Group 3 on the west. Groups 2 and 3 will focus on the retrieval of any surviving citizens. Do you copy?” Meara said.
“I do.” Master Hanshon replied. “We will be splitting into three teams to join you as well.” He cut off the transmission.
“Me, Tumes and Stu will be joining group 1.” Hanshon decided. “Master Baldwin, Yuri, Ada and Igor in group 2. The rest of you in group 3. Focus only on retrieval. Do not take unnecessary risks.” he ordered.
“Master, If I may, My father lives on the western edge of the city. Could I join group 3?” Ada demanded.
“Very well, Tatsu can replace Ada in group 2. We will continue as planned.” Master Hanshon said.
“Here.” Master Baldwin handed every group a single transceiver. “If you find something useful or important. Let everyone know.”
Yuri grabbed the walkie-talkie and kept it safe in his pants along with the compass he took from the mansion. They were all looking at each other nervously.
This is it, he thought.
“All right. Split up. Don’t get spotted before you reach your position. Good luck.” Master Hanshon led his group, consisting of Stu and Tumes to the northern front. Axel led group 3, with Ada and 048 to the west. Master Baldwin led the team of Yuri, Tatsu, and Igor to the eastern side. They branched off and sneaked off the sides.
“Keep your heads low but your feets fast.” Baldwin ordered as they found cover in building backs. They were carefully spectating the Proximian soldiers, who wore deep purple uniforms. There were ghouls running around too. Yuri reckoned that they were released by the Proximians, but he had no idea how they were able to control them.
“Wait!” Igor told them. He paused and hid behind one of the building walls.
“What?” Tatsu asked. All of them stopped and watched Igor. He mimed them to be silent.
Yuri could hear footsteps approaching them from the back of the building.
“This is 1618 Usor reporting, I think I heard something.” The man on the other side said. He was so close to catching them, but Igor jumped on him and flicked away his transceiver. He brutally snapped the Proximian soldier’s neck.
“Let’s keep moving.” Baldwin said. Igor nodded and followed them.
Yuri did not know what to feel about Igor. He certainly did not make a positive first impression, but there was no denying his usefulness. He expected Igor to be more hostile towards them, particularly 048, but he had been behaving perfectly well all day.
It was a five-minute rush until Master Baldwin signaled them to stop. He turned on his receiver. “This is group 2, we are in position,” he said.
“Group 1 is in position as well, do we have the go-ahead group 1?” Axel spoke from the walkie-talkie.
“This is group 1, we are distracting the main forces, you may continue with your operation.” Hanshon said. Baldwin turned off the receiver and looked back at them.
“Tatsu,” he said. “Stay here, within a 50 meter radius. We will lead the rescuees this way. It is your job to escort and protect them.” Baldwin ordered.
“Yes, Master.” Tatsu did not object.
He led the two of them, Yuri and Igor, straight to the battlefield. There were Proximian soldiers running through the road, to the northern frontier. They waited until they were out of sight.
“Listen well you two, someone will find us soon. I will hold them off. It is your responsibility to cover the citizens and to lead them out of harm's way. Got it?” Baldwin said. They nodded.
When the marching of the purple cavalry ended, they walked out in pursuit of saving the citizens. It was a pain in the ass to not get spotted. A soldier would be lurking around every corner. They had to silence every single one of them before they contacted their friends.
“I think there’s someone over there.” Igor pointed to a house. Yuri could see shadows of people moving around inside. They ran to the house and watched from the windows. It was a family, the mother and father were peering out the window, and the kids were hiding under the table.
“Please don’t kill us.” The mother begged them from the window. “Please.” she cried.
“We are here to rescue you. Be at ease.” Baldwin comforted them.
“Oh, thank god!” the father released a sigh of relief. He was crying as well.
Igor opened the door and got out with the family. He was holding the kids in his arms.
“I will lead them to Tatsu.” Igor said to Baldwin and Yuri.
“Okay.” Baldwin approved. “Come back to help us.”
Baldwin and Yuri tried to find other survivors in the nearby houses. They were unsuccessful, there were piles of bodies and blood scattered everywhere. Yuri felt a headache swelling up. It was all very familiar.
“Master!” Yuri alerted Baldwin. He saw a woman standing on the top of a tall corporate building. She was standing on the edge of the topmost floor and sobbing. She was ready to jump.
“No. Don’t!” Baldwin yelled at the women. It was too late. She jumped. The woman landed on the ground, with her bones sticking out everywhere. Her eyes were crushed and her skull bone was visible. The blood splattered all over Yuri’s once-white robes. He couldn’t move. Yuri was about to vomit before Baldwin grabbed him by his arms and led him away.
