Intense was a fortress blessed by nature.
Surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs, it had been known since ancient times as an impregnable stronghold.
"A frontal assault is impossible. We’ll distract them with artillery fire, and in the meantime our unit will use the groundwater to infiltrate Intense from inside."
I pointed at the map with a finger.
"After that, we storm the cathedral, seize headquarters, and then give the signal to the main force to begin the attack. Once that’s done, the operation is over. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
We entered the underground waterway at once. I struck the manhole with my scabbard. Bang
The guard reacted to the sound and came closer. I slipped up silently and drove my dagger into his neck.
"We’re going in. I’ll take the lead. Violet, follow me."
We advanced through the waterway. I drew my sword. I killed the enemy.
Swish, swish!
The waterway was one of the paths into the fortress.
The enemy had prepared their defenses thoroughly.
"Fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!!
The machine gun fired mercilessly. In the narrow straight passage, it was invincible.
I dashed forward in an instant. Violet followed behind me.
I watched the bullets. I knocked them aside with my blade. But I couldn’t block them all. A few rounds buried themselves in my body.
"They’re here!!"
We broke into the machine-gun position.
The enemy was thrusting out long spears.
Somehow, they had prepared spears in advance. To stop me.
Crash!
I swept my sword in a wide arc.
The spear shafts shattered in a shower of splinters. The enemy stared at their broken spears in disbelief. I slaughtered them.
I wiped the blood from my mouth and moved on. This operation depended on speed.
We had to break into the fortress before the enemy could gather.
We were just about to leave the waterway when—
"Ah!"
A soldier slipped.
When I looked, the floor was slick with oil.
A chill ran down my spine.
"Burn them!"
At the stairs leading into the fortress, the enemy had aimed flamethrowers down into the underground passage.
I quickly grabbed a corpse and sprinted up the stairs.
Whoosh!!
Flames poured down. The corpse went up in fire.
The air turned scorching hot.
Just before the corpse was completely burned away, I charged the enemy.
I threw the charred body and swung my sword. The enemy fell. Violet finished off the rest, and we succeeded in infiltrating the fortress.
There was a problem.
"Damn it, this isn’t the plan! Why has the bombardment stopped?"
"M-maybe there was a problem with the shells?"
"Does that matter!? They’re closing in on us right now!"
The soldiers were shaken.
Under the original plan, the bombardment should already have begun.
But there was no artillery fire.
The enemy slowly surrounded us after our infiltration.
We had already gone too deep to retreat through the underground waterway.
In the end, we would have to fight here.
Boom!!
Then it happened.
A red signal flare shot up from outside the fortress.
Peeeee!
Peeeee!
At the same time, whistles rang out loudly.
They were coming from outside the fortress.
"A whistle?"
"That’s the Empire’s whistle!"
"No way..."
It seemed the worst-case scenario had come to pass.
Most likely, while we infiltrated the fortress, enemy reinforcements had attacked the main force.
Intense Fortress was something the enemy absolutely could not afford to lose.
They would try to stop us with everything they had.
"Don’t panic. The main force of the Southern Alliance is gathered. They’ll defeat the enemy and come to our aid. Hold out until then."
"Major. You’re bleeding from your wound."
Violet pointed at my body.
It was from the bullet I’d taken during the machine-gun charge. Luckily, it had been stopped by bone and muscle.
"I’m fine. There’s an ammunition depot nearby. We’ll seize it and hold out as long as we can. Move out!"
"Haa... Understood."
"I’ll follow the Major’s orders."
We moved toward the ammunition depot.
"Hold them back!!"
"We just need to buy time, so hold the line!!"
The enemy was already building a cordon around us.
Our unit cut down as many of them as we could and headed for the depot as quickly as possible.
As the Major had predicted, enemy reinforcements struck the main force.
The Northern Alliance had to turn the tide of a front that had been steadily pushed back.
The South had dominated the war with an asymmetric weapon called tactics and Ioannis.
Whenever commanders at the front heard that Ioannis had appeared, their morale collapsed so badly they needed psychological treatment.
The Northern Alliance high command devised a tactic that could change the momentum of the war.
That tactic was to use Intense as bait, surround the enemy, and annihilate them.
It was a gamble. If things went wrong, Intense could fall, and they could be picked off one by one before the encirclement was complete.
But the rewards for taking that gamble were enormous.
They could destroy the Southern Alliance’s main force and push the front far back.
Beyond the immediate front lay the world’s breadbasket. If they captured it, the food problem would be solved.
Another reward was the death of Ioannis, who was little different from the reaper himself.
To seize Intense, they would have to come here.
The Northern Alliance high command adopted the plan.
The commanders spent the night with their heads together in conference.
The plan was carried out in secret.
They drilled it in advance at battalion level.
The foothills around Intense were surrounded by mountains, making them perfect for a surprise attack.
They dug hundreds of tunnels into the ground.
And then the day of battle arrived.
The Southern Alliance army set up camp in front of Intense, just as expected.
Scouts from the Southern Alliance moved about here and there, but the ambush tunnels had been prepared long before, so they were not discovered.
A colonel of Garadric checked his pocket watch.
He was the field commander responsible for this operation.
Confirming that the time had come, he fired the signal flare.
A red flare shot into the sky.
The colonel blew his whistle with all his strength.
Peeee!!
"Charge! Charge!"
"Waaah!!"
Immediately after, whistles rang out from every mountain surrounding the Southern Alliance army.
Soldiers surged forward, throwing smoke grenades and hand grenades.
"W-what is this?!"
The Southern Alliance soldiers, preparing to attack, were thrown into chaos by the ambush from behind.
