Chapter 241 Volume IV - Chapter 86: Getting Used to War
I put my finger on the trigger of my rifle, concealed myself even more, and stood at the ready.
Gurdas and Durvan were slaughtering the enemy soldiers while I waited patiently.
Dozens were dying. Even the few forces that tried to come to support them could not last long against the duo of Gurdas and Rulhan.
They were like a killing machine.
In fact, for some reason, it had always been like this lately. The enemy was strangely weak. Even I felt the weakness of the enemy force, but I wasn't complaining.
Of course, this being the case, we were no longer on the defending side, and after three days of defense without proper sleep, we had a different mission this time.
To attack with the army, to draw special attention to us, and to kill a specific target.
I narrowed my eyes, slowed my breathing as much as possible, and focused.
Despite the chaos on the battlefield, I was patient, waiting for the right moment with my rifle. It was difficult, but I held myself together.
So, in the end, this waiting paid off.
Something very fast, caught on AVRES's radar, appeared on the game-like mini-map in the upper left of my vision.
I focused even more, even poured mana into the Absolute Mind, and started pressing the trigger.
As the usual blue orb of energy slowly expanded in the center of the rifle, the 'thing' on my radar suddenly appeared between Gurdas and Durvan.
I couldn't see his face because the dark red armor covered every part of his body, yet he was short, even for a dwarf. Nevertheless, the speed with which he landed on the field and the two daggers he held in his hands were deadly. And he proved it quickly.
Gurdas was about to activate a rune that created an explosion over a large area when the dwarf in red armor finished next to him. When the dwarf swung his daggers at him with great speed, he inevitably had to interrupt the rune activation.
He shielded himself with his one-handed axe and tried to take a step back. Just then, Durvan grabbed one of the dwarf's daggers with one claw-like hand and tried to smash his chest with the other.
The dwarf's armor flashed, a momentary rune appeared on it, and then the unexpected happened.
Durvan's claw went through the dwarf's body. Before we knew what had happened, the dwarf kicked Durvan hard and turned to Gurdas.
Gurdas had recovered himself, so he was able to react quickly. When he saw the dwarf looking at him, he didn't waste any time and attacked him.
I kept waiting, my rifle already maxed out as Gurdas and Durvan fought the dwarf, but I knew I couldn't pull the trigger.
This dwarf, our target, was strong. Gurdas and Durvan could barely stand against him. And somehow he could make objects pass through his body. His daggers were a threat, fierce enough to shatter the armor of his opponents and fast enough to be hard to track.
I held my breath and, with AVRES's help, tried to keep the aim on the dwarf at all times.
I gritted my teeth when the shoulder of Gurdas' armor was sliced open by the dagger blow, and I held my ground even when Durvan narrowly avoided an attack that almost cost him his head.
So I let out the breath I had been holding when the dwarf suddenly kicked Durvan, threw his daggers at Gurdas, and raised his palm to his face.
When a few runes appeared on the dwarf's arm, he stood still, sure that Durvan would not disturb him. He was immobile because he believed he could keep Gurdas still with his thrown daggers.
This was my chance.
I aimed for the dwarf's head, sure he would not be able to use his strange ability as a beam of light appeared in his palms.
I pulled the trigger.
The blue orb in the center of the max-loaded rifle was sucked into the barrel like a vacuum. Then, with the recoil I felt, it separated from the rifle at great speed.
The dwarf's head suddenly turned toward me, I imagined its eyes widening behind its closed helmet and grinned.
The shot, with a large diameter, completely engulfed the dwarf's small head. Ignoring him as if he were nothing, it continued on its way and finally fizzled out when it reached the ground.
The dwarf's headless body trembled for a moment, the runes and the beam of light that had appeared on his arm faded, and then he collapsed.
"You are amazin', Aiden!"
Gurdas' voice echoed in my helmet as I came out of hiding, knowing he could not avoid the daggers but simply blocking them with his axe, knowing the threat would be gone.
Putting my rifle in my ring, I drew my sword and ran toward them.
"We've taken out the last dwarf guarding the line, let's infiltrate forward and scatter the troops. Let's finish this quickly before reinforcements arrive."
Gurdas and Durvan had already pulled themselves together and moved forward before I said anything.
There was no need for any further communication, but I still had a question.
"Also... Where is Rulhan?"
The absence of the middle-aged dwarf made itself felt.
"He was dealin' with someone in the back. He is probably protectin' the soldiers. Won't be joinin' us."
Oh...
"I see..."
So, after a while, we infiltrated further into the enemy soldiers.
What happened next... was basically a slaughter.
*******
It's exhausting.
Jumping from war to war with only one night's rest, often with no rest at all, is really tiring.
That's one of the first things I realized on this battlefield.
It's also a bit scary because I'm a wiera. And this is the second thing I realized.
As I was trying to use the five hours I was given to rest to sleep, I tossed and turned in my bed. I thought about the battlefield and myself in the middle of it.
Sometimes I find myself suddenly smiling, even though I could kill someone in one swift movement, I have a feeling that I will kill them slowly, leaving one painful wound and moving on to the next.
I've gotten used to it though, I guess. Going through it day after day after day... it helped me learn to restrain myself a little bit.
Perhaps as a wiera, my hunger for chaos is satiated enough by the war itself that it is easier to control.
Still, I am happy that I am making progress in this regard.
Another improvement I've noticed, though I'm not sure if I'd call it an improvement, is that I literally lose myself in the middle of battle.
It's as if my consciousness shuts down, I just try to fulfill the task given to me like a robot without thinking about what I'm doing. When I come back to myself, I'm not in the same place and time as I remembered before, it's a bit... strange feeling.
Not because I'm wiera, but because I think I'm getting used to the war. Killing people, avoiding attacks or things like that... they are slowly becoming a set of reflexes rather than actions that I think about.
That's why I'm not sure whether this is a development or not.
Given Lunerra, it must be an improvement, right?
So... when I've lost my humanity and getting it back is already a goal of mine, but to start distancing myself from my remaining humanity? Is that an improvement for me?
This was just one of the things I started to question as I was slowly letting myself fall asleep.
*******
Gurdas, Durvan, Rulhan, and I were busy playing a board game when a soldier suddenly entered our room and said that Dorhud wanted to see us.
The soldier seemed to be in a hurry, it was obviously an emergency. So we left the board game as it was and rushed to Dorhud's room.
After a while, we passed through the door marked Captain Dorhud Gen'dai and found Dorhud with a very serious face, frowning and thinking at his desk.
I hadn't seen Dorhud for quite a while, he was already difficult to see, mostly because he was busy, but lately, he had become impossible to meet directly.
And now... I could tell he was tired, that nothing good had happened to him lately.
"Close the door, we've got somethin' important to talk."
The door closed behind us, and the four of us lined up in a row, side by side. Then Dorhud spoke without waiting even for a second.
"Ye got a mission, a special mission. We've specially chosen ye guys."
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