“Keep it together. That’s an order.” Baldwin said firmly. “We cannot waste time. People are counting on us, Do you understand?” Yuri couldn’t bring himself to reply.
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” he asked again.
“Yes, Master.”
They found more survivors hiding behind a restaurant as they crossed the street. Before they could reach it, a platoon of purple soldiers marched towards them, shooting their laser guns. Master Baldwin jumped over the survivors and protected them by deflecting the shots with his great sword.
Yuri led the group of four survivors back to where they came from. He had to block a few shots that made it through Baldwin’s defense. He had to hurry since he knew his master needed him. Yuri was greatly relieved when he saw Igor running towards them with his ax.
“Take them away!” Yuri yelled.
“Got it!” Igor led the survivors back in the direction from which he came.
The number of soldiers was halved by the master. All Yuri had to do was cover his blind spots. They defeated the platoon in no time, but it was safe to assume that more cavalry was on the way.
Master Baldwin took out his transceiver, “This is group 2. We have drawn attention. Group 2, use this opportunity to perform a full extraction.”
“Copy that.” Axel replied.
Both of them searched for other possible survivors before the enemies arrived. Their search was halted when a dozen switzer bikes, a levitating speeder bike popularized in Cassian, came speeding through the road.
“That can’t be an enemy.” Yuri said. He had great knowledge about Swiftzers from a young age. After all, he grew up in a workshop.
The Switzer bike in the front, ridden by a man with a pointy beard and short hair, drifted to perform a break. The rest of the swiftzers in the back followed.
The banner on the swiftzers had a drawing of a large snake, or a basilisk to be precise. They were all wearing green armor with a jetpack in the back.
“We’ve come to help.” The man on the lead took off his sunglasses and said. “Tell us how we can help you.”
“Who are you?” Yuri asked.
“You’re Daro Yuri, aren’t you?” The man asked. Yuri was taken aback. How did they know his name? “We are the Basilisk.”
That rang a bell. Yuri and Stu read about the Basilisk in the newspaper, the so-called terrorist association.
“We are under orders.” The man said. “To help you.”
“Orders from whom?” Baldwin asked.
“From our leader. You need our help.” He replied.
“Find survivors. Get them to the easternmost or westernmost part of the city, whichever one is closer.” Baldwin said suspiciously.
“Roger.” The man signaled his bikers to spread out.
“How do you know who I am?” Yuri asked before the man left.
“You’ll find out someday.” He speeded off.
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“Can we trust them?” Yuri asked Baldwin. They were on the move again.
“I don’t know, we have no other choice.” Baldwin said. “Dive!” Baldwin grabbed Yuri by the shoulder and dived behind a house.
A grenade fell on the spot where they were standing. It was a few feet away but they still had to run to get away from the explosion’s vicinity. A dozen purple soldiers came for them. They did not care about the smoke that the grenade left behind. They just shot blindly, hoping it would hit one of them.
Both of them had to be on their feet to deflect every single one of their blasts. It seemed hopeless, so they found cover behind a wall.
“I have an idea.” Yuri said. “Do you have a grenade?”
“Yes. Why?” Baldwin gave it to him. Yuri took off the hook and threw it at them. Seconds before the grenade exploded, Yuri rolled to the ground and assumed his fighting stance.
“I see.” Baldwin followed Yuri’s plan. Both of them swung their weapons in a specific manner. They were doing the advanced technique behind the temporary smoke cover of the grenade.
When the smoke settled, the soldiers came out again, with their blasters loaded. Yuri and Baldwin were prepared, they launched their flying rocks, bricks, and everything that they had around them with their katanas. The soldiers were on the ground. They were not dead, but they were knocked out.
“Hey!” Igor yelled as he came to join them again. “Here. Use this.” Igor took two small bags of nails and threw them. The nails landed openly on Yuri’s and Baldwin’s feet.
“Brilliant.” Baldwin said. Both of them started doing the weaving motion again.
The new group of purple uniforms was greeted with bullet-speed nails to the chest, eyes, and shoulders. It was gross but the sound of the nails entering was satisfying.
“That will buy us enough time!” Baldwin said. The three of them ran to find another spot. Most of the survivors were now being escorted by the swiftzer bikers to the east side.
“Who are they?” Igor asked.
“Members of the Basilisk. They have offered to help us now.” Yuri regretted telling him as soon as the words came out of his mouth. Igor stopped on his feet and stared at them with fuming eyes. He held his ax with both his arms.
“The basilisk.” Igor said coldly. “Killed two of my kind. How could you turn to them for help?”
Upon hearing this, two bikers stopped their swiftzers in front of him. One of them took off their goggles and said,
“Oh, they deserved it all right!”