Packed tightly together, one platoon was nearly wiped out by grenades, and then they were cut down by the bullets that followed.
Ssshhh... Smoke grenades spread, obscuring their vision.
Smoke rose into the dark dawn. The Southern Alliance army trembled in fear.
"What’s happening!"
"It’s an ambush, sir!"
"What do you mean—guh!"
The major was unlucky and died from a gunshot.
With their commander dead, the soldiers fled toward the center.
But the center was no safer.
"Why are you here?!"
"A-attack from the rear!"
"What about you?"
"They’re coming from the right too...!"
"The left as well!"
Soldiers crowded into the center of the position.
The commanders could not control the flood of men pouring in.
The center fell into panic in an instant.
"Hey..! Form up by platoon! Don’t bunch together here!!"
"Don’t step on me! There are people underneath!"
"Where’s Lieutenant Colonel Rebello?!"
"He’s been killed in action!"
"Damn it, then I’ll command the 4th Platoon."
"The 5th Platoon commander has also been killed!"
"The 8th Platoon too!"
"Shit, where’s Captain Jack?! Where is Captain Jack?!"
"He’s been killed in action!"
The commanders hurriedly reorganized their units. But the enemy was already upon them.
"Get into the trenches for now! Establish a line of defense!"
"Hey, where are you going?!"
"My brother, my brother hasn’t come back!"
"I said get into the trenches!!!"
"I can’t...!"
The Southern Alliance commanders were capable, but they had never faced a large-scale ambush like this before.
For the moment, they forced the soldiers into the trenches.
Trenches were essential when building a fortified position.
Before the machine guns were fully set and the barbed wire laid down,
the Northern Alliance, having completed its encirclement, came crashing in.
"Charge! Charge!"
They advanced on the trenches without pause, whistles shrieking all the while.
Molotov cocktails and grenades flew into the trenches.
Boom! Whoosh!*
The trenches became the Southern Alliance army’s grave. Shrapnel from grenades exploding in the narrow dugouts tore people apart.
A soldier engulfed in flames tried to crawl up out of the trench, stumbled, and had his head crushed beneath the boots of other soldiers.
The front-line trenches were broken through.
"Fall back to the 4th trench line!"
The main position had five trench lines.
But due to the surprise attack, the 3rd line had already been taken, leaving only two trench lines.
Still, the enemy’s assault was fierce, and the soldiers were in panic. The situation was such that they would have to retreat to the 5th trench line.
"Hold them! If we lose this place, we all die!"
Gilbert did everything he could to stop the enemy.
While everyone else was in panic, a handful of soldiers stepped forward with courage.
They resisted by driving bayonets into the enemy rushing into the trenches.
"Fire!"
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!
The machine guns, barely brought under control, opened fire.
Machine guns firing from within a trench were no different from demons to infantrymen.
The Southern Alliance soldiers who had charged the trench with great momentum were torn to pieces.
Whirr...
"Grenade!"
"Take cover!"
A grenade blew apart a machine gun.
The Northern Alliance soldiers, who had hesitated for a moment, charged again.
As they gradually regained their composure, the Southern Alliance soldiers began to fight back.
They poked only their faces above the trench and sprayed bullets at the enemy.
Gilbert fought alongside the soldiers.
"Ioannis, please succeed."
In the end, his unit was annihilated. Every man he had fought beside and lived with was dead.
Only Ioannis and Violet remained alive.
There was no time to grieve the dead of the unit. The enemy was advancing, stepping over their corpses.
"...."
Ioannis glared at the enemy with a rigid expression. A hopeless situation. And Ioannis was used to hopeless situations.
In his previous life, he had fought in World War III against North Korean and Chinese troops.
He had always found hope in hopeless situations, and he would do so again now.
Blood welled up.
Blood kept flowing from his right ear. A bullet had torn through his cochlea. He had hastily wrapped it in bandages.
Aside from that, dozens of bullets had lodged in his body. His body was losing its function, like a rusted machine.
"Violet, are you all right?"
Violet had been hit in both arms. I looked down at her with concern.
"I’m fine. You should be the one worried, Major."
Violet panted. Blood would not stop flowing from both her arms.
"First, we’ll go to the rooftop and fire the signal flare."
"Understood. I’ll follow you."
We couldn’t stop here. Even if we escaped, enemy forces were still spread outside. In the end, we had to capture the enemy commander.
But when we reached the command room, the man had already fled.
We climbed to the rooftop. We encountered enemies and fought. Our injuries mounted.
There was a high chance enemies were up there too. In fact, this was the place where Gilbert lost his right eye and right arm, and Violet lost her right arm.
I surveyed the rooftop. As expected, there were enemies.
I killed them. Now there were no enemies left on the rooftop.
"...Good. They’re still holding out down there."
Ioannis looked down at the main force.
Just as he had thought, the enemy had ambushed the main force.
They had lost much of the trench line, but they were still holding at the 4th line.
The soldiers who had come to seize Intense were all elite. They would not fall easily.
Ioannis fired the signal flare.
Green light filled the sky.
This would help raise morale. Thinking that everything was over, the tension in his body loosened. And as a soldier, that was something he should never have done.
It was when he turned his head to look at Violet that—
Bang!
A flash burst from a tower in the distance, and his right eye went dark.
A moment later, searing pain flared through his right eye.
Ioannis staggered.
Blood dripped from his eye in steady drops.
Violet’s eyes widened at the sight of Ioannis helpless for the first time.
The situation now felt like a nightmare.
"Major...?"
Bang!
Another gunshot.
The bullet struck Ioannis in the collarbone. He collapsed helplessly.
"Major!!"
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