Igor turned and swung his ax at the man. His head was decapitated clean off. The other biker’s face was splattered with drops of blood. He tried to rush off and escape with his swiftzer, but Igor grabbed it by the back.
“Igor No!” Yuri yelled.
“Sorry Yuri.” Igor smashed the swiftzer with the biker in it. His head was crushed in. “My pride as a sizaxian won’t let me leave any of them alive.”
“What do you think you’re doing?, you metal-headed idiot?” Tatsu ran towards them with her katana in her hands. “They are helping us. Why are you hurting them?”
“Tatsu? Weren’t you ordered to stay at the sideline?” Baldwin asked.
“The bikers are taking care of the survivors on that side. I thought I’d help you.” She said,
“I am sorry, guys. I have to kill them all.” Igor said and walked away.
“People are dying.” Yuri said loudly. “You have the chance to help them. You will regret not doing so, Igor. Your vengeance will have to wait.”
He kept walking away.
“Come.” Baldwin said. “We cannot waste time.”
The three of them spent the next twenty minutes searching for more survivors. They were either dead or already rescued by the Basilisk. It was nearing evening. The sky was orange and not everything was perfectly visible like before.
“Watch out!” Tatsu yelled. She pointed to the sky. More than three dozen black glass bottles came flying through the sky.
“Ghouls.” Baldwin said. “They are using them.” The three of them scattered before the bottles hit the ground. From the broken glasses rose ghouls of different kinds. Once they were fully formed, they came charging at the team.
“Disintegrate them!” Baldwin ordered. “Quick.”
The regular ghouls were not much to handle. The trouble was with the special ones. They were physically faster and harder to deal with.
“Don’t breathe! Fume ghoul!” Yuri warned them. They had to close their eyes too. The vapors released by a Fume ghoul would put you to sleep and would make your eyes burn too.
They had to fight for the next thirty seconds with their eyes closed. Yuri’s face was already scratched by a ghoul’s nail after the first few seconds of the gas. He had to swallow the pain and follow his Gia sense. It was easy when it came to detecting their position. Master Hanshon and Tatsu had a higher Gia count, so he didn’t worry about hitting them by accident.
“It’s safe.” Baldwin’s voice instructed, but none of them opened their eyes.
“I said, it's safe.” Yuri slashed away at the position from where the voice came. The real Master Baldwin was still fighting a few feet away.
Camo-ghouls. Yuri had to be smarter if he had to leave this place alive.
The only way he was opening his eyes was as if the texture of the air changed. It was definitely changing, but not enough to warrant safety.
He kept slashing away at the ghouls. Their numbers didn’t seem to end. He assumed that more ghouls were being unleashed by the enemy.
This could turn ugly if the enemies press us with their forces.
Yuri could hear a faint mumbling sound from Tatsu’s position. She was in danger. He hurriedly moved through the ghouls. He didn’t care if they scratched him or even if they took a bite out of him.
He was in luck. The texture of the air changed. He opened his eyes and analyzed the situation. Thirteen ghouls were circling Tatsu, one of which was a mutator, the rest were regular. The mutator ghoul surely meant trouble. He was about to burn her face.
“Take her right!” Baldwin came to her aid. They coordinated their attacks and exorcized the ghouls in no time. Tatsu was now free to move around. She moved back from the mutator ghoul and started swinging her katana at him.
Master Baldwin slashed the mutator’s neck before it attacked her.
“Where’s the Fume-ghoul?” Yuri asked. He had no recollection of slaying the fume-ghoul. He searched the block.
There he is. The fume-ghoul, which was forest green, was limping away from the fight. This was one of the weaknesses of a fume-ghoul, It was easily exhausted after a single poison release.
Yuri used enhanced speed to get over the ghoul’s position. He stabbed through his nose, the fragile part of the fume-ghoul. He checked his katana to see his kill count. There were 18 new lines, 17 were regular, and 1 was green.
“37 kills!” Yuri exclaimed. He had 19 lines prior to this battle.
“19.” Tatsu said. Baldwin did not bother to share his count.
“Survivors.” Baldwin raised his great sword, pointing to a building. “They are being hunted. Quick!” Yuri took a quick glance before following Baldwin and Tatsu to the building. From what he saw, the survivors were running up the fourth-floor steps, and the Proximians were chasing after them from the second floor.
“Master.” Yuri said when they reached the building. “We can’t save them on time if we take the stairs.”
“What do you propose?” Baldwin hopefully looked at him.
“Temporal flight. Launch me up there. I’ll stall them.” The words coming out of his mouth were confident, but in reality, he was very skeptical about the idea.
“You sure?” Tatsu asked. “You might break a bone or two.”
“We have no other choice.” Yuri said. Baldwin nodded and dropped his great sword. He used his fists to form a launching pad for Yuri.
All right. Yuri ran back a bit and calculated the jump. He was aiming for the fourth floor, not too high, or not too low. He remembered his lessons about temporal flight from Master Baldwin.
Focus all your Gia on your legs and exhale as you make the jump.
Yuri went for it. He ran to Baldwin’s fists and used them to jump off. He crashed through the fourth wall window and landed there with his body on the ground. It was painful but he made it.
The survivors must have reached the fifth floor. I just have to hold them off till Master and Tatsu arrive.
Yuri heard the steady marching of footsteps from the bottom floor. His heart was about to explode. He had the plan to buy more time but he was still skeptical.
Yuri hid behind the wall on the third floor and waited till the footsteps were closer.
When it got closer, he pushed the table next to him to the steps. He successfully trapped three soldiers and blocked the rest of them from entering.
“Goddammit!” one of the soldiers cursed. They fired their blasters at Yuri. He deflected a few of them and continued to hide behind the wall.
The other soldiers helped the table off the stairs and continued up the stairs. Yuri had one more table to offer. He pushed the next one to them. This time five of them went down with it. His plan was successful but this was it.
He faced the soldiers who continued to climb the stairs. There were a total of 16 soldiers that he counted. The best he could hold off was four. Yuri was preoccupied with deflecting the blaster shots with his katana. The soldiers were gaining on him as he did so.
“Shit!” one of the soldiers cried as Yuri cut through his shoulder. Till then, all of them were firing away at Yuri, but suddenly, they changed their target. They shot away to the bottom floor.
“Get some of that!” Tatsu yelled from below.
Yuri was relieved. He continued to kill the soldiers. With each kill, a new red line appeared in the katana’s hilt. Yuri had a sinking feeling in his heart. He did not know what to think of when it came to killing humans.
They’re killers. It’s for the better. He told himself.
5,6,7… The bodies kept falling. His hands were shaking, but then he remembered. He remembered his family. He remembered seeing his mother’s brains. He remembered all that he lost. Remembering was enough. He gripped the katana harder than ever and cut down every soldier that came for him.
“Ahh!” Yuri screamed. He lost it.
“Hey!” Baldwin stopped him. He placed his hands on his shoulder and stared at him with awe. “They are all dead.” He said.
Yuri sighed and looked at Tatsu, who was looking at him the same way his master did.
“You okay, Yuri?” Tatsu asked.
“Yeah.”
They did not have time to relax. They still had to save the survivors.
“I’ll go tell them.” Tatsu said. She ran through the stairs to get to the survivors.
“We’ll be waiting downstairs!” Baldwin yelled out.
Yuri and his master went down the stairs. When they reached the front yard of the building, they were surprised to find an awfully empty road. No, It was suspiciously empty.
“Lord!” Baldwin exclaimed. He was looking up at the sky. He looked like he saw a ghost.
“What?” Yuri tried to see what Baldwin was looking at. There was a small light in the sky, like a star. But it was not night enough for the stars to shine. The light was getting closer.
“It’s an airstrike.” Yuri said. Tatsu and the others came running out of the building, only to be witnesses of bad news.
“We can’t just stand around! Find cover!” Tatsu grabbed both of their arms and ran with the survivors. The airstrike had the sound of a dying jet. It was getting louder by the second. Baldwin was searching for something else as they ran.
BAM! The bomb hit the ground. Yuri felt his body hot and his consciousness slipping away.
“YURI! WAKE UP!” Tatsu’s voice screamed. “YOU CAN’T DIE ON ME!” she cried. Yuri woke up to a smoky sky. Tatsu was on his chest, slapping his face. Her face was black and dusky from the explosion.
Yuri struggled to get up from the ground. His bones were not cooperating and every cough that came out of him felt like death.
The fire, the smoke, the dust, It was all very familiar. His vision was blurry and Tatsu was yelling something at him.
“Yuri! Master Baldwin…. Master Baldwin’s dead!” she whined.
“What?” Yuri saw Baldwin lying on the ground, holding the metal tarp of a house as a shield. Tatsu was trying to wake him up, but he was not responding.
“There’s no pulse.” she cried. Yuri was not fully conscious yet, he was distracted by the crying of a child. It was coming from a house next to him.
The house itself was completely destroyed. No roofs and broken walls. At the center of the house was a boy, maybe seven or eight years of age. He was crying. His parents were lying dead beside his knees.
Nothing’s changed. His thoughts took over him. I couldn’t do anything.
His mind was flashing images of eight years ago. He was the same as the boy crying on the ground, mourning the death of his parents and his sister. Yuri was completely helpless, then and now. He fell to his knees. All he could do was sob.
Nothing’s changed.